Lab 6 Reflection:: Micro Teaching at Tyrone

My Micro Teaching took place in Mrs.Hoy's 8th period Vet Science class at Tyrone High School. The class had 13 students. I covered injections focusing on how to draw up syringes properly and the three main types of injections- intramuscular, subcutaneous and intravenous.

I sincerely enjoyed this class and enjoyed teaching more than I expected. Many students were interested but I defiantly struggled with a number of them to stay involved.

The first day didn't start out as I would have liked but I felt rushed for some reason. Once I got settled into it and started to connect with the students it went really well. Unfortunately I went through my first portion of content quickly since I was nervous but also a few students knew the content. I continued to switch the content so the students would stay engaged and it worked. There was a group of students that half were working but the others were more concerned on social aspects. I was running low on material so I implemented an e_moment. I was trying to have them write a parody or rhyme but only one group (out of 3) actually worked on it. Being the very end of the day also put me in a tough situation.

On day 2 I handed students a post card with their table and for their bell work as they entered. Not only did the actually do the bell work I had less issues with talking!

Day three was putting all the skills they had been working on together. I started our with a jeopardy review game but struggled to get students involved I could tell right away they were ready to be done for the day. Once we got through the game I passed out chicken legs and wings as well as a scenario to test their knowledge of all the skills I taught. It was very successful but this time we ran out if time to do the last activity. It felt sort of unorganized for me because it wasn't my lab but otherwise I think it went well. For the first time I had every student engaged right up to the bell.

I asked the students to provide feedback from the three days, only a few students responded because we ran short on time but they said they learned a lot and enjoyed the approach with hands on learning.

I thought this was a great experience and I learned a lot about classroom management.

Lab 5 reflection

I struggled coming up with a lab for Inquiry Based Instruction. I felt it was hard not to give away too much information as I was planning. I ended up selecting a lab that was not as complex in what the students were to do. My lab serves as more of interest gaining lesson for the start of the subject of soils.

I think my lab went well. I ended up giving the students parts of the question but I left it very open as to what they were to do. There was many ways they could have approached it, all of which would have been fine. I just ultimately wanted them to look at the soil and recognize differences in the soil samples.

I told the students to start working and after 5 minutes I would take questions. I thought this was fair and successful. Questions that were asked I was able to answer back in a question to keep the students thinking.

Because this lab was engaging I didn't really have behavior issues but I also have found that labs in general are more successful when the instructor selects the groups.

AEE Reading Reflection #4: Inquiry Based Instruction

Inquiry based instruction is a combination of student interest and prior knowledge incorporated into the scientific method. It requires critical thinking but provides the opportunity for the teacher to serve as a facilitator and students learn from others on different levels because of their individual strengths and weaknesses.The teacher is able to help guide thinking and scaffold the student to think critically.

As students work through inquiry based instruction they are:
1) Questioning
2) Investigating possiblities
3) evaluating evidence to create predictions
4) analyzing the data collected with prior knowledge
5) identify results and findings 

The teacher should implement inquiry based instruction between the mid-point and end of instruction so that the students have prior knowledge and are able to analyze the situation with more detail and thought.

The teacher should:
1) start inquiry process
2) promote student dialog and discussion
3) make the transition from classroom discussion to small group and vise verse
4) clear up misconceptions and scaffold thinking 
5) model the scientific method
6) utilize student experience and knowledge allowing them to expand on their horizons

As a teacher, inquiry based instruction should be gradually introduced so the student builds up the level of thinking desired. Starting with more structure that utilize more step by step instruction is a place to start so the students understand how this type of thinking works. Next, more guided instruction should be implemented by providing materials and procedures but allowing the student to design the methods. As the students experience advances more open instruction can be done. This is when materials are provided and very basic instruction. Lastly, the learning cycle allows more detailed concepts to be incorporated with only vital procedures being known. This will maximize critical thinking and force the student to design the plan.

I think it is important to gradually build up to the different types of inquiry learning so the students are trained to develop their critical thinking. To help teach students how to collect accurate data and interpret it, pre-designed tables could be presented to efficiently collect the data. I think this is a good tactic however I find it to be similar to the problem solving approach and I'm not completely sure how to distinguished the difference based on the topics I am thinking of.