Teacher Work Sample-Webber Middle School

Teacher Work Sample: Webber Middle School, Fort Collins, CO
Fall Semester 2016

Colorado State University
EDUC 350
Johnathan Harvell
Setting and Context
The School Community:
At Webber Middle School, the mission statement is emphasized as the 3 Es: Excellence,
Every Day, Everyone. The administration staff believes that every student has the potential to
succeed both in and outside the classroom, and it is the staffs goal that every student realizes
their potential through any medium necessary. This mission statement is demonstrated across the
entire demographic of the school, in which, out of 636 students, 79% of the students identify as
Caucasian, 12.7% as Hispanic, 2.2% as Asian, 1.1% as Black (or African-American), 4.5% as
Two Races, 0.2% as American Indian, and 0.2% as Pacific Islander.1 With a majority of the
students being identified as Caucasian, it can be inferred that Webber Middle School has higher
concerns in regards to diversity and potential racism that may be shown throughout the school
due to the uneven distribution of ethnicities spread in the school; this may also infer that the
school has particular services in regards to counseling and other activities for the minority of
students to better attend to their learning needs inside the classroom as well.
Every day, the students wait patiently outside before the first bell to converse and get
ready for the beginning of the school day. After the first bell rings, the doors to the school open
and the administration stand outside the doors to greet each student personally. As the students
enter the building, they divide up according to grades and go to their individual lockers, which
are guaranteed for each student in the school. While the students grab their things for the first
class period of the day, teachers stand outside in the hallways to help and greet students until the
second bell rings. With the ring of the second bell, the students gather in their respective classes
and begin their classwork as needed. With these routines, the administration at Webber Middle
School help promote a learning climate in one that demonstrates that school is a very welcoming,
respectful environment in which education is taken seriously to help students realize their true
potential inside and outside the classroom.
Along with education being taken seriously, the administration at Webber Middle School
also help convey to students that education can be very entertaining as well by the
implementation of particular programs that allow real world applications to be performed. For
example, one class that can be taken at Webber Middle School is called Science Olympiad; in
this class, students are tasked each year with a set of approximately fifteen different projects that
encompass all concepts within science at a level that students can comprehend, but also enjoy
thoroughly. Mrs. Erin Easterlund is the teacher that runs Science Olympiad and has as much fun
as her students do in all honesty. She enjoys seeing how much her students get out of the
program just as much as what the creativity of her students help create for each project.
Science Olympiad is not the only class that students can take outside of the core
curriculum. Students can also enjoy classes in art, music, archery, and physical fitness. The
administration has done a great job in creating classes that help appeal to the interests of all
students of all grade levels. In having these alternative classes, students who may not enjoy the
rigorous studying associated with core classes have something to look forward to everyday in
going to school. These alternative classes are not the only other programs that Webber offers to
their students. Webber Middle School offers a variety extracurricular activities after school,
primarily in the mode of sports; however, the administration also offers science bowl, field trips,
concerts, and Webber Night Out (which is like a dance / quarterly student party) for students that
may not find sports as something of interest to them.
In generality, Webber Middle School houses a large variety of students from multiple
ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds, and the school does its best to cater to each
student despite their differences. The administration helps protect this mindset by incorporating
the opinions and other thoughts of the students parents through parent / teacher conferences and
periodical PTO meetings. The administration believes that parents know what is best for their
own students, and want to incorporate these thoughts into the schools internal culture / climate.
The administration promotes that idea that both students and their parents should feel that
Webber Middle School is a place that realizes a students potential in a safe, entertaining way.
Students and Classroom:
Mrs. Easterlund is the teacher at Webber Middle School that I have been shadowing and
she has set up her science classroom in the following manner to meet the educational needs of
her students:
Mrs. Easterlund has set up her classroom in a setting that allows small groups to be
forever present, but hopefully to promote students to be more susceptible to helping each other
with assignments; however, the main reason for a small group set up is due to the dimensions of
the classroom being too small for individual desks to be placed within the classroom to
accommodate up to thirty students at a time. Mrs. Easterlunds classroom culture typically is one
that promotes individual classwork, and the imposed classroom arrangement is going against this
intended classroom culture.
Speaking from the perspective of Mrs. Easterlunds eighth grade science and pre-AP
science classroom, the classroom culture is one of consistent respect for one another while
maintaining focus on the task at hand in a typical science-looking classroom (one that includes
multiple cabinets, sinks, beakers, and other pieces of useful technology). Mrs. Easterlund
promotes this culture through sound and lighting cues that direct her students attention as
needed; for example, upon the second bell ringing for class to start, Mrs. Easterlund turns off the
lights to the classroom to cue the students to sit at their seats quietly and begin working on the
first task of class. According to Mrs. Easterlund, these cultures are established at the beginning
of year and consistently maintained to prevent further confusion of classroom culture along the
way. If confusion was to occur, then the process of obtaining knowledge is inhibited, which is
something that any teacher wants to avoid.
During my time in the classroom, I found that Mrs. Easterlunds students have a variety
needs that need to meet through a variety of ways; for example, during a mini-lesson in physics
regarding Newtons Laws of Motion, I found that some students could understand the concepts
of motion through equations, while some students could only understand it through a kinesthetic
demonstration. The mode of learning was not the only variety of student needs that could be
observed within Mrs. Easterlunds classroom, particularly in her eighth grade general science
class. In that class, students with IEP, ESL, and even transfer students are present, but Mrs.
Easterlund has developed multiple lesson / unit plans to accommodate those students. During my
mini-lesson, it was important for me to coincide with those individual lesson plans and attend to
the individual needs of those students as intended by Mrs. Easterlund. As I taught the lesson and
saw this distinction between students, I had to adapt as necessary, and I am sure that any teacher
says they have to adapt on a daily basis, which leads me to thinking that my mini-lesson went
optimistically well.
Topic and Rationale:
In Mrs. Easterlunds classroom, she utilizes a variety of techniques that are demonstrated
in the textbook Teach Like a Champion 2.0 by Doug Lemov. An example of such a technique
can be seen in how she sets up her classroom. Based on the orientation and number of students
per table in her classroom, it is obvious that the inheriting instinct of the student is to work in
small groups, but, with the smart and white boards on one wall in the room, Mrs. Easterlund is
easily allowed to get the students attention through cues and have them pay attention to
whatever material is in place on the smart / whiteboards that Mrs. Easterlund wants the students
to observe, which can be described by the techniques of Standardizing the Format, Least
Invasive Intervention, Making Compliance Visible, and Radar / Be Seen Looking. This
helps the setup of classroom culture as stated earlier, but helps maintain the culture in a positive
manner that does not require a student to be put in the spotlight of negativity based on their
current behavior in the classroom.
Another example of Teach Like a Champion instruction strategies being used in Mrs.
Easterlunds classroom can be seen in how she addresses the concept of turning in assignments.
In the act of submitting assignments in class, Mrs. Easterlund asks her students to gather, or
distribute, homework as needed to continue with class. By doing this, students become aware of
what to do with homework that is either due or needed to go back to the respective students, and
this is a demonstration of the technique of Strategic Investment: From Procedure to Routine.
As the time to submit the assignments is ending, Mrs. Easterlund makes it very clear to her
students in a very strong, monotone voice that the students assignments will be late if not in her
hands in a particular set time interval. This provides an ultimatum to students to either turn in
what they have, turn in the assignment late, or not turn in anything at all. This allows her
students to understand the consequences of their actions, as well as the fact that the students must
make a decision for themselves within a particular time limit. This example of instruction falls
under a group of techniques, including: Make Compliance Visible, Least Invasive
Intervention, Firm Calm Finesse, Art of Consequence, Strong Voice, What to Do,
Work the Clock, and Every Minute Matters. Mrs. Easterlund makes it clear to her students
that classroom time is learning time, and little behavioral episodes of the students will not keep
her from maintaining the students on task with learning what they need to learn according to the
academic standards.
The last example of instruction techniques used in Mrs. Easterlunds classroom is how
she instructs students to give answers to assignments in a concise, grammatical manner. For
example, the students had to answer a few questions from a middle school physics textbook in
regards to Newtons Laws of Motion. As a satisfactory factor of the assignment, Mrs. Easterlund
instructed her students to write their answers to each question in complete sentences. Although a
simple request in nature, the completion of sentences helps promote better literacy in students
and incorporates the Teach Like a Champion techniques of Art of the Sentence, Show Call,
Build Stamina, and Front the Writing. Even though Mrs. Easterlund only teaches eighth grade
science, writing and reading are important in every aspect of a students life, and it is her (and
our) responsibility of being a teacher to help promote reading and writing in every area of a
students life as well.
Throughout the semester, there are also techniques that I believe Mrs. Easterlund has
failed or is struggling to achieve in her classroom. For example, in the techniques associated with
error found in Chapter 2 of Teach Like a Champion, Mrs. Easterlund has demonstrated immense
struggle in how to keep each of her classes (both Pre-AP and non-AP) on the same trend of
progress, so that she can actively introduce the same material each period of each day; however,
with one of her biggest classes of students, she has come across the problem that this particular
groups of students are far behind in their progress with material regarding motion than the other
5 periods of classes she is teaching at the same time. As a result, the attitude of Mrs. Easterlund
towards that particular class is one of frustration and seems to negatively impact the students as a
whole, which does not help Mrs. Easterlunds goal of getting that class back on track at all.
In the future, I hope to try not to succumb to such frustration, even though it may be hard
at times due to the certain dynamics of the students; however, I need to keep in mind that I have
resources that I can use within/outside the school to help improve my classroom management to
help fight future frustration with classes, whether it be through administration, reading or some
other type of professional development. One of the reasons why I believe that this frustration
exists with Mrs. Easterlund is, not with the students, but in the fact that she did not actively
differentiate her lesson / unit plans to accommodate these different students learning needs. In
this, Mrs. Easterlund demonstrates a more linear tracked way of thinking in developing her
lesson / unit plans, to which I believe hinders her from achieving higher level of professionalism
as a teacher. As a future teacher to another, I believe that Mrs. Easterlund accomplishes many of
the techniques in Teach Like a Champion successfully every day, but she must be willing to
learn more about other teaching strategies to progress towards being a more effective teacher to
her students every day as well.
For a form of summative assessment, Mrs. Easterlund implements pre- and post-
tests/quizzes of a units material to acquire an idea of how her students have learned the material.
With the pre-assessments, Mrs. Easterlund can have a better general understanding of where her
students stand in certain science subject areas, and allows her some time to modify lesson / unit
plans if needed to help progress her current students from where they began in the classroom.
The post-assessment is a reflection in how Mrs. Easterlund instructed her class, and gives her a
little insight into how to provide a better overall structure of the science classes for future
generations of students. Online assessments via the students laptops also allow administration to
assess Mrs. Easterlund in her performance as a teacher as well, which can allow some additional
feedback of her instruction techniques for future improvement.
By incorporating periodic assessments, Mrs. Easterlund has the ability to improve on
instructional methods as the school year goes along instead of just focusing on the feedback
provided by the pre- and post-assessments set by the school district. For example, if Mrs.
Easterlund decides to perform an activity over Newtons Laws of Motion and the students
perform poorly on the unit assessment, then Mrs. Easterlund may need to not only adjust the
same activity for the next group of students, but adapt future unit activities that incorporated
similar elements as found in the motion activity. This type of assessment allows for consistency
and promotes a growth mindset for Mrs. Easterlund throughout the school year instead at just the
beginning and end of the school year.

Case Study Interviews
Introduction:
The primary purpose of the case study performed was to observe and be informed about
the perspective of individual students of diverse backgrounds on the current teaching styles and
motivations of teachers found within Webber Middle School. To perform the case study, five
students were chosen out of an 8th grade mixed (AP and Non-AP) general science classroom to
be interviewed willingly. The five students included a group of two boys (Lucas and Alcides)
and three girls (Reagan, Jaylee, and Elisa). As a demonstration of diverse background with the
boys, Lucas is a Caucasian 8th grader that is seen to have behavioral issues with multiple teachers
in the school and issues with assignments in science class; for the other boy, Alcides is an ESL
student that is observed to be have minimal behavioral issues, and excels in science class. For the
girls, Reagan is a part of the AP side of the class, while Elisa and Jaylee are Non-AP. All three
girls appear to not have trouble with turning in assignments, but have trouble with content of the
class to some extent. All three girls are ethnically different, and provide greater variations of
answers to the interview questions. The case study was performed within the walls of Webber
Middle School in Fort Collins, CO under the consent of the school administration, and was
constrained by the standards set in Poudre Valley School Districts policies.
Case Study Interview Structure:
All students were asked personally one-on-one (me and them) to participate in the case
study, and each of the five students agreed willingly to do so. After consent was given by them
and their science teacher, each student was individually taken out into the hallway outside the
classroom to be interview, except for Jaylee and Elisa. Jaylee and Elisa were interviewed
together out in the hallway, but each student gave individual responses to each question. The
point of this joint interview was to observe the social influence on personal responses regarding
teachers that students shared when in proximity of another student from the same classroom.
Each student was asked the same four interview questions: (1) What do you think makes a great
teacher? (2) What things could a teacher do to make class a better experience for you? (3) Do
you like science class? Why or why not? (4) What frustrates you most about school? (5) What do
you think makes a great student? No students were pressured into answering each question; if a
student decided to not answer a question, then the answer to question was left void and the
interviewer moved on to the next question to eliminate further emotional / social influence on the
personal answers given by each student.
Personal Reflection on Answers to Question #1:
In the responses gathered from question #1, it was found that the students had a general
consensus on teachers being respectful to their students in more ways than one. For example,
four of the students agreed that teachers are respectful in just acknowledging a variety of
students in the classroom instead of just choosing a few students to answer general questions,
etc.; however, Lucas responded in a manner that respect is when a teacher doesnt yell too
much. Upon asking Lucas further on what he meant, Lucas exclaimed that he felt that teachers
yelled at for no reason. When they think I [he] is talking, when I [he] really am not [isnt], the
teachers yell at me [him] anyway. This response was not remotely given by other students,
which is quite interesting in the fact that Lucas is seen to be the behavioral student out of the
whole group. In contemplating the thought behind this response, it was conceiving that maybe
Lucas is misunderstood by his teachers on some level that promotes teachers to either think that
he is behavioral or promotes Lucas to be behavioral to try and adjust the teachers points of view.
As for the remaining four, the students did not provide explicit examples in how their teachers
were being respectful in their own personal experiences in the classroom.
Another aspect of general responses that were given by the five students in response to
question #1 was that that students should be more hands-on in their teaching style. As seen in
most educational research now, it can be presumed that a hands-on approach can be the best
way to approach a learning opportunity for students; however, for these 8th grade students, they
still believe that they have not been given enough of these opportunities. Now, this could just
extend from the students personal attention spans, but it could be the non-active involvement of
the teachers to promote more hands-on learning. These responses were found particularly
interesting in the face that they are all derived from the same 8th grade science class, to which
science is assumed to be a very hands-on class based on the incorporation of such things as
labs and demos. To clarify, this is not a personal critique of the teaching style of the science
teacher in which these students were interviewed from; however, the responses of this particular
teachers students suggest that some changes in teaching style could be made to help provide
better learning opportunities for both the AP and non-AP 8th grade science students.
In the generality of the question, the responses of each interview student have provided
some extensional detail in what the general population of middle school students perceive an
ideal teacher to be in the classroom during instruction. As a future educator, it is important to
understand that these students require a teacher that is respectful, and acknowledge each
individual student in their classrooms, and allow students have the opportunity of learning
concepts by doing, not just by lecture.
Personal Reflection on Answers to Question # 2:

With the responses gathered from the students in respect to question #2 of the interviews,
the consensus of information given by the students aligned with the incorporation of more
hands-on activities within the classroom than just going through lecture each class period;
however, during the interview with Elisa, she exclaimed that, besides hands-on activities,
would like if the teacher allowed for more videos to be watched during class time. After this
response, Elisa was elaborate on why videos specifically, to which Elisa stated that videos
change things up for me, and I find them really exciting. With this information, it can be
assumed that Elisa may be more a visual learner than the other four students interviewed in the
classroom. As a consequence of this observation, it can be inferred that the science teacher
prefers not to use visual learning cues within her classroom since a majority of her students seem
to not have an issue with not having another visual learning opportunity; although this may be
true, the respectful nature of the students ideal teacher can be compromised in this manner based
on Elisa not receiving the visual learning opportunities that she need to excel in science class,
thus the teacher failing at the requirements set by the students in regards to the answers of
question #1.
Additionally, during the interview with Elisa, she elaborated on the idea of having less in-
class work, to which the other students thought the opposite. Elisa explained that she found in-
class work really stressful in regards to the time constraints given by the teacher, to which she
found difficult to do in some areas of science content that she may have been struggling with.
For the remaining four students, they stated that they would like more in-class work than that of
homework due to personal ties to sports teams and other extracurricular activities outside of the
classroom. The four students generally exclaimed that they found homework to be hard to
complete based on not having enough time during the day to complete the assignments given
by their science teacher. It is important to note that the administration at Webber Middle School
encourages their teachers in not giving their students homework if necessary.
As observed in the 8th grade science teachers classroom in which these five interviewed
students are derived from, the science teacher only uses the term of homework in regards to in-
class work that was not completed during the class period. In allowing this standard within the
science classroom, the teacher helps create somewhat of an academic-social balance in the fact
that the teacher places the responsibility on the student to complete the work within the
classroom, and the students are at fault if they do not finish the assignments before class is over.
Now, this goes against the arguments made by the four students with extracurricular activities in
the information that they provided in their responses for question #2, but this also hinders the
teachers teaching style in regards to Elisa still not being able to complete the assignments based
on her understanding of the concepts of each assignment given. A possible solution for this issue
could be that the teacher allows for additional time before / after school to help students like
Elisa to catch up on certain concepts being taught in class by having one-on-one study time
between the student and teachers.
For the general information given by the students in response to question #2, it can be
seen that students, as stated before, prefer teachers to be more active with their teaching methods
in regards to more hands-on activities that the students can perform; however, it can also be
inferred that aligning with the majority of the students learning style could still deeply hinder
the education of the minority of students with different learning styles as well. Thus, it is
important for the teacher to allow additional time with the minority of students or provide more
variety of learning opportunities for the minority of students to help promote a better equilibrium
of academic progress with the class as a whole.

Personal Reflections on Answers to Question #3:
For the responses given for question #3 by the interviewed students, the students all
thought that science class was a good experience to some extent; however, Lucas and Elisa had
conflicting ideals of their science classes as well. First, Lucas found that science class was fun
yet not challenging. This can be inferred that Lucas does not find his 8th grade science class as
entertain as his other classmates because of the idea that the content is not new to him. Linking
to the background provided for Lucas, this could create another possible motive in regards to his
behavioral issues within his classes with his personal teachers as well. Lucas is considered to be
a Non-AP student, which brings to light why he is not in an AP class to where he may find the
content a bit more challenging and acceptable to his learning needs. With Elisa, she presented
her idea that science class is where she likes that subject, but not how it is taught. This can be
used to further extend the notion given from her response to question #2 in having the teacher
have more visual learning opportunities in the teaching style being used.
Clearly, Elisa is having issues with learning from the 8th grade science teachers teaching
style, to which needs to be adjusted to help meet Elisas learning needs; however, this may
invoke a complete course correction for the teacher to perform, which could hinder other
students beside Elisa as well. This is a very intriguing, yet difficult issue to tackle because of the
basic give and take concept: give a little more to one student means to take a little more from
another student in regards to their academic progress. It is important for teachers to find a
balance in their teaching style, but, as most teachers know, there is no perfect teaching style.
Each teaching style will have its own strengths and weaknesses, and the combinations of
teaching styles as well; although a perfect teaching style cannot be obtained realistically, it
should be the motivation of any teacher to strive to better themselves professionally by

considering current studies in the field of education and advice from either veteran teachers or
administration.
No one student is going to like every area of content that a school can offer as a whole,
and this is a known fact; however, it is the mission of the teacher, not to make each student like
every area of content, but to have the ability to cross content knowledge as needed to progress
further in their academic careers. By allowing for opportunities for crossing content knowledge,
it allows for the students have a better understanding of why certain academic subjects are
important for them in their lives, and to see what doors other content areas can open for students
in regards to opportunities toward personal goals that they have set for themselves.
As from the information gathered from the interviewees in their responses to question #4,
the consensus was that students did not like the application of homework, to which Webber
Middle School has made strides in eliminating homework as a whole. With this in mind, the
motives behind the 8th grade science teachers reason for distributing homework was to be
evaluated. According to the class culture established in the 8th grade science class, homework is
designated as any in-class work that is not finished by the students within the class period; thus,
an argument can be made for either in teaching techniques, student motivation or both. As a
perspective science teacher, this writers view of homework is necessary for students to succeed
in science, and to instill in my future students that homework is more as practice than torture.
A couple of other interesting responses came from Lucas and Alcides. Lucas claimed that
the most frustrating thing about school was teachers losing assignments, and yelling at you
[him] for no reason. This response infers that teachers are both clumsy and unnecessarily angry
towards students; however, with Lucas behavioral history, it is interesting that he would find the
yelling as unneeded in regards to his recorded actions in class. To this, it is important to
understand why a student can be considered behavioral, but also try to find a way to express to
students to be accountable for their actions. For the response from Alcides, he found that most
frustrating thing about school being teachers now being able to explain things well, when you
dont understand. As an ESL student, it is important for Alcides to feel that he is able to
understand the coursework that is presented to him in any way possible, to which his academic
success reflects that Webber Middle School has been doing a decent job in doing so. As a future
teacher, the hope is to present the same type of opportunities to my future ESL students as well,
and hope that my students see me as a teacher that they can understand.
For the responses of question #5, every student agreed that a good student is one that is
productive, involved in class, pays attention, and is respectful. As stated earlier, it is important
to see how interesting of a response this is considering the students backgrounds, but it is
hopeful in the fact that students understand how the school expects students to act within the
classroom. I hope to provide that same type of goal for my students by establishing a classroom
culture and climate that reflects such goals set by the public school system.
Conclusion:
In performing this case study at Webber Middle School, through the honesty of the 8th
grade science students, a different perspective of the middle-school life could be seen through a
more subjective lens, and the effects of a middle-school teacher on their middle school students
could be seen more clearly as well. For having this perspective, possible defects in teaching
strategies, and administration can be postulated, including the motives of middle school students
with their behaviors inside and outside the classroom. With knowing these motives, a higher
level of empathy and understanding can develop between teachers and their students, which will
lead to greater teacher-students relationships and the creation of more effective classroom
climates.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Poudre Valley School District for allowing me to perform my
studies in my EDUC 350 class at Webber Middle School, and the administration of Webber
Middle School in their cooperation with Colorado State University and in performing this case
study with a few of their 8th grade science students. I would like to thank that interviewed
students for their explicit honesty, and willingness to be a part of this case study.
Teaching Experience: Lesson Plan
Teacher: Johnathan Harvell Date: 11/10/2016
School: Webber Middle School Grade Level: 8th
Content Area: Science (Physics)
Title: Free Body Diagrams Lesson #: 1 of 1
Unpacking the Standard
Academic Standard: Identify and calculate the direction and magnitude of forces that act on
an object, and explain the results in the objects change of motion (Science, 8th, 1.1)
Understandings:
Forces identify the change in motion of objects
Direction helps calculate magnitude
Different objects have different types of forces
Evidence Outcomes: Inquiry Outcomes:

I can predict and evaluate the What relationships exists among force,
movement of an object; this means I mass, speed, and acceleration?
can describe the forces applied to an What evidence indicates a force has
object in motion (DOK 1-2). acted on a system? Is it possible for a
I can use mathematical expressions to force to act on a system without
describe the movement of an object; having an effect?
this means I can accurately predict the
magnitude of a force acting on a
moving object (DOK 1-2).
I can develop and design a scientific
investigation to collect and analyze
speed and acceleration data; this
means I can use the data to determine
the net forces acting on a moving
object (DOK 2-4)
List of Assessments:
Reading: Question and Answer
Lab: Hypotheses, Results, Conclusions (Critical Thinking Q & A)
Create Free Body Diagrams of Multiple Objects (Lab and Worksheet provided by Mrs.
Easterlund).
Planning the Activity
Name of Activity: Race Car Lab: Free Body Diagrams
Purpose: Students can explain how factors of mass and Anticipatory Set:
the design of objects help determine how forces impact a Video(s) of moving
specific objects motion; this means that students can objects (cars, planes, etc)
create accurate free body diagrams to describe the leads to questions about
movement of an object in specific conditions. how certain movements of
objects occur.
Application: With this essential knowledge, students Do Now: What is the
should be able to apply their knowledge of motion to equation of force?
interpret and predict the existential movement of a toy Identify and define the
race car while going down toy race car track at different factors of force: mass and
point in time. acceleration
Time of Activity: 9:18am 10:37am (82 mins) Anticipatory Set Goals:
9:18-9:23am- Do Now: What is the equation of To engage students by
force? Motion Video visual, auditory, and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu_P4lbmV_I written stimulation
9:23-9:40am- Intro to Newtons Second Law, To assess students current
Reading pg 37-38 Balanced/ Unbalanced Forces knowledge base of general
(Answer questions on first page of lab) forces
9:40-9:45am: Intro to Race Car Activity (divide To introduce new concepts
up race cars in groups of 3-4 *Allow each student of additive/subtractive
to pick their own cars if enough cars are methods of forces, and the
available). mathematical model of F =
9:45-9:55am: Have students try to determine the ma
forces acting on cars at rest and in motion (draw To be able to predict the
crude free body diagrams, allow to students to motion of an object
engage in creative drawing) utilizing the new skill of
9:55-10:05am: Come together, and draw a general creating free body
free body diagram of a car at rest and in motion diagrams with appropriate
(discuss difference of the four basic forces and labeling.
what causes difference in the four forces
*particularly discuss the difference of push and
pull on a free body diagram)
10:05-10:15am- Make predictions of which car
will win the race, and race cars (allow students to
produce scientific evidence on why their
predictions will come true and utilize the evidence
to make a persuasive argument to other students
on why a particular car will win race).
10:15-10:35am- Discuss why the winning car won
won/lost, and draw free body diagram of the
winning car (do as whole class, and prompt
inquiry to allow students to make connections
between design of vehicle and F = ma).
10:35-10:37am Allow time for students to
reflect on LT (answer last two questions at end of
lab packet).
Materials Needed: Differentiation:
At least 4-5 Toy Race Cars (allow enough cars Breaking students into
for each student individually if possible) groups with multiple
At least 4-5 pieces of toy race track (depending learning styles to provide
on how many cars there are or on the grouping of perspective into creating
students as well) the free-body diagram.
Meter stick Video allows for
tape stimulation of auditory,
visual, and written student
learners.
Content: Begin to
understand that applied
forces include air
resistance and friction and
how each of these
influence different objects
in different environments
(climate conditions and
coefficients of friction)
Process: Allow students to
individually choose their
own cars and develop
explicit free body
diagrams and arguments
on why their chosen cars
would win in a race or not
by addressing factors such
as mass and design of their
chosen car.
Product: Allow students to
create multiple free body
diagrams of the race car at
multiple points in time
going down the track to
see the trend in which
certain forces change over
time.
Performing the Activity
Procedure:
(1) Divide students in groups of 3-4.
(2) Give each group a different racecar.
(3) Give each group a worksheet with questions
(4) Have students work with questions on worksheet for one car, and then have a group
member draw their crude free body diagrams on the whiteboard.
Closure:
(1) Have the students make predictions on which car is going to win the race.
(2) Race the cars
(3) Discuss some reasons why one car won over another
Assessment:
(1) Perform examples of free body diagrams
(2) Have students complete worksheet of free body diagrams (Provided by Mrs. E).
Lesson Reflection
Was the lesson successful? Why or why not?
According to what I saw both inside the classroom during my interactions with the
students and evaluating the lab worksheets that the students had to perform, I found that the
lesson was successful in the manner that I felt that a majority of the students understood the basic
concepts of the free body diagrams and Newtons Second Law of Motion. In the minority of the
classroom, I found that some students either were somewhat mixed up in the labeling of applied
forces, or just were motivated not to perform the work on the lab sheets at all; however, upon
talking to the students that were not motivated, I found that the students could verbalize
conceptualize what a free body diagram was and how it was used. A low point of the lesson
would be in the aspect of differentiation. Although I tried to allow the students to see, hear, and
write the information about the free body diagrams within the classroom, the minority of
students still had a hard time with the material. Lastly, upon imposing some of the inquiry cycle
in my project based learning model of the lesson, I tried to give students the chance to blend the
content/material of both the free body diagrams and Newtons Second Law to see a distinct
mathematical relationship between mass and force. As a result, the students were able to verbally
explain the relationship, but were not entirely able to discuss the same relationship on the lab
worksheets.
What needs to be changed about the lesson? Why?
There are a few things that I believe need to be changed in the lesson to benefit the
students a bit more. First, I need to revise the lab work sheets to specify the type of medium in
which answers should be submitted. As noted by one of my evaluators, some of the questions
identified the specific content that I was wanting the students to learn, but did not elaborate on
the medium in which the content was supposed to be addressed by the students. So, as a retort to
this, I need to adjust the questions to be more specific on what needs to be done and what needs
to be learned by the students to prevent further confusion in further repeats of this lesson.
Second, I need to focus more on my classroom management in regards to keeping track
of the students who are not appealed by the method in which I am teaching this particular
content. To clarify, I found in some of the submitted lab worksheets that, even though the
students seemed to be engaged in the activity, the students did not produce any evidence on the
worksheet of the knowledge they were supposed to obtain during the lesson (either leaving
questions blank, or not doing the worksheet at all). I need to implement time within the regiment
of the lesson to look over the progress of each student, and make sure that they are staying on
task instead of just assuming that a student-driven lesson is going to come with an outcome that
all students perform that tasks that are needed of them.
Lastly, as pointed out by one of my evaluators, I need to adjust my review on Newtons
Second Law of Motion at the beginning of the class by possibly making it more inquiry based
than just pronouncing certain facts to allow enough time to engage in the race car activity. I need
to promote students to think about what they learned last class by asking a simple question as in,
How do you describe force?, in the hopes that they can come up with the answer themselves
and be confident in performing the tasks present in the lab; this also allows for a short formative
assessment to produced so that I know where my students are in their knowledge base, and to be
prepared to fill in those gaps of knowledge before continuing on with new material if needed.
What shouldnt be changed about the lesson? Why?
First, I do not think that the presentation of the video should be changed because of the
fact that it quickly engages that students into the lesson, as well as provides context outside of
the classroom in why Newtons 2nd Law of Motion. In the video, Newtons 2nd Law of Motion
was used to describe the importance of kicking a football, and how a football kicker has an
understanding of how much force to put into the ball to allow the ball to go a particular distance
during a game. Due to football being the favorite American sport, I feel that it at least connects to
each student on some level of engagement that I can utilize within the lesson in further repetition
in my teaching career.
Second, although it is not specifically stated in the lesson plan materials, I would prefer
to allow each student to have their own personal choice of race car instead of assigning them
specific race cars to use. By doing this, I feel that I keep the interest level of my student high
during the lesson, plus providing each student an opportunity to bring something different in the
outcome of the lesson, whether it be different physical drawings of the race cars or specific,
scientific reasons on why they think that their choice of race car will win a race against all other
cars in the room.
Third, in a general sense, the fact that this lesson is lab or project-based oriented
shouldnt be changed. I think by approaching this lesson by modeling under project-based

learning has allowed the lesson to achieve a higher level of accomplishment than just performing
basic lectures about free body diagrams and Newtons 2nd Law of Motion. The only other model
I would consider approaching this lesson would be the Inquiry Cycle model, which could
provide a better bridge between the material associated with free body diagrams and Newtons
2nd Law of Motion to further material to be learned such as combined forces or non-Newtonian
forces.
How does this lesson set up for the next lesson of the standard?
I believe that this lesson allows for a set-up to allow students to learn on how forces
complement each other in different situation besides a race car going down a track, as well as
being able to begin to predict an objects motion by interpreting the forces applied to an object.
This type of in-depth understanding will lead students to be better prepared in combing forces,
which can involve mathematics of both algebra and trigonometry. With free body diagrams, the
students have the ability to predict an objects movement, but, upon learning the mathematics of
combined forces, students will be able to accurately predict how far an object will move by
certain magnitudes of applied forces.
Another piece of material that this lesson sets up for are non-Newtonian forces, such as
air resistance and friction. By knowing the basic four Newtonian forces, students can start adding
concepts of other forces to their knowledge base; thus, allowing to students to begin to build
upon their basic concepts of free body diagrams as well. In knowing air resistance and friction,
this will lead to students to learn new mathematical equations of forces and motions, such as the
incorporation of coefficients of friction for different objects while the objects are acted upon by
an applied force. For example, if the race car lab was revisited, the applied force that is described
to be going in the opposite direction of the cars motion while going down track could be
attributed as a force of friction. If students were given the coefficient of friction of the track and
the classroom floor, student could predict where their car would stop upon completing the race
by performing more advanced calculations of Newtons 2nd Law of Motion (F = ma).

Race Car Lab: Free Body Diagrams
Name Grade Class Period
In this activity, you will:

LT 1: Be able to define the four basic forces
LT 2: Be able to label forces appropriately with specific subscripts
LT 3: Create free body diagrams using known labeled forces
LT 4: Utilize free body diagrams to help describe reason behind an objects movement
What you need for this activity:
A pencil
A race car
A piece of race track
Meter stick
Read pages 36-38 of Motions, Forces, and Energy. Answer the following questions:
1. How do you describe a balanced force? An unbalanced one? Define each term in a
sentence or two (Hint: It may help by making an equation using force arrows.)
2. What are the five major Earth forces? (USE THE HINTS!!!!)
G________ (what keeps on the ground?) Label: Fg
P__h / P___l (you see these labels on doors) Label: Fa
N______l (opposite of weird) Label: Fn
3. Put your racecar on the desk and keep it still. Draw a picture of the car and label the
picture with force arrows on what forces you think are acting on the car at rest. Answer
the following questions:
Forces acting on the car:
1.
2.
Are the forces balanced? Why or why not?
4. Lean your race track up against a table with a distance of 30 cm from the ground, and
allow your race car is run down the track. Draw a picture of your race car going down the
track, and label the forces that are acting on the car as it goes down the track. Answer the
following questions:
Forces acting on the car:
1.
2.
3.
Are these forces are balanced? Why or why not?

5. Based on the race car you have in your group, which race car do you think is going to win
the race? Why do you think that?
Discuss amongst your group and vote on which car in the group would win a race using
evidence related to Newtons 2nd Law of Motion.
6. Which race car won the race? Draw a free body diagram of the race car that one the race
as it is going down the track, and answer the following questions:
What force do you think made
this car win? Why do you
think that? (Hint: Think F =
ma)
Is that force balanced with another force? Why or why not?
7. Which LT do you feel most comfortable with? Which LT do you feel most
uncomfortable with?
8. Did Mr. H teach the lesson well? Explain, then give Mr. H a grade between 0 4 (0 =
terrible, 4 = fantastic).
Narrative Reflection
For my prepared lesson, I focused on teaching students about free body diagrams, which
are particularly used in physics to help describe how certain objects are brought into motion by
applied forces. To prepare for this particular lesson, there was immense communication between
Mrs. Easterlund and I on how to develop the lesson and predict where the students would be at
academically at the time of the lesson. After collaboration, I felt confident I could identify the
common ground among the majority of the students I would be teaching and begin creating the
lesson plan for teaching free body diagrams to 8th graders. With the lesson on free body diagrams
that I performed in Mrs. Easterlunds Pre-AP and non-AP 8th grade science classes, I would say
that the lesson went fairly well, but, after personal reflection with my experience, there are still
many things I need to learn to become a more effective teacher.
To start, one of the things that I believe went well was found both inside and outside the
classroom: student understanding the material. In the majority of the students, there was
evidence showing that the students understood the importance of free body diagrams and how to
create simple free body diagrams to describe linear motion, in which the students have been
explicitly learning for the couple months before I performed my lesson. One part of the evidence
found was seen in the end-of-the-lesson questions and group free body diagram example that I
performed with the students towards the end of the lesson. As I asked questions to the students at
the end of the lesson, I saw in-depth and explicit thinking of that majority of students. I also saw
this same thinking in the lab worksheets that I graded after the lesson, and I found that a majority
of the students showed at least the same level of thinking the represented the level of knowledge
I was hoping that they would achieve by the end of my lesson; however, on the flip-side of the
majority, there was also a minority of students that seemed to still have trouble with the material
after the lesson was completed.
For the minority, I first saw evidence of this misunderstanding after the lesson was
completed while I was grading the lab worksheets. For these specific students, I either found that
they decided to not complete the lab worksheets at all or not show any extensive thinking in their
free response questions found on the worksheets; oddly enough though, I did not notice this
during the lesson itself. I felt that I was performing sufficient amounts of monitoring of the
students during the lesson to make sure that they were staying on task, but apparently it was not
enough. During my monitoring, I did not taking it upon myself to be invasive in the students
work on the worksheets because I did not want them to feel discouraged throughout the lesson
and provide opportunity to create classroom management problems as well. For my next
rendition of the lesson, I will need to make sure that, during my time of monitoring, that I
promote a little bit more inquiry with the minority of students to allow formal demonstration of
the knowledge that they are supposed to be obtaining in the lesson without being too terribly
invasive of the their personal work in class.
Another thing that I felt was not entirely accomplished was the connective nature of the
content to real life applications throughout the lesson. Although the lesson ended with a race
with hot wheels cars, I dont believe that it was sufficient to create a connection of free body
diagrams to a real-life application that the students could use later on as an effective memory tool
to remember the content that I taught in the lesson. In my next lesson trial, I would allow for at
least the last five minutes of class to create further connections of free body diagrams to
things/phenomenon that the students may encounter on a daily basis. Although the motion of
cars is the most common example, I feel like it is not the most exciting connection that the
students could make in regards to free body diagrams; therefore, as with the video in the lesson, I
may try to make connections to sports or some other activity that the students have interest in. To
do this, I may need to further alter the activity and lesson plan to accommodate for more time on
this particular matter.
When it came to creating the lesson plan, I found it to be very intimidating at first. I
applied what I learned in lecture; however, the first draft seemed a bit short and unremarkable to
be honest. After getting feedback from Mr. Mac and some of my other classmates, I felt that the
second draft was a bit more explicit in regards to learning targets, learning expectations, and time
management. The constant problem that I still seem to have, even after the lesson, is the aspect
of differentiation in the classroom. In my final draft of the lesson plan, I proceeded to attempt to
differentiate down to determine new learning targets and expectation, but differentiated upward
as well to be prepared to challenge my students further if certain students got done with the
activity a bit ahead of time. With this, I have found that one of the key areas that I need to focus
on (like many other teachers I am sure, both new and veteran) is differentiation. Differentiation
is definitely one of the key weaknesses that I show both on paper and within the classroom, and
this is shown by the fact that I still had some students behind on the course material that I
presented during the lesson that I performed. Differentiation is a hard concept that to wrap my
mind around, and each student that I encounter throughout my teaching career is going to require
different differentiation techniques to accommodate for each of the students learning needs;
therefore, differentiation is always going to be difficult to accomplish, but it is not impossible
and I need to keep that in mind as I continue in my career.
Another one my weakness is in regards to my relationships with my students that I have
established so far. As I began the semester, I made it my prerogative to know each students
name and learn a little about them to have a bit of background on each of the students as well.
Throughout the semester, I found that I did not provide myself with enough opportunities to
learn about the students further due to my direct type of personality. To clarify, I am more of a
to the point kind of person, which makes social conversation very short with me and any other
person. So, as an example, if a student would come up to me during class, I would prompt with
the question how can I help you?, the student would ask their question, give them an answer,
then the conservation would end. I would not really follow up with students on a more personal
level with questions such as how is your day?, and got any cool plans for the weekend? As a
result, I feel like I have not connected with any of the students I have come into connect with on
a personal level to which I feel like all teachers should have with their students. As I continue in
my teaching career, I need to make sure that I provide myself with more opportunities to create
more personal connections with my students, in which will only help with applying teaching
techniques and classroom management skills in-class with the students.
With my weaknesses, I feel that I have discovered some particular strengths of mine
teaching at this point as well. One strength that I feel I have is that I allow content to be more
engaging past just lecture. With my lesson, I kept this ideal in mind throughout mainly on the
reason that I did not want my students to not get bored throughout the lesson. I knew that, to
allow the material to be effectively learned, engagement in lesson needed to be constant
throughout the class period. As a result of this thinking, I found that the allowing the students to
have their own individual cars promoted more excitement and unique experiences for each
student in the lesson. The more unique, the more engaging, and simple tasks in the lesson can
allow this to become a reality. I feel that is strength has made another strength of mine apparent
to me as well in my teaching experience so far.

In trying to promote a more unique experience for my students, I have found that being
appropriately transparent with my students is both helpful and somewhat necessary in regards to
allowing for effective classroom management. For example, the class period before I performed
my lesson, I spent a few minutes with the students that I was going to teach telling them what I
material I was going to teach over, as well as why I was going to be teaching them in the first
place. By doing this, I feel that the students could understand me a bit more, which allowed for
possible misconceptions of me to be put to rest in the students minds and set expectations for
how they should act during the lesson. I believe that being honest with your students is essential
to be an effective teacher, and, by being honest with the students, the students will be more prone
in being honest with the teacher in return; with this mutual honesty, further issues both inside
and outside the classroom could be solved for students in a positive manner (e.g. social issues,
parental issues, suicide, etc.). Honesty also allows for expectations to be explicit as well, to
which my students knew the expectations in how I felt they should act during my lesson. In
providing these expectation, I felt that classroom management was more efficiently performed
during my lesson.
Continuing with the aspect of classroom management, I felt that my time in front of the
classroom was not hindered much by it. By setting expectations in the class period before the
lesson, the students had a better understanding about what was going on during the lesson, which
allowed to stay more on task. While performing the hot wheels race in the activity, there was a
bit of chaos due to the students excitement to play with toys; however, by implementing
established classroom management techniques set by Mrs. Easterlund (prompting students with
clap if you can hear me, and a bell), the students were more easily brought to order. Now, it is
worth noting that, despite demonstrating the same expectations and using the same management
techniques, the non-AP class was a bit more difficult to keep on task than the pre-AP class; this
is mostly due to the fact that the pre-AP class only had approximately fifteen students, while the
non-AP class had about thirty students. An increase in class size seems to allow for more
problems when it comes to classroom management, but this does not mean that classroom
management techniques cant be further adapted to a higher class size either. I will need to keep
this aspect of time management technique development in mind as I proceed into EDUC 450
with high school students.
Finally, aside from the time I spent with the students in the classroom, I feel that there is
still much to work on in regards to relationships between administration and myself. During my
time at Webber, I attempted to converse with administration when I could as I walked through
the office, hallways, and seeing them at Webber Night Out; although, I did not extensively try to
engage in further conversation with administration outside of those particular instances either
based on the assumption that (1) the admin staff seemed too busy to talk sometimes, and (2)
some admin seemed not interested in talking to us college students (this is a personal
generalization of course). With the Q&A sessions performed with administration within lecture, I
feel more confident to engaging in conversation now than I did at the beginning at the semester,
but it doesnt make up for the time that I could have used during the semester to talk with them
further. As I progress into EDUC 450, especially with the fact that it is in a high school (the level
of schooling that I want to teach), I will need to become more involved in the activities around
the school and more engaging with the administration staff to allow my presence at the school to
be more noticeable. This can create further opportunities for employment and other activities in
the future as I am looking for a job as well as trying to innovate the profession further at the
school that I will be teaching at.

Field Notes
All Field Notes are based on chapters found within Doug Lemovs Teach Like A Champion 2.0:
62 Techniques That Put Students On The Path To College (IBSN 978-1-118-90185-4).
Chapter 2 Field Notes:
Technique Example and Description
Plan For Error (11/15/16) During the lesson, Mrs. Easterlund
found that one of her classes were far behind
the other classes in regards to content
material, and decided to take a break from
teaching the middle of the classroom to calm
her nerves about the students not being where
they are supposed to be in their learning.
Although she sets up many ways of the
student knowing where they should be a
different point in time regarding their learning
throughout the semester, I have seen Mrs.
Easterlund frequently not being satisfied with
her students at different points in time. This is
partly based on the fact that her lesson / unit
plans are very linearly constructed with
minimal differentiation or differentiation
opportunities; thus, the performance of this
technique is minimalized. If Mrs. Easterlund
had contingency lesson / unit plans, then she
may be more prepared to handle a group of
students like she was dealing with this
particular class and have a better opportunity
to getting the students to where they should
be academically. Mrs. Easterlund cannot
expect every class to be the same in regards to
progress, therefore she needs to develop new
modes of lessons / units to fit particular
progress trends in my opinion.
Culture of Error As a generality, I believe that Mrs. Easterlund
tries to achieve this in her classroom, but not
successfully every day. I believe this is
primarily due to consistency of both the
students and Mrs. Easterlund in both
emotional and physically points of view. For
example, there are days where every student
is present and on task, which allows Mrs.
Easterlund to be excited and allow time for
discussion if needed on particular topics;
however, most of the time, it is the fact that
students are missing and Mrs. Easterlund to
focus on getting each student caught up
individually during class time, which
decreases the amount of time for in-class
discussion and Mrs. Easterlunds tendency to
exclude discussion from the classroom to stay
on schedule with her lesson / unit plans.
Although she tries to provide times outside of
the classroom for her students to make up
work or ask further questions, she does not
emphasize that additional time not does she
convey the emotions to her students that she
actually wants to talk to them outside of class
as well.
Excavate Error In my observation of Mrs. Easterlunds
grading habits, I feel that she accomplishes
this technique to the best of her ability. Most
of the classwork that is given to the students
involves students writing down each step of
calculations and free response questions as
well. In having the questions modeled like
this, Mrs. Easterlund is given better
understanding of her students thinking
process on each and every question, to which
she provides substantial amounts of feedback
to her students on each question as well.
Although she spends more time grading than
maybe other teachers at Webber, I feel like
she utilizes that time well to a point that is
immensely beneficial to her students and
furthers her personal understanding on how
the students are progressing to academic
standards that are addressed within her
classes.
Own and Track (10/18/16) After completing part of the
acceleration lab, Mrs. Easterlund passed back
the students lab worksheets, and asked the
students to swap papers among the students
that were currently sitting at their table. As a
class, Mrs. Easterlund went over the answer
key and had the students grade the papers that
they obtained after swapping. The papers
were then given back to the students and Mrs.
Easterlund addressed to the students that they
were able to submit revisions of the questions
that they missed by the beginning of the next
class period. By doing this, I believe students
appreciate the second chance in revising their
work, but also allows Mrs. Easterlund to
further the method of her classroom culture in
the fact that she is make the students
accountable for their learning and giving them
the choice to further their learning or not.
Below, please explain your example(s) of 1-2 techniques and how they helped set high
expectations for the classroom?
In the aspects of both Planning for Error and Culture of Error, I believe that Mrs.
Easterlund is actively trying to achieve high expectations of students being responsible for their
learning and correctly for their mistakes by taking the additional time to perform additional
classwork or re-submitting assignments that they have already performed with revisions;
although this high expectation is reasonable, I believe that these high expectations are being
hindered in Mrs. Easterlunds classroom due to the lack of differentiation from class to class and
her inability to provide contingency lesson / unit plans to help establish different progress goals
for different classes of students. The linearity of her teaching method does have its benefits in
different areas of education, but the inability of being flexible in different classes is keeping her
from achieving the ideal classroom culture and climate that she wants in my opinion.

Begin with the End I see this is utilized both in a visual, practical
sense for both Mrs. Easterlund and the
students everyday within the classroom. First
off, as a part of her unit planning for motion,
Mrs. Easterlund uses labs to allow students to
learn about different factors of motion (mass,
velocity, acceleration) in segmented time
frames that allows students to learn the
material, reflect what they learned in the
material, and then practice the material before
moving onto the next factor of motion. The
beginning and the end of each lesson is
demonstrated to the students everyday by the
learning targets and class agenda each day on
the whiteboard; in regards to the unit plan,
there is a calendar in the back of the
classroom that also visually indicates to
students when particular units begin and end,
so students have an idea of what they will be
learning within a month time frame.
4 Ms I feel that Mrs. Easterlund tries to apply this
in her classroom, but not as effectively as she
should be. Of the four Ms, I feel that she
effectively addresses measurable, made first,
and most important based on how she
structures the labs that she uses in class and
the learning targets / agendas that are
presented in class every day. The one M that I
feel she sort of fails at is manageable. She
frequently runs into issues (especially with
her larger classes) of students not performing
class work needed to progress with the unit /
lesson. Instead of adapting to the students
current knowledge base, she sticks to a more
linear track of learning, and moves on with
the lesson despite that some students still do
not understand concepts previously taught.
Although blame could be placed on students
for not doing work, Mrs. Easterlund should at
least try to further differentiate her lesson to
address the learning needs of the students that
still need help with a particular topic by
providing additional resources (either in text,
practice, time outside of class, etc).
Post It I see this demonstrated every day in Mrs.
Easterlunds classroom, again, through her
use of learning targets and class agenda. She
explicitly vocalizes to her students daily on
where she sees them at in their academic
progress, and where she would like them to be
within a particular time frame. She typically
prefaces these statements with certain
comments like, If we dont get through the
velocity lab, then we will not have time to do
CSI week, in which I love to do every year.
By allowing this weight of progression to be
felt by students, I believe that she does a great
job be placing responsibility of students to
stay on task to achieve certain goals in class.
The purpose of each learning target, again,
comes typically at the end of each lab during
simple review and setting up for the next
lesson in motion. For example, she reviews
the students knowledge of velocity, and
makes it clear that their knowledge of velocity
will allow them to further learn about
acceleration in the next lab to be performed in
class the following week.
Double Plan I believe that Mrs. Easterlund accomplishes
this with how she sets up her labs and
learning targets / agendas in the classroom.
The labs are very specific on what the
students should be doing at different points in
the lab, and, if a student is confused, Mrs.
Easterlund is very quick to adjust the
students confusion into clarification of the
task that they are supposed to be performing
in the lab; continuing, Mrs. Easterlunds
gravity towards providing both daily and
monthly lesson agendas for students to see
visually in the classroom allows her to know
where her students should be at in their
knowledge base at the beginning and end of
each class period, as well as the beginning
and end of each school month.
By specifically focusing on Begin with the End and Post it, I believe that the high
expectation of the students knowing where they should be at in their academic career within Mrs.
Easterlunds classroom is easily conveyed to all of her students both visually and auditory every
day. With this, students should have no excuse in not knowing: (1) what they learned last class
period (2) what they will be learning in the current class period and (3) what they will be
learning the next class period. By allowing this type of structure to be present within Mrs.
Easterlunds classroom, I believe that it inexplicitly allows students the opportunity to increase
their time management skills by invoking personal academic planning both weekly and monthly,
as well as how manage their time each and every day with the variety of classes and activities
that they perform. This is an obvious important skill for anyone to learn, and I think Mrs.
Easterlund does a good job in trying to get students to learn this skill independently.

Wait Time (11/15/16) Mrs. Easterlund prompts students
to remember what Newtons 2nd Law of
Motion states. Most students did not raise
their hand to know the answer, so Mrs.
Easterlund put the equation F = ma on the
whiteboard to help jog the students
memories. Upon putting the equation up on
the board, more students were able to put their
hands in the air as a sign of knowing what
Newtons 2nd Law of Motion was. I think that
is was very effective because it promotes a
more indirect inquiry based model of learning
in the fact that students have to reflect on
what they have learned and utilize resources
to demonstrate their knowledge on a
particular concept without just being told the
facts of a concept by Mrs. Easterlund.
Cold Call (10/18/16) During a lesson in acceleration,
Mrs. Easterlund asked the class what the
equation for velocity was. Many of the
students hands went up, but a few of the
students did not raise their hands. There was a
student, Avery, who was not paying attention
and was performing some other task at his
desk. Mrs. Easterlund proceeded with asking
Avery the questions specifically to him to see
if he knew the answer. Avery did know the
answer, but Mrs. Easterlund took time after
the answer to ask Avery to pay attention to
what she was saying in front of the classroom.
This allows Avery to demonstrate his
knowledge base to Mrs. Easterlund, but also
provided an opportunity to gain the attention
of Avery back to lesson without singling him
out in class in a negative manner.
Call and Response (09/27/16) During a lab regarding velocity,
students were prompted to state the different
independent and dependent variables that
were to be addressed in the lab. Before the
prompt, students were given time to write
down what they thought were correct
variables. After being prompted to state the
variables, Mrs. Easterlund would state
something like oh, Oliva what did you say
was good variable? Oliva states that
distance is an independent variable, then
Mrs. Easterlund would say Class is distance
a good independent variable? A majority of
the class would exclaim yes! This allows
Mrs. Easterlund the opportunity to see get a
general feel of where the class is as a whole in
regards to understanding which variables are
which and to allow the students to feel more
excited about being a part of the class as a
whole.
Break it Down (11/15/16) When reviewing what Newtons
2nd Law of Motion was, Mrs. Easterlund
reintroduced an equation triangle that
demonstrated the different ways in which F =
ma could be arranged to solve for different
variables. Upon asking one of the students in
the classroom which conformation of the
triangle demonstrated the equation m = F/a,
the student didnt have the correct answer;
therefore, as a retort, Mrs. Easterlund went
back to a previous conformation that was
already addressed by another student earlier
that stated that a = F/m. With stating that the
mathematical relationship between the
previous example and the current example
were the same, the student was able to
correctly identify m = F/a as prompted earlier
by Mrs. Easterlund. This technique allowed
the student repair their mistake by going back
over a similar example stated previously in
class without giving the student more or new
information to solve the problem; instead, the
student was able to identify a mathematical
pattern to get to the correct answer, which
could be utilized on further assessments.
Pepper As of right now, I have not explicitly seen this
particular technique used in Mrs. Easterlunds
classroom; however, if I was to recommend
Mrs. Easterlund to use this technique within
her classroom, I would suggest utilizing this
technique by using flash cards of vocab words
related to motion to be presented to the
students either as a whole or individually.
Each card to could have a definition on it, and
the students have to, either in unison or
individually, identify the correct motion
vocab word that matches the definition on the
card. This technique could allow an increase
in memorization and quick release of
particular information of students when it
comes to summative assessments or activities
to be performed later in the classroom.
In the examples provided for the techniques Wait Time and Break It Down, I believe that
Mrs. Easterlund accurately demonstrates the high expectation that students should be
accountable for their own learning in the right that students should have their notes written and
ready to refer to when needed. As any teacher should expect from their students, students should
not be under the impression that information about a particular topic will always be given to
them. Students should understand that to solve a problem, one needs to develop a solution, which
can only come from one looking into information themselves to learn what is necessary to solve
that particular problem. Now, I not saying that teachers should provide at least a little guidance
or clarification on a certain topic, but that doesnt mean to just divulge all the information so
students dont put any effort into learning the material for themselves.
Habits of Discussion I have not seen an explicit example of this
technique used in Mrs. Easterlunds
classroom; however, if I was to advise Mrs.
Easterlund on utilizing this technique within
her classroom, I would suggest that she start
off each unit with a general discussion about
why the material the students will learn in the
unit will be important to know; upon finishing
the unit, Mrs. Easterlund can allow another
discussion to occur to allow the students to
personally reflect and vocalize their learning,
as well as promoting questions on how the
students new knowledge could be applied in
their everyday lives. To allow this structure to
work, at the beginning of the school year,
Mrs. Easterlund should spend time with the
students in developing what they think are
good rules to have a discussion within the
classroom, and have the students accountable
to the rules of discussion that they created
throughout the rest of the school year.
Turn and Talk This technique has be used many times in
Mrs. Easterlunds classroom. A general
structure of how she uses this technique is
typically after completing a lab and going
over what the students should have learned.
For example, after the velocity lab in one
class, Mrs. Easterlund asked the class the
definition of velocity. Most students raised
their hand to answer the question, but, upon
one student answering the question with an
equation, Mrs. Easterlund prompted the
students to answer the question in a complete
sentence. At this point, half the raised hands
went back down, and Mrs. Easterlund asked
the students to talk to their neighbors for a
minute to clarify what they thought the
definition was for velocity. I think that she
approaches this brilliantly in the fact that, by
knowing half the classroom population knows
the answer by raising their hands, she can
utilize these same students to teach the
students that do not know in a manner that
might be less invasive to students who still do
not understand the material.
Batch Process I have not seen this particular technique used
in Mrs. Easterlunds classroom; however, if I
was to advise Mrs. Easterlund to use this
technique in the classroom, I would suggest
her to modify her Bellwork in a manner that
provides a question or prompt, but
specifically asks students to discuss amongst
one another about the answer to the question
or prompt instead of just working individually
and quietly on the same question or prompt. I
think this method would allow students to
have more perspective on a particular topic,
thus allowing for more opportunities for them
to learn the same material, while, at the same
time, checking their personal knowledge base
of the material with another student.
For all three techniques, if used correctly and effectively in the classroom, I believe that
Mrs. Easterlund could achieve an expectation that talking with other students should time to
explore content material and create a higher level of understanding, instead of just talking about
what happened in the hall during passing period; also, I believe would provide an aspect of
classroom culture that allows students to think that their voices matter in the classroom, and
allows students to be more confident to speak up during class instead of just waiting for the same
student or two to answer questions or prompts given by Mrs. Easterlund. I think, by allowing this
to be a part of her classroom culture, Mrs. Easterlund could see an increase in classroom
management in regards to side talking of students during a lesson and allow for her to spend
more time performing the lesson instead of waiting for students to be quiet to progress further in
the material.
Positive Framing (11/1/2016) During a CSI activity, Mrs.
Easterlund addressed a group of male students
while lecturing to instruct the students to
refrain from talking during lecture to allow
students to progress with the activity. She
phrased the initial response as Boys, lets
refrain from talking while I am talking so that
we can continue to have fun as a whole
class. However, this is not the best example
of positive framing; therefore, if I was put
into the exact same situation as the teacher, I
may have phrased it as Boys, I know you
want to talk about the evidence that you
collected for the crime scene and that is great,
but lets talk more about what you found later
after I am done speaking. Thank you. I
believe that is a more positive framed
response to this situation because it
acknowledges the students engagement in the
CSI activity thanks them for their
participation, and setting up more time for
them to talk about it later on after lecture is
over.
Precise Praise (10/13/2016) While performing a pre-lab over
acceleration, the students were asked to come
up with examples of independent and
dependent variables that could be considered
for the lab to be performed later on. As the
students pondered the variables, Mrs.
Easterlund walked around to each group to
check and observe what the students had
written down for each response. In one
particular group, the students had written
down that the independent variable was time
of the lab, but had also written down the units
for which time was to be recorded (in
seconds) without being told by Mrs.
Easterlund. Mrs. Easterlund stated I am glad
that you identified time as the independent
variable, but I am impressed that you also
labeled in independent variable with the
appropriate units. I was gonna go over that
next! You guys are even ahead of me, great
job! With this response, the students have
been given an academic cue that they are right
on track with their learning, but also knowing
that going beyond what was asked by the
teacher is a good thing as well.
Warm/Strict (09/08/2016) On the first day of observing
Mrs. Easterlund in her classroom, she
addressed a young student named Lucas in the
middle of lecture for talking while she was
talking. She stated, Lucas! I am talking and
what should you be doing? Lucas stated,
Not be talking. Mrs. Easterlund continued
with Since you know what not to do, then
why are you still doing it? Please refrain from
talking, ok? Although, the strict nature of
explicit addressing Lucas could be seen in the
action alone, the warmness of this technique
could not due to the tone of voice that Mrs.
Easterlund used to address the issue of Lucas
talking. This causes the students of the entire
class to see Mrs. Easterlund as yelling or
scolding Lucas instead of just talking to
him. If this was to be seen as just talking to
Lucas, then Mrs. Easterlund could have used
a bit lighter tone of voice, or even talk to
Lucas individually after lecture was over.
With addressing certain issues in a lighter
tone, Mrs. Easterlund could improve her
relationships with students in a more positive
manner that may lead to less behavioral issues
with students in the future.
Emotional Constancy (10/25/2016) Upon arriving into Mrs.
Easterlunds classroom, I found that she was
distraught due to some issue. In conversation
with her, I discovered that she was having a
hard time with teaching due to a medical issue
that she was going through at the time. In
knowing this, I attempted to provide as much
help as possible during the lesson that she was
teaching; however, she addressed the students
as class began with We have a lot to get
through today, and I do not really have the
patience for distractions today. Now,
although being somewhat transparent with her
students on a teaching point of view, it still
does not provide context with the students on
why she has no patience, which could lead
the students to progress in providing
distractions anyway. If I had been Mrs.
Easterlund, I may have conveyed my emotion
of distraught/ pain with being sick to my
students, so that my students could also have
an emotional perspective of my teaching style
during that class period. I believe that this
approach would improve student-teacher
relations within the classroom, and may create
a classroom climate in which distractions are
less likely to occur due to student empathy for
the teacher.
Joy Factor (11/1/2016) During the CSI activity, Mrs.
Easterlund allowed the students to come up
with specific questions on what to ask the
CSI Lab (i.e. Mrs Easterlund) on toxicology
/ physical evidence that was evaluated at the
crime scene. As each student group came up
to ask their questions, there were multiple
instances in which the students and Mrs.
Easterlund were engaged in laughter due to
the fact that Mrs. Easterlund was entertained
by the students questions and made jokes
about certain pieces of evidence of the crime
scene. As a result of these jokes, the students
engaged in laughter as well, but were still
given the information that they needed to
continue with the CSI activity. By allowing a
happy / laughing climate in class during the
activity, the students are inexplicitly given the
incentive to participate in such a climate as
well; this is primarily due to the Mrs.
Easterlunds engagement in laughter, but
more though of the fact that positive emotions
associated with the climate are typically more
inviting to students as a whole.
In regard to the techniques of Positive Framing and Joy Factor, I believe that they
helped set a high expectation of genuine excitement and engagement to be performed in the
classroom as much as possible. With the Joy Factor example, it can be seen that Mrs.
Easterlund wants to have as much fun as the students are in performing the CSI activity, which
allows the students to feel that science class should be fun for both the student and the teacher
while learning something new as well. With having this aspect of classroom culture installed,
students could have more anticipation for Mrs. Easterlunds science class each day; therefore,
this will allow students to be more likely to actively engage in other activities and discussion as
wanted by Mrs. Easterlund to help progress the students learning in a more positive manner. For
the Positive Framing example, this allows a flip side to the joyful classroom culture to be
discovered as well. This allows students to understand that, by providing distractions within the
classroom, Mrs. Easterlund cannot progress with activities to be performed in class. As seen in
the CSI activity, the presence of activities allows for opportunities of a joyful classroom
experience; therefore, if students inhibit activates to be performed, then the joy of class cannot be
further achieved. Mrs. Easterlund then creates an accountability factor for the students in
explicitly stating that The distractions that you have created have caused the rest of the class to
not have fun. By allowing students to be accountable for their actions in the classroom, the
students now have an obligation to make a choice to correct their actions or not. Based on the
students backgrounds, the choice could go either way, to which Mrs. Easterlund will have to
contingency plans as necessary for further student behavior. The act of allowing students to have
accountability within the classroom for their own joy of being in class is very important in my
mind due to the fact that students are given control of their personal experiences and are
responsible for the consequences of their own actions, not the teacher.
Resources
[1] Webber Middle School in Fort Collins, Colorado. StartClass.
http://public-schools.startclass.com/l/16362/Webber-Middle-School
(accessed Nov. 2016).

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Teacher Work Sample: Webber Middle School, Fort Collins, CO

Fall Semester 2016

Setting and Context

The School Community:

potential inside and outside the classroom.

may not find sports as something of interest to them.

Students and Classroom:

intended classroom culture.

something that any teacher wants to avoid.

Topic and Rationale:

current behavior in the classroom.

this is a demonstration of the technique of Strategic Investment: From Procedure to Routine.

under a group of techniques, including: Make Compliance Visible, Least Invasive

students life as well.

her students every day as well.

feedback of her instruction techniques for future improvement.

By incorporating periodic assessments, Mrs. Easterlund has the ability to improve on

beginning and end of the school year.

constrained by the standards set in Poudre Valley School Districts policies.

Case Study Interview Structure:

personal answers given by each student.

Personal Reflection on Answers to Question #1:

were being respectful in their own personal experiences in the classroom.

ideal teacher to be in the classroom during instruction. As a future educator, it is important to

concepts by doing, not just by lecture.

Personal Reflection on Answers to Question # 2:

encourages their teachers in not giving their students homework if necessary.

between the student and teachers.

of academic progress with the class as a whole.

should be the motivation of any teacher to strive to better themselves professionally by

Personal Reflections on Answers to Question #4:

Personal Reflections on Answers to Question #5:

Evidence Outcomes: Inquiry Outcomes:

Was the lesson successful? Why or why not?

What needs to be changed about the lesson? Why?

Second, I need to focus more on my classroom management in regards to keeping track

all students perform that tasks that are needed of them.

Lastly, as pointed out by one of my evaluators, I need to adjust my review on Newtons

What shouldnt be changed about the lesson? Why?

cars in the room.

shouldnt be changed. I think by approaching this lesson by modeling under project-based

certain magnitudes of applied forces.

by performing more advanced calculations of Newtons 2nd Law of Motion (F = ma).

In this activity, you will:

Are the forces balanced? Why or why not?

Are these forces are balanced? Why or why not?

Is that force balanced with another force? Why or why not?

many things I need to learn to become a more effective teacher.

after the lesson was completed.

invasive of the their personal work in class.

this particular matter.

therefore, differentiation is always going to be difficult to accomplish, but it is not impossible

and I need to keep that in mind as I continue in my career.

Another one my weakness is in regards to my relationships with my students that I have

techniques and classroom management skills in-class with the students.

allow the material to be effectively learned, engagement in lesson needed to be constant

to me as well in my teaching experience so far.

with high school students.

school that I will be teaching at.

expectations for the classroom?

Chapter 4 Field Notes:

expectations for the classroom?

Chapter 7 Field Notes: