Presentation: Setup, Questions, Focus

Its been a busy week. My school is test piloting the smart balance test this week for 8th grades and it more or less sprang up at out nowhere, at least it feels like that. I’m not directly involved with the testing process. I helped install the software and did a practice test but other then that I've been mostly on the sidelines watching and reading material on the test.

Why do I bring up the test? My mentor teacher is directly involved with the test, thus I was thrown to the wolves as the teacher in charge for some of the classes. I didn't like it would be that bad coming into the week because most of the classes were doing presentations of student created info-graphics. Little did I know there is so much more to presentation then I thought there would be. The first class of the round of presentation was the largest of the classes.

I didn't give myself enough time to set up for the presentations, so as students made their way into the class, I was still looking for and opening up presentations. I didn't plan sample questions to ask students about their presentation. I noticed real quickly how students wouldn't ask questions unless someone else was thus the choir of crickets started. I was saved by other teachers in the room who started to ask questions. If students managed to squeak out a question it was more about the content of the presentation and not the data representation of the info-graphics. Lastly some student had just not finished the project and didn't have much to present. I had nothing in my empty arsenal of questions to help keep things in focus.

The second presentation period was a lot better. I managed to create enough time to open up any files and put things in order. I prepared sample questions that directed students attention to what the project was about, creating an info-graphic. The students interacted more by asking a good number of questions and since I directed the questions a certain way eventually the students caught on and started asking similar questions to my own. There was a little off topic comments and questions but they did a good job keeping focus and participating. During this event my mentor teacher snuck in and recorded data based on my actions. She recorded the number of times I asked a questions, students asked a question and what comments I made during each presentation. It made a good visual and helped me understand where I was asking too many or not enough. I also learned a detailed compliment is better than a generic one.

The last group to present, was again different. I prepared the order ahead of time, had my questions ready to go, and everyone know they were presenting. I gave clear instructions on how things were going to proceed. The problem with this group was that only the adults and maybe one or two students were asking questions. I asked more questions today then a did the other day, the students barely asked any. It was a different atmosphere without the participation of more students.

Three different experience with the same general focus. This experience helped me to better understand the nature of presentation from my teacher point of view. I learned what kind of directed questions help students think. What an involved audience can do to make a presentation better and how preparation is key to running a smooth class of presentations. A day or two of constant presentation is difficult on both fronts and maybe there is a way to maximize or stagger presentation for projects so all aren't on the same day. These are things to think about in the future.

Discipline and Students

Today two students got into a lot of trouble. They were messing around with the password setting on each others account. Once they couldn’t log on to do work in class the teacher informed the tech department about what had happened. My mentor went to talk to the boys and put the “fear of god” into them. I’m not disagreeing with punishing the boys for doing something they shouldn’t because they need that guidance to understand what they did was wrong.

I’ve been that kid. I was the little monster that was rampaging around on the schools network. I changed usernames, passwords, grades and permissions. Thats some of the tame things I did! I know what its like to be young and to have all that knowledge and power at your finger tips. I also know what it is like to get in trouble for doing such things. I’ve experience the powerless feeling of not being allowed to use a computer for weeks at a time, it’s not fun and it sinks in certain concepts.

I understand why the two boys are in trouble and I also understand how their punishment can affect them. It’s an interesting perspective. Both of the boys are students in a class I teach, a computer class. They can no longer do their work for a week because of their actions. The first class they were in I had allowed them to stay in the classroom. They had to work on writing out their program. They didn’t even start before getting into trouble again. They decided to leave the room to get a pencil without asking, I was in the middle of instructing the other students and hadn’t notice them leave. My mentor teacher did and sent them to the office.

I need to learn to handle those situations. I didn’t keep a good eye on the students and they managed to leave the room without me knowing. This wasn’t the only problem I had that day. A group girls came into the lab to print something from one of their iPhones. They proceeded to interrupt the class and distract two of the students. I told them they needed to let the boys work. In retrospect I should have been more of an authority about the situation and ask the girls to leave. I haven’t had much trouble with students not listening and thus I lack the experience to know what to do in those situations. I know a little bit more now, but experience will make me understand how best to deal with problems in the classroom.

My First Solo Class

I taught my first class on Friday. It felt like pure chaos. The students were all excited to be there, and wanted to get straight to work. I started the class by having them open up the webpage I made for the class and showing them the page and what was on it. I showed them where the tutorials are and where the log on information was available. Once I finished that I asked them to open up Scratch and log on and that’s when I felt the chaos started.

Some students followed the instructions to log on without issue others appeared to have not been listening to the instructions and needed help logging onto scratch. While helping those students the ones already logged on started to play around and just wanted to know how to do varies things or how to start. Sadly the next part was showing the different elements of the programs and how to create an animation. I didn’t make it to how to make an animation because they stopped listening and just wanted to play with the program.

I shifted gears and allowed them to play with the different kinds of blocks and sprites. If they had questions or wanted to know how to make a certain program work a certain way they could ask. I spent most of the period running back and forth answer questions and showing cool little things to different students. One interesting thing that I did was answer questions in different order that way a student with question on one side would have to wait or ask the person next to them. The students were very much into helping one another make cool animations.

There are a few different things I have been instructed I need to work on for next class. I need to keep their focus when giving instructions to the students. The way I am going to try and fix this is by having the students log on to scratch and then turn their monitors off while I give instructions about what we are doing in class today. The next part I needed to work on was reflective time. The students had a good time and had a lot of fun and learned a good deal of how the program works but that doesn’t mean it is going to stick. I need to take 5 to 10 minutes at the end of class to talk to the students and ask them questions about what they liked or how they did something a certain way or what they need help in understanding. It’s a quick little question to help gauge where each student is at in their work.

I am going to add those two elements to the next lesson and hopefully it will improve the classroom and the learning experience of the students. Once I add those two things are added I’m hoping new areas of weakness appear so I can better myself.

Observation in Kindergarten

Friday I attended a kindergarten class where technology was being used. I was invited by the teacher to observe the class to see how those young students interact with technology. I was informed they would be using technology to make a Skype call to someone in Canada. When I walked in they were setting up the projector for something else. They were on a little break and the classroom teacher was bringing up a little video for the students to dance too. One students was selected to use the smart board to select a song. They danced and had a lot of fun following the dancers on the projectors.

The next step was setting up for the Skype call. The students, I joke not; the kindergarteners setup the laptop, the microphone and plugged all the wires in so the laptop was connected to the projector and smart board. They took turns helping connecting the different devices together. Once everything was set up the teacher led the students through the process of testing the camera, to speakers and microphone. The students were very knowledgeable about the testing process, they go through it every time them make a Skype call. Once they were ready the teacher asked the students what message they send to the person they are calling. They knew the answer and helped one student was selected to type the message. They began the call.

The wonderful thing about this experience was seeing the students assemble the technology with little to no instruction from the teacher. It was just incredible. Another important thing for me to note is the teachers instilling a sense of digital citizenship in the students. They had tested their equipment and sent appropriate messages. They all had a wonderful time doing all that work, and were very excited. They didn’t get a chance to use Google World to find the location of their Skype caller, I’m hoping I get a chance to see that in future observations.

Student Teaching: Week 4 Teacher Workshop

The other day was my first teacher workshop. It was a lot different than I thought it would be. Whenever there was a teacher workshop day in school I use think teachers spent the whole day grading papers and writing lesson plans, so I was a little interested when I had to sign up for basically mini seminars. It was fun going to a different school and seeing some of the culture in that school. You can tell the difference in the way teachers from one school interact with other teachers.

The seminars were wonderful. The first one I went to was a seminar done by a high school math teacher and was about social media. He talked about using certain technologies in the classroom like document cameras, iPads, and Chromebooks. He then started on the topic of social media in the classroom. I maybe a technology guy but I don’t use heavy social media technology so it was nice to see some of the creative ways to use social media. I now have an Emodo and Twitter account which I am going to spend sometime playing with to adapt it for future class use. We also started going over iUniversity but didn't get very far because we ran out of time.

The second seminar was called the Digital War. This was my favorite seminar. It was about how there is a technology war between teachers and tech savvy students. There was a student giving the presenter a hand. He was a smart tech kid who liked to play pranks on teachers using technology, and bend or breaking rules that restrict technology. The presenter took the side of the argument that we need to be on the same side with students on technology and not fight them. The fun part about this seminar was how it erupted into a debate because a large number of the audience were older teachers from the age of “If I see it, I take it away” and the others were young like me who see things a little differently.

The third seminar was about Google scripts. In particular in was two pre-made scripts which are nice and useful for grading and passing documents back and forth on Google Docs. I wanted a bit more form the seminar. A few different scripts or how you can make your own scripts. Google Scripts is 90% JavaScript with a few different libraries which allow you to do some wonderful things with Google Docs and other Google apps. I got to answer some programming questions which was fun.

The last part of the day was a keynote speaker. He was funny. He talked about kids not having enough grit today. I know plenty of young adults my age who still don’t have true grit but it gets worse as you go down the line. I can agree with all that he said, I see it and I lived it. I was grit less for a good while in my life but things change, making me have to change too. Grit is something you earn, it can’t be gift wrapped by your mommy and daddy. I didn't like his PowerPoint. He had too many words and way too many sound effects and special effects. It hurt to watch the PowerPoint.

Revise, Revise Oh Lesson Plan

Third time’s the charm. I tweak the original plan to be more “fun” for students. The original unit plan was very structured and very focused on me talking a lot with sometime for student exploration of the programming language. I chalk it up to years of learning programming the same way in every class I participated in. Something about programming and structure just goes so well. Needless to say there wasn't much wiggle room which didn't feel right.

I talked it out with my mentor teacher who provided a simple solution. If I focus less on the structure and more student self learning it maybe helpful and free ranged for creative process that is game design. I changed the core theme from just programming to actual game design. I going to teach basic concepts about game design like space and mechanics and work it into the coding.

This wasn't the complete version when I finished the second draft. It was a little too open ended with way too much freedom and too many places for students to get lost in black holes. I needed some way to direct the students learning. Again I talked to my mentor who suggested that I have goals or task for students to complete each day. Thus I started the third draft of the unit plan.

I went through each day and thought about what were reasonable goals for the students to reach. I wrote out a few ideas and then picked what seemed most appropriate. I came to the conclusion that one day didn't need a goal because it was a focus on exploring and seeing different examples of games. The final day task is just the completion of the game and end to the makers project.

I spent a couple days working on this unit plan. I want it to be perfect even if it will not work out so great in the actual practice. The item I want to take away from here is the concept of strategies and how different strategies can change the way the classroom feels and how one teaches. My original strategy was structured, I say jump they jump but it seemed close minded and not a very good fit for me in theory. The second strategy was to give the students way more power over their learning, and it seemed a little bit like chaos with an end goal that may never be reached. The third strategy is a midway point where their is a target students need to reach but they have creative reign over their learning and how they plan to meet those goals. Again this is just the plan and not how it may work on in practice, thus it will be fun to find out how will my actions match my mental thought process.

I'm also lucky my supervisor is visiting that day!

Planning out a Unit Plan

I haven’t had much experience in creating a unit plan. Single day lesson plans was more the focus in my classes and even then they were theoretical because I would never use them. The first problem I encounter was that I didn't know the numbers of days I would need to plan for which made it difficult to start working on the unit plan. Once the number of days was discovered I set out to plan a unit based around the MIT programming language called scratch.

Scratch is a simple drag and drop programming language meant for beginners and students who haven’t ever programmed before. Granted it can do very complex programs if you know what you are doing, but it reads more like a pseudo language rather than a higher level computing language like C++. The first step was figuring out a goal for the students. During the course of the unit students need hands on experience programming and creating something. I wanted something to keep their attention so having them program an animation or simple game is great way to keep them invested.

When planning out the dates I wanted to keep the main document more like a guideline for what the students should look forward to those days. The next hard part was deciding what students needed to know in order to accomplish their goals. The way I set out to do this was by picking a sample program that accomplished but I wanted the students to achieve and looked at its code. Once I had a good understanding of that code I broke it done to different topics. Each topic was placed in a day in an order that seemed like a slow escalation to the final objective. The first three days don’t seem that hard, a lot of information but a good amount of time dedicated to exploration time for students.

Days 4 and 5 were the hardest because that involve conditional statements and loops which in any programming language is a huge factor. I really don’t think a day to each subject is enough time to truly grasp the subjects and wish there was a way to increase time to give students a chance to explore those concepts more. Granted for a simple animation or maze game students shouldn't need anything too complex to accomplish the goals set forth.

I planned only for 6 out of 7 days to make sure that if it comes down to it students have an extra day to work on their programs. It also helps having extra days in case of snow days or other events. My concerns for the unit plan at this moment in time is that it is too condensed and way too straight forward. It’s planned like a long term class in a small amount of time with half the time dedicated to students exploring the different elements of the programming language. If students fall of task they may miss something important or not really grasp the concepts or goals of the unit.I plan on asking for advice and ideas from my mentor teacher in order to better the unit plan.

My mentor teacher is giving me advice and commenting on my unit plan to give me a better idea about what I need and what I can do to improve it. Google Docs are a wonderful tool for learning. My unit plan can be found at that link along with comments my mentor teacher has provided. I included this because it is part of the reflection process. I'm getting to work on and improve my knowledge with information from a peer/someone in the field.

Re Tweaking the unit plan window

My mentor teacher and her collaborator for a technology unit had come together to re-plan their unit because of a large number of snow days/half days. I didn't have much input into these because I was just observing. Knowing full well I will be planning my own lessons in the future I thought it a good idea to observe how teachers go about adjusting to different classrooms to meet their goals for a unit. The key I took away from this observation is that the size of the classroom along with the mentality of the class greatly affect the time it takes to teach a lesson and then let the students explore that lesson. There are three different sections of this class, each one different from the last.

One class is very large and the students can be unfocused and it requires a bit of maneuvering to answer questions and help students to learn. The second class is smaller but relatively well mannered and don’t fall off track so often. The third is a small class where there is little to no issue. Each class is about at the same point in the lesson but the smaller ones are a bit more ahead or in a more comfortable position.

When thinking about reworking the schedule for the lesson it seems best to compare what you original set up as the schedule to what has been accomplished and what needs to be accomplished. This let’s you see how long it took for certain activities. Once you have an idea of how long it took to do something like writing a reflection you can plan ahead to include that time in the new schedule.

I may not have had a huge part in the process but it was a good observation to reflect upon because it is an important part about teaching. You have to take the time to reflect on a lesson and see if the students are on track to meet the goals of the lesson. If they aren’t you need to adjust and move things around to meet those goals. It’s also a very good idea to have extra days where nothing is planned because you never know if there will be a snow day or early release because of bad weather.