I spent all morning at Elgin High School. I didn't really do much. What did I learn that will help me to become a teacher? Don't use the student restrooms. I did and there was apparently quite a bit of unpleasantness that had taken place beforehand. Yuck.
I discussed with my cooperating teacher the lesson that I will teach. I suppose I am going to teach a lesson to her regular biology class, which is 3rd hour, sometime on the week of 4/18 (Robin's Birthday!). I need to figure something out for that; I might just teach whatever lesson she has planned.
The first two classes that I observed today were learning about evolution, Darwin, Lamarck and natural selection. I love evolution. In the video that was shown, a scientist talked about how Darwin's evolution is the unifying theory of biology; it ties everything together. I have a seed of a lesson planted in my brain about how you could teach kids about natural selection. Natural selection is a very simple concept, but it is very hard to understand. My idea is, essentially, that you will assign varying traits (heritable traits) to your students. You will then set initial classroom environmental conditions. Next, "time" will progress. Students whose traits are better suited for the conditions, will produce more offspring with those traits and the ratio of traits will be recorded and graphed over some generations. The conditions can be changed at certain points to see how that affects the observed phenotypic ratios. This lesson requires a lot of work, but I think it could be made to be fun, and it will help the students to understand that the environment causes certain traits that are already present to lead to higher birthrates of the individuals with those traits. The offspring will have a higher chance to have the trait that led to higher fitness in the parent and that trait will therefor become more common in the population. I will have to defy my nature to put in the work required to develop such a lesson. I am sure I will be too lazy to do this.
My coop. teacher discussed the fact that scientists are human beings and are therefore affected by all the same things that we all face. Things such as religion, family, established societal values, feelings, beliefs, etc. This "nature of science" and how science really proceeds in the real world is really important and, I feel, is really under-taught. In Illinois, this stuff falls under Standard 13. I really think it is important for students to understand that scientists aren't really that different from them and they, therefore, can become scientists if they want to.
Some critical thinking questions that I wrote for "evolution/natural selection":
What evidence can you think of that supports the idea that all life is evolved from a common ancestor? (I am thinking that an evolution unit would closely follow a DNA unit, and one answer that I would be looking for is that all life utilizes the same genetic code, has DNA)
Why is variation important to a species? (environmental conditions change through time and we can't predict what traits today will lead to higher reproductive fitness tomorrow)
What traits would a farmer who is utilizing artificial selection select for? Why? How is natural selection different from artificial selection? How is it the same?
What is the "agent" of selection in artificial selection and in natural selection?
My cooperating teacher related a story to me that sheds some light on some of the non teaching issues that teachers face on a daily basis. A student of hers had asked her for a pass to get something from another teacher. This student was given a pass and was told to retrieve what she needed and to return to class. The student then disappeared and did not return during the class period. Later on my cooperating teacher learned that the student had gone to see the guidance counselor, which isn't a bad place for a student to go, however the student was not excused from class to see the guidance counselor and the guidance counselor did not check to see that the student was excused. The guidance counselor, in my opinion, should have check where this student was coming from and if they were given a pass. According to this counselor, he thought the student was coming from lunch (there are no lunch hours that take place when this incident happened). The student later on asked my cooperating teacher if the counselor had returned her pass. She did not even mention that fact that she had lied and essentially skipped class. This student apparently things that she can do whatever she pleases and, based on his actions, it seems that the guidance counselor agrees. I don't know how I would have handled this situation, but I do know that to me it seems important for students to be where they are supposed to be and for their teachers to know where they are.
Based on my observations today, my cooperating teacher has pretty good command of her classes. The classes are so much smoother when the students are quiet, respectful and attentive. This is something that needs to be attained from the very beginning of the year. Classroom management is so very important because it allows you to do your real job: to teach. Respect is the central theme to how I view classroom management. Students respecting their peers, students respecting their teacher and the teacher respecting their students. Developing relationships with my students and respecting them as individuals is how I plan to focus my classroom management strategy.
Something that I'd like to utilize in my classrooms that I learned from my cooperating teacher, are "questions of the day", "exit questions" and the Agenda written on the board.
I have a lot of work to do over the next week in order to complete my unit plan, I am not feeling very good about it. I want to make it awesome but I will settle for finished. I still know that I'd love to teach. A student asked me today why I want to be a teacher, and my answer was that I have to do something. I guess that is true, everyone has to do something. Unless they want to be a drain on somebody else. That is something I do not want to do.
I hope you find these observations and thoughts satisfactory.
Cheers,
Mr. Keating
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