Reflection #10

I have to say this was kind of a fun week. Despite having lectures on both days I feel like I learned a lot this week. Tuesday we talked about teacher salary, benefits, perks etc. and why it is awesome to be a teacher. I thought that is was very interesting to see some of the different starting salaries of school districts. It seemed that for the most part Utah districts had about the same amount within a couple thousand. It wasn't surprising to me that out of state districts had higher starting salaries. What was surprising to me was the about of students in our program that plan on leaving Utah to teach. I really thought more people would be sticking around.

Thursday was interesting as well. We spent the first half or so of class in our teaching groups discussing our lesson plan ideas and getting ready to teach the sixth grade class.

The rest of class was spent listening to Jeff LeBaron, a graduate of the program from a few years ago. He talked about some of the activities that he has his Jr High class do and they sounded way fun. I could really see me loving to teach an intro to tech class at the Jr High level. I had already heard of a lot of the activities that he does but the one that caught my eye was the hot air balloons that they made. Out of crete paper they built six foot high balloons and then actually heated them up and let them fly. That is a way cool idea! The other thing that I loved about Jeffs presentation was that you can tell he loves his job and his students. It was also easy to see that he is making a difference in his classroom, something that I will strive to do.

We also finished the readings for the Marzano book and I just wanted to add a couple of things that impressed me:

1) Organizers should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual

2) Higher level organizers produce deeper learning that the lower level

3) Advanced organizers are most useful with information that is not well organized

4) Different types of advanced organizers produce different results

Reflection #9

This past week I really enjoyed the discussion that we had about assessment. It was interesting to talk about what an assessment of learning is as opposed to an evaluation of learning. Other than it being a three hour lecture it was very enjoyable and informative. Although I beleive Geoff has a strong (biased) oppinion i would agree with what he said.

"True and False tests are a waste of everyone's time!"

This statement was very interesting to me because i have never enjoyed taking a true and false test. The questions always seemed the most confusing to me and the most unfair. Now after this lecture i understand why i have always felt that way. Geoff informed us that he could always score at least a 72% on a true and false quiz. He claims this is because you are not required to know the material, rather, by following a few key words and rules there is no knowlege of the subject required. Long story short there is no way to get a true evaluation of content.

Evaluation = measuring the understanding, judgment of merit
Assessment = process of documenting in measurable terms

Another interesting point that Geoff made about tests was on multiple choice questions, he showed many different questions that were written wrong and we picked out why. He showed examples of questions that either guided the students toward the right answer or didnt allow them to get the right answer because it contained the wrong article. Another example was using less than four answers or using garbage just to fill one of the answers. I thought that these ideas were obvious but i think they are mistakes that everybody makes.

Rubrics = a list of criteria and ranges of content
Reliability = measument is repeated
Validity = accuracy of measure

All in all it was a good week. I enjoyed the last few teachings that we had (especially the Lego activity that Jared prepared).

Reflection #8

Tuesday we had another classroom visit. This time I watched Kristin Massic teach at Springville High School. It was definitely an interesting visit because she didn't do any teaching. Her first period class was a prep period, and her second period Robotics class was having a work day. Normally i would have chosen to go and watch another teacher, but since I know Kristin from high school i thought it might be worth my time to talk about things from her perspective. She has been teaching for 3 years and has already taught at two different schools in two different districts. It was interesting to hear what she said about Nebo School District because that would be the district that is closer to my home.

I would really like to get a job in Nebo but the benefits are all out in Alpine School District. She explained a couple of the perks that Nebo has and none of them seemed any better to me. But... she did mention that it is easier to get a job in Nebo and they allow for more choice in what you would like to teach.

Kristin was having some interesting problems with her class. She had just barely moved into her classroom a week ago and the new computers that she was given were not set up yet. PRO - new classroom with new computers, CON - half way through the semester and she still cannot program the robots properly in her robotics class. PRO - new class = new robots. I was amazed to hear that the district was willing to buy her 25 robots at 900 dollars a piece. I would have expected them to say that she needed to buy a couple over the next few years. CON - no program on the computers yet!

Anyway it looked like Kristin had a great class going. The students were well behaved and immediately started working on their assignments, and you could tell that she had developed some really good curriculum. Kristin was also very professional and has done her research for each of her classes.

Reflection #7

This week has been a week full of teaching! Not that I really think listening to the 20 minute lessons of each person in the class is fun, it is good to hear the comments and feedback of each lesson. It seems like have learned more from the mistakes/teaching methods of others than I have from the actual teaching experience.

I did get the chance this week to teach about STL #20. I thought the lesson went really well and got some really positive feedback. I taught a short lesson on how to read a set of working construction drawings. I think the hardest part about it was narrowing the lesson down to twenty minutes. While preparing I realized that I could easily have turned this lesson into a two week unit. Luckily I found that out before I started teaching and had some time to prepare a good lesson. So far that has been the biggest difference in each of the lessons shared. It really shows who has prepared and who has just gone up there thinking they can wing it. Honestly I spent 2 hours getting the activity ready and making sure that it makes sense.

I have to admit that I was still pretty nervous about the actual teaching, but I think i was able to settle in and just teach alot sooner than previous attempts. Overall I felt it was a good lesson. Feekback from Geoff = draw a bigger example on the board... and he was right. After I turned around and looked I had drawn an example fascia that was about a centimeter tall. Ha Ha.

This weeks funny note, how to deal with the class know it all...

Reflection #6

This week has been weird being back in the classroom. It seems like so long since our last discussion. This week we had the first round of the 20 minute STL's. It was nice to see people teach what is closer to a real lesson. It made a big difference in the teaching to have some time to actually set something up. It was also nice this week to get into some class discussions about differenct teaching strategies along with common feedback. It really seems to help me more to see somebody else do something that is considered wrong, rather than somebody tell me after the fact that I did the same thing.

I really enjoyed the activity that David did on thursday. He split the class into two groups and gave a simple, but direct prompt on what each team should act out in sharades. Not only did he bounce back and forth between groups, but he also gave positive feedback and truly listened to what was being discussed.

Tuesday we had a good discussion on what a powerpoint presentation should be. I think it cleared up alot of the questions that I had about it. I really feel like there are some people that rely to heavily on the presentation and it ends up becoming a lessonn on who can read the quote on the board rather than a teacher led discussion. Powerpoints should be used as prompts and a way to emphasis the key points. There is nothing wrong with a picture or short video, but I think as a rule, if there is something written on the presentation it shouldn't be read word for word.

Now I hope that I can come up with a good lesson for Tuesday. Geoff said he only expects each lesson to get better as we go along. (I guess its good mine is no longer the last STL)

Reflection #5

I am a little confused about what we are supposed to write about it class considering we did not have a class period between reflection #4 and #5.

Today i was able to watch Terry Hunters CTE class. Mr Hunter was a great teacher 14 years ago when i had him as a 7th grader and has only improved since then. I was very impressed with the interaction and the care that he gave to each student. His instruction at the beginning of class was very clear, he checked for understanding in multiple ways and times, and had clear objectives for the students.

Mr. Hunter invited me to walk around and help students. Today they were working on a small truss bridge that they had previously designed and were now making out of small wooden sticks and Elmer's glue. The students had clear parameters for the assignment including dimensions, materials, and even different jobs assigned to each one. As i walked around helping the students as much as i thought i should, i noticed Mr Hunter was not only answering questions but he was right down in, working with each on of the students. Multiple time i watched as he gave large hints, sanded sticks to the right angle, or even glued pieces together for the students. Not only did it reinforce what he had previously taught but it gave the struggling students a one on one demonstration and push towards the final goal. I didn't ever feel like he was doing it for the students but helped them just enough to fulfill the goal for the day.

I was able to watch "E" time as well. Mr Hunter has a great working relationship with the kids and you could tell that he want all of them to succeed. Each of the students that needed the extra 20 minutes of help received it. Very impressive. About the only negative mark that i would give to Mr Hunter would be the overwhelming amount of things in his classroom. He does so many fun activities with the students that the amount of decorations and equipment kinda overpowers the room. It was not a messy classroom at all, but the combined desks, computer stations, and example activities, gives the room a claustrophobic feel.

Reflection #4

Better late than never i guess...

For this reflection i would just like to write a few things from my last school visit to Mt. Nebo Jr. High. i was able to watch Mr. Christiansens 7th and 8th grade Intro to Technology classes. It was very interesting to say the least. Mr C has a very interesting way of teaching. On one hand he is probably the most organized teacher that i know of. On the other, he is the laziest!

I was very impressed with the packets that had been prepared for each class. He used about 20 or so different activities, covering different subjects involving technology, and put all of the information and worksheets into separate binders. The students were working in groups of 2 or 3 and the objective was to cycle through each binder. I was very impressed with the idea of the students learning and teaching each other, and figuring new things on their own. What i was not impressed with was the lack of instruction at the beginning of class and watching the teacher sit at his desk the entire class period.

The idea was there... the follow through and involvement with the class was not. Babysitter!