Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Change Blindness
Last week, I had a great time giving the students a glimpse of my research, tactile change blindness. I did a short presentation to remind them again of who I was (there are a few new students in the classroom this semester who I don't know as well). We reviewed the five senses and the technical names for each sense. I was surprised how many students knew about each sense. I then showed them a youtube clip of visual change blindness so that they could understand the phenomenon from a real life scenario and most of the students were floored by the experiment shown in the video. The rest of the presentation just involved short examples that tested whether or not you can detect change blindness and they were really involved. It was a bit challenging to keep students who detected the change from blurting it out and spoiling it, but after awhile they calmed down. I think it was good to show the students that engineering is much broader than they may be aware of.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
"He Reminds me of Myself"
I experienced a very bittersweet moment last week in the classroom. One of my favorite students, who I would give "Most Improved" for the semester just continues to surprise me. He's a freshman and just a bundle of energy. He was the kid that just could not pay attention and seemed to disrupt the class no matter where he was in the classroom. He's the one who always has a joke to tell, and sometimes you don't want to laugh but you do because its genuinely funny. He's the one who is very light hearted and you want to yell at him, but you know he really doesn't mean any harm. For 75% of the first semester, he played a huge role in controlling the dynamic of the classroom. If he was quiet, the class could move on. If he was having a bad day, everyone had a bad day. I started talking to him and striking conversation with him when I first got there, partly to just shut him up, but it ended up that now I am excited to find out how he is doing with his schoolwork when I visit the school.
All of a sudden, I came in one week and he went through a transformation. I was shocked, I thought he may have hit his head. He was working conscientiously, getting his work done, asking questions pertaining to the lesson, and even trying to help others! I was flabbergasted to say the least. Last week, he was actually trying to learn from his mistakes, and asked me to even write some challenge problems for him to work on after the starter. He sat quietly in the back of the classroom so that no one could disturb him, did his work, then asked me to check it. Amazing. He continues to surprise me. Ive heard that he may have an ipod on the line, but whatever his incentive or motivaton is, its working!
There's another student, a sophomore who acts similar to the freshman student. He is very disruptive, and I spend time talking to him during the lesson mostly to keep him from talking to other students if possible, and trying to get to know him. He's very intelligent, one of those kids who doesn't need to read the book and just 'gets it' On one hand, that is great for him, because he's naturally intelligent but doesn't have the work ethic. He refuses to do the homework, and is fine with settling with a 'B' in the class as long as he can slack on the homework. He started out ok, but his behavior is steadily getting worse.
Last week, my 'Most Improved' freshman student came in to 4th hour during his lunch period to ask a question and the sophomore student was being loud and obnoxious. It was absolutely priceless when the 'Most Improved' freshman looked at my teacher and said "You know, he reminds me a lot of myself, well how I used to be" My teacher replied "You're right, but the thing is..he's a few years older than you are." Although an absolutely priceless moment, it was also bittersweet. One student has improved drastically, while the other took a huge blow.
All of a sudden, I came in one week and he went through a transformation. I was shocked, I thought he may have hit his head. He was working conscientiously, getting his work done, asking questions pertaining to the lesson, and even trying to help others! I was flabbergasted to say the least. Last week, he was actually trying to learn from his mistakes, and asked me to even write some challenge problems for him to work on after the starter. He sat quietly in the back of the classroom so that no one could disturb him, did his work, then asked me to check it. Amazing. He continues to surprise me. Ive heard that he may have an ipod on the line, but whatever his incentive or motivaton is, its working!
There's another student, a sophomore who acts similar to the freshman student. He is very disruptive, and I spend time talking to him during the lesson mostly to keep him from talking to other students if possible, and trying to get to know him. He's very intelligent, one of those kids who doesn't need to read the book and just 'gets it' On one hand, that is great for him, because he's naturally intelligent but doesn't have the work ethic. He refuses to do the homework, and is fine with settling with a 'B' in the class as long as he can slack on the homework. He started out ok, but his behavior is steadily getting worse.
Last week, my 'Most Improved' freshman student came in to 4th hour during his lunch period to ask a question and the sophomore student was being loud and obnoxious. It was absolutely priceless when the 'Most Improved' freshman looked at my teacher and said "You know, he reminds me a lot of myself, well how I used to be" My teacher replied "You're right, but the thing is..he's a few years older than you are." Although an absolutely priceless moment, it was also bittersweet. One student has improved drastically, while the other took a huge blow.
A New Appreciation for Teachers
As always, I have a lot of respect for teachers. Their role in any given student's life is very elaborate and often misunderstood until you spend a day in their shoes. I have gotten a chance to observe the complex layers of teaching for a whole semester, from a teacher 's perspective, and a couple of weeks ago..the unexpected happened. I had spoken with my teaching partner on Tuesday, but when I stepped into the classroom on Thursday I was surprised to see another woman at her desk, a substitute teacher.
I happened to get there a couple minutes late, and I was welcomed with the usual chatter among the students. I walked over to the desk to introduce myself to the substitute teacher who was nervously thumbing through some lesson plans. She explained that there were worksheets for the students, but she hadn't been through the material in so long and could not remember any of it. I looked through the material and quickly referenced an Algebra book to confirm a couple of quick things and said that I could teach the lesson if she wouldn't mind helping with the administrative things.
I had one thing on my side, and that was that the students at least recognize and know who I am, so they warmed up to me teaching the class a little easier. First hour was a little rough, trying to get attendance down to the office, and trying to teach the lesson when half of the students didn't have books or pencils. I ended up having students come up to the board and do problems, and I would help them if they were nervous or afraid of getting something wrong. It is incredibly hard to maintain a balance of being stern and encouraging at the same time. That day made me step out of my traditional role as a 'teaching fellow' who is normally there for encouragement and support. I wouldn't mind doing this, but I would have liked to prepare a little more for it.
As the hours went on, the substitute and I got better and better managing the students. She worked on making sure the attendance sheet we passed around was filled out, and I taught the lessons. By third hour, I had the students partnering up and doing problems and then I would randomly choose any student to write their answer on the board. That worked well because each person had the responsibility of making sure their partner knew how to do the problem in case they were called. It seemed to encourage some of the students, but others did take the opportunity to form groups 'larger' than intended which was somewhat distracting. It was a little bit annoying that the students are allowed to carry ipods around. While the students were working, I would hear traces of music and I would have to go and make them turn off their music. Its amazing that all these highschoolers seems to have some sort of technological device at all times whether its a cell phone, an ipod..PSP..its always something!
Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Its incredibly hard to teach a diverse range of students. Some of them know the material and are bored, then others are barely keeping up and need extra help. And when they are not given the proper attention, they become disruptive and time never seems to be on your side. When it gets down to it, I see that conventional methods do not always address the varying range of ability in the classroom and its extremely hard for one person to maximize any given student's absorption of material. I would be curious to do more research on different approaches to secondary schooling across the world.
I happened to get there a couple minutes late, and I was welcomed with the usual chatter among the students. I walked over to the desk to introduce myself to the substitute teacher who was nervously thumbing through some lesson plans. She explained that there were worksheets for the students, but she hadn't been through the material in so long and could not remember any of it. I looked through the material and quickly referenced an Algebra book to confirm a couple of quick things and said that I could teach the lesson if she wouldn't mind helping with the administrative things.
I had one thing on my side, and that was that the students at least recognize and know who I am, so they warmed up to me teaching the class a little easier. First hour was a little rough, trying to get attendance down to the office, and trying to teach the lesson when half of the students didn't have books or pencils. I ended up having students come up to the board and do problems, and I would help them if they were nervous or afraid of getting something wrong. It is incredibly hard to maintain a balance of being stern and encouraging at the same time. That day made me step out of my traditional role as a 'teaching fellow' who is normally there for encouragement and support. I wouldn't mind doing this, but I would have liked to prepare a little more for it.
As the hours went on, the substitute and I got better and better managing the students. She worked on making sure the attendance sheet we passed around was filled out, and I taught the lessons. By third hour, I had the students partnering up and doing problems and then I would randomly choose any student to write their answer on the board. That worked well because each person had the responsibility of making sure their partner knew how to do the problem in case they were called. It seemed to encourage some of the students, but others did take the opportunity to form groups 'larger' than intended which was somewhat distracting. It was a little bit annoying that the students are allowed to carry ipods around. While the students were working, I would hear traces of music and I would have to go and make them turn off their music. Its amazing that all these highschoolers seems to have some sort of technological device at all times whether its a cell phone, an ipod..PSP..its always something!
Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Its incredibly hard to teach a diverse range of students. Some of them know the material and are bored, then others are barely keeping up and need extra help. And when they are not given the proper attention, they become disruptive and time never seems to be on your side. When it gets down to it, I see that conventional methods do not always address the varying range of ability in the classroom and its extremely hard for one person to maximize any given student's absorption of material. I would be curious to do more research on different approaches to secondary schooling across the world.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Aerospace Engineering, Celebrity Worship, and You
The past month at Ypsilanti High School has been successful and rewarding. At the beginning of the year, I did a couple of presentations about careers involving math and science, and a goal setting presentation. A student with an extreme interest in Aerospace Engineering approached me and asked if I could give him information that would guide him to work for NASA when he grew up. I researched the internet and University of Michigan's Aerospace Engineering program and printed out some light reading for the student to read. I then mentioned to another teaching fellow, Serge Badiane, that I had a student interested in Aerospace Engineering, and he was able to come and give a brief introduction explaining his research and the field of Aerospace Engineering. During one of the periods, he was even able to show the students videos of his research in small groups and they really enjoyed it! Even better, he was able to spend some one on one time with the student that expressed extreme interest in Aerospace from the beginning. It happened to be on the student's birthday, so that was a special treat.
In addition, I did another presentation "Celebrity Worship and You" Now this turned out to be pretty fun, although I want to expand on this topic with the students in future presentations. I think its interesting to discuss the effects of the media with the stduents. Espeically seeing that this is a time where they are experimenting and exploring their own identities which unfortunately may be heavily influenced by what they see on tv. I could see this was a topic of interest since such a large portion of students showed interest in pursuing performing arts (Musicians, actors/acresses, athletes) when we talked about careers. The media glamorizes these careers but does not put much emphasis at all on the education needed to succeed in these careers. Although many actors/actresses, athletes and musicians may not have college degrees, there are a surprising amount of them that do. Even better, there is handful that have or have pursued degrees in Math, Science or Engineering.
For the activity, I looked on the internet and found 20 - 25 celebrities that the students would recognize, printed their pictures and created a brief profile of who they are (i.e what movies they have been in, what team they are on, etc.). All of these celebrites have or have pursued college degrees in Math, Science or Engineering. I passed them out so that each student had one, and then gave them their task. Their task was to choose a leader/organizer and answer a few questions: 1)Which of these people do you think was the valedictorian of their highschool 2) Which of these people (up to three) do you think could help you with your math homework 3) Whcih of these people (up to three) do you think would be a good businessman/businesswoman. So they got about 10-12 minutes to debate adn discuss these questions and write their answers on the board. Meanwhile, Ms. Mills and I picked our own answers but we had a cheat sheet that listed the accomplishments of each individual.
It was very surprising that in each class, most of the students didn't know what a valedictorian was. It was not surprising that most of the students could not figure out the link between the celebrities, but that was the plan. There were a couple of students who had knowledge of a few of the celebrities educational background but very few. And when these students would speak up, it was interesting to see how they got shot down, because other students didn't believe them. Most of the students choices were based on what they perceive as the requirements needed for the celebrities' associated career, and even more surprising, how 'smart' the celebrities "looks". Montel Williams and Terrence Howard were a popular picks for "smart people", but Cindy Crawford wasn't even considered (although she was valedictorian of her high school and pursued a degree in chemical engineering).
After explaining that all of the celebrities despite their present careers have or have pursued college degrees, I passed out a table outlining the accompplishments of each celebrity for them to look over. This was a surprise to many of the students and a few of them started asking about other celebrities not on the list. It was rewarding that a couple of the students wanted to look into this further to see what other celebrities had other interests than what they see on tv. I urged the students to research the celebrities they like and to find out more about their career paths and how they really have been able to succeed as celebrities.
In addition, I did another presentation "Celebrity Worship and You" Now this turned out to be pretty fun, although I want to expand on this topic with the students in future presentations. I think its interesting to discuss the effects of the media with the stduents. Espeically seeing that this is a time where they are experimenting and exploring their own identities which unfortunately may be heavily influenced by what they see on tv. I could see this was a topic of interest since such a large portion of students showed interest in pursuing performing arts (Musicians, actors/acresses, athletes) when we talked about careers. The media glamorizes these careers but does not put much emphasis at all on the education needed to succeed in these careers. Although many actors/actresses, athletes and musicians may not have college degrees, there are a surprising amount of them that do. Even better, there is handful that have or have pursued degrees in Math, Science or Engineering.
For the activity, I looked on the internet and found 20 - 25 celebrities that the students would recognize, printed their pictures and created a brief profile of who they are (i.e what movies they have been in, what team they are on, etc.). All of these celebrites have or have pursued college degrees in Math, Science or Engineering. I passed them out so that each student had one, and then gave them their task. Their task was to choose a leader/organizer and answer a few questions: 1)Which of these people do you think was the valedictorian of their highschool 2) Which of these people (up to three) do you think could help you with your math homework 3) Whcih of these people (up to three) do you think would be a good businessman/businesswoman. So they got about 10-12 minutes to debate adn discuss these questions and write their answers on the board. Meanwhile, Ms. Mills and I picked our own answers but we had a cheat sheet that listed the accomplishments of each individual.
It was very surprising that in each class, most of the students didn't know what a valedictorian was. It was not surprising that most of the students could not figure out the link between the celebrities, but that was the plan. There were a couple of students who had knowledge of a few of the celebrities educational background but very few. And when these students would speak up, it was interesting to see how they got shot down, because other students didn't believe them. Most of the students choices were based on what they perceive as the requirements needed for the celebrities' associated career, and even more surprising, how 'smart' the celebrities "looks". Montel Williams and Terrence Howard were a popular picks for "smart people", but Cindy Crawford wasn't even considered (although she was valedictorian of her high school and pursued a degree in chemical engineering).
After explaining that all of the celebrities despite their present careers have or have pursued college degrees, I passed out a table outlining the accompplishments of each celebrity for them to look over. This was a surprise to many of the students and a few of them started asking about other celebrities not on the list. It was rewarding that a couple of the students wanted to look into this further to see what other celebrities had other interests than what they see on tv. I urged the students to research the celebrities they like and to find out more about their career paths and how they really have been able to succeed as celebrities.
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