Hooking! Activating! Assessing!

WOW, this is the word that comes to mind when i relate this class to the class that was previously observed. Today we did observe three different grade levels and the difference in the environment from the 4th grade and the previously observed 5th grade was astounding. The students in this class which was the first one observed for the day came in and were very loud and did not settle down very fast. The teacher had to keep reminding many of the students to stay on task and to focus. This is very different from the 5th grade class whom were seated and highly focused on the lesson. There was an aid in this classroom, she spent the majority of the time walking around reminding students to be quiet and pay attention.

Fourth grade lesson!

The main idea for today's lesson is natural resources, the teacher did a great job of activating their knowledge about this subject. She initiated a conversation about trees and basically if we didnt have trees we wouldnt have........

Student responses:

Air, Paper, Apples, and then they got a lot more in depth talking about the food chain. If we didn't have trees we wouldn't have specific animals that depend on the trees to eat and then we wouldn't have food to eat. 

One boy stated- It would be more then food! if we didn't have trees we wouldn't have air so we wouldn't even be alive. 

The teacher gave a lot of feedback and praise during this entire lesson, even if a students response seemed out of the box she did not criticize them. Instead she tried to understand why they came up with that answer and then corrected their thinking.

Other praise that was observed was simple phrases such as "Good job ______ I really like how you are taking notes neatly" This informs the student that they are doing a good job, but also informs other students what she expects

THE PROBLEM!

What are our natural resources that are both living and non living. The students gave a variety of answers. Some of the answers the students gave were things like pencils and jeans. To understand their thinking the teacher engaged them in a conversation about it and described that pencils and jeans are actually not natural resources BUT they are made out of natural resources. Getting the students back on track and understanding there thinking is a huge part of being about to properly educate them. As an educator you want your students to understand the concepts, therefore placing yourself in their shoes so that you understand their alternative conceptions can help to be the best teacher possible. 

Something I noticed that I really liked and shows great teacher qualities is she saw a student that was making noises and not paying attention. He was sitting close to me and i had noticed he did not pay attention for most of the lesson, I did not know why, but after the teacher asked him the question she did I feel she shows how important it is to get t o know your students. She first called on his name and asked a very complex question, in fact i did not even know what she was referring to. I though that he was going to have difficulty answering since he was not paying attention, I WAS WRONG! He got very excited and answered her question with a very clear and in depth answer. She quickly grasped his attention and i feel as though this boy may be bored in the classroom. That answer was very advanced and shows my initial judgment of why he was not paying attention was wrong.

Third Grade class!

This class even though they were younger quickly got to their seats and the teacher was able to start the lesson without constantly reminding the students to focus. The lesson was about Measurement, and she activated their prior knowledge with a simple question, "yesterday we discussed measurement, can you tell me what types of measurement we used?" This shows how the lessons should flow together and is why it is importyant to plan ahead. The teacher went over specific measurements one day and introduced what they were and this class she was taking it one step further. The hook was simply going through the measurements that we talked about in the previous lesson and WHAT they measure (length). 

THE PROBLEM! What tools can we use to measure matter.....

We have already discussed rulers and a scale, but how would we measure this (the teacher held up something that resembled a key, which had lots of different side and even wholes in it. she went through a series of steps of how to do this, by measuring its volume, the amount of space that it takes up. She did this used a granulated cylinder and water. By placing the key into the water you measure how much it rises, this number will give the students their answer.

Be a good investigator! the teacher made sure to show the students how to take good measurements. They need to be eye level, and then talked about why that is important.

FIFTH GRADERS

The last lesson of the day was the 5th grade science class, the teacher made the students aware that we would be coming into the class to teach them a lesson on chapter 12. She wanted to make sure that they understood the concepts of this chapter so that they can make connections. They will be making those connections during our lessons. We will need them to have prior knowledge of these concepts so that when we come in to teach they will have prior knowledge to relate back to. The students took time to break down the concepts and talk about examples of each, this provided me with feedback on what the students already know about the concepts and what they need to investigate further.

Discover and learn!

Today's lesson was so interesting, we got to observe a 5th grade science classroom. The teacher did a lot of really interesting things that i noticed that relate to the inquiry based lesson plan that we have talked about. Initially I noticed that she activated the students prior knowledge immediately. She used the lesson at hand to do this, she said does anyone know what a data point spread is. Of course the students did not know what it is because they have yet to go over it in class, but she made it a point to inform them they know what certain parts of it is. They know what data is and they probably have an idea of what spread means.

Once she talked about data and got their minds rolling on what they were going to be doing she did an activity, this activity worked in two ways, it introduced the students to the new material and hooked them into the lesson. She had on the board a data point spread, she first went over the number line and how it was set up. She talked about the spacing and how there should be even amounts of space between each. She also made sure the students understood where the numbers fell on this spread. for example there is 30    '     40 and she wanted the students to understand what the ' between the numbers stood for allowing them to understand you do not NEED the number to be represented to understand where that number falls. This led into engaging the students in an activity where they were asked to map certain data points, the students got to be hands on during this activity and it was really exciting for them. She went over the data points, using specific praise and academic feedback. This was a great chance for her to show students that they understand how to plot negative numbers along with positive ones.

The teacher was able to take a mistake that a student made to explain to students there thinking and why it is not correct. This constant feedback was great for students to hear so that they had a clear understanding of what to do for the lesson. 

The most influential parts of the lesson FEEDBACK, PRAISE, and when she had the students do something in their notebooks she walked around the room OBSERVING the students work to keep them on task and correcting their work. She really took time to break down all sections of the lesson so that they understood all concepts and all parts that they will be APPLYING and DISCOVERING.

In these pictures you can see praise, praise can be a statement or it can be as simple as a hand gesture. Just to let the student know they are on track!

 

Feedback is very important for teachers to do, this way the student knows not just if they are doing it right or wrong, but why. They can now make the connection between what they are doing and what is expected of them.

She also did something that stood out to me in a wonderful way, applied their math skills to science. She made the connection so that students can see how they do intertwine. This was wonderful, this teacher showed many great teacher skills that i will strive to have when i get older.

 Make connections not only to the students lives, but to other academics. This teacher did just that, connecting math to the science classroom!

^

Connect

OUR TIME!!! now we had time to work with the students, it gave me time to prompt their understanding and to see what kind of alternative conceptions they have about science. I was able to put myself in their shoes and see where they came from, I also was able to help them without giving them the answer. This was sooo cool for me to be involved with, it showed me that i can initiate their thinking and get them on the right track without just giving them the answer. They were able to DISCOVER it on their own, which in turn will help them retain this knowledge more in the future.

This picture represents us and the students in the class, we both got to learn from this experience. The students learned by doing the actual activity and being hands on with data point spreads. The graduate students were able to work with students, doing it has given us more of an understanding of how students think.

During class we met in the library, it gave us a chance to review the lessons and how we are going to implement them in the classroom. I am very excited to get into the class and teach my lesson on kinds of chemical reactions. Going through the steps of the 5E lesson plan really broke down what i am expected to do with the students. I want to see if the experiment and activity that i come up with can influence their discovery and knowledge. I want to provide my students with the chance to apply the knowledge that they learned so that they can not only be excited about the work, but retain it!

How well is your lesson plan?

Today's class was completely designed around the 5 E model lesson plan. The 5E model is very similar to that of the Mounts lesson plan. There is goals, objectives, standards, and of course the general way to go about the lesson with your class. There seems to be a fine line between the two models, because even though it seems different on the surface both cover the same things with different vocabulary. 

Publish Post

Engage is just like the Introduction section of the MSMC lesson plan. The whole idea of both is to get the students motivated to learn. This is crucial in any lesson of course you want to activate their prior knowledge to get the ball rolling. This way when they start the lesson they already have the knowledge at the fore front of their brain. You want to get them excited about the lesson, engage them in an activity that has to do with the lesson, The hook can be anything from a poem, a video, even a toy.

Explore or develop, this is when the teacher actually takes the time to address what the topic actually is. The students need to understand what they are learned before they can become hands on with the activity. In this section the students learn through the teacher, the teacher models and works with the students till they understand the concepts. Once they understand they can explore the content themselves, it could be an experiment, observation, ect. 

Explain happens during the explore section of the lesson, it is just a more in depth explanation of what the students are expected to know. The teacher can ask prompting questions and engage the students in a meaningful discussion about the topic. They need to have this discussion so they understand what it is that they are learning, so they can understand it further, so they can put meaning behind it, and even relate it to there own lives.

Elaborate is really getting to the heart of the matter, Really defining what it is that they are exploring. This can involve going of the vocabulary or maybe the exact process that is involved with what ever it that they are exploring.

Evaluate: This is a crucial step in the lesson, this is how we know that the students understand what we went over. The teacher can use diagnostic, formative, and summative questions throughout the lesson to assess how the students are doing throughout the lesson. Such as, how do you know the students have prior knowledge. Then at the end the teacher can assess there knowledge through an exam or homework.

During this lesson i also got the opportunity to work with someone directly on google docs, Angela and I had a really good conversation about the lesson plan and it was really easy to get both of our input into the plan. Google docs is such a cool way to collaboratively work with you peers. You can use it for presentations, collaborative assignments, the world of google docs does not seem to end. It also gave us t he opportunity to not only work simultaneously when we could but gave us the chance to come back when we had the opportunity are add and edit things throughout the week.

The slimy little, yet VERY important Earthworm

Well, I must say that Im not to fond of earthworms.. I remember being a little kid and always having to put them on a hook to fish with and as I got older and older they got grosser and grosser.

Regardless of how I feel Earth worms are a very important part of our environment, they help to break down organic matter. Within this process the earthworm leaves behind their waste, but it is good waste! The waste contains nurtrients, this nutrients plants use to grow big and healthy.

Earth worms belong to the animal kingdom, and there are a lot of really interesting things that i learned while reading about them. The body of an earthworm is a tube, the digestive system, within a tube, the muscular slimy, moist outer body. They actually have NO BACKBONE! I guess that is why they can take any shape they want. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, they typically have two pairs of testes, surrounded by 2 pairs of testes sacs. There are 2 or 4 pairs of seminal vesicles which produce, store and release the sperm via the male pores, and ovaries and ovipores in segment 13 that release eggs via female pores on segment 14. However, most also have one or more pairs of spermathecas (depending on the species) that are internal sacs which receive and store sperm from the other worm in copulation.

There are soo many different species of earthworms and a lot of cool facts about them pertaining to why they are classified in certain ways. They are classified on the way that they adapt to different climates and different soils. Although native to Europe, earthworms are found throughout North America and western Asia. They do not live in deserts or regions where there is permafrost or permanent snow and ice.

Typically only a few inches (7 or 8 centimeters) long, some members of this species have been known to grow to a snake-like 14 inches (35 centimeters). Earthworms' bodies are made up of ring-like segments called annuli. These segments are covered in setae, or small bristles, which the worm uses to move and burrow.

They are often called night crawlers because they are often seen feeding above ground at night. Said to be shy of the light, they burrow during the day and stay close to the surface, but they can dig down in the soil as deep as 6.5 feet (2 meters).

When I was reading i came across this fact and HAD to share it.. IT IS CRAZY! "As they move through the soil, their tunnels aerate the ground. An earthworm can eat up to one third its body weight in a day. That would be equal to a 75-pound (34.1-kilogram) youngster eating 25 pounds (11.4 kilograms) of food in one day!"

Have you ever noticed that after a storm there are a lot of earthworms found all over the surface of the ground, this is because a storm may flood the soil with excessive water. However, if the surface where they find themselves is unexpectedly paved, rocky, or compacted (hardened), they may become stranded, potentially suffering injury or death from causes such as heat, exposure, dehydration, or predation. Note, there are some earthworm species that can survive for several days in water if it is sufficiently oxygenated!
Earthworms cannot maintain a steady body temperature like humans or dogs or cattle.This means their respiration rate rises with increasing temperature. Increasing respiration rates mean increased metabolic rates which means increased energy requirements which means increased feeding rates by worms or food must be "stolen" from reserves in the worms' own body tissues. The reverse is true for decreasing temperatures.

Earthworms are a source of food for numerous animals, like birds, rats, and toads, and are frequently used in composting and as bait in commercial and recreational fishing. Their numbers are strong throughout their range—they're even considered agricultural pests in some areas—and they have no special status.

HAPPY BEING IRISH DAY!

Saint pattys day is one of my most favorite holidays! I get to celebrate my heritage and where i come from. This is something that is important to keep in mind being a teacher. There is such a vast amount of cultures that are now in schools and we need  to make sure that every single one is recognized and there cultures, traditions, and heritage is kept in mind and celebrated. We must respect all students and try to understand where they come from. Educating students on other cultures is a hug part of building respect in students for their peers who may be different from themselves.

LIVING V. NONLIVING THINGS!

Going through the 5 kingdoms has really shown me a lot of characteristics or living things, from their cell structure. Where they live and can not live. Everything that they need to survive, from oxygen to other gases, to nutrients. That nutrients can even be dead animals or everyday food. I learned about how they reproduce sexually and asexually. There are soo many charactieristics of the millions of living species on this planet. Of course you can not  teach your students every single one, but they should understand some of the basic components that they need to survive. 

All living things must get energy from their environment, show movement, breathe, remove waste, grow, react to the environment, and reproduce

 

Living things, as the name suggests, are lively and active. They are made up of cells; exhibit characteristics of life, like growth, movement, reproduction, response to stimuli; they evolve, and require energy for daily activities. Some of the daily life examples of living things around us are human beings, animals, plants and micro organisms.

Non-livings things do not exhibit any characteristics of life. They do not grow, respire, need energy, move, reproduce, evolve, or maintain homeostasis. These things are made up of non-living materials. Some examples of non-living things are stones, paper, electronic goods, books, buildings, and automobiles.

Reviewing to build my knowledge

I wrote this blog down on paper about 2 weeks ago and completely forgot to transfer it over to here. It is now a pain to have to transfer it, but I'm almost happy i did this. Since we had a week off from school this gave me a refresher in a sense. I was able to go back and review what i had learned in class and allowed me to review the chapter. Reviewing is a great way to keep knowledge fresh in your mind. and of course writing it and then rewriting it helps to retain that knowledge. 

 SMART BOARD

 Todays class was great, we got to use the smart board a lot and i saw soo many different tricks to bring into the classroom. I really really enjoyed this, being hands on and even getting to act like the teacher was such a cool experience. It also gave me an idea of how I need to be careful with the smart board, for example when you are writing you want to write with big clear letters, the smart board can then take what you wrote and make it into text. SOOO COOL! I am so excited to bring this into my classroom, because i see how engaging it is for me. and how much i want to use it, even how much more information i gained from being interactive with the activity. It makes me wonder how much my students will gain from using the smart board. Technology is such a great advancement in our educational environment!

SEED GERMINATION

We also started a new experiment today, we are germinating seeds, this is really cool because i really wasn't aware this is how you do this. I thought you throw a few seeds into the ground and hope for the best. This was an eye opener. This process allows us to become the scientists, how much water will we provide the seeds, how much light is necessary to get them growing, what temperature should they stay at. These are all factors that we now have control over. I hope that even though the seed is old that it will grow. it is an exciting experiment for me because I have always wanted to start growing plants, but i have never been successful. Maybe this time will be different for me! 

This experiment that we are conducting is the one in the book on ch. 7. it talks about not only inquiry but sustained inquiry. Getting the students involved in an experiment that takes place over a long period of time. This experiment starts off with understanding living and non living things. The children need to understand the different characteristics of both. This will help them understand that yes a plant is a living thing and does need nutrients to grow. Like them they need food, water, oxygen and then they can grow and be healthy. They will understand this better through actually interacting with living and non living things. Germinating a seed will help the students understand the process to which living things start off and start to grow. They will need to feed the seed, and provide it with the necessary things that the seed needs. They can then watch the seed grow and form into a plant. This allows the student to watch a life cycle, similar to that of any living thing.

This video isn't too exciting however she really breaks down how to go about germinating a seed. I found it helpful.

It has been a circus

A science circus is a very creative, fun, and organized way to engage students in the many discoveries they can make about science. Working with everyone science station I found that even at my age i was interested and engaged. I wanted to find out why is this happening and each station gave a wonderful visual example of these experiments. Today i was not prepared though, i thought that we were sharing our ideas and not actually full filling them today. I wish I had actually finished my entire project so t hat people could see my idea come to life. I would have been far more organized then i was. I am usually someone that is more then ready for any task. I learned a lot however about how we should organize and present our lesson to the students. A experiment is only good if it is clear and to the point so that the students can not make any mistakes. Tiny things from having to flip a page back and forth to find steps and questions, to larger things like unclear directions are all things that as educators we MUST keep in mind so that our students can learn.

Here is a circus, it looks like mass confusion and a million things going on a once. However it is the complete opposite of confusion, in fact it is a well organized event. Everyone knows thee job and where to be at he right time, if this was ever messed up the circus would not work.

The color of the text seems crazy and unorganzied however if you really look it is well organized.

I learned things i never knew before! like the pepper and soup in water. The way the pepper shot to  the sides of the container was so cool, I know about surface tension, but i never really understood what it meant until i did this experiment. Also being that I manage a pool in the summer and i train lifeguards this can be used in a significant way, and I will bring this experiment to there attention. This is how i relate this experiemnt to my life, when someone is in the water with a head neck or back injury we do not want lifeguards jumping into the water to make a save. it creates a wave and disrupts the water. We infact slid into the water as gently as possible causing as little tension in the water as possible. Im very excited about sharing this and giving my employees a better understanding of what surface tension is.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!   NYS and NATIONAL standards. Today I was very grateful we went over the standards. They are very clearly laid out and are wonderful guide lines for each of us to follow, but we need to know how to access and present then in our lesson plans if they are going to be of any use to us. This is why going over things step by step can only enhance our ability to succeed. The national standards gives us the aim of the lesson or unit or even entire year, it gets more narrow when we look at the nys standards which is more representative of the more general goal. Then of course we have a crucial part which is our objective, this is more correlated to what we want to educate our students on today, and how we are going to assess whether they learned it or not. It is important to use verbs that represent higher order thinking like compare and contrast, predict, analyze. These are the things that we want our students to be able to accomplish my the end of the lesson. 

I was very confused before today's class. This is not how you want your students feeling then things become overwhelming and they can give up. Work with your students and help them understand so that they can be all they can.

This to me represents a well written lesson plan. You start with your goals of what you would like to accomplish, you analyze it to make sure it will work and then create, put it into action and of course assess the students and yourself.

 MARCH IS APPROACHING!!!! I'm very happy the weather is finally changing and we are once again seeing the grass peak out from behind the white stuff. I'm starting to notice more and more birds are coming to my bird feeders, I guess this is the time they start migrating back north. It is a very warming feeling to see them it mean spring is right around the corner and beach weather will soon be here. When we took that test in the beginning of the semester we talked about why animals migrate and of course seasons changing was my number one answer. I remember a few times seeing birds nests filled with snow, this strongly represents a loss of habitat which as another thing that i thought of. Well no more.. I'm welcoming the birds and flowers and sun back with open arms!