SCED 330: September Blog

What a fun month is has been for SCED330 we have dived into building our ecocolumns and watched them grow. Mine has had a delayed start, but I think it is finally onto a growth spurt. We are getting into the routine of collecting data each day we are in class because that is the same practices we are going to be using for our Science Fair Projects. That is also a new development this month. My group is testing how well certain plants will grow after being watered with a form of acid rain. We have planted our plants and are just waiting to see what happens. We also discussed this past month about the idea of phenomenon and how we can teach this in science as well as the Cl-Ev-R model which I learned can be used in any subject area. All you have to do is make a claim, provide some evidence and then reasoning all to back up your claim. 

A struggle that I have run into throughout this week is finding the time to work on my science unit while juggling all other assignments. This is something I want to stay on top on this semester especially with the amount of edTPA work that I have added with the 4 methods classes I am taking. My plans are to schedule out time starting this week to chip away at this task, so it does not get up on the back burner. So far, I am most proud of keeping up with all assignments and not missing any due dates thus far. I am also happy that I have some of the first checks done for my clinical experience requirements like the introductory email, and meeting for science methods. I love being able to check things off and I was able to do this for this learning experience. 

At the beginning of the week we talked about all of the requirements for clinicals for science methods and how edTPA intertwines into this task. I was able to contribute to the conversations we had about each of these commentaries and the context for learning piece. I am planning to continue to contribute to the class discussions, so we can all get a better understanding of how to really polish these edTPA lesson segments. As I am beginning to think of what segment I am going to teach for science integration comes to my mind. My CE has a small time slot available for science and social studies instruction, but integration is going to have to be my best friend in this process and something I will have to get into the routine of implementing in my future classroom. Below is a great link to an article I found talking about integrating across the curriculum. 

https://www.edutopia.org/practice/departmentalization-and-integration-deeper-learning-elementary-students

            A current even that we took some time to talk about this past month was Florence and how we can explain to any age group what a hurricane really is! This is a great website below that is kid language friendly. 

https://www.ducksters.com/science/earth_science/hurricanes.php

This was a great activity we did in class because this is something that most definitely will happen in my future classroom and I need to know how to answer and handle these questions. 

            This month I have learned and seen more about the NCTCS 3c. teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content area/disciplines, and 4c. teachers use a variety of instruction methods. These have been seen when discussing in class about how science is not always given a time slot in each classroom, so integration is key. Along with that there are so many different ways that science can being brought into the classroom to get students up and engaged in learning. 

 Tweet 1: As I mentioned in the tweet I would love to have something like this in my future classroom. This is a giant coloring sheet as a bulletin board where students can just go color when they are needing to rest their brain, or finished an assignment. By the end of the year you have a beautiful masterpiece. 

 Tweet 2: This particular tweet are pictures from a teacher's classroom where her students built ferris wheels for a project. What a great way to get students involved and creating while incorporating some science into their learning. This could easily be a math project but students can find science elements about a ferris wheel.

Tweet 3: This is tweet solely devoted to student inquiry which I thought was very appropriate for our science methods class where that is exactly what we have been talking about. I think this is a great visual and tool to use in the classroom to help spark this kind of learning. 

EDUC 435: Welcome Back to School!

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Wow time is already flying by! It seems that we just started school yesterday and yet we are a month into the semester already. During this past month I have had some wonderful opportunities in my clinical placement classroom. I am placed in kindergarten and absolutely love my CE. We work great together, and I feel that I am learning from her more and more everyday. I was able to see the beginning of school on both angles, the teacher workshops and planning days, and the open houses and then the first official days. As many of you know with kindergarten we do stagger entry and boy am I glad because it took both my CE and myself to manage just 5 students those first days. 

Being in kindergarten there is never a dull moment and I love it because it helps keep life interesting. We are fortunate in our class to only have 14 students. I feel that this will help with the group work and help create more one-on-one opportunities. For these first weeks of 435 we have focused on just introductions into our classroom and then classroom management. By observing my CE’s strategies and tactics that she uses for classroom management I have gained so many new ideas to take into my future classroom. Things that I would have never thought of like assigning a line order, having supplies stored on the seats with little pockets instead of on the tables, always doing movements for easy transitions and more. I can definitely say that I am getting attached to my little babies and hope they are as well. 

OUTSIDE RESEARCH

I have attached an article talking about students being diagnosed with autism. This seems to be entering the classrooms more and more. We currently are having two students in our class tested for autism. Being able to witness this diagnosis and see how this process is handled has been very eye opening. This is going to be a great asset to my edTPA writing I feel. I for one do not have much knowledge on the best strategies for teaching students with this LD so this is why this research was done and attached in case anyone else is dealing with the same situations in their classrooms this year. 

https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2015/03/09/12-things-i’d-teachers-understand-about-autism

NCTCS

            As I have observed so far in the classroom and school community I have seen several of the NCTCS being put into practice. Some examples are: 1a. teachers lead in their classroom, 2a. teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults, 2c. teachers treat students as individuals, 3a. teachers align their instruction with the NCSCOS, 4b. teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students. My CE has welcomed in each of her students with open arms but, has also been strict and made them well aware of the expectations and procedures to have a successful school year. There is a wide range of learners in our class, so I have seen my CE plan her instruction and introductions into school very precisely and seeing how age appropriate it has been. It has been a while since I have been in a kindergarten classroom, so I am having to get use to how much more basic the instruction has to be in order for students to understand. But, even though we are in a kindergarten class my CE still puts her standards in 5-year-old friendly language of what we are going to be learning today. These past few weeks it has been as simple as: “I will learn to listen and follow directions”.

MY FUTURE CLASSROOM 

            Like mentioned earlier I have found so many tools tips, and teacher tricks that I would like to take into student teaching and my future classroom. I love first of all how organize my CE’s classroom is. She has it nice and decorated, but it is not overwhelming and difficult to find items. A lot of this has to do with the amount of storage she has. I think you just have to know how to best use the spaces in which you are given. I also love her classroom library system of displaying books for each season of the year and based upon the unit of study. So, this first part of the year she just has books out either about starting school, the ABCs, and counting because that is what we have been talking about so far. This shows a great connection for students. I also love how she does a lot of song and dance and encourages all students to participate and will dance and goof off with them. This helps tremendously in transitions and to get some extra energy out. I plan to continue to notice things that I want to transfer over into my classroom and just take as many notes as possible.