Teacher Observation: Chemistry

Yesterday I taught electron configurations and atomic orbitals to my chemistry students. My mentor teacher and I spent a long time going over various aspects of the lecture and how it was going to go. I felt good about my teaching, despite the varying response from students. Many were frustrated by the new language they were learning. One student came up to me after class and said "I think you did a great job, they're (the other students)  just crazy." I was interested to see my mentor teach this same lesson for several reasons. First, I haven't seen him lecture a whole lot and felt I could benefit from watching him do so. Second, I wanted to compare what I did to what he did. So I observed my chemistry mentor teach during sixth period, a class I have never interacted with.

ML opened the class with a warm-up that was part of his notes but he had them fill out in their warm-up sheets. I like the way he elicited prior knowledge about the topic he was covering and I think the students benefited from this exercise. He then used a mix of questioning techniques to hear answers to the warm-up. He both randomly called on people and asked for volunteers to answer. Once the students were through the warm-up, he posted announcements for the students to write down and while he passed out a handout to the class. This was a great use of disrupted time as the students needed to copy down the homework and it gave him an opportunity to pass out something the students needed. One classroom management technique I observed ML use was the power dynamic he set up at the beginning of class. I'm not sure if it was the words he used or the way he said it, but there was a tone set that he was in charge of the next fifty minutes and the students were to follow his lead.  At various points throughout the lecture he reminded them of this by saying things like, "will you let me finish?" "hold your questions for a second," etc. As far as instruction goes, I know that ML does not lecture very often. There are scattered lecture days among many work days, work sheets, drills, labs, web explorations, etc. The lecture days are used primarily to get a concept across so the students can then interact with that concept and master it. Electron configuration charts must be taught because of the abstract nature of the drawings. Asking students to come up with how to do that would be extremely time-consuming and unrealistic. However, ML uses the time following lectures to give students a chance to interact with the concept and explore different patterns they may see. Towards the end of the lecture, ML encouraged students to try the new material on their own or in their groups using white boards. Although not highly technical, white boards are essential to chemistry classrooms so students can interact with the abstract concepts they learn.

There were several differences between ML's lecture and mine. I think several of the differences are just in our personalities. Additionally, he has been doing this for so long and is so comfortable with the material that he is able to free the mental space to expand his teaching repertoire. One way he does this is with many different analogies. I need to use more analogies to explain the chemistry concepts. Chemistry is so abstract that models and analogies are necessary to master the concepts. I thoroughly enjoyed observing my mentor teacher in this informal way with a set of students I have no responsibility for. It was a good experience and gave me an even better understanding of the chemistry class at my placement school.

P1.- Practice intentional inquiry and planning for instruction.

P1.- Practice intentional inquiry and planning for instruction. Teacher candidates plan and/or adapt standards-based curricula that are personalized to the diverse needs of each student. At my placement school, I have several students with IEP's in my classroom. planning and adapting standards-based curricula seems to go hand in hand with adapting classroom materials to meet the needs of specific IEP students. In sixth period Biology, I have a student (ES) with both physical and mental issues. He is partially blind, partially deaf and partially disabled. He learns slower, most likely due to the physical ailments he deals with on a day-to-day basis. Due to his partial blindness, each handout or warm-up I create, I print out in bigger font for him to read. Attached is a screenshot of various documents I have enlarged for ES. His IEP states that accommodations as such are necessary for his learning success... for obvious reasons. If his eyes have to strain just a little less his mind is more open to think about the biology we are discussing in class. When creating any lesson, I work to meet both state standards, national standards and preparation for the Biology EOC. This means that everything we do in Biology class is for a purpose. Students are constantly asked to think creatively and make connections between subjects. For students that have physical or learning disabilities, tasks as such can be monumentally harder. accommodating students in simple ways such as increasing the font-size is a great way to give these students a leg up.   From this experience, I have realized the necessary balance between accommodating students and having high expectations. ES is enrolled in a mainstream science class so the expectations we have for him are high. He is expected to reach the standards we teach to in biology. ES works hard and truly benefits from the accommodations spelled out in his IEP. If accommodating ES by creating larger documents allows him to reach the standards, then I am happy to serve this student in this way.

[caption id="attachment_371" align="alignleft" width="300"] A few documents that were enlarged for ES as well as a folder where I keep most of the enlarged documents for the cell unit, for future students who may need this accommodation.[/caption]

For ES, giving him accommodating documents improves his learning environment . Improving the learning environment allows for more organic learning and will hopefully help ES succeed in high school biology.  Seeing the benefit that accommodations give IEP students, my next step is to accommodate students of all abilities in any way I can. Not every student is on an IEP but many students could enjoy an accommodating classroom environment in one way or another. Without the IEP or 504, it will take an open atmosphere in my classroom to discern what accommodations students may need. Whether enlarging documents for partially blind students or other accommodations, my goal as a teacher is to best serve my students.

Teacher Observation: Biology

Today I thoughtfully watched my Biology mentor teacher (MI) as she taught our students about plant nutrition. Now that I know MI a bit better, I was excited to pay attention to the details of her teaching style with some teaching experience under my belt.

Students were expected to participate in the routine warm-up (projected on the Smart Board) as they entered the classroom. MI then took some time to go through the warm-up by asking for volunteer answers. She wrote the answers that students supplied by the corresponding questions on the SmartBoard.  A variety of students answered from high achievers to not so high achievers. Then she moved on to the "main course" of the day which was a few notes and then a handout the students worked through. MI is really good about creating a fun and relaxed atmosphere for students while still expecting all eyes to be on her and for students to be quiet while others are talking. I have seen her use other questioning techniques such as popsicle sticks, etc. but today she must have felt alternative questioning techniques unnecessary.

From my observations, I find that MI uses several different techniques for classroom management. She definitely expects students to be quiet while others are talking and enforces this by standing by chatting students and shushing those who are speaking. She also frequently stamps off on student homework which allows her to interact with students one on one frequently. Another strategy she often employs is lots of time for students to talk with each other. MI gives students chances to talk with each other during notes, while they work on handouts and at many other times during the day. Not only is this a classroom management technique, (giving students time to speak and communicate as they want to) but also an instructional strategy so students are speaking, listening and writing the material they are learning. I have also noticed that MI rarely utilizes closing activities. It may be a stretch to categorize the lack of closers as an instructional technique,  but this seems to be instructionally relevant because the lessons often build off of one another and therefore a closer activity in between lessons wouldn't necessarily make sense. She encourages students to work up to the bell and many students will. Some won't, but that will always be a constant battle. Overall, I find MI to be a very well-rounded teacher using questioning techniques and technology to her benefit and having a hold on the classroom as a whole. I enjoy working with her and expect to learn a lot about myself and the workings of a successful classroom from this obviously successful biology teacher.

Teacher Observation: Physics

When I entered JW’s classroom, I could tell he taught older students. Everyone was respectful and attentive yet chatting with their neighbors. It was clear these students knew each other well. There was a warm-up on the Smart Board the students were working through and then discussed as a class. The students have clickers where they punch in their answers so JW can see how the class does as a whole. Throughout the class the students worked through a handout and checked in at several points using the clickers. Clicker questions was the only form of questioning I observed JW use. He lectured about a certain graphical function at one point, giving the students the information they needed and then letting them work on their own. His transitions were smooth, but did not employ any questioning strategies. Although questioning was not used as an instructional strategy, the class was well managed due to JW’s dry and sarcastic sense of humor that the students respond well to. When students were chatting, I noticed JW would employ the stare down and wait out the students until they were quiet. Additionally, JW will go and sit at various tables to help students work through whatever problem they were on. He leaves students alone to work and only offers help when they ask for it. The students are competent and don’t need a ton of guidance to get through their work. JW is obviously excited about physics and gets excited during his lectures. I find this to be an extremely valuable instructional strategy as it both keeps student attention and makes the lecture more exciting. Students worked right up to the bell so there wasn’t a ton of time for a closer. JW was going somewhere right after school so he told his class to clean up and leave right when the bell rang. A welcome statement from a teacher. I enjoyed sitting in on JW's class. I know JW because he often hangs out in the classroom I teach in. He chats with other teachers and I have heard him talk about students and his teaching style in casual conversation. It was interesting to see him interact with his own students and compare what he says about his teaching to my observations of him as a teacher. I respect JW and feel that he has a natural rhythm that becomes palpable to all who enter his classroom.

O2- Offer appropriate challenge in the content area.

O2.- Offer appropriate challenge in the content area. Teacher-candidates plan and /or adapt curricula that are standards driven so students develop understanding and problem-solving expertise in the content area(s) using reading, written and oral communication, and technology. In other words, teachers are responsible for exposing student to not only the standards society has determined high schoolers need to reach, but also problem-solving skills in various mediums. To give you an example, I have included a link to a different blogpost here. This blogpost gives an overview of a unit I wrote and taught about cells. In this unit, students are given information about cells, and then asked to complete several different projects and labs. This unit shows that I can give students a variety of problem-solving tasks that are aligned to standards. During this unit, students had to read about membranes, write about cheek and onion cells, and orally present a project comparing a cell to something of their choosing. Students naturally included technology into this unit through the use of PowerPoint and Prezi to present their cell projects. 


 Through this unit I noticed I have a tendency to hand-hold students through laboratory procedures. I also noticed that I was actually surprised by the sophistication of their cell analogy presentations. From reflecting on my personal behavior towards students, I have realized that students are capable of absorbing and synthesizing the information I give them, they just lack the practice adults possess. Students benefitted from this unit in several ways. They were able to practice their public and laboratory skills and learn about cells; foundations for successful students of biology. I think this was a great unit and students got a lot out of it, but in the future, I would like to work on integrating more standards into lessons in an effort to increase connections between topics.

Cell Unit Overview

Description: This is the first full unit I have written at my placement. I have included both the unit overview and the calendar I have been following which outlines the handouts students will receive each day and the warm-up questions that I foresee will be used each day as well. Note: the warm-up questions may not be what was actually used on the specified day due to flexibility in student learning.

calendar for cell unit cells unit overview

Cell Unit Reflection.

Hello world.

Here are descriptions of all of the lessons I used for the cell unit. There are various handouts I have not included, but would be willing to provide at any time. There are three lessons, one lab, and one project. I administered a pre and post test for this unit. It took two weeks to get through this unit. I also have made comments on what worked and didn't work during each of these lessons.

Lesson 1: Notes on organelles. Students took notes on a powerpoint I created describing each organelle. Students were asked to draw each organelle, write down its function, and if it is found in animals, plants or both. This lesson took us about a period and a half to complete.

I think it was effective to have students draw each organelle. Next time I teach cells, I would like to organize my notes slightly differently and maybe include a "fun fact" about each organelle. I had a hard time limiting the information I gave them. I need to figure out how to determine what is most important about each organelle, and how to get that across. My mentor teacher talked about having each table research and then present an organelle. I like this, but I think I like giving them the information with frequent breaks for conversation better.

Lesson 2:  Cell membrane exploration. I used a lesson plan from CarbonTime curriculum that my mentor teacher uses. It is basically an exploration into how the cell membrane functions and the different jobs it has. Students worked in groups, read through the handout, colored, and described different aspects of the cell membrane. It took students about a period and a half to do this lesson.

This lesson was kind of an accident, but I loved it. I love the exploration qualities of the worksheet and how students have to build their knowledge of cell membranes throughout the packet. I also liked how it built on pre-existing knowledge students had gained in this year of biology.

Lesson 3: Now that students had an idea of each organelle individually, I had them cut out different organelles and paste them into a cell membrane for animal cells and a cell wall for plant cells.  I gave them one whole period to work through this project.

I also really liked this part of the unit. I framed it as a progression from individual organelles to a whole functioning unit, or cell. Additionally, there is a theme in this biology class of "building our own textbook" so I"m glad I made the decision to require each student to build both animal and plant cells .Some students had a great time doing this and others didn't. Next time for this one I would print out the instructions and have them tape that into their notebooks before I passed out the building supplies. I didn't do this and I think it would have been more beneficial to do so.

Lab: I broke the lab into two days. The first day, students went through a series of steps that introduced them to using a microscope. The next day I had students look at cheek and onion cells and draw them in their notebooks. They had conclusion questions they worked through at the conclusion of the lab.

The lab went really well. I made the onion cells for students and hand-held them through making the cheek cell slides as well. I would really like to get to a place where I can let that control go and allow students to do these types of things that they are completely capable of doing on their own. If I had let them do so, they would be less afraid to perform experiments with little instruction in college, which is terrifying if you haven't ever down so before.

Cell Analogy Project: The project was my favorite part of this unit. Students were asked to create an analogy about the cell. Some groups compared the cell to an airplane, the US, Seattle, the Seattle Center, all sorts of creative ideas.

By far my favorite. I will do this with any unit of cells I ever do. That said, I haven't assigned scores yet. I allowed students to present their cells in any way they wanted to. There are a lot of power points. I also should have built in more time do work on these projects in class, as well as having more project supplies on hand so they could do things other than power points in class. It was so fun to watch them present and hear how they think about cells. I was really nervous that they wouldn't have learned anything about cells and come up with these totally off-base analogies... but this was not the case. Some groups came up with the most elegant examples of various organelles. One group used our classroom as the analogy. My mentor teacher was labeled the nucleus (the control center) and me as the golgi apparatus. When this particular group of students came to me with their idea, I wasn't sure if it would work. When they explained that I am the golgi because I spread  information to all students (information representing various macromolecules in the cell), I was not only on board with their idea, but all of a sudden thinking about the golgi in a way I never have before. So cool.

Overall, creating and teaching this unit has taught me that organization is key to having the unit laid out, but having the flexibility to change questions, warm-ups or the flow of the unit if it is or isn't working. I also really like having a few lessons and lots of project-based learning to keep students engaged. I think their may be something said for shorter units with more focused content. This would mean more tests, but if they are smaller I think students would be okay with it.