Interest Approach

First off, I will give you a brief overview of the "topic" of my lesson and interest approach for those of you who may be reading this blog, and didn't have the opportunity to participate or watch me teach...

As a Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences major, I get really excited about teaching veterinary science content! The objectives of my lesson were to have students identify 2 tools that could be used to monitor animal health, and demonstrate proper usage of each of these tools.

For my interest approach I had several items in a brown paper bag. Students took turns drawing out the mystery items (Stethoscope, thermometer, blood tube & syringe, and "vet"), and after each item was drawn, I asked the students if they could identify the item and whether or not they knew its use. I then explained each items' use in more detail, and its application to monitoring animal health. Once

all of the items were drawn from the bag, I demonstrated the proper use of the stethoscope, and then allowed students to listen to their own heartbeat. This allowed me to incorporate Lancelot's second Principle of Interest: "That is interesting which affects ourselves, others about us, or humanity at large", but I think Lancelot's third and fourth principles could also apply. Of course everyone had a heartbeat, but this was giving them the opportunity to practice using the stethoscope prior to finding and listening to the heartbeat of different animals (Lab activity). I then had students do jumping jacks to get them moving, which ultimately made their heart rate increase, and allowed me to tie in their previous background knowledge (i.e. health and science classes) to the new content. This activity also gave me the opportunity to ask them more in depth questions such as, "Why does your heart rate and respiration rate increase when you increase your physical activity?"

Reflection...
I definitely felt that the interest approach went more smoothly than my "First Day of Class", which is where I see practice lending to improvement; however, there was definitely an added level of complexity dealing with the "problem" students. 

I feel that I did a good job dealing with the student who kept being distracted on her phone by getting her involved, by asking her questions, and by reminding her to put her phone away. On an afterthought, I probably should have helped her phone find a new residence on the teacher's desk after the second or third reminder until the class was over; however, it was hard to keep track of how many times she had it out since I was trying to concentrate on my interest approach... therefore, it was easier (and probably less distracting to the rest of the class) to just quietly make eye contact with her and tap on her desk, as I was moving past her desk, to remind her that her phone should be put away.  I have a feeling I'll get a second chance on this one, so watch out whoever is next! :)

Giving a demonstration and providing activities helped me to move around the room more and feel more comfortable as well, so I think it is probably a good way for me to start my lessons until I get more practice and experience... a small step which will, I hope, get me closer to where I want to be with my teaching and presentation skills. I was also limited because I only had 1 stethoscope for 4 students, so when I utilize this lesson in the future I need to make sure that there is at least 1 stethoscope per 2 students, so that students don't just "sit on the sidelines" waiting for their turn. 

Additionally, to get some of my students more involved, I could have had them do the math conversion problem ( X  beats in 15 sec. =  ?  BPM) on the board rather than me writing out the problem, and if they needed more of a challenge I could have given them some different numbers or examples!