Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

In-Class Sessions
Date

Information

Connections (e.g. between what learnt and

how I plan to use it to support student learning)

Extensions (e.g. further questions,

extensions, other applications,
improvements)

Jan 6

Made the switch over from the

SmartIdeas Mind Map software to this
ICE chart in Google Docs.
I am using it more as a tabled journal.

SmartIdeas or mind map software in general

can be a great tool for learning, but only if
concepts are small, or else it gets crowded. Its
also very frustrating when it moves around and
shifts when you add a new bubble.

What other platforms can be useful for

concept mapping or recording learning?

Im glad Cathy allowed us to map our ideas in a

different way - flexibility and choice is
something I would also provide if I was to
assign a recording activity like this.

I tried to use WordPress blogging, but I

could not figure out how to implement
convenient tables into my blog.
WordPress might be better for more
visual concepts and journalling.

Several reasons for this:

Mind map was getting too
crowded with all the additional
info
I got a new computer and it
doesnt work on OS X Yosemite
10.10.3
Im a lot more comfortable and
familiar with using Google Docs,
including maximally using all its
features, and its easy edit and
share factor.
UPDATE: Switched to Microsoft
Word because Google Docs was
being glitchy. (Currently looking at
other blogging or website
possibilities)
Project grouping strategy: Put your name
on the topic you want to work on, along
with all others who want to work on the
topic OR Lottery system where students
can put their name in and get randomly
assigned in groups.
Collaborative group activity: Make the
highest possible tower using newspaper
and tape

I might provide the lottery system as an option

in the classroom, just to pilot test it, and see
how it works out. I feel like its success would
vary depending on the types of students in the
class, the subject material, etc.
Great activity to build community and foster
teamwork, but in case there might be naysayer
colleagues in my building, I would also try and
connect it to the curriculum somehow (e.g.
gravity, math, kinetics, etc.)

Maybe a blogging activity could be a

good assignment.

Any other unique grouping strategies?

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

Jan 8

PEEL web database - filled with many

hands-on, explorefirstexplainlater, POE,
and discovery based activities.
Continued to work with group for
creating our Workshops

This is SUCH a good resource. If I am ever

stuck on how to make a certain topic fun, or do
something different with the class, I can just
look through the hundreds of ideas online. I
saved a few of my favourites, including
Brainstorm BINGO, Pair Cards, Sweller
Questions, Find the Questions, Roleplaying,
_____ City (e.g. cell city), Deep Thinking
Challenge.
Giving students time in class to work on
something, especially group work, is so
essential.

Jan 13

Continued to work with group for

creating our Workshops
Began thinking about Unit Plan
assignment and how I will structure it.
Decided to use SBI3U Diversity of Life
because I taught in first practicum, and I
have some good ideas both for it already
AND for making it better.

Jan 15

Workshop: Electricity
How to make circuitboard quiz game
Christmas lights to demonstrate series
vs. parallel concepts
Video: What is brighter? Series or
parallel?

The only thing that sucks about it is the

font is super small, and its not very userfriendly for navigation.
It is also great because you can combine
and modify activities as you see most
fitting to the class or topic you are
teaching.
Doing this requires good planning of
your units! That way, we get to do all the
fun stuff, but also give them adequate
time to make a good product.

I think in practice, I will use this idea in the back

of mind, but most likely, I really wouldnt do it so
formally. I might just sketch it out or make some
notes about it and pin it to my work bulletin
board or at the front of that courses binder.
There is value to it for sure because it really
allows both you and the student to benefit from
the big picture aspect kind of things, and
making sure they take away the most important
things in the course.

The way the unit plan template is set up,

it reminded me of collaborative
backward design, a way we learned to
make unit plans in CURR math class.
The point is to create activities and
lessons that will answer these
overarching questions and fulfill the Big
Ideas, similarly to backward design.

Great for kinesthetic learners and for everyone

to test and review themselves on what they
know

Uses easy to find materials (in schools)

and is fun and hands-on

Classic, but tried and true. For more advanced

classes that already know, it might be better to
allow the students to tell and teach the teachers
about what they already know about the
christmas lights, instead of the teachers asking
which is brighter, what will happen, etc.

(reminds me that I need to use more

videos in my lessons)

Great for consolidation

Jan 20

Workshop 1: Optics

Also a classic, but tried and true activity. I like

How can we make something like this

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

Making an image using mirrors, lenses,
and candles
Critically analyzing a textbook excerpt

how the group gave the students a lot of

independence and collaborative opportunity for
us to try and figure it out ourselves.
Reminds me of the blurb in the What Expert
Teachers Do book.

Workshop 2: Genetics
Making a mother, father, and 3 children
from alleles in cups (similar to Reebop
activity), but with pedigree charts and
then making Punnett squares

Jan 22

Workshop: Viral Transmission

How did you catch that cold diagnostic
quiz?
Viral P.O.E. - infecting each other using
cups of pink indicator. Cathy brought up
a good point that perhaps if your
classroom dynamics are not great, then
make sure the infectious person isnt
an unpopular student

This was a good quiz to see what the students

know or dont know, but could have been more
kinesthetic? We just filled it out and took it up
together, which is fine, but I feel like we could
make that more engaging.
I had already done this activity, so I knew what
to expect and how to execute it, but I never
even thought of Cathys point, so I will definitely
be mindful of that when I do it again.

How can we make these kind of

activities still Explore First, Explain Later
style but still give the students a strong
foundation? Maybe videos? Bring in a
scientist? Collaborative or independent
research? Hmm
Maybe it could have been done
Carousel-style, or there could have been
a research component
I did this POE during my practicum. It
went really well and the students liked it.
(And classroom dynamics were not bad
luckily, so nothing terrible happened).
Unfortunately, my associate didnt think
they got anything out of it.

I thought this was a great activity to do with

students, especially because it is so relatable to
the real world!
I would maybe try to also bring in a REAL
epidemiologist or virologist and get them to talk
about how they fight and eradicate diseases,
which could be great to complement this
activity.

I wanted to do this activity in my grade

11 biology practicum, but my associate
didnt think they would get anything out
of it.

Looking Out, Looking In Artist workshop

by Judith Gould

How can what we learned today in this

workshop be applied into the classroom?

Creating a contour line drawing - was

Teaching students to take things slowly and to

I know for a fact this would not fly with

some students. Some students dont
even bring a pencil to class, let alone
pick one up to write something. Some

Ebola misconceptions and epidemiology

research - trying to solve epidemics of
ebola, breaking the agent-hostenvironment triangle

Jan 27

I feel like with this activity, it is good for students

who already have a basic understanding of
genetics, so it might be better for consolidation.
Because a student who has no idea might be
confused as to whats going on, what we are
taking from the cups, etc.

more engaging and memorable?

Because thinking critically about what
one is reading is such a crucial skill, but
all throughout the education system,
people are just taught to find answers in
the text in front of them and write them
down

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

Jan 29

much harder than it seemed

look at things really detailed.

Drawing something by REALLY looking

at its details and deconstructing it into
shapes and lines

Empowering students and showing them they

can do more than what they thought they could.

Workshop: Evolution in birds

I absolutely LOVED this activity. I thought it was

creative, incorporated all types of learning, had
both collaborative and independent aspects to
it, and could provide such a large springboard
in any direction to do a debrief, or many
debriefs, about it. I will definitely be using it if I
ever get a job. For me, this might be one of the
very first activity to introduce evolution to the
students, and then just build upon this
whenever we come across new concepts (like
in the Reebop activity, it is kind of ongoing).

Carousel-type activity where you try and

pick up different types of food with
different shaped beaks.
Jellybean selection and graphing it.
Find your mate among the city noise and
make your own call game (with
predators too)

Classic, but tried and true activity. I might

modify and use it in conjunction with the food
beak activity.
I thought this was pretty cool, because it is
relevant and relatable, and incorporates
research and primary sources. What I found
was the loudest person usually was the most
successful in finding their partner really fast,
even though the predator is there, and thats
obviously not true, so some adjustments to the
rules may be required.
Feb 3

Workshop 1: Plants (mine)

(see Self-Assessments of my
Workshop below for details)
Workshop 2: Molecular Genetics
Role Play in movie, but for DNA

The concept of using movie roles to learn about

stuff is a good one, but it was kinda difficult to
coordinate with the amount of people in the
class. This may be good for a smaller class,
and if there was some more priming (haha, see
what I did there?) before doing the activity OR
doing the activity at the same time while the

students also cannot sit down for that

long before getting antsy. Thus, I think it
would be good to do something like this,
but modify it to accommodate for these
other students. Cuz this was a very
mature kind of workshop, IMHO.
Something like this could also be
modified for other concepts too. I am
trying to think if it could be used for
physics (using different tools to lift or
move something?) or chemistry (using
different chemicals in eyedroppers and
testing different things?) or maybe even
math in some way?

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

Feb 7

replication

students watch videos or do research on what

they know (I myself kinda forgot about how
DNA replication works, and Im sure other
people forgot too, adding to the confusion).
Another idea is give a screenplay template and
have students figure out what to put and where
and THEN try to action it out.

Field Trip

I think this could be a valuable grouping

strategy for any outdoors or any field trip.

Grouping strategy: Lineup in order of

most comfortable with outdoors to least
comfortable and have students pair off
from end to end.
Feeding chickadees

If I ever get an opportunity to take students out

to a field trip and have them experience what
its like to have a chickadee literally land on
your hand and take a seed from you, I would. It
is fun, rewarding, and you can have a
discussion on domestication of urban animals.

Having a solo moment

Thinking of a rhyme of what you saw
during your solo moment

I have mixed feelings about the solo moment.

Because everyone was so far apart from each
other and I couldnt see anyone, I was unsure
of when to stop having the solo moment, and I
got pretty antsy and I couldnt concentrate on
my solo moment. I am sure there will be at least
one other student in the future who will feel that
way. Maybe the instructor could send up a
signal flare when its all done.
Using rhymes can really help the brain solidify
their learning, so that was good.
I would have students write this day in their bio
blogs or journals, including submitting their
rhyme.

What else could we have done on this

field trip that would have been
educational and fun as well?

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

Feb 10

Workshop 1: Homeostasis
Diagnostic: Using plasticine to make a
model of the synapse and labelling it
Workshop 2: Biochemistry
Diagnostic: Using Wordle to combine all
the words students might know or
associate with biochemistry and seeing it
in a word cloud
Clipase/Declipase activity

I thought this was a good diagnostic that caters

well to kinesthetic and visual learners.
This could be good, because students often
hear about relevant words through media, but
really have no idea what they mean or how it
ties in to the big picture. I would use this as a
springboard to dive in (haha, see what I did
there) and address these misconceptions. For
example, if the word protein appears really
large, I would make sure everyone is on the
same page about where it all fits in, but I
wouldnt spend too much time on what it is
(because they evidently already know).
I might also create an activity where students
make their own Wordle at the end of the unit,
maybe as part of their summative, about a
certain topic of biochemistry.
I really liked this activity. I thought it was fun and
made a good point. I would probably use it in
my classroom to illustrate these enzymes. I
might then have students research or come up
with their own enzymes and incorporate them
into the game.

Feb 12

I was not present in this class - I was on

my way to New York City with my
partner, for the long weekend.
During the 2 hours that class was going
on, I was on the MegaBus, my butt was
very numb.
It was a much-needed relaxing trip,
which is important for teachers to have,
and for teacher candidates who begin
their practicum soon to have.
During the trip I went to Nintendo World,

If the school I work at ever does a NYC trip, I

would love to chaperone it. From the Manhattan
zoo, to the seafood in the buffet, there are also
endless biology connections!

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

the Empire State Building, Manhattan
Zoo, and other cool places. For meals,
we ate at various places, but my
favourites were at this cool Japanese All
You Can Eat Seafood Sushi Buffet and
Gordon Ramsays The Maze.
Apr 14

Teaching grade 7/8s

Difference in school structure seems to
have an effect on intermediate behaviour
K-8 less likely to engage in risky
behaviours, cuz they are like leaders for
the younger students
7-8 mix of many feeder schools
7-12 seems to be more likely to
engage in risky behaviours

As a teacher in the classroom, theres not much

I can do to change the structure of the school, it
is what it is, but I can keep that in mind when
certain behaviours pop up. Perhaps for a riskier
school, I can propose more Leadership
programs and Reading Buddies and that kind of
stuff for the grade 7 and 8s.

The emergency period package is SUCH a

good idea! Especially for schools that dont
have a school nurse or hospital. I will definitely
have a stash in my classroom, and make sure
Keep a period package for girls who
to have ones that are young person friendly
might get their first period and come up
(e.g. slimfit tampons)
with a plan in case an emergency
If I have to teach health (or I can tell the Health
happens
Teacher about it), I will also introduce periods
early on and get people used to the idea, both
It seems interest in school declines a
boys AND girls, and let them know I have those
LOT during that time, so important for
available. I might even provide them in an
teachers to be caring, approachable as
envelope attached to a corner of the classroom,
possible, and really stimulate learning
so they dont even have to ask (similar to what I
do for condoms, I attached a few at a time to a
Integrated experience activity:
Pokemon joke outside my door, so they dont
There has been a robbery in your town have to ask)
there are clues left at the scene of the
crime, including: footprint, note, white
I want to try and make most of my big
powder, etc.
investigative inquiry based activities in this
You and your group will write a short
format. It can also be used as a springboard
story that describes where the robbery
activity that we revisit throughout the year,
took place and where the clues were
using it to learn about different subjects (e.g.
found. Possible examples of activities:
experiment to find out the chemical composition
of the white powder)

Although this pattern makes sense, it

was not the case with my school when I
was in grade 7-8. I went to a K-8 school
and it was pretty much the epicenter for
at-risk youth. Drugs and gangs were
pretty big problems, and there was also
STI/STD problems, as well as 1
pregnancy while I was there. Im pretty
sure this was due to the area and SES
around the school though, and not the
actual structure of the school. Cuz the
schools structure was nice, both on the
outside, and on the inside (it is a fairly
new school). Thus, its important to also
consider a plethora of other factors as
well.
I think a lot of people forget what its like
to be that age when theyre actually
teaching grade 7/8, and they treat the
students as if they can understand cause
and effect and the long term implications
of their actions oftentimes, these things
are the last thing on 7/8 students minds.
Like Alfie Kohn once said, adolescents
are technically developmentally disabled,
and cant think the way adults are
thinking, and dont understand these
consequences that adults are trying to
apply on to them. (see April 21 entry)
I did something similar in my grade 10

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

Apr 16

Discussing how best to teach the first 4

days. Also learned what Cathy typically
does.
Suggestion if class isnt going well
(Cathys real-life experience): Brainstorm
with the students what the perfect
teacher should be and what the perfect
student should be. Then, they made a
table of what I (the teacher) should be
doing, and what they (the students)
should be doing (e.g. teacher: dont talk
for more than 7 minutes).

Apr 21

applied math class where the students

watched a video from Bones, and got
actual dollar bills and clues and stuff,
and had to use measurement ratios
(similarity) to figure out the true size of
the culprits shoe. (I think my associate
got it from Dan Meyer).

Create a late-breaking news story

that details the capture of the thief
(language arts, drama, social
studies, visual art)
Court-room scene (language arts,
drama)
Theme song to the news (music)

Watched an important excerpt from Alfie

Kohns talk: Choice for Children From
Coercion to Community about rewards.
Kohn was hilarious and shared his
research and his ideas about motivation
and rewards.
Main point of Kohns talk:
To entice people to become good
citizens, to intrinsically motivate them, no
rewards and no praise!!! :O
Interesting experiment where 9/10
children who were given money for

I will be doing a mixture of both Cathys ideas

and my own ideas that Ive compiled together
over the few years of my experience (See
What Students Will Do and Why for the First 4
Days table)
If the class isnt going well, I might do this.
Although, I think I am more likely to do
something of the same type (but less intense)
at the beginning of the year, during the first 4
days. (For further details, see What Students
Will Do and Why for the First 4 days table)
This blew my mind.
I am now thinking back to all my activities and
Pokemon Badge reward systems in class and
in residence, and I wonder: I DID
EVERYTHING WRONG!!!
I guess thats a little extreme, and as we
discussed in class, it may be good to still have
a little bit of both, or to do it for students
individually or privately.
I also did my action research on how the
Pokemon Badge reward system seemed to
work really well for my junior grades, and not
my seniors.

Also raises the question: Where does

Carol Dwecks research come in? The
amazing one where she found out that
praising for intelligence can undermine
students performance and mindset,
while praising for effort can motivate it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NWv1VdDeoRY
Dweck, C. S. and C.M. Mueller. (1998).
Praise for intelligence can undermine
childrens motivation and performance.
Journal of Personality and Social

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

completing and evaluating a puzzle
dropped their interest in the puzzle after
the task was done, but all of the
children who were just told to do the task
went back to the puzzle and continued
working on it for fun.

I guess with what I know now, in my future

classroom, I might have to modify these reward
system ideas. I still want to incorporate
Pokemon badges somehow. I will for sure
continue to for every student to have their own
personal badge card (not the kind that is public
and on the wall for everyone to see), but I will
have to make it so learning does not focus on
the badges, which I know I did during my
practicum
This is so controversial and so amazing and so
interesting!!! I think I want to show that excerpt
to my students at the beginning of the year, and
have them do a reflection of it in their bio
blog/math journal. I could maybe also
incorporate it into their profile and intro letter, so
I know what each of their personal opinions are
about rewards for example, if most of the
students really like it, I will incorporate it, but if
most students were blown away by it and want
to try learning for the sake of learning, we will
not do it, and just do things without it.

Apr 23

Advice from the gray whales:

* breathe
* do not be afraid of challenges
* do not stop learning
* keep close to ones you love
* be well traveled
* remember your roots

Good advice for me as a teacher, but also for

students at the end of the year!
So fun! I dont think most schools would allow
something like this, but I might have a Ms.Suns
class art gallery corner and maybe students
could do a small project each year, relating to
what they learned, and display for the future
years.

Painting the bio tile

For example, last year in residence, I had a
program called Brock 4 Tea/Battle with the Don
(the building I donned in was Brockington
House 4th floor). Students could have tea with

Psychology, 75(1): 33-52.

Also, I was never praised as a child for
ANYTHING I did well, and only criticized
for things I did wrong. I turned out pretty
cynical and the type to just do things as
quickly as possible. Hmm, I wonder if
things would have been different

Carrie Sun The Story of How I am Learning to Teach (2015)

me, challenge me to a Pokemon battle and
earn badges (I know, I know), and colour
from an animal colouring book. Their pictures
were hung up in a corner of my wall for
everyone who visited to see their work. I would
love to do something like that instead of
traditional open door office hours. This can
continue to contribute to the inclusive positive
community I want my classroom to foster, and
occupy students with something to do other
than just academic work. It can also be perfect
for a break, or if students finish their homework
or work early.