Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Educator I am Today

When people used to ask me ten years ago: “What did you want to be when you grow up?” I used to answer by anything but becoming a teacher. I was taught the traditional way where the teacher would do the talking and I had to take notes. Then I was supposed to go back home and rote everything I learned so that I could pass whatever exam I had to sit for. When someone asks me now what is the one thing you would never stop doing in your life, I would answer by teaching and working within the Education sector to help changing the old techniques at schools and help up my community.
I have been teaching for the last two and a half years of my life. This experience shaped my personality in a way that no educational institute was able to do. Through my teaching, I am able to grow as a person as my students get to help me learn through their simple moves and words. This profession is a rewarding type of profession. I get to guide my students into unmasking their goals in life and help them achieve it each one uniquely. I believe that “Every kid deserves an education to reach his/her goals no matter what environmental conditions he/she is subjected to”. Science is a subject that is treated in a way where students get to memorize rather than analyze. My goal is to help student critically think by questioning their way of thinking and destabilize their constant thinking.
The way I used to plan my lessons two years ago is absolutely different than what I am working on now. I learned simple techniques through my Teaching Diploma and through the Teaching Methodology course. This course helped me plan my lessons more into directing the critical thinking type of lessons. I have always wanted to teach my students how to critically think, but the way to do it wasn’t always clear. Although I learned before about Bloom’s Taxonomy, I was able to actually apply it within the lessons I was asked to plan for the course. When I plan my lessons now, I make sure to include both direct and indirect instructions. Not all children can cope with indirect instructions as we use the higher order of Bloom’s taxonomy. But, all children could actually get to the highest order of “creating” with more practice. To include all these different methodologies, I chose the 5-E lesson plan template. I like the way it targets different types of students and different instructional methodologies. I like to plan it in a way where children reach their own conclusion within the lesson itself. With the two microteaching lessons I planned, I made sure to plan them for Lebanese classrooms. I kept in mind my students I taught last year in Bakhoun (underprivileged school) and I realized that I could have easily used such a lesson in that class.
I loved the discussions we used to make in class. I enjoyed sharing different experiences from different teachers already working or from Education students with great ideas. Some of my classmates motivated me to work harder. At some points during this course, I felt like I was giving my best and that this is how things should be working. Then, I would see others giving work which is way better than mine and that is where I felt that what I was doing wasn’t the best. At the same time, I was able to reflect on my own way of teaching at my school.
The best part of the course was the final paper I worked on. My professor offered me the topic of Reggio Emilia. I am known to be an anti-Art kind of persons. I am always scared to try that part of techniques in my classes. I am not confident with my creativity and I have never explored that part of me before. I learned that I could engage my students by integrating art and science together in the classroom. Although the whole philosophy cannot be applied in the Lebanese classrooms within the night, I insisted on trying to add artistic aspects to my lessons. We were encouraged by our professor to try something new in our recorded micro-teaching. I was really scared to try this new technique of having children (my classmates) different artistic ways to evaluate them. I was really proud to see that it worked really well. I thought that Art and creativity is part of my weaknesses. This is why I decided to challenge myself. In that part of my work, I still need to do more researches to widen up my creativity bank. Also, by observing other teacher’s classes, I could grasp some ideas and then use them in my classrooms. Taking some of the basic ideas and then change them into what works in my classes is exactly what I need to improve that aspect of my teaching.
My strength is basically my self confidence in my class. Even if I am not sure sometimes about a particular aspects in my lesson plan, I don’t show so. That was actually shown in both of my micro-teaching. When I had to explain the lesson, I was confident, my tone was great, I moved by a pace by which the students would understand, and I didn’t sound boring. I planned this part of the lessons in a way where it doesn’t take me more than 10 minutes in the class.
I believe I have the character to be a teacher and I have the knowledge to deliver the material I am asked to deliver. This self confidence sometimes does affect me negatively though. It takes me a lot to change my perspective about a certain idea when I am confident. I don’t think this self confidence affect the way I accept criticism though. I learned through my years of teaching to take the criticism in a positive way by which it helps me grow.
One of my weaknesses is when I give instructions. That was seen in my non-recorded microteaching. My problem is that I am cursed with the “curse of knowledge”. That is thinking that the people I am teaching already are understanding what I am telling them because for me it is just “too easy”. I sometimes forget that it is too easy because I practiced it for many years before. Therefore, when I give instructions, I directly take into consideration that my students “will know what I mean”. I didn’t figure this out until my professor actually told me that. What I am doing now is that everytime I give instructions; I try to give them as clear as possible. I still need some time mastering it though until it becomes in within me. All I have to do is be aware with my mistakes as I am giving instructions.
As I mentioned before, my philosophy states that no child should be left behind without being educated. Therefore, I plan to keep on researching and finding ways to help these children within my community. I believe the more researches I look for, the better my ideas about education are, the better I could help implement whatever I am learning to help them. I am looking to continue my post-graduate studies later on because Education is my passion, and I believe that working with your passion is the definition of actual success.
 


Recorded Micro-teaching (Genetics)

When I got the feedback to my first non-recorded microteaching, I got really angry that I didn’t give my perfect work. That motivated me into working more seriously on my recorded microteaching. Our professor encouraged us to try something new.
In the Lebanese program, Genetics is first introduced in grade 9 class. Nothing about such a topic is discussed before and therefore it is purely new to the students. Grade 9 students usually sit for an official exam by which they will be tested. Introducing different Genetics terms such as: genes, traits, homozygous, heterozygous, etc… is not easy for the teacher. Therefore, I designed the following lesson plan to ensure that students use their prior knowledge of what they see in their everyday life (heredity) and use some of their misconceptions to guide them into reaching their goal.
So I decided to use almost the same techniques in some parts and change in other parts of my lesson plan. I decided to use the 5-E lesson plan again but plan it in a way taking more into consideration all the different theories I learned throughout this course. I used almost the same steps in my Explanation and Elaboration as the non-recorded microteaching because I wanted to fix the mistakes I did before. Having the recorded video helped me see where I worked on my mistakes and where I still have some gaps.
For the first time in my three years of teaching, I insisted on planning my lesson according to the three learning domains as classified by Blooms: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor.
I didn’t have the chance to actually present my whole lesson within the 15 minutes that were available to me. Therefore, I planned the exploration part as an indirect instruction for students to be passing by destabilization by which they would be motivated to actually learn the answers to their problems they experience in their exploration.  They would later construct their own meaning of the lesson. This is the Bloom’s Affective domain. Also, I designed this part to be within groups as a cooporative type of learning. The groups would be divided in homogeneous levels. In that way, I would be able to pass around my students helping those who need more guidance than the others.
The video I used is one of my favorite videos. It helped me a lot on my actual classrooms when I used it last year. Yet, I wish I used it with such a lesson plan. This part was the direct instructions. I wanted my students to actually reach the lower levels of Bloom’s Cognitive Domain: to define facts and terms.
I didn’t have a problem in my Elaboration part. I knew that I am confident enough to present that part. It was purely teacher centered and I think I did well. I presented it in a sequential way where I finish with one term and then start working on another term. From the way I looked at my classmates, they were able to go along. Some didn’t have a scientific background. This is why when I was asking some questions about some terms, they couldn’t answer. To save the day, I acted as if they didn’t pay attention to the video (I should have used before) but still I said it with a smile. I believe it wasn’t demotivating, on the contrary, it grabbed students’ attention into participating The reason I used this part was to get to the Evaluation part which was my major challenge.
I decided to use art in my lesson plan this time. After I wrote my paper about Art and Science, I started figuring out a way to implement art in a Lebanese Classroom. I decided to use it in my evaluation.  The way I divided the groups was into different artistic activities. Different group activities help reduce social rejection within the class. The diversity in group work allows students to experience common interests (different activities) they didn't know they shared before. In that way, it helps students build a stronger horizontal relationship. Moreover, such an activity would encourage students into bringing out what they learned into their own interest. That would help them memorize whatever they learned through a particular experience of interest. Having planned all the following, I decided to take the risk of actually teaching it in my recorded micro-teaching. I could say that I was really scared in trying it in the class but it I think it went really well. One of my mistakes I did in my non-recorded micro-teaching was the fact that I did not give clear instruction. Students didn't really understand what was expected from them. When I reached the evaluation part, I gave my instructions before I divided them by groups. I told them what they will be doing, to how many groups they will be divided, and how much time they need. When I was done I asked if anyone has any questions before we start with the activity, they all answered that everything was clear. The groups should have been divided according to their interests. The groups were divided into 4: poetry, drawing, modeling and acting. After couple of minutes, two groups presented. The first was the poetry team. The poem they presented was very creative and it actually followed the criteria I was looking for: creativity and summarizing the lesson. I was starting to feel comfortable at that moment and proud of what I planned. This part was applicable in my class. The second team who presented was the acting team. They didn't really prepare a scene by they were creative in using the accessories I provided them with. Also, they were able to present a summary and use example while being creative. That was what I cared about. I realized that was also applicable in my class. The drawings that the students prepared were applicable as well. However, the modeling wasn't really applicable. The students didn't know what to do and how to come up with something new. I am not sure I could use this part in my lesson plan if I were to use it in my actual classroom. I believe I used the psychomotor domain of Bloom’s taxonomy since the students had to move and actually use their body to come up with an outcome to the evaluation.
As a conclusion, I believe the recorded micro-teaching went a lot better than the non-recorded one. I was more prepared this time and I was more confident with the lesson plan I prepared. Also, I believe I challenged myself in the evaluation part which is the purpose of teaching and the purpose of this course. I can say I could use this part in my actual classrooms at schools now since I saw the outcomes of it.



Monday, January 5, 2015

Reflecting on My Classmate's Lesson

Part of our reflections and assignments to do in our Methodology course is to actually reflect on one of our classmate’s microteaching. It took me a long time to actually write this one because I didn’t really think I was in a better place than my friend to judge what she had to present. After deciding to be really professional about it, I decided to reflect on Youmna’s recorded microteaching. I chose Youmna’s because it was a Science lesson (same as the subject I teach) for Grade 1 level (Same level I am currently teaching in). I thought I could compare whatever she had to present to my classrooms.
Youmna’s lesson was about “How do Engineers work?”. Her objective was to guide the students into reaching a conclusion that engineers need to plan their work and test it to make sure it is effective. The activity was providing the students with boiled egg and materials. Students had to come up with a way to throw the egg from w high place and make sure it doesn’t crack.
I believe that the activity was very engaging and does actually allow students to think but I didn’t think it is the purpose behind the objective of the lesson. I believe the way Youmna started the lesson with a story and questions was very effective with kids. Such an interaction leads kids to pay more attention into figuring out answers to the questions she was asking.
The way she presented the instructions and materials to the students before actually distributing everything was a great idea. That would help students to actually listen to the instructions instead of starting to work with the materials without knowing what to do. After that she split the students into groups. In the class and in her lesson plan though, Youmna didn't plan the way she wants to split these groups. In her class, she might have gotten groups of different levels without focusing whether that was what she wanted to do or not. Dividing the groups according to certain levels would have helped her differentiate later on, especially in Science. Some students need more guidance into planning and concluding than other students.
Later on, she used one of my favorite techniques that I will be using later on in my classes: Music. In order for her to time the activity, Youmna used Music. She told her students that once the music is over, they should stop working. The music helps calm kids down (especially if the session is coming after the break). She started the music though before actually distributing the materials. She wasted some of the students’ time.
During the discussion, the students had nothing to work on. I believe that part of the objective Youmna worked on was for students to act like engineers. I think that giving students handouts to write down what they are observing would have been a good idea. I think that if kids were left with nothing to do but observe a fun activity, they would misbehave and maybe loose attention. Therefore, kids need to always be busy. That activity could have targeted the observation part of the students. They would be able to translate what they are seeing into words or drawings. That way, more discussions would have taken place about the plans that the different groups actually worked on.
As an assignment, Youmna asked students to come up with their own problem and design a solution for it. I think students need more guidance in that particular part. In general, teachers sometimes forget that they are working with kids who need to be guided into some of the problems they might face in life. For example, one student might come up with a problem of not being able to find the chocolate bar that his mother is hiding. If that is the objective behind the activity, then I think it should have been mentioned in the lesson plan.

I think Youmna’s planning was creative and very engaging to the students. I do think that it could be better with some adjustment. I think the lesson plan should be more detailed in a way where if a substitute teacher took over, she could actually follow it in details. 

My non-recorded Microteaching

In my first micro-teaching, I chose to use the lesson plan I wrote earlier on my blog.
My lesson went smoothly as I was planned. Although I have been teaching for two years, I was still feeling a bit nervous not knowing what to expect at the end of my lesson. The 5-E inquiry based type of lesson plan is still new for me to use. For that reason, I wanted to stay on the safe side and I used the explanation, elaboration and talked about the evaluation part. I was a bit afraid to try the Exploration part although I planned it perfectly.
When I presented the lesson, I was physically really sick and I didn’t think I was really prepared to present. Therefore, I worked on my self confidence. Before I distributed the worksheets to my classmates, I thought to myself not to forget to give instructions. Yet I did. What I should have done to make it more perfect was to tell them first what they are expected to do with these worksheets. First, they had to read it for a minute, then they should have filled them out as they were watching the video so that we could discuss the details right after. I was able to see some confusion in their eyes (yet they were sweet enough not to mention it). I believe that the video targeted visual learners. It allows some of the students’ imagination to actually work before I explain the lesson. I think using such a technique allows the students to know what to expect when I (the teacher) actually do the teaching. A longer video would be boring and more explanation would also be boring. Therefore, I thought that having around 4 minutes of each technique is the best way to make sure no one gets bored.
The students stayed engaged throughout the lesson. At the end of the lesson, I used the analysis part of Bloom’s Taxonomy. I wanted to make sure I use the indirect type of instruction since I used the direct instructions in the previous part. I didn’t take into consideration the way my students were divided. I thought it won’t matter. Yet after I was done, I realized that I had to divide the groups according to the way I wanted to differentiate them. I think in such an activity, I would have divided them into homogeneous groups. In that way, I would approach the students who needed more help and then guide them into the conclusion of the experiment.

I think I didn’t take that micro-teaching as seriously as I was supposed to. The 15 minutes limits did make me nervous. I didn’t know if I should actually divide the groups as I should in class or if I should give instructions as I am giving my grade 9 students. I was a bit confused. I am glad this experience wasn’t recorded. I believe I learned to fix these mistakes for my recorded microteaching. 

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Different Levels of Reflection

Reflection is an important act to be lived by individuals. Different articles define reflections as either thinking about something experienced by an individual or a practice by which it defines particular experiences in specific meaning and actions. (Loughran, 2002). Reflection helps individuals guide themselves in the different practices we live. It allows them to have better understanding of the situation they passed by and develop knowledge of acting differently.
An incident which happened in the Park was reflected in different ways:
The first account simply started narrating the story of what actually happened in the Park. At the beginning of the reflection, the writer described the different settings of the day instead of focusing on the action itself. After narrating the incidents of the day, the writer mentioned his feelings of guilt very briefly. That reflection didn't reach to any solution of what could have happened or why did that person took the action of leaving the kid. 
The second reflection included listing of the incidents with what the author actually felt at the moment. However, as the author was describing his feelings, he did not think about the reason he thought that way when looking at the sick kid. He kept saying: "I don't know". That type of reflection did not allow him to actually learn from that experience to be fixed in the future.
The third reflection had more thinking. In one paragraph, the author summarized the whole incident. It was clear and straight to the point. Any reader would be able to imagine the incident. The author then mentioned deep feelings of what was more important that day: Help the kid or prepare for the party? The level by which the author reflected was asking himself questions to evaluate himself. The writer then mentioned what he could have done. He mentioned what solutions could have been made at that moment but did not really find solutions for future experiences. He also did not think of the reason why he did not help the sick kid. At the end, the writer tried to relate the incident of the sick boy with that of previous experience: sick uncle. Although at the end, that experience was not relevant but the incident brought the writer back in time.
The last reflection is the type of reflection by which it leads to particular conclusions. After the author listed the main incidents in one paragraph, he started analyzing the situation of why he acted the way he did. Later, he did not really blame himself for what he did (Helping the kid) but he started looking through his previous experience. Then he labeled himself as "good" or "bad" following the standards of the community regarding these two adjectives. In that reflection, the author thought meta-cognitively: he thought about his own thinking and feelings. The author analyzed his current experience with a previous one to reach to an explanation of the action that happened unconsciously. Moreover, the author thought about how his feelings were affected to previous experience which led his mind and body to ignore that kid.
Reflection is an act by which an individual analyses an incident that took place in his life. It is one of the most important learning tool an individual may practice. With more practice, it helps you see the surrounding from different perspectives and with more control.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Science Lesson Plan: Digestion


Digestion is one of the topics students usually hate. It is simply hard for them to visualize what is going on inside our body through a system which is longer than our height. I designed this lesson plan to highlight the importance of chemical and mechanical digestion in our body.
The first activity I planned was to show the digestive system outside the body and simply manipulate what is going on inside through hands-on activity. In that aspect, students will be able to link what they learned to their experience through and memory of a fun experience. Their memorization of the topic will be made automatically instead of opening their book and actually memorize.
Then in order to target visual types of learners, I included a video I found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5TaS0-VaDo. I will be choosing to show my students from minute 1:46 till 4:48 as this is the part by which it will target my objectives. Throughout the video, I will be stopping to ask my students questions so that they will be the ones who will explain the lesson.
My lesson plan is an inquiry based type of lesson plan. It includes the 5-E steps. This type of lesson plans targets Bloom's Taxonomy high order questions. The different questions are included through my lesson plan. To target the students who are still at the bottom part of the taxonomy, I will be summarizing the lesson to the class in 5-10 minutes by which I ask my students questions to target their "knowledge" part.
My objectives were divided into two parts: content and process
  • Through the contents, 4 objectives are targeted in this lesson plan by which each contain an action statement, condition statement, and criterion statement.
  • As for the process skills objectives, I tried to target the higher order of Bloom's Taxonomy by which I want my student to analyze an experiment and design a solution to solve a problem. This part of my objectives is done through an evaluation worksheet. Part of this worksheet is solved individually (the analysis part) and the other part is solved through group work (the design part
To check the Lesson plan, please go to the following link: Lesson Plan
To check the handout,

Evaluation Worksheet

Digestion
Question 1 – Individual Work
In the framework of studying the importance of mechanical digestion, we realize an experiment on in vitro digestion of lipids: sheep fat.
2 test tubes A and B were put in a water bath of 37 degrees. We added Water and lipase to both tubes. We added 5 g of sheep fat in 1 cube to test tube A while added 5 g of chopped sheep fat to cube B.
The mass of sheep fat is measured at the beginning of the experiment and at the end of the experiment. The results are shows in table 1.


Mass of sheep fat (in g)
Tube
Beginning of the experiment (at 0 hr)
End of the experiment (after 3 hrs)
A
5
2
B
5
0
Table 1
1)      Analyze the results in document 2.
2)      Based on the analysis, derive a conclusion.


Question 2 – Group work
An individual went to the doctor with a problem of constipation. His doctor mentioned that he suffers from “mal-absorption” in the small intestine.
1.       What do you think the problem of this mal-absorption could be?
2.       Design a solution to help the individual’s digestive system’s absorption.