This week seemed to fly by, I think I started to feel slightly less overwhelmed by the new-ness of the environment and started really getting into the rhythm of teaching more. So I’ll write this summary of the entire week by subject instead of lesson by lesson, as I didn’t get to do daily summaries this time (got distracted putting my head down and doing the teaching, I guess). But also because this allows me to discuss how each of the classes progressed through the week instead of focusing on a lesson-by-lesson breakthrough in which the overall flow is more difficult to see and discuss, and part of what happened this week was I started to think about the overall direction of the teaching/ learning in each class, meeting objectives, etc.

Monday Double

I made a lesson plan for Mondays double. I continued with the selected questions I’d taken out of the science by doing activity sheet and made a worksheet out of. Last week we had looked at the horse and cart problem, but this week we continued and looked at the paratrooper questions about forces and acceleration. I struggled to get the class to participate, they just seemed more reluctant than usual, and it was really kinda painful. Then we moved onto a new set of questions which I had selected out of the same activity sheet, which involved making calculations about forces and acceleration in order to determine the speed a car had been traveling based on its tire skid marks, and knowledge about the friction between wheels and bitumen. Unfortunately the class really struggled with the activity as I think it was pitched too high for them. On the otherhand, the final activity I had prepared for that lesson, an online interactive game to get them to think about examples of energy transformation and transfer called Launchball was a real hit with a good portion of the class.

On reflection, I think I actually got some good differentiation in this lesson: a good number of the students who ordinarily really struggle and sit at barely passing grades really engaged with the launchball activity, a problem solving puzzle game which appealed to their interests (I had spoken to some of them about playing games in previous lessons). On the other hand the car skid calculations provided extension for a few of the top end students in the class, who enjoyed being given something more challenging that was not immediately easy for them. However, I wouldn’t call it a success. A good portion of the middle of the range students felt locked out of the difficult activity, and disinterested in the launchball game, and the time management of the lesson meant there where periods of dead time for each group while activities they where not engaging in where being done. So lots of room for improvement, but potential in the sense that it was one of few lessons in which I think I really achieved a good level of differentiation — something I’ve been feeling a big need for. Now just to improve on it to the point where it doesn’t ruin my lessons completely haha.

Thursday Double

I really felt like science was going abit off the rails with how disengaged the students had been with the worksheets I had been preparing, so with the help of my mentor teacher I made a lesson plan for Thursdays double. I started the lesson with some feedback on the inertia prac reports, which I had been marking. I went through how to distinguish between the dependant and independant variables in an experiement on the board. One of the other key things I noticed was that many students had been struggling to understand what kind of graph was appropriate, how to construct it, and how to interpret it. So I modified the scatterplot task I had planned on using with my maths class for my science class. Here is the modified worksheet (source also available). I got them to do that activity, and then afterwards used it to discuss the difference between random and systematic errors. They got through all this faster than I expected, but I was prepared for that this time, and had some questions on forces acceleration ready.

I re-adjusted the level at which I was pitching the forces and acceleration work: chose some easier questions from the science by doing activity sheet involving a boy jumping into a pool and free-falling for some time, and I talked about the concept of acceleration as change in speed. Some kids got it, others really struggled with the concept, so I think it was pitched at the right level, although I could have improved on the delivery. Practice practice practice. Some of the students who engaged with the launchball game on monday continued with it as well, rather than engaging with the material in todays lesson. Not so bad though, considering they where still engaged with material and learning. Again, differentiation, but a little chaotic. The launchball game did lead to some good discussion of methods for problem solving as well as energy transformations and transfers.

Things I wanted to do but didn’t

I also had prepared a Kahoot on energy transformations and conservation of energy, but never ended up using it. Similarly, I wanted to ask for feedback on my teaching, ether through the post-it note activity my mentor teacher suggested (write down two things you learnt, and one thing you would like to learn), or through a google form, but I didn’t end up doing either of those things. Definately want to try that next time. Maybe on my second placement.

Friday Single