My first years are amazing!

I have witnessed the most enthusiastically facilitated pictionary game I’ve ever seen. There was jumping, high fives, ENERGY, and of course, biology. It was spectacular, and extremely satisfying to watch. I mean, our kids were ENGAGED! The whole time.

In the past couple of days, I’ve heard three or four fresh, creative ideas I’ve never even thought to try. And they’ve never taught before. Actually, most of the point of this entry is just to document some of their material, for myself and for others, so it’s not lost when the chaos of the school year ensues. So here are a few off the top of my head.

1) Pictionary, of course. (Tried this one already with chemistry equipment, actually)
2) Go fish- students make cards with pictures of organisms on one cards and descriptions on another card, so they review material once that way. Next all the cards go in a big pile, get shuffled and passed out to students, and the class plays go fish. What a great idea.
3) Cue cards with reading. Very insightful strategy. Handing out index “cue” cards stapled to a reading that give hints about what to look for in the reading. This helps students who are not strong readers to learn what to look for. Eventually, students will be weaned off of cue cards. A great way to work on reading comprehension- an area of difficulty- even if it’s not English class, and even if it’s not familiar material.
4) If students are not used to presentations, break them into groups and have them present to each other. This takes some classroom management, of course, and you can’t really grade the presentations thoroughly, but it’s good practice, especially if their shy, and you can observe enough to make sure everyone’s doing the work.
5) Imaginary safety goggles and lab coats- Really entertaining, and puts them in lab-thought-process mode. Could really become “a thing” in the classroom, and I could see kids getting used to it and excited about it.

Each of the new teachers has a different style, but each has a strong presence that I think will serve well when they get to their own classrooms, where sustainability is really importnat. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for their first days- I remember how much those days and weeks mattered, and of course I hope that their experiences will go more smoothly than mine did. (Not that is wasn’t challenging and worth while, but I made lots of mistakes.)

I’m kind of terrified, though, that they’ll go out to their own schools and classrooms missing some vital piece(s) of information that would have made all of the difference for their year. I know I’m no one’s mom, of course. All I can think to do with them is focus, above all, on classroom management, in terms of strict discipline and procedure but more importantly in terms of planning- well planned lessons that keep the students engaged, doing most of the work, paying attention to every detail, especially when giving instructions, and leaving no down time. That includes using time when some students have finished work and others haven’t by making sure they always have another assignment- homework or extra credit to work on. First-years have been doing great with this. Still, I guess you don’t know what it’s really like to manage a class of 33 until you get there on the first day of school. We’ve talked about lesson planning, staying on top of grades, giving specific instructions, staying organized, parent phone calls, coming up with creative ideas, saying no, etc. Only I know I’m forgetting some things and still will be by the end of ths summer. Ahhhh. Their also finding their styles, which is fun to watch. So props to the first years....keep it up guys...I’m impressed.

Reflection on My Performance as a Teacher

Without the ubiquitous tug-of-war with a group of students whose respectful attention you have long ago lost through early inconsistencies in classroom management, creatively and enthusiastically conveying subject matter is suddenly less of an insurmountable task. The absence of strain from classroom management and administration-induced stress clears a suddenly fertile space for using teaching skills and style that have been unwittingly acquired during a whirl-wind of a school year. With the freedom and support offered by the summer school program, teachers have the opportunity to exercise their new skills and- rather importantly, for me- experience what they are actually capable of and how they would like their lessons and classrooms to run.

I entered summer school with the notion that I would need to change everything next year. One year of experience is enough to point out thousands of mistakes that you’d like to correct. Summer school lets you try out your envisioned role and structure, and actually see how your new systems and approaches work, get a grasp on the day to day effectiveness, and see the effects of your slowly acquired but perhaps newly apparent ability to carefully plan and execute effective lessons. Also more apparent is the fact that even when you plan carefully, your lessons are not always consistently stellar- some days your tired or distracted or don’t feel as prepared as you’d like to be. Part of the thrill of teaching is that when your teaching a lesson with an entire class in front of you, when your up in front of a classroom, it becomes the whole world, and being a good teacher is about adapting, maintaining positive attitude and energy even when everything’s not perfect. Realizing that even when you give it your all you can make mistakes will, I think, help me be a little more forgiving with myself next year- not that I deserved it this year, but hanging onto mistakes only causes more of them, and you have to let it go eventually to fix it, so might as well let it go right away. Again, it’s about flexibility.

My performance this summer has been, for certain, better than it was over the school year. I’ve had a lesson or two that I am not crazy about, and a few that I have been very happy with, including some of those planned for other teachers. (I am wildly impressed with my first years...read the blog I’ll be posting shortly if you want to know more.) Again, summer school has given me the chance to try out some of my ideas about how I’d like next year to go, and see how they work. So far, for the most part, they work. They are certainly aspects of summer school that are much easier than the school year, especially in terms of grading papers, managing paper work, and handling administration. My confidence in my lesson planning, though, has definitely improved. I’ve liked many of the lessons I’ve planned this summer, taught by me or by someone else. It’s nice to know that you’re capable now and then. Summer school seems to take it from a hopeful vision in your head to a realistic knowledge of what it takes to get it done and make it work, what it should and can look like.

Students met with the most success on the prokaryotic vs. eukaryotic cell lesson. (The student will distinguish between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.) During this lesson, I focused on one concept- the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells- and presented the material in several different fashions, each of which required the students to do most of the work. Student each received two pictures, drawn side-by-side on a sheet of paper, with lines underneath and one line above each picture. There were no words- even titles- on the sheet. Students first had to flip over the sheet, and on the back write all of the characteristics they noticed of each of the cells. Next, students looked up prokaryotic and eukaryotic in their books, and compare the description of each kind of cell with their own descriptions of the two pictures. Finally, they labeled the pictures with the appropriate cell type and wrote the correct description on the lines provided under each picture. Students were given a set amount of time for each activity. We next created a sample Venn diagram to introduced the idea of diagraming information, and students created their own Venn diagrams on prokaryotic cells vs. eukaryotic cells. For the last part of the lesson, I filled in a venn diagram comparing the two on the board, with student input. When students had exhausted their observations, I filled in the remainder (only a few items) for students to put in their notes.

There were many aspects of this lesson that allowed it to flow smoothly and convey the material effectively, and I am excited to use similar techniques during the school year. Firstly, the activities were varied, and student-centered. Students were constantly working with the material in a new way, on a time limit, so they stayed focused without (apparently) getting board. The different approaches- tactile (when students looked up and wrote definitions), auditory, and visual- allowed for different learning styles within the classroom. Students really had to work with the material, first coming up with their own ideas, then comparing their ideas to the text book, and finally manipulating the same material to create the diagram that the teacher confirmed. The structured mini-activities approach seems to be particularly effective for me, and makes me feel like I have (near) complete control over my classroom. Accomplishing the same thing next year will certainly be a struggle, but, again, I’m excited to see how I make it work.

My students were not particularly successful at the lesson in which they identified the functions of cellular organelles. This particular lesson involved a full packet of pre-made notes on cellular organelles that the students used to follow along as I lead discussion on each one, describing the structure and function and drawing it on the board. Students did not retain this particular material especially well, though it was expected to be a difficult lesson and another full day on the same material had already been planned. The lack of success in this particular case could have been a result of the direct-instruction feel of the lesson. While the students did have notes and there were pictures, the lesson was about equally teacher- and student-centered, whereas a more student-centered approach requiring students to really manipulate the material seems to be more effective. In general, the energy was not as strong as it could have been, and I felt as though I was pouring energy in just to wake them up a little, without much response. Lessons like that tend to feel disappointing, though they sometimes pick up in the end. I’m not sure how to better approach the topic of cellular organelles. The cell-building activity for the next day was fun, but there’s got to be a more efficient way to teach the lesson.

Again, the most effective instructional procedures for me (discussed above) are student-centered and hands-on. If they’re not having fun, or at least really paying attention, they’re not likely to learn. Structure is extremely important- for me, the more structured the better, so students know exactly what to be doing, when, and how long they have. I don’t think I fully realized that until I finally figured out what I really like in a lesson through my teaching experience this summer. It’s funny, various expert teachers have told us as much many times, but it never fully struck me until now. Direct instruction is still tough, and I can maintain it for a little while, but I think the students tend to get bored. It’s going to be a challenge coming up with activities to really counter over-use of direct instruction.

As discussed above, we have been employing many different types of activities in the summer Biology I class, ranging from tactile use of manipulatives (I used this to teach classification and in several other lesson plans I’ve written), to concept mapping (used for the cell), auditory and visual delivery of information, to student-discovery of content (one of my favorites, and I have used it in some capacity nearly every lesson I’ve planned these past couple of weeks.) We also have a unique opportunity to work one-on-one with students when they need it, and to structure lessons based on their needs. All of these factors have contributed to our system of differentiating instruction for different learners.

To improve student performance in the future, I intend, first of all, to utilize some of the techniques that have really proven effective this summer. Seeing that they can work provides the confidence boost that can help make them work in a class of 33. I plan to focus on a more structured classroom, less down time, a more consistently enforced discipline plan, more student centered activities, and better organization. Again, structure especially is important for me, providing the control (well, hopefully) I need to feel like I have more instructional freedom within the classroom to cater to student needs. I may call in help now and then for creative lesson planning when I am stuck in a rut and can’t seem to escape using a heavy dose of direct instruction in a particular lesson, since it’s a rather ineffective technique when used for more than 20 minutes at a time. Something else- I think I will try and take advantage of the support systems available to me more than I did this year. I was so afraid of admitting failure, I didn’t want to ask for help. In hindsight, everyone gets burnt out, and a friend’s creative idea can make a survivable day into a great one.

Learning Goals And Instructional Decisions

The objectives taught in the two parts of Biology that I am especially responsible for this summer- natural selection and the cell- are based on a division of the Biology I frameworks. Each goal is carefully defined, and students are expected to complete specific tasks or demonstrate mastery of particular skills or knowledge by the end of each lesson. For the unit on the cell, for example, students are expected to create a Venn Diagram comparing prokaryotes to eukaryotes, construct a cell out of provided materials and explain the function of each organelle included, and meet many more goals. For natural selection, students create classification guides, produce their own examples of the application of taxonomy and binomial nomenclature, identify characteristics of each kingdom, often through problem solving or inductive reasoning, and master multiple other skills and knowledge sets.

The overarching goal behind the particular objectives chosen is to encourage problem solving and student-derived solutions to science questions. Students are encouraged to build their confidence by discovering their own abilities to manipulate objects, facts, ideas, and concepts and arrive at appropriate, teacher- confirmed solutions to questions, acquiring necessary knowledge and skills in the process. The skills students are practicing, especially including articulating and writing out explanations for difficult concepts, researching, and problem-solving, are central to Biology and science as a discipline. They are more representative of science and less representative of memorization than what many students may see during the school year where they may be in large classes of students that do not lend themselves to inductive and student-centered activities.

Learning goals include verbs from various levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, including identify, apply, explain, create, construct, discover, compare, classify, and many others. Again, goals chosen are intended to encourage discovery of confidence and inspire excitement among our students, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to work closely with students who may have struggled in the past. Objectives are chosen to differentiate instruction for students who have various levels of knowledge and have different learning styles. For example, lectures with notes and pictures might work well for auditory and visual learners, but tactile learners may prefer construction activities. All required knowledge is given in lecture, and explanation is offered when a student has a question. If students are comfortable with a particular topic, that topic is discussed briefly to leave more time for others. In addition, lessons are intended to be carefully managed, with no instructional time wasted. Many objectives are taught using small student-centered activities that require short bursts of attention, each of which examines the same concept from a slightly different angle. For example, prokaryotic vs. eukaryotic cells were taught by first giving students a hand-out with two pictures of the two kinds of cells. Students had three minutes to write down similarities and differences they observed, followed by five minutes to look up definitions of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and label each cell with the appropriate title and definition. Students then shared their work verbally, and created a venn diagram that was confirmed by teacher instruction. This format prevents students from getting bored and requires them to rely on their own skills and efforts to acquire knowledge, with teacher facilitation and support. Finally, activities are designed to be engaging. Hands-on projects and varied instruction are aimed at keeping students awake and interested. Inductive strategies are used as often as possible. For example, students will use the inductive strategy of Concept Attainment when they classify different organisms on a student-generated list into various categories. The student's choices will then be compared to conventionally accepted classification systems. This allows students to realize that their ideas are valid, and to come up with solutions to the problem of classification on their own to help them remember it.