High School Science Teacher Vlog | An Unconventional Teaching Week

Vlog94: This was our second 4-day week for students. I saw my A-Day students once and my B-Day students three times. I also implemented two labs and am going to start making students (those who struggle) demonstrate some form of problem-solving strategy (or strategies) as they work through various problems. *Don't forget to like or subscribe!*

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After a stressful 2018 Fall semester, it was great finally hear students tell me, or other teachers, that they were enjoying chemistry. I feel like student engagement is finally taking off. Along with the increasing student engagement factor, I've implemented some new policies in regard to re-testing. I believe both of those changes helped to increase student performance on their most recent exam.

Providing purposeful and thoughtful student feedback is something that I haven't tried since my early years in the teaching profession. I have given student feedback thought over the years but never jumped back into implementing strategies to help me with this particular skill.

This year, with the implementation of student self-assessment, I have been able to conduct 1-on-1 teacher-student conferences with all of my students. My original goal was to implement at least one teacher-student conference per grading period. I've only missed 1 grading period this year. However, I have found it easier to implement after students have been given the opportunity to pre and post-assess their learning.

Additionally, the implementation of blended learning helps streamline in-class instruction while the teacher-student conferences are happening at the same time. I'm not where I would like to be. However, I do feel that I'll be a pro at teacher student conferences by the start of next year!

I also failed to mention that I started utilizing what I've learned from doing YouTube videos to help increase student engagement and performance in the classroom. I didn't really talk about it in this vlog. However, I will talk about the strategies I used to help increase student engagement, motivation, and performance in my classroom.
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When I first started A Week in the Life of a Teacher vlogs (17-18), I filmed and incorporated teaching clips in my videos. I did this because there had not been, to my knowledge, another teacher vlogger that had (consistently) done so. I also wanted to use my vlogs to share ideas and also reflect on my own teaching. I've spent a majority of my career working with or teaching at title 1 schools and I wanted to see where I could develop to support all students.

However, teaching Pre-AP chemistry for the first time in 8 years combined with teaching at a Title 1 school and daily vlogging and editing for a weekly vlog release began to take its toll on me mentally and physically. Therefore, during the spring semester, I continued to record my lessons for self-reflection, but I didn't stress about editing hours of lessons for the A Week in the Life of a Teacher vlog.

This school year (18-19), I decided to scale back the amount of time I spent vlogging. For the most part, I record on a single day and reflect on the week or some topic that people have asked me about. I feel this schedule allows me to rest, relax, and not stress about additional work.

Although, I have made the decision to try and incorporate small segments of instruction from at least one lesson taught during my weekly vlog release. This will allow me to support my original goals and provide a lens to anyone who is interested in teaching, especially at Title 1 schools.

I enjoy working with the population of students that I serve and understand the committment and dedication it takes to support them academically and emotionally.
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*The Life of a Teacher Vlog: All views and opinions expressed herein are mine alone, and none represent my employer nor any of the organizations with which I am affiliated.*

*All students receive photo and video release forms on the first day of school. Additionally, videos are edited to leave out names (spoken or written); or students whom I don't have permission to film. Students are aware of my channel and may opt out per the release form*

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