Reflection 11/9/12

Reflection 11/9/12 - I noticed that my blogger has re-synchronized with my google+ account. Unfortunately, deleting all of my reflections for the semester. Although thats only  a few posts,  that still deletes some of my observations.

Data - I need to find a better way to gather it. One way that I have thought of is measuring the correctness of certain questions. Before I was measuring just the achievements of students, but I found that because the content got harder, the grades of nearly every student had fallen from before the primary documents had been used to after. Now, I know for my final few weeks that I will need to test the understanding of questions using primary documents compared to just all questions. I also need to start thinking of questions to ask on my students final survey. One thing I may want to focus on is whether or not the Do Now's took up too much time. I've gotten complaints from a couple students and my teacher about how they take too long. This does defeat the idea that a warm up activity should only take about 5 minutes. It just makes it more challenging to incorporate documents into the Do Now because it takes up more time.

Classroom management - Although still an ongoing problem, I think I am improving day by day in this area of my teaching. I still need to be more stern and follow through with my warnings. I left kids off way too often. I think I may just have to give a ton of them out in certain classes to win back all the respect I need.

Unit planning - This is a new challenge for me that I had not really thought of before. I view teaching as too day by day at this point. I really have had trouble grasping the big picture that I am supposed to be leading my students towards. The main trend that I'm seeing is that every thing may come into place too late. This is where I wanted to be in September, not November. But I must make do with what I have.

Inquiry Celebration Reflection

I thought that the inquiry celebration was very rewarding for me this year. I was able to see presentations that covered PBL's and Socratic discussion. After seeing those first two presentations I was able to think of how to fit those teaching strategies in my classroom. The PBL was taught by two guys who had co-taught their entire fall semester. I thought that was a very interesting opportunity. Part of me is very relieved I haven't been asked to do anything that challenging for next year. At the same time, I think it would be very cool to teach social studies in a co-taught classroom, so that would be a cool opportunity.

The other two presenters focused on bringing more culture and vocabulary into the classroom. I thought these were two very important ideas that were brought to the table. I agreed that classrooms needed to be more cultured and that students need to learn a more diverse vocabulary.

Blog Post #2 Spring 2012

   My first artifact will be one of my lessons from my C&I class. I created a lesson that focused on the extraction of Marcellus Shale at Suncrest Middle School. I thought this lesson was a great one to share because I incorporated some science standards and the lesson actually went really well. I think it will be a very good example of how versatile my lessons can be. One of the best parts of the lesson was the reaction of the students to my lesson. I think they got a lot out of it and are more aware of marcellus shale in their community. I thought it was very important for students to have a basic knowledge of marcellus shale in a class like WV Studies.

   My second artifact that is also from the program will most likely be a lesson plan from this semester. I'd like to have a high school lesson incorporated just to show that I've been able to create good lessons at multiple levels. I thought I made a very good lesson that focuses on the Erie Canal. I know I did a good job because I'm from that area of the country. Being able to add personal experiences being from upstate new york was fun for my kids and for me.