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.