Violent Weather Project

My task for class this week was to learn and complete assignments about violent weather, which could be found here. This topic is very interesting to learn about, and students are usually excited to be taught about it. So, I was happy when this topic was assigned to me. My first task was to learn more about violent weather in general by watching a video. I learned that severe weather is different than regular weather because it's a dangerous act of nature that puts animals, people and buildings at risk. I really liked the idea of the format of the assignment because the video was entertaining and informative then I was able to share my response in the notes. After this, I was given a collage of pictures including tornadoes, hurricanes, avalanches, earthquakes, droughts, blizzards and a flood. I wrote at least four questions I had about the images and wrote how the pictures made me felt. I thought the pictures were shocking because I have never seen how much damage severe weather could actually cause. Then I had to pick which form of violent weather I wanted to focus on. There were six options, but  I chose to focus on avalanches because I thought the picture provided was really different than anything I've ever seen and I wanted to learn more. The image provided made the snow look like a rapid waterfall and I wanted to know more. I was then redirected to another google doc where I learned more just about avalanches, which could be found here.  I learned so many new and interesting facts about avalanches. I really enjoyed the layout of the assignment because I was provided links and articles to explain what I learned but I was also able to write my own thoughts. Once I completed this assignment, I wrote my own natural disaster poem specifically on avalanches. I really liked this part of the assignment because this was a great way to connect science to writing. Students can write about the weather in general, how it made them felt, what they learned, and much more.  I think this would be successful in a classroom because sometimes students find it hard to find something to write a poem on but a natural disaster could be a great starting point.

Beneath the clouds of snow is a rocky cliff
The frozen hills are fused with ice
But snow begins to slip from under my feet.
The snow begins to race to the bottom
But my heart is racing faster.
The calm fluffy snow
Became a crashing sea.

Teaching students about violent weather can be very interesting, especially elementary school students. This type of topic would be perfect for an inquiry lesson that goes over the five E's: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. In this type of lesson, students are given learning experiences and they can gain new ideas through their own inquiry. It's very student-centered and appropriate for this content-area. Students will probably have a lot of questions about this topic, so at the beginning of a unit about violent weather, I would recommend doing pre-assessment or survey to see what questions the class has. You can take the most common questions and then have those be the focus of the inquiry lesson. Inquiry lessons are best held the day after a direct instruction lesson, although you can really do them anytime. So, on the first day of the unit plan the teacher should find out student misconceptions and questions. The second day, the teacher should teach a direct instruction lesson to clear up the student misconceptions and teach them new things. Then, the students should move primarily to inquiry lessons for this topic. This could be used in our future classrooms by a Flipped Classroom Method of teaching, this is where students go home learn about the topic on their own then present their findings to the class. This template could be used for any subject or topic. Here is a website where lesson plan templates for each subject can be found.

Fieldwork Experience

During the first half of my Science and Technology Methods course, my classmates and I broke into groups and all taught two science lessons to a fourth grade class. This was the first time I was going to teach to a class and I wasn't really to sure what to expect. I am so happy I got to experience teaching a class and being able to learn from my peers while they got the chance to teach the class. I thought I learned from this experience a lot more than if I just read articles and books about how to teach. I was able to observe the actions of students, for example, what excited them, distracted them, engaged them and much more. This experience overall added to my understanding to student learning because I was able to see what students benefit from in a classroom and some successful teaching methods. I learned that students really need to have an organized set of notes so they can easily follow along and retain the information they are learning. I noticed that when students weren't sure what was asked of them it caused confusion which ultimately meant they weren't learning because they were distracted. The groups that taught with a clear set of notes and expectations had a better response from the students. The first day of teaching my group and I handed out flowers colored red, yellow, and green to check for the students understanding. Although it sounded creative and fun for the kids to use, they became a huge interference with the students' learning. This made me realize that some things might sound good on paper but could be difficult to successfully implement in a classroom. I also realized how important time management is in a classroom for it to function properly. The more planned and organized a lesson it really shows in the students work and learning. Students need time to write notes, ask questions, and discuss their learning but teachers need to make sure not to rush so students can do this. I learned about how each lesson should focus on the five E's: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. I understand that students need to be engaged to really learn about a topic. In my future class I want to find interesting ways to engage my students and get them excited to learn! I noticed that the more engaged the students were then the better the outcome was. Confidence is also very important while teaching. Students can tell when someone is well prepared when they are teaching a lesson and when they are unsure of themselves. It is so much more beneficial when the instructor is really educated on the topic they are teaching because then more information can be provided to the class. Through fieldwork, I learned that it is a great idea to provide the students with links, books, articles, etc. for the student's inquiry lesson plans. I wasn't sure what a direct or inquiry lesson plan exactly was prior to fieldwork but now I feel like I understand more about this. I was able to watch different groups approach these lesson plans in several ways which was beneficial for my understanding of teaching. I also learned what I needed to work on personally. I knew it would be difficult to control a class but now I realized it is something that is very important in order to teach. I also realized I need to work on speaking louder and with more confidence because it truly does make a difference. I'm happy that I was able to teach in front of a full class and watch how others teach as well. Being the first group to teach was a little unsettling because I didn't know what was really expected of me, but I learned a lot through this experience. I'm excited for next semester when I get another chance to teach again in front of a full class! Now I feel like I will be more prepared and will know my expectations next time around. I cannot wait to learn more about teaching and myself!

Menitmeter

Today in class we were broken into groups and we all were told to pick a topic under the study of Earth Science that we were not too familiar with so we can then teach a lesson to the class after learning some more about it. My group and I chose to teach about Earth's surface, we made a lesson teaching about Pangaea, continental drift, the layers of the earth and the future of the Earth. We know now that to start off a lesson we need a pre-assessment. My group and I wanted to try something different to pre-assess the class's knowledge so we used the website Mentimeter. This was my first time using this application, it was so fun and unique! Mentimeter allows the user to post questions, then has a code to share with the class, and everyone can see the answers emerge in real time. I thought this was such an innovative way to ask and answer questions. We pre-assessed the class using this application and we were able to see all of the answers appear on the board and we were able to discuss them as they were posted. Later on in the lesson we stopped, where we checked for understanding and used the mentimeter once again. I love the immediate feedback this application provides because then it makes it easier to discuss and explore other's answers. At the end of our lesson, we used Mentimeter to assess what everyone learned from the presentation. This allowed us to quickly access everyone's thoughts and talk about them in real time. I loved using this and I would use this in my future classroom. This is an engaging and exciting way to assess information and openly discuss topics.

Online Class

Snowy weather is approaching and this means snow days are more likely than ever! We were expecting lots of snow during my science and technology course so my professor decided to have an online class instead. Usually when I have an online class my professor would post a video or article and everyone in the class is expected to write a response. However, this wasn't the typical online class. I logged into eClass and noticed that we were going to have a live interactive class online with Dr. Smirnova. I was excited to see how the class was going to be conducted so I logged on and entered the class. I immediately thought this was so unique and cool, I saw my professor and I could see a list of the other students participating. Everyone was able to communicate with each other through the chat, but there was also an option to use a microphone to communicate that way. Everyone was chatting and my professor was catching us up on all the information we needed before break. Once most of the class was logged on, the last group presented their earth science lesson plan to the class. I thought this was so cool because although we weren't in the classroom, we all were able to participate and learn from another group. I thought it was really interesting because everyone was able to be engaged through their computer screens! Once the last group finished their presentations, everyone in the class was able to share their thoughts and questions. After this, Dr. Smirnova wrapped up the session and wished us a Happy Thanksgiving! I really enjoyed this online class because it was so much different than the usual online classes I have participated in. I would definitely want to use this tool in my future classroom because it is a great way to interact with students. I realized that a classroom is not a necessity to learn and technology is to thank for that! Technology has come such a long way and this is why technology is so important because it allows people from all over the world to connect and learn from each other. There is so much more to discover in technology and it is so beneficial to the learners in the world. It is crucial to show our future students the importance of technology and let them explore this. This online class was such an interesting experience and I am happy I was able to learn about some different tools to use in a classroom. 

What is in the Bag?

    During class today, Dr. Smirnova, showed us a checkered pattern bag and wanted everyone in the class to hypothesize what was inside the bag. She allowed each student in the class to hold the bag 5 counts to gather as much information as they can. When the bag reached me during class, I shook, squeezed, and felt the bag to try to guess what was inside. I thought the bag might have a dog toy in it because it felt soft, yet squeaked when I squeezed it, but then it was also hard and rattled so I was unsure what was really in the bag. After everyone in the class had their five seconds with the bag, Dr. Smirnova wanted to categorize all of our ideas. The class suggested that the bag might contain multiple items so we made five groups: dog toys, rattles, solid items/rocks, soft items/balls, and children toys. After this activity, Dr. Smirnova wanted us to really focus on what a hypothesis exactly was. I have learned that a hypothesis is not just a guess, not even an educated guess, but it is a tentative explanation. It is so important to teach students to hypothesize because it teaches students the process of inquiry. If the hypothesis is valid, then such and such should happen and be observed as a result of some actions to test the hypothesis. It is important for students to understand this concept because it will follow them throughout their academic career.

      Here is the big question, why do teachers need inquiry to teach science? In my opinion, it is because science is not a direct answer. Science explores and with new technology we go deeper and deeper to discover things. The principle in science is uncertainty. Scientific knowledge is fundamentally uncertain, science is uncertain because it is human activity and we are always changing. This is why it is so important for teachers to ask students why and encourage them to explore. We want our future students to investigate and want to learn more about science on their own. As future educators it is important to implement wonder into students. Science is such an interesting topic because there is so much unknown and so much to explore. 

     I thought the sensory bag activity during class was a great way to engage everyone in the room into the lesson. This is definitely something I would want to do with a future class because it was a fun way to get involved and it was intriguing! I want to find unique ways to engage my future students because I want everyone to be excited to learn something new. I know that sometimes it could be difficult to get all students excited about science but it truly is so interesting so I would like to change that! I am so excited to teach science to my future classes because I want to teach students how to wonder, inquire, and explore!