Looking in the Mirror... Seeing a New Person

I have learned so much over the course of this semester about teaching Science to Elementary students. At the beginning of the semester I was nervous and stressed and by the end I can honestly say that I am excited to teach Science!

 

One important thing I learned a lot about in this class was self and peer reflections.As a future teacher, self-reflection offers an opportunity to think about what works and what doesn’t work in a classroom. Teachers can use reflective teaching in order to analyze and evaluate our own practices so we can focus on the primary strategies that work. Teaching strategies can always be improved and it is important to reflect in order to figure out what can and needs to be improved and how. If I am constantly reflecting and trying to become a better teacher it will reflect and others will be able to see how passionate I am about my career and about my students. A good teacher is a teacher that will do anything and work hard to ensure that their students are learning. In addition, I think it is important to be open to other opinions, criticism and positive feedback rather than taking it negatively. Feedback and reflection motivates change and improvement! At the beginning of this class I took feedback very negatively. I felt personally attacked and as upset when I got feedback but this greatly changed by the end of the semester. I learned how important feedback is and now look to get it in order to help improve myself!

 

Another part that I was extremely nervous about in this class, was teaching in front of a full class by myself. Not only did we teach in front of a 5th grade class, we also taught in front of our whole Science Methods Class, the teacher of the 5th Grade class and Dr. Smirnova. In addition the students were taking notes and making observations to give us feedback afterwards. The first day I thought that everyone was just picking on the first group that went and was tearing them apart but this wasn't true they were helping them and in their next lesson they already showed so much improvement. The feedback was also helpful in informing my groups instruction as well. I have worked with children since I was only 14 years old and have been around children my whole life. I have devoted my life to spending time with kids and have worked as a full time babysitter for over 5 years now. Through this experience I became increasingly comfortable around children and have discovered me love for helping them and motivating them. Teacher is absolutely my future career and is also my passion. I remembered this when I finally had my turn to go up in front of the classroom to teach. I couldn't believe the feeling I had. I was scared but excited at the same time. I have found where I want to be and I cant wait for the day I am actually a teacher!

 

I will be student teaching next spring and this class has taught me so much. I got experience with creating an efolio and working on edTPA templates. I learned how to incorporate technology in my projects and in my lesson plans to use in my future classroom and I have learned each day ways to become a better teacher. 

 In addition I got experience with all different types of teaching instruction. Overall my favorite type of instruction so far is cooperative learning within smaller groups. I love being able to present a project and information to students and watching them utilize the information to create a project or figure out an answer within their group. I feel that it encourages problem solving and independence of the teacher. In this way I can walk around the classroom and work individually with different groups and assess their learning and participation. With cooperative learning it is important to incorporate the 5 PIGS: Positive interdependence, Individual accountability, group processing, social skills and face to face interaction in order to make sure that each person is participating! I also prefer small group because it may get chaotic and confusing if students are working in one big group or as a whole class in cooperative learning. I think it is important to incorporate all different learning styles within the classroom. I can experiment with different types of instruction in order to expand my teaching strategies. In addition, classroom observations, forums, websites and other sources can be helpful in learning about different approaches of instructions. I have found that Pinterest is a great website to find ideas for projects that incorporate thinking skills, crafty approaches and problem solving.

 

I am sad for this class to be over, because as the time continued I began to enjoy it more and more. I made so many great friends that will someday be amazing teachers and I had a great teacher that has motivated us all to work hard and pushed us to do our best. However, ever end is a new beginning. I am excited for my new journey. I have a new outlook on teaching now and am excited for my future experiences. This class was definitely a long journey, but the view at the end was the most rewarding. I am ready... and determined.  I have been determined and with a lot of effort I was able to get through it all. I can honestly say that I learned so much from this class. I can't believe how far I have come over the semester.
Here are the links to my comments on other blogs!

Amanda Luciano:

The End of A Wild Ride & Attention Signals in the Classroom

Alyssa Benincasa:

Finals, Finals and more Finals! Why Stress? & Intoduction - About me

Melissa Kelly:

Our Turn! & Drawing in College? Who knew?

Keilani Wilheim:

Science in the News & Tradebooks 

 

 

Efolios... Ahhh the Stress!

This is my most unstructured blog this whole semester but in this blog I am going to talk about the stress and experience of creating an efolio and filling out edTPA.

This semester has been one long ride and after it all we are finally wrapping it up, and parts of this includes completing the efolio. The efolio is the best and worst thing I have ever done. Being in both Social Studies Methods and also Science Methods has made it all twice as hard. Not only did I have to do one livebinder but two this semester! Talk about a lot of hard-work and determination! These last two weeks have been filled with nights of only getting 4-5 hours of sleep, working 55 hours/week and finishing all assignments to be submitted now that classes are over. I am beyond exhausted.

 

 

Overall, completing these assignments and filling out the efolio has required to put my effort to its full potential. I have finished all parts of both efolios completely! wohoo! I am so nervous to get my grade on it. I have tried so hard on this and I have tried so hard all semester. I have a hard time not being able to see my grades until the semester is almost over because once I submitted it all, there is nothing I can do to change that grade. I have had a high GPA all my life and have managed to work hard in all my classes with all A's (except for one B) which is something I am extremely proud of. I hope that the same continues with this class as well!

The efolio includes many different parts, including an about me section, a projects, section, a unit plan section and also a edTPA section. Each section took a substantial amount of time to fill out. I honestly can say that I wish I started it the first day of class and I highly recommend it for anyone that is going to take this class. I was always so scared to tackle it because I had no idea what any of it was. However, I wish I asked Dr. Smirnova about it earlier so I could have gotten a head start at the beginning of the semester, and I could have filled it out as the semester went on. However, with proper time management and the will to sit and work on it, the efolio took me about a full month to be finished. It sounds crazy but it is true! My favorite section of all was the about me section. I really liked this section because I could include my personal opinions, my thoughts, my philosophies, my personal experiences, my blog, etc. The EdTPA tasks and the Unit Plan were definitely the hardest part of the efolio. They both took a long time to fill out and required a lot thinking and writing! However, at the end, the efolio outlines the whole semester as whole. It was a great way to reflect and keep all the assignments organized. Looking back at the experience, I think that it was a great idea to use in this class I just wish we were taught more of how to use it and were influenced to write in it every week!



"Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning."

Even though I included this into my efolio I felt it necessary to include this into my blog to look back on one day. I hope to continue blogging about my experiences of teaching and I look forward to seeing how my philosophy of teaching may change over time!

My philosophy is that teaching in passion driven. If you are passionate about teaching and don’t just look at teaching as a job, then you will be successful in exceeding your students’ needs and in encouraging your students to learn. Teaching is a demanding, challenging and a stressful profession. My main goal of teaching is to reach my students, to engage them and to encourage them to love learning. Teaching is about finding ways to grasp each student and also accommodating a classroom of students.

 

It is important to be an expert in what you’re teaching but even more important is that you know how to communicate your knowledge to your students. It is important for a teacher to relate what they are teaching to their lives and their future. As a teacher I will always strive to make the classroom a meaningful environment for student learning. In addition, a teacher should always work his or her hardest to generate continuous growth within their students. I believe in including student centered learning and using technology to bring independence into the classroom. A teacher should be able to have complete control over their students and classroom but also be compassionate and approachable. Also, a teacher should be patient, flexible, hard-working and loving.

Teachers inspire students and play a large role in the future of their students. This is why they should always try to teach the importance of what students are learning in relation to how they will somehow use it in their future. If students feel that they will never use the information they are learning, then they will have no motivation to study it. A teacher doesn’t just teach, they learn. They are always learning new ways to improve themselves. A teacher needs to continue their education and stay current on their knowledge and also incorporate student’s interests in their teaching. A teacher should also actively be involved in their students learning at all times. Finally, they should teach respect, honesty, compassion, and kindness in their classroom every single day in order to shape their students to better people.

 

Dive Into a Trade-book with Me

Let's learn about Trade-books!

 

 

Trade-books are a great tool to use in the classroom. Trade books can be used for almost all subject areas but can be very helpful in a science classroom. They may introduce the topic to the class or relate certain facts from the topic. Students may want to read a trade book to learn more about the topic that is being taught or a discussion can be generated from this. One recommendation of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project was to "integrate literature into the science curriculum. While students can become engaged with scientific phenomenon through observation, recording data and designing and carrying out experiments, literature can build their understanding of scientific concepts," (Bruning & Schweiger, 1997).

Non-fiction trade books can be especially helpful in the classroom because they may help student to learn about science topics based on facts and real pictures. However sometimes fiction books may be used for a younger age level to introduce a topic. A mini library of tradebooks may be useful for an older age research a topic. The teacher may introduce a topic to the students aligned with the standards and the students can use the mini library to research the topic further. Literature and English lessons can be integrated into the lesson as well because the students may use their research and tradebooks to write about it. Students can make a fact book or a whole project based off of it.

In class, we created a tradebook project. I chose a tradebook that related to the unit plan I taught at Bishop Dunn. I taught two lessons on changes in the ecosystem. However, I was required to make a full unit plan with 3 full MSMC lesson plans and 3 mini-lesson plans. From the tradebook I picked, I created a mini-lesson. My tradebook was called Genetics The Science of Life Adaptations by Susan Schafer. When I went to the library to find my tradebook, I also found many tradebooks that could have been used for this lesson. It would be a great idea to bring several tradebooks into the classroom when focusing on this lesson and unit for the students to read and get a better understanding of what they are learning about. With so many pictures and many fun facts it can help intrigue the students in learning and engage them even more into the lesson.

The book I chose for my project is a great book for students above 3rd grade. Although many younger students would enjoy exploring and looking at the pictures, the book includes a decent amount of information that would be difficult for a younger student to read. I chose this books because it related directly with the main part of my lesson plans. It went into depth of animal adaptations. It provided information about the various adaptations that animals must experience and also the causes of these adaptations. The book also describes the different adaptations that occur within particular ecosystems. This was especially important because prior to our lesson the students learned about the ecosystems that were mentioned in the book. Overall, the book is a great resource of information for students to learn from. It provides great pictures and diagrams on each page to go along with the text and at the end of the book is a list of resources to visit/read, a glossary and some extra fun facts. Another great feature of this book is that there is a textbook that can be bought to go along with it. This can definitely be used at higher grades if needed. As stated in the article Beyond the Talking Groundhogs: Trends in Science Tradebooks, "evidence supports the fact that books, especially informational books, can effectively support science instruction in elementary classrooms. Our research indicates that teachers have heard the call for the increased use of such texts as evidenced by the trends in science books selected for inclusion on the annual TC list. Whether the topic is the life cycle of sea turtles or the molecular structure of water, teachers can broaden students’ exposure to science vocabulary and concepts through the inclusion of high quality books in a manner that textbooks and worksheets often fail to do." (Broemmel & Rearden, 2008). Many times textbooks only provide a small brief amount of information of given topics but tradebooks can help students to explore further and learn more about science.

I created two projects based on my tradebook. Rather than filling out the information in the chart that Dr. Smirnova provided for us, I decided to go the extra mile and make a glogster with the information instead. My glogster includes the name of the book and the ways it may be incorporated into a classroom, the standards associated with it, important information about it including the author and the ISBN number. To make my glogster more interesting I also included many pictures of animals and the link to my movie trailer. Here is the link to my Glogster!

 

My book trailer was the second project I made for the tradebook. The book trailer is what I call "The hook for the book". The hook is supposed to reveal some brief information about the book but more important it should engage the people watching it and intrigue them into reading it. I used a website called animoto to create my book trailer. This was a great website because it was simple to use and allowed me to include music, pictures and text. I have worked with animoto once before and have always had a great experience with it. I would highly recommend it to others. My book trailer included brief adaptation facts from the book and included pictures and interesting dramatic music to get the people watching more interested. The trailer I made was designed to interest the listeners and interest them into reading the book. Below is my animoto video I hope you enjoy it! If the video does not work properly or is unclear, the link to it is here. A book trailer or story board is a great way to interest students in the classroom into learning a bit about a book and to pull them in to want to read it. I will definitely be using book trailers in my future classroom! I hope you enjoy it!

 

 



Read All about It!

Science in the News!

 

We created a Science in the New project this month. At home each student had to research at least seven articles about science in the news. I decided to use the website Newsela.com in order to find my research articles. I knew that for the week we would be focusing on Space Science so my articles that I found revolved around Space Articles. Newsela is a great website because it is easy to use and provides many great resource for various different topics in current events. I learned about his website when I used it in my Social Studies Methods Class for my lesson plan. I created a glogster to display the articles that I found and the links to each. The glogster includes a fun space design and clipart that pertains to the topic. Here is the link to my glogster. 

 

 Below are the articles I chose:

Nasa's New Frontier

(This first one is a text set with about 5 articles within about Nasa's New findings)

Jupiter Muscles its way through the Solar System

Star Gazing becomes Universe Gazing

Two University Students Discover Unusual, Dense Galaxies

A New Planet is Discovered

Open Doors for Scientific Study

Newest and Farthest Galaxy Found

 

Each article was very interesting to learn about. I love reading about current events because they are changes and advancements that are occurring in our everyday lives and they can greatly affect our present and future!  An important aspect of learning about space and the new discoveries is through research of current articles and also through watching the news. I created a glogster to display the links of the various articles I read about astronomical changes in space science. My articles discuss NASA space telescopes, unusual galaxies, many discoveries and the important of the many telescopes. Each of these articles were very interesting to read and they explain into the many discoveries by NASA and by several University Students. One major advancement was the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer Space Telescope was important because it had led to several discoveries for America.

The next class we were engaged in an inquiry lesson by Dr. Smirnova. On eclass was a Class powerpoint that included the different planets and some galaxies. Each student had to access the powerpoint and pick a planet to research. I picked Jupiter as my planet! Here is the link to the class powerpoint. It was interesting to learn so many details and facts about Jupiter! I did not know that Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system! In the pictures it never appears so bright but it was interesting to learn that and many other facts. Another fact I learned was that the well known "great red spot" on Jupiter is actually a huge storm that has been raging for over 350 years! How interesting, a storm lasting that long? Wow! Anyways, my powerpoint slides included brief but important facts about Jupiter. Below are pictures of my slides! I also included an intagrok which is actually a huge web with information and resources to visit in relation to a particular topic. Mine is all about Jupiter! You may visit it here, to learn more!

 

 

After completing our slides in the powerpoint, we had to work in groups to create a type of wordart. The various websites we used to do this were: Worlde, Tagul, Tagcrowd, ABCya, wordart and Tagxedo. I worked with two other group members Alyssa and Stephanie to make our word cloud. All of the websites were chosen so our group decided to pick Tagcrowd. Tagcrowd was actually one of my least favorite websites to create a word cloud because it is not very fun. It does not allow you to pick an exciting shape or design. It also asked us to include the URLS to the websites and articles we used. We each picked two articles to include. However, when the tagcrowd was generated it included many irrelevant words in it that we did not want to include. We worked on deleting many of them but it did not work. With time restrictions we were not able to completely redo our project. Below is the word cloud we created.

After creating our word cloud, we then moved into creating a timeline based on a particular word from our articles that we read or our word cloud. The word we decided to investigate was the Space Spitzer Telescope. We all had interest in it and thought it would be a great idea to learn more and create a timeline of the discoveries made with it. We each research the discoveries and the development of this telescope. My group members provided the information to me and I moved it from the google docs to the actual timeline. The timeline has pictures that correspond with each event. We used TimeToast to create our timeline. This website was simple to follow and created a neat and appropriate timeline for the assignment. Below is our timeline! In the first picture is the general picture of the timeline. As your mouse scrolls over the different points the various events pop up. If you click on them they provide more information about the event. This is shown in the second picture! Here is the link to our timeline.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this project and really wish that we had more time to complete it. I feel that most groups felt their wasn't enough time, but if there was we could have created much more visibly interesting presentations and projects. However, I think that we all did a great job. This project was good because it allowed us to experiment with even more technological tools that can be used in the classroom to engage students in learning. In addition, it gave us students a chance to experience an inquiry lesson ourselves. I liked learning about current events and I definitely think that they should be incorporated into a classroom environment because they are events that are happening right now in the world we live in and they can interest many students in reading and learning about science (or any subject). Current events can be incorporated into lesson plan ideas much like what I did in my social studies class. We created a small mini-lesson on a current even and made a cooperative learning experience for our class! Overall, I enjoyed learning about the advancements that are being made in space science currently and in making these projects and working with my classmates!

 



Learning Technology through Presentations

Today I learned about different types of useful technological presentations and tools that can be used in a classroom.

 

 

First, my group worked with a website called Powtoon. Powtoon is like a PowerPoint video that is animated. Our group did not really know what Powtoon was when we started using it, so I would not recommend using it for a school project until you are completely familiar with it. Using Powtoon was very confusing and took a great amount of time to finish. In addition, it is not similar to a google slides presentation where several people can work on it and it will save their work. We had many problems in which we lost our whole presentations and had to redo it over again. In addition it is very temperamental in moving text boxes and pictures around. However, if there is time to explore this website and you want to buy a higher package it can be very beneficial as a presentation tool.

Within this class I also learned about tools such as thinglink and glogster. Thinglink is helpful in creating interactive images and videos for presentations. It is a creative way to present information. It allows you to make your images come alive with videos, images, shops and music etc. It looks similar to pinterest but can be a great way to display information! Each image that is shown contains a little story. Dorian and Jack did a great job at explaining this website to us and how it works!

 

 

 

Another presentation tool is glogster. Glogster is an online tool that allows you to create interactive online posters that include text, images, graphics, audio and videos. Glogs can be used to present lessons complete with links to outside resources, audio and videos that are related to the subject or topic being taught.

 

 

Both of these types of technology can be extremely helpful in presenting information in a different way then students are used to seeing. This can be helpful in engaging students and increasingly grasping their full attention to help them learn.

 

There are many reasons why technology is a key aspect of learning in the schools. Technology is everywhere and in order for our students to survive in this world, they must know technology.

In my research I found many reasons that it is important to include technology in education! Here they are:

1.  Students are engaging with technology constantly outside of the classroom. Kids like to be interactive, and learning through technology has now become a part of their lifestyle.

2.  New teachers are demanding it. For new teachers, technology is considered a necessity for the learning environment.

3.  Kids are fluent in technology. Kids know technology better than most adults. It has become the easiest way they learn, because it is such an integral part of their life. Engaging with technology in the classroom has not only helped them learn better, but they also acquire multi-tasking skills. At this day in age, they hardly know how to learn without it. This knowledge is important, because they would be way behind in the real world without it.

4.  Kids can learn at their own pace. With technology in education, children have the ability to slow down and go back over lessons and concepts, and more advanced kids can go ahead. It also frees up the teacher to help kids on a more one-on-one level.

5.  With technology, there are no limitations. Having access to other information outside of the book gives students many different ways to learn a concept. Teachers can come up with creative ways to teach their students that keeps them engaged. Technology has changed the learning environment so that learning is more hands-on.

6.  Technology can enhance the relationship and communication between teachers and students. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. Students are also able to collaborate with their own classmates through technological applications.

7.  Testing has gone online. Testing online is the way of the future, but it has a lot of advantages. Assessing students’ performance can be done instantly with technology. Beyond seeing test scores in real-time, teachers can better track and understand students’ grasp of the subject.

8.  Multiple resources: Computers, tablets, and other forms of technology bring multiple resources for the teacher that’s not in the book. They not only keep students engaged with exciting new features and apps, but also have other ways to teach students material. Every kid learns differently, and technology helps with this gap as well.

9.  Technology keeps kids engaged. The students of this generation are considered technological learners. They learn best being more interactive, and technology is what helps them do that. Children often struggle to stay on task or interested, and with resources to help the teacher, they can better stay focused and learn faster.

10.  Technology is necessary to succeed outside of primary and secondary education. Whether we like it or not, technology is an essential concept to learn. Because it changes so quickly, children are better off learning about it sooner. It is a primary part of every industry, and there is no way around it. These days, technology means more than just learning basic computing skills. Technology has made itself part of every aspect of our lives today, and the students who understand it are the ones who succeed in the business world.

Weather Presentation Planning

In groups this week we answered several questions about the Earth's surface, atmosphere and weather. Before doing so, Dr. Smirnova engaged us in a pre-assessment online in which we all rated our knowledge on particular aspects of this topic from one to four. Next, we were responsible for answering the following questions:

1. Consider the area of Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and weather about which you feel most knowledgeable. What ideas do you have regarding what you will do as a teacher to keep your knowledge current?

As a teacher, we could research current weather changes and information about the Earth. We also could read current articles and newspapers to make sure that all knowledge is up to date of what is being taught. We can watch videos and the news to understand.

 

2.Consider the area of Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and weather about which you feel least knowledgeable. What ideas do you have regarding what you will do as a teacher to continue to strengthen your knowledge base about this topic?

In order to learn more about the topic that I know the least amount of information about, I should read about it and reference the common core to direct my research in order to know exactly what is important to teach my students.

3. What resources are you aware of that will help you be an effective teacher of Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and weather?

I am aware of many websites that I can use as resources and find research, such as Newlesa.com, which contains articles on current events. I can also

look through current and old science textbooks, to compare how information has changed.  I also will look through the textbook that the students will be using while learning the topic.

(Attached is the link to our google docs file.)

After doing this we were able to pick a topic to research and make a presentation on that we will most likely be teaching to the class. Our group decided on the topic of weather. We made the main outline for our presentation and are now working on the presentation. We wanted to experiment with technology to make an engaging and animated

presentation so we are trying a website called PowToon.com. A Powtoon is an online presentation software tool that allows you to create free, cool, and fun animated video explainers as an alternative to average presentations. Although we are having a hard time figuring out how to put everything together, I'm sure that it will come out great and I am very excited to see! If you have a chance, you should definitely go check it out! Our outline to our lesson is attached here. I am very excited to learn

and view the other technological tools that the other groups used and to learn about the Earth's atmosphere and surface! I will be back to tell you how my presentation/lesson went and to post my finalized video!

XOX Kelly