Lab #1 First Day of School

First day in Large Animal Science

In January, I will have the good fortune of teaching my first lesson on the first day of the new semester. This means I will truly have new students, right out of the box. Therefore, the lesson plan which I created and gave a 10 minute snap shot on, would be an incredibly useful tool for student teaching.

For this lesson I formatted my lesson plan, in addition to a classroom management plan with included three posters. These posters have the Procedure, Expectations, and Consequences for my classroom.

Check them out and leave feedback on how you'd revise them and why:

Two points of clarification that you may not know about my classroom management posters:

1. The Tech Break, on the procedures poster, is a 5 minute break during the block for students to go to the bathroom, check Schoology in other classes, or check their cellphone. This is considered a "temporary fly zone" in a "No Fly Zone" classroom.

2. The discussion after class under consequences is rooted in the theory of Restorative Justice which I was excited to learn about over the summer. (What are your thoughts on restorative justice?)

Reflecting on my 10 minute snap shot:

Strengths: I put a lot of thought into the lesson and the flow from the student's perspective. 

• I ensured that I mentioned the class upon greeting the students at the door, to weed out students that may be in the wrong class. 
• I had name cards at each seat to address assigned seating without bringing attention to the subject. 
• Once at their desk, students found all the material handouts they would need for the day.
• The bell ringer was written on the board and verbally prompted immediately, allowing minimal time for goofing off.
• As my peers and mentors mentioned, my Alliteration Name Game (when I prompted students to pair an adjective describing themselves with their name) utilized minor cross-curricular terminology and aided my learning in not only the student's name but the student themselves.

Suggestions: Overall I was incredibly happy with my lesson, but as always there is room for improvement. I was thankful my peers and mentors offered meaningful feedback for me to work with.

• I failed to write down the objective on the board or on the power point. It is critical that I look at the big picture as a whole for the day, not just task by task and hope that students get what I want them to.
• In my Alliteration Name Game I had no idea that I responded to what student's shared with just their name. I was gracious when Mrs. Barzydlo pointed this out in Edthena, of course I was still learning about them from what they shared, but I wasn't giving the student validation that I had heard what they said. 
• At Dover Area High School, teachers are asked to use the terminology Bell Ringer, and write an agenda on the board for students to copy. Although I did both tasks, I failed to use the correct word "Bell Ringer" opposed to "Bell Work." 
• I like the schools decision to utilize school wide terminology for students to connect procedures across the board. Prompting the students to do Bell Ringers will result in less resistance when the whole school is using them. I have to retrain my language to make this happen!