Final Reflection II

Personal:

I did not get to do any of my detailed lesson plans because of my personal life. I did not realize how much I got done before I had a baby! It was a fight to stay above water! I did however keep track and leave myself feedback for the assignments we did do and found some real life resources to incorporate into my lessons. This summer I have planned to meet with another teacher in the district to create the detailed lesson plans for next year. We have already begun working and I can’t wait to see what is in store for next year.

Professional:

I was surprised how much I did not accomplish of my goals. I was able to take several technology classes to learn different technologies, which are available to me and the students and further how to teach those technologies to someone who does not have a clue how to use them. I was not able to teach a technology lesson to this point because there were some many other things that had to get done with the sewing projects. I have already begun look

Value:

I teach my students about goal setting the first six weeks. I think it was valuable to set these goals as things I wanted to accomplish but at times felt overwhelmed at what I was trying to do. I had to put some things on the back burner unfortunately, which was very hard because I wanted to accomplish it all. I will have to learn how to better balance my personal life with my professional life!

Final Reflection I

What?

For my favorite strategy, I must pick two. I have chosen setting objectives and cooperative learning. These are the cornerstones of my subject! Students are taught in the first six weeks that they must learn to work together with others even if they do not get along with them. This is real-life! Therefore, many of the projects I have given lately have had cooperative learning as some part. With setting objectives, I have now begun to give an objective to every assignment (which I only did for projects before) which include instructions.

So what?

Cooperative learning has been tough to incorporate. I thought the kids would love working with one another, however it has been the opposite. Some of the students revolted! I had to completely take away all socializing in one of my class periods for them to even attempt working with someone they did not feel they had something in common.

Setting objectives has changed the way the students view the class. They go into the assignments with a purpose. I not only have set objectives but have now made the directions for the assignment part of the objective as well. Through this I have also raised the standard of the assignment. Students who say they are finished early now have a standard. (For example: If the objective says that the assignment has to be done well, I will ask the student if they feel they have met that standard. Generally the students are harder on themselves than I am and always find something on which they can improve.)

Now what?

Next year, I will be incorporating some sort of team building game or challenge at the beginning of each six weeks when I change the seating chart. This way when I have a student say they cannot work with someone, I have proof they already have. Also, I will give the students the option of sitting by themselves at a desk only after they have attempted to work with the people in the group for three weeks. I feel this would be enough time for them to get the point.

The plan for the future is to give students one initial objective that they try to attain every six weeks. Part of that objective will be to create a portfolio that they could present to a teacher at the next level to prove their ability. I also hope to incorporate objectives with every assignment so that students are able to approach the assignment knowing what to do, how well to do the assignment and why the assignment matters.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Questions

What?

I lectured over the difference between classics and fads in regards to clothing. I used the Narrative Advance Organizer and gave the students several scenarios about clothing that I wore when I was in middle school. The students were then asked to apply the information they had learned about classics and fads. The next day I showed a PowerPoint presentation of clothing from history.

So what?

Students did better than last year with this assignment because I gave examples of things that I wore versus what they wear.

Now what?

Next year, I will show the PowerPoint before we do this assignment and have them recognize trends (ie dresses) as well as the change in styles (which would be the fads).

Research and Theory on Generating and Testing Hypotheses

What?

I gave a group of students ingredients to make a cake. They were given a limited amount of each ingredient (ie three eggs max). They were then told to decide how much of each ingredient from a list of measurements goes into the cake and were given a time to cook the cake. Students were shown an example of how the cake should look. Once their cake was done, the students were told to take their cakes apart and were told to come up with a hypothesis for why their cakes came out the way they did (ie they used too much flour). Then the students had to retry the experiment and see if the cake came out any better.

So what?

The students learned how important a recipe is that day! Many of the students got one or two ingredients and the amounts right but none of them got it exactly right.

Now what?

Next year, I think I will use a form to have them theorize on and make it a more formal assessment.

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback

What?

An objective was given for students to read clothing care labels and follow them. Students were expected to do one load of laundry.

So what?

When I did the assignment last year, I did not give the students an objective. I received thank you's from parents because their kids were forced to do laundry, but when they asked their students why they were having to do laundry, the students could not give them an answer. This year, I put the objective on the top of the paper and it's amazing how much more successful the students were. The parents were leaving notes on the form about how successful (or not) the students were and because of the point values I gave, they were describing how many points the student should get. Because of the wording of the objective and the primitive rubric, students and parents were able to better understand the purpose of the project.

Now what?

Next year I will build a more specific rubric for the students so that they are able to know exactly how many points are assigned to each area.