Parking Lot Speech
STEM education is important to include in schools because STEM concepts prepare students for a wide variety of careers by emphasizing critical thinking and problem-solving. Programs emphasizing STEM concepts and careers are important especially for young women. In many STEM fields, like engineering and applied mathematics, women are underrepresented. Studies have shown that applying programs that improve attitudes toward women in STEM and exposing young girls to woman role models and mentors in STEM fields can improve these statistics. The other upside of these types of programs is that they don't need to be a huge undertaking. Programs that improve attitudes toward women in STEM or expose girls to appropriate role models can begin with a classroom visit from a woman in a STEM field.
How has your "parking lot speech" changed? How has it been reinforced through your research and conversations? Are you ready to deliver it?
My parking lot speech has changed to incorporate the issue of women in STEM. This concept especially has been developed by my research which has opened my eyes to the various STEM fields that have a low proportion of women. My research has also reinforced my knowledge on the subject and given me real details to back up my ideas. I believe I am ready to deliver this speech because it is something that I am knowledgable and passionate about.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Reflection Week of 3/13/17
This week, I began my next unit and continued work on the biology board game in conceptual biology. Because I have been having trouble with my time management, I incorporated a little more flexibility into this current unit. I planned on doing less each day and I found several short activities and videos to do when there is time left over in class.
This week, I also began implementing my action research study. I completed a direct instruction lesson and a guided-inquiry based lesson and analyzed the students' engagement for both using a survey and a qualitative analysis. Unfortunately, this Friday was hectic, and I forgot to give the second survey to my 9th period class. In addition, I forgot to inform my 8th period class about their upcoming quiz on Tuesday. My mentor teacher said that I should still hold the quiz on Tuesday and to make sure I post it on their online class platform. I know that the students will be upset at learning about their quiz on Monday, and I am not sure yet how I'm going to handle this situation, especially since I know that it was my fault that they didn't know about their quiz before.
This week, I also began implementing my action research study. I completed a direct instruction lesson and a guided-inquiry based lesson and analyzed the students' engagement for both using a survey and a qualitative analysis. Unfortunately, this Friday was hectic, and I forgot to give the second survey to my 9th period class. In addition, I forgot to inform my 8th period class about their upcoming quiz on Tuesday. My mentor teacher said that I should still hold the quiz on Tuesday and to make sure I post it on their online class platform. I know that the students will be upset at learning about their quiz on Monday, and I am not sure yet how I'm going to handle this situation, especially since I know that it was my fault that they didn't know about their quiz before.
Reflection Week of 3/6/17
This Monday, I began my implementation of a project that I designed to help my students strengthen their biology knowledge. I am having them work in groups to create a Biology-themed board game based on the unit that they need the most practice on. I used the data from their practice standardized test to assign groups, so I wasn't sure how they would react to these assigned groups. The beginning of this project went surprisingly well. The students didn't put up too much of a fight about grouping, especially when I explained how groups were assigned, and I was pleasantly surprised by the level of engagement and creativity put into this assignment. However, students were very stressed about the fact that I wouldn't be giving them all of the class time they would need to work on this project at once. They will be receiving short amounts of time to convene with their groups before each portion of the project to keep from taking too much time out of their lessons at once. I learned from my mentor teacher that these students almost never receive projects that they need to complete outside of class, so the reason they are stressed is that they are worried they'll have to meet and work with their groups outside of school. Next week, I plan to discuss my plans for this project with them more in detail and reassure them that they will have the time they need in class to work with their groups.
Reflection Week of 2/27/17
This week, I completed the first full unit that I planned and taught in conceptual biology. There were some hiccups, though overall it went well. The biggest thing that I struggled with this unit was time management. I am having a difficult time knowing how long activities will take and making sure I leave time at the end of class to wrap up the lesson. In addition to this issue, after looking at the quiz grades from this Friday, I feel that I didn't appropriately prepare my students for this assessment. My students struggled a lot with applying concepts to new situations and reading comprehension of the test questions. Since the quiz questions came from the state-provided standardized test practice question bank, this raises a further worry that my students won't be prepared for their standardized test in May. I have been using similar questions from this question bank as my warm-ups each class, but I may need to re-evaluate how I approach these warm-ups. I plan to spend more time on walking students through strategies to read, comprehend, and analyze these questions.
Reflection Week of 2/21/17
This week, my students spent the majority of the week taking their practice Keystone test, so I spent a lot of time organizing my space and the students' grades. I conferenced with each student about their grade and any missing assignments. With some students, this conference turned out well and they turned in their missing assignments that day. With others, I got apathetic responses. I learned that for many of these students, I need to constantly remind them of missing work. On Friday, my students began a new unit with a pre-quiz. This precise took longer than I was expecting. Although it was half the size of the students' final quiz for this unit, it still took half the class for the students to finish and review it. In the future, I am considering doing a different kind of formative assessment spread out over the unit using warm-ups. However, this will depend on the results of the pre-quiz. If my students got what I hoped they would get out of this pre-quiz, I may use it again regardless of the time it takes.
This week in my Anatomy & Physiology class, the students completed lab stations based on the special senses. Many of them do well with this hands-on learning. They enjoy being able to work at their own pace and move around the room. I would like to implement some similar activities in my conceptual biology classes, though, behavior-wise, I'm not sure how they'll handle stations like this. I would also like to see if the Anatomy students would do well with completing stations at the beginning of a unit instead of the end, as an inquiry-based lesson. I think that, especially since they are all seniors and engaged in the content of this class, they might benefit from working together to figure some of the stations out.
This week in my Anatomy & Physiology class, the students completed lab stations based on the special senses. Many of them do well with this hands-on learning. They enjoy being able to work at their own pace and move around the room. I would like to implement some similar activities in my conceptual biology classes, though, behavior-wise, I'm not sure how they'll handle stations like this. I would also like to see if the Anatomy students would do well with completing stations at the beginning of a unit instead of the end, as an inquiry-based lesson. I think that, especially since they are all seniors and engaged in the content of this class, they might benefit from working together to figure some of the stations out.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Sunday, March 5, 2017
690 Project Planning Module 6
Planning Sheet
Where should you focus your energies to be sure to complete your research and planning sheet?
To complete my research and planning sheet, I will focus my energies on finding any past research on the issue and how some schools (or my school) is attacking the issue of women in different STEM careers. I will also focus on ways that I could assess the impact of my project.
Where should you focus your energies to be sure to complete your research and planning sheet?
To complete my research and planning sheet, I will focus my energies on finding any past research on the issue and how some schools (or my school) is attacking the issue of women in different STEM careers. I will also focus on ways that I could assess the impact of my project.
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