I thought that all of the groups did a good job teaching given the circumstances. Unfortunately I can't remember every single lesson from every single group. Overall, I would say they did a great job. The first group that went seemed like they were not completely ready for the behaviors, but they did a good job of handling it on the fly. The groups that went after had the advantage of knowing what the class could be like. There are not many critiques that I have. Some of the groups used video or their podcast, and just used it for way too long. The only one I can remember off the top of my head is the lesson about MLK's speech. I came in late and the podcast was still too long for me. I think it is better to only use a small part at a time, so the students do not get bored.
Another thing that I remember happening was when I had the behavior to get up and lock either the door or the window. I don't remember who was teaching, but I walked right up to an open window and was able to close it and lock it without any resistance. God forbid I was an emotionally disturbed student, because I felt that I had enough time to jump right through the window. A student going towards a window might not look threatening, but in this day and age you never know what is going to happen. The school that I observed at this semester actually solves that problem by only allowing the top of the windows to be open. The bottom parts of the windows remained closed at all times.
Despite those problems the lessons were very good. I enjoyed a lot of them. I really liked learning about the Mask of the Red Death and the Tell-Tale Heart. I thought that Sandra's group's cell phone box was a funny idea. Although I missed the people dressed up as shapes for Iria's group, I thought that was a good idea to get the students engaged. I had a lot of fun during these lessons, and the behaviors really make these teaching experiences fun and worthwhile for all involved.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Reflection of Podcast
We planned on using our podcast quite a bit for our lesson. We were going to play our podcasted Zimmerman note for the class at the beginning, and we were going to play our podcast on mustard gas as well. However, we did not get to use the podcast during the lesson. We had some trouble in getting the first part about the Zimmerman note up, and we just did not have time to play the podcast on mustard gas towards the end of the lesson. Instead I had the students read what I originally podcasted. I think they would have reacted well to the podcasts, because they were not that long. We will never actually know how they would have reacted, because we didn't get to play the podcasts. We probably should have set up the podcasts a little better, so it would have been easier to access and play them. We could have made Youtube videos out of them so they would have been readily accessible. Unfortunately podomatic was a little confusing and clunky, and we could not get it to work. I'm not sure how I would use podcasting in the future. Most Ipods play video now, so maybe I can put actual videos of experiments for their Ipods. Also I could have the students podcast the results of their experiments each day as a sort of journal.
Reflection of My Group's Lesson
Teaching our lesson to the class was a fun experience. I really enjoyed the behavior cards, and thought it made the lessons fun, while preparing us to deal with the worst kind of students. Much preparation went into creating this lesson. Of course there was the prep that went into making the podcast, but there was also preparation in making the actual lesson plan. After that we discussed the order of who would be teaching what part of the lesson. That did not take long. Most of the prep went into how we were going to deal with the behaviors. We knew that we would have to already know how to deal with certain behaviors beforehand.Thankfully, the students in our classroom were not that bad.
Our objective was to teach the students about WWI. We wanted them to understand the reasons that brought America into the war, as well as some of the battles and new weapons being used during that time. My part was to teach the students about Mustard gas. I wanted them to be able to know what mustard gas was, and how it effected the body. I also wanted them to be able to explain how it was used in WWI. As for the assessment, we were going to have our students right an essay about what we were teaching. This served as an objective and assessment. They would be able to write an essay on the topic, and we would have been able to grade it. This would let us know if they truly grasped the material.
The lesson did not exactly follow the plan. We were able to follow the basic structure, and teach the material in the plan. However, we ended up having too much material, and how to greatly shorten it. Matt ended up teaching for most of the lesson, while Luiz and I had to rush our parts to fit the lesson in. The most important thing I tried to teach the students during this rush was basically what mustard gas was, and how it affected the body.
Overall I think the lesson went very well. I was afraid that the behaviors might get the best of us, but we handled them very well. I was actually surprised at the questions they were asking. They seemed really engaged in the lesson. Even though they did not have the best behavior they taught me that even a misbehaved class could be an active one.
If I had to do it differently I would probably plan the lesson better so that the teaching parts were more spaced out. I would have liked it if Luiz and myself had more time, but the lesson just did not turn out that way. The lesson plan does not need much improvement, because having too much material in a lesson is not necessarily a bad thing. What we really needed was a Rubric for the essay, to give the students an idea of how we would have graded it. I could have improved how I dealt with some of the behaviors. I may have been a little to lenient on some of the students, and that could have been what made Matt wind up teaching for so long. Overall the lesson was a good one.
Our objective was to teach the students about WWI. We wanted them to understand the reasons that brought America into the war, as well as some of the battles and new weapons being used during that time. My part was to teach the students about Mustard gas. I wanted them to be able to know what mustard gas was, and how it effected the body. I also wanted them to be able to explain how it was used in WWI. As for the assessment, we were going to have our students right an essay about what we were teaching. This served as an objective and assessment. They would be able to write an essay on the topic, and we would have been able to grade it. This would let us know if they truly grasped the material.
The lesson did not exactly follow the plan. We were able to follow the basic structure, and teach the material in the plan. However, we ended up having too much material, and how to greatly shorten it. Matt ended up teaching for most of the lesson, while Luiz and I had to rush our parts to fit the lesson in. The most important thing I tried to teach the students during this rush was basically what mustard gas was, and how it affected the body.
Overall I think the lesson went very well. I was afraid that the behaviors might get the best of us, but we handled them very well. I was actually surprised at the questions they were asking. They seemed really engaged in the lesson. Even though they did not have the best behavior they taught me that even a misbehaved class could be an active one.
If I had to do it differently I would probably plan the lesson better so that the teaching parts were more spaced out. I would have liked it if Luiz and myself had more time, but the lesson just did not turn out that way. The lesson plan does not need much improvement, because having too much material in a lesson is not necessarily a bad thing. What we really needed was a Rubric for the essay, to give the students an idea of how we would have graded it. I could have improved how I dealt with some of the behaviors. I may have been a little to lenient on some of the students, and that could have been what made Matt wind up teaching for so long. Overall the lesson was a good one.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Junior Field
It's Spring break, and I started doing my Junior Field Experience at my local High School. Today was my first day, and something very interesting happened. I was observing an inclusion bio class, and the school went into a lockdown! It wasn't a drill either, something was going on in town, and all the schools went into lockdown. It was quite interesting to watch these students behave, they were difficult to control as it was. Thankfully everybody was alright. Not a bad way to start off a Field Experience.
Questions
Matt already posted them, but here they are again
1.What are the symptoms of a mustard gas attack?
2.Does a mustard gas affect a person immediately?
3.What was promised to Mexico if they allied with the Germans against the United States of America?
4.What type of warfare were the Germans planning on starting on the first of February, and how long did the Germans think it would take for this type of warfare to make England want peace?
5.What would your reaction be to this telegram if you were the president of the United States? What would it be if you were the president of Mexico?
1.What are the symptoms of a mustard gas attack?
2.Does a mustard gas affect a person immediately?
3.What was promised to Mexico if they allied with the Germans against the United States of America?
4.What type of warfare were the Germans planning on starting on the first of February, and how long did the Germans think it would take for this type of warfare to make England want peace?
5.What would your reaction be to this telegram if you were the president of the United States? What would it be if you were the president of Mexico?
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Success!
Well we finished what we couldn't do last week! The first part of our podcast is finished, and the second part will be finished independently. We have also came up with our five questions, but they still need to be posted. Our bad fortune from last week was turned around, and we didn't laugh once during this round of the podcasting. I'm glad that we got it done, and can now focus on writing and teaching our lesson plan. I'm kind of excited to see everyone teach their lesson. However, I'm probably more excited to act out the behavior cards that will be given out during the lessons. The last day of podcasting was fun, and now I am looking forward to the lessons of my classmates.
Podcasting Day 4
We really have to get going today. Last week was a disaster, and this is our last day in the podcasting computer lab. We are going to break our podcast up into two parts, and work on them separately. This should allow us to get the podcast over faster, so we can work on our 5 questions. I think I can get over the laughing fit from last week, and get this podcast done! After that it is on to the 5 questions and then making a lesson plan for our topic. Hopefully we can get everything done today, and catch up with the rest of the class. Podcasting really isn't that hard, but it is easy for something to go wrong. I plan on changing that today, and hope to get this thing done.
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