Teacher Observation: Life Science

This week I had the opportunity to observe a well-loved teacher at my placement school. LG is quirky and kind but sets high expectations for all six periods of freshman life science students he works with. When students walked in, they went to the cabinet with their period number posted on it and grabbed their lab journal. They then went to take their seat at their assigned desk. LG opened the class by going over homework. The students would be taking a test the following day and so the lesson for that day was reviewing concepts that would be on the test. Going over the homework brought up many questions and sparked good discussion. LG has a card system for calling on students. Each student fills out a card with interesting things about his or herself at the beginning of the year and then he uses those cards to call on students during classroom discussion. Within the first half of the class, every name in his stack of cards had been called. This not only randomizes who he calls on, but causes students to be constantly listening for their name to be called. When class was almost over, LG reminded his students that there would be a test tomorrow and wished them a good day. Very simple, friendly and effective. both the cabinet for lab journals and LG's card stacks are great ideas for high schoolers of all ages.

Throughout the entire period, LG used questioning techniques to not only gauge student understanding, but to also faciliate discussion and help his students study. Many of the questions were closed becuase there were specific answers students needed to understand. However, I feel that this particular teacher would easily use open-ended questions during laboratory explorations. Again, the stack of cards LG employs eliminates any gender, ethnicity, or ability bias. Once all the homework was checked, LG had students pull out the whiteboards and practice various problems in their table groups. He gave them a limited amount of time to do each problem and used an oldschool timing device to do so. As the tables worked, LG circulated moving between tables to answer questions and monitor student work. When most tables had a completed answer, he went over the problem on the board. Instead of doing the work on the board himself, he could have had students present their answer to the class.

Today, most high school science classrooms rely on some sort of technology to function. During the 55-minute period I was observing his class, LG used the projector to show work he was doing of the doc-cam, and to present questions from a powerpoint he had created. Students used whiteboards to share their answers. LG and the students were both kept accountable of time by the use of a timing device. The use of technology in this class was thoroughly integrated and many different forms.

In conclusion, I found LG to be an incredibly dynamic teacher. It is clear that the expectations LG sets for his students are understood by the students and their is a mutual respect in the classroom. The way that LG questions the students keeps the freshmen on their toes and therefore out of trouble.

H5- Honor student potential for roles in greater society

[caption id="attachment_318" align="alignright" width="288"] Representing my college on college day.[/caption]

H5-Honor student potential for roles in greater society. Teacher candidates prepare students to be responsible citizens for an environmentally sustainable, globally interconnected, and diverse society.   Every student has a future ahead of them. Whether that is a full-time job out of high school or college, each life that passes through my classroom is going somewhere. Most of the students where I am doing my internship will go to college to figure out what they will do with their lives. This week I was able to talk to students about my the decision process I went through in picking a school, career, etc. The sophomores and juniors took the PSAT and PLAN tests this week to practice for the real tests they will soon be taking. Because of this, school was on a shortened schedule. Students visited each period for only twenty minutes. Teachers were encouraged to share their "college story" with students. I was so thankful that I got to participate in this day. I was able to emphasize in every class how important it is to find what you love to do and go for it. By participating in conversations about college with my students, I met HOPE standard H5. Each student has the potential to do whatever they can set their minds to and I made this sentiment clear in each period. This experience showed me how nervous students are about what comes next in their lives. They need teachers and other role models to talk with and gain perspective on what is best for them. I have known for awhile that I hope to help students discern where to do go with their lives, but today gave me a glimpse of what that is like. When students feel like their teachers are willing to participate in conversations about their future, a bond is created. Students are able to see how school, education and what we are trying to do as teachers is beneficial to their futures. I would like to find ways to continue this conversation with students as they get closer to deciding where they may want to attend college or get closer to having to make decisions about the next part of their lives. One way I could do this is by working in time during our teaching schedule to communicate about the future. One way to facilitate this communication would be to periodically incorporate questions about the future into warm-up activities.

Challenge Students

Right now I have two students are presenting particular challenges to me. EM is a student in my chemistry class that is asking for challenges because he is bored with the content when he is barely passing the class. I challenged him to bring his grade up to an A and find a book that would be a good fit in a chemistry class. This is a student who is smarter and better than high school chemistry. I didn't think this was the type of student that would be coming to me for help. KB is the type of student I though I would be working with a lot more. KB is a girl who is trying so hard to pass high school biology. we sat tonight for almost an hour going over the test she is taking tomorrow. It was almost heartbreaking how hard she is trying and how frustrated she gets with the results. I feel for her. I loved every second with this student. I am finding my teaching skills really shine one on one. I need some work on the larger group settings. Which, of course, is the whole point of student teaching. Identifying and strengthening those weaker points.

H4- Honor family/community involvement in the learning process

H4-Honor family/community involvement in the learning process. Teacher candidates inform, involve, and collaborate with families/neighborhoods, and communities in each student's educational process, including using information about student cultural identity, achievement and performance.  Parents have invested so much in their children, that it only makes sense for teachers to involve parents in the education of their students. In order to do this, communication must be established with parents. To illustrate the importance of parent communication, I drafted a letter (figure 1) to send home to parents introducing myself as the student teacher and asking for basic contact information so that I can be in contact with parents when I need to be. I included a section for parents to inform me of "things I need to be aware of" so that parents would see that I care about their student and hope to meet their individual needs.

[caption id="attachment_303" align="alignleft" width="353"] Figure 1. Parent letter explaining my role in their son or daughters' classroom.[/caption]

The parent letter I drafted is an example of H3 because by sending a letter home with my contact information and asking for parent contact information in return, I have effectively opened a line of communication with parents. I sent out the letter this week and have already received several back with some interesting comments about students. Comments I hope to be sensitive of, and will help tailor my teaching to specific student needs.

From this experience I learned that parent involvement is essential to understanding students holistically. If I had not sent the letter home, there would be important student details I would not otherwise know. The implications of a parent letter on student learningresults from the resources parents can be to teachers. Parents by definition know more about their son or daughter than anyone else. It only makes sense to use parents as a resource to serve students in the best possible way. In the future I hope to create a system in which to alert parents of the happenings in my classroom. This could be done by a weekly/monthly newsletter, a weekly/monthly e-mail or an open house night twice a semester. Each of these methods would involve parents in student learning.

H2-Honor student access to content material

H2-Honor student access to content material. Teacher-candidates use multiple instructional strategies, including the principles of second language acquisition, to address student academic language ability levels and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. When I read this standard, I think about accommodating students who need a little extra help. Accommodations occur for students with IEP's or 504's. I have several students that fall into these categories in my classes. The attached picture shows an accommodation I use every day for my sixth period biology class. I have a student with vision problems along with other learning and developmental issues. To help him in class, we create enlarged documents for him to use in class.  Enlarging the documents is in accordance to his IEP and allows his eyes to strain a little less giving him a little more energy to engage in the class. I believe this evidence demonstrates my understanding of H2 because of the way that enlarging documents for this student honors his culture and language ability. He represents the special education culture well   and works really hard to thrive in a subject that can be challenging for him. By modifying assignments for this student, I have found that those accommodations are not menial tasks for teachers, but truly help students do their best.