Student Teaching Reflection 7

This week, on Tuesday, I had my first observation. During the class period that I was being observed, my mentor teacher first introduced the topic with a question to get the students thinking: “What is a similarity between photosynthesis and cellular respiration?” The students had already had lessons on both photosynthesis and cellular respiration, so they were familiar with the equations for both and the purposes for both. The students talked in groups about this questions for several minutes and then the teacher asked for their ideas. She guided the students to think about the commonality of energy in both processes. Once the class had discussed the question, we passed out the POGIL (worksheet) and split the class into 3 groups. My mentor teacher, her co-teacher, and I each took a group and guided them through the POGIL. Given my background in tutoring, I was very comfortable with this small-group setting and was able to use questioning to guide students through the POGIL. This class is typically hard to keep on track and unmotivated to complete work in class, but this small-group setting helped them focus and kept them accountable for their work. I was able to help them come to the correct answers on the POGIL, and I was able to use questions to spark discussion beyond the questions on the POGIL.

This Thursday, I also got to see a class play Kahoot. This experience was as entertaining as it was helpful. The teacher offered lollipops to the top three scorers during the game, so the students were working hard to get a high score. This competition could potentially help improve the students’ speed in recalling information, it helps them practice their vocabulary, and it increases their motivation. After each question, the teacher addressed any incorrect answers and offered tips to help students get answers correct next time (ex. oris sounds like oral because they are both related to the mouth). A downside of review games like this is that it does not allow for deeper thinking; the questions are only multiple choice. This is good when reviewing for part of a test or reviewing things like vocabulary, but not when studying for tests that require a lot of critical thinking or applying concepts to new situations. Keeping this in mind, I would definitely use Kahoot in my own teaching because it is still valuable practice and it did improve the students’ motivation.