Blog Assignment

My Personal Feelings about Teaching

            As a future educator, I believe that it is my responsibility and obligation to help my students achieve.  I have had many teachers who have been helpful in my learning and understanding about information, which have helped me to decide on my future career.  One such example occurred during my first year of school here at Utah State.  At the time I was taking courses to become a physician’s assistant, but I did not love the idea of working in an office.  I wanted to be able to help people with longer goals in life.  I took a course for my humanities credit called Survey of American culture.  It was an English class that focused on house and home.  During this course I realized that I had a true love for English and since I had been in classes to receive a degree as a PA, I decided that Chemistry was also something I loved.  I have also been teaching dance classes since I was a senior in high school, and I love watching the girls grow and advance in their technique and understanding about dance.  This is how I decided that I really truly wanted to be a teacher.  Therefore, as an instructor I feel that it is my role to be an example and provider for my students.  I need to teach towards their interests and skills, and cannot let my own beliefs stand in the way of giving my students a good education to help them learn of their true passions and skills in life, so the students will know what they want to do.  I also feel that I need to be a challenger for my students.  I cannot pass someone in a class just because they have tried or have gone through hard times.  I need to push my students so that they can succeed and have the opportunity to achieve the future they desire. 

            In order to help my students have success to gain the future they desire, I need to teach with specific goals in mind.  As a science teacher, I need to address all of the learning objectives that need to be covered within that specific year/course, but I need to do this by having fun and keeping the students interests in mind.  If I can address the many interests and abilities in my course then, hopefully, I will be able to keep more students interested in the sciences and want to build a career based on what they learned from my class.  One way to do this is to have a variety of methods for the way I teach a class.  I cannot only focus on lectures with note taking.  I need to address the different learning styles of my students.  I can teach using videos, demonstrations, and labs for the more visual and hands-on learners.  I can have the traditional lecture and note taking method of teaching for the students who are more auditory and traditional learners.  I can include activities and projects for the students who are more kinesthetic learners.  I feel that it is important to include a variety of learning styles in my teaching so that I can address and teach towards the needs and interests of my students.  I also think that by altering my teaching style will help to keep the students, and myself, engaged in what we are learning.  Although, it is more difficult to try to include the different learning styles of my students, it will be more beneficial over time because it would be a way to keep the students interested and intrigued with the sciences, which is my overall goal as a science educator. 

            I feel that it is important for teachers and students to have equal amount of responsibilities.  Teachers need to provide relevant and reliable information to the students, so that the students can better understand what is expected of them and what they need to be doing in class.  Teachers need to be prepared and ready to teach every day.  They also need to be on time and present in class every day.  By coming to class prepared, on-time, and ready to teach every day the teacher can establish an appropriate and motivating work environment to the students.  I think that keeping that professional environment in the classroom allows for the students to see that the teacher is serious about teaching and allowing the students to grow and learn appropriately in the classroom.  Furthermore, students have similar responsibilities as the teacher.  They need to come to class prepared, ready to learn, and on-time.  If they are prepared then they will get more out of the lessons and activities because they will not have to ask repetitively for further information on something that was covered in previous lessons or in homework assignments.  If students come on-time and prepared then they will be more appreciative of the lesson and/or activity that is being performed.  I know that for me, I was more interested and had more fun in class when I came prepared because I wasn’t stressing about what was going on or that I didn’t get an assignment done.  I also think that it is the student’s responsibility to come to class wanting to learn.  I feel this way because a teacher and/or student can come to class everyday prepared for the class, and the teacher can have a wonderful lesson planned out, but if the student comes to class not wanting to learn then they will not get anything from the lesson.  The teacher can try to help by asking them questions or doing other forms of assessment or activities, but if the student is unwilling to learn then there is nothing the teacher can do. 

            One method that I can do to employ to these ends, being prepared and ready to teach every day, would be to have my lesson plan detailed and created more than the day before.  I can create all the lesson plans that I need at least one month before I plan to teach the lessons, so that I can adjust my meetings and the schedule of the class depending on what needs to be covered in the course.  I can also get approval on my lesson plans and converse with other teachers so that I can get help and improve the lessons that I plan to teach for the curriculum.  In order to be prepared every day I need to refer to my lesson plans at least the week before so that I can get all material gathered and ready for when I will teach the lesson.  I also need to have all the material ready and lesson plans printed at least the day before I plan to teach the lesson, so that if I need to get a substitute they will have everything needed to give an effective lesson.  This will help so the students will know that they are also expected to come to class prepared and ready to learn, and so that they will not lose a day of learning if a substitute were leading the class instead of me.

            I feel that in order to have effective lessons they need to align with the curriculum.  The best way to do this is to create your lessons based on the different sections of the textbook.  It is important to have all lessons align with one another in some sort of way, and the easiest way of doing this is to have the lessons have similar themes and topics.  I think this is why I think the easiest way to design lessons is to have them be based off the different sections of the textbook.  Although, I think it is also very effective to have labs and games that the students can do as a way of learning certain topics, especially when it is a more difficult topic to understand.  I usually refer to the internet to think of fun games and activities that I can use in my classroom to help teach the students these difficult topics.  I think the internet is a useful resource to help spark your thoughts and creativity to come with a really good and effective lesson that the students will be able to use to remember the topics covered.  In order to decide on what topics I should cover in class I refer to the common core state standards and see what the students need to be able to do by the time they are finished with the course.  I choose the topics/ chapters that I teach based on the common core state standards.  I also use this as a reference to decide how long I need to spend on certain topics.  One example of this is that with chemistry, especially first year chemistry, it is more important for the students to understand the basic components of the periodic table than that of organic chemistry components.  Therefore, I would spend at least two to three weeks on the basic components and organization of the periodic table rather than that of organic chemistry, since according to the common core state standards that is what the students need to learn and understand.  I would only touch shortly on organic chemistry topics, and only if there was enough time in the course outline.

            Personally, I believe that inquiry based learning can be very effective, but it is also something that takes a lot of time because it involves more student involvement and participation.  I think it can be effective when you teach a concept that is easier for students to understand and learn more by themselves.  With chemistry I think it would be effective to use inquiry based learning as a form of a lab. You could tell the students that they work for a land clean-up company and there have been reports of chemical spills around the area in which they live (give a list of the chemicals).  The student’s job would be to work in groups of three to four and find a way to properly clean up the chemical spills, and a way to prevent it from occurring in the future.  This would give the students the opportunity to learn more about the hazardous chemicals and figure out ways to properly dispose of them and prevent the spills from occurring in the future. 

            While I would like to use inquiry based learning for all of my teaching strategies there is not enough time to use it for everything.  This is why I feel that student based learning is appropriate to use throughout the course of the class.  Student based learning is effective because it does not take as much time to go through a subject as inquiry-based lessons.  Two specific times that student based learning should be used in a chemistry class is when going over the periodic table and stoichiometry.  There is so much information involved with the basic components of the periodic table that the students need to learn that there would not be enough time during the course of the class for the students to use inquiry based learning.  Another time that student based learning is effective is when teaching stoichiometry because it is a very difficult topic that a lot of students struggle with, so it is important for the teacher to make sure that all students understand how to do stoichiometry.  It would also take a lot of time to try to teach the students how to use inquiry based learning for stoichiometry.  Personally, I think it is effective to use both student based learning and inquiry based learning simultaneously, so that the students get different methods of teaching instructions, and so you can monitor the amount of time it takes for the students to learn a specific topic in the course.

            As far as learning goes, I feel that students learn the best when they have variations in the way they learn and are taught.  I know that for me I learned the best when I had a variety in the lessons.  I always enjoyed when we got to do different activities in classes, such as, watching videos, coloring pages, drawing diagrams, playing games, doing labs, and writing assignments.  I wish that I had more of these kinds of activities in my high school classes because most of them were mainly the teacher lectures and the students take notes on the lecture, then we complete a worksheet at the end of the lecture. I think more students would enjoy school if there was more variety in the way teachers gave instruction.  I think it would also help students who learn in different methods.   For me I am a very visual learner, so when I have a lot of lecture where the teacher just talks I struggle.  Therefore, I think it is beneficial to teach concepts in different modes so that students who learn in different ways can have the opportunity to learn and understand more effectively.  I also think that by doing this there would be more success in student achievement because then the lessons would be addressed more towards all students rather than those who learn best by lecture.  I feel this way based on my own schooling and from observing other students in the classroom.  I have witnessed that there are very few students who learn best from lecture only, but that is what most teachers employ because it is the fastest way of teaching students.  I think that, based on what I have witnessed, that there needs to be more variety instruction to help with students learning and success.  Therefore, when I teach I want to use very minimal lectures, and have more visual, verbal, and kinesthetic activities because from my observations that is how the students learn the best because it helps to keep the students attention and it gets them thinking more about the activities and lessons, which help them to understand more.

Blogs that discuss teaching:
http://edublogs.org/curriculum-corner-using-a-blog-with-students/
http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/student-blogging-activity-3-beginner-teaching-quality-commenting/
http://onlinewritingteacher.blogspot.com/2014/09/blogging-about-blogs.html

Final Blog Post- Synthesis

This course was actually very useful for me because I will actually be able to use the lesson plans that we created.  They were very helpful because I can use the same lesson or adapt my lesson to fit with other subjects or topics.  I also have many ideas of activities I can use to teach, which I really liked about the class.  I didn't just do assignments that don't have a purpose.  One thing I plan to do is really use effective vocabulary lessons.  I have mainly seen teachers who have the students copy words and definitions from the textbook, but I want my students to have information they can actually use.  I plan to have the students learn the words in context, and then doing fun activities such as riddle me this, or charades of some type.  I think that by doing this more students will learn and remember the words.  They will also think there is a purpose for the activity rather than just busy work.  I plan to use comprehension instructions, especially focusing on the before, during, and after of readings.  I want to give students good before activities such as having them make predictions to help them with their readings.  Also good during activities such as following up on those predictions are relevant because it will help the students to really understand what the text is saying.  Furthermore, an after activity such as, writing a paragraph on what they learned will really help the students to understand the topic.

Overall, I learned a lot throughout the course.  I now have a lot of ideas that I can use while creating lesson plans.  Especially, fun activities, so the students will find joy in learning and not just think I am having them do bus work.  I also learned how to address and teach towards multiple learning styles and environments.  One way to do this is by having variety in the lessons and activities.  This class was very useful and I will refer to it multiple times in my future as a teacher.

 

blog post: your choice, classroom observations

This semester I have had the opportunity to attend Logan High School to observe a ninth grade Biology class for my science methods course.  In the class the students receive vocabulary words that they must learn for each unit in the class.  After learning about how to use vocabulary instruction appropriately, I realized that the teacher does his vocabulary instructions in a very ineffective way.  He hands out a list of their vocabulary words and has the students copy the definitions from the book.  They do this on the first day of studying the unit, which means that most of them forget most of the words by the time they learn it.  I think it would be more beneficial to teach the students the vocabulary words as you are going over them in the lecture.  You could have the words highlighted on the PowerPoint, and then do some sort of review with the students at the end by having them play a matching game.  It would also help if the students did something other than just copying the vocabulary words from the book.  One thing that would be fun in the class is to play charades with the words because they are all scientific words, so it would be fun to watch some of the things the students would come up with for each of the words.

Affective Dimensions of Writing

Personally, I would not consider myself to be a writer.  I know that is strange considering I am an English major, but I am actually a terrible writer when it comes to creativity and design.  I have to try extra hard to state a specific point in writing, and I am terrible when it comes to my grammar, as most of you can probably see. However, I do enjoy writing.  I remember as a child I would tell little stories with pictures and captions.  My mom recently found a picture I drew when I was about four that showed my family camping.  It had our "trailer" labeled along with the "mowtans", each family member, and our dog.  I never realized that this was writing, but fora four year old it was a great detailed picture.  For recreation writing now, I mainly just do instagram.  I enjoy looking at people's pictures and commenting on them. I also really enjoy keeping a journal of funny things that my little girl says like how she calls a button "butt" I want to preserve the funny memories we ha e of her so the word journal has been a really fun thing for us to do as a family.  One writing assignment I remember doing in school was for my Survey of American Culture class I took when I was a freshman in college.  For the assignment we had to choose a style of home and do a project that consisted of at least thirty pages of work.  For my project I created a scrapbook of the anniversary inn.  It was such a fun project because I got to tour the hotel and see all of the fun themed rooms.  I enjoyed this assignment because I got to be creative with the report without it only being a paper.  It was much more enjoyable to me because I got to choose how to report the information.  My least favorite assignment I have ever done was the grant project we were required to write in high school.  My teacher did not give us much instruction on how to complete it, and it was just very long and tedious.  The thing I disliked the most was that the teacher said it was very important and we would have to use it all the time in our careers, but I can honestly say I do not remember how to write a grant because I have never created one since then.  I know I will have to have my students write assignments that they do not particularly enjoy, but I will try to make them as fun as possible by allowing the students to do other forms of writing like scrapbooks, facebook posts, image stories, etc.  I do not want the students to hate to write, and I want to see as much creativity in the students work as I can because I think if I had more choices in the style of writing I could use I would be a much better writer and enjoy it more than I do.

Blog Post 2 Connecting School and Home Experiences

Image of Kenneth Thomasma with a Naya Nuki statue

When I was in fifth grade, my parents took me to a book reading on Naya Nuki, written by Kenneth Thomasma. The event was held at my local elementary school in Richmond, UT.  After attending the book reading, I discovered that I had a love for reading.  My parents bought me a signed copy of the book, and I finished the book the next day.  If I had not attended the book reading, I don't know if I would have found my love of books at such an early age.
 
This experience may have shaped what I think about the subject of English by helping me to discover how much I love to read.  It does not matter the style of book, I just love to read.  I think it also helped me because I was able to meet the author and have him sign my copy of the book, which for a fifth grader is pretty awesome.  I think that having that personal connection made me want to actually read the book.  It also lead me to read the rest of the books that he wrote, which led me to read other books like The Boxcar Children and Harry Potter.
 
I can use this knowledge in my own teaching by informing students of events that have to do with English that are going on in the community.  I can let them know when authors are holding book signings or book readings that they can attend.  I can also invite authors to either do a book talk in our classroom, or have a skyped session with an author of a book we are reading.  I feel that by doing this students may also discover they have a love of reading because they have a personal connection with the author. 

Hey everyone, my name is Kelbie Jackson.  I am from Richmond, UT, but I currently live in Fielding, UT.  I have been married for almost four years, and I have a beautiful little girl named Paisley.  She will be two in November.  My husband and I are expecting our second baby in January, who is going to be a little boy.  I am studying English and Chemistry and I hope to teach both those subjects in high school.  I would love to teach tenth grade, but I wouldn't mind teaching twelfth grade.  I would also like to be either a cheerleading or drill team coach at the school I teach.   My hobbies include dancing, sewing, cooking, and reading. 
For me English is the best subject ever because you can have a lot of fun while teaching it.  You are a lot less limited to the activities, books, and topics you teach because you can relate so many different works to one another.  It is a subject that allows students to express themselves through their reading and writing, and I really like that about English because it allows shy students, like myself, to express themselves without having to speak.
Chemistry to me is a subject that allows you to have fun and watch things explode.  I like it because it is very structured and you have to follow things precisely in order for them to work out.  However, it is fun because you get to play around with chemicals and watch how chemicals react with one another.  It is also great because you get to learn how everyday things are created.  For example, lotions and shampoos. 
The thing that drew me into teaching English and Chemistry was two of my high school teachers I had so much fun in their class that I knew I wanted to do something with English and Chemistry.  After taking a few of the classes in college I realized that what I wanted to do most was teach these subjects so I could try to influence and help other students love the subjects just as I do.
I would say that literacy is an understanding based on how well students understand and comprehend a specific task or skill to enhance ones life in an unbiased way.
I think literacy definitely relates to my discipline because someone can be able to read and write or do chemistry perfectly, but unless they are able to apply it in their own life they are not considered literate in English or chemistry.  For example, a student can read The Life of Pi all the way through and write a paper on it does not mean a student is literate with the novel.  However, if they learned a few survival techniques from reading the novel then they would be considered literate.