friday, friday, friday

Friday was great - I really enjoyed all of your lessons, as everyone else has been saying, but it's true! Even math, which works against all of the neural networks I've fostered in my brain, was really fun and a great learning experience. I cannot fathom the genius that you all must have! I think I might go back to school and try out math and science courses. Oh! And history! Yikes. So much.
Anyway - I guess I'll talk about our lesson that Rob and I "taught."
I enjoyed it, and thanks to all of you for being such active role players.
When Rob and I were picking out the music that morning in the car I got all giddy about using Jimi's version of The Star Spangled Banner I think I scared Rob. It was very exciting and I definitely think I am going to use it or something like it to talk about form vs content in a future English class.
That said, I realize the planning I did did not prepare me adequately for the lesson. I knew what I wanted to say before I got to the front of the room, but like Anna, when I got there my mouth took over and I don't remember what came out. To Rob, I don't think you rambled, I was happy you were there to act as a coherent force for our team, but I was a little disappointed with myself for kind of stepping back.
Also, relying on what students might say in lesson planning was a little bit dodgy - I knew you would all be kind and come up with great responses, but what about high school students?
All-in-all, though, I really enjoyed "teaching." I keep putting it in quotation marks because I wonder what was learned. Maybe that is my biggest question. I know what I learned from the rest of you, but I'm questionning how effective my style and content were.
I think I'm contradicting myself - best to say good night!

Wow, Those Mini Lessons Were Great!

I would just like to start out by saying how impressed I was with the calibre of each group's mini lesson. I fully agree with all of the comments that have been posted, and I even came home on Friday and told my husband how many great new things I learned at school!

As a bit of a self-reflection on my mini teaching experience, I felt really excited and energized to share my love of history with the class. Although this is a good thing to an extent, I think that I may need to put things into perspective a tad when I'm teaching teenagers. I almost think that I felt I may feel "let down" if my students don't share the same passion for history that I do. EH...HEM, I'm pretty sure there won't be a ton of students that get really excited to learn about history when I step up to the plate to teach, but I sure hope that I can introduce a least a spark of interest in one aspect of the curriculum. (By the way, whether your interest was genuine or not, each one of you really made me feel like you were enjoying the activity.)

You guys and gals were so much fun to teach, and I can't wait to see what else we all have up our sleeves!!!

Exciting Mini Lessons all around

I was very excited about everyone's mini-lessons. We hear all the time about the effectiveness of discovery learning, and hands on activities but I always think "but how would we actually do that?" Well everyone had awesome ways and I actually learned about chemistry and math I still know what Vander Waals forces are 1 whole day later wow! I think that I need to prepare better to answer some of the questions of my students around my lesson. Who knows what they could ask...ex what is the purpose of the seven deadly sins?

(The goal of the seven deadly sins was to illustrate for laypersons of the
church the need to be mindful of capital sin, or sin which requires penance in
Hell. Capital sin is graver than venial sin, which can be forgiven through
confession. it was introduced in the 6th Century)

In case you still want to know Liane. I definately was suprised that I wasn't more confident in front of the group and I think I will work on that in my second mini lesson. Way to go everyone! You are all going to be fantastic engaging teachers.

integral mini lesson

I would like to comment on my performance today during the mini lesson. I have a tendency to try and take over and I noticed myself doing that to Anna and Mark who were doing an admiral job of teaching and directing. I am very enthusiastic about math and try to contain myself so that others can discover the joys of math themselves. I hope that I didn't step on toes. I know too that I did not fulfill my role completely in the opening remarks and Anna, thankfully, picked up on that and went with the flow so that it seemed seamless, Didn't it?? Anyway thanks for the save Anna. Timing was a concern but I think that any subject would be very hard to cover completely in 15 minutes especially if you try to incorporate discovery learning into the plan. This excercise did help me to see the value of planning and how to make adjustments as you go and for the future. I think having smart students helped quite a bit too.

This part of my comment comes on Saturday morning after I had a dream about the presentation. I went right through it in my dream and one part kept replaying on a loop. It was the part when I told Ashley that what she thought was an ellipse was in fact not one. I remember the very bad remark of mine that it was a good thing that we were going to take geometry soon. I am so sorry for that Ashley. Actually I should have commended you for the creative thinking that was going on in your head. It was especially creative if indeed we had not taken geometry yet. Those are the kind of comments that I really have to watch for so that I don't turn a student off from my teaching. Thankfully I know that Ashley will forgive me, she is that type of person.

It's not ONLY like that!

I was soo disappointed with myself today after listening to the VP talk about doubting yourself and listening to your intuition! I started to listen to my doubt and that really makes me angry. I worked so hard to get where I am and yes I have doubt BUT there is nothing else I want to do with my career than to teach and I know that. So a piece of advice I wanted to share with you all incase you are doubting yourself too.....it's not ONLY like the what we have been hearing about. After maybe a year of teaching you will NOT have to work 12 hour days to be effective. You will be a great teacher IF you love teaching and it will come naturally. I know it! I want to share a quick story with you. My dad is an elementary school teacher (he has been a teacher for 30 something years, he is trying to retire but loves teaching too much) and I have met SO MANY people that love my dad. It's very hard for me to believe sometimes, he was my teacher too for 2 1/2 years. Yikes! But the moral of the story is, he still has neighbourhood kids knocking on the door to play with him, or students waiting in the morning to ride their bike with him to school, or parents thanking him for caring about their children, even parents of his students that were his students at one time coming into the school for advice! I never remember my dad not being there for my brother and I, sure maybe some nights we was tired BUT he had balance in his life and he learnt to leave his work at school (most nights). HE usually left for work at 8ish (we all did together to go to school) and he was home by 4 ish. So don't panic we are where we are for a reason and ENJOY it, it is FUN!

Anywho, I still haven't finished this dreadful paper for Sociology. Good luck to you who are in the same position. Cheers, Liane

lectures, lectures, lectures

I was just doing some reading for my history of education class and came across an interesting paragraph which I thought I might share with you all. The topic of the paper is a survey on education in BC done in 1924 by people named Putman and Weir. Within the survey they make clear their dissatisfaction with the present day teacher's college: the normal school. One of their beefs is with the perpetuation of lectures as the most used style of teaching.
"[Putman and Weir's] third subject of concern [was] knowledge transmission by indiscriminate use of lectures... For several reasons, they deemed lecturing inappropriate as the unique teaching device. For one thing, few who delivered lectures actually excelled in the art. For another, lectures denied students an active part in an intellectual transaction. Then, too, student teachers themselves nurtured on the lecture method would probably inadvisedly adopt it as their own way of teaching in the public school classrooms of BC. More threatening than all of these reasons was the fact that lectures stressed subject matter, whereas the ideal normal school, that 'laboratory for child study,' necessarily placed its emphasis on the child." *

I found it very interesting that in 1924 there was a movement to move away from the lecture - and here we are in 2006, over eighty years later, discussing the same issue at our "teacher's college."

* from Calam, John. "Teaching the Teachers: Establishment and Early Years of the BC Provincial Normal Schools." in Schools in the west: Essays in Canadian educational history.

Organization!

We've heard it from everyone...tip #1 (or at least top 2) Be organized. Now I don't know about everyone else but my organization tends to suffer when I am under stress or busy....I always let it slide and soon I am living in a pig sty of epic proportions (not dirty just cluttered and crazy). When I first moved to Victoria my room here was so tidy that my family and friends at home had wondered what had come over me, but now with assignments and a little bit of busy-ness I am surrounded by stacks of paper, clothes, and anything else that finds its way to my room. So I am looking for tips.
How can I stay organized even in pressure situations (practicum) for example?
Does anyone have any strategies they use? How do you keep on track when it comes to organizing your stuff even when you can't find time to do everything you have to do in the day?
Is there any strategies for organizing your marking? Ideas? Non-school stuff? that you have heard of from other people or you plan to use yourselves.

I like Smitty.

Wow. What a class...
I just wanted to comment on one thing we sort of touched on: that is, getting to know your students before you meet them.

First, an extreme example:
My French 12 teacher confronted a friend of mine the first day we walked into class. He told her that he was not happy to see her in the class, that he had heard of her misbehaviours and whatnot in other classes, and that he would be very happy if she dropped the course right now and saved him the trouble of kicking her out.
And she did.

Obviously, this French teacher was a bit of an arrogant you-know-what which is very unlike the kind of people we are. I just want to point out the danger in knowing too much about your students from other sources before they get to show you themselves.
This happens in "real" life for me. I've found that if someone has given me the lowdown on a certain person, my perspective of that person is coloured before I even meet them. I find I don't try very hard to get to know this person unless they wow me, which they usually do and I realize - hey! I almost missed an opportunity to get to know this person because of something I heard through the grapevine.
So I agree with Smitty on this one. However, he was great at showing us the value of getting to know something unique and positive about your students and what that can do for classroom interest and self-esteem.
Wow.

Portfolio examples

Here are some Math and Science portfolio examples. Remember to draw from the Prescribed Learning Outcomes in your subject area when setting criteria for the portfolios with the emphasis on the students learning to determine and prove that they have learned something of significance.
Science Portfolio
Another Science Portfolio
Math Portfolio for students
Math Portfolio *sophisticated example
Please let me know if you find any other helpful sites.

I got an A !?!

I know that this is unrelated to this course but I think it's a good learning experience that maybe we can talk about. In our Sociology class I got an A on my cultural biography and I am disappointed. I am not usually the type to complain about marks but I just don't see the worth in the the assignment and being graded on it was very difficult. I think I deserve 100% because whose to say that one's autobiography is better then another and I feel like my story is a 100%.

What do you think? I understand the value of Authentic assessment alittle better now after this experience and I want to make sure that as a teacher I try really hard not to be offensive. Also, I realize how important it is to have open communication with your students......

I talked to the teacher and I feel way better. Thanks for the advice and open communication is really the key

The impacts of teacher's dress and appearance

I just wanted to bring this topic up on the forum because it was such a hot issue in the classroom and we couldn't put it down... I also never had a chance to say anything about it so I thought I would wait until I got here.
I agreed with the point brought up that you don't want to wear a suit and tie type of thing all the time because you are aloof of the students, and it it isn't as practical for wearing all day (like heels). However, on the other end of the spectrum, Liane was saying that she wanted to connect with the students on more of their level.
Leanna tried to mention that what you wear does however set the tone for the classroom. I think that dressing more like the kids so that they can relate to you negatively affects the teaching atmosphere even though they will be more comfortable with you. This is because they treat you like a peer...meaning that they won't give you their attention in the same way, or obey you.
Something that I heard about clothes to wear is for you to dress smart casual. This means that it is comfortable and yet a little bit dressy. any other suggestions?

Lazy Kids

I know some hackles were raised by the comment on "lazy kids" during the student-teacher presentation. So what is your stance on the issue? Our education tends to focus on our role as teachers (naturally), but at some point individual agency (that is, the choices the students make) also needs to be taken into account. Personally, I believe that there are some students where the problem is not that they aren't challenged, or interested, or that they have serious issues - it's just that they honestly don't want to work. They want the route of least resistance, to avoid hard work, to have results now rather than wait for gratification, to have fun and focus on the social life (or computer games, or reading books, or whatever). I've known many students (occasionally myself!) who simply decided that some immediate gratification was of far greater importance to them in the short term than the results of hard work in the long term; a "make merry now, worry later" mentality. So how far do we go in trying to run after or motivate those students?

Personally, I don't think it's a bad thing to let consequences (mainly, a lower grade) befall these students after a few attempts at trying to get them on track. Especially at the later high school level, I think students need to be held accountable for decisions they make as they get ready to deal with living as adults. No first-year university prof or a superior on a job site is going to hold their hand and talk softly if they're late, skipping, or lazing around during the day - is it really fair to the student to let life after graduation be the first time they have consequences to their actions?

Again, there are difficulties, in that not everyone who is not handing in work or attending is simply avoiding work (as Alan pointed out in the seminar the other day), and it is difficult to assess who is who. But if someone refuses time and again to be in class, to hand in homework, to take advice on future choices, to receive assistance - how much energy should a teacher expend to help them?

I should point out, I am differentiating between those who try hard and still achieve lower results in assessment, and those who simply do not try to begin with...