Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Mentor's Comments
And now for some positive and encouraging words from my induction mentor:
"Christie is a natural teacher. She connects with the students and relates personal experiences to the topic being taught. Christie is willing to look for help from either her coach or other teachers on campus. She has continued to grow throughout this year."
"Christie is a natural teacher. She connects with the students and relates personal experiences to the topic being taught. Christie is willing to look for help from either her coach or other teachers on campus. She has continued to grow throughout this year."
Planning Ahead For Next Year
Next year, I hope to mostly work on two things.
First, I want to develop clear expectations, procedures, and consequences from the get-go. This means I cannot be lax on cell phones and eating. I need to follow school rules consistently from day one, which will make it easier on me as we go. Also, I will be more firm. It took me almost half the year to find my spine and stand up for myself when I was being disrespected and ignored, but when I did, the kids responded, and things got better. I still have one period I struggle with, but that will probably be something I have every year. I just need to develop more tools to deal with it.
The next thing I want to work on is making and using assessments effectively. When I got my job here, I was given so many resources. Included in this were tests and quizzes. I confess in the beginning I did not always look at them first to determine the best way to prepare my students to pass and to understand the material. I think next year I will completely rethink these assessments. I will decide what they need to know and then build the assessment from there. This way I can build the lectures and activities around the end goal like I should have done this year. Yes, this means I will have more work ahead of me, but it will benefit the students in the end. That makes it worth it.
First, I want to develop clear expectations, procedures, and consequences from the get-go. This means I cannot be lax on cell phones and eating. I need to follow school rules consistently from day one, which will make it easier on me as we go. Also, I will be more firm. It took me almost half the year to find my spine and stand up for myself when I was being disrespected and ignored, but when I did, the kids responded, and things got better. I still have one period I struggle with, but that will probably be something I have every year. I just need to develop more tools to deal with it.
The next thing I want to work on is making and using assessments effectively. When I got my job here, I was given so many resources. Included in this were tests and quizzes. I confess in the beginning I did not always look at them first to determine the best way to prepare my students to pass and to understand the material. I think next year I will completely rethink these assessments. I will decide what they need to know and then build the assessment from there. This way I can build the lectures and activities around the end goal like I should have done this year. Yes, this means I will have more work ahead of me, but it will benefit the students in the end. That makes it worth it.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Growth
As the year draws to a close, I feel like I have grown the most in understanding how to make the content interesting and accessible. I had the most fun in biology with evolution and invertebrate anatomy, and I was really able to make them see my interest. This coupled with all of the examples and personal anecdotes got them into it because I was into it. By this point, we had developed a good sense of community, and I feel like they students really respected me. This made connecting content more effective as well. Kids also love animals, and I made sure to bring in weird things plus stuff I knew they would like (water bears, which can live forever and are not actually bears and meerkats because of The Lion King).
In anatomy, I was usually able to bring in a personal story. It became a running joke that my family is super unfortunate because all of these health problems seem to afflict us. One thing I got better at was making analogies to relate concepts. The kids really liked the 'love story' in the muscle chapter and my blood lecture. Here, I made the generic Powerpoint reflect more of me (I was given resources by my director at the beginning of the year, and she had built the class herself at my school). I included a random example of viscosity (the most viscous liquid in the world- tar pitch) to expand on blood viscosity. I also liked to use scanning electron microscope images to really bring home how this is happening in their bodies right now.
The more I feel like I am relating to the kids, the more confident I feel when I am teaching, which I am sure also feeds into the cycle. It has made the second half of my year so much better than the first. Next go around, I can do this from the get-go, which should hopefully make my whole year better. The parts that aren't will just give me something more to look back on adapt. Either way, it'll be a win-win.
In anatomy, I was usually able to bring in a personal story. It became a running joke that my family is super unfortunate because all of these health problems seem to afflict us. One thing I got better at was making analogies to relate concepts. The kids really liked the 'love story' in the muscle chapter and my blood lecture. Here, I made the generic Powerpoint reflect more of me (I was given resources by my director at the beginning of the year, and she had built the class herself at my school). I included a random example of viscosity (the most viscous liquid in the world- tar pitch) to expand on blood viscosity. I also liked to use scanning electron microscope images to really bring home how this is happening in their bodies right now.
The more I feel like I am relating to the kids, the more confident I feel when I am teaching, which I am sure also feeds into the cycle. It has made the second half of my year so much better than the first. Next go around, I can do this from the get-go, which should hopefully make my whole year better. The parts that aren't will just give me something more to look back on adapt. Either way, it'll be a win-win.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
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