Motivation

Welcome back!

What would you think is the hardest part about teaching a class full of seniors? If you answered senioritis, you are correct!! According to Mr. M., a lack of motivation, especially this time of year, is the hardest part about teaching his Anatomy & Physiology class. 

The first problem that comes about is the students actually showing up to class. On the days I observed, it was typical to have about 4-5 students absent. Mr. M. can only do so much when it comes to making the students come to class other than marking them absent and having administration deal with it. He tries his best to motivate students to come to class by giving away easy points every class for simple participation activities. Mr. M. told me that as long as the students come to class, they're almost guaranteed a good grade. I think this is a good practice because it gives the students some flexibility and is a win-win for both teacher and student. 

When the students perform well in class, Mr. M. is top notch at giving praise. I have observed Mr. M. giving his freshman Biology students high-fives and telling them good job when they answer a tough question. Why this might not seem like a lot, the students really seem to feed off Mr. M.'s positive energy and feel good about themselves. 

In his senior Anatomy & Physiology class Mr. M. gives praise in the form of verbally calling out the student in front of the class and telling them good job as well. His praise for his senior and freshman class is very similar and both sets of students seem to react very well. His seniors also get praise in the form of privileges in the classroom. An example of this is getting to hold one of the bearded dragons or feeding one of the bearded dragons.

I think Mr. M.'s form of praise works well for him because of how positive his energy is when giving praise. If Mr. M. acts like a student answering a question is the best thing in the world, they are going to feel like it is the best thing in the world as well. Feeling like they did a good job in turn motivates students to answer more questions and try harder in my opinion. When I have my own classroom, I feel like it is very important for me to try and remember to always have positive energy that the students can feel. 

How do you praise your students when they do a good job?

Danielle

Questioning Techniques

Welcome back!

What comes to mind when you think of higher order thinking? To me it means absorbing the lesson in all senses to make the learning universal. Mr. M. is top notch when it comes to connecting his lessons to the outside world, making them universal. While teaching, Mr. M. asks questions related to previous lessons that build on the current lesson. When learning about the muscle system, Mr. M. would ask questions such as, "what blood cells are found in muscle fibers?" or "what do we call the things that connects tissues to bones? tissues to tissues?" Both those questions he had taught in previous questions, so it is like another learning check down the road. 

While teaching lessons, Mr. M. also utilizes Bloom's higher order thinking by the discussion questions he asks and the activities he has the students perform. An example of an evaluate task that Mr. M. had the students perform includes an activity in which he asked the students to decide which blood type fit the given requirements best. Mr. M. would give the students a number of criteria that a particular blood type has and then would ask them to pick the best option of what blood type the person could have. This activity is effect in my opinion because it allows students a clear understanding of the differences between the four blood types.

An example of a create task that Mr. M. had his students perform includes an activity in which he had the students trace another student's body and then the team would draw and label the muscles in the body. Students worked in teams of two and were responsible for drawing the front side of the body and the back side of the body. He instructed the students to draw the muscles they saw on a particular page of their text books on their "bodies." This task is a great create example in my opinion for this particular lesson because it allows students to visually understand the different muscle fibers based on what they developed. 

What ideas do you have for a create activity?

Danielle

Classroom Management

Welcome back y'all!

Today's post will focus on behavior management in the classroom. One of my biggest fears in having my own classroom is not having the students respect me because I am so young. Even walking around in this high school students and staff mistook me for a student ( one staff member even asked me why I wasn't in class !!!) However, observing Mr. M. has made me more comfortable in managing the classroom :)

Because I wasn't there in the beginning of the school year, it is hard to say exactly how Mr. M. established a level of respect among his students. Mr. M. has a very joking demeanor so many of his students joke around with him most of the time. When things get serious and tests are handed out, the students also get serious and were very good at doing what they were told. I feel like mostly all of the students feed off the energy of Mr. M. and vice versa. Mr. M. gives his students a lot of freedoms when they behave (choosing their seats, holding the bearded dragons, group work in the hallway) so I feel like that is another reason the students respect him so much. 

In the off chance that a student is not behaving according to Mr. M.'s standard, he does not play around in disciplining them. Seat privileges can and will be taken away very easily and Mr. M. is not above sending an email home to the student's parents. Mr. M. did not have hardly any misconduct while I was observing, which shows me that he really knows what he's doing in terms of controlling behavior in the classroom. In my eyes, it's all about respect. 

How would you manage bad behavior in your classroom?

Danielle

Instruction

Welcome back everyone!

Today's post is all about the actual instruction in the classroom. To start out a lesson, Mr. M. hands out a note packet to every student that is full of slides from his power point presentation. In each slide in the packet, there are a few words missing that the students must fill in by following along with the presentation. This method works well for Mr. M., as it engages the students and allows them to grasp the concepts better by writing them down. During the actual presentation, Mr. M. projects his slide show on a smart board so he can draw on diagrams to help explain difficult concepts. 

Muscle Systems note packet 

 More muscle notes

To end a lesson, Mr. M. reviews the slides with the students once again and answers any questions they may have. I have noticed that Mr. M. is really good at connecting his lessons to real life examples, especially related to the human body. With thirteen years experience teaching as well as experience testing blood, Mr. M. has plenty of stories for nearly every part of the body! 

To monitor understanding, Mr. M. has a quiz the class after each lesson. Having quizzes in this manner allows students the opportunity to study their notes and come back with any questions they might have thought of after the initial lesson. These quizzes also allow Mr. M. a chance to see what works and what doesn't work in terms of the way he teaches certain lessons. 

                                                  

Muscle Tissues quiz

Mr. M. also has tests at the end of each unit to monitor understanding. Now these tests kind of confuse me in the way they work. It is a school-wide policy at this specific school that each test given must come with a retest, in which the final grade will be an average of the original and the retest. I personally do not think this is the best practice, as some of the students dont even study or try on the first test because they know they can just take it again. Mr. M. said that many of his students receive zeros on their first test, only to take the retest and score a passing grade. However, averaged with the zero from the first test, the grade is still considered failing. If students were only given one opportunity to take a test, it is my opinion they would take it more seriously and would study harder and receive better grades. 

Cardiovascular System test

What do you think of the retest policy?

Danielle

Classroom

Hi Everyone! Thanks for coming back !

So I thought I'd dedicate this second post to the actual classroom I am observing in. As I mentioned in my last post, Mr. M.'s typical class size is around 30 students. When you enter the classroom, the first thing you see is rows of desks where the students sit. Students are allowed to choose their own seat, as long as they don't become too talkative. The desks face a wall full of dry erase boards and a smartboard. Mr. M.'s desk is also at the front of the room, along with the tv that is used to view the morning announcements. 

Behind the desks are lab benches that are used when doing experiments and dissections. These lab benches are nice to have in the classroom because they allow for hands on experimentation to flow easier and it is more sanitary not having to use the desks for everything. 

Side bench housing plants from Mr. M.'s 9th grade Biology class

Mr. M.'s class is unique in the fact that he has many pets not typical of your average high school classroom. On my first day observing, Mr. M. had nine bearded dragons....yes you read that right, NINE! Four of the bearded dragons are permanent fixtures in the classroom, while the other five babies he was giving away. One of his permanent bearded dragons had gotten pregnant over the summer and laid fourteen eggs the beginning of the school year. Mr. M. thought it would be interesting for his freshman Biology class to observe this process, so he kept the eggs in the classroom until they hatched right before Christmas. He has since gotten rid of all the babies and is back to his original four dragons.

Two of the baby bearded dragons

 More babies

Me "walking" the momma bearded dragon :)

Overall, I feel like the set up of Mr. M.'s classroom works really well for his subject area. The inclusion of the lab benches as well as the desks is an integral part of bringing the lesson to life in my opinion.

What would your dream classroom include?

Danielle

Welcome

Hi Everyone, welcome to my blog! 

Here you can explore my experiences shadowing a high school Anatomy & Physiology and Biology teacher, Mr. M. To start out with, I feel as though I should give you some introduction as to why I am shadowing Mr. M: I am currently taking an Introduction to Teaching course at George Mason University and it is a requirement of the class that I have at least 15 hours classroom observation time. Now to some this might sound like more of a chore, but to me I was so excited to be given the opportunity to spend some time in a classroom in a field I am very interested in. I chose an Anatomy/Biology high school class because I've always been very interested in the human body and the way everything works. It is my dream that one day I will go on to have my own Anatomy/Biology classroom :)

The teacher I am shadowing, Mr. M., couldn't have been a better teacher to spend my classroom observation time with. His enthusiasm for the subject area is very evident through his lectures and general conversation. He has established a level of respect among his students, which allows him to joke around with students at times, but they take him seriously as well. Mr. M. currently teaches a section of freshman Biology as well as three sections of senior Anatomy & Physiology. All of his classes have around 30 students, mostly Caucasian with some Middle Eastern, Asian, and African Americans. His 5th period class is slightly different than his other classes, as most of the kids in that class have some sort of learning difficulty. 

That's all for now, but be sure to come back again to see what I'm up to next!

-Danielle