Up until the point where Dr. Foster listed the four types of problem I was completely lost. I had no idea how to not only come up with a question but how to implement it into the classroom. The minute he listed the four approaches it came full circle, the light bulb turned on. OOH this is what he's been talking about. I met with Laura, and she said we only need to change a few things and I think it will be a great idea! So I it seemed like it was so much easier than I thought. I planned my lesson and was feeling very prepared. But like usual lessons always sound better on paper!
The first problem I had was that two of my student were not in lab and it changed my plans. My interest approach was to have one student get flowers to another student and from there have them talk about the way flowers makes one feel. I though it was a great interest approach and implemented appropriately I still believe it was. So anyway, the problem came when my students were jerks, Allison went in the hallway and I told Todd to present her with the flowers and I thought, "this should go well..." and the first thing Todd does when Allison comes in the room is throw a punch at Allison! And she throws a punch back! And so he gave her the flowers and as I tried to facilitate questions around this it didn't work. Allison was calling Todd ugly and I was just mad, so I yelled at Allison and sent her to the back of the room. It may have been overkill, but I knew I needed to nip it in the but.
The next problem was that I wasn't comfortable enough with my content area to structure the feedback I was getting from the students. I knew where I wanted them to go with it but I messed up in actually facilitating that.
If I could do this lab over again...
I would have prepared the questions that I asked the students. I think in the problem solving approach the two most important things you can do to prepare is:
1. Know your content area
2. Prepare the questions for the students
If I had prepared the questions to ask my students if things weren't really going well I would have been one step ahead. I would have been able to rope them back into the lesson.
I would also create a PowerPoint that could lead the discussion. I did have the bouquet which I used to facilitate the conversation. However, having a visual with pictures of flower arrangements would have directed the conversation and created a structure to the lesson.
Once again, I am not very happy with my performance in this lab, but I am very glad that I made the mistakes here rather than in the classroom and it gave me so many ideas for how to prepare lessons that align closely with this one.
Punches!?! Goodness, people really go hardcore in your lab. I agree that it is better to have bad things happen now so we are better prepared in the future. I wouldn't worry about overkill. Sometimes you have to make an example so the other students will behave. That sounds really bad, but all you did was move her to the back of the classroom. I probably would have moved her to the front because it seems that students like that less. It will also be easier to keep an eye on her if she is closer to you and there is always that proximity control.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeanne, when you have a class full of students, I believe that your reaction was valid. I do understand that when you have so few in lab, it seems a little drastic to move or even remove a problem student. I learned that knowing your content and being confident in it is extremely important as well. It is really hard to facilitate a beneficial discussion when you aren't sure of the material yourself. As a result of finding that out the hard way in previous weeks, this week I did script out my expected answers ahead of time so that I could ask questions of the students to get them to think about the questions I wanted them to come up with. Not only did this really help me think deeper about the lesson while writing it, but it will also be much easier for a substitute to implement if we include those sorts of questions and desired answers in the lesson plan. I think you took away some really good points from this lab, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteYou feel it didn't go well - but your labs always go better than you think! I believe you were able to get the PSA across with the lesson, even if it was a bit confusing at first (and you had to deal with annoying students... sorry!! I wasn't being a bully, I was just being a jerk. Bully's are more inconspicuous about bullying, so I will just have to be sneakier about bullying people next time... but good way to implement discipline!)
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful for your pointing out the question-forming concept. Sometimes we think we can just direct the questions how we want if we know what answers we want, but it doesn't always go that way. I think it is difficult but SUPER rewarding to develop deep-thought invoking questions, so I hope to get better at doing that for PSAs. Overall you did great, though! Keep it up Annette!! :D
Okay I really don't mean too but I cannot help it, I am laughing hysterically right now after reading the part about the punches! I can picture it happening and I am sure now that you look back on it, it is HILARIOUS! Oh my goodness!!! Now that I have the laughs out of the way, I think you had a great lab reflection and I think your lab went better than you thought, we always judge and grade ourselves hardest! I really like the take aways you came up with! You know what you should change for next time and you can only keep getting better! Good Job! I can't wait to see your video! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like you had an extremely exciting lab! I can see you were well prepared however, we do have to prepare for the unexpected. Yeah, I don't think there's a snowballs chance that we can be prepared for everything. Keep trying, that is the only way we are going to get there! Good work!
ReplyDeleteSo first great reflection Annette and like Todd Told me last week "Just Breath...It will be OK!". Secondly I think you had a calmer reaction than I would have to the punching and It sounds like you had the right idea but sometimes the the best lad plans fail and that's why we need flexibility in our teaching tool box. You have definitely been doing your homework and it relay show you'll be great teacher keep your head up and just focus on the next one that I'm sure will be great!
ReplyDeleteSo, I love the fact that you yelled at Allison and sent her to the back of the room. I think we are starting to get comfortable with being aggressive with our discipline actions. I also think you realized the importance of being prepared for these types of settings. As best as we can, having questions prepared for the lesson are a great way to stay ahead and I think it applies for more than just this lab and teaching technique. I am trying to have a few scripted questions in all of my lesson plans. It is sometimes easy to lose sight of exactly what we want to cover if we get off of our lesson plan. Having a few scripted questions, I feel, is a great way to keep them on track. Plus, I always forget something and having all those questions listed helps my mind to remember everything I want to cover in a lesson. I'm sure you did great, Annette!
ReplyDeleteI completely understand that the lack of students was hard for your lab. I know I tried to give you the right answer that I thought you would be looking for. I think your points for what you would do over are really great and with those I think your lab would be awesome. your approach was really cute. I think listing out everything you don't want to forget is great idea
ReplyDeleteThat's ok Annette that it wasn't great, and it sounds like you had quite the students! It would make it hard with only two students and them then doing their role play parts would make it extremely frustrating. I probably would have yelled at them and sent them to the office so you were done for the day :) haha! That's good you learned lessons from this one in lab so you can make corrections for student teaching! Im sure it would have went over much better if you had more students that weren't jerks all the time for the role playing!
ReplyDelete