When you hear that you have to teach an agriculture lesson that is problem based you would think that this is going to be easy right? Well, I thought that until I started to think about what to actually teach that would relate to what I am teaching this spring. Its a lot harder than you think.
I just started to research things that I have dealt with on my farm and came up with scours in calves. I am going to relate this back to my animal science class, if not it at least gives me the practice of doing a lesson like this.
Doing the research and trying to figure out how to make it interactive with my students was another hardship that I faced. I decided to cover the bacterial, viral and protozoans that cause diarrhea in calves. Putting these along with a situation at a local farm back home my mind said that it was all going to go well.
I went into lab thinking I am not as prepared for this like I have been with others but I got this. Animals Science is my thing right, how hard could it be.
Well lets say this week was what I am going to call my worst week. Yes, that's right, it even beats my gross interest approach lab. I feel like i flew through the information. I did not get the students involved like I would have liked to, overall it was not what I thought it would have been.
If I were to redo this lesson/lab, I would have it so that the students were taking notes during my PowerPoint portion and then used that information to give ideas on what could be causing the problem. I would have also slowed down talking. I feel that if it is information that I know then others should know it to and I do not have to take my time. Well that is not the case.
The next time I would change a lot of things but who knows after changing things it may not be what I want it to be after all. Well, guess we will find out when I do it again.
Until Next Time...........
Keep your head up!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are all learning and growing, it is challenging to come up with a "good" problem solving lesson. I think we can present any topic as a problem or situation to be improved but its how we present it as to how good it is. I know that the biggest thing that would have helped my lab would have been better question preparation. Good reflection, in order to grow we have to be able to see our mistakes.
I agree with Mindy... you are learning, as we all are!
ReplyDeleteI liked your reflection - great attention to how we structure the presentation of info for the problem. I could have done something similar to allow the students to recall the info from the problem.
Also, taking time is important - good point. I often speak quickly, but when we are doing something like this, it is important to take all the time needed to engage students' critical thinking and questioning!
Spot on reflection! Your lesson would have been great had you had real students, by the way! We were just chilling out there, partially because it is just lab, but your real students would have to be engaging in the lesson way more than we were. Keep your head up sunshine! You did a great job of being more enthusiastic and started your lesson of MUCH better than you had before! As Allison mentioned, be sure to add in some critical thinking questions. This will definitely help out as students try to differentiate between some of those minute differences as they try to determine what the exact cause of the problem was!
ReplyDeleteVal; I really enjoyed reading your reflection and I think you were right on the money with it. I liked how you had the part in there about what you would change. I think that is something that is really great to reflect on because you now have a jumping off point for when you actually teach this lesson to your students. I also agree with what Caleb said, I think that a lot of our labs will go better in front of actual students because they, hopefully, will not be exposed to the information and will really be curious about the information. Good job and keep it up for the next lab!
ReplyDeleteHi Valerie,
ReplyDeleteI agree this one was very tough. Laura mentioned in our lab that this was a student centered approach so in the ideal world I picture the students forming a little circle and nominating one to be the writer and they just collaborate on what they know in order to solve this problem, but, in the real world that's probably not going to happen our first time at this. However, I think it's something we should all be working for. Not only preparing our students with the content knowledge to be able to do that but giving them the confidence in the material and leadership skills that they would be able to do this. And I think if we get really good at it would could say here's the problem. What are we going to do? and they would just start working.
I think being your first time out of the shoot you like the rest of us hit a lot of road blocks and what's important is that you know what those road blocks were and learned from them. So you're just one step closer to being an awesome teacher!
I agree with everyone else, great reflection! I, too, had troubles getting my class completely engaged. I love the problem solving approach, and I truly believe that it will work twice as good out in our actual classroom with our actual students. I think that going in feeling completely prepared is a big thing as well, and much like you, I have had weeks where I felt really prepared, and other weeks where I didn't feel prepared at all. I really like that you have what you plan to change. That is a big part of completing this lab. We always have room to improve, and making note of what we want to change in the future is a big part of that! Keep it up! We will all be awesome eventually!
ReplyDeleteVal,
ReplyDeleteGreat reflection! I agree with everyone else that this was one of the harder labs and would have been much easier with real students. I think that going in feeling uncertain about a lesson plays a big factor in how it plays out in the classroom. Not to say that it wont even if you feel awesome about it. However, knowing what you want to improve is a big part of being a great teacher. Keep up the good work !!
Hey! I watched your video and commented on that as well, but I liked reading your blog and hearing your idea of using the information in the powerpoint so that the students could use that information to help solve the problem. I really think that is a great idea. That way, it would help the students to be engaged. Finally, I actually thought your teaching tone/voice got better in this lab!! It really seems like your pretty confident too. Keep it up!
ReplyDelete