Mr. Kerstetter the Substitute

"Ba-la-ke, De-nice, A-a-ron." We have all had our fair share of substitute teachers throughout our high school years. It was a great experience to be on the flip side of the equation. I had the opportunity to be a substitute teacher in our teaching lab this week. At first I was a nervous, but as I started teaching it went so much better than I thought it would.

We had ten minutes to look over our sub plans for the our teaching episode so we could orient ourselves with the material being taught. I had received Britton's lesson on photosynthesis which was a little nerve racking in the beginning. Once I read over it, I felt like I had an understanding of what she wanted the class to be like. I had started teaching and it just flowed so well. I improvised at certain points of the lesson to accommodate for technical issues as well as to add clarity in the lesson. Throughout the lesson I was able to engage students in the material by asking a bunch of questions and even having them demonstrate photosynthesis. 

Through this experience I had learned that writing a substitute worthy lesson plan takes more time than a normal lesson plan. The sub worthy plan needs to have more context and detail for the teacher so he/she can teach a lesson that he/she may not be familiar with. Adding in insightful questions for the teacher to ask is also helpful to keep them engaging the learners.

As an agriscience teacher I will need to write substitute worthy lesson plans since I will be out quite a bit for FFA events. Being able to perform as a substitute has helped me understand what I need to do for my future substitutes. 

Individualized Instruction

Everyone learns at different pace and in different ways. As educators we need to be able to facilitate individualized instruction to reach each of our students. This weeks readings focused on creating individualized instruction so that we can teach all students and not just a select few.

Three Connections to Student Teaching
Throughout student teaching I will need to provide individual instruction or differentiated instruction to be able to connect to that student. Each one of my students will learn in a different way. We do not teach widgets. Students all have different ways of thinking and storing information into their brains. I need to provide differentiated instruction in order to maximize the learning in the classroom. To be successful, I will need to present the essential concepts in multiple ways for all students to grasp an understanding of the concept.

Two Connections to #TeachAgJourney
Throughout this journey we have been told that Penn State does not teach widgets and neither will we. The staff wants to give individualized instruction to all of us so we can be better served for our futures in this career. I remember that in a few of my classes in this journey there has been times where the faculty had offered individual instruction to help us understand the material. We are also giving opportunities that may be individualized to help us grow as educators throughout our journey here at Penn State.

One Triangulated Connection
In an article published by We Are Teachers the author talks about providing different ways of teaching a concept and having the students choose how they show what they know. 
https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-differentiated-instruction/

Troubleshooting the Problem Solving Approach

A fun and interesting technique that can be used to engage students in a lesson is through problem solving. The key to the problem solving approach is using a real world problem to have the students find the solution. This week I got to troubleshoot this technique in lab and I think it went really well.

What Happened

My lesson was troubleshooting the fuel system in a small gasoline engine. The problem solving approach is the perfect way to teach this content. To start out the class, I had students watch a video of a guy that was having engine trouble. I had stopped the video half way to ask the students what could be going wrong with his engine. After a little discuss we finished watching the video. I led this activity into the conversation of troubleshooting a carburetor using the Briggs and Stratton troubleshooting guide. After reviewing how to use the guide, I had giving them a scenario of a customer that was having trouble with his engine. They had to figure out what the problem was and how to fix it.

What I Learned

Through this experience I had learned that facilitating the problem solving approach can be difficult if you are not asking great intriguing questions. I know that through practice I will get better at this. It was fun to try this technique before utilizing it in student teaching. 

Application

I will be applying this teaching method in student teaching as well as the future to reach the high order of blooms taxonomy with my students. I know as I move on I will only get better at utilizing this method.

Questions

How could you utilize the problem solving approach in an Ag Business class?

What are some strategies in utilizing the approach?

Evaluate E-V-A-L-U-A-T-E Evaluate

Let's travel back in time. Imagine you are back in 5th grade. You are sitting in your English class and it is the weekly spelling test. You have studied all week to learn the new set of words anticipating a good grade on the evaluation of your knowledge. Bringing it back to today, evaluation of learning is crucial for students to recognize what they are doing well and what they need to improve. It also provides the teacher with feedback on what they need to improve to enhance learning.

Questions

1. Future administration; What criteria do you base teacher evaluations on?

2. For Cooperating Teacher; How have you utilized assessments to evaluate your teaching strategies?

3. For Virtual Mentors; What types of assessments do you use to evaluate student performance (i.e. unit exams, projects, presentations, etc)? Which type is more successful?

Problems, Problems, and more Problems to Solve

Has there ever been a time in your life where you have had to solve a problem? Wait...better question. How have you solved a problem in your life? We all occur problems and we must solve them in order to feel successful. Problem-Based Learning is a teaching strategy that can be used in the classroom to encourage abstract thinking to solve an issue.

3 Connections of PBL to Student Teaching

Throughout the course of my student teaching internship, I will need to have students thinking in abstract ways to dig deeper into the content and extract nuggets of knowledge. Problem-Based Learning will provide an avenue for my students to think in different ways to solve a problem. I plan to use PBL with my Ag Business course in researching a product to learn its advantages and disadvantages then solving how to overcome the disadvantages to make it a better product. PBL can enhance my classroom peer interactions with group work. This idea will foster problem-solving within-group ideas and solving the product issue.

2 Connections to TeachAg Journey

During my time at Penn State, I have had many experiences where problem-based learning has been utilized to encourage critical, abstract thinking. AEE 350 we had to design a plumbing project out of certain materials that in the end could not leak. As a team of three, we could make a design we wanted to with the limited materials provided. Another instance where problem-based learning was utilized was in AEE 413. We were given the problem of how to convince a school board to start an agricultural education program. As a team, we had to figure out the importance of an agricultural education program and turn it into an informative/persuasive presentation.

1 Triangular Connection

Cornell University states that problem-based learning is student-centered and allows for working in groups to acquire a solution to an open-ended question. PBL provides a learning environment that is unique to student development. 

https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/problem-based-learning

Questions for Mentors

How do you utilize problem-based learning in your classroom?

What are some strategies for problem-based learning?

Planning for Success

Benjamin Franklin once said - “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This quote has not been more applicable to my life than right now. Throughout this semester preparing units and lessons for next semester is key to success. I had recently prepared a unit of instruction based on the fuel system for my Small Gas Engines course. Throughout the planning, I had minor difficulties figuring out what was the right order to teach the system. However, my cohort and fellow mentors helped me frame a good unit.

My goal is to educate students on the fuel system concepts and troubleshooting the system. Throughout the unit the students would be working with carburetors to get hands-on experience with device that controls the fuel system. The students will be learning the different parts of the carburetor and their function. To apply the knowledge, the students will be troubleshooting issues that could arise in the system. 

The feedback I had received from my peers and mentors related to my objectives and how to make them clearer. I had suggestions of making the unit longer to ensure that I can fit all the material into the unit. My plan is to write clearer objectives to the best of my ability. I will also take into consideration making my unit longer in order to fit the content better.

I am glad that I have peers and mentors that are willing to donate their time to help me plan for success in the next semester!