Reflection
Hello everyone! Welcome to my science methods blog! I am very excited and a little nervous about this semester. There are many task to complete this semester, but with good time management it will be possible. Science has always been one of my favorite subjects in school. I look forward to learning how to teach science correctly to my future students. We are currently learning about the classroom management systems in our clinical placements. This is definitely an aspect every teacher needs to know about before they have a classroom of their own. The assignment I am most proud of is "my why" creation thus far this semester. I was thrilled to have the chance to create this infographic telling about why I want to be a teacher. This helped me to see and remember exactly why I am on this journey. I will be able to use this assignment to motivate me on the rest of my journey when things get tough. I would say my only struggle right now is waiting to see our final group of students in our classroom. The school I am placed at is having the kindergarteners to do gradual entry this week from Monday to Thursday and then Friday they will discuss which students need to move classrooms. Therefore, we will not know our class list for sure until tomorrow afternoon. I am enjoying the students I have had in the class this week and I have my video forms ready for next week. This week my goal is to start on my PDP goals and also get ahead on our science fair project. I would like to be able to finish our science fair project early so that we can submit it to Dr. Parker for feedback.
This week I was able to contribute to class by commenting on my classmates work we submitted Monday. I also have been able to discuss the science fair project with my partner. I could contribute more to my classmates by replying more to the discussion boards.
Outside Research
I decided to research more about teaching science in the classroom using the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). I found an awesome video about a classroom who bases their curriculum off of the NGSS. The students are engaged, it applies to all learners, incorporates interesting projects, and contains group work. The students learning is supported, they apply what they know on performance assessments, they have choices, and use decision making skills. Please check out the video, the link is attached! <https://www.edutopia.org/video/research-backed-science-curriculum>. The teachers in this video portrayed many of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards (NCTCS). For instance the teachers were following standard one which is where the teacher demonstrates leadership. The teacher is leading the students in what they are learning or what task they are completing. The teacher is also establishing a respectful environment for a diverse population of students by having students in groups and every person having a job. Every student is able to contribute to the project and the group. Also, every student is able to learn with this curriculum and standards, they are for all learners. The teacher is also facilitating learning for students by having interesting projects and the students are able to make choices. The teachers also reflect back on their practices in the video, this is standard five. Lastly, standard six the teacher contributes to the academic success of students. At the end of the video it shows how this new curriculum has helped the students. I would like to use this way of teaching science in my future classroom. I feel like students will be more engaged when they are learning about interesting topics and completing group work/ performance assessments together. In my future science instruction I would like to model these six NCTCS standards the way the teachers have in this video. I believe if I am able to do so my students will be very successful academically and in the real world.
Scientific Thinking
This past week we learned about the phenomenon. These are things that happen and students have to figure out how. This is the hook, teachers can use to draw students into the science lesson. I really enjoyed learning about these and could really see myself using these in my future classroom. I feel like students would really enjoy these. I found two I believe students would enjoy learning about. One was ice circles and the fire rainbow. The use of phenomenon in the classroom hits every part of the scientific method. The students have to make a prediction of why the phenomenon happens such as why does the fire rainbow form. Then, experiment, observe and record, analyze, and share results with the class. I hope to use the phenomenons in my future classroom! Here is a link to the examples I found for the phenomenons. <https://www.zmescience.com/other/great-pics/totally-awesome-natural-phenomena-you-probably-didnt-know-about-000033/ > Thank you for reading my blog!
Resources:
A Research-Backed Science Curriculum. (2018, June 12). Retrieved August, 2018, from https://www.edutopia.org/video/research-backed-science-curriculum
Andrei, M. (2017, October 27). 8 totally awesome natural phenomena you probably didn't know about. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.zmescience.com/other/great-pics/totally-awesome-natural-phenomena-you-probably-didnt-know-about-000033/
