Blog Entry #4

This week's reading covered grading and cheating. Some of the more interesting topics in the reading included grading papers, grading group work, involving students in planning assessment, and electronic cheating prevention.

The section on grading papers in First Day to Final Grade was thorough in describing how a teacher should approach grading. It covered details, like setting expectations and choosing pen colors for grading, to broad topics, like giving feedback and grading on a curve. I think that this is very useful because one of the more important ways to communicate ideas in science is to write about your research findings in Journals. Helping students learn what writing a good paper involves is paramount. I would implement the books suggestion on laying out content and format by referring the students to a Journal in their field and having them use the guide to authors for their paper. In large classes it may be necessary to set a standard journal guide like the one from Science. Along these same lines, I think that allowing revision to papers is important. I have always liked the idea of peer reviewing papers among the students before they get a final grade from me. In Biology, we have many people read and reread any article that we write before it even gets sent out for peer review. This tactic would limit the amount of papers that the students would write, but it would be quality over quantity. This would help students get used to refereeing papers. The reviewers would need to look at the Journal's guide for authors and the peer review page, probably using Nature as a model. I will also look into interesting colors for grading that might not bring up images of massacred words and ideas.

The grading group work section was helpful in explaining how a teacher could fairly grade individuals on a group project. I think it is important for potential scientists to learn how to collaborate and present results. To do these things they will need group projects. Grading these has always been suspect to me, but the section on assigning grades for individuals in a group has a clear formula. I would likely have students present in groups to save time even though I always hated group presentations. I dislike the idea of grading the entire group the same because I was always a hard worker and it seemed unfair. I would likely try to have part of the grade be group and part be individual to avoid having students feel like their group was biased in some way and call their grade into question.

Involving students in planning how they are assessed is beneficial for both students and teachers. It can reduce the confusion about how students will be graded making them more relaxed and saving the teacher from having to explain to each individual student what they need to do. The book describes Contract Grading and Competency-Based Grading as well as a hybrid of these two. I would like to use this to allow students who are technically proficient to get graded traditionally by going what is expected, but also include some room for students who may not start out as skilled to improve their abilities and not have to be too disadvantaged by overly aggressive competition. Showing the ability to grow and improve is as good as showing that you are good enough to not need to grow by doing what is expected. Learning how to adapt and find out what you need to know is more important than knowing things in the sciences these days. Many Graduate level courses stress being able to find and synthesize information rather than being able to recall facts. There is just too much science out there for anybody to remember.

Cheating is and always has been a big problem. I was most interested in the electronic forms of cheating that the book talked about mostly concerning plagiarism. The book suggests that a teacher can use websites to check whether papers have been copied from others. I liked the idea of keeping electronic records of students papers because there are times when tests and papers are stored by groups and the members use them from time to time. I think that this could save a lot of time by simply mentioning that it is a requirement to turn in papers and why. That should hopefully stop this from happening. The internet also makes it easy to spot some plagiarism. When I had to review a classmates paper, I came across a really well written passage that didn't seem to fit the rest of the paper. I typed part of it into Google and it came up with a scientific paper on the topic that was exactly the same. Even with that it would have been allowable if it was cited at all. I think that I will need to cover proper citation in classes as it is a very important part of writing. As far as overall cheating goes there are many small things that can be done to deter those who attempt to cheat. Tallahassee Community College has a really in depth website on preventing cheating that reads like it was written by somebody that spent a lot of time thinking up ways to cheat. I found a site offering some suddestion on what to do if you think you catch somebody cheating. It is from Michigan State University involving Suggestions for Instructors. As I mentioned earlier there are websites for comparing papers concerning plagiarism. One of them is located at Turnitin.com.

Blog Entry #3

This week the reading covered the different teaching styles that we could use in our classes. The McKeachie book covered reading materials, classroom discussion, and lectures.

The first chapter covered reading as active learning. I thought the idea of using quizes or assignments to assure that the students are reading the material is a good thing to do. Honestly, when I was an undergrad, I very rarely read from the textbooks unless it was absolutely required to do an assignment or it would be covered on the test and the teacher didn't have time to talk about it. There is always a textbook on whatever topic is being discussed in class.

• I could have the students write down important information that they got from the text that I didn't cover. It seems like it would be nice to put a question on the test that had something to do with letting them write an essay on something that they thought was important from the book that I didn't put on the test.
• Science texts can be a little dry, so it is difficult for students to "carry on an active dialog" with a book that can barely keep them interested.
• I would probably use scientific journals as a source of written knowledge for the students. Not only is it very important for conveying the information, but it also is pretty handy when it comes to learning how to find knowledge on your own. This is important for students looking at attending Grad. School, but not for lower level undergraduates.

The next chapter in McKeachie covered facilitating discussion in the classroom to increase the amount that students retain from the subject matter. While this is a very good manner of teaching it can be very difficult when you are attempting to provide facts that rarely have an opportunity for opinion. Sure I could ask a student how they feel about the Kreb's Cycle, but the answer I would get is usually more of a loathing than anything else.

• I think that the techniques for resolving conflicts in discussion sessions is helpful. For the most part I would avoid discussions that can cause such outbursts altogether. Most of the time these are not biologically relevant sides anyways.
• I would most likely add discussion to a class when the actual lecturing is over and we want to review the material before the test. Mini reviews can be thrown in at random time to reinforce important topics from previous classes.

The next chapter covered lectures as a teaching method. I never really knew before taking this class and reading these book just how horrible lecturing was. The book does have some redeeming qualities that it listed which were helpful.

• Keeping lectures focused on a small amount of material is good, especially if the topics are difficult to grasp. It is better to cover the big things in depth in class and let the students read about the minor topics on their own. Lectures are good times to cover intricacies.
• Keeping the students attentive to your lecture is very important, but the book is incorrect that you can gain such things by saying, "This will be on the test." From the teaching experience I have had before, I have seen this fail. The specific epithet for humans was written on the board and it was told to the students that it would be on the test. One third of the students got that question wrong on the exam.
• I will make sure to look at the students facial expressions when I do start teaching. While it can be deceptive at times this can also suggest times to go through material at a different pace.

There is a good web site made by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Center for Teaching Excellence that has links to several papers on effective lecturing. There are several different styles there that I will likely draw from when I need to make a lecture.

Blog Entry #2

The reading this week covered weekly class preparation, running a discussion, and class plans. There were many useful areas of interest in these chapters.

• The section on lesson formats gave some interesting points that I will need to consider. For the most part Biology has a lot of lecture, and I have always planned on using PowerPoint as my main tool in teaching. The main reason I would use it is somewhat selfish. I don't like to write things out in front of groups. I think that the cons listed in the book can be minimized by practicing tempo and allowing some room for questions or limited discussion. In the worst case scenario, I could always prepare extra slides covering different material and keep that in reserve should it become relevant.

• The effective discussion questions were also helpful for me because I think that I would likely have used some of the "don'ts" without realizing that I was hindering discussion development or being esoteric.

There were a lot of things in here that could be implemented in Biology as a whole provided that the teacher specifically picks the right lectures to apply the techniques.

• Discussions are helpful for getting students involved, but there are limited situations where the come into play in many science classes. Intro classes are often way too large, so those classes need the lecture format where the teacher imparts facts on the students. Higher level classes allow for discussion. Here the class sizes are smaller and the topics are a little more varied. This would be a good place to drop in a discussion every other week or so. This would be good if therre are scientific journal article to read or bioethical topics to discuss.

• Another thing that could be implemented in the discussion style of teaching here is the idea of being the Devil's Advocate. There is a lot of common ground in this part of the world. Many of the people in class have the same background and ideas, so a discussion could fall flat quickly when one person talks and the rest agree.

• Grammar and writing reviews are very important in science. Whether it is a class paper or an actual scientific journal article, a scientist needs to be, if not eloquent, at least understandable. If you can't get your point across then you can't get funding or the accolades you deserve. This is a must for people learning to be in the sciences.

I plan on using much of this information when I begin teaching classes.

• Labs are excellent places to have discussions and debates because the groups are smaller. I think that when I can find a good place to have a debate I would like to split the groups up based on how they feel on an issue(provided there are approximately even sides) and have them debate the opposing view from their own. I think that when you need to look at the other side to argue it it is more difficult to dismiss it out of hand.

• I will at some point, in any lower level classes at least, have some time talking about grammar and sentence structure. It won't be like an actual English class, but something to remind people the getting your point across clearly is important. In the higher level courses, I will probably have some sort of paper that the students will need to peer review. This is important in making it readable for me and getting students used to the peer review process that many journals employ.

• I want to be an organized teacher that has thing ready beforehand if at all possible, because those are the type of teachers that I like the best when I am a student. Having things ready for the students seems to be easy enough right now. Perhaps this will change, but I hope it doesn't.

I have been looking around at websites that offer information on college teaching and one of my favorite sites so far is http://www.facultyfocus.com/. It has a lot of information on all sorts of things including those covered by the readings we covered this week.

Blog Entry #1

This week in college has been interesting in that I have been reading the materials on teaching while comparing the readings with all of my teachers styles and analyzing that as much as the course material.

The most useful things that I have gathered from the readings include:

• One of the most important things from the reading in my opinion was the small tips given in First Day to Final Grade. Most people already have a general idea about making lesson plans and a syllabus from classes that we have taken, but small things like getting to know the room layout beforehand or learning the pros and cons of how to dress.

• I thought it was an unwritten rule that everything on the first day needed to be very serious and businesslike, but the book suggests that you don't need to be to rigid, but it also warns that it isn't easy to undo things once a mistake on decorum is encountered.

• The class planning from the Teaching Tips book was thorough and helpful if you have the time to actually follow that plan. Many of the Grad. student teachers that I know in our department were not informed early enough to implement that level of planning. A modified timetable could be used for similar results when there is uncertainty or fluidity in the teaching schedule. That said most of the teaching assignments in Biology are lab instructors. Labs are usually fairly standard with little variation from the lab manual.

As I hinted at earlier Biology is a little different from many of the other departments when it comes to Graduate Students teaching.

• While there is little leeway in labs for much deviation with regard to the syllabus or overall plan of the course, the reading did have useful information on introducing yourself and getting to know the students. In general Biology classes are a little more laid back when it comes to labs. There is a small amount of lecture and then self guided learning from lab books, so TAs tend to be more informal. Getting to know the students is very important for this. This can be done with icebreakers or having the students fill out information cards.

• In an actual lecture format in Biology there are a lot of facts that do need to be imparted on the students unfortunately. It can lead to classes being long and boring. I like the idea of having discussions interspersed throughout the semester in places where Bioethics can be discussed. Again this raises difficulties in many Biology classes, at least at NDSU, because many of our science classes have more than 50 people. It is difficult to get large groups to interact.

While reading I have been taking note of several things that I want to do when I start teaching.

• The first thing that I have already started on is getting to know the administrative staff in Stevens Hall. The are all very friendly and helpful.

• I have been collecting amusing and entertaining videos from YouTube that can really liven up a lecture while still teaching boring things like protein synthesis.

• Icebreakers are always important, but I have always felt really silly whenever I needed to do one of these in class. I like the idea of straight up telling the students that this will be corny and explaining why we are going to do it anyway.

There was a lot of good information in the books, but I found that there is a lot of fun stuff online that you can do to make a class more interesting and get people involved even when the information is dry. There is a good site at http://www.educationworld.com/ that has a lot of good icebreakers. There is always www.YouTube.com as well. I recommend the Protein Synthesis-An Epic on the Cellular Level for anybody interested in science.