Shlomo Swan-Azmon Reflection #3 (Feb 22-26)

TQS
1) #2 Engaging in Career Long Learning
(c) building capacity to support student success in inclusive, welcoming, caring,
respectful and safe learning environments;

(f) maintaining an awareness of emerging technologies to enhance knowledge and

Inform practice.

2) #3 Demonstrating a professional Body of Knowledge.

(a) •incorporate a range of instructional strategies, including the appropriate use(s) of
digital technology, according to the context, content, desired outcomes and the learning
needs of students;
-acquiring, applying and creating new knowledge;
- communicating and collaborating with others,
- critical-thinking; and
- accessing, interpreting and evaluating information from diverse sources;

Again, the week went pretty smooth. Of course, more work got done on some days than others,
but I suppose that was expected. I was in quarantine for the beginning of the week (mon-wed) so
3 of my classes were online on teams. The first 2 classes went really well. The only exception
was that many of the students were not prepared to have an online quiz. I thought quite a bit
about giving them an open book quiz online or not but decided I would. I really need to see that
the students are capable of naming ionic and molecular compounds prior to starting balancing
equations. Sometimes I am a little too much of suck and give into student requests which made
the open book quiz more of an assignment as around half of the class handed it in late.
Regardless, I think the students are picking up the repertoire they will need for the final exam.

I did have one student drop the class and go into science 14 after I had a conversation with him. I
think he was capable and told him so but reinforced that he would need to put in some work at
home to catch up. He ended up jetting after class and going into science 14 instead. That was a
bit rough and he is going through a lot as he is transitioning from being a female. To add to the
situation, his twin sister is in my class which I think will make it difficult on her as well (having
lost her support). They were two of the odd balls in class and she lacks friends in science 10. As
a consequence, I have decided that in future classes I will make student groups for some
activities. I think it is important she has friends in the class and feels accepted. I will ensure that
when I do place her in a group, I am providing her with group members that I think she will
work well with (avoiding those who might bully her). I have already gathered those students in
my head and believe this will benefit all member of the class. It is very important to me that high
school is a place where students meet others who are different and value the qualities that make
them different and unique. I think with that being said it is my duty to trigger that mindset in the
classroom and I believe that creating student groups will support a mindset of accepting those
who are different.
To more relevant information regarding my chosen TQS for the reflection, I have now gained the
experience of teaching online. There were many lessons learned and I think they went fairly
well. On Monday I had my science 10s, we reviewed molecular and ionic naming and finished
acids and bases. The students were fairly engaged although I did not have many students talk in
class, only comment on the side bar. I gave them a quiz and they did fairly well although it is
clear to me, they will need a lot more practice with naming. The online setting was interesting, I
found the most useful way to teach was using powerpoint presentation and using the pen to
underline key words etc. We also used kahoot online which made the students a little more
engaged with the material. Overall, the class went well.

Tuesdays, class was a bit more video based but I chose what I thought were good videos. I
attempted to use breakout rooms for the first time which worked out fairly well. I choose which
students were in which breakout rooms because I am really trying to avoid bullying with my
Science 20s knowing that some of the student had bad interactions with others in past years.
Choosing which students were in which breakout rooms was really beneficial and I could tell the
students picked up what they were learning based on their comments during class (students
spoke up here). I did have a computer malfunction during my Tuesday class as my computer
crashed midway through. I was able to get online quick enough and most of the students stayed
online. I also got a few of the students to turn their cameras on by telling them that I would play
a song on the guitar at the end of class. I was unsure about using the guitar as motivation for the
students to turn the cameras on but that worked out really well. Unfortunately, the material is a
bit heavier with my Science 10 class and as a consequence I can’t squeeze in non-related
material into class as much.

Wednesday was my last online class and I think it was the weakest of the three classes. I covered
material that is fairly simple, and I stretched it out a bit long. I think I could have made better use
of this class. I had the students do a kahoot at the beginning which was a bit long. Wednesday’s
kahoot didn’t give me the best formative assessment of what the students know and was more
challenging for the students than I originally thought. Later in the class I had the students
investigate chemistry jobs from a chemistry playlist on youtube. I again broke the class into
breakout rooms but this time I did not pick which students were in which group which I think
was a bad idea. The students are either shy or not best of friend and then they might not even
speak to one another in the breakout rooms. This time I did drop into the breakout rooms and
noted that some of the students did find the videos interesting, but many didn’t. Next time I will
pick the breakout rooms and maybe change the amount of time I have the students investigate
chemistry jobs. I do believe there was some value in the students seeing what chemistry means
from a non-curriculum approach. Chemistry learned at school is often very specific and it is hard
to see the large picture associated with the discipline.

Thursdays and Friday’s classes were at school. I again, attempted to use a variety of online tools.
I built an online flashcard set which ended up being invaluable and it seems to me most of the
students prefer to do their studying using non-online materials. I had another Kahoot and it went
okay, the students in Science 20 did really good on the material and were fairly engaged but a
little hectic. The internet did go down mid Kahoot but I managed to chat a bit and get the kahoot
back up and running (lost maybe 5 minutes) but had time for something like that to happen in my
lesson plan.
 Friday’s class was a bit more hands on and I avoided technology for the most part. We were
balancing chemical equations which I think the students picked up really well. I did use a
youtube video to see how a teacher scaffolds the learning regarding balancing and used his
techniques. I think that really worked well and avoided me coming back to previous questions. I
think I will watch youtube videos of teachers teaching concepts in the future to really buckle
down on how I can scaffold my teaching. I just wish I did that earlier as I could have made
certain concepts a bit clearer.

Overall, I used a lot of technology this week and learned a lot about what I can do to support
student learning in this respect.