Comments and Reflections about the first few Journal Entries

Class,
Thanks for your entries in the Clinical Experience Journaling Blog. I had a chance to read all of the post created thus far and thought I could create one post that highlights some of the interesting items I found along with some thoughts regarding these:


“Do I specifically teach writing skills? And, how much do I weight writing ability in the science core?”
Great question-I have struggled with this myself and will continue. I want my students to be able to write. I want them to see this as an important part of science (communicating). I believe that the feedback they get from me in science, in an arena that isn’t directly teaching writing might make a stronger impression on students as they see its importance in action embedded for a real purpose. While I want to get to the experiments and creativity, I also want to be sure that along the way I am helping students with writing. It is sometime hard to divide everything as cleanly as we have traditionally done with our school subjects (math, science, and writing-blurry in real life)


“Mrs. Seamons and I decided to dress-up for this lesson. She dressed as a fortuneteller and I as a scientist (lab coat, protective glasses, and clipboard). She went around the room giving fortunes and I followed making notes on my clipboard.”
Awesome-I think students can see when we are putting effort into our work and while they may not always show it, I am sure they sometimes do. I also like the fact that two teachers are following each other around taking notes so that they can reflect on what is going on in the classroom. What a model. How can we ensure that we are always putting ourselves in these type of situations?


“I could tell that most of the class was frustrated but I didn’t know how to change it. I didn’t know how to salvage the lesson. I plowed on but it was pointless because none of the students were with me at this point.

I will get more information about what the students already know and understand about constellations and stars.2. During the set up process, I will talk to students about what we are doing. All of the stars in the night sky are not represented in our model; I will talk about these particular stars and their significance in the plane of the solar system.3. I will let the students move about the “sun” and tell me what they “see” standing on the earth at different times of the day, at different times of the year.4. I will give students more opportunities to express themselves; I will talk less after the initial explanations are given.”

I see a frustrated teacher here. I have been here. As I begin to panic, I talk more and more. For some reason, I think the more I talk, the less students talk, the more I can sound like I know what I am talking about. In the end, it appears to me that this frustrated teacher recognized where students needed to play a more central role in the lesson. If we don’t let students let us know what they know, we may only quickly pass by what they understand and only frustrate them. I want to continue to consider whether I am doing this in our wolf project and be sensitive enough to make adjustments when needed so that students and I don’t become frustrated.


“I don’t know how far I have facilitated their learning. Will I always wonder, or can I know for sure?”
Great question-It seems that starting with the teacher walking around the room following another teacher or just taking notes in her own class could help develop a sense of where the students are initially. I think KWL charts also help elementary teachers get a better sense of this. I am not sure we do enough of this at the secondary level.

“I know this sounds ridiculous, but I thought that in the SCED program I would learn all the magic words to say and as long as I implemented them correctly, I would be a successful teacher. Sort of like using calculus in Physics, if I know what formula to apply in given situations then everything turns out correctly. I think teaching is more like Columbus’s journey to the new world. You have lots of theories, you develop a game plan, implement it, then wait to see where it takes you. And like Columbus, where you end up may not be where you planned, but wisdom demands that you look for the positive effects or die thinking you are a failure.”

Wow-an incredible reflection. Does an awareness of cognitive changes in thought signal learning? This statement reminded me of the quote we had last week defining education “education is moving from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty”.



“The most blatant things I see in the teacher I observe is that he is very hands off and casual.”
What are reasons this teacher may have arrived at this point?


Mr. Borton must get a million questions each day. Still some of the kids ask him what they are supposed to do even though he has repeatedly told them and always writes what they need to do each day on the same chalkboard.

This is an experience that I repeatedly had in middle school. I think I have mentioned this before, but one day while teaching the 180 students I had each day a student asked me an authentic reflective question. I realized that this was one of the first I had heard in a long time. After that, I tried to move toward allowing students to design their own procedures to the extent possible. This changed the questions in the class from “what am I supposed to do next” or “is this right” to “what do you think about this idea”. These are the questions I want to hear and want to help students solve.

Thanks for all of your sharing and reflection!!!!