My class created this organizational chart of the higher administration of Hilliard City School District for part of our Government/Education unit:
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After teaching the "History of Education" lesson plan, what grade would you give yourself for your lesson? Defend your grade by anwering the following questions: Focus:
I would give myself a B+ overall. Originally, I thought I was well prepared, but I'd never tried using the writing interface before that was on the Smart TV. I ended up distracting from content a bit and also ended up not writing much on the board so as to avoid using it and creating more problems. I think my other mistake was expecting enthusiasm from the students; it quickly became apparent that I would be doing all the talking and nobody really wanted to DISCUSS the content during the presentation portion. I had not realized how much student attitude affects the teacher. I started off very enthusiastically, but within the first ten minutes I almost went to a monotone because the material seemed to lose its luster. In terms of what went well, I would say that the focus of the lesson was quite clear and they all knew the importance of each idea I went over because we discussed them and how they planted the roots of modern rules in education. My form of preassessment was simply gauging the room before I discussed each topic... None of the students seemed to know anything about what I was discussing because they were quite unresponsive after each question I posed. This indicated a clear need for me to address each topic strongly, and I feel that the Kahoot at the end showed some progress. They learned most of the material it seemed, because we actually had good discussions after each question. The students demonstrated their knowledge of the subject clearly when arguing over answers. The Kahoot questions themselves were about very specific material because the frustration of getting them wrong would definitely make the details more memorable. Quizzes always help with storing small bits of information. I engaged all students by discussing how each of them would be educated after each movement, and through the Kahoot at the end. I tried to ask each student questions during the presentation itself, but the most engagement was during the Kahoot. I think including everyone was an effective method of supporting the students, and I also asked frequently if students needed me to reiterate. It applied to their modern lives because I constantly pointed out how much better today's standards are compared to those in the 18th century. Overall, the lesson worked out because, as I said earlier, I assessed them through a Kahoot and post-game discussions that went very well. While the lesson could have gone better, it was still good. 1) Compare the lesson plan you used to teach your lesson to the "infograph" you created at the beginning of this project. Did your lesson plan have all the components you identified in your infograph? What do you think are the most important components of a lesson plan and why?
2) What was your strength during the lesson you taught on Friday? What strength do you need to work on to improve your teaching?
For the last couple weeks, Academy EDU has been focusing on the concept of lesson plans. We even spent a week in groups of three creating lesson plans for fourth/fifth grade concepts, under the impression that we would be teaching each other the concepts in a pretend elementary classroom environment. On Friday (2/6/15), we were surprised to see that our teachers had brought in real fourth and fifth grade students from Scioto Darby Elementary school and that we were now in charge of teaching our lessons to classes of twenty or more students. After the initial shock though, things went very smoothly, and my teachers created a quick blog question set for me. 1) Compare the lesson plan you used to teach your lesson to the "infograph" you created at the beginning of this project. Did your lesson plan have all the components you identified in your infograph? What do you think are the most important components of a lesson plan and why? 2) What was your strength during the lesson you taught on Friday? What strength do you need to work on to improve your teaching?
Mr. Koob is (like all the seventh grade math teachers this year) having to do a lot of ad-libbing, because with the recent shift in academic content standards for middle school math, the seventh graders this year are basically in a class that they do not have all the prerequisites for. Whenever he teaches a concept, he finds that most of them don't know the material required to understand the new idea, so he has to take time to teach previous concepts. They've been working on proportions for a while now, but we've found that most of the students know next to nothing about fraction-decimal conversions. So, if they have a question where they see that an input-output chart reveals its constant of proportionality to be .75, most of them will not realize that the multiple choice answer "C. 3/4" is the same thing. They just assume they did their work completely wrong. I can see that this is very frustrating for Mr. Koob, and it definitely delays progress. It's not the students' fault, it's just that the changes to Common Core have involved moving higher level math to earlier years, so the seventh graders are basically taking what used to be eighth grade math, even though they just came from what used to be sixth grade math. Therefore, they're missing most of the former seventh grade curriculum and they're jumping in to a world of math that is sometimes too complicated for them.
Koob does his best to simply follow the standards he has, but he often has to take a step back and explain an old concept to kind of put sand in the cracks. There's only so much he can do though, because he needs to prepare them for the PARCC test later in the year. He can't spend too much time on old material or he'll never get to the stuff they have to get through by standardized testing time. This is a lot of pressure I think, both for teachers and students, because these standardized tests are made out to be such a huge deal and they want everything to be taught in a singleminded manner. They really do more harm than help. Of course, that's a whole other discussion, but that is definitely my opinion. Koob's goal is really just to get them prepared for next year with as few learning gaps as possible while still prepping them for these PARCC tests. He can email parents, but that's only useful if parents want to take initiative and help guide their student. And that's assuming parents will take the time to read his emails... Overall it's a mess and I'm surprised he's managing it as well as he is. Props to Mr. Koob. I realize now that I skipped over this blog (I answered this week's blog last week, didn't realize this one existed until now), so in terms of my entire experience, I'd say that middle school was great and very eye-opening, especially since Koob was able to give me insight on the first few years of teaching in secondary education. I still think high school would be best, but I'll find out later this year when we do those observations. The students are continuing to work with ratios and similar proportions/ rates of change, except they are now doing difficult story problems that involve really thinking about and applying the concepts they've learned. It's interesting to see how some rise to the challenge, while others just randomly mix the numbers in the question to make something that looks like work, and then rely on the teacher or me to work out the hard problems for them. I also got to see SMI testing Wednesday, which has replaced the MAPS test for middle school. I talked to Koob and learned a bit about how the scores are measured for teachers and how it impacts the students; it's all really weird but interesting.
I enjoyed middle school because the topics were more interesting and the students were able to say more... off-the-wall things that were really entertaining. The first graders were so innocent that they were also funny, but I think middle school has a bit more entertainment value. I liked explaining higher level math, but I would say my least favorite thing was the fact that I was less in touch with the students. I didn't spend more than 48 minutes with either class because they had to move to their next course, and in general being a higher level teacher often doesn't allow for as personal of a connection with students. I think what I mostly learned was how the education plans work in middle school, and how the first couple years out of college are for a teacher, because Koob and I discussed that often. I could see myself as a middle school teacher someday, but I still think high school is preferable. Mr. Koob is (like all the seventh grade math teachers this year) having to do a lot of ad-libbing, because with the recent shift in academic content standards for middle school math, the seventh graders this year are basically in a class that they do not have all the prerequisites for. Whenever he teaches a concept, he finds that most of them don't know the material required to understand the new idea, so he has to take time to teach previous concepts. They've been working on proportions for a while now, but we've found that most of the students know next to nothing about fraction-decimal conversions. So, if they have a question where they see that an input-output chart reveals its constant of proportionality to be .75, most of them will not realize that the multiple choice answer "C. 3/4" is the same thing. They just assume they did their work completely wrong. I can see that this is very frustrating for Mr. Koob, and it definitely delays progress. It's not the students' fault, it's just that the changes to Common Core have involved moving higher level math to earlier years, so the seventh graders are basically taking what used to be eighth grade math, even though they just came from what used to be sixth grade math. Therefore, they're missing most of the former seventh grade curriculum and they're jumping in to a world of math that is sometimes too complicated for them.
Koob does his best to simply follow the standards he has, but he often has to take a step back and explain an old concept to kind of put sand in the cracks. There's only so much he can do though, because he needs to prepare them for the PARCC test later in the year. He can't spend too much time on old material or he'll never get to the stuff they have to get through by standardized testing time. This is a lot of pressure I think, both for teachers and students, because these standardized tests are made out to be such a huge deal and they want everything to be taught in a singleminded manner. They really do more harm than help. Of course, that's a whole other discussion, but that is definitely my opinion. Koob's goal is really just to get them prepared for next year with as few learning gaps as possible while still prepping them for these PARCC tests. He can email parents, but that's only useful if parents want to take initiative and help guide their student. And that's assuming parents will take the time to read his emails... Overall it's a mess and I'm surprised he's managing it as well as he is. Props to Mr. Koob. I realize now that I skipped over this blog (I answered this week's blog last week, didn't realize this one existed until now), so in terms of my entire experience, I'd say that middle school was great and very eye-opening, especially since Koob was able to give me insight on the first few years of teaching in secondary education. I still think high school would be best, but I'll find out later this year when we do those observations. Mr. Koob has a wide variety of learners in his classes, from his Period 1 of all ELL students (with languages like Spanish, Arabic, and various Hindi dialects) to his 7th Period class of 27 students who all have IEPs. Koob makes it clear that he thinks all of his students can succeed, and he puts in the time to make sure they can. He gives positive feedback whenever he can to his students, and even creates modified versions of tests for his First and Seventh Period classes. After tests are handed back, he discusses what went wrong and reteaches what he needs to before the underperforming classes have a retake if he thinks that is necessary. Mr. Koob is not going to let these kids just slide by with a D- without giving it his best shot first. I see him frequently apply the concepts he's teaching to a real-world scenario, not so much to show relevance but to show that "people do it all the time", and therefore that the students can too. It does seem to boost the confidence of the more skeptical students. Right now, the kids are learning about unit rates; looking at a price per amount of something to determine the price per ounce or gallon and so forth. Mr. Koob had the students fill out a worksheet in which they created their own imaginary party favor bags with whatever they wanted, but there had to be 27 bags of materials (the number of students in a class). Since most products are not sold in 27-packs, the students had to use the prices and container sizes they found online to calculate the unit price. They then multiplied the unit price of each object by 27 to find how much money they were spending. The kids were more interested because they could be creative and use the iPad cart for this assignment. The first day, kids had a lot of questions, but the last day they were wrapping up the project quickly with few problems. That's a definite sign of learning.
Toward the end of the week, I realized they didn't really need my help often, and neither did Mr. Koob, so I spent a lot of my time looking through the new Common Core standards for middle school and 9th grade that Mrs. Kembitzky sent me. I was shocked by how much the curriculum has been rearranged, and I am a little upset to see that my work with the Horizon student is not nearly as far as I had expected; While we are over halfway through the Algebra 1 class that I took a few years ago, we have barely started the year in comparison with the new standards. The concepts I've taught him are now considered 8th grade material; middle school has suddenly become BUSY years for students. I'm a little annoyed that everything is so different after just four years since I was learning this, but I guess that's something I'll learn to get used to as a teacher. Things are still going quite smoothly at Horizon, and I will be meeting with Mrs. Kembitzky on Monday to discuss the continuation of Steven's math education in future years.
I'm authoritative, and I would say that Mr. Koob is too. I agree with pretty much all of his teaching methods, specifically the way that he lets the students get off task temporarily but then steers them back to the topic at hand so as to make them feel like they're in a more fun environment but they're still focused. I've always felt that if you have a firm set of rules that you can easily explain, and you let the students' minds wander a bit every now and then, you're doing everything right. Mr. Koob appears to think the same way. It is especially effective when the teacher leads a side conversation, because that allows for a personal touch on their part and makes the students become more interested in them. Koob doesn't do it often, but every now and then he'll tell a story about something he's done or seen, and the kids love it. As for ineffective management, I really can't think of any times where he displayed a strategy that was not beneficial to the students' learning. He's got the control and relationship stuff down pretty well.
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