Third video teach and conclusions

I’m happy with the way my last video teach unfolded.  Admittedly, my first lesson was pretty bad, which was a little depressing.  My spreaking was to fast, and the content to disorganized.  In later lessons these problems were addressed in part with extra planning and practice; but also as I became more comfortable with the students I was teaching.  As Bond said in class, the kids were fun to work with.  They were motivated, attentive, and clever enough to make things interesting for all involved.  The third video teach reminded me why I want to teach someday; its just something I enjoy doing and the rush of teaching important material to students is difficult to match.

On another note, after observing the subject, I’m not sure I want to teach Economics.  The areas of study that caused me to fall in love with the subject (development and labor economics) aren’t addressed in a high school class.  Listening to fellow Akins bloc interns talk about how interesting their lessons involving history are, I feel like that is the path I want to go down.     

I’ve learned a lot about teaching from both my observations and lecture in the Eagle’s Nest.  Given that “interactive” lecture is my favorite way to teach the material, it was helpful to learn some different perspectives in that area.  I will definately incorporate several of the reading and writing strategies learned throughout the semester, especially the interactive strategies involving synthesis of information.   

observations this week

The school year is coming to a close, and the work is actually increasing for my senior economics class.  Attendence and late work are undergoing special scrutiny, especially given a passing grade is required in this subject for graduation.  My cooperating teacher has stressed the importance of a consistent and manageable policy for late work; and after observing this class for a while now, I tend to agree.  It was satisfying seeing one particular student raise a grade from a 10 to a 70 in a matter of weeks.  After missing the first 2 weeks of school, he had been trying his best to turn in quality work and its now paying dividends.  Students that get off to a slow start deserve a chance to catch up if possible, and an efficient policy for helping these students is helpful in accomplishing this end. 

I liked the assignment the class worked on today.  It was a “simulation” in which students analyzed a situation involving a newly formed monopoly in the computer industry.  It was the sort of assignment that had no right answer, but required students to use information presented in previous lectures to make value judgements.  Was this corporation a natural monopoly?  Could its domination of the industry hurt consumers or actually help?  What are possible negative consequences to the economy?  The assignment was by far the most challenging I’ve since observing, and it was in the form of interactive group work, which is my favorite.     

Experiences with my cooperating teacher so far

I’m getting a better feel for the class and the teacher’s style as the semester progresses. There is definitely a attitude present at this school that is evident everywhere, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. The kids here seem not as interested in education as most of us probably were, but at the same time most are mature for their age. The atmosphere seems to be non-combative; as in their aren’t many behavior problems, but an overflow of enthusiasm isn’t present either.

The only reason I mention this subject is that it’s necessary to properly understand my cooperating teacher’s style. She doesn’t push the kids to hard, she can’t. As the Professor said, “as a teacher you must pick you’re battles”; and an uber strict teacher would not survive at this school in my opinion. She would spend to much time involved in disputes which would detract from learning. With that said, learning does take place, but it’s in a manner which best suits this school. I know one or both of our Professors will disagree with this, and I will undoubtedly be more strict in my classroom, but I don’t think I could educate these kids using my style as much as she can hers.

She knows the subject, a definite bonus. But she has a knack for shrugging off minor problem behaviors, and doesn’t allow them to distract from the lesson. Major problem behaivors haven’t occured, and I don’t anticipate they will. My cooperating teacher uses PowerPoint a lot and groupwork. I like powerpoint to supplement lecture in small doses, not as the primary source to communicate the material. But I do like how she uses groupwork for a variety of reasons. Thats all for now.

Observation

Today I observed my cooperating teacher give a lecture followed by a quiz, which was then followed by a group project. The lecture was good. It was the first concerning the unit on market structures. This lesson was about perfect competition; my second video teach wednesday next will extend upon the analysis and discuss the basic components of the monopolistic competion and oligopoly models.

I noticed my cooperating teacher has a printout of Bloom’s taxonomy stapled to her wall; and the lecture activated several of the levels theorized by Bloom. Students were engaged in the activity through the use of funny anecotes combined with real life examples. These techniques helped ensure the students were paying attention during the dry but important details found later in the lesson.

Students were instructed to take notes during the lecture, which was a power point presentation. An open note quiz immediately followed, and students were allowed to use use their notes. None of the questions completely reached the evaluation level. A couple of them were taken litterally straight from the lecture, and the other two addressed slightly higher levels of the taxonomy. The quiz did a good job of identifying the most important aspects of the material, but nonetheless was still fairly easy.

The group project following the quiz challenged the students to apply the information learned in lecture using their own creative impulses. Students were asked to design a product competing in a perfectely competitive model, using the models four basic tenets learned through the lecture. At the very least, the project approached the evaluation level; although student motivation determained how high up the ladder to climb. Students who tried to be innovative and challenge the material learned a lot.

First class

My first experience in observing economics took place in the computer lab.  Students had to write a cited short essay about an entrepreneur which they found interesting.  My cooperating teacher has an interesting style.  She’s been teaching for several years now, so therefore has a pretty good grasp of her students and what she can hope to achieve with them.  Most of the basic concepts and projects are coordinated with the other economics teacher, which makes it easier if a student switches classes; and it helps keep the teaching objectives uniform.  

The class was good about staying on task.  Each paper was written on an individual basis, but students were allowed to talk during the period; which helped their ideas and kept the subject interesting.  These were seniors, so keeping the material relevant seems to be an especially important goal for learning to take place.