Effective Communication: A Glimpse at Student Teaching

Mr. Campbell and I 

For the final lab in AEE 312, I had the opportunity to teach my first lesson at my cooperating center - Derry Area High School.  The task for the lab was to use a LifeKnowledge lesson from National FFA, adapt them, and teach it to a class in our cooperating center.  I chose to adapt a team communication lesson to bring focus on the importance and value of being an effective team communicator when holding leadership positions in organizations such as FFA.  Overall this was a great experience!  I enjoyed being at Derry for a day, and receiving feedback from my students and my cooperating teacher Mr. Campbell.  This was a growing experience that presented a few realizations, which sparked some gems and opportunities of reflection.  

Gems:

Student Engagement:
According to a few students’ feedback my lesson, energy and knowledge was “out of the ballpark.” For the lesson, I connected team communication to communication used in baseball. I have always been an avid sports fan, and this was reflected in my lesson to keep the students fully engaged.  This is important because if I am not excited about what I am teaching it, why am I teaching it? In addition, I was able to use individual and group teaching techniques to create a variety of ways for students to be engaged.  I understand that all students are all engaged differently, so it is important to provide a variety of learning styles.  

Large group discussion

Variability:
I was able to create learning experiences that allowed for visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities to be used to increase my student engagement; in turn provided variability to the lesson.  I was able to engage them visually with a YouTube video to create the setting of a baseball stadium, small/large group discussions to engage auditory learners, and skits to encourage kinesthetic movement.  

Growth:
I was lucky enough to teach this lesson twice with some time to think and debrief.   As I reflected in that time I thought of things to change, and wrote them on sticky notes to guide me in the next class. Practice makes perfect, so round two was defiantly less rusty than round one.  In the second class I was more comfortable and confident, which allowed for more thoughtful discussion.  

Opps: 

Check for Understanding:

This has been something I have struggled with since the beginning. I am becoming better, but it is still difficult and something I need to grow in. I know how to give good directions, but still find confusion among some students.  I realized that providing direction verbally and visually is helpful. However I know there is other ways to ensure understanding than being repetitive, and it comes with time and practice.

Classroom Management:
Classroom management is going to be a challenge for me. This time was not bad, but it is an area I noticed I will have to work at. Throughout this experience and my micro-teaching experience, I faced the challenge of knowing my place in the classroom, which made me hesitate to take action to certain behaviors. For example, I had a chatty student who wanted to share multiple stories about communication used on her softball team. Although it was relevant it interrupted class, and caused delays in the lesson. Looking back, I let my discomfort of not knowing my place in the classroom interrupt my instructional time, which affected other students’ learning experience. I feel my comfort with classroom management will improve once I am able to ‘take over’ the classroom by presenting my expectations and consequences.  

Overall, I may not be 100% ready, or have all the experiences, knowledge and assignments I need yet...but I am ready to grow.  As I taught the lesson, I wanted to grow rapport with the students and be stronger in my teaching strategies for them.  My half day at Derry truly built up my excitement for the spring! I couldn't be more excited to grow and learn from Mr. Campbell and Mrs. Rippole with awesome students. 

Wild About Micro -Teaching

This week I completed my micro-teaching unit at Juniata High School. I completed three days of consecutive teaching of one class on a subject area.  Each class was 42 minutes in length. Throughout each day, I felt I was able to engage the students in the Wildlife and Fisheries Science course in a unit on Ecosystem Impacts. I am teaching an entire unit on Wildlife and Fishier Science to my Introduction to Agriculture class at Derry, so I felt this was a great introduction and practice before I student teach in the spring. Teaching a large group of students (18 high schoolers) for three days allowed me to reflect on a few things...

Stop. Recollect. Reflect.

Working with a large class presented some challenges, one reoccurring challenge that I faced was student clarity and comprehension. I had multiple diverse learners in my class, including 3 IEP students and 1 ESL, so this challenged me to present content and create understanding for all learners. I felt I failed at this on the second day of micro teaching. I presented students a predator and prey stimulation activity; I had students read the general instructions, and provided time for them to read more detailed instructions. As the class period went on, multiple hands shot up with confusion to what the directions met. I was hesitating to stop class to go over directions again because we were limited on time, as the end of the period was approaching. However, after jumping from pod to pod, and answering the same five questions, I decided to stop the students to recollect and refocus. I learned it was not a bad thing to stop to check for understanding because it can help the whole class understand and not just one person. In addition, I feel this could be a powerful tool that I could use to reflect and present higher order of thinking questions.

Plan. Flex. Deviate.  

Planning truly helped me put all my thoughts together and prepare the material I wanted to present. However, I realized that that being flexible and having the ability to deviate is crucial. As I shared above, I faced challenges, and these challenges caused me to redirect and regroup the student’s attention and thoughts. I did not have this in my plan, but I had the flexibility to create it and create understanding from it. I learned that sometimes your best lessons are created in thoughtful moments of confusion.

Structure. Tradition. Management.  

These three days was just an introduction to what an entire semester might look like, but also the amount of work it will require.  I already have so many intentional thoughts of how to create structure, tradition and management in my classroom for a full semester. Beginning of class procedure such as bellwork, ticket out and other classroom management and practices are just a few things that I want to create. However, I realized that these take time, and are dependent on the teacher and truly conditioning students to think and behave in these ways. I was fortunate to micro teach in a classroom that has solid structure, tradition and management that Mrs. Morgan has created.

General Gems: 

• Flexibility
• Group work
• Variability 
• Content confidence 
• Enthusiasm

General Opportunities:

• Asking and answering questions
• Clarity in explanations 
• Checking student understanding

Learner Satisfaction: 

The forms below provide a little more insight on learner satisfaction. Overall I was pleased with the results, but I also know that I can continue to grow and improve. Also, I learned that students will share some creative suggestions!

IBI Lab Refelction #TakeTwo

This week, the 2018 cohort was tasked to develop a lesson using inquiry based instruction. I’ll be the first to admit that I was not comfortable with this task. Mainly, I was uncomfortable with my knowledge of what inquiry based instruction was and how to implement it into the classroom. However, after presenting I do not feel like this lab went terrible. In fact, I started to understand what inquiry based instruction was and how to implement it.

My lesson was about artificial insemination in cattle, and how it compares to natural breeding. During the lesson I had students participate in an experiment by forming a hypothesis, test and collect data, then form a conclusion. The experiment the students participated in was creating a reproductive tract with materials of balloons, rubber bands and life saver candies. Once the tract was created, students tried to pour water into the balloon inserted straw. We analyzed which balloon had more water in it, and connected how what level of conception each tract would allow.

Although things went well, there is always room for improvement which is why I have highlighted gems and opps below:

Gems:

• Engaging/Hands on lab
• I had good enthusiasm for being extremely sick and having to do it twice
• I created higher order questions to keep students interest and realize the importance

Opps:

• I should have looked at the remote, and realized the video stopped recording, so I would not have had to do lab TWICE!
• I should have had clear balloons and straws so students could observe the conception
• I should have had student label repro tract instead of asking them what each represented
• I should stop using filler words such as (um, like, yeah)

Classroom Managment

The 2018 Student Teacher Candidates have the opportunity to role play different types of student behavior during our contextual lab experiences. In addition, we have learned through Discipline Derby Friday’s that students will test you in multiple ways beyond the 10 behavioral cards presented in lab. In all honesty, it makes me frustrated when I experience or read about bad behavior from students.  However, I realize that these experiences are teachable moments that help prepare us for the time we will spend with our first very own students during student teaching; however, a lot of our "preparation" comes from readings and conversations with seasoned educators. As the countdown for final presentations begins, this week’s weekly investment reading on classroom management was extremely insightful.

Start Out Firm

When asked how to implement classroom management techniques, almost every seasoned educator will share that you have to be firm. Additionally, they share how you cannot expect students to rise to higher standards after they have been able to get by with lower standards. This reminds me of when the 2018 Student Teacher Candidates talked about the first day of school and how unbelievably crucial that first day is for laying the way for your classroom expectations, procedures and consequences. Therefore, I have to be firm when presenting them, and prepared to hold my students to them.

Build Rapport

We talk frequently about building a rapport with our students. With these conversations we have come to the conclusion that to gain respect, you have to give it. As teachers we must listen, evaluate, and then act rather than jumping on students before they have had a chance to adequately explain a situation.

If I am working to build my students up, to keep striving to be the best version of them, my classroom culture and student behavior will surely be more positive.

Promoting Positive Behavior

Praise is a good thing when building a positive classroom. Think about it, if we as teachers were present negative talk, our students will be less likely to be engaged in our lessons, due to fear. Therefore, it is essential to praise and reinforce the positive behavior you want to see in your classroom.  However, be cautious not to over praise because it can cause backwards growth in classroom management. Aim for the middle ground (sweet spot), so that your expectations continue to be high!

Although, I did not touch on all of these. This Puzzle reinforces
classroom management from Methods of Teaching Agriculture. 

Overall, I want my students to know that I may hold them to a high expectation, but that is because I know they are more than capable of achieving this. I have realized by starting out firm, building rapport and promoting positive behavior will allow me to achieve this and good classroom management.

References: 

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Wong, H.K. & Wong, R.T. (2009). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher (4th ed.). Mountain View: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.