The things we talk about in class are changing the way I interact with learners. I have been thinking about how I can do things differently in order to help students reach the class goals we created. I have also noticed that I want students to understand the nature of science. I leave class on Thursday and go to work that afternoon where I get to try out ideas I had during class. Here are a couple of examples.
I was presenting a program on the human body the other day and asked what our stomach does with food. The child in the front row told me, "it digests the food" or "digestion" something with vocabulary that didn't tell me whether the kid really knew what it meant. Previously, I would have said, yes, good, and moved on. However, thinking about how we can encourage students to be more reflective, be better communicators and demonstrate their understanding of content I asked the kid what "digestion" meant. In his own words, he essentially said that the stomach made the food into tiny pieces, breaking it down. To which I then said, ok, I understand, and moved on. Asking the kid to elaborate, provided me with more information about
what he knew, and provided him with an opportunity to more effectively
explain himself and demonstrate his level of understanding. In a classroom setting I could have evaluated that response and decided whether I needed to move on or do more on the topic. I have definitely noticed my presentations shifting from me talking a lot to me asking more questions and having the group help me to communicate my message, whether on digestion or reptiles.
I also notice myself sneaking in ideas about the nature of science to my interactions. I do this because I now understand and believe that it's important to teach students what science is, what scientists do and how they too can participate in the process. I think that understanding the nature of science will pave a way for students to be interested in science... which I think is extremely important. I spent Friday morning with first graders facilitating a chemistry lab. While most of the content was developmentally over their heads (though I have not checked the sources on that yet...) I focused a lot on telling them what they could do to "be scientists". I asked them to make a lot of predictions and observations. I explained in simple language my demonstrations and their activities, they may not have fully understood why certain reactions were happening. Even though I wasn't focusing solely on the science content, I believe they were engaged and learning about science, because they got to participate in hands on experiments and they were mentally engaged with making predictions and observations. I validated every kind of observation and prediction that came my way. The most popular prediction being "It might blow up!". :)
I demonstrated a reaction that yielded a glow in the dark reaction, and on the next two experiments students did at their tables, they asked me if I could turn off the lights to see if the reaction was glowing (this had never happened before in all my times of leading this lab!). I was thrilled by their demonstration of curiosity and research and I definitely obliged. While no other reaction glowed, I told them that it was great that we can only find out answers to our questions like this if we try it! Experimenting!
I am happy that I am growing as a teacher. It is extremely rewarding when I see effects of the things (things that I believe to be effective and fun teaching practices ) I am learning in what my students do.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Observing Morning, Noon, and (almost) Night
What follows is a lesson that contains both the nature of science and science content.
Students will go outside to make observations. Before we head outside, we will brainstorm about what we expect to observe outside. If students don't get there on their own, I will lead them to certain key points of observation that will be relevant later on... such as what animals do you see/hear? What is the weather like? Is it light, bright, or cloudy outside? Etc.
We will make observations at different times across a few days. First thing in the morning, noon, and late afternoon before students head home. We will also talk about our observations in a large or small group formats after each observation period. At this time we can ask questions, revisit ideas and discuss our findings.
The observation and discussion experience opens the opportunity to teach students a lot about the nature of science. Students will be collecting evidence and making observations. They will probably experience repetition in nature and repetition in our discussions and observations. We are not using "the scientific method"... they are participating in science in many other methods. Through discussion students learn that our ideas are open to revision because we discuss them before and after our observations. Students will also experience science as a social and collaborative activity as we discuss and share our observations.
After all of our observation periods are over, we will read Morning, Noon, and Night by Jean Craighead George.
This is a book about what kind of animals appear during different times of day. The text and artwork paint a realistic picture of what the sky might look like during different times of day and what animals are doing. This book would be a great way to teach about habitats, animals, or even the earth's rotation. While this book delivers great content, it also reinforces ideas of the nature of science. Since this is a non-fiction book, I could ask students how they think the information was collected. This would hopefully lead them to connect that someone (a scientist!) has to make observations to find out this information found in the book.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Goals
I got my practicum assignment today. I am so excited to get back into a classroom working with students! I'll be working with Kindergarten at Cowles Montessori (which it looks like will be a multi-age classroom with pre-k and kindergarten, but I'll have more information on that later).
When I looked at the school's website, I found a section on Montessori Outcomes. I was thrilled to see a list like this since we have been focusing and talking about goals so much in methods class. Their outcomes for student learning align well with our class goals for students, as well as Dr. Kruse's goals for students. All of our goals are important for different reasons, but the following four ideas showed up again and again as I bounced between the three lists. These themes are probably being repeated because they are important. I feel these are very important goals for teachers to have for their students to grow academically and in everyday life.
curiosity - Curiosity welcomes avenues for life long learning, asking new questions, and making connections. Asking questions is human nature, and seeking answers is how we learn.
critical thinking - Critical thinking is important to discovering new ideas and build deeper understandings. Critical thinking builds higher order thinking skills as students push beyond and question what is known to them.
confidence - Confidence frees students to take a different path, to try a theory and fail, and to express oneself. Being confident will allow the student to take more risks which will lead to new experiences and further knowledge.
responsibility and conscientious citizenry - Being a responsible and conscientious person promotes collaboration, respect and awareness of the students' own role in the world, community, classroom, family, and friendships. Students must learn how to interact with others. It's essential for living in society whether that means working with classmates, playing on a sports team, working in a factory, building a dam with a group of engineers, building friendships, etc.
When we as educators know specifically what our goals are, whether it be for our whole year or one lesson, we can then plan for our students' growth and success.
Now that I am more aware of this, I am excited to watch for this in my practicum...and in our own class.
Also, when addressing the outcome of academic preparation, the site states that "Academic skills are essential to learning and knowing, not the aim of learning and knowing." This makes me think back to Schrauth's ice hands article. He discussed the importance of students understanding the structures and processes of science. It seems that the Cowles website is expressing something similar. Students are not just focusing on what to learn but how to learn, how the individual student learns and building those important skills. Rather, than at the end of their education, graduating with a skill set, the skill set is continually developed.
When I looked at the school's website, I found a section on Montessori Outcomes. I was thrilled to see a list like this since we have been focusing and talking about goals so much in methods class. Their outcomes for student learning align well with our class goals for students, as well as Dr. Kruse's goals for students. All of our goals are important for different reasons, but the following four ideas showed up again and again as I bounced between the three lists. These themes are probably being repeated because they are important. I feel these are very important goals for teachers to have for their students to grow academically and in everyday life.
curiosity - Curiosity welcomes avenues for life long learning, asking new questions, and making connections. Asking questions is human nature, and seeking answers is how we learn.
critical thinking - Critical thinking is important to discovering new ideas and build deeper understandings. Critical thinking builds higher order thinking skills as students push beyond and question what is known to them.
confidence - Confidence frees students to take a different path, to try a theory and fail, and to express oneself. Being confident will allow the student to take more risks which will lead to new experiences and further knowledge.
responsibility and conscientious citizenry - Being a responsible and conscientious person promotes collaboration, respect and awareness of the students' own role in the world, community, classroom, family, and friendships. Students must learn how to interact with others. It's essential for living in society whether that means working with classmates, playing on a sports team, working in a factory, building a dam with a group of engineers, building friendships, etc.
When we as educators know specifically what our goals are, whether it be for our whole year or one lesson, we can then plan for our students' growth and success.
Now that I am more aware of this, I am excited to watch for this in my practicum...and in our own class.
Also, when addressing the outcome of academic preparation, the site states that "Academic skills are essential to learning and knowing, not the aim of learning and knowing." This makes me think back to Schrauth's ice hands article. He discussed the importance of students understanding the structures and processes of science. It seems that the Cowles website is expressing something similar. Students are not just focusing on what to learn but how to learn, how the individual student learns and building those important skills. Rather, than at the end of their education, graduating with a skill set, the skill set is continually developed.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Yes, you are a scientist! Empowering Students
I am happy to report that after reading the article Lights, Camera, Inquiry by Brandon Schrauth, I have made some connections.
Schrauth worked hard to build science skills with his students. He talked with his class about who scientists are and what scientists do. Then, he told the students that from that moment on, they would be scientists. This is important because it gives the student permission and the responsibility to think and engage. It takes their image of a scientist (which is probably a picture of an adult white male in a labcoat based on images from t.v. or textbooks) and changes the image. When the students is told, YOU are a scientist, YOU, CHILD, who is STILL LEARNING, this is powerful. I think this will lead to motivation and engagement because then they can see themselves as doing what scientists do... One of the cool things about science is that because of it we are always learning new things. By letting students in on this secret, it makes them more likely to ask questions and make connections because now they know there are still questions to be asked!
Students have to be told how to do this, and that they can. Schrauth made a point of teaching students about the structures and processes of science before getting into the content. From what I remember of my own education, that I knew the process and structure was assumed, or was just supposed to come from the content, or wasn't viewed as important at all. Who really knows? But that got me thinking... how does a teacher expect a student, especially a very young student, to "do" science if he or she has never been told how? Yes, there are many things that we learn by doing. But, first we have to know a little bit of background knowledge. How will I learn to chop an onion if I don't first know what an onion and a knife are or where they are located in the kitchen? First students need the skills in order to engage in science content.
I can see connections between what he does with students and our class created goals for students. With the ice hands activity, I see independence, confidence, curiosity, problem solving, and research practices, and communication and collaboration.
What I read in the article is happening in our class as well. We are talking about the nature of science. We are talking about making observations, inferences and decisions for effective teaching. We are talking about what scientists do. We are considering goals for future students.
With our own experiences with the dot trick and the thing with the ropes, I see how goals can be met by doing something simple, interesting and not directly related to the science content in order to build skills. Through those activities, I have thought about science in simpler ways. We are not focusing primarily on the dot or the ropes but the way we use the experience as a conduit through which to hone the skills. While it may not seem impressive at first, asking "how does that rope thing work? are the ropes connected inside?" is research, curiosity, problem solving, at the least. It is the process of science (so... thinking back to my other blog, is the process one of the defining characteristics of science itself? woah.) This is a demonstration of how we can share the process of science with our students in a very easy, simple, and fun way. We are building our own background knowledge so we can apply it to the content when we are in the classroom.
Schrauth worked hard to build science skills with his students. He talked with his class about who scientists are and what scientists do. Then, he told the students that from that moment on, they would be scientists. This is important because it gives the student permission and the responsibility to think and engage. It takes their image of a scientist (which is probably a picture of an adult white male in a labcoat based on images from t.v. or textbooks) and changes the image. When the students is told, YOU are a scientist, YOU, CHILD, who is STILL LEARNING, this is powerful. I think this will lead to motivation and engagement because then they can see themselves as doing what scientists do... One of the cool things about science is that because of it we are always learning new things. By letting students in on this secret, it makes them more likely to ask questions and make connections because now they know there are still questions to be asked!
Students have to be told how to do this, and that they can. Schrauth made a point of teaching students about the structures and processes of science before getting into the content. From what I remember of my own education, that I knew the process and structure was assumed, or was just supposed to come from the content, or wasn't viewed as important at all. Who really knows? But that got me thinking... how does a teacher expect a student, especially a very young student, to "do" science if he or she has never been told how? Yes, there are many things that we learn by doing. But, first we have to know a little bit of background knowledge. How will I learn to chop an onion if I don't first know what an onion and a knife are or where they are located in the kitchen? First students need the skills in order to engage in science content.
I can see connections between what he does with students and our class created goals for students. With the ice hands activity, I see independence, confidence, curiosity, problem solving, and research practices, and communication and collaboration.
What I read in the article is happening in our class as well. We are talking about the nature of science. We are talking about making observations, inferences and decisions for effective teaching. We are talking about what scientists do. We are considering goals for future students.
With our own experiences with the dot trick and the thing with the ropes, I see how goals can be met by doing something simple, interesting and not directly related to the science content in order to build skills. Through those activities, I have thought about science in simpler ways. We are not focusing primarily on the dot or the ropes but the way we use the experience as a conduit through which to hone the skills. While it may not seem impressive at first, asking "how does that rope thing work? are the ropes connected inside?" is research, curiosity, problem solving, at the least. It is the process of science (so... thinking back to my other blog, is the process one of the defining characteristics of science itself? woah.) This is a demonstration of how we can share the process of science with our students in a very easy, simple, and fun way. We are building our own background knowledge so we can apply it to the content when we are in the classroom.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
What Is Science?
Learning that we will be spending time duscissing "the nature of science" in upcoming classes got me thinking about a question someone recently asked me...
WHAT IS SCIENCE?
Well, that's a tough question. I think I know what science is, but when asked to define it... the words don't come to mind easily. So I've been thinking about it and here is what I've come up with.
Science is everything.
I will elaborate.
Science is the study of the human experience of the world around us.
how do things work? what causes natural phenomonon like weather? why do snakes shed their skin?
are there life on other planets? what is gravity? what is electricity? what happens when we mix mentos and diet coke together? how can I make my skateboard go faster? can we find a cure for cancer?
etc.
etc.
etc.
All of this is the search for answers to some of life's big and small questions.
I am generally interested in science, but I admit that I can't truly describe what science is. I hope this will change as I go through this course. Especially if I am to help young people understand the meaning of science and why it is important.
WHAT IS SCIENCE?
Well, that's a tough question. I think I know what science is, but when asked to define it... the words don't come to mind easily. So I've been thinking about it and here is what I've come up with.
Science is everything.
I will elaborate.
Science is the study of the human experience of the world around us.
how do things work? what causes natural phenomonon like weather? why do snakes shed their skin?
are there life on other planets? what is gravity? what is electricity? what happens when we mix mentos and diet coke together? how can I make my skateboard go faster? can we find a cure for cancer?
etc.
etc.
etc.
All of this is the search for answers to some of life's big and small questions.
I am generally interested in science, but I admit that I can't truly describe what science is. I hope this will change as I go through this course. Especially if I am to help young people understand the meaning of science and why it is important.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Hello!
This is a test post. Can you see my blog? I'm sharing it on Google Plus. Leave a comment if you can read this.
Allison
Allison
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