E1.- Exemplify professionally-informed, growth-centered practice.

E1.- Exemplify professionally-informed, growth-centered practice. Teacher candidates develop reflective, collaborative, professional growth-centered practices through regularly evaluating the effects of his/her teaching through feedback and reflection. E1 encourages a reflective teaching practice that includes building a professional community fostering collaboration and reflection on ones practice.  As part of the undergraduate certification process, I am required to observe practicing teachers. Several of these observations can be found here, here, here and here. During these observations, I found myself to be incredibly reflective on my own practice. I am fortunate to be placed at a school with excellent teachers. The above observations are all of teachers who love to teach and are in the field to expand their practice. The teachers I observed were all very different but each one was able to relate to students in a unique way. One of the observations I did was of my own mentor teacher. I taught the same class earlier in the day and he gave me specific feedback about how I did. I asked to watch him teach the same lesson later and he agreed. It was great to see how I handled the class and the content similarly, as in I covered the same material in the same general order, but differently in my approach and rapport with students.  Through watching various teachers and the various techniques used, I am beginning to narrow-down the type of teacher I strive to be. For the majority of my life I have jotted down various teaching techniques I appreciate about teachers in an effort to compile teaching characteristics I hope to adopt. Now, as I watch others teach, I am able to discern whether the teaching traits I see are something that would work for me, or not. The traits that don't work for me are not bad, I appreciate that others can utilize various tips and tricks, but I am no longer bogged down by having to strive to do every cool thing I see other teachers do. Students in my own class will benefit from the reflections I have made of myself through this process because I will be able to play to my own strengths and therefore serve my students in a more natural and holistic way. In my remaining time at my placement school and throughout my career, I hope to take advantage of any observation opportunities I have. I enjoy watching others teach and find that not only do I always learn something (about content or teaching itself) but I am constantly analyzing my own practice when I watch others. Scheduling regular observation times will keep me reflective and fresh as a teacher.

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.

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.

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.