As soon as I showed up to class on March 10 (I may have been a little late due to a conference), we were in a gallery walk where we had to persuade our audiences that our standards were beneficial. Although we came in 2nd place (DAMN!), there were a few things that I learned from this activity. The first is that our engagement came mostly from being able to compete against others. The prize was a t-shirt, which was nice but I honestly just wanted first place. As a result of the competition, I was doing by best TED talk and I feel that I was convincing. I’ve done a few gallery walks with my students but this activity showed how I can gain even more student engagement.
Our next activity was yet another challenge and again we got 2nd place (DAMN!). But this activity was definitely more about how well we can collaborate as a team. We created spaghetti towers using string and tape and it had to withstand a marshmallow’s weight at the end. Our collaboration was pretty strong as we had a tower that stood strong with the marshmallow. Mr. Griggs then showed us a video on the importance of collaboration and on how evaluating/re-doing is so important. We then attempted to make changes to our model and again we got 2nd (DAMN!). I want to do this activity with my students toward the beginning of the year as I typically try to get students to understand that we are a community in my class and that we will work together. But this can also tie to the scientific method as we are always having to evaluate and fix our errors when completing anything scientific.
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The class first started with a discussion that wasn’t planned but was definitely necessary. It started with a brief survey on what our strengths were and what we can improve upon but then we went in depth in helping another teacher out with a student. I found this tangent conversation to be super helpful as we went through what strategies he had tried and what strategies others could suggest. I took two things from this conversation: 1. It’s okay to halt a lesson to help a student out. 2. I now have a few more strategies that I can attempt on the students who give me trouble. After this was done, we discussed our strengths and weaknesses and did another questionnaire, this time regarding our class. Something that was common amongst many others was that students don’t have time to keep up with/learn the material at their own pace. This is due to the state standards pushing us to try and hit every point that they want us to. This was a great segue into standards and how we define them. As I attempted to create standards I realized the difficulty that comes with this. I found that creating standards, even for something as simple (complex?) as relationships, is super subjective and that not everyone will agree as they will probably have a different viewpoint.
This reflection will actually consist of two reflections: one for the activities that we did in class and another for the “Shadow a Student” activity.
Class We started the class with a little survey that consisted of a fun question and some questions about the “Shadow a Student” Activity. I found this to be somewhat helpful as we could ask our questions about the assignment without having to ask it out loud. This is definitely something that I want to use for students who don’t necessarily have the confidence of answering or asking questions in front of the rest of the class. The next activity really dove deep into the relationship building within the class. We arranged ourselves in a circle and expressed 2 highs (things we’re happy about) and 1 low (things that might not be so joyful). Doing this not only showed us that the teacher will support us through hardships but that the other students will support us as well. This is the sort of communal rapport that’s missing from my class. I feel that the students may know that I support them but may not feel very supported by each other. After that we did a fun large-paper activity where we went around and gave our experiences for Shadow a Student. I find that this activity can definitely be useful when it comes to jigsaw reading activities. Shadow a Student In order to properly reflect on this activity I feel that I should start from the beginning. I definitely felt the nerves walking into the office and asking to do this activity. My principal tends to put business first and because of that I was unsure that I would be able to get a sub for the entire day. In fact, he told another teacher that she couldn’t do it because of the cost. Once I was granted the ability to do the activity, I chose a student who is intelligent but doesn’t always apply himself in the best of ways. The reason for my choice of student was that I wanted a student who was in the middle; doesn’t receive too much attention from being a star student nor being a struggling student. As I went through his classes there were a few things that I’ve realized. 1. These students sit a ton and there are definitely times where they could be up and going. I’m hoping that this was just because of the content we were learning that day but I’m somewhat sure that this occurs often. So what I took from this was to have them get up and do more collaborative work so that they can get the blood flowing a little bit. 2. The teachers that I had were strong and so they did a really good job of motivating us. But this made me question myself as I hope that I’m motivating my own students to work hard. These teachers were making really good connections to the real world and so I know that this is something that I need to improve upon. 3. There are way too long of time periods between when students can eat. I kept thinking throughout the day how hungry I was and how we had 3 hours in between eating periods. It’s no wonder why students are constantly trying to sneak food from the backpack during class. Some kids don’t have the opportunity to eat breakfast before school either and so I really resonated with them here. Overall my experience was awesome. In fact, I hope that I could do this again sometime. I enjoyed being a student again and I learned a lot from the students and teachers. I have to admit, I did not do this reflection when I should have. It has been three weeks since we last had class and so my memory of last class may possibly be faded. So here is what I do remember: We started off with a discussion of the "Shadow a Student Challenge", we then grouped up and played some challenging games, and then recreated each other's morning routines.
The discussion of the "Shadow a Student Challenge" started with 4 questions about the assignment and we had to answer the questions using sticky notes. We discussed certain answers and Mr. Griggs challenged some students, including myself, to elaborate on some of the answers. What I noticed from this activity was not just the assignment itself (which is pretty good at getting students up and out of their seats, definitely something to use in class), but the comfortability of the classroom. I say this because it is pretty well-established in our class that all answers are accepted or challenged but we're all learning together. I hope that I can carry this to my own classroom because I have trouble with students not wanting to speak still. The next activity was fun and simple. We had to pair up and count to three, alternating numbers until somebody messes up. However, when that person messes up they have to say "Ta-Da" and wave their hands. This activity is a great activity for students to have fun with and something that I can incorporate during my brain breaks, especially with all of the energetic 7th graders that I teach. To me, the "Ta-Da" was great because it shows students how to accept failure and perhaps even celebrate it. Lastly, the bulk of the day was to recreate someone's morning routine. What I took from this assignment was the possibility of turning this into a lab report for science. We had created initial observations, described a problem, and basically created a hypothesis and procedure to try. I would then take this activity even further by having the students try their new morning routine, take down data, and then have each other complete the analysis and conclusion based off of that. I think that this activity could work best at the beginning of the year to remind the students of the process of the scientific method. This conversation was so deep that it merited a title for the reflection. Andrew really challenged us emotionally and we, in my opinion, rose up to the challenge. He started out by asking use to write on a note card “what is an authentic relationship” and then we gathered in a circle and talked to each other. This is something we had only talked about doing throughout teacher’s college but have never actually done until today. He then asked the powerful question “how well do you know your students?” You can clearly see the emotional focus from every single person. We all try to have authentic relationships with our students but it’s difficult. However, we still have to try. Upon doing this activity I realized that a circle activity where we discuss real emotions and feelings is a great way to do develop relationships with students. I’m a bit apprehensive about incorporating it into my lessons, however. This is largely due to the my fear of students not being as emotionally invested as we were. On the other hand, I feel that if I set the tone in a way similar to what Andrew did and show my vulnerability first, most students will follow. I plan on doing this activity after my lab with my 9th graders now so hopefully it works out.
After the circle we discussed what school is actually for and we watched a video on it. Lately I’ve been realizing this, mostly because students have been constantly asking me why this material matters. So my plan is to have a small unit at the end of the year where students can teach us any sort of Biology that matters to them. Each group of students will select a date where they present information and have us participate in an activity. It’s going to take a little bit of prep and materials are a limiting favorite for the activity, but I feel like students are really going to want to participate. Is it me or do these classes go by tremendously quick? I was sitting in class at 4:30 and before I knew it the time was 7:20 and Andrew (not me, although I wouldn't put it past myself to speak in 3rd person) was barely getting to our "Shadow a Student Assignment". No, I didn't space out for 3 hours either. The segmentation of the class period is just that good. It started with some review of each others' bogs which was nice for two reasons: 1. I could see if I did my own blog correctly and 2. it's always good to see what I missed in my blog. Doing this activity I started to realize how useful it would be to implement a blog system in my classroom for students to reflect on science articles or class activities.
The bulk of the class time went into creating presentations about the history of education. Chunking out the reading or videos wasn't new; What was new was the format of our presentations. Each slide only allowed for 3 words and 15 seconds. I thought this was a way more engaging way to get students through a presentation. It challenged me to know the material well on each slide enough for me to say it ridiculously fast. As far as the presentation content goes, it was interesting knowing that I am still contributing to this factory-minded ideology even in my 4th year. But I'm still growing and so I hope to learn how to get away from this mindset more and more. Time flew by and within the last 10 minutes we discussed the "Shadow a Student" assignment, which I'm apprehensive about only because I feel that my principal may deny my request to do so. I've yet to ask, however so who knows? I am excited about it though because I definitely feel that this could really help with developing stronger rapport with my students. When I first entered the classroom I was met with some groovy, old-school music and a man named Andrew, to which I replied upon meeting him that I am also Andrew. From then on the tone was set for the class. Andrew explained his expectations, which are quite high and this may have made us feel a little uneasy as we had previously had easy classes that we could simply breeze through. However, I feel that Andrew did a great job of accompanying his high expectations with a feeling of teamwork and comfort. This is something I hope convey to all of my classes. In addition to this, we had various discussions on equity and what it means to believe in all students. This really resonated with me as I had grown up in the poor regions of Stockton my whole life and while attending those schools I have had various teachers who gave up on many of my classmates. It's actually because of them that I am a teacher in Stockton.
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AuthorCurrently enrolled in EDUC 222 and completing assignments. |