Running head: REFLECTION

Science Reflection on Placement

EDUC. 4262-YB

Dr. Bartley

Lakehead University

Katrina Bert

0520840

January 4th, 2017

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My first placement was an extremely successful one. I had two grade nine girls

physical education and health classes, and a grade 10 applied science class. My grade 10

applied science was very different from anything I could have ever expected. There were

only twelve students on the class list when I started; the first week two of those students

were expelled dropping the class to ten students. Out of these ten students, on a regular

day I would only normally have six or seven of them in the classroom. The students

learning ability, and true education level was wide-ranging; meaning yes they may be in a

grade ten applied class but most of them should have been in a locally developed or

workplace class. Every student in the class had an Individualized education plan (IEP),

and this was evident as I began to observe during my first week how the class worked.

All of the students were extremely quiet and would lose interest quickly.

As I began to take over teaching the class I tried a variety of different methods to

teach the information to see what would work best for majority of the students and help

them focus. Generally, any type of lecture teaching could only last for about ten to

fifteen minutes; otherwise, the students would lose interest. I used a variety of hands on

methods of teaching and brought in a variety of teaching tools to help keep focus and

engage their interests. For the most part all teachings in this class had to relate back to

real life, so as to help these students as they move forward with their lives. The main

unit that was I teaching was human systems, for this unit I wanted to keep a lot of the

activities and lessons hands-on. To do this I was able t get in contact with a meat

processing factory and get a lambs digestive system, a pigs heart, and a set up pigs

lungs. I brought these in at different times so the students could see what we were talking

about in real life. I cut into the organs, showed them the different parts of the organs, and
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discussed the process of how they work in our bodies and how they work in the different

systems. The students loved this, and they were able to ask questions as we went and be

more involved in their learning. I also set up activities in the class, such as using a heart

rate monitor and spirometer to look at their own heart rates during rest and activity and

looking at their lung capacities. These types of hands on learning and tying into real life,

was the best method for these students because they were able to understand the

importance of why they are learning these things. One of the only things that I would

have changed for my teaching methods would be watching time and the amount of work

students are given. This is because a lot of the time the students would need to take a

longer time to do activities than I had anticipated.

The methods classes in the first term were able to help prepare me for practicum

in terms of giving me the basics of knowledge in the curriculum as well as providing me

with a variety of resources to use. In terms of the next placement, I think it would be

extremely beneficial to look more closely at the units that are being taught for the

different grade levels, just as a refresher. Looking into these units to refresh our

knowledge will help us to find better ways to teach it. I also think it will be beneficial to

talk about different methods to teach students with a variety of learning abilities. This

experience fit with my ideas of growth as a teacher of science because I was constantly

learning and changing my thinking and methods as I moved forward with my lessons. I

learned what worked, what did not, and how to modify things to make them work.

There were many aspects of twenty-first century teaching in my classroom. This

is because I was always trying to find new and innovative methods to spark the students

interest in the topic. Whether it was using a PowerPoint, showing a video, doing a Kahoot
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Quiz, or integrating some other sort of technology or tool. The students really reacted

well to this type of teaching; it engaged them.

This science class was were I personally feel that I made my biggest strides as a

teacher during placement. I was out of my comfort zone and worked exceptionally hard

to make connections with my students and find different ways to help them engage and

think school and learning was interesting.