Getting My Feet Wet - A "Microteaching" Experience at Mifflinburg Academy

I had the opportunity to practice some of the teaching techniques that I have learning about this past semester as I "micro" taught at Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology in Lewistown, PA. I taught some lessons that I wrote for my soils unit, specifically about what soil is and why it is important, how soil is formed, how to collect and prepare a soil sample, and a lab in which the students tested for macronutrients in the soil. I had a really good time and I think that the students did as well. The Agriscience teacher, Annette Sprenkel, gave me some excellent feedback and I am excited to be able to improve my teaching techniques. 

Students collecting a representative soil sample

Some key takeaways

What I need to improve:

• I need to prepare materials for the students like guided notes and handouts to enrich the retention of learning
• I need to ensure that I maintain professionalism throughout the lesson. I am still struggling with this, because I want to have fun and I want the students to have fun, but I need to be conscious and careful that I don't let the students forget that I am their teacher and that they are here to learn
• Transitioning from interest approach to lesson material and activities. Make sure that there is a clear connection and that adequate instruction is given

Some things that I did well:

• I made the students work and think. As a new person coming into the classroom and only being there for 4 days it is hard to develop a rapport with students and encourage them to feel comfortable to ask questions and participate, but I think I did pretty well with that regard.
• The students were engaged. I spent a lot of time thinking about interesting ways to teach soil properties and processes to design an engaging and interactive experience. There are a lot of things that I need to improve, it wasnt perfect, but the students liked it and during a formative assessment they rated their confidence level regarding the material on average at an 8 (scale of 1-10, 10 = very confident)
• I was able to learn every student's name and call on them by their name which I feel is very important

As a side note, I really like the CTE school setting with the block schedule. Forty-two minutes just isn't enough time!

(Pictures posted with permission)

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Lil' Wilburt (or Craig)

The animal barn. Pigs, goats, and rabbits

Inquiry Based Instruction - A Reflection

What is education? What is the goal of education? John Dewey was a harsh critic of educational paradigms that relied on the transmission of facts as educational goals. He believed that education was a mechanism of social change and as Paulo Freire incisively declared in "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," a "means by which men and women can participate in the transformation of the world" (the quote is often attributed to Paulo Freire but is actually attributable to Richard Shaull in his introduction of Freire's work "Pedagogy of the Oppressed).

So if education is not merely the transmission of facts, what is it and as teachers what is our role? That is a difficult question to answer, and as with most difficult questions there is no one right answer. That being said, there are many approaches to teaching which I believe come close to some of the ideals that great minds such as Dewey and Freire had imagined.

Inquiry based instruction is a process in which the instructor facilitates a learning experience that is directed by the student. It is based on the scientific method, namely: making observations, formulating hypotheses, developing testable predictions, experimenting, gathering data, and making conclusions which is followed by a scholarly peer review.

I know when we hear scientific method our minds are filled with images or thoughts of scientists in white lab coats pouring colorful liquids into test tubes or Doc from "Back to the Future," however, that is a very narrow perspective of "science" and a paradigm that we need to change if we want to encourage students to be excited about science. Stated simply, science is a systematic way of finding answers to questions that we have and you probably use the scientific methods unconsciously everyday.

Although I have very limited experience with inquiry based instruction, I recognize that more than helping student discover new things, it is about helping them through the process of discovering new things. In other words, it is about the process as opposed to the output. What is really powerful about inquiry based instruction is that learners learn how to learn! To be a lifelong learner you have to learn how to learn and learn effectively. And that is what inquiry based instruction is all about.