1st Unit Plan - So much editing

So I just got done with my thousandth draft of my 1st unit plan. I have wrote, re-wrote, re-organized, re-re-organized, and contemplated. And repeated that process. I feel like I am still trying to squeeze a whole bunch of stuff into a little bit of time, but I am not sure how to shorten it anymore.

I feel very overwhelmed when starting a unit plan - and maybe it is because I started this one mostly from scratch with help from a textbook. I did not really use a "borrowed" unit plan or lesson plan, because I really like soils and thought this would be a good unit to really dive into (plus I did not like ones that I found). It was really hard to wrap my head around and figure out at first. I think I have a better grasp on it now that we have learned more of the information in class - like writing objectives properly. I think the next 20 unit plans should get easier! (At least I hope!)

I would really appreciate any tips or suggestions! I would be happy to email the document to anyone that would like to provide feedback for me 😊

Listening to Students - Weekly Investment #5

This week, Kate Simonds, "I'm Seventeen" TED Talk really hit me hard. It honestly gave me goosebumps. This is what we, agricultural educators, are really about - and I am glad that I am going to be able to be a part of students being about to reach their potential and make their own decisions.

It is really important that we as teachers listen to our students, even though this can be hard for us sometimes. Why is hard? Well, as teachers, we are over achievers with a lot of ideas. Sometimes its hard to step back and let our students take over, make decisions, and make mistakes. I know I am guilty of hearing outrageous ideas from students, and shrugging them off. What I should be doing is asking the right questions to help them through their thought process to build on their idea - show interest and listen to what they are saying, not just hear it.

I think that Kate made some very good arguments in her TED Talk. One was that students have some really great ideas, and adults are solving our country's problems so why are we not asking the students for help. I am only 25 and I know and can tell that my ability to be creative and come up with good ideas is on the decline. It was so easy for me in high school to make a really creative project and really easily. Now, it takes a lot of work, thought, and pinterest.

I found a graphic I really liked that can help us with the process of listening to students.

Jackie Gerstein listed some listening skills for the educator that included keeping an open mind, remaining empathetic, using nonverbal cues that demonstrate that you are focused on the speaker, and to summarize what the speaker said. Seems pretty typical? This is what we do as adults when we talk to our peers, right? Like Kate said - she had to gain respect when she walked on to the TED Talk stage because she was seventeen, when most adults already had gained it before they spoke. She also says to ask students open-ended questions and ask them how they can relate back to what they are learning (metacognition). I think that even though these seem like pretty simple ideas, we need to keep them in mind. 

Jackie Gerstein also discussed what happens in our classrooms when we listen to students. As a teacher you create a safe environment, better you relationship with your students, create a positive culture, and and let the learners seem themselves as active partners in their own education (autonomy). 

This really helps me to think about and be more conscience when I am listening and responding to students. I hope to be the teacher that listens to all of my students idea - no matter how outlandish and respond to them sincerely and with questions that will help them to connect to their learning. I hope that as a teacher I can give students purpose to their education. 

References: 

Gerstein, J. (2015, November 19). Student Voice Comes With Teachers as Listeners. Retrieved September 23, 2017, from https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/student-voice-comes-with-teachers-as-listeners/

T. (2015, February 09). I'm 17 | Kate Simonds | TEDxBoise. Retrieved September 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OkOQhXhsIE

What is soil? Lab 2 - Interest Approach

The Bellwork:

Yesterday during my interest approach lab, I taught students about what soils really are. The students' bellwork was to write down things they thought were making the plant grow. I asked them to set this aside and we would come back to it later. I wanted them to have their list, so at the end of class they could reflect upon it and see if they agree with what they said from the beginning. I think I need to do this once during a full class period to see if I like it or not and see if it works or if I need to revise and review the bellwork at the beginning. 

The Interest Approaches:

I really love soil! However, I am not blind to the fact that most people do not have any interest in learning about the soil. This is why I tried to bring in several approaches to catch their interest - first with the bellwork. I passed around a soil sample and asked the students what they thought was in the soil to hopefully spark their interest about the soil actually being there. If I was teaching this class in the fall, I would maybe take the students to a soil pit; however, I will be teaching this class in January during my student teaching internship and they may not be an option. I may give groups soils samples that they can touch and look through to see what it in it in the future, though.

Afterwards, I showed the students a 2 minute and 45 second video that explained what soil was to help build the interest. This enabled me to start a class discussion and help the students come up with their own definition of soil and edit definitions they made as their "ticket outs" the day before.

One thing I already added to my lesson plan is "why?" I forgot to ask the important 3 letter question: Why? I could have been asking this all through my lesson to help my students work their way up Bloom's taxonomy and understand better. Why do you think there are nutrients in the soil? Why do think their needs to be air in the soil? Why do you think organisms benefit the soil? I really need to practice asking the why in the classroom and not taking that for granted.

Wrap-up:

Overall I think that my lesson went fairly well, but a few improvements I talked about can only make it better!!

You can see the video I showed in class here:

Bloom-ing into Writing Objectives (Weekly Investment #4)

When I started my first unit plan, I really struggled with writing objectives. After completing the reading, it really interested me and I wanted to dive into the use of Bloom's Taxonomy when writing objectives.

First of all, "Bloom's taxonomy is the classification of different objectives and skills that educators set for their students." Even though these six levels of learning were originally proposed in 1956, the terminology has been updated recently, as needed. Here are the six levels ("Teaching Innovation"):

1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Application
4. Analysis
5. Synthesis
6. Evaluation ("Writing Objectives")

Blooms taxonomy really helps us understand how learning takes place. For example, you cannot understand a concept before you have knowledge of it. Likewise, you cannon apply said concept before you have comprehended it. And so on, and forth until we reach the top of the pyramid. In every class we do not always have to start at the bottom of the pyramid. Lower level classes very well may, but when I am crafting objectives for higher level or advanced classes, students generally have the knowledge and possibly even comprehend, and need to work on applying and analyzing the skills. It is important to note that students may need refreshers in this information, but the majority of your lessons for a unit will probably not be "information dumping" for more advanced classes. ("Teaching Innovation")

When looking at objectives you can take some key things into mind when considering what level of Bloom's Taxonomy my objective is on. Phrases like "what is",  "how is" , or "where is" typically relate to Knowledge; while phrases like "how would you compare…" typically refer to Comprehension. Moving up Bloom's taxonomy to Application, questions about how to build, construct, develop and organize will help to test the student. Analysis you need to have students  categorize, classify, and discover; if students have reached Synthesis they can solve, design, and develop. Finally, you Evaluate. Can students defend or criticize their findings? ("Writing Objectives") Looking at this and how this questions are proposed have really helped me to understand objectives and goals in the classroom. 

These readings have really helped me to submerge myself into Bloom's and understand it a little better moving forward and while designing my lessons. While all students reach each of these levels at different times or points of instruction, I really need to take into consideration the students in class who may be way ahead. This means, having some extra things for them to work on so that they are bored and they are continuing to grow and push themselves. Even though, at some point in the not-so far away past, I thought that learning "how kids learn" was not all that important. Since I have started this journey, my thinking has thankfully changed and I have come realize how important it is to understand these theories at a deeper level instead of just on the surface. 

References

Teaching Innovation & Pedagogical Support. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2017, from https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/

Whittington, M.S. (2005). Writing objectives in secondary agriculture courses that challenge students to think. Agriculture Education Magazine. Retrieved from  http://www.naae.org/profdevelopment/magazine/archive_issues/Volume77/v77i5.pdf

Writing Objectives Using Bloom's Taxonomy. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2017, from http://teaching.uncc.edu/best-practice/goals-objectives/writing-objectives

Fort Cherry - 1st Day of School!

The meet and greet:

Yesterday, during my first day of school lab, I chose to meet and greet everyone at the door to introduce myself. This is definitely something that I enjoyed doing and would keep as part of my lesson plan. I feel that it is a good way to see how each student is doing and to see how there day is going before they walk into my classroom. (Mental Note! Don't forget to close the door!!)

The bellwork:

I do think I would change my bellwork. I think I would hand them notecards when they came in the room and have them write 3 things they want me to know about them on it and 1 thing they want to know about me. This way when I collect the cards I have a stack of things I now know about the students and things they may want to know about me. I can then take this knowledge and maybe incorporate it into my classroom throughout the semester. I also think that I would go over my objectives first before going into the rest of the class. 

Who is Mrs. Wright and what does she want from me:

In my classroom, I would spend a little more time talking about me and making connections with the students earlier before I talked about the classroom procedures and expectations. After this I would lead into students searching the classroom to find my expectations and procedures. (Also, I need to add that I would make sure I remembered where I hid all of the note cards, there is still one hanging out in Ferguson 214 somewhere.) I feel that this helps to get the students more involved in the class instead of me just telling them a list of do's and don'ts they have heard on their first day of school for their entire life.

The Connection:

In my full lesson plan, I have a activity planned to play a game where I can get to know a little about the students and they can know a little more about their peers. This game will help show how different we can be and how similar we can be. This game will help lead into my first unit with this class on soil. Students "ticket outs" were to think about and write down their definition of soil. I like this because it helps get them ready for the next day when we will be diving into the basics of soil science. 

Unit Plans - Weekly Investment #3

So the unit plan. I experienced writing my first unit plan this weekend (and wrote it again when I did not save and my computer froze and lost it 😒) I knew it would be challenging, but it really helped me to understand the importance of planning. Even though I thought I had given myself plenty of time, I would have liked a little more to research more, make sure I was ordering things correctly, etc.

I found a site that helped me to organize all of my thoughts a little better and condensed them in to two essential questions they suggested using:
                         1. What do I want my students to be able to do at the end of the unit?
                         2. How will I know if they will be able to do it? ("10 guidelines")
Dr. Rice re-enforced these questions in class last week as well. Every time I was not sure what to do, I asked myself these questions to help keep my thoughts from wondering and staying off task.

While I am sure my unit plan will have plenty of feedback, I hope I am on the right track!

References

10 Guidelines for Planning Units. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2017, from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/10-guidelines-planning-units/

Making a difference with Variability

No matter what classroom you happen to be in, student always learn in various ways and have many intelligences. "Strategies for Great Teaching and Learning" says "Intelligence is the ability to resolve a genuine problem, then produce or service that adds value to oneself and others".  The book emphasizes that because of these varying intelligences, engaging-moments or e-moments are vital. E-moments will help to connect combinations of different intelligences and modalities.

I think that this hard to lose sight of for sake of our own learning strategies and like and dislikes. I believe that it is always important to re-center and put yourself in the mindset of an intelligence that is not your own. For example, if you are a great visual learner and use a lot of visuals in your classroom, but you do not like group work, remember you have students who are just the opposite and learn best from working with others.

For those reasons I think that it is important that as a teacher I need to make a proactive step to be variable in my classroom and not retroactive. I do not need to create two lesson plans, I need to make a lesson plan that is holistic. Check out this video that helps put that into perspective:

So as Todd Rose explained, we need to uphold and embrace the diversity in the classroom and remember that not everyone wears the same size shoe! It’s at this point at a teacher when you will be able to reach the most students in your classroom and be able to engage and motivate the most student. By designing classrooms that meet the needs of the so-called average student, we are not helping nearly as much as we think we are. As Rose said, the average learner is a "myth".

This topic is really scary to me, because I feel like I am not going to be prepared in less than 4 months to tackle this task. Will I be inclusive enough? Will I fall into the hole of the "average learner" perspective? I suppose those are the questions I need to be asking myself as I continue through this journey!

References

Reardon, M. & Derner, S. (2004) Strategies for great teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Zephyr Press

Todd Rose: Variability Matters. (2012, January 30). Retrieved September 04, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WClnVjCEVM#action=share

Variability Matters. (n.d.). Retrieved September 04, 2017, from

http://qedfoundation.org/variability-matters/