This week again with the snow days and delays, I think I did more reflecting upon my teaching then actual time in the classroom teaching! We still did some cool projects even with the giant snow storm! Overall it was a good week and I survived my first observation by my PSU supervisor.
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| Students welding ice cubes together! |
One thing I have been struggling with is my freshman introductory class and motivation. The students are soooooo unmotivated and I mean like they don't want to do anything! After getting through safety of the machines last week I was ready to start welding! In an attempt to suck them in and get them excited for welding I had them weld together ice cubes using birthday candles. This was fun and the students were surprised when they learned they could actually do it and that it is possible to weld together more then just medal. While I was super excited about this and so happy to watch them succeed they didn't seem as excited about it as I was. I think deep down they really enjoyed it they just don't know it yet! Anyway I got some really good ideas for improving motivation in this class from utilizing my resources!
- I'm going to do some action research! I'm excited to use different tactics to see if I can improve class participation and learner engagement. Not sure how yet any suggestions are welcome!
- It is a larger class and I have a hard time keeping track of who participates so I wrote everyones name on a popsicle stick and if I need a question answered I just pull a name! So far this is working really well and it seems to make more students pay attention during lecture.
- This weekend I got a deck of cards and taped one to the back of each students bell work book. I'm going to use this when breaking the students into partners and groups! Especially with this class I like to switch up the lesson a lot and try to get everyone motivated so I need quick ways to do so. With everyone having a card I can split my students up quickly.
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| Using playing cards to break students into groups! |
Wednesday Mr. Seaman my supervisor came to visit. This actually went a lot better then I expected and I got a lot of great ideas! Being observed wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and now I know how to be more prepared for next time. I got some more good ideas for my community based project and I look forward to planning that in more detail this upcoming week! He also was really helpful about my action research and motivation plans as stated above.
I had a busy week as I gave Mr. Hines and Mrs. Miller substitute plans on Friday and headed to Penn State. We had a seminar day full of resume building and job search tips! It was lovely to see my other cohort members and PSU ag ed team. No time to hang around for the weekend though and catch up with friends I headed to ACES Saturday! (see next blog post for a full report)
Finally getting comfortable with my classes and students this week I found myself thinking a lot about the classes more in detail. I made a lot of progress with names this past week and I found myself wondering if I was reaching all my students and different ways I could spark the interest in different students. More reflections….
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
- Charles Darwin
Meagan Moment- It would be nice if I had one full week of a normal school schedule so I could try to get used to the times my classes ended. One day I confused a two hour delay time with a normal schedule time….Sounds like something easy to distinguish between but it isn't when your trying to remember 20 things at the same time! In a small class I was talking when a few of my students just get up and put their computers away. I ask why they did this thinking I had 20 more minutes. To my surprise we had 2 minutes. That was a fast wrap up to say the least! #oops
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