Blog Time

My question for this weeks blog is this, wasn't March 29th to be our last blog? With that said, I will go ahead and post for this week. As a teacher right now I feel like my 3rd profession, after nursing and teaching, should be professional juggler. Sometimes it is VERY hard to keep all the balls in the air at one time and not drop something. Of course I am referring to the many tasks and responsibilities of teaching. I see some teachers walking around with their cup of coffee every morning, and leaving almost before the kids get out of the parking lot, and yet I am trying to use every morsal of time I have just to get it all done. I know this is an issue that we've discussed many times during class and on our blog, but it remains an issue and I suppose will continue to be an element of question as long as we teach. I am grateful for the support and humor of my classmates in NTI. I think getting go know each of you has been one of the highlights of NTI. So as of April 25th, thanks for the memories!!!!!

Teaching Mastery

Well the title sounds good but I'm not there yet! However, I've come a long way to be sure. I have had several great moments in the last few weeks but one in particular came when another teacher commented on how well a lab activity went in my class and she wanted to know my secret. This particular lab can be quite confusing and the students must follow instructions very closely or the entire activity will not work. An added element is that students are getting to wear gloves, goggles,and masks for the first time - exciting! I was glad to share with her how I gave very specific instructions to my students and did not continue until they could relay to me what their task was. I was also very deliberate in how I asked students to participate and move to stations during the lab. All went very well, the students had a great time, I closed the lesson with a fun review and the bell rang. The teacher said to me, "when I do this lab it only takes about 20 minutes of class time." Thank you NTI for helping me with lesson planning, time management and classroom rules.

NTI Field Evaluations

Evaluations are complete.

Portfolio

I have found that once I began editing and entering artifacts into my portfolio, I had difficulty calling it quits and logging off. I really like the fact that I can make changes now, as well as update my portfolio in the future. As for using this portfolio as an instructional tool, it's a great idea. I have helped students develop a portfolio in the past and have not really been successful. I like the Google idea which also allows students to make changes. As a teacher I can really see a difference in the portfolio of a Freshman vs. a portfolio of a Senior. The advancement of personal growth, goals, and quality of work is quite evident. I imagine that if I were to have begun a portfolio at the beginning of NTI I would probably be in the process of re-doing the entire work. Just as my students learn and grow, so have I in my ability to teach. Thank goodness!

Interview

I think that by interviewing one of our school counselors I will gain a better understanding of the offerings of the guidance office. As a teacher I see e-mails, flyers and hear announcements but I seldom understand what prompts these messages. I also hope to gain a better understanding of the testing available that is done through the counseling office. Then, how can I assist my students with deciding to take the test, or understanding the results of the test.
We have advisement weekly at the CA, but the time is often wasted. I would like to get some ideas from my counselor to use during advisement such as leadership, personal qualities, employability. Yes, I know much of this, but what I know is healthcare specific and I would like to expland my advisor portfolio to encompass activities that meet all of my students needs.
And last, I am interested in learning how the counseling office works. How is scheduling done, and what must occur to make changes in sheduling. With this knowledge I can better assist all fo my students in their decision making.

Lavoie

I think I have a better respect for the issues that all adolescence deal with each day. Like many of you have mentioned, I can apply what I am learning in my classroom, but also with my own children. As for special needs, it's the recognition of their needs that is the hardest. Only when you become aware can you begin to make interventions for them. We all like to have a great day, but when Lavoie stated "what can I do for you to make your day go better", WOW! If I can maintain that mindset during each block that I teach, all of my students will benefit. I'm not saying make lessons easier, or modify for all students, but keep in mind each of the students unique needs as well as talents. I think this is where we, as career tech. teachers, have an advantage. At present we don't have to worry about EOCT, therefore we can have a bit more flexability in the time that we take on a particular lesson, or the way inwhich we teach it. We can also have our students up and about practicing and applying the knowledge that they learn. Lavoie made me realize that, in a small way, we are all special needs people. It's just about identifying what our special needs are, right???

Reflections

One of the things that really made an impact on me during Summer NTI was the deliberateness in the way the instructors provided the lessons. Everything was well planned, thoroughly explained, and time managed. This left little room for misunderstandings of assignments but also allowed students to ask specific, and dare I say intelligent, questions. I have tried to copy some of this deliberateness with my lessons / instruction and can see a big difference in how the students respond to assignments as well as how they respond to me as a teacher. There is an elevated level of respect for teachers who appear to have it together. Of course, sometimes I get it together 30 seconds before the bell rings, but my students don't need to know that.
Today I gave instructions for a project that is relatively easy to do but difficult to explain and students often struggle with how it's to be done. I really worked hard on the written instructions, gave 3 different visual examples of the project, and tried to be specific in my descriptions. Amazingly students started work immediately and had very few questions. Putting into action the things that I have learned and seeing positive outcomes is very rewarding!

What do I need to work on for next semester, other than everything, is trying some of the instructional stratagies we have learned. I have true intentions of implimentation, but not enough time to carry them out. I think we're all in the same boat with multiple preps, new curriculum and administrative "stuff" that limits our time to plan. Here's my goal, try one new instructional stratagie every 2 weeks. That will give me a week in between to make changes and time to plan for the next week. I also want to get my advanced students Blogging and doing some online curriculum work. The technology of NTI has been a bit of a struggle for me but now I am very proud of my accomplishments with the computer, and I'm ready to learn more.....I think. I want to be able to share that with my students so when they go to college they can say, no big deal, I did that in my high school class.

Thankful

I am grateful that I have been able to manage 3 preps, extended day, beginning a newHOSA chapter, and NTI without a nervous breakdown. Oh yeah, I also have a family too.....last time I checked. This has been an exciting year with excellent students and an administration that seems to recognize and appreciate the work that is done in the classroom. I was even told last week that Healthcare was the premiere program at the CA, WOW!!! I am also fortunate to have a partner who also teaches healthcare, we both started when the school opened, and we work closely together with the same visions and desires for the program. I am most fortunate to have began NTI this summer. I have really made some changes in classroom management as well as how I implement my lessons and can easily see how well they work. It is especially evident when my co-worker complains of a classroom issue. I try to help her out some, but don't won't to reveal all of my new secrets because she will probably begin NTI this summer. I feel blessed to be able to make a career change and share something that I am so passionate about with an age group that I enjoy working with. I tell the story that when I returned to school for my BSN I was certain that God had a wonderful job in store for me when I finished. I ended up becoming a school nurse and thought, God, this is not really where I thought you would lead me. I even begged my supervisor to NOT put me in a high school. Had I not taken that job as a school nurse in 9-12 I would have never realized how much I like working with that age group. I feel that I am definitely where I am supposed to be and I'm excited about my future and what teaching has to offer.

Homework for Online

I have really liked the online work. It has taken me some time to get the hang of it and I may be a bit slower that some of you techie people, but I'm getting there. I like getting my work in early and having the instructor give feedback if I have done something wrong, this gives me time to make some corrections and learn from my mistakes. I also like the sense of accomplishment of doing a good job when all is said and done. Another big plus is having my teenagers come up to me at home and ask what I'm doing. When I say homework that reinforces that school is worth the effort and must time must be set aside in order to do the work. This has really been effective with my new college freshman! That and the fact that we are helping each other with some assignments. And last, having a long drive time, online classes are TOPS. As for negatives, I do learn a lot from in class instructional time, but driving after a long day at work hinders my learning I'm afraid. I'm looking forward to next semesters online classes and implimenting those new skills in my classroom.

Parent Contact

Something new that was implimented this year at my school is that advisors would become a contact person for their advisement students. We had to make a folder for each students and make contact with their parent to discuss grades, any difficulties, as well as letting them know that we were availiable. This was set in place so that parents would have a contact person as well as trying to stay on top of the students grades rather than get to the end of the semester and, oh my gosh, they fail. Initially I thought this was a pain and unfair since I don't have any of my advisees in my classes and felt that the classroom teacher should do the calling, but, I have had positive experiences with this process. It is a little more work, but parents are calling with specific concerns, then I can make intervention, speak with teachers or just offer support to the parent and child. Overall I am amazed at the parental response. I have gotten some calls from very concerned parents but none have been unkind and they appreciate knowing quickly that their child is having academic difficulty. Hey, don't shoot the messenger, right! It also allows me productive conversation with my advisement students each Wednesday. They know that I will be asking about their grades, pulling grades up on the computer and calling parents. No student has ever questioned my motive or gotten mad about a parent contact. I think, hope, that they know all parent contact by me is for their benefit since I DON'T have them in class. Even though it is more work, it's working at our school.

Body Movement

I recently did a short unit on muscular system. I wanted to cover the material quickly but allow the students to have fun with it as well. Students were divided into groups and given a topic for body movement (abduction, adduction, etc.). This is sometimes a hard concept to get, especially when using correct "medical terms". The groups were given a day to research their topic and design a script. The second day they had to demonstrate the movement as well as give verbal meaning while being videoed. We watched the video and laughed a lot, but they also learned in the process. The remaining part of the class period was set aside for a pilates video. All students, and myself, exercised our muscles. This is an easy, but effective way to introduce the muscular system. One thing that I would change is I did not grade either of these activities. I would like to try having the students come up with a rubric for the video since this was a new type of activity for them. I also believe this would have made them think more critically of their work. It was definately fun, but if I were to put it on school TV they would have died!

Documentary

I'm going to try something new with one of my lessons in about 2 weeks and would like some input from my NTI class friends. Students will be studying cultural diversity and as an end product I would like for them to make a documentary on their particular culture and the needs of the people within the culture. Students will be required to include family, religion, social, nutritional, medical, etc. in their project. Video production really intrigues me and the students enjoy watching themselves so I thought this would work well together. Students will work in groups so I will be able to include some of the stratagies that I have learned this semester, but what should I look for in their video. I can make a rubric, but I'm sure that I will find that I leave out some key elements for production and/or grading. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Project Based Learning...Expanded?!

I have been wanting to try something for awhile now, but I'm not sure how to fully implement it. Also, it doesn't completely go along with NTI instruction, but I still believe I could make it work with my advanced students including using set inductions and transfers. Here's the question....I have a class of 3rd plus semester students who are taking a new (to me too) pathway, General Medicine. I have been doing the traditional model of covering a unit and testing with some skills and research added to the mix. These students have a variety of interests in health care so I would really like to tailor the information to each of those interests. I would like to allow students to pick from content that I have provided to them and work at their own pace, with prompting. I can only think of 3 students that I will have to watch closely, the others are highly motivated (I believe). I would set timelines for due work, design projects that can be shared with classmates, and work 1:1 or in small groups on skills. I know this will be a lot of prep work for me, but ultimately the students will benefit. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Does anyone have ideas on how to implement this type of lesson plan. Our school is doing a lot of work on Unit By Design which goes along quite nicely with Project Based Learning and again, I believe this type of freedom would benefit my advanced learners. HELP!

Collaborative Learning

I really enjoyed the collaborative learning lessons in class this week. I have been trying some of the group ideas, sometimes successful, sometimes not so much. It takes a lot of planning to get everything together before doing group work. For example, specific lesson or project instructions, grading rubrics and student "monitoring" or self evaluation records. However, I find that the students do better when they know what to expect (that sounds like a no brainer) but sometimes the problem is I fully know what I expect but don't seem to express those expectations so that the students can understand. Having expectations in writing for the students as well as verbalizing they tend to better understand, or atleast be able to ask clarifying questions. One of the big questions I had before our class was how to grade group work. Again, having everything already planned will help. I like the idea of 50 - 50 because that will allow me to adjust an individual students grade depending on absences, poor effort, etc. I have done something similar a couple of weeks ago and the students with lower grades never commented. They know when they don't participate! As my GSU classmates continue to try collaborative learning please forward ideas that are working for you as well as those that don't. In other words, share the knowledge please.

You mean I can copy?

I really try to portray the "I have it all together" to my students, not in a superior way, but in a way that makes them feel like the lesson is planned and well thought out. That being said, I tried out some of my collaborative learning skills on my advanced students. First, I had students complete 2 activities that were related to the unit (Communication) and that was a huge hit so I thought, this is good. I did the group division task and explained my methodology in a positive way. I gave them an assignment to do as a group with objectives, explained the grading scale, provided a rubric, and smiling, told them to begin working. Okay, the objective was for them to "communicate", this was the unit afterall, and complete the work as a group. They continued to work as individuals with minimal to no talking among the groups. I finally asked them to put their pencils down and tried to reinforce that, yes I wanted them to talk, yes I want them to share answers, yes they will do some copying and yes they are to communicate important aspects of the unit. I think students are so accustomed to getting in trouble when they share answers or copy work that they have difficulty making a change. Jessie said that trying something the first time seldom works! However, tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to try. I think I'll sit down with each group as a "member" and model how they should be working together. I truly believe that once they get the hang of it they will be asking if they can do the work in their groups. I think I need so additional information too, but that will come next week. I'll definately be taking notes during the chapter presentations.

First week blog

One of the things that has worked well for me is the deliberateness of presenting my lessons. Using the skills that I learned, and saw in action this summer, I am trying to make sure students understand instructions and that the lessons have closure. In the past I would give lessons and instruction, but at the end of the unit I felt that there was no cohesiveness, much of the content was scattered. If I felt that way, imagine how my students must have felt. It would be like a taste of knowledge here and there, but when all was said and done, there were still a lot of holes left. Looking back, test scores confirmed this lack of learning, but at the time, I wasn't sure how to fix it. I feel that I am now more successful in tying lessons together for better student understanding of the content. Through lesson planning, presentation, and project exploration the students seem to be doing much better.
Something that is not working for me is trying to get set inductions, objectives, transfer-in / out for 3 different classes each day. In addition to having lessons ready, administrative duties, grading, teaching a new curriculum, etc. I feel overwhelmed some days and become frustrated when I cannot get it all done despite spending 9 hours a day at work. I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I'm not a "wing-it" kind of person, I want to be prepared. I realize that much of this is time management on my part as well as getting the hang of it all. When I do get it all pulled together for a class the students seem to appreciate the fact that the class went well, their interest was peaked, and they know what to expect when they come in the next day. I feel really good about it too. I think this will continue to improve over time and I'll get better and quicker, but for now I am quite BUSY!