My week six field experience went well. Kasie and I got a lot more time to talk with our teacher about how he teaches, the resources he uses, how he improves his teaching, etc. It was nice to have time to talk to him in a professional manner about the field we will be going into in our future. He talked about his past teaching experience, how it has changed, what he does to be a better teacher, the collaboration he uses in his PLN, and just generally about the students. We asked him if he teaches more to the test and standards or for college. He admitted it is more to the test and standards based on the type of kids he has in the classroom. I know this is not what we are taught at IU and I do not want to teach this way, however I can see where he and his colleagues are coming from. Many of them are going to be paid on performance based salary. Teaching kids to the test and the standards has major improvements in their test scores. It is sad that these students are not getting the type of in-depth understanding and instruction that could be useful to them, however it seems that they have been conditioned in these classes to be taught the test and regurgitate information. I know this will not help them in the secondary education career of their lives and that is what they are missing out on.
Kasie and I also were able to talk to some of the students about their college plans. We were surprised to see how many students were applying to colleges and looking forward to going to a big college. However, many of them were not sure how they were going to pay for school at the collegiate level. We talked with them about school loans and applying for scholarships. Unfortunately, many of the students have grand plans to attend high level colleges and I am not sure they will be admitted. Many of them believe that by being a minority it will be way easier for them to gain entrance, however their GPA and test scores are not there to put them in these institutions. I think most of the kids in the classes could definitely go to college, a lot of them probably in a junior college or community college format. We did talk to a few students going to IU and even one student who is taking IU classes through IUPUI next semester. It was great to see some students with such high goals in their future.
Finally Kasie and I got to lead the Government classes in a review for their test. We used what the teacher had, which was basically just a powerpoint with questions from the test but the students were able to use clickers which they enjoyed. The lesson went well and why it is not exactly how I would have done it, the students were able to review for the test somewhat effectively.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Field Experience Week 5
In my week five field experience I did not get to teach, but I was able to observe a few different classes and interview students for Barton's class. I observed my teacher, teach an entire class for the first time completely this semester (since I have been teaching a portion each week). It was good to see his use materials in the classroom and see how he put together an entire class. The students started with watching the Channel 1 video, which is a video put out everyday by a educational teen news station over current events going on today. Our teacher stopped the video periodically to talk to the class about what was going on and get some type of discussion going. There was also a story on the presidential campaign and he pulled up an interactive map that tracked the electoral votes and each state a particular candidate was suppose to be winning. After that current event lesson, the students went through vocabulary multiple choice questions with the teacher. They corresponded to a vocabulary sheet they were suppose to be looking up and finding definitions for in the last class. The teacher went through each answer with them and tried to explain some certain words. After that our teacher has power point slides that he uses on his smart board. Each slide corresponds to a question on a packet that each student gets at the beginning of the Unit. While it seems that he is just giving students the answer he does take time to try and talk about each question or prompt from the packet individually. I do think there are some people or items from the history lesson that deserve more than just one powerpoint slide in a lesson, but I am not sure of the restrictions and time pressures on the teacher to cover material. After about 10 slides and questions were completed the students watched a video that was sped up of a boat going through the Panama Canal today, which was interesting. Many students did not know how locks worked in a canal system, which I was able to explain. After this students completed a map worksheet on national parks and natural resources in the United States during Teddy Roosevelt's time as President. I felt that this worksheet was more of just a filler activity.
During the worksheet time in two of the three U.S. History classes Kasie and I were able to pull out two students for our interviews. We showed students different pictures of historical moments in U.S. History and asked them to pick what they thought were the most important three. We then asked questions why they picked each picture, if there were other events that they did not see in our pictures they thought were important, and what they would like to learn more about. We then examined their thoughts on a picture about the Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution. I was impressed with the answers from both groups of students and how they viewed important events in History. It seems that hardly any of them were concerned with any history that occurred pre-1900. However, we also asked questions about teaching in the classroom. I thought when I posed a question about if they would like doing some type of project based learning, all of the students said they did not think that would work and no one would do anything if they were allowed to go off and collect and research information on a topic. That was very surprising to me.
During the last class, Kasie and I were able to observe a Honors U.S. History course. The differences between this class and the classes we have been in is astounding. The teacher easily controls the classroom and the class has meaningful discussions. They ask questions about the reading and all are willingly to participate. The teacher had the class take one hour to get into groups and produce a multi-sectioned newspaper from the early 1900s that focused on American Imperialism and yellow journalism. All of the students split into groups and worked pretty well even asking us many questions to clarify how they should complete the assignment. I know in the classes we have it is hard to even get students to split into groups, not even trying to get them to think critically or produce intellectual work. It was definitely an eye opening experience.
During the worksheet time in two of the three U.S. History classes Kasie and I were able to pull out two students for our interviews. We showed students different pictures of historical moments in U.S. History and asked them to pick what they thought were the most important three. We then asked questions why they picked each picture, if there were other events that they did not see in our pictures they thought were important, and what they would like to learn more about. We then examined their thoughts on a picture about the Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution. I was impressed with the answers from both groups of students and how they viewed important events in History. It seems that hardly any of them were concerned with any history that occurred pre-1900. However, we also asked questions about teaching in the classroom. I thought when I posed a question about if they would like doing some type of project based learning, all of the students said they did not think that would work and no one would do anything if they were allowed to go off and collect and research information on a topic. That was very surprising to me.
During the last class, Kasie and I were able to observe a Honors U.S. History course. The differences between this class and the classes we have been in is astounding. The teacher easily controls the classroom and the class has meaningful discussions. They ask questions about the reading and all are willingly to participate. The teacher had the class take one hour to get into groups and produce a multi-sectioned newspaper from the early 1900s that focused on American Imperialism and yellow journalism. All of the students split into groups and worked pretty well even asking us many questions to clarify how they should complete the assignment. I know in the classes we have it is hard to even get students to split into groups, not even trying to get them to think critically or produce intellectual work. It was definitely an eye opening experience.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Field Experience Week 4
My week 4 field experience at Lawrence Central went a lot better than the previous week. Kasie and I were tasked with teaching the first two sections of a Government Unit over the legislative branch of Congress. I felt more prepared for this day even though we were tweaking parts of our presentation in our plan period before class began. Kasie put together a great powerpoint. It was formatted like our teacher usually teaches, with answers on each slide that correspond directly to their packet, however it seemed to work well because it is what the class is used to on a daily basis. I was happy with how Kasie and I both took some time on each question to give a more in-depth explanation and try to provide some sort of class participation through discussion or answering a question. I felt that the class stay behaved the entire time, was engaged for the most part in our lesson, and most importantly learned a lot from what we had to say.
Another great aspect of our teaching this week was going over a part of the Presidential Debate. For classes that usually do not like participating or taking it seriously there was a ton of kids who wanted to voice their opinion. We watch a four and a half minute video where Obama and Romney both talked about the role of government. From that video clip we had an awesome discussion with the class on all sorts of issues and I think it set the tone for the rest of the class period. I would have liked to go into more detail with the presidential debate and even incorporate some type of activity, but the class discussion was a great way to start the class. The ranging opinions really surprised me and I was taken back by some of the insight students shed on the topic.
These exercises further expanded the idea of being able to tie in content to students everyday lives. Teaching a government class in the middle of a presidential campaign gives a lot of opportunities. The only thing I wonder is what other types of activities or topics could be covered in off election years that would spur such an engaging class discussion? The only drawback of the entire Government classes was that the teacher wanted the students to watch a black and white film from the 1950s, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The class was not enthused and showed little care for the film, and I must say neither did I. I find that I am really enjoying teaching Government class and it seems easier, as of right now, to find those connections to make with students and get them more interested in what is going on.
The last class was U.S. History and it went pretty well all elements considered. Our teacher was gone, but he gave us directions on what to do. We talked a lot about Channel One, current events video, and the classes always seem to enjoy and want to talk about those videos. We then went over an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" which shocked a lot of students. However, the Jigsaw reading and question answering activity did not go well. The teacher laid it out for us, but the students were hard pressed to move around the room and get into groups and upon reading the material he gave us to give to the class, even I was bored and unimpressed. That was a bit of a struggle, but Kasie and I did a great job in my opinion of controlling the class, moving the activity along, and finally recognizing when it was time to quit and move on. All in all the classes went well and I am looking forward to doing better with the three U.S. History classes next week.
Another great aspect of our teaching this week was going over a part of the Presidential Debate. For classes that usually do not like participating or taking it seriously there was a ton of kids who wanted to voice their opinion. We watch a four and a half minute video where Obama and Romney both talked about the role of government. From that video clip we had an awesome discussion with the class on all sorts of issues and I think it set the tone for the rest of the class period. I would have liked to go into more detail with the presidential debate and even incorporate some type of activity, but the class discussion was a great way to start the class. The ranging opinions really surprised me and I was taken back by some of the insight students shed on the topic.
These exercises further expanded the idea of being able to tie in content to students everyday lives. Teaching a government class in the middle of a presidential campaign gives a lot of opportunities. The only thing I wonder is what other types of activities or topics could be covered in off election years that would spur such an engaging class discussion? The only drawback of the entire Government classes was that the teacher wanted the students to watch a black and white film from the 1950s, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The class was not enthused and showed little care for the film, and I must say neither did I. I find that I am really enjoying teaching Government class and it seems easier, as of right now, to find those connections to make with students and get them more interested in what is going on.
The last class was U.S. History and it went pretty well all elements considered. Our teacher was gone, but he gave us directions on what to do. We talked a lot about Channel One, current events video, and the classes always seem to enjoy and want to talk about those videos. We then went over an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" which shocked a lot of students. However, the Jigsaw reading and question answering activity did not go well. The teacher laid it out for us, but the students were hard pressed to move around the room and get into groups and upon reading the material he gave us to give to the class, even I was bored and unimpressed. That was a bit of a struggle, but Kasie and I did a great job in my opinion of controlling the class, moving the activity along, and finally recognizing when it was time to quit and move on. All in all the classes went well and I am looking forward to doing better with the three U.S. History classes next week.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Field Experience Week 3
Week 3 of my IPS field experience was a difficult one to say the least. Kasie and I's objective of the day was to lead three U.S. History classes in a test review preparing for their test. Upon arriving to the school and meeting with our teacher I showed him our interactive Jeopardy powerpoint game we were going to use with the class. I thought I had made it as easy as possible, using some questions from straight off of the test, however it seemed that we were not "spoon feeding" the students enough. The teacher brought out a handout that he wanted to give the students with fill in the blank answers for the test. He said that he wanted the students to be able to walk out of the classroom with something concrete to take with them for the test. All of this was fine, but I just think if he would have communicated with us better about his expectations it would have been easier for use. We spent all of plan drafting up a worksheet to go along with the presentation and making the questions on the test easier (straight from the test).
First period was our first run through. The powerpoint did not work as planned so a lot of the time was spent dealing with technical issues. I tried to split the class up into four groups using the count off technique and that definitely did not work. The class just ended up splitting into two big groups. The technical difficulties also made it hard, and the last minute changes we made were difficult as well. The class behaved pretty well all things considered and I wish every thing would have worked properly because it seems the class would have enjoyed it more.
I spent lunch fixing the powerpoint so that every thing would work well for the next class. I split the next class up into 4 groups based on where they were sitting, which went a lot better. However, the class was out of control the entire time. They shouted at each other across the room, did not pay attention, and the students that actually wanted to participate and learn could not because of their classmates. Since the teacher was not in the room, the students recognize we have no real authority as far as disciplining them and they took advantage of our position. Multiple times Kasie and I tried to refocus the classroom and tell them that all of these questions are directly from the test, but most did not care. It was quite a struggle the entire class and I know I was very thankful when it was finally over.
For the last class we asked Mr. Gretencord to stay in the classroom and help us with class management. The class behaved well because of his presence, but were just not enthusiastic about reviewing or the game at all. In fact, most did not want to participate and were content with just waiting for the answer. Quite the opposite of the other class, but still the lack of participation was a failure in my view on the period.
I am not sure if our use of a Jeopardy game was just not conducive to the class or if they way our teacher runs the class set us up for failure with this type of activity. The daily routine of the class is to sit and watch the powerpoint with their packet for each unit. Each slide is usually titled with one answer it contains that corresponds to the packet. Not much participation is involved and students seems to just wait for the answers. It is a true teaching to the test type of environment from what I have seen, however the class is always under control.
I look forward to next week and continuing to get better. I know there are gonna be some tough days and I will learn from this day and use it to my advantage in the coming weeks. Next time I am going to think harder on the type of strategy I use when I develop a lesson for the class that is more conducive to the environment they are used to on a daily basis, while still implementing some interactive strategy hopefully.
First period was our first run through. The powerpoint did not work as planned so a lot of the time was spent dealing with technical issues. I tried to split the class up into four groups using the count off technique and that definitely did not work. The class just ended up splitting into two big groups. The technical difficulties also made it hard, and the last minute changes we made were difficult as well. The class behaved pretty well all things considered and I wish every thing would have worked properly because it seems the class would have enjoyed it more.
I spent lunch fixing the powerpoint so that every thing would work well for the next class. I split the next class up into 4 groups based on where they were sitting, which went a lot better. However, the class was out of control the entire time. They shouted at each other across the room, did not pay attention, and the students that actually wanted to participate and learn could not because of their classmates. Since the teacher was not in the room, the students recognize we have no real authority as far as disciplining them and they took advantage of our position. Multiple times Kasie and I tried to refocus the classroom and tell them that all of these questions are directly from the test, but most did not care. It was quite a struggle the entire class and I know I was very thankful when it was finally over.
For the last class we asked Mr. Gretencord to stay in the classroom and help us with class management. The class behaved well because of his presence, but were just not enthusiastic about reviewing or the game at all. In fact, most did not want to participate and were content with just waiting for the answer. Quite the opposite of the other class, but still the lack of participation was a failure in my view on the period.
I am not sure if our use of a Jeopardy game was just not conducive to the class or if they way our teacher runs the class set us up for failure with this type of activity. The daily routine of the class is to sit and watch the powerpoint with their packet for each unit. Each slide is usually titled with one answer it contains that corresponds to the packet. Not much participation is involved and students seems to just wait for the answers. It is a true teaching to the test type of environment from what I have seen, however the class is always under control.
I look forward to next week and continuing to get better. I know there are gonna be some tough days and I will learn from this day and use it to my advantage in the coming weeks. Next time I am going to think harder on the type of strategy I use when I develop a lesson for the class that is more conducive to the environment they are used to on a daily basis, while still implementing some interactive strategy hopefully.
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