1) Integrating Inquiry based problems, assignments, Labs and Test into their Lesson Plan.

2) Incorportating assignments that call for students to consistently practice study skills.

3) Stimulating the AP Biology testing environment.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Blog 18 Third answer

EQ

How can an AP Biology teacher best prepare a student for the AP Biology Examination?

Answer 3

Give frequent mock test to decrease test anxiety.

Details

My mentor Mr. Pittman gives test that consists of actual test questions from the AP Biology exam. His test are harder than the actual test so that when the students take the actual exam they are fully prepare for the Exam.

My Fourth Interviewee talked about how she makes test that consist of all parts of  the AP biology  exam. She gives the students a lot of questions that can't be answered with the time allotted this helps the student prepare for time management when taking the AP Biology Examination

Research Sources

Mentor Mr. Pittman
Fourth Interview Mrs Ramirez AP Biology at Pomona Catholic High School. 

Concluding Statement 

Mocking the Ap Biology exam help the student reduce their testing anxiety which on the day of will help them score a 4 or 5 on the Exam.






Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Blind Boat Maker - A Story About Failure.

Hello readers so today at mentorship my mentor, Mr. Pittman and I were talking about different topics related to what he is teaching in his class at the moment. We eventually got into a talk about genes and Mr. Pittman talked to me about a book called the "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins the book goes into depth on what evolution is. The story that Mr. Pittman brought up was the Blind Watchmaker but instead of going in depth on the story he said that he didn't like the way the story describes evolution. So he decided to change it to The Blind Boat Maker. The story basically goes like this. There was once a Blind man on an island who had the ability to build boats. He grabs random parts and constructs a boat. After the boat was finished he pushed the boat out to the ocean. If the boat was a success it floated on the sea but if it was a failure it skunked to the bottom of the sea.  One day a boat visited the island and seen all the wonderful boats floating on the sea but didn't see the failures that sunk to the bottom of the sea while because they are failures. They aren't meant to be seen is the point. So the connection to Evolution is that nature creates Biodiversity by giving a different genetic code to every single organism through many different processes. The cool thing I thought about this story is that it can teach everyone a story about life and continuing on with your life after failure. So my readers remember that your  failures will always sinks but your successes will always float on my friends.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Blog 15 Independent Component 2 Approval

1. Describe in  detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I plan to do again another lesson plan like I did foe my independent component 1. The difference between this second lesson plan and the first is that I plan to tackle more than just one concept in the book and attack the concepts more in depth. I will also be making additional worksheets, guided notes, Inquiry based problems and test to this Independent component with having in my answers to my EQ in mind.

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will have my notebook from my last independent component in which I will write notes in the section. Writing notes for a section for me personally can take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours if I am not familiar with the concept. I will be writing multiple pages of notes for multiple section so that will take about a good 1/3 of the 30 hours. I am also making the lesson plan itself which explains my plan of attack and what my students will be doing each day this takes my about a good 2 hours of work. I will also be making worksheets, guided notes,labs and test in which I will put a link in the my blog. This worksheets can take any where from an 1 hour to 5 hours to complete. This part will probably take up most of my time.

3. And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic more in depth.

I am basically putting myself in the shoes of an AP Biology teacher. I faced with the question of how can I best teach this concept so that my student will be ready for it when they encounter it in the AP Biology Examination. This will make me think of my first answer but get me thinking of a second and possible third answer.

4. Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it Independent Component 2.

Done.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Blog 14 Independent Component 1

Literal 

A ) I, Alejandro Espinoza, affirm that I have completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

B ) The sources I used for my independent component are My Mentor Mr. Pittman, he showed me his lesson plan and looked over my notes and Cambell's 5th edition AP Biology Book which is where I got the information to help me make my lesson plan, guided notes and test.

C ) Okay Done.

D ) So for my independent component I decided to dissect section of the book and write out a plan of attack for the unit. I started by first reading the section then reread the section this time writing notes I then did a plan of attack on each of the concepts in the book. After each concept was completed I wrote down what I am going to teach my students each day. I then made guided notes for my students to fill out during my lectures. Finally I repeated the process for the next chapter.

Interpretive

Notebook Pictures - This contains my notes on the section, how i would tackle each concept and what and how would I teach my students each day.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mnLGnN9JDs9AOQ1LwyyFMzPBP1EHi9W_URZUg6zyNyI/edit?usp=sharing

Guided Notes Example- This is an example of how I did my guided notes for my unit.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19G3S1EYDNrY_oRpTm_7hqaYjURZUKPNiU9-VhJ3jdPI/edit?usp=sharing
  

Applied

My component helped my understand the foundation of my topic basically by showing me what teacher have to do when planning a new lesson. I understand that the amount of effort that a teacher put into his work will directly reflect how the students may do on their exam and eventually their final AP Biology Examination. I also learned how pack as much content as you can in a Day so that you could go to the next section more quickly a note to add is that time MUST be put aside for any possible questions or misunderstanding of the concepts.