Lab Reflections: Surprise Lab

Lab Reflection: Surprise Lab

I believe that a disclaimer is needed for this lab: I was not a fan of this lab walking out of class on Monday, the way the lab was presented I was not a fan of. I understand the importance of the lab though. Sometimes you have to create a lesson on the fly to reteach something or re-examine a lesson.  Its important to be flexible in your labs.  I think that my main problem was how the lab was presented and how we still had other things that needed to be done as well that week, this lab jumped up above other things that were going to take time to accomplish. As a result I think I started thinking about this lab pretty negatively.

Monday's Reaction
The surprise lab was suppose to make us think: the students didn't fully understand a concept, or a new topic is sparking their interest, or something is going on in the world right now that maybe something not planned needs to be taught tomorrow.  Its a topic that I think is very important when considering what is going on in real world and to make it relatable for students.


For my surprise lab I decided to do a teachable moment lesson where students the day before made comments that: Oh the only breed you really need is ____ the rest are stupid. So I decided to try to make a lesson which looked at different animal breeds and why exactly humans make so many different animal breeds all the time.

Liked:

  • I liked how for this lab I the whole "Oh no my slides aren't working" worked so well on the students and then the students realized that they were going to work individually on specific international breeds as a result. This was a creative segue to the second part of the lesson and a pretty interesting aspect of an interest approach.
  • I feel like I'm getting the hang of teaching more and more now. I felt comfortable teaching this lesson even though I didn't have a lot of prep. I think that this might be a good thing especially when I have a bad week during student teaching and don't have a lesson plan ready for a unit till the weekend before.
Improvement: 
  • I need to get into the habit of listing out my class outline and explaining the why even more.  I did a great job getting each student to do the individual work but I never hit my main objective home of breeds are made to fill roles in the animal production industry for reasons based on area of origin and other needs as well. 
I'm sure there are other things I need to work on for this lab but this week I felt surprisingly good for the lab. There are still things I need to do to improve as a teacher but I know that I am definitely learning as I am going.

To Be Continued . . .


Comments

  1. Tiffany MoreyOctober 23, 2017 at 6:11 PM

    George, thank you for your honesty in this reflection and I am glad you turned your intital negativity towards the topic into a positive, and found value in this lab. You use of the instagram template was a great interest approach, and made the activity relevant for the students. What are some ways that you could have tied the "why?" Of the lab topic into it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Darla RombergerOctober 30, 2017 at 6:33 PM

    George,
    The idea of having a short turn-around time for planning is frustrating, but a reality that you will encounter several times in your future. However, sometimes the best and most meaningful lessons for students are those that you create on the fly in the middle of a lesson or those lessons you have to re-teach after students are giving you a blank stare.

    Some pieces of advice I can offer for short-term planning situations include (1) begin with the end in mind and determine what objectives you want to deliver, (2) keep it simple and to the point and (3) don't reinvent the wheel. Seek out resources using your available curriculum options and NAAE Communities of Practice or Ag Ed Discussion Lab. Lots of "gems" if you search for them correctly.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weather Complications Make Teaching Challenging in Week Two

Image
 The Journey of Student Teaching: Day Ten Second Week Reflections: When Weather Changes Your Plans Essential Questions for this Week: What did you learn this week while student teaching? This week of student teaching was certainly interesting. Originally I was suppose to begin teaching Tuesday. Like a good student teacher I tried to get prepared for a weeks worth of lessons by having everything ready and all I would have to do is print out some papers, get all of the materials gathered up, and teach my first lesson. Then the principal gets on the speakers and announces an early dismissal with both of my classes not happening today. So my first class got bumped back one day. Then Wednesday Morning the school announced a district wide snow day. So again my lessons got pushed back to Thursday. So Thursday I was teaching no ifs, ands, or buts. Teaching on Thursday and Friday here are the notes I took: I need to practice pacing, and recognizing how long it will take...
Read more

See Me After Class: Final Summer Reflection

Image
The End of the Summer . . . The Next Chapter  This is the final reflective blog on the reading of the book See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers written by Roxanna Elden.  This has been a three part reflective blog on the readings of the novel over the summer. The final part of this book tackles some topics that to me stress me out.  Being observed and getting critiqued. Giving out tests and what goes wrong when giving out tests. Grading assignments and the stress involved with procrastinating on grades.  When things don't go as planned and you make a fool of yourself in front of your students. Helping new teachers, and finally what to do better next year. A lot of this stresses me out and honestly for a good reason: I don't understand almost any of the lingo here in these chapters. A lot of the concepts being discussed in these pages are things we haven't discussed yet in our Ag Ed Curriculum. Yes These Topics Stress Me Out I'm Exci...
Read more

Individual Learning in a Room of Many Individuals

Individualized Learning in a Room of Many Individuals (Part One) Reading Chapter 7 of our major textbook of study I can't help but find much of the lessons I am reading to be very relevant and informational for not just me but my peers when it comes to a major topic: Individualized Learning.  First let us define individualized learning: learning through the work of individuals or small groups. This concept differs from group learning because of how it applies the usage. In Group Learning I as the teacher am feeding the information. In individual learning I may give information at the end but in reality it is student driven. The students preform the Learning themselves by working alone or in small groups to solve a problem.  The first question I have to ask is this one: Why Use Individualized Learning? This individualizes the learning It helps students learn to inquire into the subject matter It promotes independence  It helps students learn to make and use more than one o...
Read more