Cloning 101: Planning for a Substitute

A lesson plan makes sense when it is just you, the plan and your students. You know your students and how the lesson can play out. Even if it doesn't go as planed it is easy to reflect and change in the moment because you wrote it.

How do we write for a substitute?
When a substitute teacher walks through the doors of the classroom and picks up your lesson plan it may be a foreign language. I can remember countless times a gym teacher or math teach subbed my animal science class. They were afraid to go near the lab never-mind teach in it. So how can we make a substitute teacher feel at ease when assigned to your class for the day?

What was my task?

This week in lab I got to experiment with just that idea. I wrote my lesson plan out and included a ton of details to help guide class through a lesson on the need for fires in the environment.

 After developing this plan I had to switch my lesson with a peer and teach their lesson!

How did my lesson go?

I got my lesson on the impact of the animal production in relation to our own lives. We review definitions from the last class and moved on into the how a hobby farm effects our lives. We engaged in conversations about what were good and bad things about the hobby farm.

Gems: Temperature checks of what we agree and disagree with when going over vocabulary. This helped me as a substitute see if the answer was right or wrong if I do not know 100%. I was the most confident I have ever been in this lesson! 

Opps: Introducing myself when entering a new class. Just because I am the substitute does not mean my students do not need to connect with me too. I also need to watch how I call on students and rotate between allowing students to answer.

Reflection

Overall I gained respect of a substitute teacher. Coming in and reading/interpreting someone else's plan is hard work especially if you are not a content expert. If I am leaving a plan for a sub I need to be clear and make it simple for someone who has NO background in my content area.

"How do you design lessons that advances the class in content but, is easy for a sub with not content knowledge?"

The Ole Switcharoo: How to Differentiate Instruction in Our Classroom

Uno is one of my favorite games to play with my step daughter. The look on her face when she is about to reverse it back to herself and play a wild card is extremely predictable! The game of uno reminds me a lot about how we operate in our classroom. It isn't just pulling and placing down wildcards till our students can "win." Teaching takes certain strategies in order to help every student be successful.


This week I am adding differentiating my instruction to my tool box as a teacher. By learning my students and trying to teach to them as an individual within this group can be a challenge at times but, through my readings and lecture this coming week I am confident in my ability to be able to "read" my students like I can my step daughter when we are in the middle of a lesson. By reading them I can change how I teach certain things and add clarity in different ways.

3  ideas to take with me to Conrad Weiser: 

1. Providing opportunities for independence: Students need to know that I do not know everything or can solve any problems. I need to give students time to find answers to things and use their own brain to help solve problems or answer questions. This is achieved by letting students figure out how they learn best and encouraging/ creating a way for them to learn in that capacity. 
2. Helping students be curious: When I allow time for students to ask questions on a specific topic I am encouraging growth. These questions are not necessarily directly related to class but, questions that students want to inquire about to know more about a certain topic. This allows students to essentially "research" in an area they want to that isn't what I am mandating.Each student can do something completely different and then learn from each other.






3. Accommodating all types of learners: Is it practical for me to accommodate every single student in my class? Not at all but, I need to learn my students to try my best to reach every student. Knowing how my students learn, like to learn and interests can help me create a learning environment for all. This can come about in options of assessments or options for even reading an article but, I need to know how and when to make changes to engage everyone in learning

2 connections to a previous class:

1. In Education Psychology I remember having a whole week on differentiated instruction. My professor said we tend to identify our own learning styles and the solely teach that way. It is important to make sure we switch it up. If we feel uncomfortable and like we wouldn't be able to learn it that way then we have done our job. 
2. The reading talked about experiments and their value. This comes into play in my weekly lab for Methods of Teaching Agriculture Class. I get to be part of this real life "experiment" of using different methods we are discussing in class. We all are told to demonstrate a certain teaching method and all 9 of us take it in a different direction and then get to learn from one another. Our professor letting us run loose with Problem Solving approached allowed for us to try it in a safe space and to use it however we wanted to in order to learn how to use it in a classroom.

 Adding a resource:

 We are Teachers has an awesome reference for differentiated instruction. They discuss why and how we can switch up how we teach to help our students be successful! 

How do I differentiate my instruction enough to engage students on a who are on different sides of the learning curve?

Assess This: Assessing Students in Our Classroom

We can teach until we are blue in the face but, how do you know if your students are actually retaining and understanding the material? This is were assessments come into play. There are so many different ways to assess students these days but, picking the right one can be hard.


For my future students:

How do you like being assessed? Do you prefer a written exam, project or hands on way of showing me the skills we learned over the past few days or week?

 For my university supervisor:

How do you weight the different assessments appropriately to give a final grade? 

If given a written exam what can we have students who finish first do while everyone else is still working? In an 80 minute class do you provide a time limit? 

For my cohort:

What is your view on allowing retakes of assessments or fixing the assessment based off feedback and receiving half the points back for every correction that is right?  

Assessments can be a tricky thing. We need to provide variability when designing our assessments in class and create an environment that all students can be successful in!

Mission imPOSSIBLE: Problem Solving Approach to Lab Safety

On a daily basis we encounter several "problems" some are more extreme than others. The common problems that I encounter on daily basis are:

what to eat?

What to wear?

How do I do everything in a short period of time?

How do I design this lesson to engage and educate my students?

 These problems are big and small but, are still practical to my life.

What was my lesson?

The information students wanted to
Know about the incident.

This week in class we learned the problem solving approach pedagogy (PBL). I then got to teach a segment of my lesson for a lab safety unit. I had the students get into a group of 4 and work on a case study. Before doing the case study on a girl hurt in the lab we discussed what factors we needed to know in order to solve the problem:what happened to her. Then in the groups students each had a role such as scribe, reader, sketch artist and reporter. They worked on cracking the case as a group and then would report out to the group.


My lesson plan was solid. I knew what I was going to teach and how I was going to teach it. The words on the paper and the teaching that I did were two separate things.

Gems:

1. My interest approach was a rap on lab safety and the students enjoyed it! The questions I used to lead into the case study were great and engaging and on track
2. The case study itself was well thought out. I had roles that fostered a good learning environment by letting students pick different roles to fit their needs in the group.

Opps:

1. Clarity was lacked throughout the transition from my interest approach and into the activity. I did not give clear instructions on what was happening or how it would work. 
2. Taking a step back and allowing for more think time for students. I rushed into the next activity when I should have paused. I also could have paused more in general and allowed students to digest the instructions and content.

How do you provide clarity to students on assignments or tasks?

What are some engaging way to teach safety in a lab without reading the rules off?

Fall Facilitation:Co-Facilitating at Fall Leadership Conference

It has been a few years since I took off my blue jacket (4 years to be exact) and I still love attending FFA events! Especially when I get the chance to facilitate with members of the Penn State Ag Ed 2020 and 2021 cohort!

All the material discussed in the workshop: Opening Ceremonies, Committees, Public Speaking and POAs.

Workshop overview

Mr.Witmer(PSU Ag Ed '20), Ms. Consylman(PSU AG ED '21) and myself facilitated the workshop for chapter vice presidents in Pennsylvania. Our workshop consisted of learning about our roll in committees, what a program of activities is and what the opening ceremonies are. 

Gems

Our objectives and
Officer-O-Meter

• We kept track of the objectives using an "Officer-O-Meter!" Each time we completed an objective we said bye to it by playing the song "Bye,Bye,Bye" by N'SYNC and had a member color in a tab on the meter. This made us focus on our objectives and have students remember them as well.
• Our questions were a great variety. We started broad and then narrowed it down to what we were trying to get the students to think. We started with questions like "how was this experience", "What did this remind you of when working with your teams?"and ended with "What communication skills did you use while doing this activity?" we started big and then once they brought up communication we started looking at that idea without spoon feeding them.

Opps

• One activity was creating a dance to represent the vice presidents job. We let them create the dance but, we should have also made one. This would have helped them feel less weird about doing this activity. This was also an activity we added in the bus instead of doing a buzzer quiz activity which was more appropriate after reading the energy in the room.
• I also saw the benefit of smaller groups in this workshop. We had split the class in half for a matching activity. It was a really basic knowledge FFA matching set but, not everyone can participate in a large group. Having a smaller group would have engaged more students and created more energy from the start since this was our first activity.

Every time I teach (even in my professional career) will be perfect but, it is important to reflect on it. This experience of co-facilitating was a new one for me and I learned a ton! I cannot wait till the spring to get into the classroom.

What's Up Doc?: The Problem Solving Approach to Teaching

Growing up my favorite show to watch with my Dad was Looney Tones but, specifically Bugs Bunny! We would sit and watch reruns of this show and my Dad would quote Bugs's famous line, "What's up Doc?" This line usually was said right as a problem was occurring in the show or a new character was entering a scene. My favorite episode was "Rabbit Season" where Bugs, Elmer and Daffy kept fighting over what hunting season it was:Duck or Rabbit.

 You're probably thinking by now "How do this relate to teaching?" This problem that occurred between these characters could have been solved if someone had used the problem solving method in their class!

While I am out student teaching using a problem solving approach will help my students become better critical thinkers as they progress in their futures.

Case Studies
Having students in my vet science unit look at case studies of animal symptoms at the start of the class to try and  find a diagnosis will make students want to find the solution to their patients chief complaint. Starting with students having this real life problem of a case study makes students drawl in many different aspects from their own knowledge and previous class sessions. That experience will engage other students in our class as they start to share previous knowledge and push other students to create ideas to the solution.


Blooms Taxonomy and Problem Solving
Blooms Taxonomy has been a popular topic of discussion in class the past few weeks. When we use a problem solving technique of teaching we are making students think at a higher order of thinking. The questions that are being asked or the task being asked of them requires them to use their critical thinking skills. These skills then come out through analyze or evaluate by using previous knowledge that the students have to learn the new content.

The Problem –solving Method in Education is a great article from Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D. about his studies with the problem solving method of teaching. 

He gives tips such as embrace group work, model the process and work as a facilitator. I am sure Elmer Fudd could have used some of these tips to handle Daffy and Bugs when trying to educate them on what hunting season it really was!