Journal Entry #4 (C&I 426-01): The First Meeting

On Thursday I met Mike Plautz, my observing teacher for my 300 field experience. It was nice to be in a school environment again; anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoyed my 200 field experience. I will say, though, that Hellgate Middle School is the most maze-like center of education I have ever been through. I'm sure I'll decipher the layout in time, but for now it's a little bit intimidating. Anyhow, enough architecture.

I don't feel like I was able to get a good feel for Mr. Plautz's classroom in the time I spent there. It was an early out day, and the classroom activities consisted only of announcements and finishing up the rest of a documentary the class was watching. I got to introduce myself to each of the classes and observe Mr. Plautz as he reviewed the previous section of the video everybody was watching, which dealt with the last mass extinction event about 13000 years ago.

I could see that Mr. Plautz is an effective teacher, and knows what he is doing. His students were all very well-behaved, but when they became distracted by side conversations, Mr. Plautz was able to refocus them (with a short verbal warning, usually just saying the offending student's name) without his lesson being derailed. As for his teaching style itself, though I haven't had much of a chance to get a full picture, it seems fairly effective. He tends to ask a lot of questions and promotes class discussion.

One part of the day that struck me was when a child asked if the meteor that possibly caused the extinction burnt off all the hair of the mammoths and if that was where elephants come from. Instead of just saying "no," Mr. Plautz took the time to follow the child's train of thought and help him reach a more correct conclusion. To answer the question, he asked in turn if two parents with tattoos had babies with tattoos, and the kid answered no. He then said we'd discuss that particular topic later in the year, and we moved on to the movie. I definately look forward to observing Mr. Plautz, because I feel that there is a lot he can show me that will help me improve as a teacher.

Journal Entry #3 (C&I 426-01): The 5 E's

The purpose of this entry is to write down an original class activity that utilizes the 5 E's: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation.

Lesson subject: Mitosis
Required Student Knowledge:

• Basic cell anatomy (rudimentary organelle structure and function)
• 
  

Big Ideas:

• Cell Theory (life forms are made up of cells, all cells come from other cells)
• Phases of Cell Division

Engagement:
The first step is to create interest and curiosity in students, start the class off with a question to challenge them and incite discussion. This also gives the teacher a picture of the studens' prior knowledge of the subject. For mitosis, specifically, it it may be good to ask, "Do you think you have the same amount of cells now as you did when you were born?" and "Where do cells come from?"

Exploration:
Have the students swab the inside of their mouths, fix a slide, and stain the sample. In an active class, students should already have experience with these things, but if that is not the case, this activity doubles as a great introduction to basic microscopy. Have students draw what they see cells doing. Since oral epithelial cells divide often, there should be good examples of cells in all phases of mitosis.

Explaination:
Tell student about the phases of mitosis, and have them group their pictures according to which phase that particular cell is in.

Elaboration:
Have students look at cells on prepared slides in specific phases of mitosis so that they can get a clearer picture with ideal specimens. Have them also look at a cross section of an onion root tip to show that mitosis also occurs in plants. Introduce terms (Mitosis, Anaphase, Telophase, etc.) Now is when students can get into the big ideas of Cell Theory, that all cells come from other cells, and such. Ask them what they think it means that all cells come from other cells. This exercise can lead well into meiosis, genetics, and evolution.

Evaluation:
Students should be able to identify all of the phases of mitosis and put them in order. An evaluation where they have to alternately draw a cell in a specific phase OR identify the phase a shown cell is in. Ask students why cells cells divide in the first place, and ask them what they think the purpose of a chromosome is. Using this picture of prior knowledge, the teacher can more easily construct an effective lesson on genetics or a continuation of cell theory.

Journal Entry #2 (C&I 426-01): Reprise

On Tuesday, I attended the Watershed Education Network (WEN) volunteer training. Oddly enough, I soon found out, my biology teacher in High School, Mr. Pedersen, did the same thing with my class once on a field trip. We tested the water for dissolved oxygen and measured it's pH, identified indicator species and macroinvertibrates, and judged physical characteristics of the stream. I believe that Mr. Pedersen must have attended a few of these WEN training sessions.

All in all, I had a great time of it. More importantly, I am now able to volunteer with the program and get experience teaching kids in the outdoors. I still remember things about identification of caddisflies, mayflies, and stoneflies and how that indicates the health of the stream. I also still remember testing stream pH and dissolved oxygen content. It makes sense that I remember these things; hands on experiences with science are always the most memorable, and contribute most to learning. Or, at least, that's what they've been telling me.

Journal Entry #2 (C&I 426-01)

I was reading "Scientific Knowledge: It's Construction and Development" today, and did the activity in it called The Pattern of Knowledge Construction. First, I had to look in the mirror and write my name so that I could read it while looking in the mirror. It was much harder than I anticipated; in fact, I was halfway through writing my name before I even realized it was backwards in the mirror. Next I was asked to trace a four images, and then copy eight as best as I could.

Though it was hard in the beginning, I found myself getting better at it the further along in the activity I went. Also, stabilizing the paper against my chest and my elbow against my side helped me maintain control of the pen while making it perform these new actions. My hand, however, remained shaky, and any fine motor skills I had developed over the past twenty two years went out the window. The response questions suggested that I try to do it with my eyes closed, or with my left hand. The left hand was even worse than the right, but it was a bit easier with my eyes closed. All in all, it was a fairly frustrating exercise.

I enjoyed the article's discussion on where our initial mental structures come from. The process of self-regulation, that mental structures are built up by the interaction of an organism and its environment, and the production of the state of disequilibrium is an interesting throwback to educational psychology. Most of the article was, I found, an enhancement of the material we have been discussing in class, specifically, the construction of accurate understanding of science through direct interaction and experience with situations relevant to subject matter.

In any case, I am very much looking forward to starting up my field observation. Student teaching is fairly intimidating, and I feel that I need all the experience I can get.

Journal Entry #1 (C&I 426-01)

I can remember the first time I was interested in science, but I cannot remember how old I was. At the time, I was living in New Jersey, and my parents decided to enroll me in an after school program at a place called "The Nature Center." I was pretty young, and so I don't remember much about the lessons or the class itself. I do, however, remember doing an activity centered on the anatomy of a shark; it was dissection based, and then we fried up the shark and ate it. It was wonderfully barbaric and fun. Since then, science has always been something of interest to me. I love being presented with a challenge and subsequently figuring things out. What brought me to teaching, I couldn't say for sure. Before I committed to becoming a teacher by actively seeking acceptance into the school of education, I was at a loss when it came to what I wanted to do with my life. I suppose, in the end, it was my initial love of science, particularly that which deals with living things, my desire to share that interest, which made me want to teach. Now that I am in the school of education and learning exactly what it means to be a teacher, I'm realizing how much of a challenge that actually is, and am excited that I'm moving toward that goal.

As I was reading through Chapter 1 in the text for C&I 426 (the class that this journal entry is for) and going over the rubric for how I would rate my teaching skills, I thought that my answer to most of the questions would be unclear until I had some experience teaching. Theoretically, I have wonderful class management skills, but until I put them into practice and learn how I really act in classroom situations, I will not be able to accurately assess myself. I am confident, but still inexperienced. In areas like Course Content Knowledge, however, I am surprised to find that I am slightly unsure of myself. I've studied some type of Biology almost every year of my high school and college experiences and received a 4/5 on the AP biology exam, but it is hard to say whether or not I have the thorough, deep understanding needed to break things down and systematically teach them to people who have never seen the material before. I feel as if I would be willing to do just as much studying as my students my first couple years to make sure that I'm clear on the material and concepts.

I was assigned to ask several friends where they believed the mass in trees came from. Right off the bat, almost everybody said that it came from the soil. One said that it came from the sunlight; I asked him how sunlight could turn into plant material, and he replied that it was through photosynthesis. I asked him questions trying to steer him in the direction and get him to figure it out. I find it strange that so many people don't understand the concept, but then again, I didn't figure it out completely until I took Plant Physiology last year. I believe that helping students tie big picture concepts together is one thing I'll want to focus on as a science teacher.

...About That

Exams are one of the most stressful aspects of college life. It can be even more stressful, however, when the professor has no concept of how to teach. Now, this may just be me being bitter, and the truth may very well be that I have no concept of how to be a good student. I think the truth may lie somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, or be a combination of the two.

It would be beneficial psychologically speaking to view challenges like tests as opportunities to learn what I know. That would be following the mastery goal orientation mindset and would lead me to a much more enriching educational experience. However, when my future and career is riding on my completion of this course, the professor gives only two exams and a final, has no concept of material organization, doesn't clearly state student objectives or his expectations of us aside from "know everything," and doesn't give study guides, it's hard to not approach a test completely stressed out.

I don't want to blame all of this on my professor. Of course, some fault rests on my shoulders; I could have studied over spring break instead of going to Moab, I could have kept up on reading more thoroughly, and I could have listened to old lectures on the internet. However, I honestly don't think it is feasible to cover the entirety of two months of material in preparation for an hour long exam that could contain ANY of it.

Oh well...I suppose most people fail Developmental Biology first go through. If I do, I'll just try again until I get it and take this professor as an example of how not to teach my students when I'm working. Okay. Time to study for the Plant Physiology exam tomorrow. I'll put up pictures from Moab when I have free time (what a joke).

Andrew Jackson Jihad Radio and Ed Psych

I just finished the first of ten articles for my annotated bibliography for Educational Psychology. On the surface, the class appears to be a bit of a throw-away; most of our class time is filled with discussions about the subject of the day (which usually go off topic the point of being frustrating), Professor Stolle seems as laid-back as a human Quaalude, and there are are no "real" due dates for the assignments we are given. However, after looking into it a bit further, and getting into the tempeh of the course, the class is ridiculously in depth. If you've ever read a peer-reviewed psychology article, you know the kind of murk I'm referring to. Here's a bit of what I'm talking about.

Pierson's (2008) study of mathematics teachers' "responsiveness," which she defined as "the extent to which teachers 'take up' students' thinking and focus on student ideas in their moment-to-moment interactions" (p. 25), provided evidence of its importance. She distinguished two forms of "high" responsiveness. "High I" responsiveness puts the "teacher reasoning on display": The teacher responds to the student reasoning to help bring it into alignment with the target ideas, for example to correct a misconception. "High II" responsiveness puts the "student reasoning on display": The teacher focuses on the students' meaning and logic, for the immediate purpose of understanding it on its own terms. With data from 13 teachers, Pierson found a strong, significant correlation between High II responsiveness and student
learning.

Whew! To be honest, though, I feel pretty good about the fact that I can understand and internalize what the article is saying. I believe that teaching is headed in an interesting direction; most of what I remember from high school had to do with teachers reciting information and the students regurgitating it. For instance, one of my English teachers taught her class by beginning a class discussion and steering it toward her desired end by evaluating the "correctness" of the answers given by the class. I used to believe that though this would be a detrimental practice in an English classroom (where any interpretations of the material are valid if they can be reasonably justified), it would work fine in a Biology classroom. Steering students in a certain direction by asking questions and evaluating their responses to get them to a conclusion based on empirical research and facts just seems the logical thing to do. However, part of this article has brought to my attention that past research has shown that students learn more when the teacher has them evaluate and explain their own processes of thinking.

I don't know...I feel like I'm beginning to wrap my head around it, but it seems like the deeper I go, the deeper it gets. Teaching seriously scares me; there is so much to think about, so many methods and philosophies. It seems like all that is being presented to me makes sense, but some of it is conflicting. Throw in that I'm going to be responsible for scores of students each year; much of their success is going to depend, to a certain extent, on ME. Having that real and tangible effect on so many other human beings is a responsibility I don't think I'll ever be able to take lightly. I'll have to get used to being in a position of power while maintaining good working relationships with TEENAGERS...while trying to engage them and get them interested in science.

Holy Crap. I think I'm opening the floodgates here. Writing all this out just scares me more. But it also excites me. I feel like it would be a huge shame to pass up the chance to positively influence so many young people...get them involved, get them THINKING. In any case...I'm not even student-teaching yet. Woo!