Soils & Sassy Students

When I first walked into Tyrone Area High School to teach on Monday morning, I was nervous. Sure, I had taught multiple times throughout the semester, but this time, I was teaching in front of real students, in a new classroom, with an unfamiliar teacher.

During my Microteaching experience, I taught a soils lesson to a Horticulture/Botany class. There were 15 students in the class, and many of them were Juniors or Seniors. I had planned full 45 minute lessons, but when we went to observe last Friday, Ms. Hoy told us not to count on teaching bell-to-bell. So, I altered my lesson for the first day.

On Monday, I taught a lesson about the "ingredients" in soil. I focused on the four components and the ideal soil. I started out by giving them cookies, and related the ingredients in cookies to the ingredients in soil. I then asked them to observe a soil sample, then presented a very short PowerPoint about the four soil "ingredients" and asked them to complete a worksheet.

I ended up finishing my lesson about ten minutes early... apparently I had cut the lesson too much. I began to panic inside, because I didn't have anything else for them to do. However, I decided that it may be a good idea for me to go over the answers from the worksheet. After doing this, and the ticket out/evaluation, we only had a few more minutes to spare, which I spent talking to the students. This taught me that I always need a back-up plan, or (at the very least) I need to keep in mind an activity that can be done if the students finish early. Needless to say, for the next day, I made a crossword puzzle, just in case!

Day two went fairly well. We talked about the factors that influence soil formation. I split them into groups and they were each responsible for reading a passage about one of the five factors and then creatively presenting the material to their fellow students. I was a bit disappointed, because my students didn't come up with very creative presentations (I was hoping for at least one song, or one skit!). All of them chose to present the material on a poster, instead. Overall, the presentations went well. However, they didn't seem that into it, and I am not sure that they grasped the concepts as well as I had hoped. However, from their answers, they did seem to be gathering some knowledge.

The third and final day was my absolute favorite, although it did have a few downfalls. I began by presenting a PowerPoint about sand, silt and clay, connecting it to the first two days. I felt a little uncomfortable lecturing, although I am not sure why. It might have been because the students didn't seem that engaged, which potentially could have been combated by providing them with a guided note sheet. Finally, we got to the soil feel test. I demonstrated how to use the flow chart to determine soil texture. I handled the soil, while the students read the steps to me. This went pretty well, although I know that not all of my students were paying attention.

After I turned them loose to test the texture of the five soil samples that I brought (I was really excited about these samples, because they were all different textures- nerdy, right?!) they seemed to really get into the lesson. They worked diligently, and for the most part, all students were engaged. One mishap did happen when the students mixed up the soil sample lids. This threw off some of their answers, which frustrated some students. However, I fixed the problem by checking my own answers and the students quickly recovered from the problem.

After the students finished their soil analysis, I went over the answers with them. They seemed to really be connecting what they had learned the past two days with our discussion, which was nice to see!

For the most part, the students were great! There was, however, one student who seemed a bit sassy towards me. While teaching, I noticed that she would roll her eyes and whisper to her friend. While I was teaching, this really threw me off and bothered me. As I was watching my video, I noticed this more than once, as well. I was, at first, very angry and a little hurt. However, the more I thought about it, I began noticing something interesting.

Although this student was rolling her eyes and being rude, she answered almost all my questions, and her answers were always correct. Either she had already known everything I was teaching, or she was actually paying attention. Additionally, she would seem disengaged when she was at her seat, but as soon as she was broken into a group and away from her friends, she would become engaged again. This makes me believe that she might have just been acting up to be "cool" around her friends. Although this did bother me, I believe that it was a good thing for me to experience, because it made me think and analyze my teaching and the situation.

In addition to learning how to deal with sassy students, I learned something about myself as a teacher. I discovered that presenting material in the form of a lecture makes me uncomfortable. I was afraid that I would present the material wrong, which was literally the only thing that I worried about while I was teaching. I found that I am way more comfortable teaching hands-on lessons. I think that this is pretty evident in my videos, as I really loosened up when the students were performing the feel test. I also need to work on giving directions, as my directions were a bit unclear.

Overall, I had a great time Microteaching. It gave me real-world experience and I learned a few things about myself as an educator. I appreciated Ms. Hoy's willingness to help us out!