Trade Book Experience

My trade book experience was a great one! I went to the Newburgh Free Library and picked out a book on minerals. The title of the book is Rocks and Minerals. This is a great book for teachers because it goes into depth on different types of minerals. It even gives you hands on activities to teach students in the book with pictures of each step. Students will love these real life pictures and will want to read more about the beautiful minerals and rocks! Many students have misconceptions about rocks and minerals that they are all the same. This book gives you easy activities to do with the students in the classroom or at home. 

Making the animoto about my book was also a ton of fun! I took pictures from the book and I feel that this book sells itself! The beautiful pictures in this book are absolutely breathtaking. This is a great book to introduce the topic to the students. It is definitely easy to follow and goes over the what, where, how and why of these interesting rocks/minerals.
 

This book is a great way to break misconceptions! Going over the different types of minerals breaks the stereotype that all minerals are the same. Going over the differences between rocks and minerals connects to the students to break the stereotype that rocks and minerals are the same thing. 

RAR

I loved the article that I chose, What a Surprise-They're Flies! This is an article on inquiry and what I loved reading about was that the teacher changed her lesson plan due to the students' interests. The students found  "worms" at the bottom of the class guinea pig's cage. The whole class was curious if these were really worms and why they were there. The teacher then designed her lesson to make observations about these "worms" as a class. The whole class worked together as a team to discuss what these "worms" were. They did experiments on them and figured out that the black end was the creature's head and that the other end was its tail. The students then made the decision as a class from observations that it was a larva. They also got the experience to learn about the life cycle of a fly first hand! This was awesome because students made observations on something that they were very curious about. This stimulated inquiry and the children learned based off of observations. Students also learned how to collaborate together and make conclusions based off of their own observations. This is something that learning from the textbook could not do. This hands on experience gave the students the opportunity to work together as a whole and watch the fly go through it's life cycle. The students were able to see the fly go through its life cycle a

nd see how long each stage takes. I would definitely use this technique in my classroom. Allowing my students to see an animal's life cycle in real life allows them to make observations each day and they will remember the information better because they are experiencing the cycle first hand compared to in a text book. I love how the class worked together as one and discussed their observations. I will definitely use this technique in my future classroom. 

Science in the News

Science is really everywhere! I was able to go on the internet and find hundreds of articles for students about all different types of science! We were assigned to find articles on space. My group and I created a timeline  to show some recent events that happened involving space science! This would be a great tool if a teacher assigned a research paper because it shows a time line in the order of which the events happened and students would be able to choose what topic they would want to research based off of a small preview. I also made a glogster to show all of the different websites I used. This is a fun way to incorporate science in the classroom without using a boring traditional powerpoint. These are easy tools that even students could use! 

One article that I really enjoyed reading was an article I found on a new planet beyond pluto. This is so exciting to me because it shows how technology is allowing us to find new discoveries. This may lead to a whole new world beyond what we know exists. I also enjoyed reading about the super moon that just recently happened! I read this article and then a couple days later was able to see this moon in person. It was honestly so breathe taking! Another article I enjoyed reading about was the belief of life on other planets. This is another interesting topic because imagine life on other planets, living people like you and me on a whole world we had no idea existed!! Do they have cars? Do they live in houses? Who knows! I really hope one day we find out! 

Skype in the Classroom

Today was such a fun class day! We had the opportunity to Skype with a class from Kansas. This is a great way to communicate with other teachers, students ,etc. I will definitely use Skype in my future classroom. The teacher, Andrea Friend, told us that Skype is used to teach not only science,but all subjects at any age. When we were on Skype the students tried to guess where we are located by asking questions. This really makes the students use the inquiry process.The teacher wrote down the questions we asked and the questions that the class asked us. After the class also discussed what were good questions that they said to figure out our location. Andrea was also telling us how she uses Skype all throughout the day and loves it! Her class traveled many miles just by using Skype! The students really enjoy being able to use a dry erase map to try and figure out our location. This was an awesome activity and I can't wait to use Skype in my future classroom! 

KA 7

Teaching in the classroom has been a fantastic experience. Not only have I learned from a hands-on experience but I also learned from my classmates. This experience made me feel like a real teacher from lesson plans to hands on teaching students. Working together with other teacher candidates was also a great experience that I will use in the future. This experience has taught me how to actively use  strategies of teaching such as direct, inquiry and cooperative teaching by creating these types of lessons and teaching them to the class. Being able to see how students reacted to my lessons was also a great learning experience.

After giving the students a pre-test we learned that they did not know much about minerals. This taught us to teach the students more about minerals. Students learn differently so we designed our lesson plans to help every type of learner understand the material. On the first day, we taught directly from the smart board for the more traditional learner. We spoke loud and clearly for students who learn from listening to information. We provided hand-outs for the students who learn better from reading or in case they did not hear everything we said. We also had the students go through the different steps of inquiry when we asked them questions before, during and after the streak, luster, and hardness tests on the minerals for the more hands-on learners.

By having the students write a letter to Ms.Mineral we assessed them on what they learned from our first lesson. This taught us that most of the students understood the tests they performed during class. For the next lesson, we went more in depth on different minerals. We spilt the students into groups of three or four and each teacher candidate went to a group.

Teaching in a group has many advantages. By having each teacher candidate have their own group we saw what each student knows and what they need to work on. We had the students make their posters as a group on certain minerals to further their knowledge. The groups shared different information about their mineral posters to teach the whole class.

            Being part of the first group was very scary. We did not know what to expect or how the students would react to what we were teaching. My group worked hard together. We learned from our first time teaching to be more organized and share the floor with each teacher candidate. Watching my peers teach their lessons also was a great learning experience. I would have never thought that I could model the rock cycle out of crayons like Group 3 did! I learned from Group 2 a nice trick to stay organized is to use Popsicle sticks to call students to share to save time and keep the lesson flowing. I learned from Group 4 how to move on from tough situations when a student made an inappropriate statement but they moved on nicely and continued to teach. Overall throughout my college career I would say that this was the most helpful experience so far. It was very hands on and I learned so much in such a short period of time. 

             This experience also taught me how to write different lesson plans. Going through the steps of inquiry in a science class is very important. The design for my group's lesson plan was to do a more of a hands-on technique. We learned that we were not supposed to do our inquiry and direct lessons together. For the direct lesson we taught the students off of the smart board about minerals. We mostly focused on using the steps of inquiry by having the students perform tests on the different minerals.

My group provided our students with a scientific method chart to show the students the different steps of inquiry.

             After seeing my classmates' lessons and how they designed their lesson plans I know for next semester how to do my lesson plans the correct way. This experience also allowed me to work with different types of students. For example, there were many behavior problems in that classroom. I learned how to handle them and try to keep them on track by saying they would get a "color change" if they did not do what was asked of them. Overall I learned how to work with other teachers to get the job done!  

  

Science Fairs in Elementary Schools

Science fairs in elementary schools are extremely important. When I was in elementary school I always looked forward to attending the science fair. These are great experiences for children because they get to see science in a hands on way. Children use the scientific method and are often very excited to share what they learned at science fairs. Not only do the students share their own experiments but they also get to actively walk around and learn about their peers' experiments. Science fairs broaden students' opportunities for scientific inquiry. Science fairs encourage students to ask questions, analyzing and interpreting data. They also encourage students' interest in science. 





After doing some research I found that science fairs have been happening for years. They do make students use the inquiry process which is great and allows students to explain their experiences. According to http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-1/fairs.html elementary schools participate in science fairs for various reasons. Some of these reasons include to stimulate students' interests in science, opportunities to research and inquiry, and many more! Science projects  are done in many different ways and allow students to use their creativity. Students extend their knowledge on topics and experiencing experiments make the students remember the information better. 

Last Day of Fieldwork

Today was a very sad day because it was the last day of fieldwork. I am really going to miss my students. They were all so nice and smart. I would definitely consider teaching sixth grade. After group four went the whole class gave out certificates to the students. The students seemed to really love them. I'm not going to lie it was really hard saying good bye to the students. This was a very intelligent group of students and I truly enjoyed working with them.This was a great learning experience and built up my confidence in teaching in front of a class. 

                   

Today was an awesome day for me. I had such a rewarding experience. Two of the students that were in my group gave me cards and asked if I was teaching again. These girls are really the sweetest people I have ever met. It was such an honor to receive these cards. I was so touched and could not have been any happier. This really made me so excited to become a teacher. These girls wrote the nicest things and I am truly going to miss them when field work is over. The time and detail in these cards are really amazing. I hope one day in my classroom I have students like these two. I can not explain how great the feeling was to receive these cards. I will definitely keep these cards forever and it really is great motivation hearing that they think I will be a great teacher some day. The fact that they want me to teach again is really so rewarding. To hear that I made science fun for them and made them understand minerals made me feel so happy because that was my goal. All of the hard work really paid off even if the lesson did not go exactly how I planned. Today was one of the best days for me and I really am so happy I am in the field that I love. 

Group 2 Day 2

Today Group 2 went for the second time and they did great! They were very organized and the kids seemed to have fun. The purpose of this lesson was to tell the difference between igneous and sedimentary rocks. The students were given different colors of play-doh and they had to create their own rocks. I really liked how the students were able to pick a popsicle stick because it made for an easier transition. 
It is hard to believe that we are half way through the groups! I can already see the students' knowledge growing and their understanding of rocks and minerals expanding. These students are very advanced for their grade and very well behaved. Sixth graders can sometimes be fresh to the teachers but these students are always well behaved and listen to the teachers. I am really going to miss working with these students. 

Group 2

Today Group Two presented their lesson. I thought it was very organized and well prepared. The class learned about two different types of rocks. Group Two spoke about the differences between igneous and sedimentary rocks. 
I was happy to see that the posters that our group made with the class were still up. The kids really seemed to love making the posters on the different minerals. My group loved the Pyrite, also known as fools gold. They loved the luster of the mineral. I loved doing this activity with my group and would definitely do this activity in my future classroom. The class also loved the excitement of the competition between classmates.
 

Second Day of Teaching

Today was a very fun day. It was the first sixth grade mineral show!! The kids really seemed to enjoy the mineral show. Each group made a poster of their mineral. We gave the kids twenty minutes and then they were able to walk around and vote for their favorite mineral. The students got really into this and were excited to walk around and see everybody's mineral poster. On the voting ticket the students had to write why they chose that mineral. We gave every student a certificate and the winning group received medals. The students still believe Ms. Mineral is real and that they were doing this mineral show for her. The posters that the students made were kept hung up in their science room. The students really enjoyed this activity. I was even asked by a student if we could do this activity again next time! 

First Day Teaching

Today was my group's turn to teach the sixth grade class at Sacred Heart School science. Our first lesson did not go as planned. We found out when we got there that there is no internet in the room we taught in. This was a curve ball thrown at my group. We had a Voki named Ms. Mineral that was supposed to deliver a It was also a good lesson because it shows us that plans changed. We were very happy that we had a back up plan. Although we were all taken back by having to use our back up plan I feel that we handled the situation very well. 
We definitely have room for improvement however, being the first group I felt we did a great job. We now know how the room is set up , how much time we have and what materials we have access to. I feel that next lesson it will definitely be so much better. 
Some of the kids were very rowdy. After using the "color changing" technique the students seems to be more well behaved. The "color change" is when the students miss behave their colors get changed and they can not play recess. This is definitely a technique I would use in my classroom. 

First Day of Field Work

Today was so much fun! Our class experienced our first day of field work. We worked in a sixth grade classroom at Sacred Heart. This is a private school so they all were wearing uniforms. The students were all well behaved for the most part. They are all very eager to learn and have alot of background information on rocks. When asked what they know about rocks, we received answers with great vocabulary words. 
It was a very small classroom but the groups made it work. The classroom consisted of nineteen students. Two of the students were autistic and one has an aid to help throughout the day. I am very excited to work with these students because they are all very smart. My group however has to re-plan our lesson because the school does not have internet.

Science Class 9/27/16

Today was the last day of class before we start fieldwork! As a class we went over my group's lesson plan. Dr. S went over everything that we had to fix with the whole class. Thursday we will be in St. Joseph's School. We will be teaching sixth graders about rocks and minerals on Tuesday. Thursday we will be get to know our students. Our group is going to have the students write on cut outs information about themselves and what they know about the topic. Once they are done we will be making a poster look like a cave filled with rocks and minerals. 

We also presented our group slides to our classmates today. Everybody's presentations definitely improved. The class felt more confident with their presentations. There was less people saying "guys" throughout the presentations. Also the slides were more animated than the last presentations we did. This is great practice for when we actually go into the classroom to teach. 

Today in class we presented our PowerPoint slides about student misconceptions as a group. This was very scary because I felt as I was not as prepared as I would have liked to be! Well I learned from this activity that as a teacher I have to be more prepared otherwise I will not be successful. This was a great learning experience because it taught me how to distribute the work that we all worked on as group equally. 

Next class we will be presenting even more slides. I feel as if my group will be much more prepared this time because we have more time and it is our second time presenting as a group so we know what to expect. We get the opportunity to fix what we messed up on last time. I think this is perfect practice for us for when we have to teach our sixth grade scientists during field work. 

Unit Plan

Today in class we learned about how to do our unit plan correctly. There are different elements that are required in order to make a proper unit plan. A unit plan consists of five lesson plans.A teacher's job is to teach the facts and concepts. The goal of teaching these are for your students to make generalizations. We also learned it is important to have our students use educational language such as "I inferred..". This increases student vocabulary.

It is also very important to do hands on activities and not just boring textbook lessons. Unit plans have different sections.  The sections required throughout the unit plan are the overview and rationale, standards, central focus, objectives, subject matter outline, lesson plans, assessment methods, resources and reflections.

Unit Plan

Today in class we learned about how to do our unit plan correctly. There are different elements that are required in order to make a proper unit plan. A unit plan consists of five lesson plans.A teacher's job is to teach the facts and concepts. The goal of teaching these are for your students to make generalizations. We also learned it is important to have our students use educational language such as "I inferred..". This increases student vocabulary.

It is also very important to do hands on activities and not just boring textbook lessons. Unit plans have different sections.  The sections required throughout the unit plan are the overview and rationale, standards, central focus, objectives, subject matter outline, lesson plans, assessment methods, resources and reflections.

Mystery Bag

Today in science, we started out the class by trying to figure out what is in a bag Dr. Smiranova brought. I was very interested in what was in the bag. First we had to make educated guesses on what we thought was in the bag. I shook the bag when it was my turn to feel the bag. I also squeezed this and heard a squeak. This lead me to believe there is some type of toy in the bag. This is a great activity to do with students because it teaches them to make educated guesses based on what they infer. It also is a great way to practice making hypothesis and to show that they hypothesis isn't always correct. It also is a great way to show that not everything in science is exact. 
We also had to think of different scientific myths. One of my myths was thinking that something like Star Wars existed. Kids often think that just because something is on television that it is real. This is not the case though. I also wrote down about the desert being so hot that you would melt if you ever visited. Kids will think myths like these are true until they are shown otherwise.

 

Amanda's First Science Methods Class Experience

 On the first day of my Science methods class I had no idea what to expect.  Previous science classes that I have taken were very boring and not fun for me at all. However, I was pleasantly surprised with my experience in Science methods. The class was asked to draw their own scientists and to even create a name for the drawing. This activity was to show us the different stereotypes of scientists. It also made each student practice his/her creativity skills. This is definitely an activity I would consider using in my future classroom. 
 Growing up I struggled in all science classes. It was hard for me to grasp the material when it was taught mostly in the typical textbook format. There was the occasional hands on experiments, but not enough. One of my main goals I hope to accomplish from this class is to find fun, hands on ways to teach different Science topics. Dr. Smirnova's activity is a perfect example of a different way to teach Science in a different way rather than using the textbook.