H3- Honor the classroom/school community as a milieu for learning.

H3.- Honor the classroom/school community as a milieu for learning. Teacher-candidates implement calssroom/school centered instruction, including sheltered instruction that is connected to communities within the classrom and the school, and includes knowledge and skills for working with others. For students to really learn, the classroom must be a place where students are encouraged to work together. When students work together grappling with a difficult concept, a classroom community is formed. The job of the teacher is to foster that community in a healthy way. During the unit I taught on cells, I had students present their cell analogy projects to the class. They were allowed to work in groups, but each person had to be part of the presentation. While presenting, I made notes about both the presenters and the audience. I was likely the most excited audience member. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the creative ways my students talked about cells. The next day, I came to class with individualized comments for each student. They were celebratory in nature, but a few of them did have suggestions for increasing their success at presentations. by offering students compliments on their work as presentors, my goal was to enhance the learning environment and encourage students to share in their learning together. Typically there are papers strewn everywhere when my biology students leave for the day, however no comments were left in the room, indicating that the comments were important to the students. I learned through this experience that students appreciate praise for the learning they do in class. They respond to a learning community when the community is accepting of various opinions. Student learning will increase due to the positive nature of the classroom, alongside the high-level thinking that occurs. In the future, I could have students write comments to each other as a way to show that students have the power to make a difference on their peers and their learning environment as well.

Fifth Period Cell Analogy Evals- no names

Status Update

Today I am transitioning out of full-time teaching during my internship and returning to an observer of the classes I have been heavily immersed in for the past 12 weeks. I am struggling with the realization that I am no longer sharing the teacher/student bond that the day-in, day-out rigors of classroom life forges between teachers and students.

However, I am anxious to return to observing my mentor teachers. I feel that I will notice different aspects of their teaching personas now that I have been in their shoes on a regular basis.

Anyways, I thought a status update might be nice in the midst of all the updating I have been doing here on the blog. Stay tuned for more reflective posts!

 

Happy Monday!

Chemistry Course Rationale

The attached document is the course rationale for the Chemistry course I have been participating in during my internship.

Course Rationale_Chemistry

Biology Course Rationale

The attached document outlines the Biology class I have been participating in during my internship.

Biology Course Rationale

E2- Exemplify collaboration within the school.

E2.- Exemplify collaboration within the school. Teacher-candidates participate collaboratively and professionally in school activities using appropriate and respectful verbal and written communication. Teaching can often be a solitary task.  However, collaboration among teachers can give insight into new and innovative ideas as well as create a space to share in the joys and sorrows of teaching.  At my placement school, there are days where students only attend half-day to allow teachers to participate in professional development. This may look like training sessions on various topics or collaborating with other teachers. I have attached a sheet of notes I took during a department meeting where the focus was on what students should be introduced to during Freshman year that will be helpful in advanced Science classes.  From this meeting,  I saw  several themes that can be taught through every year of high school science. From this conversation, it became clear that collaboration as a department can only lead to students maintaining consistency throughout high school science. I learned through meeting with other teachers that state standards are vague enough for teachers to be creative, but too vague to easily go from year to year and prevent repeating information. However, repeating information is not necessarily a problem for high school age students. Hence, the collaboration within a department can alleviate some of the ambiguity. Students may benefit from some repetition, but collaborating with other teachers in an effort to minimize repeating information can only serve students better in broadening their breadth of of knowledge about science. In the future, I plan on giving a beginning of the year pre-test covering various topics in science to gauge where students are at. Doing so would give me as a teacher a better idea of what information students are coming into class with to help determine where the class is going to go throughout the year.

[caption id="attachment_417" align="alignleft" width="225"] Notes from Science department meeting[/caption]

In addition, I think it would be interesting to administer a similar test to students every year to see how they progress through four years of high school science and see how much repeat, etc. there is.

P2- Practice differentiated instruction.

P2.- Practice differentiated instruction. Teacher-candidates apply principles of differentiated instruction, including theories of language acquisition, stages of language, and academic language development, in the integration of subject matter across the content areas of reading, mathematical, scientific and aesthetic reasoning. As students come into science, they are at all different stages of growth and knowledge of scientific workings. In order to reach each student individually, a certain amount of tailoring must be done for each student in order to give students their best shot at acquiring the academic language necessary to survive in the academic world. To demonstrate differentiation, I have included two versions of a conclusion I asked students to complete during the bacteria unit of Biology. One was offered to the majority of students and the alternative version was offered to students that needed additional guidance and alternative expectations for the assignment. By offering two versions of the same assignment, I was able to appropriately assess more students than if I gave only one version of the assessment. While going through the submitted work offered by students from the standard and alternative assessments, I noticed how helpful simplifying the expectations was for the students of the alternative assessment. I would not have received as high quality of work if I hadn't done so, because these students were able to show me what they really knew by completing the alternative assessment. Student learning  would have suffered if every student had the same expectations in this situation. In the future,  I hope to make an effort to create alternative assignments for each major assessment (such as tests or lab reports) to offer students I feel need streamlined expectations to show me what they really know. Bacteria Lab Analysis Questions

microbe modified lab rubric

E3- Exemplify an understanding of professional responsibilities and policies.

E3.- Exemplify an understanding of professional responsibilities and policies.  teacher-candidates demonstrate knowledge of professional, legal, and ethical responsibilities and policies. Teaching science goes beyond lecturing. In a science classroom there are many factors to consider including laboratory procedures and safety precautions that are to be taken. To keep students safe and out of harms way, there are multiple responsibilities and policies one must adhere to. A major part of being a science teacher is maintaining a self-sufficient and well-run lab. There are many policies, both outlined by the science community and the educational system. Attached are several handbooks I use and spreadsheets I have created for my future classroom to make sure I am following all of the necessary guidelines and procedures to keep myself and my students safe. My mentor teacher is the chemical hygiene officer for my placement school which means he is up to date on all the inner workings of the safety procedures necessary for a school. He has taught me to be organized, thorough and efficient when dealing with safety procedures. The spreadsheets and handbooks are a way to keep myself focused on what is important to monitor. My responsibility as a science teacher, particularly in chemistry is to be aware of potential dangers and to take the appropriate precautions. This includes but is not limited to stockroom materials, emergency eyewash and shower maintenance and fire and gas safety procedures. I have learned to be organized and thorough when dealing with science classroom upkeep and how to work various procedural situatons into my dialy routine. Students will benefit in both personal and academic ways by participating in a chemically safe environment. Students will learn how to properly use equipment and the necessary procedures to keep themselves and others safe during emergencies, skills any person should have. In addition  to the eyewash and safety shower spreadsheets I have provided, I will compile a spreadsheet outlining all of the chemicals in the stockroom to keep up to date, once I am running my own high school lab.

EYEWASH STATION

Safety Shower

NIOSH2007107