Saving the World One Student at a Time

Last week, I watched the direct instruction from my teacher as she lectured. From my observation, students responded to this teaching strategy in the worst way. Most of the students weren't paying attention. When Mrs. Esquibel had her back turned, the students would whisper to one another or glance at their phones in their backpacks. This behavior wasn't true of all students, just a few, but I still noticed. It's clear they have a difficult time concentrating during this time of instruction. So when I started the first lecture of the new unit, Ecology, I was expecting the same reaction. I find Ecology to be fascinating and applicable to anyone, but unfortunately, high school students are going to disagree. I've been in the classroom before but I've never lectured to this specific period. So when I walked in, the students were naturally interested by my presence. I heard a few students whisper to one another. "Is that the substitute?" And the other student would respond. "No way. She has to be a student aid. She looks like she's twelve." The students think I can't see and hear everything that goes on in the classroom, but they are very wrong. I'm 25, but I do look like I'm 16 (as you can see from my picture). While this is a blessing in many respects, in the teaching world, it's a curse. It's difficult for students to see me as an authoritative figure rather than a friend. So, in order to get them to focus, I broke the ice. I asked them to guess how old I was since the students kept pestering me about it. It turned into a hot and cold game. The students became engaged because it was a fun activity. When they hit the 50's, they started to get suspicious. "There's no way you're fifty," they said. I responded, "Actually, I'm 322. I've found the fountain of youth." After I got a laugh out of the class, I began my pre-assessment. I had each group take out a piece of paper and write down a response to my question. I asked what the difference was between an ecosystem and a biosphere. A few of the groups got the right answer, but most of them only got it partially right. That gave me a good picture of what the students knew and didn't know. When I began my lecture, I used the powerpoint the teacher had already prepared. Unlike my teacher, I walked around the room and clicked through the slides. When students started talking in quiet whispers, I stood beside them and continued through the lecture. It had the effect I expected. They stopped talking. Most of the students were focused for the first ten minutes. After that,they became restless. While Ecology is interesting, it's hard to keep students motivated to learn. When I finished the lecture, I had them do a collaborative assignment. Each group was given a worksheet and they had to pair a term with the definition. After they were done, they had three essay questions to do, which were open ended. They were allowed to discuss with their peers and write down their answers. When I made my way through the groups, they seemed to be on task and focused. And the students that I knew weren't paying attention in my lecture seemed more focused. It made me realize that direct instruction is important, but students don't always thrive in those scenarios. I thought my lecture was clear and concise, easy for students to follow, but it didn't seem that way. A lot of the students simply weren't interested. It made me realize that I should have incorporated a few short videos to pull them back into the lecture. Or I should have paused and had a small group discussion. The lecture lasted 25 minutes, but that was too long for them to pay attention. I believe ten minute blocks are better. Next time, I think I'll lecture for ten minutes then go to a video. After another ten minutes, I'll have an open discussion. What I enjoyed most about this experience was connecting with the students on a professional and personal level simultaneously. Every time I made a joke or lessened the intensity of the moment, they responded in a positive way. I never had a student that got out of hand or couldn't get back on task. And I also felt the students trust me a little more with every positive comment I made. When I walked around the students while they were having their discussions, I would talk to them about their personal lives then get back on task. I felt like i was winning them over, which is phenomenal considering I had only been with the students one time. These experiences are the very reason why I want to be a teacher. I created a safe environment where students weren't worried about their home lives, their grades, or other stressors. In that moment, they were safe with me. After the period was over and a new class filed in, I graded the worksheets I had the students do. To my surprise, every group did fairly well. The advanced students got every fact correct, the average students missed small, but important information, and the lower performing students did as well as the average students. Some of the essays didn't answer the question, but they still gave important information from the lecture. So overall, the students did learn from my lecture, and compared to the pre-assessment, they did improve, which was my goal.

Effectiveness of Pre-assessment

While the courses offered at National University are preparing me to become a quality teacher and educator, I value being in the classroom with students just as much. The interaction and observation of the students in your discipline is essential to being prepared. Fortunately, I found a teacher at the local high school who is very experienced and eager to share her knowledge with me. As a result, she is also my student teacher for this fall. I come into the classroom periodically to watch and observe. For this assignment, I conducted a pre-assesment of the direct instruction teaching strategy. My teacher lectured about the different components of the cell, their functions, and their importance. I was sat in the class the day before to observe. My instructor teaches two AP biology courses and three general biology courses. One period in particular performs worse on all tests. This is the class I've been specifically working with because I want to see what can be done to improve their motivation and desire to be successful. When I came into the classroom, I did a quick warm up of what the students learned form the previous day. Most of the students seemed uninterested and bored. Perhaps it's because it's the first class of the day. I'm not really sure. For collaborative learning, I had each group of four students have a white board in the middle of their table. I drew an illustration on the white board that had the different components of the cell. When I numbered a certain area, I asked the students to identify it. The students were allowed thirty seconds to discuss the answer. When they were ready, they raised the white board so I could see them. I find this pre-assesment effective because it allows me to determine the general performance of the class instantaneously before I move forward in the unit. I can reemphasize the information or reteach it if necessary. There are nine groups in this classroom, meaning there are thirty six students altogether. (There was a large enrollment this year. There weren't even enough chairs for the first week so the school district had to provide more). Since there were only nine whiteboards to read, it went smoothly. Most of the groups got the questions right, and if their answer was wrong, it was very close. One group blatantly didn't participate, and another group got most of the answers wrong. This gave me extensive knowledge about the class overall. I realize this doesn't reflect independent performance, but it may be chaotic with that many students. My findings indicated that they did remember the information from the previous lecture after the warm up, and the white board practice reinforced that information further. From my rubric, every right answer received one point. If the answer was wrong, they received no credit. From this data, when students scored a 4, they were considered advanced, a 3 was considered average, a 2 indicated they were confused, mislead, or misunderstanding the information and were given a low performance, and a 1 indicated the necessity for reteaching. Most of the groups received a 4 for their work, and the remaining two groups received a 1 or 2. Overall, I was pleased with these results because that indicated 30 students had successfully grasped the information while the remaining 6 did not. I think my pre-assessment is very effective because it's quick and instantaneous. It also allows them to collaborate and find the answer together. If the student doesn't know the answer but his group member does, it still gives him an opportunity to learn. For the next period, I did the same thing but I had each student do it individually. This period has a high performing class with better classroom management and test scores. They are easier to work with and control, which is why I let them use each white board individually. When I asked the same questions, most of the students got the answers right. There were a few who struggled but it was less than the previous class. Most of the students received a 4 for their responses. The students who received a 2 or lower were written down for further evaluation and aid. My teacher said if the students aren't doing well while the rest of the class is, you have to make sure they are getting it. A side-by-side chat, extra work, or just a discussion can help them improve. Because when the exam comes and they fail it, there's nothing the teacher can do at that point. After performing the same pre-assesment on two different groups, I wouldn't change the rubric because it's pretty indicative of student knowledge and performance. After working with the first class, I would always do the pre-assesment with each student individually so I can monitor their performance as a single performance rather than as a group. Fortunately, white boards were available in this classroom but they aren't always available in different classrooms and different budgets.

Teaching is the Best Profession

Hello, My name is Erika Todd. The reason why I decided to pursue a career in education is because my teachers had inspired me so much. It wasn’t necessarily the content that made me strive to be a teacher, but the atmosphere they created. I always felt safe and loved when I was at school. Unfortunately, I come from a difficult background, and for me school was the best part of the day. It’s a personal matter to me to continue that cycle and be an educator that affects students in a positive way. I’ve lived in California for most of my life and I’ve never taken it for granted. Living in the central valley, the winters aren’t difficult or unbearable. The summers are warm and that’s how I like it. I enjoy spending time in Southern California, mainly San Diego and Los Angeles. I was originally born in Germany, but can recall very little of it. We moved to Oklahoma when I was four. I’m pretty certain I’m never going to live anywhere else besides California, for obvious reasons. =) My hobby happens to be my job. I work as a full time writer and editor. I’ve published several novels, which are available at itunes, Barnes and Nobles, and Amazon. It’s always been my greatest passion to be a writer and a teacher, and I’m very fortunate that I’m able to do both. Time management can be an issue at times, but I do my best. We live in a time where everything is electronic. Unfortunately, that has affected my job immensely. People aren’t buying hard covers and paperbacks anymore, and most people purchase kindle versions on their ipads and kindles. I haven’t had a problem adapting to this change, but I have a few colleagues who have. The results of my personality test can be found here: http://mmdi.me/m/qwmi/Erika+Todd It basically states that I have strengths in both areas. For instance, I enjoy improving relationships with other people and resolving conflict, but at the same time, I believe in my own philosophies and stick to what I believe in. I am very focused and like to complete tasks as they come along rather than postpone them to a later date. I enjoy understanding other people’s feelings and understanding them as a person. I believe these are good qualities to have as an educator. My goal is to teach high school biology and chemistry to students since science is so important to our economy and in the future. I feel like there are better ways to break down the material and explain it, and I think I would be successful in teaching other students while creating a positive atmosphere for them to work.