Thursday, September 27, 2012

Teaching Journal Day 3

Yesterday, I had my most successful run so far with the students at my place :D. I felt more like a "real" TA and those papers that Angie (my supervisor for this project) gave me for good teaching really helped! I love my "job". The only thing that could make it better would be if I got paid for it. If I do with all the luck in the world make it into Grad School, the first thing I'll do is sign up for TAing! 
Icings on the cake: 

  • I was paired with a TA (Carla), a master's student, whose honour's thesis concerned bird nesting behaviors, almost the exact same thing I want to do for my honour's thesis (if I do it). She's talkative, sarcastic and loads of fun, not to mention I can shake some info off of her for potential supervisors. Carla the money tree.  
  • I tend to feel more confident and act much differently than I usually do when in a teaching position. I talk louder, I'm more social and worry less about what others might think of me (except for how they might think about my teaching)
  • I guess you get some respect in a teaching position too, provided you teach well. Which is always nice :).  



Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Lab 3
Today has been my most successful run so far. It was probably because I actually practiced doing the intro before I went up in front of the class. It felt more smooth, I was stuttering less, was more projecting, less nervous and much more confident.
I was responsible for introducing the three components of the vertebrate skull as well as form and function of teeth. I found that many of them were still not quite grasping the terminology for the taxa, although this is to be expected. There was one question: “What is the teleostomi?” They were completely stumped. I sent them to discuss amongst themselves what they thought the teleostomi is for about half a minute. Although I heard some ideas and answers (while others seemed completely stumped anyway), I got no answers from anyone when I turned them back around. So for me, this tactic of discussion did not seem to work.
I did let slip one fatal detail for my intro today. When I asked them “Which of the three tooth insertion types we (humans) have, and almost everyone replied thecodont I accidently commented “obviously” after saying that was indeed correct. It was a slip on my part and I should not have let it happen. 1) For the students who know it, it’s almost like one less thing to be proud of (that they know) 2) for the students who didn’t know it, I just insulted them.
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                Once again I tried to lead them to the correct answer instead of giving it to them. However, this lab was different, since many of the facts are based on “know-or-don’t” rather than logically thinking through it. I must be careful to differentiate between the two types of questions so that when people are just asking for an answer for “know-or-don’t” questions, I don’t get tempted to take them on a long trip just to tell them the answer after all that work. For the logical thinking questions, however, it pays to ask more questions than to answer. This is because deep processing of information (actually thinking about the material themselves) beats shallow processing (me telling them the material) (Chow, 2007).
            Because the midterm is approaching, some students approached me to ask me about study techniques. One student asked me how he should go about studying and whether he should use cue cards to memorize the words. After reading the article by Chow (2007), I warned him that that is not the best way to approach the material. Since cue cards promote promotion of isolated facts, whereas the material in this class is in fact very much interrelated with each other as concepts, cue cards would not work. Instead, I taught him to create concept maps and work on those.
Example (in a blog I can't put arrows, but there would be lines between the three components and the skull. 
                                                                  Skull (Component of Lab 3)


Dermatocranium                                   Chondrocranium                     Splanchnocranium

                 The concept map would of course than be elaborated. This technique promotes understanding of relationships between terminology rather than the definitions of terminology themselves. Mentally, it also organizes the material into comprehensible “packages” that would organize all the material that was viewed and understood about that portion of lab (in other words, they are constructing a schema).
               
                One of the points that was mentioned in the paper (What all instructors should know) was that I should find out and understand what students are thinking and recognize that they think differently from me. This is a legitimate point to explore, since I feel that sometimes I think differently than a student and I end up asking questions where I know what I’m asking, but the student will give me a blank look. Sometimes I may blast through material without realizing that I am leaving behind some details.
                I practiced not doing so when I taught a few students about the “story” of the splanchnocranium. I went through it with them slowly, realizing that many of them had not completely learned the journey too well. For example, when I asked students what jaw suspension a mudpuppy has, one student replied “amphistyly”. Realizing that they had not completely  understood the material, I went through it with them step by step, asking them  questions along the way, such as “what happens to the hyomandibula in metautostyly jaw suspension?” I realized many of them did not understand…
·         The difference between the first and second branchial arch
·         That quadrate and articular are the exposed parts of what is left of meckel’s cartilage and palatoquadrate that has become ossified
·         That the hyomandibula is not associated with the jaw in autostyly
·         And some false conceptions
Apparently I am somewhat more thorough than Carla (my Co-TA).
I anticipate many questions on how to study for the exam. I should be ready for those and can even present the material I learned in the paper by Chow (2007).

Teaching Journal Day 1 and 2

One of my classes for this semester is something called Teaching Directed Studies (Biol 448). What I do is I co-teach a lab component with a TA. I was lucky enough to be paired with a cool TA who happens to love birds as much as I do, is extremely talkative, sarcastic and fun. 
One of my jobs is to keep a teaching journal that I write in every day after I finish the lab and record what worked and what didn't work. I felt like sharing them today :) 
I have worked through three labs so far. Today was the third one. I love the class, they are so much fun and I love teaching them! 

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

Lab 1 

Today went pretty well. I was in charge today for introducing the “development of vertebrates” and also “translating terminology”.
                For “development of vertebrates”, I feel like I went a little too rushed and fast. I tried a couple of techniques…
·         I asked them if they felt like they were in the wrong class when development was taught. Since I am the student teacher, I figure I’m the “example that survived”.  So relating to them and making it clear that it’s normal to find this material alien, I was hoping, would comfort them
·         I then explained the purpose of teaching development first so that, hopefully, understanding why they are doing what they are doing will help
I didn’t have a chance to share study tips. I wish I did though.
Most people screwed up on their plasticine models. That’s understandable though. The parts that most people screwed up on…
1.       The head fold was next to non-existent in the embryo
2.       The gut (endoderm) did not rise into the head
3.       The bump of endoderm was non-existent or if made existed posteriorly also
4.       Mesoderm. People were very confused about mesoderm.
a.       Where it went
b.       Coeloms (is a space)
c.       Difference between epimere/mesomere/hypomere mesoderm
Most I should remind them too that they will also be taking them apart at the end… plasticine pressed too firmly together!
I feel like I could’ve asked more questions and a bit more patient. I felt rushed to get the student to the answer during which I case I forgot about leading to the answer rather than giving it. I need to watch that for next time.
Especially when students were pressed around me, I felt pressured to get through the material quickly.
Overall though, I feel stoked to continue!
Oh wait! I was also kind of nervous… my teeth were chattering slightly, my hands were shaky…
I also learned that contrary to what I thought the TA’s don’t really know everything about the material and that they are not almighty beings and have their limits… EPIPHANY!

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

Lab 2
                Nervousness… I was giving my intro and then I couldn’t hear the student’s answers to my questions… it was that awkward moment where I couldn’t hear them and didn’t know what to do. Felt too awkward… O_O. It made me feel nervous. And pretty soon I felt my face redden.
                I might have also forgotten to breathe.
                So I must remember that what feels like an eternity to me actually is seconds below the stage. When I am met by awkward silence to a question I feel they should know, I should tell them I can wait and they know the answer.
                I explained what they were doing with the specimens in the lab today in the context of if they were scientists investigating the phylogenetic relationships of deuterostomes. I hoped that would make them realize what they were expected to do with the specimens.
                When the students were staring at me with somewhat bored expressions, I was getting very worried that I was boring them and I think started talking even faster and become more nervous. Because I was afraid they may have been getting impatient by then.
                Overall, I thought I may have been too worried about what students thought about me/my performance and perhaps not as concentrated as I should have been on delivering the material.