Week 4:
This week we continued dissecting the owl pellets. Once finished students were encouraged to first write down what they could infer about owls and their diets, once they had a chance to write their thoughts we had a group discussion. Students were very eager to discuss all that they had found and what conclusions they were able to come up with.
Once all the students had a chance to talk, we progressed onto the next part of the section of the lesson. This part the students were asked to put the skeletons they found together. By doing this students where able to demonstrate their knowledge of the layout of a skeleton and name the parts. From the groups we put together a bird, a vole, and what we thought was a field mouse!
Week 5:
This week we began the muscular and cardiovascular systems. For an elementary introduction we thought students would be more engaged in the lesson if we related it to exercise. For this lesson we would do some exercises and students would record their observations as well as color in a worksheet with various muscle and skeletal groups on it that they were using to complete the exercise.
The first activity was to pinch a clothes pin as many times as the student could before their hands fatigued. They would then record differences between the right and left hand and infer why they had these differences.
The next exercises included squats, arm raises, hand presses, and jumping jacks. Students were encouraged to think about how much energy was involved with each type of movement. The groups also discussed ways to keep their bones and muscles strong.
The last part of the lesson was for students to become the teachers. They were to come up with an exercise and teach it to the class. However, all of the other exercises took some time to complete therefore this part would be completed at the beginning of next week's lesson.
Week 6:
Students had a great surprise this week as a famous NBA player donated a substantial amount of money to the school for a computer lab and a smart board in the library!! This was an amazing contribution as technology was very scarce in the building. The only draw back is that there is no librarian in the school, so access to the computers is limited for now.
Once the unveiling concluded we began our lesson with the students. We started where we left off last week with students being the teachers.
All of the students thought individually about what they were going to present for an exercise and how they could teach everyone else to do it.
All of the students loved being the teacher and some actually wanted to teach twice. We wrapped up this section and connected to this week's lesson by talking about our hearts.
As a class we discussed if we need to make our heart beat faster or if it is involuntary. This discussion led the group into heart rate and how to check our heart rates. We demonstrated how to check our own pulses and all of the students found their own pulse and we counted our resting heart rates. After jumping jacks for 1 minute we counted our heart rate using our pulses. As a class we discussed why we need to exercise and keep our hearts healthy.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Science after school....
For the past few weeks a fellow student and I have been in charge of creating science lessons for an elementary school that has been struggling. In this system students do not even get to experience a science class until middle school, therefore an after-school program was created to give the students exposure to science while giving them information that they can use in their daily lives. I plan on keeping a weekly post going to update lessons and feedback on how well they went over.
Students in the program range from 3rd to 6th grade. In my classroom I am in charge of a group of 3rd graders and the same for my fellow student. As there are fewer of them in the program, there is another volunteer that is in charge of the 4th, 5th, & 6th grade students. So far it has not only been a great pleasure but such a rewarding experience working with not only the students but the other volunteers that have given their time to this school.
Let me go over what has been done so far:
Week 1:
This week we decided to do more introductory activities to get to know the students and give them an opportunity to become comfortable with us. To begin the day we had they students create their "flag" on the Manila folders that we will use each week. To make the flag the students had to pick four things that represented them (ex. favorite sport, music, hobby, etc) and draw these on their folder.
Once everyone had the opportunity to illustrate their folders we began with the lesson of the day, which was scientific method/investigation. We accomplished this with the art of thumb wars! Students first took their thumb measurements and recorded their personal information on a handout we created. Next all of the students made their hypothesis as so what makes a thumb wrestling champion....will it be the longest thumb?? why? will it be the shorter thumb?? why?
All students took turns thumb wrestling and recording their observations (data collection) and wrote it in their charts. Once they had filled their charts they analyzed their data and wrote what they found and how it compared to their original hypothesis. Students were very engaged during the process, however, one warning I will give is that no one likes to lose! If anyone tries this in the classroom be prepared to have some students become upset if they did not win a particular round. Aside from that, the day was great and the students were amazing!!
Week 2:
This week we began the skeletal system!! To begin, students were asked to draw what they think their skeleton looks like. I saw skeletons of all types and numbers of bones....the most bones that were drawn was 26. Imagine the students surprise when we handed out the next worksheet describing not only the skeleton, but how many bones there actually are. 206 bones is a bit of a difference, so we had a class discussion on why there are so many, and why they are important.
Just for fun students pantomimed what having no bones would look like. I did not get to see the other classrooms, but let me tell you 3rd graders are fabulous actors. I could not help but laugh at how silly everyone got, but how well they did!
After our discussion we talked about nutrition and where we get nutrients for our bones. Students were good at pinpointing out the dairy products and were guided to figure out the vitamins and minerals that keep the bones strong.
To conclude we did the skeleton dance! I brought in my computer and speakers to play the song and we all danced along. The song was so much fun, and students were actually singing it still the following week for us!
Week 3:
In continuation with the skeletal system we decided to do an owl pellet dissection. This lesson went fantastically. Students were engaged and discovering the entire time. I could not believe how lucky we were with the pellets...they were action packed with bones!! At first I had to laugh when students started yelling and asking why I had just handed them "doo-doo". I giggled and reassured them that despite the less than appealing appearance this was not fecal matter and that they would all be just fine.
With in minutes all of the students were completely intrigued with the owl pellets and began to be the discovering scientists they are and dissected the pellets picking out the pieces bone by bone by bone.
The dissection itself took the whole time this week, and therefore we will be doing a continuation next week. Students were given a bone chart so that they can all identify the bones that are found, and if time permits hopefully put a skeleton together!!!
Students in the program range from 3rd to 6th grade. In my classroom I am in charge of a group of 3rd graders and the same for my fellow student. As there are fewer of them in the program, there is another volunteer that is in charge of the 4th, 5th, & 6th grade students. So far it has not only been a great pleasure but such a rewarding experience working with not only the students but the other volunteers that have given their time to this school.
Let me go over what has been done so far:
Week 1:
This week we decided to do more introductory activities to get to know the students and give them an opportunity to become comfortable with us. To begin the day we had they students create their "flag" on the Manila folders that we will use each week. To make the flag the students had to pick four things that represented them (ex. favorite sport, music, hobby, etc) and draw these on their folder.
Once everyone had the opportunity to illustrate their folders we began with the lesson of the day, which was scientific method/investigation. We accomplished this with the art of thumb wars! Students first took their thumb measurements and recorded their personal information on a handout we created. Next all of the students made their hypothesis as so what makes a thumb wrestling champion....will it be the longest thumb?? why? will it be the shorter thumb?? why?
All students took turns thumb wrestling and recording their observations (data collection) and wrote it in their charts. Once they had filled their charts they analyzed their data and wrote what they found and how it compared to their original hypothesis. Students were very engaged during the process, however, one warning I will give is that no one likes to lose! If anyone tries this in the classroom be prepared to have some students become upset if they did not win a particular round. Aside from that, the day was great and the students were amazing!!
Week 2:
This week we began the skeletal system!! To begin, students were asked to draw what they think their skeleton looks like. I saw skeletons of all types and numbers of bones....the most bones that were drawn was 26. Imagine the students surprise when we handed out the next worksheet describing not only the skeleton, but how many bones there actually are. 206 bones is a bit of a difference, so we had a class discussion on why there are so many, and why they are important.
Just for fun students pantomimed what having no bones would look like. I did not get to see the other classrooms, but let me tell you 3rd graders are fabulous actors. I could not help but laugh at how silly everyone got, but how well they did!
After our discussion we talked about nutrition and where we get nutrients for our bones. Students were good at pinpointing out the dairy products and were guided to figure out the vitamins and minerals that keep the bones strong.
To conclude we did the skeleton dance! I brought in my computer and speakers to play the song and we all danced along. The song was so much fun, and students were actually singing it still the following week for us!
Week 3:
In continuation with the skeletal system we decided to do an owl pellet dissection. This lesson went fantastically. Students were engaged and discovering the entire time. I could not believe how lucky we were with the pellets...they were action packed with bones!! At first I had to laugh when students started yelling and asking why I had just handed them "doo-doo". I giggled and reassured them that despite the less than appealing appearance this was not fecal matter and that they would all be just fine.
With in minutes all of the students were completely intrigued with the owl pellets and began to be the discovering scientists they are and dissected the pellets picking out the pieces bone by bone by bone.
The dissection itself took the whole time this week, and therefore we will be doing a continuation next week. Students were given a bone chart so that they can all identify the bones that are found, and if time permits hopefully put a skeleton together!!!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Life is....
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
By Mother Teresa
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Technology and me
I think that my view on the usage of technology has definitely changed. I really had no idea that there were so many options and new tools that I could learn to use then transfer into my classroom. In the beginning I did not think that I was going to be able to incorporate a lot of Internet use into the classroom, because it was never something big when I was in school and I don't know many teachers that were using it now. After this I have seen that there is no reason not to use it! Everything is not only more creative and fun, but it is very easily organized because I do not have to worry about thousands of papers.
Having to create the Wiki gave me a nice chance to stick my toe in the waters, so to speak. I wanted to use the Wiki in my own classroom, but if we did not have to make one for class I may have not known how, or it may have been not a very strong site. The SMART notebook is a another great tool that I can add to my 'toolbox'. Having to create a lesson got me thinking of ways to integrate it into the classroom and how to involve my students in meaning full lessons, while still keeping it fun.
In moving forward I am definitely confident in myself for using the new tools I have found and even discovering new ones too. Plus there is nothing that you can't look up, so if I ever have a question with a little research I can figure it out.
Having to create the Wiki gave me a nice chance to stick my toe in the waters, so to speak. I wanted to use the Wiki in my own classroom, but if we did not have to make one for class I may have not known how, or it may have been not a very strong site. The SMART notebook is a another great tool that I can add to my 'toolbox'. Having to create a lesson got me thinking of ways to integrate it into the classroom and how to involve my students in meaning full lessons, while still keeping it fun.
In moving forward I am definitely confident in myself for using the new tools I have found and even discovering new ones too. Plus there is nothing that you can't look up, so if I ever have a question with a little research I can figure it out.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Technology Integration
Wiki's, Bloggers, and Google Docs...Oh my!!
Christina sums it up best (Google Reader=Awesome) Using Google Reader I was able to do some one stop shopping and view exactly what has been going on with anything I have chosen to follow and all in the same place. I love the fact the Web 2.0 tools have become so easy and I could see it was the same type of response from my colleagues. There was an agreement between all of us with how easy it was to collaborate and quickly finish project when we all were contributing using Google Docs.
The blogs are quite and amazing tool and it was really cool to see what videos or images people would post every week. I also noticed that the blogs have all evolved as well from when we first started and were new to this form of technology. We started with very simple answers to any question asked and moved to putting in sites and other vehicles to transport information to everyone around us. Its very apparent that we have all grown as intellectuals in such a short timeframe. I hope that we do continue to use our blogs because it will be fun what we all have to say as we continue into teaching. Also the integration of this into the classroom is key, all of these tools make it so easy to stay in touch and share information, that I cannot wait to share it with my students to see what they'll come across.
Christina. (2011) Google reader=awesome. Retrieved from http://xtinatsk.blogspot.com/
Christina sums it up best (Google Reader=Awesome) Using Google Reader I was able to do some one stop shopping and view exactly what has been going on with anything I have chosen to follow and all in the same place. I love the fact the Web 2.0 tools have become so easy and I could see it was the same type of response from my colleagues. There was an agreement between all of us with how easy it was to collaborate and quickly finish project when we all were contributing using Google Docs.
The blogs are quite and amazing tool and it was really cool to see what videos or images people would post every week. I also noticed that the blogs have all evolved as well from when we first started and were new to this form of technology. We started with very simple answers to any question asked and moved to putting in sites and other vehicles to transport information to everyone around us. Its very apparent that we have all grown as intellectuals in such a short timeframe. I hope that we do continue to use our blogs because it will be fun what we all have to say as we continue into teaching. Also the integration of this into the classroom is key, all of these tools make it so easy to stay in touch and share information, that I cannot wait to share it with my students to see what they'll come across.
Christina. (2011) Google reader=awesome. Retrieved from http://xtinatsk.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Web Resources For the Classroom
This week I found myself bookmarking almost every single site that I happened upon, just because I was amazed at what online activities have to offer now. I love sites that that have for science. I think that because a lot of them bring the student to places that I would never realistically be able to bring them too is an amazing advantage that I can offer them. I wish in future that where ever I am hired that they offer anatomy and physiology to the students as a course, because that is definitely a strong passion for me to be able to share with others. However, one of the bigger issues when trying to teach the real life application of this subject is actually giving students the "field" background for the understanding. Sure, we animal dissected organs while I was taking this in school, but if something is already deceased and then the organ is taken out of the animal, then how can you possible teach how closely everything is connected?? The fact that you can watch live operating room videos at http://www.orlive.com/ gives me and my class a huge advantage in making real world connections. Obviously I would have to use this with a dose of caution for those students that are squeamish, but this is an experience that students may never get if this was not available, and I hope it can bring the organs we use in class to "life" for the students. At our fingertips we can see how knee surgeries are performed, how doctors physically adjust eyeballs to help their patients with their vision, and plenty of more exciting surgeries that will allow us to see why we need to know the basic anatomy to begin with and what types of amazing things people can accomplish once they are experts at their work.
Secondly, because I plan on using a class Wiki for my students to allow them autonomy in their learning, I want to post for them to look and review proper use of the Internet before I send them out into the wide web. I know that they probably have used computers their entire lives, but in today's society there are many ways that you have to keep yourself safe and proper ways to act to ensure everyone has an enjoyable experience. I am planning on posting netiquette the class Wiki. I think that I will have them review this before they are allowed to do anything on the page. To verify they have read the information and proper safety and usage techniques they will have to post at least 5 things they learned, or thought was important to know and keep in mind from the site.
I am excited to keep on investigating other sites that I can bring into the classroom to give my students opportunities to expand their horizons. I will take students outside of the constraints of the walls that surround them and put them into the practical settings in which their education will be used.
References:
OR live (2010) Retrieved from http://www.orlive.com/
Shea, V. (2004) NET Etiquette. Retrieved from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html
Wikispace (2010) Retrieved from www.wikispaces.com
Wikispace (2010) Retrieved from www.wikispaces.com
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
T2P Week 5 Reflection
When we look at the human brain and the connections between neurons that grow and atrophy through time. We can get a better example of how students may be learning at during these developments, but also see why it is that certain behaviors and actions seem to present themselves. If there are physiological changes occurring in the brain all throughout our lives, then learning and observed action patterns can either be enhanced or dissipate as we grow older, because the brain is always adapting and changing to its newest and most frequent stimuli, i.e. making or breaking connections.
It is the case of adolescence, around the age of puberty and into young adulthood, that is most frequently used for examples. The prefrontal cortex, which helps us with self control and planning, is not fully developed in adolescents and therefore leads them to take different risks or act in ways that may not seem rational to adults around them. There are certain stages that all people go through in their development. In Erikson's theory he shows us that there are certain stages that build onto one another in developing a healthy psycho-social norm. I think it is noteworthy for teachers, or any adult in a teenager's life, to understand and genuinely make and effort to empathize with what the teens are going through in these stages, because we want them to be confident (so we encourage), and know that they do belong (so that they may become participating members of society).
Still in being the "teacher as a guide," as many theorists Piaget, Vygotsky, etc, suggest, what I want from my students, is to develop in a successful manner. What do I mean by success? Well success is purely subjective, and I do not mean it in a sense that they will be ready for college, the army, or the workforce. I want them to successfully develop into their own persona. I want them to be able to listen to their bodies and go ahead and push their boundaries (after all what kind of growth can happen if we are not willing to expand our horizons), but at the same time not let them push the walls totally out. I will encourage students to keep on going and not get bogged down in any speed bumps they may come across. Also, I want to make sure that I am extrinsically motivating my students constantly so that they become intrinsically motivated and hopefully become addicted to feelings of joy and other positive outlooks on life. I think that positivity is a great quality for people to posses and I my amateur observations have led me to believe that it is the people that are outgoing and positive not only have more "doors" open up to them, but also are more likely to at least give these opportunities a try.
It is the case of adolescence, around the age of puberty and into young adulthood, that is most frequently used for examples. The prefrontal cortex, which helps us with self control and planning, is not fully developed in adolescents and therefore leads them to take different risks or act in ways that may not seem rational to adults around them. There are certain stages that all people go through in their development. In Erikson's theory he shows us that there are certain stages that build onto one another in developing a healthy psycho-social norm. I think it is noteworthy for teachers, or any adult in a teenager's life, to understand and genuinely make and effort to empathize with what the teens are going through in these stages, because we want them to be confident (so we encourage), and know that they do belong (so that they may become participating members of society).
Still in being the "teacher as a guide," as many theorists Piaget, Vygotsky, etc, suggest, what I want from my students, is to develop in a successful manner. What do I mean by success? Well success is purely subjective, and I do not mean it in a sense that they will be ready for college, the army, or the workforce. I want them to successfully develop into their own persona. I want them to be able to listen to their bodies and go ahead and push their boundaries (after all what kind of growth can happen if we are not willing to expand our horizons), but at the same time not let them push the walls totally out. I will encourage students to keep on going and not get bogged down in any speed bumps they may come across. Also, I want to make sure that I am extrinsically motivating my students constantly so that they become intrinsically motivated and hopefully become addicted to feelings of joy and other positive outlooks on life. I think that positivity is a great quality for people to posses and I my amateur observations have led me to believe that it is the people that are outgoing and positive not only have more "doors" open up to them, but also are more likely to at least give these opportunities a try.
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