Month: February 2017

Week 4: Give me more!

Standard

This week has been a busy one! Lots of lessons, feedback and learning, for both my students and myself. I’ve found myself wanting to do more every day, finding ways to improve each lesson and activity. I have found that I am overall feeling better after my lessons and am second-guessing my choices less frequently. Now I only reflect and think of ways to improve rather than harshly criticizing my choices. I want more – more learning, more teaching, more fun. I have been enjoying everything so much, I don’t want it to end!

Highs:

  • I had a lesson on protein synthesis as part of my Science 10 biology unit that went extremely well. I wanted to try something new. I made the class completely interactive. I pushed all of the tables to the sides of the room and set up the chairs facing the front like a stage. The idea was that the class would work together to crack two codes: an analogy and then DNA. On the overhead was a code – a keypad with each number a specific colour. This code was locked away in a Vault and could not be taken out, but we needed the code in our hands to decode it. Students suggested we make a copy of the code which we did by matching the colour of the code and attaching a piece of paper onto a string to make a long chain of colours. This was then taken to the Workshop where it could be decoded. A Supplier had Parts, that had a decoding scheme of three colours to one part. The Workshop would indicate the three colours and the Supplier would find the correct Part, which was a piece of a puzzle of a car taped to the board. The idea was that the one code created only filled in parts of the puzzle. This was analogous to protein synthesis. We moved onto a code of DNA locked away in the nucleus. We had to make a copy of DNA, but used complementary bases to create the mRNA (A-U, C-G). The mRNA was then taken to the ribosome where transfer RNA would find the correct amino acid and create a protein. Students worked together to summarize the lesson on a graphic organizer. The students really understood the lesson and I am extremely proud of how well it went. I had very positive feedback from students, both verbal and in their journals. Some of my favourite quotes from the journals are below:

“I love learning about things such as genetics because it’s interesting to understand our body. It’s really helpful when we do activities (as we did today) because it gets everyone involved and you kind of forget that you’re learning. It is also a lot more fun than reading from a textbook.”

“I really like how you taught the lesson. It really made the process stick and made it more fun (not that science isn’t already fun, most of the time). I’d say that today’s lesson made me happier and like this unit a bit more. I feel confidence about this topic”

“The unit is going fantastic. For once I have a clue on whats going in. The teacher is really nice and understanding. I feel as if I can get an A if I actually do my homework.”

  • One of my main goals every week is to connect more with students. I focused this week on students who have been struggling concepts or with handing in assignments. It also helped that I received some IEPs so I could better adapt my class to students who need additional support. I had some struggling students reach out for additional help. I think that a few of these students and I connected over humor and I had them really engaged in the classes this week as volunteers or answering questions. I am hopeful that I can continue building these relationships so that these students can meet their goals. As much as I am hopeful, I do constantly feel like I haven’t done enough. I need to figure out how to support my ELL students and my learning assisted students more. I don’t feel like I have done enough and that it is hindering their progress significantly.
  • A fun part of my daily routine is engaging students in a voting tournament. The first tournament was to see what the Best Chemistry Pun was. Two puns were posted on the overhead and students had to vote on which was better to advance to the next round. On Friday, we finished the tournament to find our winner: He threw sodium chloride at me! That’s a salt. Our next tournament begins Monday with Ultimate Disney Movie of All Time, which the students chose and gave suggestions for movies to be included. Everyone is very excited for it. I had some students thank me for putting in so much extra effort in making this. Another teacher had a conversation about me with some students and they made comments about me doing so much extra work and that while they liked it, they wondered if I had a life. The teacher had to inform them that as a student teacher, no, you don’t. She’s right. But I’m not complaining! 

 

Lows:

  • After being confident that my health would stay strong as others around me dropped like flies, I got sick. And sick I was. My body tends to overreact to colds and so I often get fevers and chills. With all the other teachers coming in sick, I knew that I could too. It is difficult teaching while sick. I wanted to be my high energy excitable self but it was too draining. I felt that my classes went by slower and everyone was disappointed in the level of engagement. I was honest with my students and told them I was sick and that I didn’t have the same energy level or voice, and they were very respectful and would quiet down themselves when they saw that I was waiting because I couldn’t raise my voice.
  • I learned that my vocal chords are not able to withstand all the talking I do. It has been made worse by my cold, but I go home at the end of the day with an extremely strained voice. I need to learn to keep my voice down during class as my well-being needs to be maintained.
  • I am still having issues with time management in classes. I have not yet figured out how much I am capable of doing in a class. I’m frequently pushing back lessons, and I’m uncertain how I can cover the content if this happens. I know it is happening because I have so many in-class activities, and I’m wondering if the frequency of them is useful. I also have been focused a lot on the little picture and all of the details of content. I have forgotten about the big picture and our inquiry question. A goal for next week is to bring that into three of the lessons. I want to make the learning relevant. Students are asking for relevancy and I feel as if I have been failing them.

Most important lesson of the week: I am only human. I get sick. I get tired. I am not capable of doing everything I want to do, but because I am aware of it, I strive to do more. I push to engage every single student. I push to have each class be full of fun and meaningful learning. I push for students to understand every concept. I push and push and push, but I am only human. I can accept where I cannot go above and beyond, but it doesn’t mean I still can’t try.

 

Week 3: Drowning in a sea of stickies

Standard

One of many of the sea of stickies…

Between the last two weeks, I have spent only 5 days in the classroom. I was fortunate to have a consistent three days in a row teaching this week, and loved (almost) every second of it! The biggest personal challenge I faced this week was a lack of organization. People who know me think I’m an extremely organized person: I always have documents put together and filed, my day timer (when used) is colour coded and indicates every little thing that I need to do, and I always know everything that is happening. But I believe that it is I just put out a really great illusion – I look organized so I can stay sane. These past few weeks, I switched from my day timer to sticky notes. I’ve been inundated with so many things to do that I have 20 different sticky notes on the go right now, and I can’t figure out what is what anymore. Some have ideas, others have to do lists or information that needs to be filed away but doesn’t have a home just yet. My lack of organization is resulting in higher stress, as I become frustrated when I can’t remember what I have to do and when things need to be done by. I’ve just pulled out my day timer and am excited to start using it again, as I think it will help me keep organized better. Other than tackling the sticky seamonster, I had a lot of really great moments in class to reflect on. Below are some of my highs and lows from the week!

Highs: 

  • There were many times during this week that I saw how I had formed good relationships with many of my students. During the Study Strategies and Self-Regulation Skills Carousel activity (see Inquiry post!), I had the opportunity to talk to many students one-on-one about how they learn and how I can help them better. I had many great conversations about time management, test anxiety and how students want to study better, they just didn’t know how. I felt that the students saw that I cared about their well-being and success, and I found that after that after the activity, all 30 students were involved in a very positive discussion in which we worked together to come up with ideas for our attendance bracket. It was heartwarming to have all of the students happy and excited about the classroom.
  • The students designed their own experiments over the last two weeks and were finally able to perform them. The designs were scaffolded in that students were test how to look at changing the rate at which an Alka-Seltzer tablet dissolved. The students did a really great jb designing their experiments, and an even better job performing them. The students were very professional in the lab and did really great work. I was nervous as labs can be very overwhelming, especially when each group is doing something slightly different, but it turned out to be a great activity. Students seemed proud to create and do their own lab. Many went above and beyond with their experiment topics, so much so that I had to jump to Chemistry 12 curriculum to explain their results!
  • Today, we were finally able to move forward into the Biology unit on genetics. I had created a unit project in which students were asked to research an application of genetics that has ethical considerations, and present their findings in a gallery walk. I was hesitant as it seems like a really complicated project, and by handing it out at the beginning, they haven’t had any exposure to content of genetics yet. I was really worried about how the students would react to it, but my worries were completely unwarranted. The majority of the class was eager to choose a topic, and seemed really enthusiastic about the project. It made me even more excited, and I can’t want to work with the students more on them, and see the final results!

Lows:

  • I’ve hit a wall when it comes to one student. They seem to have only a very basic understanding of English and no desire to pass the course. The student cannot stay awake during class, and when they are awake, are playing on their phone. I do my best, but I have 29 other students who need my help. I also feel bad calling them out every few minutes as it brings the student into a negative light for all the other students. My goal for next week is to go and talk to the ELL support staff to see what I can do to make things better. I feel like I am failing them.
  • I handed back the safety test today, and one student challenged an answer to a multiple choice question. I’m not sure if I handled the situation well. The correct answer was the most obvious, but due to an experience we had in class, they felt that the answer they chose was more correct. They didn’t like the fact that they got 100% on the test (there was a bonus question) and then proceeded to ask for opportunities to do extra work. I don’t think that extra work after tests are fair, especially if its to get bonus percent on top of a perfect score. I didn’t give the student the mark, as I do believe that their reason wasn’t sound, but it left me feeling unsure if I did the right thing.
  • This week, I’ve overall been very tired. I’ve had moments of high stress, and when mixed with difficulties sleeping, is causing me to be really tired. This is also contributing to my forgetfulness. I need to take some time for me, to boost my energy and find that balance between work and play. I need to exercise more too. I feel very worn down when I can’t be active and I have’tn figured out where to put exercise into my day. It starts at 5am when I wake up and ends at 10pm when I fall asleep, and it is full for every single second. I don’t like having to shift priorities but I think that it is very important for me to put myself first every so often.

Most important thing I’ve learned this week: Communication with students is essential to my success (as well as their’s, which I guess is also important). If I know what makes students happy, I can tailor the classroom to suit their needs so that I can be an effective teacher. Learning is happening all around me, and I love seeing, hearing, and being part of the journey.

Study Strategies, Tips and Tricks – Stations for Students

Standard

Snowmageddon 2017 has caused me to shift a lot of my plans so I can cover the content I need to. Due to this, one of my Science 10 blocks no longer has time for the class I had prepared on study strategies and self-regulation skills. It was suggested that I do this anyways, so I can compare if students benefited more from the lecture style and the implementation into assignments compared to those who only had them implemented into assignments. Instead of lecturing the students on strategies and skills, I decided that a station based class would be better, allowing students to choose what they wanted to learn more about. This way, students are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and can focus on improving rather than listening to things they may already know.

In the class, students were expected to go to three stations and hand in activities that they did at the end of class. Below is a summary of the stations that students could go to as well as a summary of the reflections students wrote about after the class.

 

Station 1: Time Management 

Students at this station would read materials about time management. There are three time managers that are suggested: term calendar, weekly schedule and daily schedule. For the term calendar, I provided students with a month calendar for them to fill in with important dates for our upcoming unit. I also included an example, which included other courses and important out of school activities. For the weekly schedule, I provided students with a week template for them to fill in with important information for the upcoming week. For the daily schedule, I provided an example of a daily schedule that they could do on their own. Additional time management tips were also provided, including prioritizing assignments, creating blocks of study time, and scheduling school and fun activities.

As an activity, students would have to make a week schedule for either the week we are in or the upcoming week. Students would hand in their schedule as proof of completing the station. They can use the template given, or create their own template. Examples of weekly schedules were given for students to choose a version they like best. Both examples combine weekly and daily schedules, to show how detailed a weekly schedule can be.

 

Station 2: Test Anxiety

Students at this station would read about tips on how to minimize test anxiety. The tips focused on how to minimize stress and anxiety, rather than how to deal with the feeling of anxiety during a test. I chose these tips as it focused more on prevention. Tips included developing good study habits to be prepared, not cramming, and encouraging exercise, sleep and a healthy diet. The tips also focused on mindsets: keeping positive and control anxiety through focused breathing. I think the most important point was the last: asking for help.

As an activity, students have a worksheet called “Challenging Anxious Thoughts” in which students had to write down a scenario that caused them anxiety. They then had to reflect on three possible outcomes: the worst case, the best case, and the likely case. They then were faced with the question of “if the worst case scenario did happen, would it matter in 1 day? 1 week? 1 year?” This exercise was to help guide students through their anxious thoughts. Students would write about tests, but they could also write about any other source of anxiety.

 

Station 3: Study Strategies – Flash Cards, Summary Notes, Elaboration

At this station, students will learn how to effectively implement flash cards, summary notes and elaboration into their study routines. Information on how to use each strategy effectively was given.

Flashcards should be used only for rote memorization of facts, definitions, dates, etc. Students should make flashcards so that there is no “front or back” and should be frequently shuffled so students memorize the information, not the order.

Summary notes should be written with a delay from reading a text, and should be written for an entire text, not sections. This helps students recall and retain the information better. For summaries after lessons, students can write them later that day, but not right after class.

Elaborations are the opposite of summary notes. Without help from notes or peers, students write down everything that they know about a topic or specific terminology. Once they cannot write down anything else, they consult their notes to see what they missed. This is a great method of seeing ones understanding and is useful throughout a unit and a good place to start when studying for a test.

An example of each was provided to students on topics that are not covered in the class. For an activity, students had to make an example of an elaboration and flashcard on the water cycle. Students first had to do the elaboration, then read a text to summary of the water cycle to write a good flashcard. Summary notes were not assigned as students should learn to do them after a delay, not right after a reading.

 

Station 4: Test Taking Tips – Short Answer, Multiple Choice

At this station, students read information on test taking. Two resources were tips on how to prepare and best answer short answer and multiple choice questions, while the third focused on general test taking tips. The readings had many commonalities about being prepared, reading directions carefully and looking for key words or details, and looking for clues in the one question or in other questions. Some key tips from the short answer preparation was focusing on topics and concepts, employing self-testing, highlighting key points of a question and budgeting time during a test. From the multiple choice tips: answer the question in your mind first, use the process of elimination, reading every answer option and pay attention for words such as “always” or “never.”

For an activity, students were asked to write three test taking goals that they have after reading the information. They goals were to be focused on improving their test taking skills or their preparation skills.

 

Station 5: Learning Style

At this station, students took a brief quiz to determine their learning style (visual, audio or kinesthetic). After students determine their style, they were encouraged to read the handout on the style, and how they can use it to their advantage when learning in class and studying. Students were encouraged to read over all of the information as most people learn better when a combination of techniques is used. The purpose of this station was to help students become more self-aware of their strengths, and how they can focus on them to ensure success in their learning.

Summary of Student Activities:

The students took the activities really seriously. The station that students visited the most were learning styles and test taking strategies. From the learning style quiz, I have learned that the majority of students are visual learners. The most common goals from the test taking station were doing a memory dump, reading questions and instructions carefully, and employing self-testing. I was really glad that these were the most frequent. I will encourage students to use these strategies throughout the upcoming unit so that they can remember them.

From the study strategies station, I learned that students who completed an elaboration had a good understanding of the cell. This is good to hear as it is what we are starting out with first in the biology unit. It was a good way of access their prior knowledge before we dive into the unit. The test anxiety station also produced a lot of great information for me. I only quickly scanned the sheets, but I am now aware of students who struggle with more test anxiety and how I can help them.

The time management station did not work out as well as I had hoped, but I realize now that the activity was a lot longer than the other stations. Most students didn’t want to spend the time to write everything down, or they did not know the information. A lot of students also talked about how they use their phone to keep track of things, so they did not find the station as helpful. This was good to hear though, as it meant I know that many students try to have good time management skills, even if they feel that they struggle with it. From the planners I did see, many of my students are extremely involved in extra curricular activities and are very busy. I strongly encourage extra curricular activities so this then leads me to want to assign homework less and encourage students to spend their time reviewing.

Final thoughts:

When I told students about the activity, I wasn’t initially sure how to read their reactions. No one seemed outwardly excited about it; a consistent state of indifference seemed to spread throughout the class. This changed when the stations were set up – students started rushing around the room to get to the three most popular stations: test taking tips, study strategies, and learning styles. At least 10 students were at test taking tips right away reading the information. I realized that students then wanted to learn how to do better. Throughout the activity, students were more often than not on task.

As students began finishing, I would send them to a fourth station. The least popular were time management and coping with test anxiety, so I pointed students to those stations. This was because many students were taking a lot of time at only two stations and I didn’t want to interrupt their learning. As more students began to finish and become off task, I brought the activity to a close and told students that if they wanted more information I would have it available. To my surprise, a few students did come and ask for the materials later as they were so focused on only two sections, they didn’t make it further.

The best part of this activity was having such great conversations with students. As I walked around the room, I would talk to students about the station they were at, asking what they had learned and how it was different from their present study habits. Most students I talked to indicated they had a lot of trouble with time management, with respect to not feeling like they had enough time. Many students complained that they had homework, sports, school and work, and it was hard to balance everything. I also talked to students about their test anxiety and what I could do to help reduce it. A few students claimed that they don’t have anxiety prior to the test, but when they open the test, their brain shuts down and they can no longer focus on the materials. To help combat this, I could have students do some focused breathing before a test, or go over the test in detail with the whole class so that everyone is clear about the instructions.

I think that this activity worked out really well. I gathered that students believed that I cared about their well-being and success (which I do!) and it allowed them to be more open about any struggles that they may have. Students asked me questions about how they could control their anxieties of overthinking, public speaking, or writing test. Students asked me how they could study better, not harder. I am eager to see how the students employ these new techniques in the upcoming unit, and if they changed how they feel about science and studying science.

Week 2: Lessons in adaptability and flexibility

Standard

With all of the snow we had this week, my five days turned into two! Even though I taught very little I sure did learn a lot about adaptability and flexibility.

I like to think that I’m adaptable and flexible, but these two qualities are in constant conflict with my desire for control over my plans and organization. I spend a lot of time planning each of my classes; every activity has a purpose and when I think about having to rearrange classes, I become easily overwhelmed. How do I choose which lesson and activity to cut out? How do I justify removing this piece of content? How can I make my plans work in new circumstances? These questions caused me significant stress this week. But through it all I learned how to answer these questions. I learned that I need to have confidence in myself and my abilities, and that whatever decision I make, I can l live with and make work. 

As a result, I’ve spent time analyzing unit plans, lesson plans, and making executive decisions on what I want to do and what I need to do. Every big decision I make has relieved some stress, but has also left me full of doubts on my decision. I’m spending my time accepting my decisions, and making the best of the situation. I’m learning to be more adaptable and flexible in my planning. I am thankful that I was able to work on these skills as I can’t always stick to my schedule. Change is inevitable and constant, so I must learn to constantly change to face the inevitable.

Week 1: This looks like a job for…

Standard

One week down, nine to go. Or shall I say, only nine left?! How has the time gone so fast!

This past week has been a steep learning curve. After each 10+ hour day, I would leave the school with mixed feelings – excitement over something wonderful that had happened in the day, stressed about things I needed to plan or the lesson I was preparing for tomorrow, and doubtful of things that I had done during that day. Overall, I think I had a good first week. I made some good connections with my students and staff. I had some really great engaging lessons. I had some disaster lesson and learned some really great things of what not to do. I received a lot of feedback, from teachers, faculty and even students. I feel like I learned more in this past week than I had in the last few months in classes. It really is true – learning by doing really is the most effective.

Highs: 

  • Reading through my student information handout forms and hearing that even after one class, many students seemed genuinely excited to be in my class because I seemed “fun” or “engaging” and had an “awesome personality”
  • Getting to know what my students are like after only a few days with them. I already know what kinds of lessons will work for their learning styles, what won’t work, and what I can do to help them be successful
  • Having really fun lessons such as Telestrations to learn about accuracy and precision
  • Introducing Playte Time to my class (writing on plastic plates instead of mini white boards) and having every single student love it
  • Having students respect me as their teacher – I didn’t know if this would happen as a TC and I’m very excited that we share a mutual respect for each other

Lows:

  • Looking out into the eyes of the students and seeing complete and utter confusion. I knew at that moment that I had failed them and that I was only making things worse
  • The constant feeling of being overwhelmed by not having enough time to plan into the future as well as plan what I want to do tomorrow
  • Marking performances for the first time – it was more stressful and subjective than I thought, even though I had made a rubric
  • Feelings of doubt over situations – What do I do with the student who has slept through every class of mine and has no idea what I’m saying or doing? What do I do with the student who has been away every day this week? How do I regain some of the confidence I lost after my failures this week?
  • Not putting myself first – in my class, I put my students first. But I need to remember that my health and wellness are equally as important. I have to focus on managing my stress and health so I can be the most effective teacher I can be

Most important thing I learned this week: Every doubt I have, every “oh I should have done it this way,” brings me one step closer to being the teacher I want to be. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn. And every time I get wrapped up and tangled…

… it will always be my job, my future, my happiness.

I look forward to what the weeks ahead bring. I look forward to planning my units and lessons. I look forward to creating relationships with my students. I look forward to being the best teacher I can be!