Tech in the Class

Teaching is a lot of fun. The students in Mr. Larsen's class were awesome. They jumped into what ever we put in front of them. Something that I feel we did really well is choosing our lesson and making our lesson plan very interactive and well paced keeping the students on task and engaged in the learning activities. Teaching however was also really hard. We never had an official run through all together to test our timing and transitions between activities which would have helped a lot with flow and classroom management. When we broke off into groups it took the first group and half the time with the second to really get a hold on how to keep them focused on the task at hand and not in their own imaginations. Boy teaching is a lot of stressful work that can really pay off in the end when it all comes together. And if it doesn't it is still a lot of stressful work that will hopefully pay off after a little more stressful work and preparation. I am excited to be a teacher, however I am also ever scared. Scared of how much work it takes to make just one lesson and have to do that for a week of eight classes a day but excited to get to teach those lesson plans and see them pan out and get to help the students learn something that will help them in their lives. The best part of the trip to the elementary school has to be seeing the smallest boy in my group go up in front of the class and sit on the ginormous chair that they designed and made with a huge smile on his face.

Lesson Plans

The seminar this week as well as the lesson prep for the sixth graders has been a real eye opener. Now I know why every teacher that I have visited and talked to has told me to steal as many lesson plans as I possibly can. It takes a lot of work to write one from scratch and have it be good. Then there is always the test period where your first two periods have to be the dummies so you can get all the quirks out. A lesson plan that is already made and tested on students that you can tweak to your students specific needs sounds better and better every time we make one. One thing that Shum has done that has been really helpful is he had everyone is his class get a Dropbox account so that he could just put all his hand outs and power points there for us to take and save.

One thing that is comforting is that all the other teachers at the schools around where ever I end up will have had to go through the same thing already and will probably be more than willing to share around lesson plans to just make everyones life easier.

Something I believe Colin mentioned was to get a job now doing what you want to teach. This is something that I have always tried to do, sometimes with better luck than others, but it is very important. With having to have the work experience in order to get the endorsements you need to teach what you want to it becomes critical or you will end up teaching something else because there is someone else more qualified.

I also liked the idea of pretty much getting a lot of the first time teacher stress and problems over with during your student teaching. If you can put everything into it you will get everything out of it. Figuring out the working of a classroom and development of lesson plans for an entire class is something you can get a hold of while you have help. It sounds a lot better to me.

You know I think this becoming a teacher thing will work out.

Lesson Plans and Reality

This week has been a really good experience. I have really enjoyed the group project of combining everyones ideas and ways of thinking and teaching into one lesson plan. We have come up with things that I never would have thought of or at least it would have taken me a whole lot longer to come up with and even then it wouldn't have been as good as when we are all working on it together. One of the hardest things is to get a good anticipatory set that will draw the students in and then lead them into your lessons smoothly.

It has been really great this week to go over the reality of teaching with Geoff's thoughts as well as a guest speaker (I really wish I could remember his name.) I had been worried a little about income mostly because once I told my mom I wanted to become a teacher she flipped. She kept going off about how I wouldn't make enough to support a family and I would have to have two or three jobs on top of teaching, etc.... It came to the point where I decided...OK great. I will just have to work another job. Now that we have gone over that part I will probably still have another job for at least the start in order to stay on top of things and so that we can have what we need especially with my wife and myself being from different states and there going to be a lot of travel happening. But really I don't need to be a millionaire. I never have been and I don't know how much I would enjoy it if I was. Actually if I had that much money I would spend it on farmland and start an Adventure ranch or something with my brother so it wouldn't be a bad thing but it just isn't a priority for me to make more money than I could ever need to spend. I grew up in a small town and I learned how to work and live with what you have and I enjoy living that way.

I feel what makes the biggest difference in my decision to become a teacher is the same as most... I just want to help people. I love the age group that we will be working with and I honestly want to help them through a very difficulty point in life as far as self worth, personality, and future.

I'm sure I have talked about him before but I had a Drivers-ED teacher in high school who taught us a whole lot more than drivers-ed. He was a teacher who took the moral dimensions of teaching to the maximum potential without any of the students knowing he was doing it because he just lived it. His life was teaching. Having lost his own, he treated and made his students and, being a coach, his athletes his family. He is one of the biggest reasons I want to do this and for the same reason he did it. He cared about the students and knew he could have an influence for the best in each and every one of them if he put in the effort to do so... and he did. I will never for get that. I just wish he was still around so I could learn more from him.

Being a teacher isn't easy. But I think it will be worth it and that I will enjoy doing it. That is what matters most.

Why Tests?

I have been thinking a lot about what we went over on Thursday about test writing and test taking. I have never understood why someone would write a test and then teach you how to take it without learning any of the material. I have known people who have spent more time studying how to take tests than study the material they cover and quite often they would do better on them than most. So how can a teacher really test what is being learned?
Putting the ideas together that we brainstormed and reviewed in class I have come to the conclusion that the only way to really test a students knowledge is to have them apply it. In math this wouldn't be a given equation but a story problem where the student has to desifer the information and from it deduct what to do with it. In technology it would be an assignment given with specific criteria with out a step by step manual how it needs to be done. Dr. C's woods class I feel did this well. Dr. C was always giving test on the different types of wood and the machines but they only showed how good the students were at quick memorization. It was teaching us how to use the equiptment and then turning us loose to build something that we could only imagine and create it using those skills he taught. We learned not so much from the lecture but by putting the lecture into action and helping one another in the process to remember and perform as needed.
This takes us back to Gong's idea of a Learner/Teacher. As far as I can understand it is the best way to learn and the best way to teach others is by being teachable.
It has been interesting to look back on teachers I have had in the past and see their personalities and their desire for our learning show in how they acted and how they taught. It would always drive me crazy when I would have a teacher who acted like they hated their job. They wanted nothing to do with the students and only looked forward to going home at the end of the day. I try not to be so harsh knowing how hard a teaching career can be but as Geoff said at the beginning of this class being a teacher is either what you want to do 100% or not at all. If you are not all there for those you teach than you would be of more benefit somewhere else.
I cant think of any place I would rather be and that dose seem weird to me but I know of no other place that allows me do have the impact on others lives for the good as being a teacher does. I really just want to help people. The schooling wont do it for me I have to be the one to teach them more than just technology but to teach them how to BE and to truly live happiness. I might sound a little preachy right now but its the little things like respect for others, kindness, patience, diligence, motivation, passion, and love. That is what makes all the difference in someones life and what needs to be learned. Understanding the inner workings of a computer or the structure of an atom is something that life can be lived without but history has proven that happiness only comes from wanting the same for all around you.
I am excited to have the opportunity to teach the 6th grade class I hope we can teach something that will be of benefit to them in their lives.

Compare and Contrast

I went and visited Braden Boss at Springville High School and it was beneficial because he had a lot of good ideas of what to teach and how to animate the students to do well.

As a tech teacher he really jumped head long into the technology aspect. There was the idea of having text voting poles during the announcements, he uses a class blog to control assignments and keep the students informed, he has a Facebook account for the class to do formative and summative assessments, when he sends his journalism students out they text in when they need help or have a question.

Another was a film festival that is held at the end of the year of all the students work. I did that once in an Animation class in High School and we were pumped and working over time to get our projects done. I actually think that is the first time I have ever pulled an all nighter to do school work. But the pint is that is was something to get the students excited. Even the ideas of inviting an expert or someone from a college to be present at the festival or Premiere to me would excite the students to really do their very best work and really put in the time that is required. I know they use this here at the university. The animation department just held their premiere of their latest animation on Tuesday of this week and they had someone from ILM come and talk about the field and give some pointers in what they were doing.

We have gone over this concept in class a little as well of when you give an assignment if there is no follow up on that assignment then why would the students even do it.

From visiting Mr. Moss's class at Wasatch last time and then now seeing Braden Boss it has really been an eye opener in how important classroom management is to the effectiveness and professionalism of the students. Both classes were having a different day than usual whether by technical difficulties or planned happenstance. The difference was in how they handled the situation given to them. Braden is more of a treat them as what they are. He treats his students like high school students, like teenagers and he does it in a teenagerish way. His students treat him more like a buddy than a teacher. When the schedule changed he let the students govern themselves as teenagers as to what they were going to do that day in class rather than giving them direction.

Mr. Moss treats his class like professionals and expects them to act like it. He has them on deadlines and requires professional dress and demeanor while presenting. When things shut down in a much more unexpected way for his class he picked it up and ran with it. He had them start working on ideas for the future and taught them a concept that wasn't meant for their class but had some application after tying it in through a discussion afterwords.

I think what Geoff said about the new teachers feeling young is true. They feel young compared to the other teachers and faculty because they probably are however no matter how young you are you are older than a high school student and are therefore older.

I had one of my college professors who had a problem with this because he looked younger and taught with a lot of energy and acted younger because of it. He was having problems with his students giving him no respect and denying his authority to even teach. It was a little extreme but I noticed how he was really affected by it. He became more structured but still kept the energy. He demanded more respect while still keeping a good relationship with the students. It is possible and necessary to do for the students to understand your roll as a L/T and their rolls as well.

Teaching and Learning

This week has been a real eye opener. It has been great to get to look back and watch the first two teaching clips and just see myself teach. What I learned from that plus the feed back from the class these past two classes has been really beneficial in that it has given me more to look at as well as to look for in myself and in my teachers.

I really like the idea of having a scribe or having someone run the computer for you as you teach. The front of the class just sucks the teacher away from the learning and gives the students free reign over everything when your back is turned or your head down. However if you can have a student doing the writing or running of the computer than you can be out with the students not just keeping an eye on them but getting to know who they are as learners (if they are taking notes or not, see what they are doing helping you know if you need to mix styles up a bit), it gives you the ability to formatively test their comprehension of the material with out giving a pop quiz and to do so on an individual student basis.

Another really good comment that was made was about the fear of silence. I have to agree with Carly when she said, when a teacher asks a question and doesn't give the students enough time to think about it and give an answer before they answer it just turns the students off and they will no longer even think about the questions you ask. Its like assigning homework and telling them that the material will not be graded or tested on. Not a good idea. I love thinking time and I really liked the idea of singling out a group of students (in an area of the room or individually) to specifically wait on or as Geoff said the awkwardness monitor will always chime in with a comment and if the students are just going to wait for him or her to answer that is just as bad as answering it yourself.

Another comment made was on how to keep the students engaged in learning. A suggestion for this was made that you can give them an activity and then tease the lesson out of it rather than give them a lesson on activity. One thing I have always wanted to do that relates is teach about the revolutionary or civil wars and rather than tell the students about the battles or just have them read about them from a text book we would re-enact them. It would take a lot of preparation on the teachers and especially the students part to get it to work correctly if at all but that would be a blast. When I was in sixth grade we re-enacted the continental congress and followed all the procedure to becoming a nation. I remember more about that than anything else I was taught that year. That is my kind of learning.

I am excited to keep going and learning more through watching the others teach as well as seeing the video of how I did this time.

Home Sweet Home

It was really great to get to return to my high school this week and observe the teachers in some of the classes that I took while I was there. It gave me a whole new perspective on my teachers and a better understanding of why they teach the way they teach. We started in TV broadcasting and with it being a new school (by far better than the one they put me in) made it a whole new experience. The teachers goal is to make the classroom as much a real world experience as he could and the architect allowing him to give suggestions on the design of his classroom really helped with that. The way the class is run is at the beginning of the year he teaches the students how to use the equipment and how to fulfill the different rolls required to run a news broadcast. Once he finishes he turns the class over the the students and tells them to go to work. There is a count down clock to remind the students they have a time limit and then they are cycled through the different positions as the semester goes by. At the beginning of every class he gives some words of motivation and at the end after the broadcast he goes over what went wrong and has them work out how to fix it before the next one. It is a really cool thing in that it teaches the students to solve problems and work together to obtain a goal however I feel it would be better for the teacher to be involved sort of floating around the classroom as everyone is preparing to give advice or assistance as needed rather than working on his own at his desk or coming and going from the classroom.

We also had the opportunity to visit with one of the newest faculty who this year took the spot as Digital Media teacher. This is his first year ever teaching. He received his education from Florida in 3D animation and worked in that for a while and then came here and got his teaching degree from Weber and found a job opening at the High School. The teacher he replaced used to teach Digital Media 1 and 2, 3D graphics and animation as well as a network administration class but they have cut his schedule down to a few classes of beginner level Digital Media and a general computing class. Geoff you might understand that. Its keyboarding and a how to class for the basic Microsoft programs. He says he is going to try and do everything he can to get the old class schedule back but only time will tell.

All in all it was a really great experience. It was really good to get to talk to the new faculty as well as one of the student teachers from our program who is there. They really opened up what it is like and just made the whole thing more real.

Wood working vs. Multimedia

This week I visited two very different classrooms, and both interestingly enough are part of my major and areas that I am really intersted in. First I started the day with a ninth grade woodshop. Their teacher started the class with one of Harry Wong's "bellwork" assignments. Here it was called question of the day. "What has a mouth, doesn't chew, and runs?" He would have the students come in and write the answer quietly in their planner (I believe in support of the school policy to always have it for every class). He would go arround at the beginning of class and check off the students who got the answer right. If they didn't have their planner they couldn't get points for answering the question. There was a quick review of previous assigments and then they headed into the shop (ladies first of course). Today they worked on boomarangs and turning pens. The student set right to work. His way to teach was to teach a piece at a time and then teach the next step when someone reached that point. The shop is just a fun environment for learning because it is where you do more hands on, tangible creating which is something that I love.
After the first hour I headed over to the classroom across the hall for the multimedia side of things. Again it was a ninth grade class and the class was started with a "bellwork" problem. These were more of a puzzle to be solved rather than a riddle but none the less a great way to get the students thought processes going at the wee hours of the morning. We helped with some basic drafting and then video editing. I don't know why but I just really enjoy working with video and seeing the creative possibilities that the students can come up with.
Jr. High is really a cool time to each technology because depending on the situation you may be teaching it all. I am really excited to go to the high schools and get a better feel for what it is like for a teacher there.

In the Classroom

We made our first visit to a Jr. High this week. It was very interesting to learn that public schools are still making class sizes bigger and bigger. There were thirty to fourty students per class on adverage at the school we visited and that is still the same with even a wood shop class. The crazy thing is they dont increase the number of teachers per class which leaves one person to keep an eye on thirty to fourty different students at a time all using very powerfull and potentially very dangerous machinary.
The teacher we visited was glad to have us and to put us to work. It was there first work day on their project of a hanging wall shelf and it would be impossible for him to watch every student at all the machines and have them get anything done. So he took his station at the table saw and I took another for a little bit then headed to the router table when more students became ready for that step of the project. It was crazy. If I hadn't been there it is possible that several of the students would have ran their hands through the router blade with out even thinking about it. It's like the schools expect these teachers to be super heros because they over pack their classes with students then expect them to cover all there curriculum requirements as well as supervise everyone to make sure there are no accidents. In my oppionion it is just a trip to the hospital waiting to happen.
The huge class sizes seems to be the majority of parents complaints about the public school system. It's not the amount of text books they have or if their computers are the latest model it is that their children aren't getting the attention they need to learn because it is phisically impossible for the teachers to get arround and give that much needed time to everyone in their classes. The problem is the only ways to shrink class sizes is to have more class periods in a day, lessen the number of students attending the school, or just hire more teachers.
We were told while we were at the school that finding placement at any school for a teacher is very difficult right now. There just arn't jobs. But if there is such a demand for teachers to fullfill the need of smaller class sizes how can this be. There is no money to pay for more teachers.

The Beginning

Okay here it goes. I have never had a blog before and Geoff I know this is late but it has taken a little to figure all this out and get caught up.
This class has made me really think about why I want to become a teacher and how I can make it work. I first started thinking about it when I was in high school. Of all the people it was my drivers-ed teacher that had the largest effect on me. He was a man who understood why he became a teacher and a coach it wasn't because he loved the subject matter or for the love of the game it was because he saw it as an opportunity to help his students reach their fullest potential. He was always spending extra time to help a student; working late hours and even comming in on Saturdays so that we could finish all our testing and preparation. He taught us manners. He made sure that we respected the ladies in our class and in our school. He showed us the power of synergy and teamwork and how to use it to better the lives of all those arround us. I really took what he taught to heart and tried to apply it to my life.
That following summer the news of his death was spread throughout the community. It was a hard blow to all the students and faculty. Not only had we lost a great teacher but also a friend. I think about what he taught me daily and with the added examples of many teachers who have followed, good and bad, have helped my desire to do the same grow.