The Big Observation Week (Week 3 of Student Teaching)

 This week was a pretty big week for me. Not only was I observed by Penn State this week, I was also observed by the University of Florida.

Both observations were very different but both went pretty well. 

This week I was still only teaching second period animal science where we started our Reproduction Unit. 

My first observation of the week was with Penn State. I was observed by Dr. Curry through zoom. It was one of the first times the kids saw the Swivil so I did get a few funny comments. 

The lesson I taught was called "How does the male reproductive tract work?".  

The day before I introduced the parts of the male reproductive tract and for my observation I taught what each part does. So for bellwork I had the students write down one part of the male reproductive tract and had a student point to it on their diagram at the beginning of class. 

We started off class with a kahoot to review the parts of the male reproductive tract. Unfortunately, we had some technological problems that caused the activity to last longer than desired. At the end of the kahoot, I let the winning student pick a prize out of my prize box and gave the second and third placed students a fun little eraser. 

After the kahoot game, we got into the activity for the day. I gave each student a handout with the function of each part of the male reproductive tract along with two pieces of paper. The goal of the activity was for each student to create two 8 flap foldables (for a total of 16 places to write). I walked the students through how to make the foldable and then gave them time to work. I made sure to remind the students that they should be summarizing the definitions instead of writing them word for word. 

I had originally only budgeted 20 mins for this activity but it ended up taking the students the whole class period along with time at the beginning of class the next day. 

Overall, the class went fairly well besides a feel technical issues that seemed to delay the class along with not having a full class set of scissors. 

My second observation of the week was with Dr. Bunch from UF. This observation was in-person as opposed to on zoom. I think I prefer the in-person method as opposed to zoom. 

The bellwork for the day was two parted. First I had them finish the foldable if needed and second I asked "How can knowing about the male reproductive tract be helpful in your life?". The answers I got from the question were quite interesting. It ranged from, so you know how to breed cows to making sure the animal is in good health. 

We then moved into our activity of the day which was quite fun! I gave them 40 seconds to break into groups of 2-3. I let them pick their own groups because the class is pretty well behaved and stays focus so I didn't think it would be necessary for me to create groups. 

Next I gave them their materials (see picture below).

I then gave them their mission!

 

Students then had the rest of the class to work on their poster. As they were working, I had music playing and made sure to circulate the room. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the activity and participating. They especially liked the playdoh!

Overall it was a great week!