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.