PSA? Well a Public Service Announcement could be a tool in presenting a problem for the Problem-Solving Approach to teaching, but they are not equivalent.
PSA lab - time to pick a unit we will be teaching and use the problem-solving approach to teaching in order to present the unit. Now, let's reflect.
So this was probably the most frustrating lab to prepare for because I did not realize how much investment was required in thinking/cognitively preparing a problem that you would need to fully understand in order to guide your students in their own learning process. I also did not understand that this was intended to simply be the first day of the unit, thus making me stressed to believe I had to spend 5 hours on lesson plans (that I still wasn't proud of) for all lessons in this unit. I know that seems silly now, but I only did realize while trying to plan the lab that I was not prepared with enough knowledge of how to write a PSA lesson. However, maybe this is the challenge... figuring out what works best and thinking deeply about approaching your content is what takes the most time.
With that said, there was obviously much frustration in the preparation process. Also because I really wanted to use a real-life situation/problem to give the students rather than making up a scenario (which I am not that creative about anyways).
Seeing some other classmates present, I did realize how I might have changed my approach to planning the problem, but I still think my content was just a little tricky for making a PSA - biodiversity and issues of PA wildlife. So this was my problem solving lesson - I presented the students with the following statement:
Pennsylvania is home to an
estimated 25,000 species of plants
and animals. 800 of these species are
rare, threatened, or endangered and at least 150 of these species have been lost from PA in recent history. Of
that 25,000, mammals and birds make up only about 470 species. Within that 470
species of birds and mammals, 20 are
endangered, 7 are threatened, and 1 is extirpated.
Pennsylvania has one of the
highest land development rates in
the U.S., even if our population growth is not nearly as dramatic. This
development occurs outside urban centers, creeping into farm and forestland. In
1982, developed land covered about 10%
of PA, but in 2003, it covered over 15%
of the state, an increase of more than 50% in 20 years.
I was intending for this statement to be a "situation to be improved" but it ended up being more of an opportunities/factors problem. Again, probably because I wasn't fully understanding of the problem solving approaches and their distinctions.
When actually presenting my PSA, I was not nearly as confident because the whole concept was still new and somewhat unfamiliar, so my teaching was not as high energy as normal. I also noticed that I was a little dry, even with such an engaging session as letting the students lead. I should always remember that it is about the students and their learning experience, not about my feelings or appearing as being successful in their eyes. I also realized the true difficulty that lies in allowing our students to think critically. How to we make people think deeply!?! Well, get into their heads. Find things that make them interested and ask "why is this important"? (another question I did not cover well in my lesson). I really highly believe in critical thinking in the classroom and love the concept of Inquiry Based Learning... but never realized how hard it is to work from scratch.
But yeah, we are here to learn, so I will continue to grow from these teaching labs and hopefully become a better PSA-writer/teacher!
I thought it was interesting how you said you wanted to look successful in your students eyes. I feel like that is something that is probably there subconsciously in all of our minds when we are teaching in lab. I think that we always try to make ourselves look successful when talking to adults and industry professionals because everything is an interview. However, this summer when I was working at the Farm Bureau youth conference I was talking to the students about how I should be when I student teach. They said to be real with them, that its okay to not be correct all the time, and to definitely not talk above them. In industry we might say "the propagation of animals". If the students do not have background knowledge they will not know what this means and would rather hear "the breeding of animals". So, if my rambling makes sense, our "successful" look to our students is showing them that we care about them and want them to learn. Rather than sounding like a walking dictionary and a know it all. Its okay to make mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI think that you have experienced what many of us are experiencing while preparing for our labs. Lessons are not easy to write. It is impossible to know everything there is to know about every topic that we are ever going to teach, therefore we must do our research. Then we need to figure out how to make the lesson fit what we need to accomplish while explaining it in a way that the kids understand. I for one had no idea how taxing of a task this is to complete! I think that we are learning a lot by figuring all of this out now, though, instead of it all hitting us in the spring! I also failed to ask enough questions of my students during lab this week, and found myself how I plan to get my students to think critically. I wish I had a good answer for you on this one, but I think we are still all learning how to do this effectively. I think the key to success is proper planning, and admitting when we don't know the information. We are all in this together!!
ReplyDeleteHi Allison,
ReplyDeleteFor whatever it's worth I think you did a good job teaching your lesson. I can understand your frustration because I think we're all feeling that. I think that in order to properly facilitate this lesson we learn more about the approach, i.e. how to choose the question, and how to structure the questions. This could maybe be a lecture we ask Dr. Foster to do so that we can feel more comfortable with this because I may be wrong, but I think our next lab aligns closely with this one. And you're right! This is all meant to help us grow so just remember how you would have changed this one as you prepare your next one!
I definitely agree with what everyone else has said, I think that lab is hard for us for two reasons, 1. this is all so new to us and writing lessons is hard, like Quinn said we have to do our research and I also think that we over think things. I think this is because we are still trying to learn how to view things from the whole picture, we are usually taught to only see things one way...until we get to college and then everyone is like "there's more to it than that." (hopefully that makes sense?) ...and reason 2, it is extremely hard to teach in front of our peers. I know for myself I view my peers as my toughest critics, I also think it is hard for us to imagine everyone being our students, because we have been out of the public school system for a few years now, we tend to forget what it is like. I do agree with what you are saying about wanting to look "successful" while standing in front of the room. We are never going to get everything right because we are so new at this, and people make mistakes. I think that we already appear successful to our students because we get up in front of them every single day for 180 days and hopefully we transfuse some knowledge into them and inspire them, and they view us as a role model. To me that means we do look "successful" in their eyes! Keep up the good work! I think we are all improving greatly, and by the spring we should go into student teaching feeling confident and if not, like Dr. Baker said "call an expert!" :)
ReplyDeleteHey! The planning process is the hardest part in these types of lessons. I think you mentioned the key...pose a question or scenario that the students REALLY could care about and ARE connected to; however, easier said than done!
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about your presentation in front of a classroom, everyone wants to be GREAT. We all want people to be really happy with our 'perfect performance.' However, this will develop and improve as long as we really focus on a clear and accurate delivery...our presence will develop!
Keep up the good work!
You said it well at the end, making the students think critically. The planning process is always challenging, and I think as we tackle each approach at least once, we realize how to do it better (or potentially correctly) the second time. Just keep that growth mindset open as we prepare for the next round!
ReplyDeleteHey Alli,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you were really over thinking this and you may have dropped to much information on your students to consider for the question. But with that said the planing process is the hardest part of these lessons because you never are 100% what is to much information or to little information to give. As for keeping energy levels high in the classroom, from experience in the last lab if you are not comfortable with the material or concept you can't hid from your students. like you said we are here to learn and with that once we get out of the lab I feel that we will get even better and so of this will just start clink for us. Keep up the good work and remember to step back some times and look at the big picture not the details!
Allison I love the way you analyze the labs and how you view teaching as a whole. I feel you put in so much work towards the students knowledge growth that they will be able to see this very clearly. I think this will make them more lenient that you might not know some content or deliver a lesson the perfect way. From understanding the problem solving techniques, I believe situation to be improved is definitely one of the toughest. It takes a lot to push yourself, especially writing new lessons and struggling for 5 hours to complete it. Stay strong you have the whole cohort behind you!
ReplyDeleteAllison,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds that you had the same problem as me. I spent forever working on the lesson plan and was not happy about how it turned out. You did a great job reflecting how you feel your lab went. It sounds like if you would have had a better understanding of what the problem solving approach really was that it would not of been as hard to come up with a lesson plan. However, you did a great job. Keep it up