Erica Dodge- Methods II Reflective Notebook

 I just wanted to give an overall reflection of my practicum. I am really happy I got to experience and community that is quite different from my own. By going to Mid-Prairie I got to experience what it is like to teach in a conservative and religious district. This is a district where my cooperating teacher has to have a conversation about evolution and fight back against the whole earth history unit. I know I don't want to work in a district where I have to worry about that, but I may have a few parents that force beliefs on their kids and it provided me with an educational opportunity and conversation about how to approach these topics. When talking with John about our lesson we got to discuss that the best way to approach teaching science in these communities is to come at it from the idea of you need to know this is what science believes and it is ok if you don't believe that, but you need to understand the perspective science take on these ideas. Thinking about it from th...

 Mid-Prairie is a one to one school, this means that all student are provided with a laptop. One thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of students that forget to charge their laptops. My cooperating teacher has the garage extension chords on the ceiling, so students can pull them down to charge their laptops. There is roughly one above each table. One thing I would want to remember is to provide extension chords that reach student's desks, so they can charge their laptop while they work. Continuing on from that side rant, my team teacher has a virtual lab notebook for each of the students. It is a powerpoint slide like notebook that has all of the data tables and handouts from the FOSS kits, along with spaces to answer their "guiding" questions (the ones from FOSS). They use this notebook nearly every class period. It contains everything from experiments to vocabulary. The teacher uses the PowerPoints provided by the FOSS kits, even though they are long and not in ...

 In general, equipment are stored in covers or bins that are explicitly labeled teachers only, and the students understand this. I have not seen one student approach these cabinet or bins. I believe this is a rule that is clearly established in the beginning of the year. The FOSS kits in general don't use many things that are a safety hazard. There was one unit where the students calculated calories by burning a Cheeto. For this one, the students were directed not to touch or approach the flames. The teacher and I lit the Cheetos for them. In general, she has a set rule where any messing around what so ever means you are not doing the experiment and the students do abide by this, this would be apart of setting classroom expectations. One thing I did notice that is not good is where the chemicals are stored. They are stored in a cabinet in a closet with a heater, because the original chemical closet had to be made into an office. This fire hazard is a result of not having enough roo...

 We briefly went over IEPs. In general, all of the students with an IEP struggled with executive functioning. This resulted in some students needing extra time in Math or reading, or test adaptations. The IEPs were focused on math, reading and writing skills. These are underlying bases for science, so it is something to pay attention to. We spent a lot of time talking about a specific student, let's call them K, who has special needs accommodations, but by interacting with the student and their older sibling (who has similar/the same issues) our team teacher wonders if they really have these conditions. This student has been out of school almost all year to the point where courts are getting involved, because the parent says the school would not make accommodations for them, but at the same time not telling the school what accommodations this student needs. The sad bit was when I interacted with K they showed me they are so smart and have the capacity to think and excel. To be hone...

 I ended up following two students. One, let's call them E, gives off the idea that they don't do anything in class, but actually got all of their work done. This student acts as a class clown in a way. They will make side comments and test how far they can go. E was quiet during instructions and did work on the assignment and complete the assignment. There were points where they got distracted by others in the room, but they did manage to get back on task and finish the in-class assignment. Observing them I got the vibe that they were a lot smarter than they let on, and they acted out more because they were board. I also may be seeing this because of the TAG lens I am developing. The main thing that I noticed was they finished the assignment quickly and then would sit there and distract others. This makes me want to push E more, to see if they really just need more challenge in the classroom. With this student's comments and jokes I would play along a little bit, but stop ...

Across my practicum we had multiple conversations about curriculum and teaching methods used in the classroom at Mid-Prairie. At Mid-Prairie they use the FOSS kits that were created by the University of California, Berkeley. These kits were made for kids in California, so they relate the science concepts to places and experiences kids that live in California would see. This makes it so it is not as relatable to students in Iowa. This is one of the multiple complaints about the FOSS kits that our team teacher had. The other big complaint, is that it is supposed to be inquiry, but it it too structured to be considered true inquiry, or at least in my opinion. The students are not given the opportunity to explore what they are interested in or guide the questions or the route of thinking. Everything is very scripted and as a result it makes it stuck and takes the autonomy away from the students.  At Mid-Prairie the teachers do get to decide the curriculum, or at least they get some say...