Week 5 - S.O.C.K.S.

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I can't believe that we are already a third of the way through the semester of student teaching! Time is definitely flying and it's going so great. Every week is something new and different. There are so many great learning experiences that continue to come up! It can sometimes be a lot trying to capture all of these different experiences and processing them. One of the best things I have done is keep a daily brain dump reflection to remind me of all of these different things farther down the road. Yes, this was required by Penn State but there is so much value to it.

This week, Dr. Foster came to visit and that was so beneficial. It might be nerve wrenching to prepare to be observed but the observation can really prove to be beneficial. I learn little things here and there that I don't realize I am doing and realize things that I don't do. One of these is my lack of doing effective bellwork/opening activity. Some of my students decided that they didn't like the word bellwork and wanted to come up with a better name. So they came up with S.O.C.K.S.! Start of Class Kick Start. I am going to try to do weekly bellwork sheets and have the students turn them in at the end of the week. They will be graded on completeness, content, and quality. I am looking forward to trying to do a better job at starting class.

The best activity of the week was my soil erosion lab. This was a really cool lab that shows how water flows through different ecosystems and soils. The lab was a huge success and the students really liked it. The prep did not take that long and there is definitely room for improving/expanding the lab. I would like to take the lab a step further and show the students running polluted water through the different soils! That lab could be used in a number of different classes.




This was also the first week of creed speaking! The students finished their posters and some of them really turned out well! Unfortunately, not all of the students did well in the first paragraph. So hopefully they will improve this week! Any suggestions on how to motivate students to study the creed? I have given them all the resources and opportunities and yet most are not taking advantage of them. Hopefully, things will change when they see their grade. 


We also finally started engine disassembly. Day one was a success and we will continue to co-teach the unit!



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