Theories Guide, Experiments Decide

It’s interesting how I still get just as excited for snow days as I did when I was a student.  It is a great feeling when you see the snow start to stick on the ground and the possibility of a weekday off becomes possible.  Additionally, I still get pissed off when you think you are going to have a snow day and you wake up to melting snow, dry roads, and your school’s name being left of the list of school closures.  I guess now as a teacher I have a love/hate relationship with snow days.  On one hand, it is great to have some days off to lounge around and build snowmen.  On the other hand snow days totally screwed up my entire plan for the week.  I had it all planned out, a lab on Monday and Tuesday, a review on Wednesday, test on Thursday and a movie on Friday.  That all went out the window when schools were closed on Monday and Tuesday.  At the staff meeting on Wednesday, the principal told us to get all our loose ends wrapped up because this is probably the only day we will have school before winter break.  So, I abandoned my lesson plans and tied up my loose ends.  I also said thanks to my classes for helping me through this crazy experience of student teaching and for being patient with me.  For the rest of the period I showed the movie I had planned for Friday.  I felt like I was cheating the kids a bit by not actually teaching them on a perfectly good school day but my mentor made a good point when she reminded me of the scattered state of mind of most of the kids after having a snow filled four day weekend.  When we had to go back on Thursday, I was pissed. I could have done the lab that I was planning for that week.  Again, I had to find something to do to occupy my classes.  I ended up doing an activity where students were to build a structure out of five pieces of paper and some tape that would support a biology book.  Not exactly life science, but a fun activity for what turned out to be the last day of the week.  On a side note, I had one group build a structure that held 350 pounds!  I guess know as a teacher, snow days aren’t all they used to be.  Instead of being a worry free day of snowball fights and cutting cookies in the parking lot, it was a day spend wondering if we would have school and what I was going to do in class if we did.  Oh well, I’m not complaining.

Thanks for a great year everybody! WE’RE DONE!!!

10-4

Another blog Lockhart, are you serious? Really? Okay.  My placement for student teaching at South Eugene HS has been a great fit.  I have really enjoyed teaching and especially learning over the last few months.  I feel fortunate for being placed with a mentor teacher that was more than willing to help me grow and become a better teacher, while maintaining excitement and acceptance of the new ideas I brought into the classroom.  I am very grateful that everything went so smoothly – especially after reading the Jaimie chapter.  Additionally, it was a fulfulling experience being able to come full circle from being a student at South and now teaching there just six years later.  It is interesting walking the same halls and teaching in the same classrooms but having an entirely different view of school and education in general.  When I see students cutting corners in class, it reminds me of myself and the lackadaisical approach that I took to high school.  After being there myself, I feel better prepared to recognize students like this and challange them to learn the concepts in a meaningful and relevant way.  At least, that’s the plan…

Well, it really seems like things are winding down. With only two weeks left of student teaching, we have definitely hit the home stretch. It is interesting thinking back to our first student teaching opportunity in our minor placement. It seemed like such a huge undertaking at the time and we only were teaching for two weeks. Now, after teaching full time for the last few months, two weeks seems so short. Then, if you think back one year from now when we were about to start the program, even the idea of teaching a single class seemed daunting. The professional transformation that has taken place over the last year is amazing. Today, I feel ready to take what I have learned in the classroom into, well, the classroom.

Also, I got a job. A few weeks ago, a science teacher at Roosevelt Middle School sent an email out to other science teachers in the district seeking recommendations for a long term sub. This teacher is having a baby and would leave on maternity during winter break. Fortunately, both my minor placement and major placement mentors got the email and gave the teacher my name. I went over to Roosevelt to meet the teacher and the principal and was offered the job. There was no formal interview or anything of the sort. It seemed like a case of being super lucky and in the right place at the right time as the teacher was responsible for finding her replacement and was somewhat desperate to get the position filled. Last week, I observed a few of her classes to get the feel for how she runs them and to help make the transition as seamless as possible. All of the classes seem fantastic with the exception of one – Aerobics. Roosevelt offers so many class options that teachers have to take on a few of the elective classes. And to make the challenge of teaching aerobics even more frightening, it is comprised entirely of sixth graders. When I came in to observe this class it was chaos. I was to take all the boys in the class down to the gym to get their lockers. In the ten minutes it took to get them down to the gym and back, I had to confiscate a hacky-sack, had a kid come inches away from bashing his head into a concrete wall, and had one kid call another kid an m-f-er. This class is going to be the most challenging by far. I don’t know if I’m cut out to be a middle school P.E. teacher. Karen, are you reading this? Help a brother out.

After reading an article on project based learning, I was reminded about how awesome science projects can be.  Everyone remembers the at least one science project that they did in school – and for a good reason.  They encourage exploratory learning and allow students to exercise their creativity and talent.  In this project, students were to trace the cycle of a single carbon atom in the atmosphere, through photosynthesis and respiration, ultimately being breathed out by animals back into the atmosphere.  This project was left fairly open-ended for students.  I provided them with the concepts that they needed to include and not much else.  Students seemed to be pretty engaged in the project in the couple of days they had to work on it in class.  They came up with some unique ideas including, children’s books, poems, PLAY-DOH presentations, and videos.  On the due date, students were to present their projects to the class.  This provided an opportunity for them to view other student’s projects and review for the chapter test.  I was thoroughly impressed by the final products and the skills that they displayed.  Some were incredibly savvy with technology – especially with video editing.  One group of students posted their video on YouTube and I am sharing here for your enjoyment.  Let’s see if I can get this thing to work…

Adventures of 00-Carbon Bond

On Friday, I attended the National Science Teachers Association convention in Portland. This was a great opportunity to attend workshops and talk with vendors about new technology for teaching science. The conference was a good experience and I received some valuable resources for implementation in my classroom. Although the conference provided a chance to collaborate with other science teachers, gain information and strategies for teaching science, and attend workshops, I was slightly disappointed with the conference as a whole. The inquiry based biology workshop that I planned on attending was canceled. Because I have been trying to incorporate more inquiry into my classroom, I was pretty bummed out about missing this opportunity. The next workshop that I planned to attend was called “Photosynthesis and Respiration: Tough concepts to teach.” This session was very attractive because I am teaching that exact unit in my class right now and I have found that isn’t only hard to teach but even harder for students to learn. I was hoping to gain some insight into teaching this unit. Instead, the workshop was an hour and a half of vendors trying to sell me the technology for a single lab demonstrating photosynthesis and respiration – a lab that my class had already performed using similar technology. I did, however, get some good ideas for extensions to the lab. The last workshop that I attended was pretty interesting but covered advanced topics for AP and college-level biology. Although I did learn some interesting things about gene switching, the workshop had little relevance to my current biology class. The best part of the convention was walking the floor and talking to vendors. There were around 200 vendors giving out curriculum materials, videos, posters, rocks, pens, mugs, t-shirts, sample text books, lab ideas, and candy. I was also able to network with a program based out of Costa Rica that recruits science teachers for field based research and education. How cool would that be? Although the conference had its share of disappointment, it was a good experience and provided at least a small amount of professional development as well.

Just a few things that have happened over the last few weeks that didn’t make it into any of my previous blogs:

First, we had a bomb threat. Directly after the bell rang ending fourth period and starting lunch, our principal came in the intercom and asked that all teachers proceed to the office immediately. This seemed like an awkward request. Interestingly, my supervisor was observing me that period and was present in the room when the request was given. We usually take the time right after class to discuss the lesson and his observation, so I questioned the severity of not going down to the office. The only reason my supervisor could think of for asking all teachers to go to the office would be to celebrate a retirement or something of the sort. When the principle came in the intercom again to ask all teachers to go to the office I started thinking it was maybe something more serious. My supervisor agreed to wait in the classroom while I walked down to the office. As soon as I walked out of my classroom into the hallway, the fire alarm went off. I continued along until I was met by teachers leaving the office and directing students to leave the building. The situation was pretty frantic. My mentor told me that there had been a bomb threat and that we needed to check the room for suspicious devices. Hmmm, nobody ever mentioned anything about locating suspicious devices. Was I sleeping in my methods class when we covered that? It was pretty interesting checking the room for bombs and chatting with my supervisor about the class I just taught. The room turned up clear, we evacuated, and finished our conversation out on the football field. As it turns out the threat was just a scare and students returned to class after lunch (to the dismay of the students).

Second, I ran the discussion with my students last week. It was a nice break from the daily grind to be able to do something that is totally different from the norm. It has been difficult using discussion as a teaching strategy in my biology class. Outside of current event issues like stem cell research and global warming, much of the material does not lend itself to discussion. This activity allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and practice a strategy that I would like to implement more often. Students as a whole seemed to enjoy being able to express their feelings about school (they obviously do not have a lack of these) and have someone to actually listen to them. I allowed students to either participate in the discussion verbally or by writing down their thoughts. This seemed to allow students who are anxious about speaking out in class to have their feelings heard and accommodated the students who are just better at expressing themselves in writing. The comments that my students made were super insightful and forced me to evaluate the practices I have been using. Scary!

11/5/08: Spurred by the rush of excitement that has been coursing through me on this most historic of historical days I have been alive to witness, I thought I would spend a the first few moments in each of my classes expressing my thoughts about what it means to be alive right now. What an exhilarating time to be alive. Although most of my students are not of voting age, I talked to them about the fact that even though they could not express their voices as a vote, many of them can and did express themselves on other levels. Over the last few weeks, I witnessed countless discussions, arguments, jokes, clothing and coffee cups that students used to transmit their feelings about the election and, on a broader scale, their personal beliefs and views of themselves and their country. The fact is that even though they could not express their opinion by way of casting a vote, they still had an opinion. They still had enough of an investment in the direction and future of our country to care, to think, and to discuss their thoughts and feelings. What a unifying time to be alive. Independent of who you personally supported in the election, most people can agree on the fact that there are certain things that are not going well with our country. We all know this. The great thing for students is that they are approaching adulthood in a time when the country has come together to decide that the policies that have been in place are flawed and in need of serious attention. They get a fresh start. At the same time, students are growing their brains and becoming more and more equipped to think critically about what is important to them and decide the impact that they are going to have on their own futures. What an inspiring time to be alive. The future, the children, they are showing deep interest in the issues that will affect them in their lives. The fresh start that we have all been given will not be squandered away in the ruts of the inappropriate values of late. The youth movement, the core of the future, the future voice of America seems to understand the gravity of this situation. As teachers, we have the distinct responsibility to teach students how to think, not what to think, so that they can decide for themselves what is important and have the necessary skills to act on their feelings and change the irrelevant policies of the past and help the world move toward a unified, peaceful existence. Yes, we can.

Keeping parents updated on the progress, or lack of progress, of their student is an important aspect of being an effective teacher. Parents should know about the challenges and successes that their students encounter in their daily classes. The grading program that my mentor teacher uses, allows an easy way for you to relay grades to parents. The grading program (Micrograde) is set up so you can enter email addresses of your student’s parents. An easy way of collecting parent emails is to make a space for an email address on the syllabus and require students to take the syllabus home, have their parents sign it, and bring it back. A few easy clicks on Micrograde and you can send the grade reports of all of your students to their parents email addresses. The emails contain the scores their student has received on every assignment, lab, and test, as well as a percentage grade for the class. This seems to be a much easier method than using a system like Basmati where you have to constantly update the system. With this program, you can kill two birds with one stone. You are already updating the scores into the grading program, so it is very easy to send parents that information if it is requested.

I have found, however, that the volume of emails you will receive will blow your mind. You will see a number somewhere between 10 and 30 in your inbox and feel like the most popular person ever. But don’t get your hopes up, they are all from parents. Most parents seemed to be very thankful for this type of update because they didn’t have to do anything extra, the information was right there in their email box. Some parents were pretty surprised to find out that their student hadn’t been 100% honest regarding his or her biology grade. Mainly, I have found that parents have been very supportive of their students and are willing to be involved in their educational success although I’m sure this isn’t the case in a lot of schools. At the very least, this method has allowed me an easy way to contact parents and set up meetings if they are requested.

One thing that I have noticed in my teaching here at South is that teachers, other than the mentor that you are assigned to, are often willing to help out student teachers with questions and advice. I’m sure we have all learned a lot from out mentors, but seeking out advice from other teachers in and out of your content area seems to provide a more well rounded and expanded experience. For instance, a science teacher with an office next to mine has become my unofficial mentor teacher number two. He has provided me with readings, activities, and advice that differs from the things that my mentor teacher number one provides for me. I’m not saying that it is any better or worse, just different. By asking different teachers the same questions, you can obtain various points of view and decide for yourself what you agree with. Also, different teachers have different experiences and can shed light on certain situations better than others. When talking to my mentor teacher number two about classroom management issues surrounding power struggles, he suggested a few works by Rudolf Dreikurs including, Children: The Challenge, Psychology in the Classroom, and Logical Consequences. He mentioned how these books give strategies on how to take yourself out of the equation when it seems like a power struggle with a student is eminent. Dreikurs also talks about why students misbehave and give ways to handle misbehavior without punishment or reward. Now, I haven’t read these books yet, but it seems like mentor teacher number two was right on with his reading suggestions.

Other teachers can also provide a wealth of resources when you are in need. A few days ago, we had a shortened schedule due to a late start. Due to the short class periods, I had to push the activity that I had planned to the next day. After looking tirelessly on the internet and through my mentor teacher’s materials, I still wasn’t able to find a relevant activity that would fit into the class period. During lunch in the science office, I was talking to another teacher about my dilemma. She was right there with a tried and true activity that fit perfectly into the shortened periods. The activity went smooth enough to use it again when teaching this unit in the future. I guess this gets back to the collaboration thing. Yeah, it’s good to collaborate with other teachers.

I had an awesome first period today and I am trying to keep the gravy train rolling for my next few periods. Isn’t it a great feeling when your lesson goes just as planned and students are engaged and learning in your class? Whoa, what a concept. Today, students preformed a diffusion lab using some of the new technology that the science department spent $8,000 on over the summer. The first reason why the class went so well was because only half the class participated in the lab. This is a strategy that my mentor teacher uses when she is doing labs in large classes. Half of the students do the lab and the other half complete an assignment that is turned in at the end of the period. The next day, the students switch activities. This really worked out well today. With only sixteen students in class, I am able to provide individual assistance and scaffolding much easier than in a class with thirty plus. Also, I am able to place students in pairs, as opposed to groups of three or four, which forces each student to participate in the lab and minimizes the chance that a student skates by and leaves all the work for his or her group members. Splitting up the class in this manor makes doing labs easier to manage and improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the lesson.

Same blog, different topic. Some students, it seems, no matter what you do or say have a difficult time turning in their assignments on time. This problem is compounded in my class because we do not accept late papers. So, if a student doesn’t do an assignment or even leaves it in his or her locker when it is due, that student gets a zero for that assignment. I really like this policy because it makes grading easier on the teacher and it trains students to meet deadlines they will face in college or out in the work force. The bad part is that there are a lot of students who neglected to turn a few assignments in and are now failing the class. I probably have 20 kids out of 95 failing right now. I do my best to remind students when their assignments are due – they have assignment sheets and the assignment due dates are written in the daily agenda and on the weekly schedule. Nonetheless, students who are not on top of their assignments take some major hits from this policy. I never thought that I would have so many kids failing my class. Sometimes, I feel like I may not be meeting the needs of my students. But, the students who are failing are the students who haven’t turned in any of their homework assignments. This is a dilemma because I feel personally responsible for the students who are failing, even though some of them haven’t put out the effort it takes to get a passing grade. Hmmmm……