NAAE Convention Reflection

Las Vegas, Nevada, here we come!

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Vegas to join fellow ag teachers at the NAAE annual convention. Here are my top 3 take aways from this experience

Networking

I got to meet other preservice teachers like myself during the FAST symposium (Future Agriscience Teacher symposium). We engaged in activities around inquiry based instruction, hands-on "agtivities", and CASE curriculum. We also got to listen to various speakers about their thoughts and experiences with teaching agriculture. 

As far as networking goes, I got to learn a little bit more about agricultural education programs across the country, and meet ag teachers who gave good advice. I joined in committee and regional meetings and got to connect with teachers from Pennsylvania. 

Professional Development

Of course, one goal of the convention is professional development workshops. I went to several workshops throughout the week. Some of the notable ones are the LGBQT inclusion, aquaponics, vet checks workshops. I enjoyed each of these and was able to snag some cool resources from them too!

Community

Meeting all of those teachers and those involved with the NAAE shows me that despite how many teachers there are, there is a strong community of teachers who are always willing to help and support. There were many teachers who would share their e-mail addresses, twitter handles, and business cards just to help me out. They are all so welcoming to new ag teachers.

I am truly excited to join in the ag ed family and to be a part of a group as welcoming as this. I would definitely recommend other preservice and ag teachers to go to this event!

I would like to thank Penn State and PAAE for providing me with this opportunity. I wouldn't have been able to attend without their support. 

Life Knowledge: The Sneak Peak Experience

My lesson for Life Knowledge was about goal setting and personal vision. I taught students on the importance of setting goals and how to write S.M.A.R.T. goals. 

The Life Knowledge lesson was an overall good experience. If you read my blog on my microteaching experience, my struggle was time limits. I was doing microteaching at the same time as my Life Knowledge lesson so I wasn't able to fully reflect and make adjustments. But even getting more class time was really helpful. 

I led them through a fun little icebreaker and then I had them come up with their own definitions of what they believe personal vision is. Afterwards, I gave a short presentation on components and parts of a S.M.A.R.T. goal. Then I had them do a race where they had to apply their goal setting skills. I would have liked to have them go through this for a little bit longer, and have a deep reflection time as well as give them time to write their own goals. But I had to shorten those in order for them to wrap up and do their learner satisfaction forms. 

I think I over planned, and while that isn't always a bad thing (it's good to have something else planned in case students finish early) I think I wanted to get through all of it and so I felt it was a little rushed in the end. I think there were things I could have cut out in order to reach my objectives. 

The students seemed pretty receptive to hands-on activities, but during lecturing time, they were a little more shy. I'm still figuring out how to ask engaging questions. I am also figuring out how to handle it when students don't answer and give me blank looks. A piece of advice from Mrs. Pontius was to call on students specifically. I hate the idea of doing this because I don't want to put students in an uncomfortable position if they really don't know. But Mrs. Pontius said you can tell pretty easily if they really don't know, in which case they can phone a friend. 

Hopefully I can pick up on those cues and be able to adapt as needed. I now know my goals this year are time management and questioning. 

Microteaching... How much do they really know about cattle?

The Top 3 Things I Learned from Microteaching at Juniata High School

I planned three lessons on the cattle industry for an introductory ag class. I wanted to start with general terminology and providing students with clear definitions of bovine terms. Then I was going to introduce them to some breeds of cattle which would lead into my lesson on selective breeding. Finally, I would begin to touch on methods of raising both dairy and beef cattle. The classes were 40 minutes long and it was a one-on-one so each had their own iPad in addition to the ag department having Chromebooks. The school also used Google Classroom. 

1. Slow it down; break it down

The first day I started off with general terminology. Some words included knowing the difference between a cow and a heifer, others were more in depth such as ruminant animals or castration. While I didn't explain the whole digestive or surgical process, I introduced them to words I would expect that they would come across as the week went on (also words that they might recognize from past lessons or will hear in future lessons).

I went through my powerpoint on terminology pretty quickly for a few reasons. One was just nerves. But mostly because I gave them access to the powerpoint with their iPads so they didn't need to take notes.. they had it right in front of them and could reference anytime they needed. I also knew having a 40 minute class was going to make me pressured to get through my objectives for that day so I wanted to make sure we had time for the application activity later. I also felt that these words were fairly basic or easy to remember. In fact, I was worried that the lessons was too easy. So I didn't want to spend a long time going through a boring powerpoint. 

I did, however take some pauses and ask questions for the students such as "why do you think farmers use castration?" and things like that which got them thinking a little. They were reluctant to answer at times, but I thought they were just shy.

Later, Evy mentioned to me that she noticed some confused looks on their faces as I went through the powerpoint--something I must not have noticed (I think it was the nerves). So this whole time I was thinking that this lesson would be simple where in fact, it was a little more on the challenging side for them. I learned that I need to slow it down for them, take a breath and really look around the room and see how they are taking the information. Also just break down the information, even if it looks like they might understand. 

On the plus side, I did a Go Get It E-moment with them and they LOVED it. I think it also helped solidify what they just learned which was great. As far as clarity goes for giving directions, I think I nailed it too!

2. Technology is your friend... and your enemy

Growing up in an era where schools had the huge plastic box called a desktop computer (you know, the ones that took 5 minutes to load and the only games were minesweeper?), I was certainly not used to a one-on-one school district. So I was worried about what the technology situation would look like. For the most part, they were pretty productive on them. I would have them look up information for their bellwork or use it for some of the projects they did. However, there were a few individuals that were goofing off on their iPads or phones. I was floating around the room often so I was able to catch it often, but it was still a huge distraction for some students. And some of those students were the ones who constantly finished last. 

It's hard coming into someone else's classroom and not knowing all of their rules (even with a day of observing) and trying to lay down the law. I believe I did a good job in controlling the situation when it happened. I think I should have followed up with the next "step". But if it's their iPads, who I am to take them away? And now they don't get any work done. So who really wins? Technology is certainly a blessing and a curse. 

3. Time is of the essence

By the time all of the students get settled, come back from the bathroom, begin their bellwork, and are ready to start the class, 10 minutes might have gone by. Then to go over it and get into the interest approach, and transition into the lesson takes even more time. By the end of the day, I found that I could barely get through one objective... and I might have had two or three! There is not enough time in the day and I have no idea how teachers get through their lessons and feel like their students have learned something. They must certainly be magical. 

I know I tend to over plan activities, but I still envisioned certain projects going much quicker than they did. Students needed more time finishing assignments and I had not anticipated that. So I would start by saying that I would give them five minutes for something but they needed ten. I kept pushing it because I thought I was being adaptable. 

Mrs. Morgan suggested having a specific time for when they were to be done by and sticking to it. They could finish it later, but in order to make progress, they needed to continue moving through the lesson. I think this will be valuable for me as I try to teach 42 minute classes in the spring. Some lessons can be adaptable, but the rest can either be finished for homework, after school, or the next day. I might have to work in some "work days" or "catch up days" just in case this happens. Not sure of other teachers' perspectives on this, but it's just a thought. 

Reflection

I was glad for the experience to microteach. There are some challenges as far as not knowing the students beforehand and not knowing the classroom management views of the teacher, but I liked having the trial and error experience. I think the biggest lesson for me was getting a feel of what exactly 40 minutes feels like and knowing how to use my time as effectively as possible. 

Lab Trial #4: Inquiry Based Instruction

Question or Problem

How can Inquiry Based Instruction be used as a tool in the classroom?

toggletime.net

...engaging in IBI activities... researching IBI... hypothesizing that students will be independent learners as IBI is implemented...

Testing the experiment

The lesson I prepared was about determining pH levels in soil and how it affects plant appearance and growth. Using a Lab Aid kit, I had the students use the chemicals (called "Plant Nutrients", "Plant Mass", "Soil Aluminum", and "Agricultural Lime") and develop a hypothesis on what would happen to the chemicals when combined. They weren't given anything to test specifically for pH, rather, they were to determine what chemical provided would have an effect on the plant. It was supposed to change the color of the liquids depending on how much of each was added. I had them work in groups and design their own experiment.

sebamedusa.com

Analysis and results of data

Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI) is something that does not come easily to me. I am so conditioned to having specific procedures and knowing exactly how I'm going to be graded. I am not used to creating my own learning (if you can think of IBI like that) much less teach it. I was itching to help and teach rather than sit back and let the students take control.

saintermediate.blogspot.com

As much as I prepared and tried to plan for any confusion or gaps, I couldn't foresee the issues that would happen when I turned students loose after explaining what they were to do. I think part of the struggle with my lesson was trying to turn very explicit instructions with the Lab Aids kit into something that had zero directions. I practiced with the chemicals beforehand and tried several combinations based on what I thought my students would do. These combinations still produced pretty accurate results so I wasn't worried about them not getting it 100% in line with the procedures that came with the kit.

When I first introduced the lab, the students were expecting to use pH testing strips. It was then that I realized that my objective didn't match my goal for that lesson... not exactly. Yes, it was a pH lab, but this particular lab wasn't testing pH levels, it was comparing how agricultural lime raises the pH. The change in color was to show that the lime was bringing up the pH; making it more basic. This only created confusion, understandably, and they were struggling to create a hypothesis if they didn't know what exactly it was they were going to see when they tested it. 

quotesgram

Based on the feedback I got, I think I did a pretty good job of staying cool, reworking their task, and getting them to test something. Once they started working with the chemicals they did start to notice how the chemicals changed the color. However both groups only tested one or two things instead of having multiple test trials. I think they might have been able to figure out the goal if they had tested more than one combination of the chemicals.  

Conclusion

I think I have the idea of Inquiry Based Instruction down and I have a picture of all that can be done with Inquiry. I think the biggest fear (not just mine alone) is trying to plan as much as possible beforehand and play out every possible scenario ahead of time, and then arrive at the lesson only to find out that students don't understand or you didn't consider that they would try testing x instead of y. 

I really liked the idea of the lab I did. I don't know if it was really meant to be an Inquiry lab, but I think there might be aspects of it that could be. I also think I needed to reform my objectives and goals of the lab. I will say that the rest of the lesson was going to go more specifically into pH where they would look at what they've found and compare the colors to charts which would reflect what pH results look like. So this lab was only a snippet of the whole lesson. I hope to get more practice and to observe teachers who use IBI, but for now I think I'm still trying to feel it out. I do hope I can one day get my students to start truly thinking critically and not being so dependent on myself as the teacher. I think that is something so valuable for them to learn.

Teach Ag Twitter Chat: Growing Global Competency in Classrooms

This time of year seems especially busy for the 2017 cohort. So many events are all shoved into the lovely fall month of October!

One of those events is our Teach Ag Chat. My group and I did ours about growing global competency. How do we get students more aware of global issues, cultural differences, and agriculture outside of the US and Pennsylvania?

Here were our questions for the twitter chat:

Thoughts on the chat 

I think our chat went really well. We had a lot of participants ranging from students, to organizations, to ag teachers, and we had many representing from other states and universities. There was great conversation going on, offering ideas on getting more students involved in the world around them. 

Below is a link to the storify and blog on the twitter chat by George Dietrich:
http://teachagchat.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-27th-increasing-global.html

Thoughts on the experience

Twitter chats are tough! Using tweet deck is really helpful for some organization, and having the questions planned ahead of time and having them post automatically (set on a timer) helps to eliminate lags or human error, but it's still difficult to juggle. Being the thorough person that I am, I like to take time on my answers and really think about them. I could have planned out ahead of time what my answers were going to be, but didn't, so perhaps that's what I should think about for next time. However, if everyone planned out their tweets ahead of time so that they had time to read responses, then perhaps the pressure of tweeting with only a 5-10 minute time frame isn't enough? Or perhaps a blog or something is a better medium for the deep thinkers such as myself.. just a thought #KIR.

To speak on the connected educator quality, I think this is a great way for people to quickly share a thought, idea, blurb, or otherwise from their experience. One question can spark another, and one person can inspire an idea. Even just knowing who the gurus of specific topics are is a great way to stay connected. Users can follow those gurus and ask specific questions if they feel they have more after the chat. There were many people from outside of Pennsylvania that I have seen on the chats that I can now feel a little more comfortable reaching out to because we've had that short conversation via the twitter chat. 

Teach Ag Twitter

Twitter in general is a source to use for a quick thought or question. While I don't think it can stand alone as a reliable source or as a way to find a wealth of information, I think it can connect users to the person or group that will get them those answers. I'm glad that agricultural teachers have this tool to connect.

Weekly Vitamins: Creating a New Recipe with Inquiry Based Instruction

Everyone knows someone that seems to be able to craft the best meal or make the most savory chicken or brew the best coffee. Perhaps that someone is a parent or grandparent or friend. While they may have all of the same supplies and ingredients as the next cook, their dish seems to come out better. You just keep wondering what recipe they follow in order to come with that result.

atmag.net

Inquiry based instruction is similar to that magical recipe. This educational technique allows learners to form their own recipes to discover and learn. They may not get the same exact results as the other groups in their class, but they learn the concept of whatever problem they are trying to solve. This relatively newer idea of inquiry based instruction (IBI) allows students to make their own dish instead of following the recipe the teacher makes them follow. 

IBI vs. Problem Solving Approach

When I first started hearing about IBI and the problem solving approach (PSA) it was difficult for me to differentiate between the two. Both techniques challenge students to solve problems, are student driven, and is facilitated by the teacher. 

batalas.co.uk

However in doing the readings for this week, I was able to pull out some small differences between the two techniques. The main thing was that with IBI, students are trying to solve a problem, but they are making their own procedures and they are evaluating their results with the scientific method (not always, but typically). In the PSA, students are more so just utilizing their resources to solve the problem posed to them. In addition, I think IBI encourages the concept of the topic the students are learning about rather than coming up with an exact answer. PSA doesn't necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but the goal of PSA is to find the best answer. It does still encourage learning the concepts and skills, however. 

Maybe these two techniques aren't separate, though. Perhaps inquiry based instruction is a form of one of the problem solving approach methods. Of that I'm not entirely sure. No matter what category it falls under, I think the main point is that teachers should be encouraging their students to seek the answers and experiment in order to learn; not allowing the teacher to tell them the information all the time. 

Emphasizing the "why"

I think it is so important for students to understand not only why the information that they are learning is important, but why they are learning it the way they are. Traditional learning, as it says in the readings, does not challenge students to find the answers, but lets them absorb the information instead. They have to learn how to learn all over again, essentially. There might be some push back on this, as some of the participants in the Journal of Agricultural Education mentioned, where it took several tries for students to get comfortable with this style of teaching. 

So if I can get my students to understand why I am facilitating in this way, I think that will make it much easier for them to want to learn and not concern themselves with finding the one right answer to pass the class.

cognition.happycog.com

A novice to inquiry based instruction

I feel as though at least one of my teachers in my past has used IBI, but I can't say I clearly remember a lesson where this has taken place. I still have so many questions regarding how it is done, so I fear that I might struggle with it initially until I work out all of the kinks. I believe that if I make it my goal to give students the chance to cook up their own plan and chew on their answers and research for a bit, they will gain much more than I could ever teach by telling them the information alone. 

Leaving Thought

"It's okay to not know, but it's not okay to not try"

--Unknown

Weekly Vitamins: The Colorful Dinner Plate of Differentiated Instruction

Anyone ever say to you that your dinner plate should have a lot of color? They weren't just saying that so it looked pretty. They were trying to get you to realize that fruits and vegetables are food items that come in many different colors, so to make sure your plate is full with many different kinds of healthy foods--not just carrots or blueberries. This is because each fruit and vegetable carries different vitamins and minerals in it that can benefit different things in the human body.

ameessavorydish.com

Just like this is important for your dinner plate, it's also an important visual to keep in mind when implementing differentiated instruction into the classroom.

The three characteristics

Differentiated instruction, as explained by the article for the reading, include readiness, interests, and learning preferences of students. 

credit.com

I like that differentiated instruction includes these components because it focuses the attention on the students and not so much standards or mandates or even teacher preferences. Students should be respected and listened to if they are to gain anything from the lesson. As hard as it sounds to have essentially a specific and individualized lesson for each student, there are some ways that the article shares which can make it easier for teachers to implement.

The power of choice

The article mentioned giving students choices but make it manageable. For example, a student can choose their research topic, but must still follow the criteria on the assignment's rubric. This is something that I learned early on.

The other thoughts that were expressed in the reading talked about reflection. Instead of asking the students if they enjoyed the assignment (and #KIR, some students who dislike school may be likely to immediately answer no anyway) ask the students what about the assignment helped them learn or what could in the future help them learn. Not only will that help the teacher reflect but it will also get the student thinking about their choices, and make them feel they are heard. 

I may have brought up this topic in previous blogs, but in my summer reading book, Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains, Johnson talks about how students need to know that they have the power to choose and that instruction is specialized to them and their needs. It is then that they begin to feel comfortable. 

theodysseyonline.com

Something else relating to choice that she talks about is how teachers also have this underlying job of teaching students how to make choices or how to perform tasks. What she means is that we need to teach students how to work in groups or how to take on challenges. When I read that at first, I thought it was silly. What do you mean, teach them how to work in groups? You just get into a group, divide the work, have a discussion and present the findings. Who doesn't know how to do this? But she made the point that yeah, on the surface, group work sounds easy. But there is probably a point in my life where the teacher taught us what it meant for everyone to have a task and for everyone to do their fair share of the work, and to be held accountable.

Even in some of my college course I see students that fail at group work, and the whole group feels that weak link. Reading this article and hearing Johnson's thoughts now really makes me wonder if I'm taking for granted the skills I learned in group work or the skills I learned in taking risks.

Focus on Individualized Instruction

The idea of differentiated instruction focuses on individual instruction based on needs of the students. My above scenario of group work was just an example of individual skills I learned on how to be an effective group member. But the core of that idea is that I needed to learn my own individual traits and qualities in order to be that effective group member. 

Differentiated instruction is the teacher's ability to see those traits (as outlined by the ideas of readiness, interests, and learning preferences) and adapt that to the main instruction. 

The Methods of Teaching Agriculture textbook describes some ways teachers can implement this including student workbooks, supervised study, skill sheets, and more. Each of these allow students to express their skills and work in the most efficient way applicable to their needs. 

An empty plate; a full belly

medicaldaily.com

Trying to find the balance between equality and inclusion in the classroom on one side, and differentiation and diversity on the other side can be pretty challenging. I think there will be a lot of trial and error as I work my way through teaching, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to find the right balance between the two to maximize my students' learning. So even though my head may be full of thoughts, ideas, questions, and concerns, (or in this case, my stomach!) I know that I've been able to take a little serving of each food group and can hopefully serve up the right mixture in my classroom.

Leaving Thought

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow" --Plato

Weekly Vitamins: Assessments and Evaluations

This week, we did our readings on grading and assessing students. These readings touch on some questions I've had about fair assessments and appropriate questions for the content students have learned. 

Assessing exceptional learners

An issue from Educational Leadership talks about the topic of grading exceptional learners. As I reflect on what I've been taught about students with disabilities, teachers walk a fine line between being inclusive and equal to all students, and yet, having to make adaptations for those students who need it. The biggest thing I've heard is to be fair, and that fairness doesn't always mean equal. I think this is important for me to remember in anything, but especially with grading.

hair-on-fire.org

The article mentioned there being a big difference in accommodations and modifications. Accommodations are those adjustments to the process in order for the student to complete the objective. Modifications are adjustments to the objective itself so that the student can meet similar objectives to that of their peers. When the grades are all totaled, students with modified objectives/assessments would have this indicated on their report cards.

However I think that article addresses only the surface of that issue. My question is what do you do when a student with a modified objective gets a 100% and a student with the actual objective also gets 100%. Sure, they're both representative of their individual objectives, but at the end of the day, they are both receiving the same grade for the same class despite doing different things. Does marking the grade as modified on the report card change the weight of that 100%? Or are their grades considered fair? How does that play into class rank and honor roll as they mentioned in the article?

Rubrics for evaluation

Another topic we read about was the use of rubrics to help evaluate student performance. Rubrics are a simple way to not only organize grading for the teacher, but to allow the students to see exactly how they are going to be evaluated. They can look at the rubric before handing in an assignment so they know all of the components on the project, presentation, or as participation.

readingbyexample.com

Another thing I like about students having rubrics is that they can self-evaluate. Whether a teacher requires them to self-grade or not, students can automatically know they are going to lose points if they fall into a specific category. Knowing this, it's a no-brainer to them to go back and revise their work to meet that criteria. If they don't do this, they at least can accept the grade they get because they were aware of the criteria before hand. 

Students can also evaluate one another with rubrics. I think this is especially useful for oral presentations or when students are peer evaluating drafts of a paper. Peer feedback can be beneficial for students by recognizing that their results are not just the opinions of the teacher, but rather a general consensus.

Leaving Thought

"Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo"--Jon Sinclair

Sources

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Assessing student learning. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/assessing-student-learning/index.html

Jung, L.A. & Guskey, T.R. (2010). Grading exceptional learners. Educational Leadership, 67(5). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Grading-Exceptional-Learners.aspx

Lab Trial #3: Problem Based Learning

Question or Problem

How can I use a problem based learning approach in my classroom so that the students can think critically and solve real problems?

blog.engineeringstudents.org

...reading about problem solving approaches... hypothesizing that students will be engaged and thinking critically...

Testing the experiment

The lesson was on integrated pest management. Students haven't learned about IPM yet, but they have learned about pests and pesticide use. This lesson was to give them a feel of IPM and then have them reflect on what they did and how that aligns with the main steps of IPM. 

Soybean pest example

I told my students about a friend of mine that had a pest problem with her soybeans (not a real story). I showed them pictures of the situation and gave them a few resources. Ideally, there would be books and Agronomy guides, and computers at their finger tips that they could look at. I at least wanted to give them a list of potential answers so that they weren't overwhelmed with the possibilities. The students were to narrow down their search and figure out the potential pest. 

Analysis and results of data

I was super nervous for this lab. I don't think many teachers had given me liberty to solve problems in my lifetime, so it was not only new to me, but now I had to teach using it! Once the lab was done, however, I felt much better. My peers mentioned some tweaks, but for the most part their feedback was positive. 

One suggestion was to have some sort of a worksheet to guide their thoughts and notes. It would also have the question or situation they are trying to solve. I think that is a great idea for those visual learners. It probably would have clarified things a lot more.

incolors.club

Another suggestion was just making sure the situation I was presenting was logical. I tried to do my research as I was preparing for this lab, but I am by no means an expert on pests or soybeans so it was challenging. I tried to think of as many questions as possible and find those answers beforehand, but it was hard to know what they were going to ask. That was part of my fear in going into this lesson. However, I think I handled those moments of uncertainty very well. 

Another thing that was interesting was as I was trying to play along with the story (pretending that I didn't know the answer when I knew full well what the answer was for the sake of the mystery), one of the students made the comment about how if I don't know the answer, how could they trust me? How could they figure it out? I tried to turn it back to them and say that with my knowledge and their help, we can figure it out together. I wonder if there is a better way to respond to this. How do I maintain my credibility, but go along with the story. Should I tell them that I know, but I want to see if they could figure it out? I feel if I did that, they would give up when it got hard, and just wait for me to tell them the answer. 

Conclusion

I think with much more practice, I could become good at PBL. I certainly see the benefit, and I think that's how more classrooms should be. I just need to get myself into that mindset and turn the reigns over to my students every once in a while. 

deeringbanjos.com

Leaving Thought

"Vulnerability is strength"--Cheryl Strayed

Weekly Vitamins: A Dose of Problem Based Learning

This week, we read all about Problem Based Learning (PBL). The readings were great materials to prepare us for our lab on PBL. Hearing about PBL initially sounds scary... letting students basically research and find the answers, sometimes based off of little prior knowledge. What if it takes some students longer than others to figure it out? What if they begin asking questions about things that I don't know about? How do you prepare information about a topic/lesson when the students are the ones driving the class? How do you make objectives and prepare assessments when you don't know what exactly the students will discover?

tonex.com

Perhaps I have so much apprehension and concern about PBL because I haven't been forced to do it much in my years of school. I've been handed the information, books, articles, texts to learn. I've been given instructions and haven't been given much liberty to think on my own or truly grasp the impact my thoughts and research can play into learning and education. I know there has to be an effective way to get to answer my questions--I suppose I just have to do a little problem solving on my own to figure that out. 

Using knowledge to guide

innovationmanagement.se

In the article Principles of Teaching Problem Solving, they talked a little about the knowledge of the learner. They mentioned declarative knowledge which is the facts, concepts, and principles students learn. Procedural knowledge deals with problem-solving and structure of the learning. Teaching both at the same time or crossing back and forth can be extremely effective. 

I think this starts to ease some of my worries as I wrap my head around PBL. I thought that teachers had to first teach the declarative knowledge and then do the procedural, or that they might introduce a subject with the procedural knowledge and then they would fill in the rest of the information with the declarative knowledge. While there may be some cases where this might be most effective, knowing that it can also be done together is also really helpful. Maybe the teacher introduces a few key terms and then has students work. When a student encounters a question or even specific information, the teacher might then give more declarative knowledge and send the students on their way to discovering more. 

Impact of situation in students' lives

If the students don't see the connect to their own lives or reality, they won't see the need to learn. That, or they will only learn "for the test". PBL, I think, really helps them see that understanding the situation and solutions can be important for their lives and careers. They can also apply and practice what they are learning instead of always regurgitating the information. 

In the article, 8 Essentials for Problem Based Learning, it gives some tips about using it most effectively in the classroom. 

socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu

Having a captivating interest approach, and identifying an essential question that they are to solve are two main ways to begin the process. Essential questions or driving questions should be open-ended, complex, and linked to the core problem. The author compared it to a thesis in a research paper. Without it, there wouldn't be much direction.

Student choice is also important. Students shouldn't have full control of the reigns, but should be given options what and how. Let them decide how to present the information. Let them ask the questions, and don't heavily place criteria on them. As long as it relates to the goal of the driving question and the teacher can see that the student is understanding the content, the other portions of the assignment(s) are secondary.

Additional readings

I found some sources that organize the process of PBL. Worth reading! I think it helped facilitate the process in an organized manner. It pulls in a lot of the ideas from the reading, but has some other nice tips.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/problem-based-learning-tips-ideas.shtml

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/problem-based-learning-real-world.shtml

Leaving Thought

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together" -- Vincent van Gogh

My Unit Plan Evaluation

We just finished our Model Unit Plan assignment and I am now looking over all of the feedback from the assignment. Overall, I think I had a pretty good start, however there are a few areas I need to revise.

crazydadlife.com

Peer Feedback

I did not have too much specific feedback from my peers, however they noted that my unit assessments section could be revised to make it into percentages (I originally had them as just point values). Another suggestion was to be more descriptive in some areas such as the FFA and SAE integration areas.

Professional Feedback

Some of the big things I needed to work on were objectives. I need to add in the criteria part for the objectives. Some have the criteria, but others I struggled to put a quantitative value or a specific learning indicator on it. I suppose I feel that some lessons or activities can't always be evaluated. And I feel that sometimes students need a day or two of learning about that same topic before that objective is truly completed. I still need practice with objectives, but I think not every activity or lesson fits perfectly in the "box" of objectives, if you can imagine such a thing.

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Other than that, I just needed to be even more specific about certain sections. I already felt I was pretty specific, so I think I'm going to have reevaluate and add more details as per the suggestions. 

Reflective thoughts

I thought this assignment was hard! We had just learned about understanding by design, and working with the end in mind, but making a whole unit without knowing some of the specific details was hard. For example, knowing the realia when I didn't even know what I was doing for my lessons was challenging. I like the idea of starting with most sections of the unit plan and keeping the unknown parts a work in progress. I would then start my lesson plans. That way I can add realia or standards as I encounter them with my lesson plan into my unit plan. Establishing goals and having a general timeline for the unit is essential to the "end in mind" idea, however, so I definitely see the value in that. 

Weekly Vitamins: The Essential Nutrients for an Involved Classroom

This week we read about asking effective questions in the classroom. There are many reasons teachers ask questions and there are many types of questions they can ask. 

Why ask questions?

Cornell University says that there are several reasons:

• check student understanding of the materials
• keep student's attention and encourage participation
• review or summarize what they've just learned
• promote critical thinking
• encourage students to put their reasoning into words rather than linger in their thoughts

In my mind, questions are the most effective tool a teacher can use to teach. You don't have to buy it, don't need to physically put something together.. you don't even need to write it down (though it's recommended)! Just asking questions lets the teacher know where their students are at in their learning and can get them refocused if they are off track. 

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Questions should hold meaning, and meet the goal the teacher is trying to reach, not just going through the motions. If the students need to know something specific, they might hear a closed question. Open-ended may have multiple answers that students can use their prior knowledge to figure out the best response. Discussion can be a great tool to not only practice critical thinking and reasoning skills but also communication and debate skills. Rhetorical questions are also effective by forcing students to think.

What techniques can make questions more effective in the classroom?

I think a lot of it depends on the context of what students are learning and the goal the teacher desires to reach. However, there are some really good tips offered by the University of Florida. 

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One tip is to avoid asking "are there any questions?". How many times have I asked that and was received with blank stares. Whether it was in meetings or workshops or classrooms, I assumed silence meant my audience had no questions and completely understood. But I know there were times when that question was turned on me. Did I have questions? Yes. Did I ask them when the teacher asks if anyone has any questions? Most likely no. Unless I was confident that other students had similar questions or I knew I was not going to be judged for my question, I tended to stay quiet and wait until the end of class. If I can rephrase that question so that I am asking students more meaningful questions, I'll be able to determine who needs help and with what.

Another tip I saw was to wait 5-7 seconds after asking a question for a response. Teachers want to ask these meaningful questions but sometimes expect these equally meaningful answers right away. Students don't know what they're going to ask, so they need some more time to process the question and come up with a good answer. By pushing after only a second or two isn't giving them enough time to think and have a quality answer. I think I've even heard that teachers should wait at least 10 seconds on complex questions. Some students simply need more time. 

Who are our students?

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In some of the TED talks we watched, they talked about student value. Students are very talented and intelligent. And they are not too far off from being thrown into the real world once they reach high school. They should be respected as adults and valued for their thoughts and innovative ideas. Teachers are teaching them how to be adults and yet, when they want to talk about complex and more "adult" things like politics or news, some may automatically assume they can't handle a conversation like that. Teachers should use their wisdom to share, not hide for only those around their age. 

Leaving Thought

"When you ask for genius, it will show up, if you believe it"--Angela Maiers

 

Lab Trial #2: Interest Approach

Question or Problem

How do I create an effective interest approach or anticipatory set that captures student interest while also tying into the lesson prepared for the day?

blog.engineeringstudents.org

...doing research on interest approaches... hypothesizing that students will be interested in lesson and make a connection to their learning goals...

Testing the experiment

My lesson was an introduction to the Food Safety Laws unit in my Food Science course. I wanted to start them off with food contaminants, as this is how their textbook begins the Food Safety chapter, and I think this would be relatable to them as many are probably familiar with the concepts of food contamination. 

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I presented my students with three food items, each with a contaminant in them. Students had to come up to the food and observe what they saw, and hypothesis what they think happened. 

Analysis and results of data

When I finally figured out an interest approach, I was really excited to do it. However, what I had in my head was not exactly what came out in class. I believe for the most part, my interest approach went really well. It was fairly simple, after all. But my clarity in explaining the process of what they were doing as well as rules of what not to do were lacking. I didn't tell the students not to touch the food until after I saw them touching it, and even then didn't make those expectations clear enough because another student ate part of the interest approach! These were actual contaminants, however the students should have been okay.

But I ask myself, what if I had facilitated this in a real classroom? I think as far as clarification goes, I would have gotten an F... okay maybe a D if I'm being nice to myself. We talk so much about how clarity is essential to a smooth lesson and a happy group of students. I am still trying to find my flow, I think, and once I do, I'll be able to more effectively explain directions. I think when I sit down and do lesson plans, I almost have to anticipate everything and plan for that. It's like coming up with twenty different plan B's for anything that might happen. 

Something else that was mentioned from my peers is being more forceful in disciplining them. I am good with immediately approaching the problem, but need to be stronger in my response to the student's misbehavior. Students need to see that I am serious and will follow through with consequences as needed. 

Conclusion

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Overall, I still think the interest approach in itself was effective. Some interest approaches are much simpler, and that's okay, but I was glad to bring in actual food and have students do a little observation. It got them up and moving and thinking critically about the food they were observing. As long as I keep in mind clarity and preparing myself for situations to occur, I think my lab would have been golden. I look forward to leading this lesson with my real students in the future, and make some major improvements the second time. 

Leaving Thought

"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."--Thomas Edison