The Classroom Down the Hall

There's a lot to be said about getting views from different vantage points. 

For example, in efforts to gain a better understanding about the way in which other classrooms are run at Midd-West High School, I was assigned to perform an observation in a science classroom. There's much purpose behind this assignment, agriculture is an applied science so there are a lot of connections that can be made to delivery and management of my classroom. 

I observed Mrs. Shellenberger's Biology class, primarily 10th and 11th grade students. I observed this class on a lab day, however; I appreciated getting the opportunity to observe how Mrs. Shelleberger prepares and manages the students to complete the lab assignment. 

Mrs. Shellenberger was very enthusiastic, clearly passionate about her subject area and embraced the energy of a last period class. This was quite evident by her tie-dye lab coat she was sporting that day, she does her best to make her Biology classroom a positive learning environment for her students. 

I have a strong appreciation for Mrs. Shellenbegers well established classroom routine, something I absolutely strive to build in my own classroom. This routine was very definitive but allowed for flex room for a little bit of fun, like singing happy birthday to a student. She did a phenomenal job at helping her students understand her expectations for the class period. Her lab packets were extremely thorough, setting students up for success. The clarity she worked hard up front to provide, proved worthwhile because she had much more time to enjoy the process and help students dig a little deeper into the lab instead of answering and clarifying over small details. 

She also utilized several tools to effectively manage the class time. During the lab students were held accountable to complete tasks by a digital count-down clock on the screen. She also posted her class agenda, with time limits on the board, so each student understands the plan and goals for the day. Midd-West High School has forty minute periods, which fly by, so strategies like both of these help maximize learning time. 

Simply put, this assignment proved valuable not only as an opportunity to gain some tips and tricks for my teacher tool box, but also to help me to continue to understand the workings of Midd-West High School. 

Simply put, I have a long way to go before I can master the classroom as well as Mrs. Shellenberger did. But I am confident in my training from Penn State and coaching during my time here at Midd-West to help me get on my way!

Until Next Time, K. Janae

The Teac{HERR} Way - Real Deal, Real Life, Real Close

I share with you almost every week about my experiences in my contextual teaching lab. These lab assignments are fairly low-stakes, I teach to four of my peers and one of my professors. As our lab assignments progress, things get a little more intense. We teach for longer periods of time, we implement role-playing to practice classroom management skills and performance expectations get higher. Our "capstone" lab, if you will, is our micro-teaching experience.

Micro-teaching is a three-day lab assignment, where I am placed at a local high school and teach a class period a day to their agriculture students. I had the pleasure to work alongside two of my peers at the Central Pennsylvania Institute (CPI), which is a career and technical center, who's agriculture program is focused on Horticulture and Landscape Management. I taught three lessons on asexual plant reproduction and plant propagation.

And yes, you are correct. I got to teach some real-life kiddos this week. And yes, you are still correct. I still am so very excited to have my own agriculture classroom.

That hype aside, like always, I'll share my Gems (the good stuff), Opps (areas where I need to work on) and my Targets (my goals for next time).

Gems- 

• Check for Understanding. I've been working to be very intentional in this area. Whether it is distinctively pausing the learning to see where we've been and where we're going or if it's using it as a tool to help rein the students back in or to call them to a higher level of thinking, I've found this to be a very powerful tool, that I pride myself in working hard to master.
• Effective Questioning. Again, this is another area that I want to excel in. I want my students to confidently answer questions, but in the same vein, not be afraid to ask them and actively seek responses. 
• Preparation. I was super thankful that I spent some extra hours to prepare all my needed materials for all three days of teaching the day before I started. Interestingly enough, crazy things happened and I ended up not needing a lot of them; however, because of that preparation, I was able to be much more adaptable and flexible when the need arose.

Opps- 

• Technology. It will fail. Time and time again. I know now the importance of test runs on my technology. I wanted to use this week formative assessment tool called ExitTicket to evaluate my students learning throughout the three days I was there. Well, slow internet, different versions of phones and a pile of other things, made this technology usage quite challenging. 
• Timing. The nature of my micro-teaching placement made designing "class periods" a little difficult for my peers and I. I struggled to plan well for the 50 minutes I was allotted. On the bright side, I had plenty of content that I still could have covered, which is surely better then being short, I need to continue to work at judging the amount of content I have, the abilities of my students and the minutes I have in a class so that I can better serve my students. 
• Higher Order. Though I felt good about my ability to ask effective questions during this three day early field experience, I was challenged to keep seeking out questions that call my students to a higher level of thinking. This too, will come with practice. But it will also come with more familiarity with the content that I am teaching. 

Targets- 

• Adapt and Overcome. This should probably be the anthem of my micro-teaching experience.
  Flexibility my friends! It's a teachers key to success! (That and lots of coffee) There was a serious of somewhat-but-really-not-that unfortunate events that came to my peers and I during these past few days. Power outages, technology failures and mandatory assemblies just to name a few. But sometimes, all you can do is roll with the punches - adapt and overcome.
• Teach to the Modalities. I was pleased with my ability to incorporate variability into my lessons this week, but even still I want to make sure my various learning activities in my lesson are reaching the needs of my audio, visual AND kinesthetic learners.
• Lifetime of Learning. Here's the thing, I will never know it all. My knowledge of agricultural topics may only always be an inch deep and a mile wide. But the important part is that I devote myself to a lifetime of learning. I need to constantly be seeking professional development, current events, emerging technology and the list goes on and on. I want to stay relevant so that my students can stay relevant.

Simply put, I am super thankful for a program that makes this early field experience part of our course work. I learned some really valuable lessons, but even more so, I left refueled, ready to knock out these last 30 days (holy cow!) until the big final presentations.

Simply put, I just really like high school agriculture students. They really are the coolest. 

Until next time, K. Janae

The Teac{HERR} Way - Explore, Create, Discover

You may have been keeping up with K. Janae's High Fives lately, and if not, don't stress! Here's the latest. In that blog post, I stressed the importance of this desire I have to create a culture of curiosity in my classroom. I want my students to feel like they have the ability to create, discover and own their learning. 

Our contextual lab for this week helped me develop the skills to do just that. We dove into Inquiry-Based Instruction this week, and as always, I'll share my Gems (the good stuff), Opps (areas where I need to work on) and my Targets (my goals for next time). My targets for this lab were to Teach for the Modalities and Direction Follow-Ups. I'm sensing growth in some areas, but am fully aware that I've still got plenty of work to do.

 Gems - 

• Discovery Sheets. In efforts to help ease the process and be sure that each step of the inquiry process (question, evidence, explanation, connection, communication) was completed. I gave them pieces of what would then become their "discovery packets" as we continued throughout the class. This help guide and organize thoughts, and though we didn't get to the last step of communication in the lab, this packet will play a pivotal role in helping students share their findings.
• Literacy Connection. I didn't even plan this part! I paused the learning process at one point to talk through and review some key points and connect vocabulary to what we were doing that day. This led to continual opportunities for check-points, where I paused the learning and created 'marbling' as our word of the day. I also used effective questioning to help establish this cross-curricular connections. 
• Student-Led. I felt fairly good about my ability to allow my students to create their own question for the day. I was able to give them complete power to explore as the "experimenters" that day. Quite honestly, I had the fun part, I got to sit-back and watch and listen as they made observations and discovered differences in fat content in meat.

Opps -

• Student Frustration. This instructional method is so student-led, I become simply a facilitator. I need to be cautious not to rush my students in the process, but to help by asking guiding questions. I don't want my students to become frustrated or unmotivated in the process, I want them to be empowered to feel as though their learning is their own!
• Scientific Content. Inquiry-Based Instruction is built upon the scientific method. Though I had my students create a hypothesis and record data, I didn't follow through in my content with some "scientific" connections. If I was doing this particular lesson again, I'd want to utilize some of those check-points to talk about chemical changes that are occurring or the structure of lipids/fats.
• Felt Need. I want to be continually asking myself if I am truly being purposeful with my activities in my lessons. Looking back, I should have spent more time revisiting the responses the students shared on the board before we dove into creating a hypothesis and helping them understand the power they have as "experimenters" and connecting what was learned earlier in the unit to this discovery day.

Targets - 

• Learning Check-Points. As I practice Problem-Based or Inquiry-Based Instruction, the more I realize that there can be some power in freezing the process to connect where we've been, where we are and where we're going. It's a tool that I hope to continually implement in my classroom. 
• Higher-Level Thinking. Inquiry-Based Instruction takes patient conditioning of my students to be comfortable and aware of the process. However, I think that this method is a great way to enhance and develop critical thinking and creativity in my students and push them to make cross-curricular connections and think a higher level.
• With Purpose.This has been a target a few times for me in this contextual lab experience, but it's something that I want to continually work at. Am I being purposeful in my planning? My students absolutely deserve it!

Simply put, this lab was different then others, a little trickier too. But I am confident in my desire to create a classroom environment where my students are conditioned to discover and explore. 

Simply put, I am excited to play a role in the uncovering of student's passions through teaching methods like Inquiry-Based Instruction. 

Until next time, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - Cultivating a Culture of Curiosity

I long for my classroom to be a place of discovery. 

Discovering career opportunities, passions, relationships, abilities, leadership, potential. 

As teachers, we ideally want to be engaging. We want our students to want to be in our class - what if our class is the only reason that our students even come to school?! A fantastic way to add variability to the classroom is through inquiry-based instruction.

One of my favorite definitions of inquiry-based instruction is this one... 

Three cheers for student-centered learning environments!

There are five steps to the inquiry process. Hence, this week's High Five: Learning Through Inquiry.

1. Question
1. This is like the signal word of a direction set. This is the question that gets the gears grinding, that triggers the thoughts and explodes into exploration. So for example, students walk into the room and see two soybean plant samples. Why does sample A seem to be growing faster then sample B?
2. Investigate
1. Now we put our detective hats on. We get out the magnifying glasses, the yellow steno notebooks and trench coats. Using some previous knowledge, students run tests, monitor field and growth conditions and keep track of results.  
3. Use Evidence to Describe, Explain & Predict
1. Now, a few days later, like true researchers students will dig deeper and evaluate the data they have collected. They will rule out collected information that does not lead them closer to a solution and use other information to predict other causes
4. PLOT TWIST! 
1. In a really successful inquiry-based learning environment, steps 2 and 3 would keep happening until students reach a more solidified solution.
5. Connect Evidence to Knowledge
1. And this is where all the magic comes together! It's the ah-ha moment, where students discovery and curiosity leads them to a solution as to why plant sample A was growing faster then sample B.
6. Share Findings
1. This has been a learning process. It's important to share and celebrate what your students have discovered, uncovered and created. It's also crucial to reflect on the learning process. Do your students understand why they explored the difference in growth in the soybean plants? What new skills and knowledge did they gain from this experience?

**NOTE: The teacher did nothing throughout those five steps. The process happens because students are performing each of those steps. The teacher prepares the initial question, and follows students throughout the process asking guiding questions like "how do you know that?" "can you tell me more?" or "but WHY do you think that?"

Here's another cool resource that I thought tied nicely into the inquiry process!

Simply put, my students will be the ones that solve world hunger, cure cancer, preserve natural resources. I have to cultivate a culture of curiosity in my classroom. 

Simply put, I want my students to be life-long learners. I mean they have to be if their going to save up natural resources, produce a cure for cancer and feed the world! I want to use inquiry-based instruction so I can teach my students to learn to learn - a skill that will last them a lifetime!

Here's a High Five from Me to You, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - How do we know they got it?

You plan, plan, plan. You create this engaging lessons and design sweet supplemental materials and labs. You call guest speakers, show video clips, get your hands dirty. But how do you know they got it?! We assess. We write multiple choice questions and draft task sheets. We count participation points and mark-up public speaking manuscripts. 

I knocked out a High Five this week with Five Ways to Assess students. Five ways to ensure that they're getting it.

1. Check for Understanding

• Formative Assessment - let's hit the pause button here for a hot second and make sure everyone's on the same page. Because I am doing me student teaching at a school that is one-to-one I am interested in ways to check for understanding digitally. I love this infographic and its digital (and non-digital) formative assessment recommendations.

2. Student Portfolios

• In agriculture education, we have the privilege of teaching in uniquely designed classrooms. Someday's it is a room with four walls and desks, somedays its a chemistry lab, a greenhouse, a field, an agribusiness, a welding shop, you get the point. What about assessing students experiential learning through the format of student portfolios. Not only does this allow students to see how far they come in a marking period or semester, but also provides them with a compilation of projects to show their skills to a future employer. Application, application, application!

3. Peer-Assessment

• Let's create a classroom culture where our students feel comfortable giving and receiving constructive criticism from their peers. I want my classroom to be an environment of respect where my students constantly work to build each other up and make each other next time. I think peer-assessment can be more effective than shared rubrics. What if we used our strong students to help coach weaker students? 

4. Self-Assessment

• Reflection. Growth Mindset. How well did I do? What will make me better for next time? Who said the teacher was the only one who had to do the evaluating of students work? Self-assessment can be a powerful tool to give students ownership of their own progress. Here's some great questions to guide students to high levels of thinking in self-assessment and reflection.

5. Backwards Design. 

• In efforts to make assessments most meaningful and effective, it's important to include them in key parts of backwards design planning. This video talks about assessment done in ways to develop rigor in students, but makes a really awesome point about asking "how will I know?" So how will I know everything for my summative unit assessment? 

• Major Assessments > Intermediate Assessments or Check-Ins > Activities

Simply put, as educators let's ask ourselves, are our assessments authentic? Are the tests, projects and presentations really telling us if our students "got it"?

Simply put, I don't want to assess my students just to assess. I'm not about teaching to the test. I'm about teaching to create connections and dig deeper.

Here's a High Five from Me to You, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - Open-Ended Learners

I want my classroom to be future-oriented and career-driven. That means we need application and discovery and failures and successes and room to make messes. All of that sounds like a recipe for Project-Based Learning.

I could have given you a "high ten" of all the great things about project-based learning and inquiry in the classroom, but for the sake of time, here's K. Janae's High Five on Project-Based Learning...

1. 21st Century Skills

• Project-based learning very naturally develops 21st Century Skills in its participants. Quite clearly, project-based learning enhances problem-solving and other Life and Career Skills. This teaching method also cultivates collaboration, technological, communication and other incredibly valuable and marketable 21st Century Skills that I want to see my students gain from my classroom.

2. Use and Need for Effective Questioning

• My last High Five discussed five points reflecting my readings on effective questioning, I found it interesting that much of this weeks reading credits a lot of project-based learning success to asking the right questions. Questioning can help strategically scaffold throughout the project-based learning process. Questioning can help make connections to real-life applications both in and outside of the content area. Questioning can help facilitate reflection and revision throughout the learning process.

3. Student Voice and Choice

• I love that project-based and inquiry based learning give my students total ownership on their learning experience. I love that it swings doors wide open for hands-on application, a concept that agricultural education classes do quite well, in my opinion. The discovery that happens in these instructional methods breeds student voice and student choice; I want for my students to feel as though they did the learning all by themselves. How exciting?!

4. Keep It In Context

• Project-based learning really only works when its context of what's being taught. Am I connecting the project directly to a real-life application or situation that my students will use down the road? This can be accomplished by aligning the process with goals, or essentially learning objectives. These goals can, and probably should be, student designed, in efforts to give the most ownership to the learning process. 

5. Am I Being Purposeful?

• There is a difference between doing projects and doing project-based learning. Quite simply, we can't just do the assignment to do the assignment. There should be no designing posters to design posters or PowerPoints for the sake of PowerPoints. The completion of the project should require that students are learning the material presented. 

Edutopia sums up Project-Based Learning well in this clip... (even if they kind of snagged my "high five" tagline)

Simply put, let's get our students to start thinking open-ended. Let's get our students to ask "what creates change?"

Simply put, I want my students to discover and apply and inquire in my classroom. 

A High Five From You to Me, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - Excuse me, I have a question.

You mean to tell me there's a right way and a wrong way to ask a question?

Better yet, you mean to tell me that I can ask questions that will stretch my students thinking beyond their normal capacity, questions that will help develop further interest and critical thinking skills?

Yes, yes I do. Here's my high five of questions all about questions. (See what I did there?!)

1. Who?

• Who asks questions? Not just me. As the facilitator of learning, I play a pivotal role in asking the right questions at the right times. I will use questions to lead and to assess, but I'm not the only one who should ask the questions. In fact, I want to create a classroom environment where questions are frequent and welcome; a room where we leave without questions. What if we trained our students to ask questions at higher levels of thinking? 

2. What?

• What kinds of questions do I ask? Questions don't simply need to serve the purpose of assessing. I want to ask questions that cultivate thinking. Questions can solicit direct responses, like a yes or no. Questions can be rhetorical and stimulate thought process without a necessary thought process. Questions can be used to refocus or rephrase. The kinds of questions I ask are quite simply endless, the real question is if that question was effective.

3. Where?

• Where can I ask questions? Quite simply, you can ask them anywhere. Cornell University suggests that questions can be used in a variety of contexts, such as discussions, small-groups and writing activities. Questions can be used as a method of assessment in open or closed form, multiple choice and matching. 

4. When?

• When is it appropriate to ask questions? Not surprisingly, questioning does have an appropriate time and place. In order for questions to be most effective, they must be strategically placed to help connect content, review, assess or dig deeper. As a teacher, time is of the essence. Intentional use of learning time is crucial, so it is important to not waste time asking when we should be telling, or falling into the "question trap" as this article explores.

5. How?

• How do I design better questions? Cornell University gives an extensive list of ideas to design more effective questions, (here) but I especially like their recommendation to be mindful of the day's learning objectives when designing questions. When I am consistently aligning to what I want my students to know by the end of the class, I can be sure to have questions strategically placed that check for understanding, review what was just presented and make connections to content learned elsewhere.

Simply put, I want to be an educator who is an effective user of probing questions; calling my students to think deeper and make connects as frequently as possible. 

Simply put, what questions are there? ;)

Here's a High Five from You to Me, K. Janae