Why are Problem Solving Skills Important in the Classroom?

What is the problem solving approach?

Connecting with last week's topic of questions, this week was all about problem solving techniques. Included with the topic of problem solving was project based learning in the classroom.

Problem Solving

Teaching problem-solving skills in the classroom will prepare students for the world beyond the classroom. I think problem solving techniques should be integrated into the curriculum whenever possible to give students the opportunity to use higher-order cognitive skills. 

Project Based Learning

One of the articles I read this week was by Lamar and Mergendoller titled The Main Course, Not Dessert. This article really spoke to me about showing the differences is shallow projects and project based learning. There were facets listed that need to be included in order for a project to be considered a learning based experience. After reading this article, I am determined to craft a project based learning experience for one of the units I will teach during the spring. I am not sure of what unit I will pick as of now, but I truly feel that giving students the opportunity to learn and implement problem solving skills through project based learning is a valuable opportunity. 

Project Based Learning Toolkit

As a continuation of the article mentioned above, I have been reading the Project Based Learning Toolkit which has been produced by the Buck Institute For Education. This book gives step-by-step advice on how to implement effective projects that drive student learning. I intend to continue to use this resource as inspiration for the project based learning experience I will implement in the spring.

Key Take-Aways

• Project based learning should be the main course meal, not dessert.
• Project based learning is intended to teach significant content.
• There are three types of problems: well-structured, moderately-structured, and ill-structured.

Unit Plan Reflection

One of many assignments for AEE 412 is to create a model unit plan. At first, I was excited to embark on this challenge. As I sat down to write, I had a terrible case of writers block. I could not think about the topics I wanted to include in  my agriculture ecology unit plan. I was stuck for awhile, not even grandpa Google was helpful. 

After receiving feedback from two of my peers, I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only did they critique my unit plan, they also gave me several ideas on how to make it better and resources that I could use for my unit.

I am truly appreciative of the peer review feedback I received. I have chosen to implement the suggestions given to me and I now feel ready to write the rest of my units that I will be teaching in the spring!

Asking The Right Questions

How do we transition between techniques, utilizing effective questions?

This week, I had the opportunity to read four very interesting articles on the importance of asking the right questions. The article that stuck out to me the most was titled Pursue Passion: Demand Google 20% Time at schools. This article talked about how companies (such as Google) employ a 20% time mandate where employees are encouraged to work on personal passion driven projects 20% of their work tie every week. Results have shown that this is a much better strategy to see breakthroughs than forcing creativity the old-fashioned way. The author of the article tied this in with modern school structures. Students do not have a say in what they study, they are expected to know certain things in a defined amount of time to get good grades to move on to the next task where everything is repeated. I did not grow up with this structure, I was allowed to pursue my passions while in school. I feel that giving students the choice to pursue their passions academically is extremely important. Asking students what they would like to learn would help them build autonomy and ignite their passion for something that interests them. These reasons are why I decided to pursue agriculture education. Agriculture education programs allow us the flexibility to tap into students personal interests through SAE projects or CDE teams. Imagine the amazing things students could learn or create if we ask the right questions!

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RTL Lab Reflecton Week 3

This week was all about interest approaches. We were tasked with teaching an interest approach on any topic we wanted. I chose to create an interest approach to be used in my agriculture ecology unit in the spring. At first, I had a difficult time coming up with an idea. I wanted to do an activity that would have students move around rather than just playing a video clip. Finally, after much brain storming, I decided to create a role-playing type activity where students would be given a specific organism to act as and interact with each other around the classroom. While this activity may seem silly, it forces students to get out of their comfort zone while still learning important information. Overall I think that my interest approach went really well. One thing that I would be cautious of in the future is that the activity would work best with a medium to large size group of students. Stay tuned for my next reflection!

The Importance of Objectives

This week I found one article quite interesting that was apart of our weekly investment readings. The article was written by M. S. Whittington and featured in the Agriculture Education Magazine. Whittington's article talked about the importance of objectives in the classroom. It is important to provide students with a "road map" of what they will learn and what is expected of them. Her article goes on talk about the importance of writing objectives for the different levels of cognitive learning. She uses Bloom's Taxonomy to achieve this. Most important advice I took away from her article was that in order to provide clarity, objectives written for higher order cognitive ability or lower level must also be taught and evaluated at the same level. This allows the student to see the entire picture of how everything flows together. I will keep this advice in mind as I continue to write my unit plans and lesson plans!

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Virtual Mentor Interview 1

I was tasked with conducting interviews with my virtual mentor team to hear their thoughts on their personal teaching philosophies and core values as in agriculture educator.
I conducted the first interview with Jesse Faber. The key points that I took away from our conversation are: it is natural for your teaching philosophy to change over time, all students should be successful, as an educator, it is important to provide multiple pathways of success to students, inclusion is vital, and a hard work ethic  is important instill in students.
The second interview I conducted was with Miranda Kane. Some key points that I took away from our conversation are: Students should be involved in all three aspects of the three-circle model, students should be able to express themselves creatively, it is important to stay current with teaching practices and culture.
My last interview was with Meagan Slates. Some key takeaways I had were: it is the teacher's role to better students and encourage them to reach their goals, the three-circle model supports students with valuable knowledge, and FFA engagement is vital.
I really enjoyed my conversations with everyone. I gained some essential advice and an insider view on core values and teaching philosophies. I think that each interview had one important focus in common which was that each philosophy was focused on students. As I reflect on my own teaching philosophy, I will keep these points in mind to remind my self of the great that has been shared with me.
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RTL Lab Reflection Week 2

This week I filmed my first lab for AEE 412. We were tasked with teaching a snippet of a lesson we created to show case our classroom procedures, expectations, and consequences.

Overall, I was really happy with how my lesson went. It was a challenge at first to engage with my cohort audience as they were asked to portray different types of personalities that could be present in the classroom. I definitely need more practice with thinking quickly on my feet to address undesired student behaviors. On a more positive note, I think that I was well prepared, had good enthusiasm, and was clear with my instruction. I can't wait to apply the feedback I have been given on my first lab to my future labs!

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Bellwood Antis Cooperating Center Video psuaged19

Check out my cooperating center video for Bellwood Antis High School where I will be student teaching in the spring!

Age is Only A Number

What is engaging instruction?

As part of the readings for week four, we were asked to watch a TED Talk by Katie Simonds. Her message was about urging adults to listen to students' ideas and thoughts on important issues in society. During her talk, she points out several instances where adults have looked down upon her for being young. She also points out that students have lost confidence in their own ideas due to lack of respect. This TED Talk really spoke to me as I had a different experience with my education. Because I was homeschooled, I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to study. I had the freedom to think of creative ideas and very rarely, if ever, were my ideas made fun of. I had a voice in my education. After hearing this TED Talk, I realized that having your opinions matter as a teenager can be hard to come by. This makes me want to fight for students to have a say in their education. The idea of listening to new ideas from students ties into the topic of engagement. If we can give students the freedom to speak their minds, we can use their thoughts and opinions to get them engaged in their education. I am looking forward to exploring this topic further as the week goes on!

References

I'm 17 | Kate Sihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OkOQhXhsIE
monds | 

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I'm 17 | Kate Simonds | 

The Wild Card: Part 3

All great things must come to an end. I am sad that the journey of reading The Wild Card has come to an end. This book is full of teaching advice and creative ideas. I would highly recommend this book to teachers of all levels of experience. Below are the final thoughts on the book.

Identify your go-to thing and start there.

Chapter eight was all about authenticity. This chapter discussed the importance of being authentic with your students. I asked my mentor team what their go-to thing was. MK: I feel most confident when teaching leadership or doing leadership activities so I would say that is my go-to thing. This topic connected to the next point which discussed authentic creativity. It is okay to be inspired by someone else's creative ideas or methods of teaching. What is not okay is trying to be a carbon copy of another person. This will cause you to lose your authenticity with your students.

Push through barriers and overcome obstacles.

Chapter nine talked about the concept of grit. As an educator, it is important to have grit. This enables you to push through administrative obstacles, creativity obstacles, and many more. 

Persist with and build on your creative efforts.

Chapter 10 discussed the importance of always being a student, never a master. It is essential as educators to always being moving forward and building on our skills. The book specifically talked about building on your creative abilities beyond your go-to thing. The common thread throughout the book has been to not be afraid of stepping outside your comfort zone. One section in this chapter talked about starting an after school program for students. This reminded me of FFA and I asked my mentor team if they noticed the similarity.MS: I think the after school programs talked about in the book have a similar goal of FFA, which is to get kids involved in the community and leadership.

Overall I have really enjoyed this book! I have so many notes throughout my copy, that I look forward to re-reading the book during times of need for advice or creative ideas.

Resources

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First SAE Visit

On August 8th I attended my first ever SAE visit with Mr. Webreck. I was excited for my first visit and a little nervous as I had never experienced a visit. I enjoyed the experience a lot and it made me realize just how important SAE's are to an agriculture program. The visit we made was to a student's home to look at their beef and dairy cattle. The student greeted us at the barn on the property. He took us around to the pastures and through the barn so we could see both types of stock. 

During the visit, Mr. Webreck asked questions here and there but his main focus was to let the student talk or show him how their SAE project was going and what they were currently working on. Mr. Webreck said that this approach allows the student to take ownership of their SAE and be proud to share their knowledge about the project. By asking my own questions and listening to the questions Mr. Webreck asked, I learned that the student is trying beef cattle for the first time this year and that he prefers them of the dairy cattle. His goal is to grow his herd while selling stock that will bring income which will allow him to invest in supplies and his herd. Overall it was a great visit and I look forward to attending more in the Spring!

Planning for Instruction

What is a plan and who are our learners?

As I plan ahead for week 3 in AEE 412, the weekly investment readings and I are on the same page! Planning is an integral part of not only life, but also education. This week's discussion is based around planning units of instruction and integrating techniques of engaging students in instructional content. Here are some of my key take a ways: 

Organization: The art of organizing information is used for all levels of education. According to L. Dee Fink, there are five steps to initial design phase. They are:

 Step 1.  Identify important situational factors

 Step 2.  Identify important learning goals

 Step 3.  Formulate appropriate feedback and assessment procedures

 Step 4.  Select effective teaching/learning activities

 Step 5.  Make sure the primary components are integrated 

Scaffolding:  Another point that stood out to me was the concept of scaffolding. The theory is that students learn by building on prior knowledge. I believe this to be true from personal experience as I once was a young learner. I would be more motivated to learn the content and be able to retain more if I was able to connect new concepts to information I already knew. As educators, it is important to plan instruction in a logical manner. This allows students to learn information from the foundation up.

Backward Design: The concept of backward design fascinates me. The concept forces you to think about your audience and their needs first, before starting the planning process. The concept of backward planning has three stages. They are:

1. Plan for Desired Results    

2. Determine Assessment Evidence    

3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

Over-all I am excited to explore these topics further and add to my prior knowledge!

References

                                                                           https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

     www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

https://study.com/academy/lesson/comparing-scaffolding-and-differentiated-instruction.html

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