Hi, Folks,
We've had three weeks on the calendar and almost two weeks' worth of class. In that time, you've had a snow day (wasn't that fun!), and we've done a class about questions and wait time and also a class, with activities, on the nature of science. Many of you (most of you?) are in the process of scheduling and teaching your activity, and some of you are even scheduling your circuses and learning cycle lessons. What do you want to tell us? What do you want to ask about? Looking forward to hearing from you!
Juanita Jo
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The past couple of weeks have been really fun in my class! I got to observe their lessons on simple machines, and their final project for the unit was to create a leprechaun trap using at least one simple machine. They brought them in on the 16th and left them overnight to try to catch a leprechaun… nobody got one, but they loved showing them off to me and to the first grade class that came to visit. I was amazed by their creativity, and it was easy to see how much they had learned from the way they talked about their inventions.
ReplyDeleteI met with my teacher today to schedule out my practicum assignments, but a lot of our time was eaten up by a parent phone call. I was a little disappointed because I had so many more questions to ask her! But we did get a general idea of when I’ll be teaching what. I do have a few questions though – it looks like the learning cycle lesson I teach will need to be on something different than what I wrote up earlier. Is that okay? Also, I’ll be working with my teacher to plan the lesson, but can I write a new plan and submit that for feedback before I teach it? And along the same lines, if our activity turns out to be age-inappropriate, should we plan a new activity for our class, or try to teach the original activity at an appropriate grade?
I learned a lot in the readings and our discussion about questions and wait time. I think I already had a pretty good idea of what types of questions were appropriate, but I never even thought about the influence of wait time. I think developing the skill of waiting will be a little difficult at first, but the benefits certainly seem to be worth it. I’ve started noticing in my placement just how quickly we do call on and respond to students, simply because it seems natural or silence seems awkward. However, the same students always seem to have the answers and be confident of them. As a child, I definitely was not in that group, so I am biased, but it seems like having just a little extra time would give the quieter students a chance to think things through and get a little more involved. I am going to make this a goal for myself – any thoughts on using it in a classroom that isn’t used to it though?
The last two weeks of class have been sparse because of the snow day and spring break. I really enjoyed planning my science circus, and I’m glad I got to do a rough draft of the cards instead of having to turn in everything at once. It will be good to see the feedback, because it was hard to conceptualize how exactly to do a science circus with students who can’t read yet. Luckily, my class has a teacher, a teaching assistant, and a special ed. assistant in the mornings, which will give us enough teachers to cover each of our five circus stations.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed discussing questioning strategies. It seems like so much to remember, to try and ask different types of questions, to remember to use wait time, etc. I’ll be glad when I have a videotape of myself teaching so that I have time to go back and reflect on these things. Currently, whenever I try to teach the students something, there’s so much going on that something like wait time is the last thing I think of! I also need to think about the way I use questions to scaffold students when I work with them one-on-one—I’ve been having trouble trying to ask appropriate questions to let them make their own discoveries, rather than just telling them what to do, but this can be very difficult, especially with some students. Unfortunately, I haven’t done a lot of science with my class because I have class at those times, but when I work with students on other subjects it’s often difficult to draw out the right answer.
I enjoyed our discussion on the nature of science as well, especially about science as a creative enterprise, because that’s something that I was absolutely never taught in elementary or secondary school. However, I’m not sure the rest of the class was the best use of time; playing with water droplets was entertaining, but it didn’t really teach me anything about how to teach students.
In my practicum, I’ve been focusing more on observing math than science so far, but I definitely need to start getting some science hours. Next week, I’ll hopefully be observing science classes in several different grade levels, which should be helpful. It is always interesting to see how much progress students make after kindergarten (even just in first grade, the classroom atmosphere is so different). I look forward to teaching the circus and then the lesson later on to experience the different grade levels more fully.
I feel that I learned a lot of very practical information in Science class these past weeks. The school in which I am doing my practicum has also moved into their science unit so I have had a lot of opportunities to view different science lessons. This week my class has been learning about the different seasons and their characteristics. This has been very interesting because my teacher has incorporated this into almost every aspect of the students’ day. We just started learning about plants which has been a lot of fun, yet is a lot of work. I have had some problems getting the students to concentrate on their current tasks. This class works by separating the students into different groups and having each group complete at least one task at a time. The past couple of days that I have been at my school the students are expected to complete two tasks. This has caused some problems because the students see the other students completing an activity and they immediately want to be doing what the other group is doing even though I explained that they will be able to do the next activity when they are done with the present group. It is also difficult when I am in the middle of explaining one activity and students doing another activity as me a question. I am a little confused as to how to fix this problem, but I would like to try to do only one activity with a group or try to keep all the students at the same pace. Some students get done with their work very quickly and tend to distract other students while other students take a lot of time. I also have disabled children in these groups and sometimes it is hard to get them to start their work. I think the talk we will have on Wednesday will greatly help this problem, or so I’m hoping.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher for the practicum has been very helpful and accommodating when I have questions and with me trying to teach different lessons. I am very excited for the science circus and I know my class will really enjoy it. I think the science circus will be the perfect activity for my students because the activities do not take that long and are very engaging.
I have not had much success in my practicum lately. I have not been able to observe much science. My teacher said she taught most science in the fall and will get to more science in a couple of weeks. Although I haven't seen much science, the students sometimes work on activities in an Organ Wise workbook. This workbook contains activities on treating the body healthy, different kinds of vegetables/fruits(identifying what is a fruit/veggie or not) which are science related things. I was talking to my teacher today and she is planning on starting the magnets unit really soon which will be really exciting for me! I will finally get to see her way of teaching science and the kids reactions to science. We also talked about how I will be teaching a lesson on plants after the magnet unit. I was thinking that I could find a different activity than my initial one, and do one related to plants, to get the students thinking a little bit.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I went to see my class this afternoon, who I haven't seen in a week, and they were super excited to see me! All of the girls came and gave me a huge hug! Some of the boys yelled, "Miss Monroe!". That was just really rewarding and made me feel appreciated and of course, loved!!
Anyways, I am really pumped about the science circus project. After looking over our activities, I really think the students will enjoy the lesson and activities. The activities will definitely keep them engaged and excited about plants! This opportunity will also be an exciting experience for me as well because I will be the "teacher" along with two of my classmates.
Regarding wait time, I realized that my cooperating teacher does this. When she teaches her lessons and asks questions, she waits about 3-4 seconds until more and more kids raise their hand to answer the question. I think this is a great way to give other students a chance to think about the question and be able to answer it. This also forces students to actually think about the question.
That's all for now!
Wow! There is so much to write about!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I taught my science activity on Friday before spring break. It was an intro lesson to night and day, so I took in my lamp and used their globe to talk about the earth's rotation. I took them in groups of 5 or 6 and we had a 10 minute meeting (with each group). However, after about the first 30 seconds, I realized they knew everything I was supposed to teach them....so I had to sort of run with it. We talked a little about time zones and seasons and hemispheres. I hope I didnt confuse anyone. I felt really anxious about it at first, but by the time I got to the last few groups I felt much better. And the good news is my teacher emailed me after she started the science lesson, and they told her what they remembered from my activity! Very good news!
I am having a hard time trying to figure out the mind and level of comprehension of a first grader. As we have been planning our science circus, some things seem complicated, and since I had a surprising experience with my activity, I am afraid the circus will be too easy---but I also dont want it to be too challenging.
I had a really good meeting with my teacher this afternoon about all kinds of planning, about the circus and learning cycle lesson and so on. It was nice to have her support and feedback, and I feel more on track to complete all the requirements.
I am always surprised how quickly our class goes by. it seems that each time we meet I am so interested and engaged the entire time, which is fantastic. I really enjoy what we do in class and I love how applicable everything is. I'm looking forward to practicing it all soon!
So over spring break I observed in a fourth grade classroom. I got a few science hours, and I got to observe an older grade, which was really good. Most importantly, however, I had to step in and finish a science lesson for the teacher! There is a child with Asperger's and the teacher wanted to pull him out of the class to talk to him one-on-one because he was having problems with the lesson. She asked me if I could finish it while she spoke with him. I was a little bit terrified, but the problem was on electric circuits which we went over in class a few weeks ago! I start out a little shaky, but it turned out fine and the kids seemed to understand the concepts of series and parallel circuits. As nervous as I was, it was such a great feeling to finish a lesson plan without it failing!
ReplyDeleteWe've been working on our science circus the last couple weeks. It's been more difficult than I thought trying to write a lesson for kindergartners, when I'm used to third grade. It took a lot of thinking to write directions I thought might be appropriate for kindergartners. I'm definitely glad that I'm gaining this experience now. It's good to see kindergarten, third grade, fourth grade, etc. since I don't know which grade I will ultimately teach.
My class at Matthew Whaley is now working on energy. I'm going to teach an activity on Wednesday about coal, in which the kids "mine" for "coal" (aka dig raisins out of cookies) and we'll discuss how coal is a non-renewable resource, the deposits in VA, etc. I'm a little nervous about it, but definitely looking forward to seeing how it goes!!
The past few weeks have given me several opportunities to teach science. I stayed in Williamsburg during spring break, and I was able to go into my school system every day for large portions of time. Every day during that time, I taught the guided reason lesson using science based text. I found it very beneficial to combine both subjects in this manner. The students really strived to comprehend what they were reading because they believed more firmly that it had a purpose and was necessary to understand. I asked the students about their interest s, and they all said that science was their favorite subject.
ReplyDeleteThe students are also working on habitat projects currently. They are using shoeboxes to construct a habit for each animal that has been assigned to them. I remember absolutely loving these types of projects when I was a young student; however, these students have a very different opinion. The day the projects were due, only three out of sixteen students turned them in! This made me realize a lot of important lessons. As a teacher, I am going to need to be prepared and adjust my lessons based on the type of parents I am involved with. My cooperating teacher had sent a letter home to the parents with the instructions and the due date, and only three of the parents responded. Although projects provide students with an alternative over tests, I think it would be best in some situations to have the students complete the projects in the classroom. Although this also takes a lot of time, if it is plausible, it would ensure that the students were the ones completing the project and not the parents.
Another important thing that I was able to witness in the classroom was the importance of hands on activities. During my guided reading lessons, any chance I could give the students to use their hands or participate made the lessons go much more smoothly. For example, to illustrate friction, the students really enjoyed rubbing their hands together to feel the heat. I thought this would seem trivial and simple to them at first but they spent the rest of the class rubbing their hands on things and yelling out “friction”! This excitement just furthered my excitement about teaching science.