During this past week, I had my first experience actually teaching at my cooperating center. The middle school students overall seemed to enjoy the first day of my teaching where they got to use Nearpod to learn interactively during their lecture. Due to this, I think that I may use Nearpod more often in future lessons, as the students enjoy it and they are not overly difficult or time consuming to make. The second day however they did not seem to enjoy the lesson very much as they didn’t seem to be paying attention at times, I think this is due to the lesson being dry. I played clips for them about three of the different agricultural career pathways, which admittedly were likely meant for older students. I am working on making a more interactive way to teach them about the remaining pathways. While I know that not all lessons are going to be fun ones I would like to have as many interactive lessons as possible. I feel that this will help my students learn as this way they are doing something with the information that they are learning as we move through the lesson. I think my biggest issue is figuring out how to organize and reformat lessons meant for students of different ages from the class that I am teaching it in. There are likely many different ways to reformate these lessons but what are some lessons that have worked well for you in this regard? What have you done to make these lessons more appropriate for students of different ages?
In two of the high school classes, I got to try out a review activity with the advanced animal science students. I made two sets of flashcards. One with the parts of the alimentary canal and the other with the definitions for each part. The students first had to arrange themselves in order then they needed to match parts to their definitions. Once they completed these two activities, they had to describe what type of digestion took place in each part. The first class seemed to enjoy the activity well enough, will all students actively participating and seeming to understand the content better after they worked together to find the correct order, definitions, and types of digestion for the parts. The second class for the most part also seemed interested but there were some students who did not seem too interested in the activity. This is something that I have been anticipating but am not quite sure how to react to or plan for. What are some ways that you have dealt with this issue? What worked the best in preparing lessons for multiple sections of the same class?
Abby! Congrats on your first teaching week! It sounds like you are already reflecting daily and asking questions that are going to better students learning and experience in your classroom. Great job! I do not work with middle school audiences but to make lessons more interactive I will incorporate movement. For example, I tell the students to get up and go find someone on the other side of the room and for one minute (I put a timer on the board) summarize what I just said. I have the listener ask follow up questions. I also like the heads up game. Have the students made term cards and then play the game heads up with a partner. At all my table pods I have white boards, play-doh, and window markers. This allows for quick check ins and all students love using play-doh to make anything and the window markers allow them to write on the desks. I hope this gives you a few ideas. As far as unmotivated students, I would encourage you to give them another option. Ask "If you do not want to review this way, which way would you like to review?" I personally have a Quizlet for every quiz/test so if I student would rather work alone or is not motivated, I have them review online individually and watch them until they are on Quizlet. You can always plan their partners and put students who motivate others or have a positive relationship together and that may motivate them. I would encourage you to continually encourage them to participate so they do not think that you are going to give up on them and can always not participate. Lastly, being "new" still, ask another teacher about how they motivate that student... it may lead to something you never thought of. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Abbie, so glad to see you are trying new things and looking for innovative ways to make your lessons more engaging! E-Moments are a great tool to use to make activities more interactive, and to get the students participating in ways that are fun and creative. Assigning students specific roles in activities, or asking them to act or demonstrate what is going on can also help them become more interested and invests in the learning activities. Every group of students is different, and as you get to know them, you will be able to try and determine which activities and engagement tools work best for them. No matter what, don't stop trying new things!
ReplyDeleteHey Abbie! Congrats on finishing your first week of teaching!! Your comments make it seem like you are really enjoying your time at the middle school. That's awesome! How did you use nearpod? I pick up three classes next week and started with a few Kahoot! games, but I plan on incorporating a few different platforms. I am excited to hear what you do next week!
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