Parting Gift

Frog Dissection Lab

Student Work

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."

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.

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.

 

One of Many Reasons Why I Teach

Induction Summary

So my experience with induction has been an interesting one. This past summer, in the very last class I needed to complete to receive my Masters, we had a final project. My group decided to do it on induction because we felt that induction was a great idea and were looking forward to it. Rumor had it that induction was going to be a repeat of edTPA, which almost everyone lost sleep and shed tears over. We sought to bring information to our peers as the program tried but kind of failed to provide us with an idea of what to expect.

Fast forward two months, and I attend the online make-up orientation. The ladies on the other end were every helpful and started my experience off right. I was shown step-by-step what to expect, which made navigating the site that much easier when I finally signed on. When it came to completing the cycles, I normally was able to fit everything nicely into what I was already doing. Induction also forced me to once again look at the CSTPs. They tried drilling them into us during teacher education, but like so many other things, they got swept away once we began teaching and then trying to get through that dreaded assessment.

Overall, I would say induction was useful. I got so much support at my school site that, at times, it felt more burdensome than anything. I totally appreciate how lucky I am that my school culture is just that amazing. Not everyone has that to fall back on, and for them, I imagine induction can be super important. That is not to say that it is not important to me. The biggest thing induction did for me was get me talking to my coach. I was given a coach by my school as a new employee, and the other teachers were super welcoming. I probably would have talked to the person who was my coach anyway because she is a master teacher at my site and teaches the same subject area. Induction made sure I was in contact with her, and I value that professional  relationship now so much.

Even if induction felt like a drag, I am glad to have gone through my first year. Only one more lies before me until I can clear my credential, and I am looking forward to that.

Student Success

Nothing makes me prouder than when my students do well or show improvement. When I think back on the year, there are two highlights I can point to, one for bio and one for anatomy. It's funny, too, because the chapters my students did the best in happened to also be the chapters that I showed the most enthusiasm for. I am sure that helped make a difference. 


For anatomy, the chapter with the best success rate was definitely the senses. The average test score across periods was a B. Not only that but students asked the most questions, paid the most attention, and were more engaged, especially with the vision test lab. It felt like we all had a ton of fun together on this. Because it was fun, I feel like they learned the most in this section, which is backed up by the test they took. 


In biology, my favorite part has always been evolution/natural selection. Next comes invertebrate zoology, but we did not have much time to get into them this year although I did go over them a bit. The students seemed to really like this chapter because I brought in tons of examples and pictures and personal experiences. Like I posted about before, I also dressed up as Darwin on that first day. The quiz results were not what I was expecting, but the lab results made up for this by far. I also took a student perception poll, and by and large, students said they felt like they learned the material. The wording of the quiz was the problem, which I will reflect on later. I felt like really captured their attention finally, which is definitely a success. 


In the future, I need to find ways to make each section as interesting. To do this, I need to get more interested myself. I am sure this is something in each chapter I can really get behind. At least, I can behind it just enough to shine through for them.

Friday Night Thoughts

Today was Team Fair at my school, and it was fun though it rendered even the best of my ninth period kids unable to function (and I slowly devolved with them until I caught myself). This week has been a series of ups and downs, and I am glad it's over though I have two highlights.

1. As a supplement to the lecture on digestion, my honors anatomy class took turns having dramatic readings of colorful reviews for Haribo sugar free gummy bears on Amazon.

2. Period subbing for Spanish and having two students "fight" over me being their favorite teacher. I also got to interact with ninth graders who are not mine, which was cool.

As the year draws to a close, I reflect on my growth and all of the fun times I have spent with my kids. I also appreciate even more the limited amount of time we have left. Here's to the last four weeks of my first year as a teacher at the most awesome school. I couldn't hope to belong anywhere else.

That's How You Know

So state testing wrapped up this week, and now we go back to normal schedule. I actually had a lot of fun with the Hunger Games projects (it was a school-wide theme to keep the kids engaged with the material while they were taking the SBAC). For bio, the kids had to create a muttation as if they were Gamemakers. They also had to answer questions like how they made it and provide an opinion on genetic modification in real life. Some of them were hillarious.

For anatomy, they had to make a survival guide based on an arena of their choosing. Theme: How to maintain homeostasis aka not die.These kids for the most part were testing so I was not supposed to give them any new material to deal with. (In our state, students in grades 3-8 and then 11 take the new Common Core assessments. Kids in grades 8 and 10 also take the paper-based science test that has yet to be phased out, but that only lasts a couple of hours.) I was grading simply on participation, and I was surprised at how few students actually chose to lose points by goofing off.

Then I got to thinking. Why was I surprised? By and large, I teach a good group of kids, and I have been able to build rapport with them. They knew this project was a place-holder due to testing. But they did it anyway. I asked them to do something, and they did it. I realized that means they respect me. At my old job, respect was hard to come by so perhaps that is why it took me so long to understand. They may not like some aspects of how we do things, and maybe some parts of anatomy are boring, but I have earned their respect. I've built relationships with them. At the end of the day, sometimes that is all that matters.

ASB Video in Which I Make An Appearance

Invertebrate Fun Times

I teach at an arts school yet I cannot draw. (Learning about invertebrates and I visually demonstrated the difference between a centipede and millipede. I added the smiley faces at a student's request so they would look "cuter.")

Friday Morning Little Moment

Part of my duty as a teacher is to expose my students to "stupid science" as I have termed all things obviously incorrect. This morning, as I was heading into the main building to sign in, a student walked up and called my name to say hi. She also told me about this great commercial she saw. Some man was trying to sell mulch that comes "from the earth" and is somehow amazing. I said, "Where else would it come from?" She replied, "Exactly!" While they may not all come away with a spectacular understanding of human anatomy, they are learning to critically think and evaluate what they see and hear. And that makes me proud.

Something New

So I was sitting at my desk during tutoring this past Tuesday, listening to the kids work and finishing up my presentation for the next day when something struck me. I had seen clips or pictures of teachers dressing up as various characters to get the kids more into the content. I was about to each Darwin the very next day, so I though why not? I need to do this for sure.

I began looking up pictures of what he looked like as a young man (because most people can recognize the black coat and long, white beard). Also, I am young myself, and I own plenty of vests and scarves which I surprisingly never wore. After tutoring was over, I jetted to the store and picked up stuff to make the outfit complete. My favorite touch was the cotton balls painted brown and glued to a popsicle stick that I stuck into my hat to keep in place.

In the end, it didn't look as good as those examples I had seen though the students got a kick out of it. I also was introduced to a new co-worker that day, and they joked about how I usually look normal. Overall, I had fun and will probably do it again next year. I will just make sure I plan way ahead and make the outfit look even better.

Class Pet

Some girls in my period one bio found a tiny beetle and asked if it could be our class pet (at least until it dies...). I told them sure, why not. They named it Scruffy McFluffpants.

 

Next year I'll have to get a real pet.

 

 

At Least Once a Day

When my students try to get me off track by asking/saying something that's technically true but not what I was intending...

Introduction

Today was the first day back after a relaxing two week spring break. It also marks the beginning of my final quarter as a first-year teacher. To keep track of and reflect on various things, I thought I would start a blog (one that I hopefully will not forget about like my other three).

So, here's a little background on me. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in first grade. I never had a specific grade or type in mind. It was just something I knew I wanted to do. Then, in seventh grade, I had the best science teacher ever. I cannot pinpoint any one thing I liked. She just made it fun and interesting. She was also a very caring person, and she had an obsession with cows. Three years after that, I had another really awesome teacher. The class was Natural Science II (basically just biology). She made me love bio. She was funny, sarcastic, and relatable. She is the one who made me want to study biology and then teach it. I wanted to get kids hooked the way I had been. (Sidenote: I actually had a student tell me I had done this for her when she informed me she was changing schools. Pretty great for a first year teacher to hear.) Coincidentally, an amazing professor I had in community college was her high school biology teacher. Small world. I also teach the same two subjects my HS teacher did/does.

Anyway, long story short, I spent forever in school because I took everything under the sun. I got my AA in math and science studies, my BS in anthropology, and MEd in general education while I worked in a supermarket part-time. (All of that school and hard work also got me induction into Phi Beta Kappa, an honor society emphasizing the sciences and humanities. I rarely get to brag about it to anyone so I'm doing it here.)

Then, this past August, I got offered a job at a school where they emphasize not just academics but various visual, technical, and performing arts. It is a great place to teach, and although I have so much more to learn, I feel like I have found my place finally. I look forward to capturing my journey and sharing it with anyone who wishes to come along for the ride.