MicroTeaching

For the past week, we have been taking turns Micro Teaching in class. It is a really good learning and teaching technique. I really believe that this strategy will help me prepare to be a teacher. It is really interesting to see what some of the other students in the class come up with. All of the topics so far have been very interesting and engaging. Everything was taught from a KWL Chart to mammals. A live chinchilla was even brought in! I'm not sure what my topic is just yet but I hope that my partner and I will come together and have an engaging and fun lesson for our peers. 

For those who don't know what exactly Micro Teaching is, it's a process (like shown in the picture above). First, a lesson is taught. It doesn't have to necessarily be a full lesson but it could be a strategy or even just trying to activate the prior knowledge of the students. Once it is shared with others, they are supposed to try it on a student themselves. This will show them how the strategy really works. Sometimes there could be a wonderful outcome, but sometimes it doesn't work out the way it was planned. The last step to Micro Teaching is to get feedback. Someone should be able to tell you if your lesson was captivating or boring. Not only should they tell you what you did wrong, but it is also nice to hear what was done right. 

I've done Micro Teaching many times but never for a science class. My first time will be on March 23rd and I am very excited about it!

Mysterious Cloud

Today, February 12, 2011, I was driving to Middletown, NY and I saw a cloud in the sky. This doesn't sound very out of the ordinary but the cloud was very mysterious looking. It looked as though it was snowing or raining just out of this particular cloud. I just had to take a picture of it!

I'm not sure what area this cloud was over but I was  hoping it was Middletown because it was in the general direction. When I got to Middletown, it wasn't snowing or raining and I didn't see the cloud anymore. I'm not sure if the cloud had anything to do with snow or rain but it sure looked like it. I hope I see a cloud like this again and maybe I will try to find out more about it.

To Be Engaging or Not to Be...

An experienced teacher once said “No matter how patiently I explain things to my students and no matter how often I repeat the explanations, I cannot learn for them.” Students have to want to learn. It is the teacher's job to engage them in the lesson. Engaging a student is critical because it captures their attention. If a teacher doesn't have their attention to begin with then they won't learn no matter how many lectures are given. This happens to many teachers. It's not always easy to come up with a fun and creative lesson but it is a key component in a lesson. 

Another thing that happens quite frequently is when students memorize facts rather than learning them. This leads to papers, quizzes, projects, and tests all completed without the student knowing anything. Students sometimes just write what the teacher has said or showed them. This doesn't mean that they understood the concept. An engaging hook can prevent this. I know that students do this from experience. I am personally not very good at math and science yet I can pass a test with flying colors. Not because I know the material, but because I have memorized the formulas and the facts. If you were to ask me something about chemistry (which I took a class in three years ago) I would have no idea what you were talking about. Yet I passed the class with a B+. Because I have a personal experience with this, I will make myself consciously aware about engaging my students when I am a teacher. 

Mr. Wilson in the story "Icicles" written in Janice Koch's book "Science Stories," is one of the teachers who I aspire to be like. He took the time during his class's experiment to let the students explore their mistakes. This is a very successful method because everyone can learn from mistakes. And yes, the students did learn. They didn't just memorize the correct formulas or answers and Mr. Wilson did not simply give them the correct answers. Exploring can help students learn. If Mr. Wilson had not let the students explore they would have either not understood the experiment or they would have remembered the factual aspects of the experiment and put them on paper. It would have meant that the students didn't learn. 

Like Mr. Wilson's icicles, there are plenty of aspects in nature a teacher can share with their students. A simple rock has many scientific elements. They go through many stages and can change appearances. Other things like a plant for photosynthesis can be brought it. Students love when a real example is shown. It helps them connect a fact to every day life. Simply lecturing about photosynthesis could be boring but if a plant was shown and there was a live example, the students might pay attention more. I'm sure in the future I will be bringing in real examples.