1. What are some of my strengths as a teacher? What are you doing that is working and how do you know?

I found throughout this practicum that my strength as a teacher was filling in gaps in student learning though one on one support. I found, that as the practicum went on, I was able to identify which students constantly need more support to grasp the concepts and to be able to work through the examples independently, and which students only needed clarifying questions.

What I found successful was preparing practice questions in increasing difficulty, following a “I do, we do, you do” format. During this time, I could circulate to the few groups who needed more support and guide them through the first part of a question, then circulate to the other groups. While, at the same time stopping in and seeing if other students had any questions. By the time I had gotten around the room, the first group was ready for the next step.  In addition, for the students who really understood the learning, could move onto the textbook, and practice, and have enough time to get to the challenge problems.

During this circulating the room method, I made sure to talk to each student individually about, how they were doing and if there was anything I could clarify for them. I found that this was effective in making sure that every student in the class was engaged in the learning, felt supported, and seen.

  1. What are some of my stretches as a teacher? What are you working on or how have/will you overcome them?

My biggest improvement during this practicum was taking in class feedback and using it to teach reflexively so that learning was maximized.

At the beginning, I found that I did not have a strategy to determine if the students were really understanding the lesson that I was teaching in the moment. For example, were their blank faces because they already knew the information, because it was boring or because they were lost? So, what I had come up with was polling the room in terms of thumbs up, side, or down.

  • Thumbs up meaning: you get it and want to practice now;
  • Thumb to the side meaning I’m not sure, can you do another example,
  • Thumbs down was I have no idea.

 I introduced this and it gave me better ideas of what students were feeling.  However, when first introduced this, I realized from conversations with my CT that it was not as reflexive to the students learning as it needed to be. For example, I had just moved on in content if only some students had a thumb to the side. Which is not the goal of polling the room. Or I had moved to another practice problem, but it was a different kind of practice problem which again was not what they needed.

So, what I had decided to do is to prepare multiple iterations of the practice problems in the note packages into my own notes. For example, if they don’t understand question A, then here are some alternative numbers to put into the questions to try another.  I found that through this extra layer of planning I was able to be more reflexive to the students in the room. I also noticed a lot better results in class, and more effective time for myself in circulating the room. Since, I was not re-teaching the same thing to all the groups individually.

3. What is one favorite memory, lesson, or event that happened during practicum? Include an image or lesson plan.

My favorite lesson that I taught in Chemistry 11, was on the curricular competency that “Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)”.

We were in the part of the course, where students were learning about the mole, and how we can use this concept to allow us to relate the mass, volume, and number or particles, such that it is relevant for use in the lab. So, when we were learning about molar concentration, and dilutions,

I had students complete an exit slip:

  • “What mass of copper (II) chloride do you need to make 100mL solution of 0.5M CuCl2 ?”
  • “What volume of the 0.5M CuCl2 stock solution do you need to make a diluted 100mL solution of 0.1M CuCl2 ?”

The next day, students came into class, and I asked them to write a procedure, using the list of materials on the board, to make the two solutions from yesterday.

I broke them up into groups of 3, and at the whiteboards they brainstormed how they would write the procedure for make the solutions. It was interesting to see how students took to the task. They were brainstorming and coming up to the front to see what all the materials looked like, then back to the white boards and started writing. I had some groups talking out their procedure in their most David Attenborough accents, so you know they were engaged, but also having fun with it.

Afterwards, we all collaborated and created one main procedure for making the solution. So, all the different groups added to the procedure, and we added information to make it more detailed. Then I had students make those solutions.

What I really liked about this process is that there was a lot more understanding in what they were supposed to be doing in the lab. In addition, I got a lot of “Aha” moments for student understanding the dilution process, and why you take a little of a stock to make a more dilute solution.

It was a great representation the importance of the FPPL “learning is experiential”. I cannot wait to come up with more hand on learning opportunities for chemistry that are centered around the curricular competencies, that teach the content on their own.