What Teaching Has Looked Like for Me

 In class, we touched upon the diversity of teaching experiences and the idea that the teaching profession is constantly changing, and this really resonated with me. It reminded me that although I am only now pursuing a bachelors of education degree, I have been collecting teaching experiences in various forms along my way here. I think this is really important for me and other teacher candidates to make use of; we all have experiences in a classroom as a student, and experiences outside of the classroom that can also inform our teaching, such as work experiences and volunteering experiences, among others. 

 I’ll be writing about some of my own experiences that I can connect to teaching, in hopes that others find them relatable or helpful in relation to their own experiences and teaching philosophy. 

 As a kid, I played baseball for many years and as a result, I got into umpiring as a job when I was pretty young (14). It was a really eye opening experience for me because it was one of the first times where understanding something I had learned was different than putting it into real world practice. I already knew the rules of baseball, but I knew them from the eyes of a player, not an official. Stepping onto the field as an umpire was a totally different experience, even though the rules were all the same. I played a different role, people depended on me, it was a job I was being paid to do. I think this is very much relevant to me now, because I think stepping into the classroom as a teacher for the first time will feel much the same for me. Even though I've spent so many years in a classroom, being there as a teacher will be very different from being there as a student, and I think that is important to recognize. As a teacher, I will be more professional, more of a role model for students, and students will depend on me more. Just as I experienced umpiring, I think that teaching will prove a very new and fresh, but informed, experience for me, despite the familiar setting.

A few years ago, I quit umpiring as my summer job and became a zookeeper! Of course I spent a lot of time looking after the animals there, feeding them, cleaning enclosures, and checking on their health, but I also spent a lot of time with guests, teaching them about the animals and answering questions they had about them. This was one of my first real teaching experiences, albeit an unconventional one. Something very important I learned there is that everyone is at their own stage in their learning, and as an educator you should meet them where they are at to teach them as best as you can. For example, some children would come to the zoo with their parents and they would know more about the animals than their parents would. It was vital for me to get a feel for the level of knowledge that each guest had, so that I wasn’t wasting their time with facts they already knew or giving an elaborate explanation they wouldn’t understand. To me, there were no silly questions; I wanted everyone to be comfortable asking questions they had, no matter where they were at with their understanding. This is the kind of environment I want to bring to the classroom. I think students should feel safe asking questions, even if other students may already know the answer. I want to be an adaptable teacher and help each student along their educational journey - which will look different for everyone - no matter their current level of understanding. 

The last experience I want to talk about is the most recent one. After my zookeeper era, I began tutoring students in math, with ages ranging from pre-K to grade 12. (Math is actually not one of my teachables, but I did take math courses up to and during my second year of university, so I have a fair amount of experience in math.) This is the closest experience I have had to classroom teaching, and the one that I think will transfer skills the most directly. It gave me some practice with educational skills like individualized lesson planning, direct verbal instruction, and providing feedback on student work. However, the skill that I found most important from this tutoring experience was a method called Socratic questioning. Before tutoring, I had never heard this term, but the idea is to guide students to an answer by asking thoughtful questions that draw on what they already know to arrive at a solution to a new problem. For example, when a student is stuck on a problem, a question like “What do you know about XYZ?” may prompt them to answer the problem themselves, before they even realize it. The key is that as an educator, I did not provide them any information, I only guided their way of thinking using their own knowledge. In my experience, this can be very rewarding and confidence-building for a student, because I am not telling them what the answer is, they are finding it themselves, with their own knowledge. This is a practice that I plan to incorporate into my classroom teaching as a teacher as well. I think that sometimes, asking thoughtful questions to guide student thinking rather than just explaining a concept directly is so much more valuable and rewarding for students’ learning. 

 

Hopefully you, the reader, have found some of this useful for your own teaching practice. I tried to incorporate a mix of my own feelings, some teaching practices, and different ways to approach education. I want to make clear that there is no cookie cutter model to be a teacher, and there shouldn’t be! As educators, we should share helpful ideas and practices with each other, because we all come from a huge variety of different backgrounds and bring different valuable experiences to the table!

JacobL@OTU

Concerns and Considerations with the Gamification of Education

As an emerging educator, peers and mentors often share tips and tricks for incorporating technology such as games in the classroom to increase engagement and motivation in students. I agree that games are a fun, interactive way to present learning to students in the classroom. The benefits of using games as a tool in the classroom support differentiated instruction and a universal design for learning.

 

However, I was listening to an educator who teaches high school students share his experience of bringing games into the classroom for his grade 11 and 12 students who showed disinterest in playing games when learning. His students’ stated they felt like games were a juvenile approach to the higher learning they wished to achieve.

 

This got me thinking about the potential concerns and considerations that arise with the gamification of learning in classrooms that aren’t often highlighted or discussed.

As I researched the topic, a few key points stood out to me. A study published by Almeida et al. (2023) highlighted that the most cited negative effects of game design elements in education included a lack of understanding and motivational issues in students.

 

                              

 

For instance, games in the classroom can simplify complex and nuanced topics to fit game mode grids, questions and mechanics so that students can compete and gain points. Here, learning shifts from discussions, writing and depth into point systems, competition and simplified responses to multiple-choice questions. In doing so, students aren’t able to dissect content with a critical lens or through avenues such as research, and teacher and peer input. In my opinion, this dilutes the education students receive. This is especially relevant for high school students who are preparing for college, university or the workplace where they will be writing longer essays and research papers as well as participating in classroom debates/discussion circles. If they do not gain these skills, they will fall behind their peers in the future.

 

Moreover, games in the classroom offer a form of extrinsic motivation to students. Teachers often offer prizes as well. These rewards cause students to be dependent on these external rushes rather than provide intrinsic motivation for students to want to learn and engage in the classroom. Take the rewards out, will students still want to learn?

 

As an educator myself, this makes me wonder about the true benefits of bringing games into my classroom. Am I truly reaching my students or is this technology creating surface level interactions?

                                    

 

Ultimately, I do think games have their place in the classroom, but they should not be a primary means of teaching or a primary means for students to show their learning. They offer teachers the ability to accommodate student learning preferences, abilities and interests and as such should complement, rather than replace, teacher and peer-led education. Teachers using games in their classrooms should prioritize purposeful and inclusive learning experiences more than fun.

GurleenK@NUO

 

Reference List
Almeida, C., Kalinowski, M., Uchôa, A. G., & Feijó, B. (2023). Negative effects of gamification in education software: Systematic mapping and practitioner perceptions. Information and Software Technology, 156, 107142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107142

EduTopia: Making a Difference in the World of Education

The Benefits of One-on-One Meetings Between Administrators and Teachers Regular informal conversations allow school leaders and teachers to connect on a personal level, building relationships that benefit the whole school.

 

Using Restorative Communication as a Classroom Management Tool By avoiding communication blockers, teachers can help students talk through disruptive behavior in the classroom.

 

How Pickleball Makes Me a Better Teacher An experienced middle school math teacher compares her experience learning pickleball with how she teaches her students.

 

Putting an Environmental Spin on Literary Analysis Secondary students can consider the ecological context in which a text was written to gain new insights into their reading assignments.

 

Developing Student Leadership Schools can use experiential learning as an opportunity to let all students develop their leadership skills.

 

Engaging the Community on a Personal Level To encourage strong, meaningful links with the community, consider this strategy from a former principal, which can lead to lasting rewards.

 

Growing Teens Into Teachers Running a preschool inside a high school gives students the chance to try out a career in education—and it benefits the teens and tots alike.

 

Question: What’s Your Advice for Handling Difficult Conversations With Parents? Educators, learn from your colleagues and share what works for you.

 

PBL for Pre-K Through Second Grade Very young students can benefit from project-based learning, as these detailed steps for a project conducted by preschool students demonstrate.

Brought to you by @NUO-2024

How to Teach "Confidence"

Confidence. The belief that lets us trust our abilities without doubt. I believe confidence is important in all aspects of life. When you are young, you need confidence to make new friends, to raise your hand in class, to try new things. All of these experiences shape us and how we form our confidence. Many are fortunate to be born confident, but what about the shy child? The one who's scared to speak out loud. How does confidence look in that child? I was that child. The child who doubted her abilities. The child who had “ would be better if she spoke more in class” written on her report card. But how do you teach a child to be confident?

Growing up, I was a competitive gymnast. In school, I was the quiet child. I didn’t start participating and getting out of my shell until I started competing. But how did they get a shy child to perform in front of an audience and judges? It’s important to note that this was self-directed. I wanted to do gymnastics. I wanted to compete. That autonomy I had, the goals I created, is what allowed me to gain confidence. After some time competing, I gained more and more confidence, as true confidence proved to be self-directed, empowering me to achieve my own goals. This learning transferred into the classroom. I was able to speak in front of the class, participate, and try new things without fear. I learned from gymnastics that it’s okay to fall and make mistakes, but what's important is getting back up. This is what taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes and what allowed me to slowly gain confidence elsewhere. I don’t believe I would have been able to learn this just in a school environment. I needed to be in an environment that I picked. It also helped that when I worked hard, I was getting rewarded with medals, which helped my self esteem. Medals were a tangible object that showed my effort, which is why they felt so important to me.

It’s crazy to look back and realize how shy I was. I doubt any of my teachers growing up expected me to become a future educator. But that's what is amazing about life, there is so much growth! My experience as a gymnast and gymnastics coach taught me how to teach confidence. When teaching confidence, I praise my athletes effort, not ability. I don’t praise the medals they wear but the effort and routines they performed. This is what differentiated from my experience as an athlete vs the environment I want for my athletes. I felt like my confidence came from external approval like my medals, but I'm trying to teach them to be proud of their hard work, determination and effort. This can translate to the classroom too. Instead of telling a student “You’re so smart” or “Good Job getting an A+”, praise their effort and hard work! This will prevent them from seeking external approval like getting a high mark, but rather focusing on personal growth and hard work. I feel like by doing this I am actually fostering confidence in my athletes and future students. I am also reminding them they are more than their grades or medals. Teaching isn’t just telling students what to do or rewarding success; it’s about scaffolding an environment where they have the autonomy and feedback they need to trust in their own capacity to grow.

Courtesy of CarolynH@OTU

From “I’m Not Good at Biology” to “I Can Learn Biology”

Biology is likely not the most popular science subject, especially at Grade 12 level. Grade 12 Biology contains abstract and interconnected concepts, together with a large amount of vocabulary. It is also not the easiest science subject to teach. However, as a teacher-candidate who is devoted to teaching Biology for the rest of my life, I would like to reflect on how learning theories can help a teacher to transform a student, who at first is afraid of Biology, into someone who loves and excels in this subject. In this blog post, I am going to reflect on how constructivism, and growth confidence can be used to encourage Biology students to have a greater confidence and understanding about this subject.

Constructivism: Consolidate from what the Student Already Know
Unlike Physics and Chemistry, the Ontario Curriculum for Biology can be hard to follow – the curriculum merely states that the pre-requisite for Grade 12 Biology is Grade 11 Biology, which basically informs teachers and students nothing. The curriculum design for Chemistry and Physics follows a very clear and obvious step-by-step approach. For example, Strand C Structure and Properties of Matter in Grade 12 Chemistry is very obviously the extension of Strand B Matter, Chemical Trends, and Chemical Bonding in Grade 11 Chemistry. Just by looking at the name, students know that they are going to expand on a strand they have previously learnt from previous grades. The strands in the Biology curriculum isn’t:

The only obvious answer here is strand D, at least both strand names contain the word “genetics”. For other strands, students may feel that they are learning something that is completely new, but that isn’t true at all. If we look into details about the curriculum expectations, we can identify pre-requisite concepts that can be dated back even to grade 9 science, they are just not as obvious. A Biology teacher should make it clear that we are going to re-use concepts that they have already learned to study Grade 12 Biology. According to constructivism, effective teaching should first make students’ existing thinking visible before introducing the scientific explanation. When I am teaching, I always inform my students about two things: “more in grade _” and “from grade _” as a reminder for students. Either I let them know that we stop our learning here and continue in future grades, or I remind the student that this is not something entirely new. Let me focus on “from grade _” as it is a better reminder for students based on Piaget’s psychological constructivism:

1.     Assimilation: Students use their existing knowledge to interpret a new or more complex concept. For example, they may initially use their understanding of breathing and oxygen intake to make sense of cellular respiration.

2.     Accommodation: Through new evidence, questioning and learning activities, students may recognise the limitations of their original understanding and revise it.  For example, they now complete the story of how ATP is an energy carrier by understanding the ATP-ADP cycle, and correct themselves about breathing as a physical process that supports gas exchange, while cellular respiration is a series of biochemical reactions that transfers energy from organic molecules to ATP.

3.     Building cognitive equilibrium: Students reflect on what they assimilated and accommodated to find the best cognitive understanding for themselves.

In order to achieve this, I believe the reminder is particularly important in Biology, because this is less obvious than other subjects. The reminder can be delivered in terms of direct information (not ideal but works when instruction time is not enough), a short quiz or even, a self-diagnostic activity.

Growth Confidence: Turning “Failure” into “Learning Evidence”
Grade 12 Biology contains a lot of contents that are high in cognitive load, as cycles or mechanisms often come in more than 6 steps. If we expect students to understand and be able to explain the whole process independently, the task may be out of their zone of proximal development. At least, I can predict that there are some students who won't even start their learning, as they are already lost in where to start, and they remain confused. Their confidence level remains low, which may be strengthened by future low achievements in tests, lab reports, or assignment. To solve this, I believe scaffolding and process-focused feedback are effective ways.

1.     Scaffolding: Teachers can break down the learning goals into smaller tasks, each with some levels of scaffolding provided. For example, in cellular respiration, the 6 carbon atoms in glucose can be colour differently. During the 10 steps in glycolysis, the teacher demonstrates the first step in detail, showing where the atoms go and how the reaction proceeds. In each subsequent step, the teacher reduces instruction or visual aid while observing if the students can still follow the process. The teacher keeps monitoring if the student is able to complete the learning independently.
If most of the students demonstrate the ability to process independently, individual or group work can be assigned, for the citric acid cycle and the electron transport chain. In this time, the teacher needs to walk around to continue providing scaffolding for students who still cannot work fully independently.
The main point about scaffolding is it should be temporary. The purpose is to help students to develop ways to learn independently, not to make the work permanently easier. Therefore, I believe observation is the key – when to reduce the level of scaffolding based on the students’ product and achieving the success criteria.
Although scaffolding originates from social constructivism, it can also support growth confidence by allowing students to experience gradual and genuine progress.

2.     Process-focused feedback: Teachers should avoid reinforcing a fixed mindset. A teacher should not reinforce one result into a permanent judgment about a student’s ability. Students should remain confident that their understanding can improve and that they can make progress toward the learning goals.  Teachers should avoid comments about the personal ability of the students, such as “You have a natural talent in Biology”, or “You are not a Bio person”. Instead, feedback should be focused on the learning process.
Examples vary from different forms of assessment. For tests and presentations, the feedback should focus on the actual misconceptions or achievement from the students, such as “You correctly identify the main stages in glycolysis, but the direction of electron transfer is accidentally reversed. However, you still did a great job on arriving at the correct final product.” For lab reports or scientific investigations, the comments should focus solely on the scientific processes, such as “Your hypothesis did not align with your experimental data. What do you think the problem is? How can you revise the model to explain your experimental data?”. No matter what form of assessment, continuous, constructive and process-focused feedback are great ways to avoid reinforcing their own personal belief on the subject. We should comment on their product rather than their personal characters. We achieve that to help students find out how to improve.

Conclusion

To conclude, constructivism and growth confidence can work together to help students learn Grade 12 Biology. Constructivism reminds us that students are not learning every concept from zero. They already have previous knowledge and experiences that can be used to understand more difficult concepts. Meanwhile, growth confidence helps students believe that even when they do not understand something at first, they can still improve through suitable strategies, feedback and persistence.

As a Biology teacher, my responsibility is not only to deliver the content and help students memorize the vocabularies and biological processes. I should also make connections between their previous and new learning, provide scaffolding when necessary, and gradually allow them to work independently. When students make mistakes, my feedback should help them identify what they have already achieved and what they can do to improve, instead of making a permanent judgment about their ability.

Grade 12 Biology will never become an easy subject, and making it easy should not be the main goal. Instead, I want to make the subject more understandable and approachable, so that students are willing to face its challenges. Hopefully, through these teaching practices, students can gradually change their belief from “I’m not good at Biology” to “I may not understand it yet, but I can learn Biology.”

Calvin C@OTU

References:

Learning key 2: Confidence in our ability to learn to satisfy our needs. (n.d.). [Course reading].

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2008). The Ontario curriculum, grades 11 and 12: Science (Rev. ed.). https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/2009science11_12.pdf

Seifert, K., & Sutton, R. (2009). Educational psychology (2nd ed.). Global Text Project. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/153

Technology as a Bridge in French

As someone who wants to teach French in the future, and knowing that most students aren’t big fans of this subject, I have started thinking more about the role technology can play in engaging students and helping them feel more comfortable using the language. Learning a new language can be intimidating, especially for students in Core French who are only exposed to French for a short period of time every day. Despite understanding the material, students may still be hesitant to participate in class discussions because they are worried about making a mistake, mispronouncing a word, or speaking in front of their classmates in general. Being someone who is used to being in an Immersion French class, I never realized this was an issue until I led a class discussion during my second placement and only one student participated. As a result, I started thinking of other ways I could engage students and check for understanding. I believe that technology can help in this aspect by acting as a bridge between a student's understanding in French and them feeling confident enough to use it.

Many digital tools can provide students with opportunities to practice French in ways that feel less intimidating than immediately speaking in front of their classmates. For example, websites such as Fabulang and Lingua can expose students to French stories with reading activities that can help students work on their reading comprehension and learn new vocabulary at their own pace. These websites also allow students to work at their own level according to the CECR and offer audio for students if they prefer to listen to audio while reading. FLEvidéo is another source that could be useful as well because students can watch French videos — based on their level of French — while completing activities connected to their understanding of what they hear. These types of resources offer students more opportunities to see and hear French outside of a traditional textbook or worksheet, and from experience gets them more excited about reading, etc., in French.

Technology can also make reviewing vocabulary and grammar feel more engaging. Tools such as GimKit and Kahoot turn review into an interactive activity where students can practice and answer questions in class without the same pressure that comes with answering questions in front of the whole class. During my second placement, I noticed from my first lesson that if you attempt to have a whole-class discussion in Core French, you would, if lucky, be essentially having a 1-on-1 conversation with a student, versus in an Immersion class where you would have more participation. I think activities like these are especially effective in Core French because students will feel more comfortable participating. Students can answer questions, recognize vocabulary, and test their understanding without worrying that the rest of the class is focused on them if they make a mistake. There’s also the added benefit of it being a game, which can help reduce students' anxiety when it comes to answering questions in French.

 

The best part about these tools is that they can allow students to build their confidence gradually. Students may not feel ready to answer questions aloud in front of the class; however, they may be more comfortable completing an online comprehension activity, participating in a Kahoot, or practicing vocabulary/ reading comprehension through a game. As teachers, we can also use technology for oral activities by allowing students to record their presentations in French themselves and submit them to us, rather than showing the entire class. Recording a response allows students to practice, listen to themselves, and try again before submitting their work. For students who are anxious about speaking French, this could make an oral assessment feel more manageable for them.

However, I do not believe that technology should entirely replace conversations in a French classroom. Ultimately, students still need opportunities to communicate spontaneously and become more comfortable speaking with and in front of their peers. Technology should instead be used as a stepping stone towards those experiences. For instance, during my second placement, I played a GimKit with the class to check their reading comprehension. After playing the game, I went through each question and asked the students for the answers. During this class discussion, all the students ended up participating. Allowing students to practice answering the questions first during the game gave them the confidence they needed to be willing to take risks during that class discussion. 

I also believe that this is important regarding assessment. Participation doesn’t always demonstrate how much a student actually understands. Sometimes even the students who don’t raise their hand during class discussions know the correct answer. Providing different ways for students to demonstrate their learning, such as interactive activities, recordings, digital projects, traditional conversations, or simply writing answers on individual whiteboards, can provide teachers with a more complete picture of what our students really know and what they really can do.

As a future teacher, I want technology to have a purpose in my classroom. I don’t want to use a digital tool simply because it’s fun or because it’s available. Instead, I want to think about how the tool I am using can help students become more comfortable, engaged, and confident in French. If the technologies I choose to incorporate in my classroom provide a hesitant or anxious student the confidence to practice the language and participate more openly, then I believe it can become more than just a classroom tool — it can become a bridge toward communication.

List of useful tools in a French classroom:

Fabulang: https://www.fabulang.com/en/fr 

Lingua: https://lingua.com/fr/ 

FLEvidéo: https://www.flevideo.com/ 

Kahoot: https://kahoot.com/ 

GimKit: https://www.gimkit.com/ 

JuliaA@OTU

Selling the Importance of Learning

As a student in Ontario, I’ve had the opportunity to experience various teaching styles and methods used by teachers and professors in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. I found that the teachers I learned the most from were those who emphasized the importance of what we were learning, believed in their students’ abilities, and made learning fun and engaging. The video What Makes Great Teachers Great, linked in Canvas, reminded me of these experiences and made me think about what makes a teacher effective and impactful.

The teachers and professors I found most effective were those who ‘sold’ the importance of what was being taught. They explained why the content mattered and how we could apply our knowledge in the future. This aligns with the first step discussed in the video: selling the importance. To sell an idea, a teacher needs to understand what matters to their students and find ways to make the content meaningful to them. This can be challenging because every student has different interests, goals, and willingness to learn.

One example of this was my middle school teacher, Ms. K, who encouraged me to use technology and develop video and music editing skills to create our Grade 8 graduation video. I was not very familiar with technology at the time, but her support and encouragement helped me learn and develop these skills, which I continue to use today. She ‘sold’ me on the idea that these technological skills would be important for my future, which motivated me to step outside my comfort zone and learn something new. She also gave me the creative space to make the video funny and encouraged me to develop my own ideas. Rather than simply showing me what to do, she demonstrated how to use the tools and then gave me the freedom to make the project my own. Looking back, I think this was a great example of selling the importance of a skill while also selling belief in a student’s ability to learn it.

Pairing the idea of selling importance with selling belief can make teaching more effective for students. Selling belief means assuring students that they are capable of achieving their goals and succeeding in their endeavours. This is important for students who underestimate their abilities, lack self-confidence, and become discouraged when they find a subject or task difficult. Therefore, teachers must help students realize that struggling with a concept, task, goal, or new skill does not mean that they are incapable of learning, completing, or achieving it.

These practices require teachers to have confidence in both themselves and their students. This connects to the learning key for this week, which is confidence. Teachers must be confident in their knowledge and competency in order to present and teach concepts to students. This reflects the idea that if you believe in yourself, your students will believe in you. Therefore, we as teachers must be confident in the way we present ourselves, teach our lessons, and answer questions. Students can observe this confidence and feel reassured when we show that we believe in them.

Teachers must also be confident in the capabilities of their students, giving each student the opportunity to try, learn, explore, and fail without condemnation. The learning key also describes how failure can decrease the confidence students have in themselves. At the same time, real competency involves having confidence in our own ability to grow through lifelong learning, adapting to challenges, overcoming obstacles, and revising strategies to meet our goals. Therefore, we must do our best to show students we believe in them, and that failure is an important part of growth and learning.

ArianaS@OTU

Gizmos as a Tool for Inquiry-Based Science Learning

As a future science teacher, I have been thinking a lot about what makes students engaged in their learning. Science can sometimes be difficult for students because many of the concepts we teach are invisible, conceptual, or difficult to experience in a traditional classroom. This is one reason I think digital tools such as Gizmos can play an important role in elementary and high school science classrooms. Gizmos allow students to explore scientific concepts through interactive simulations, giving them opportunities to experiment, make predictions, analyze results, and learn from their mistakes. I see Gizmos as more than just a technology tool. When used intentionally, they can change the way students experience learning. From personal experience, I enjoyed completing Gizmos labs in high school as a fun way to take what I learned in the classroom and further my understanding of complex topics through an interactive activity.

How Gizmos Works

The teacher assigns a Gizmos lab to students. Gizmos provides learning objectives, key vocabulary, step-by-step instructions, an exploration sheet for students to complete as they work through the lab, and a summary quiz. The teacher can see real-time student assessment data, track student progress, and view students’ responses to evaluate critical thinking. Therefore, it is a great tool for differentiated instruction, engaging students in learning, and helping them develop critical thinking skills.

Learning Through Exploration

One of the things I like most about Gizmos is that students can learn by doing. Instead of just listening to a teacher explain a concept, students can interact with it themselves. They can change variables, make observations, test ideas, and see what happens. For example, when learning about genetics, students can use a simulation to explore different allele combinations and observe how traits are inherited. Rather than only looking at Punnett squares on a worksheet, students can manipulate the variables and see patterns develop. I think this is valuable because students do not always understand something just because it was explained to them; sometimes they must learn by doing, and Gizmos lets students experiment in ways beyond what is available in the classroom. For example, not every school has access to frogs for dissections during a biology anatomy lesson, or some students may not feel comfortable doing a dissection. Therefore, Gizmos offers a frog dissection simulation alternative so students can participate.

Additionally, students have different needs, and Gizmos is a great tech tool for kinesthetic, visual, and self-paced learners. This is because they can manipulate variables, interact with the experiment in real time, move at their own pace or repeat steps in the experiment to master a concept. This connects to my view of teaching where students should have opportunities to construct their own understanding and take an active role in their learning rather than simply memorizing and regurgitating concepts.

Making Thinking Visible

Another reason I would use Gizmos in my classroom is that they give students opportunities to make their thinking visible. I would not want students to open a Gizmo, click around, and record answers. Instead, I would build questions and discussion around the simulation and think like scientists.

For example, before students change a variable, I might ask:

What do you predict will happen (hypothesis)?

Why do you think that?

What evidence supports your prediction?

What did you observe?

Did the results match your thinking?

What would you change if you tried it again?

These questions encourage students to think about the why, rather than simply focusing on getting the correct answer. Using technology like Gizmo should not replace thinking. Instead, it should create more opportunities for thinking and make it visible.

Learning From Mistakes

Another thing I appreciate about Gizmo's simulation labs is that they create a low-risk environment for students to make mistakes. In science, mistakes can be valuable learning opportunities. Students might make a prediction that turns out to be incorrect or change a variable and get an unexpected result. Instead of seeing this as failure, I would encourage students to look at what the results taught them to build a growth mindset in science. For example, if a student predicts that increasing one variable will increase the outcome but the opposite occurs, that creates an opportunity for investigation. The student can go back, change the variable again, and look for a pattern. In classroom labs, time limits reduce opportunities to ‘play around’ with different variables. Still, Gizmos lets students take their time and investigate on their own, as long as they submit the assigned work on time.  As a result, Gizmos can help create a class where students feel comfortable taking those intellectual risks.

My Takeaway

For me, this connects to the bigger purpose of teaching science. I don’t want students to leave my classroom only remembering a list of scientific facts. I want them to leave able to think scientifically. That means being curious, asking questions, using evidence, and investigating new concepts. If several students struggle with the same concept while doing the Gizmos lab, that gives me valuable information about their learning and tells me I need to address misconceptions. I am not just looking at whether students completed the activity; I am looking at how they are thinking, hence, inquiry-based learning. I see Gizmos as a tool that can help bridge the gap between learning about science and doing science. When students can manipulate variables, make predictions, observe results, and reflect on their thinking, they become active participants in the learning process.  As a future teacher, I  will ask what my students are thinking and how I can create opportunities for them to engage in metacognition. I  will use Gizmos with intentional questions, discussion, reflection, and opportunities for students to make mistakes and learn from them. Therefore, Gizmos can become an effective formative assessment tool because I can gather evidence of their understanding, track their progress, and guide my teaching. It can make learning more interactive, exploratory, and student-centered. Overall, that is the kind of learning environment I hope to create: a classroom where students are not just told how scientific concepts work but given the opportunity to explore them for themselves.

You can access Gizmos with this link: https://gizmos.explorelearning.com/

                             

TianaS@NUO

The Changing Teaching Profession in 21st century.

The changing teaching profession made me think about the joy and challenges of being a teacher in the 21st century.. I think one of the best parts of teaching is spending time with young students, listening to their ideas, and seeing their creativity. At the same time, teaching can be difficult because every student is different. It is not always easy to reach every student, and sometimes unexpected things can happen in the classroom.

Teaching is also different today than it was in the past. Technology is now a big part of education. Teachers also have more responsibilities and are expected to be more professional.

This made me think: Should we completely change the way we teach because education is changing?

In my opinion, I think we should find a balance. We can use technology and new teaching methods, but we should also make learning practical and creative. Students should not learn only to complete assignments or homework. They should understand the basic ideas and learn how to use them in real life. I really like how Professor John connects every concept with real-life examples. It helps me understand the topic more deeply and connect it with my own ideas and experiences.

Because of this, I find it easier to remember what we learned in class. Even later, when I think about a topic, I can go back in my mind and remember what happened in class, what we discussed, and the examples we used.

I feel that connecting concepts with real-life experiences makes learning easier, more meaningful, and easier to remember.

As a future teacher, I want to make learning fun, meaningful, and useful. I want students to ask questions, share their ideas, and understand why they are learning something.

This reflection helped me understand that teaching is not only about finishing the curriculum. It is also about helping students think, explore, create, and grow.

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