Welcome back to my blog! This week my fellow cohort members and I completed a lab assignment with the purpose of creating a fun and engaging interest approach for a lesson we will be teaching in the spring. I decided to base my interest approach off the 9th grade Ag Environmental Science course I will be student teaching in the spring, and my lesson plan was formulated for an introduction to the wildlife unit. I passed out wildlife observation charts to my "students" and had them recall some of the different mammals and birds they have seen around campus. I had a lot of fun listening to their stories of what they have observed while walking to class or driving around state college! I then listed a few essential questions based around topics we will be diving into throughout the entire unit, so that they can get familiar with the new material.
This interest approach activity relates to what I know about teaching because I was able to incorporate Lancelot's Primary Principle of Interest as the Love of Nature. I tried to grasp my students' attention by having them talk about a personal experience they have had with an example of wildlife. As a learner, I tried to appeal to their love of nature by having them connect what they have personal experience with and what we were going to be learning in the classroom.
I learned a lot from this lab experience that I will definitely be implementing into my future lesson plans. First of all, I realized the importance of emphasizing the "Why", related to why students should care and want to learn more about this subject. I wish I added in my lesson that students should care about wildlife because we have a huge impact on them, whether it is negative/positive, and learning all we can about them can help us employ better management techniques to ensure their well-being in the future. I also learned that if I am going to be using an interest approach to introduce a unit, then I should use the entire class period to do so. My original intent was to conduct this activity outside and have them observe in real-time some examples of wildlife. However, it poured all day during lab (of course until I taught and we looked out the window and the sun was shining, just my luck lol) so I had to modify my lesson a little bit and just had them discuss past experiences.
As a future Agricultural Educator, I can use this learning experience to better my interest approaches and to really get my students excited and engaged into a new topic. My fellow cohort members had awesome interest approach ideas that I will definitely be implementing into my lesson plans for the spring! I'm more aware of the need for teachers to be flexible and able to adapt to changes in the classroom or plans for that day's instruction. Thank you for taking the time to read about my Ag Ed journey and feel free to leave any comments or advice down below!
- Lauren
I think this is a really creative interest approach. None of us in my lab section used the love of nature as an interest approach, and being someone who does love nature, I'm glad to see one way it's been implemented. I think this is a great activity, because most students have probably had some type of interaction with nature, at some point in their lives, so that gives you a solid foundation to build from.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you wanted to do this activity outside pairs well with my Brownie Point I did today: implementing the outdoor classroom! If you can get your students outside for this activity (or any really), they will greatly benefit from it.
I'd also love to talk more this semester about the class that you're teaching! While I'm not teaching an environmental science class in the spring, I would like to in my future career. I'd love to hear about some ideas you're implementing in your lessons!
Well done Lauren, keep it up!
Hey Nate, thanks for the feedback and I'd love to talk to you more about the environmental science class I'll be student teaching in the spring!
DeleteHey Lauren! I think your interest approach is a great way to get your students thinking about their personal connections to the content you are teaching. The "why" is also a big takeaway that I had during this lab. I think your interest approach dives into that "why" right away by connecting the content to the students. It also sounds like you had to adapt your interest approach due to the weather. What a wonderful opportunity to practice adapting your material before you get the the classroom! Being adaptable is HUGE as an educator. I feel like some individuals could get really flustered by a change like this and let it effect the rest of their lesson. It sounds like you took it all in stride though! Great job!
ReplyDeleteHey Taylor, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment! I also think my big "why" factor was at the very beginning of the lab when they were making personal connections to nature. Having to change my lesson around a little but was definitely challenging but now that I have done it, I feel like it won't be such an overwhelming feeling in the spring during student teaching! These teaching labs are a great way for us to get that real-life experience prior to the spring and I look forward to reading your blogs related to it!
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