Weekly Writing: Inquiry

Using inquiry based instruction allows for students to dig a little deeper and guide their own thoughts. One task of the teacher is to guide their thinking towards desired results. Prompted questions should trigger critical thinking in students and hold their interests. Following questions should build into higher order questions in a way that students see the connection. This teaching strategy seems similar to the problem solving approach in relation to student engagement and critical thinking, but varies in the method. Problem solving approach requires a problem to be resolved, inquiry based instruction involves an observation, not necessarily a problem.

Problem Based Learning

Last week and this week during lab we were tasked with tackling Problem Based Learning. Each of the student teachers came up with lesson ideas to use the problem solving approach to instruct students. After watching my review video, I think its safe to say that it was by far my worst lab instruction yet. I had a really difficult time creating a lesson plan for the problem that I wanted to present. I introduced a goat unit to my students by suddenly "acquiring" 3 goats of various breeds. I had trouble getting the point of the lesson across and introducing the problem. I also had a lot of trouble developing higher order questions to get students to think critically. I mostly tried to get students to come up with ideas of things we needed to know about goats in order to care for them properly. This did work for a while but I did have a bit of trouble bringing them back and moving them towards a new topic. Students seemed to be engaged, but not exactly the way I wanted them to be. When this happened I got frustrated and had difficulty building enthusiasm for the topic at hand. It is safe to say that I have a long way to go when it comes to perfecting my use of the problem solving approach.

Weekly Writing #7

When it all comes down to it, the way we evaluate our learners plays a large role in assessing our program and curriculum. One of the things we will be discussing this week is assessing our learners. Now when most people think of an assessment, they think "Test" or "quiz". While these are valid tools, they are not the only way we can evaluate our learners. Sometimes an assessment can be a demonstrated skill or project. Using variability in our assessments is just as important as variability in our instruction.

Weekly Writing #6

Differentiated instruction (DI) is all about the students. Getting to know your students will help you to assess their readiness, interests and preferences. This will allow you to gear instruction towards the learners and relate the content to something they are already interested in. This helps the students to make a deeper connection with the content and will help them in the long run. One of the principles of DI is providing a safe, non-threatening environment for learners. I think that by getting to know your students, they also get to know you. This allows them a respect that some teachers don't get, this will help students to feel safe in you classroom. One thing to keep in mind while building a relationship with students is that you are the authority and students need to respect that and not take advantage of it. The final thing that really stuck out to me in the reading is offering choice to students and letting them have some say in the instruction. The thing to remember is that the choices have to be manageable. You  cant let your students make every single choice, but maybe offer them two choices and let students vote. One example might be that you have two lessons coming up one is on Cattle, the other is on Swine, you as the instructor will be covering both lessons, but maybe let the students pick which one you cover first.

Unit Plan for Days

Let me just say I don't think that I knew what I was getting myself into when I started into the Ag Ed Program. I am not sure what all I thought was going to happen but there is so much "behind the scenes" work that I never knew about and one of them
is unit planning. When I first started working on it I thought, "ok, I can do this, it's not too bad" but the more I typed the more complicated it got. I honestly had a difficult time trying to come up with a format that I liked and I still am not entirely happy with my revised copy. I see a lot of value to having a complete unit plan for organization purposes, but I really have a hard time filling it all out. I am definitely worried with how long it took me to complete one unit plan and it is very intimidating to think of how many I need to finish before my final presentation. I know it is something that I have to do and will benefit my student teaching experience greatly.

Weekly Writing 5

Questions are the base in order to check for understanding in the classroom. This could mean a low level question to "test the waters", or just get a consensus of where the students are in a subject and how far do they need to go in order to complete the objectives. This could also mean a high level questions where students can analyze the content and dig deeper into the subject. As a teacher I will need to utilize both types of questions and also use them at the proper timing. This week in my Interest Approach Lab I realized that I need to work on my questioning especially in transitions. For a transition I could start out with a low level question and build on content while moving to higher level questions to connect topics or talking points.

The article did not just classify the types of questions but also how to question and give feedback. One thing that I think is important is if a student responds to a question, repeat their answer in order for all to hear. Growing up with a hearing impairment, it was extremely frustrating when someone answered a question that I didn't know and the teacher just said "good" and moved on! I never heard he correct answer! Also it mentioned eye contact and using names when questioning, I think that helps a lot with confusion and the "are you pointing at me?" scenario. Using student names helps connect them to the classroom and also shows that you respect them enough to know their names and not just say "Hey, You!" I know that I will definitely try to utilize these tactics in my classroom someday.

Chocolate Rocks-Interest Approach

This week in lab our mission was to come up with an interest approach to captivate students and get them excited to learn in the lessons ahead. For my Natural Resources and Ecology Class in our Cycles Unit, we were learning about the rock cycle. The objectives were to identify the three types of rocks, describe how they are formed, and demonstrate how they are formed. To do this we used chocolate chips, pretzels and marshmallows! We melted the chocolate down and let it cool, representing Igneous Rocks, added marshmallows an melted them together with the chocolate to represent Metamorphic Rock, and added crushed pretzels to represent Sedimentary Rock. This did get the students excited to learn and even more excited for the assessment where they were able to eat their "rocks" and correctly identify which rock each piece represented! I did rush for the sake of lab time and I thought it went well, but could have gone better. While making the rocks, I did ask a few thought provoking questions, but should have asked more. I also wish I would have allotted more time to go over the lesson in general. I think with everything together things would have made a little more sense to the students. I also need to work on my classroom management, I often run into situations I don't know how to handle in a split second scenario. I think with that practice and exposure to classroom situations will help.