412 Lab Final Reflection...Where do we go from here?

As I am writing this blog, the Rascal Flatts, "My Wish", song came into my head. The 2014 cohorts time at University Parking is coming to end and we are reflecting on our time here. It is now time to be "gettin' where we're getting to" with student teaching as the next step. Lab was a very vital component to AEE 412 as it really solidified what we were learning in class.

A good example of applying what we learned in class was interest approaches for me. I planned my lesson out and thought that I had a good interest approach -- making a crop identification book. But then as I went through that part of the lesson with my lab section I decided that the book was more of a project rather than an interest approach. It was things like this that were really beneficial. Really being able to see what worked and what didn't work. It is impressive how some things sound really good in your head, but then when you put it on paper or actually say it out loud....it doesnt work.

Lab was also a good time to really learn from our peers, we got peer feedback right away in class as we filled out evaluation forms, then we got verbal feedback through watching voicethreads and lastly we got more feedback through commenting on each others blogs. This allowed us to see what each other was doing and who had similar fears or positive uplifting experiences. Sometimes it seemed like we were the blind leading the blind, but it always worked out in the end. In class we were assigned different roles, mine was sleepy, hard worker, bully, and complainer. I think that my peers got to see a different side of me with some of the off the wall comments that I made; but also a realistic side to what students may be like. Unfortunately a lot of inspiration for the things that I said, came from people that I was in class with in high school. Valerie's first day of teaching she wanted us to get a paper signed by our parents/guardians and I said some smart comment about not wanting to do that and not having anyone to sign it and she asked me who I lived with and I was like ehh a different person every night. This story doesn't exactly come from high school, but I think that this is a scenario that could definitely happen at some point in our professional careers. It is important to be prepared for those times so we are best able to help the student.

On a lighter note, we also got to learn how to deal with students who talked too much or who were distracted by technology. My cousin told me that high school students have taken to snap chatting teachers... my students better not do that! Lab gave us practice to look out for certain things that students try to keep under the radar.

Lab also consisted of larger projects such as Fall Leadership Conference, Micro Teaching and LifeKnowledge Lesson. All of these were great as we got to be in front of real students! It also drove home the point of being prepared. Students are in school for a reason,to learn, and it is important that the person in charge of making sure they learn something is prepared and ready to go each day they walk into that school building.

Overall, lab was really beneficial and I am glad that I have all these blogs to reflect on in the next couple year and laugh at myself and go "did I really try that?". I've learned more about myself in that I have to try extra hard to display enthusiasm since I tend to keep my emotions hidden. I have also grown as an educator and feel more comfortable with lesson planning and implementing what I have written. While AEE 412 lab is a lot of work, it is definitely helpful and prepares preservice teachers for their students teaching experience.

Problem Solving Lab - How can you change the situation?

Mellow rainy days for mellow thoughts. I thought that I had a decent lab today. I tried to be more enthusiastic and gave myself a pep-talk before my lesson. According to my reviews I did have better enthusiasm today but that it kind of died out towards the end of the lesson, but improvement is improvement and I will take it. My comment about the weather today though, is that for all of the presentations today the audience, while they were participating in the discussion, were pretty lack luster. They just didn't seem to have that much energy or to really be into the lessons. I blame part of it on the weather. On days like these where it is the middle of the week, its dreary out, and the room is hot... this is when the teacher has to work extra hard to keep their enthusiasm up and keep the students engaged. Most of the blame can go on myself and when the weather is not providing energy, I need to.

For my interest approach I showed a video of a restaurant in New York City that is using hydroponics on their roof to provide their restaurant with vegetables for the majority of the year. I then went into the situation that our class was going to work on figuring out today. I said that they cafeteria staff had approached me saying that they need some fresh vegetables to serve to the students at lunch. With the big health kick and it costing a lot to bring fresh vegetables rather than frozen ones... they needed a change and asked me for help. I told the class that after finding the video that I just showed them that I bet that we could help the nice cafeteria staff out. We then went into a discussion of how we would be able to do this with hydroponics. Our discussion traveled from supplies that we need, vegetables to plant, marketing plans, permission from the principal, superintendent and school board. I felt that we had a lot written down and that the students were really thinking about the task at hand. However, I felt that I led the discussion too much. I asked too many leading questions rather than leaving it more open to interpretation for the students. I feel that it could have been more student led rather than teacher led. I had written in my lesson plan that I was going to have a student write what their peers were saying on the board but I didn't follow through with that. I believe in the real classroom that I will since there will be more students and I will probably have a fidgety student anyways. 

My take away from my lab is to

1) Be exciting (especially if there are other factors getting students down)

2) Really know content knowledge ( I need to be more confident in myself and my teaching abilities and my knowledge)

3) Phrase questions in different ways to get different results ( more student interaction and thought rather than me leading them to the answer I am thinking of)

Keep being awesome and keep working on eating that elephant!

blogging out, 

Jeanne

Interest Approach

Wednesday I woke up not feeling my best, stuffy nose and head, hot and cold, but I knew that I had to go to school to present my lesson to the class. I am sure this will not be the last time I will feel this way and still have to "go to work". It is something that all teachers go through and I witnessed it earlier this week when I went to observe ESL students at State High. On Tuesday, the teacher apologized to her students that she could not project her voice as well because she had a cold.. I didn't realize she was feeling poorly until she said that. Teachers will become the best of 'fake it until you make it'. This is something that I am sure I will accomplish along my career.

The reason for the first paragraph was because I was a little lack luster during my interest approach. I could have been more upbeat which would have made the students more upbeat. As told to me earlier in the week, lab is a place to see if my interest approach works or not. After having presented mine, I feel that it is more of an activity rather than an interest approach. I will probably change it for something else when I am teaching the agronomy unit in the spring.

After re-watching my video I realized that I only gave auditory instruction rather than pairing it with visual. I need to change this to make it easier for the students to learn in my classroom. Not everyone learns the same way, so I need to make sure that I am addressing as many modalities as possible. The part that I liked from my presentation is that I called on students that were more quiet and not offering answers from the get go. I believe it is important to get everyone involved in the lesson to maximize learning potential.