Reflecting on the reflection

The semester has officially ended and yet here I am in the Curriculum Library trying to race the clock as I attempt to finish not just one but two LiveBinders for Dr. Smirnova. Hooray!

I will look back on this and laugh.
I will also look back on this and realize, like I do every end of a school year, just how much I really love learning. I love researching, making my opinions based off of fact, holding old books in my hands and coming away with a knowledge I did not know before.

Everyone knows I am obsessed
with Feral Children and that came from nosing around on YouTube for far too long and finally coming up with something grotesque and awe-inspiring. It's one of the main reasons I decided to go back to school for Education. I wanted to learn more about Feral Children and how children's minds developed. And now, here I am at the end of my second year of graduate school, filled with knowledge and pumped with even more curiosity.

So what did I learn this semester?
I learned I can do a lot more than I thought I could do.
I learned that technology is a vital organ in the classroom, that it is a huge glass door that once swung open leads to a forest of knowledge where the trees are numerous and stacked with ideas. Somewhere in the clearing is a fountain of knowledge that never runs dry. It is mesmerizing. And the forest can either be friendly and inviting or can be dark and perplexing. It all depends on how you swing open the door. Which is why it is so important for classroom teachers to be at
the helm, spearing the way for students to go out and explore on their own.

I also learned the value on inquiry based lessons coincided with direct instruction. I thought the two were such different schools of thought, almost never sharing the same classroom and certainly never sharing the same breath. But instead, the two are a match made in heaven. They are team mates, partners and best friends. With Direct comes Inquiry and somewhere in the mix Cooperative Learning toddles along, eager to show its own strength. I finally learned that I have command of all three. That in that command I can have students become masters of a tool I only just learned to use myself.

The experience was intense. It left my nervous, stressed, overwhelmed, excited and all the while kicking and screaming. I have been taking three classes this semester, two with Dr. Smirnova (Methods Science and Methods Social Studies) and one with Dr. Berlinghoff (Research Based Instruction). Those three classes have not been a walk in the park, but I have emerged from the other side a more forceful student, soaked in new knowledge and capable of adapting to student needs faster than I would have ever imagined. It truly was an incredibly experience. Exhausting, but incredible.

I am also excited to use all the resources that have been provided to me, almost on a silver platter: TikTok, PowToon, Glogster, Tagul, WordCloud, Google Slides.
My classroom is already brimming with new ideas, a better and firmer grasp on instruction and resources a plenty, and I don't even have a classroom yet.

La Luna

In class we spoke about the exploration of space: How exciting and how terrifying. But who doesn't love the man in the moon? Doesn't he seem like a companion?

For our Earth, there is but one solar companion, one right-hand man that commands attention at night and sends a little order to our waters: the moon. We seem him fairly often, making a sleepy appearance at night to tuck us into bed.
Othertimes, the moon gets cheeky and smirks at us from a clear blue sky, reminding us that just when we feel so busy, so in command, abiding to our silly man made laws, we are barely a moment in a very lengthy novel about the universe.

So we can agree we are almost nothing in comparison, let's look at the other planets and their moons. Let's look at Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, commanding a fleet of moons to our pithy one.

I mean, really. The numbers don't lie. But did the planets have to show off quite so much? Couldn't they have been team players, just a little bit?

No.

SERIOUSLY JUPITER?

16 Moons?  Those four are only a quarter of all the moons. A QUARTER.
And their size, damn, so to say.



Let's move onto Saturn then.

Oh.
These are simply just the major moons of Saturn. That means there are more. Again, for those counting, we have one.

That's fine.

JUST FINE OVER HERE WITH OUR MOON.
Also, side note, check out all the cool names Saturn and Jupiter have for their moons: Rhea, Dione, Europa. Do you know what we call our moon? Moon. We are like small children who got to name the family dog and in our excitement we spurted out DOG.

And Neptune:

Seriously? Triton? HOW CLEVER IS THAT! Is one of the moons named Larissa? Are they dating? What is this??

But Pluto wouldn't do us wrong like that. Not Pluto. 

FOUR MOONS??? And some of the names rhyme? I am now just embarrassed and desperate. 

However, let me make final comment in the theme of frustration, indignation and revenge. 

Of all these planets, with all their moons and what have you, how many of them have life?

You go Earth and Moon!

The Inventor's Secret

The Inventor's Secret: my trade book!


I decided to use the following book for my trade book. The book covers the true life friendship between Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. I did not know that the two inventors had a friendship at all, so stumbling across this book was a great find.

The book is listed on National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)'s list of trade books. The list itself was  pretty lengthy, with numerous books to choose from. But I was sold by the title, the artwork and the idea behind the book.

The Inventor's Secret is about Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's growing friendship. Ford was a young inventor, struggling to come up with a patent that would hold water and Edison was breaking the mold left and right in terms of progression. Aside from an interesting snippet of history I had never heard of before, the artwork, the clever book title, I liked the idea of two people being inspired by one another and pushing each other towards greatness. It's an aspect of professional life I would like my students to learn about.

 The reviews from the teachers are all generously encouraging. Each teacher found a reason to introduce the book to a class, either a teacher found the friendship between the inventor's charming, the content approachable or the excitement about inventing to captivate the students.

The book can be taught to various grades.

Planet 9: Here to Kill

Planet 9?

Planet 9.

No, it is not a Sci-Fi movie, but I understand how to two could be confused.

A few weeks ago Dr. S asked us to compile articles that would highlight our interest in space. I have always loved space, although I will admit that it terrifies me to my very core. I think it's too abstract, too broad, too vague for me to even begin to wrap my brain around. But is it fascinating? Endlessly.

I found articles across the internet, but I wanted to make sure they held some water so I chose articles about space from reliable sources, so I went straight to the source I thought would work the best: NASA. I mean, who can beat NASA? (the answer: No one can)

I found a bunch of interesting articles, including one on Planet 9, which had a catchy title to boot:
No, Planet 9 will not kill us all. How can you not read that? You just have to.

The article talks about the misinformation spread about Planet 9, including a twitter warfare. Apparently, just to clarify and to dodge any twitter bullets, Planet 9 is speculated to exist, and it could, potentially hurl into our orbit. The problem about Planet 9 is its size. Its size is so large and so astounding, with its world of debris circulating its fat tummy, it poses a sort-of threat. The threat you think might, might, might happen but in a small, impossible way. Like when you think if you don't step on the sidewalk crack you have actually saved your mother's back. Not real.

But, we are excited about something new. A new planet! Psssh, watch out Pluto!

Aw, poor Pluto

Poor Pluto. BUT ENOUGH PLUTO, WE HAVE PLANET 9 NOW!

Or almost. It's all in theory. There COULD be a Planet 9 (hence the scifi name) and it COULD very well tumble and roll its way into our path, knocking our world, literally, out of space.

But will it?

I guess we just need to look to NASA to clarify and wait for the twitter warfare to fill in the blanks. 

Science Fair

In the middle of my Unit Plan planning, snowstorms and the general crisis mode of being in two Dr. Smirnova classes, I created a science fair project.

I can say in all faith and honesty that the science fair took its place on the back burner for me. I was focused on the anxiety of the Unit Plan, the added craziness of snow days and the absolute worst I had for the semester, which is that I would have to teach the two Unit Plans (one for Methods Social Studies and one for Methods Science) back to back.

It was the epic storm of craziness and it happened.

So, given all that was going on, I can't believe I even completed the science project, yet somehow I pulled one together.

I ended up exploring buoyancy, and I did that by placing an orange in a vase with the skin peeled off, and another orange with the skin still on.
I made a quick hypothesis, that the peeled orange would float, since it was smaller. But then I wondered if the orange would float or if the water would inch up through the orange itself through the slices. I had to go forward and let the oranges hold their own water, so to speak.

I had two large vases and filled the vases with the same amount of water, 1 1/2 cups.




The peeled orange sank immediately, for all of my 5 trials. The unpeeled orange did not sink, which was a surprise.

When I dug up some information as to why the oranges floated with their skin unpeeled.

The reason was due to buoyancy. The skin acts as a floatation device and evenly dispels the water around the orange. So while I had thought that the lack of skin would make the orange lighter and therefore would float, I had started the correct thinking that the water would creep through the crevices of the orange slices and weigh it down.




I enjoyed the experiment, although I do wish I had spent more time on the project too. I learned a surprising fact, forced myself to think creatively when I really wanted to panic instead and found a new project to incorporate into my classroom.

Earth's Twin

Venus, also known as Earth's twin, was the planet I was assigned last week to research during class. I knew only a handful of facts, mainly that Venus was the second planet. I also knew that Venus was named after the Roman god, Venus.

In my head I envisioned Venus as a blue planet with lots of water and for whatever reason, peaceful. As I did my research for class I realized just how wrong I really was. Very, very wrong, for those of us counting.

In my research I found a whole list of things I did not know:

• Venus is called Earth's twin because they are relatively the same size and mass.
• Venus is the brightest planet and can be seen plainly from the sky, even without a telescope. 
• Venus has many volcanoes, it is almost entirely made up of volcanoes. 
• There is no water on Venus! The atmosphere is so hot the water would come to a boil. 
• Venus rotates backwards, unlike any of the other planets.
• Venus' rotation is extremely slow, one Venus day takes an entire Earth year. 
• Since the rotation is backwards, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. 

It was clear that I did not know much about Venus. I found this clip about Venus and its atmosphere, which I found extremely educating!

I've always loved space and I love mythology.
Learning more about Venus just verified my love for learning about space and mythology!

Reading about Astronomy

Last week our class was tasked with researching articles about space to bring into class.
I decided to research through a few different sources: MSMC, the internet at large and NewsELA. I wanted a wide variety of articles to choose from to give my articles a mix of different views.


Here are my articles:

Articles about Astronomy
From the MSMC Library: 

An Elephant in the Lab - Barrington M. Salmon
This article talks about the small number of women pursuing science oriented careers.

Current Comment - America Press
This article is very, very sort and makes an appearance in Current Comment, kind of a current events. The article covers the work Einstein did and how it effected what we understand about the universe.

Kepler and the Universe - How one man revolutionized astronomy
A very short article about Kepler's work to introduce astronomy.

Articles from the Web:
A multi-colored Starscape: Using Mobile Astronomy Apps to explore the sky- Chris Vaughan
This article is about how we can use technology, specifically our phones, in order to better understand the sky above us. The apps available allow us to learn the names of the stars, plot out constellations and even see stars in color, a real treat to behold.

Astronomically Far Away: How to Measure the Universe - Paul Sutter
This article discusses how we could possibly be able to measure the universe. It sounds impossible to do while here on earth. But the author has you invested in a short experiment that uncovers how we use triangles to measure things. Essentially, if we can understand how to use triangles in measurement, we can understand how to measure the universe.

No, Planet Nine Won't Kill Us All - Mike Wall
Great title. This article is about two things: how the media likes to twists titles to catch our attention and how the alleged Planet 9 won't kill us aka it's debri won't knock us out of orbit or collide with us and send us to the moon, so to speak.




Climate Change Creates Wobble in Earth's Axis - Nasa's Jet Projection Press Release
This article is about how the alarming climate change is also effecting the earth's spin, which is scary enough to digest.

Articles from NewsELA:
Scientists Say Jupiter Muscled its way to Form Earth
This article is about how Jupiter's actions in space, or presence, helped form earth as we know it. Specifically how Jupiter's large size helped keep Earth from knocking into the smaller debri floating around, which is what happened to Mars and Venus. This also makes us wonder about the larger planets that might have existed before us.



Astronaut Twins to Test the Effect of Space Cognition
This article follows two astronauts who are being used by scientists to deepen their understanding of how our brains function in outer space. This will allow scientists, specifically NASA, to test how an astronaut will withstand certain experiences in space. The brothers are identical twins, which allows the researchers a greater in-depth understanding of the outcomes. The twins will take the tests 11 times while on their space mission, they have taken the tests numerous times while on earth in order for the researchers to review and reflect upon.



I would like to read Astronomy in Early Childhood Education: A Concept Based Approach

Atmosphere

Mike and I teamed up together to present Atmosphere. (Unlike anyone else, just US. BACK UP EVERYONE)

Dr. Smirnova asked us to use the website PowToon. Nifty, right?

But it had a very high learning curve. Or is it low? Either way it was difficult. D.I.F.F.I.C.U.L.T.

Mike really took hold of trying to wrangle it into submission. I checkout the minute there wasn't a real toolbox or a way for Mike to share the document/slide he had created with me. I'm a control freak, so having almost no ability to reach over and take over, like I do, was punishment. Although I feel that Mike had the bigger burden.

However, once Mike fought with PowToon and won, he was smitten. The slide becomes a movie, but a fancy and exciting movie. And even better yet, as Justin pointed out, most students already know how to use PowToon. Of course they do.

We used the tool for our Atmosphere presentation, in which we both learned a great deal about a subject area we had almost no knowledge in or desire to learn about. By the end of our research and work, I was coming up with ways to bring Atmosphere into the classroom everyday.

I liked the idea of integrating multiple subject areas. For this example, in my theoretical classroom, I could integrate a city we have been exploring in a non-fiction book (I'm looking at you Common Core) or hopefully a fiction one with a lesson about the atmosphere. I was thinking of using a foreign city, like Venus or Moscow, and checking the weather each morning as a class as part of our morning routine. Since google has google maps that allows people to visually stroll through the city ways/roads/tunnels it would be a great way to introduce geography, history, climate change and technology to my future students.

Let's Talk Scientific Method

Oh science. Oh slippery, tangible yet abstract, exciting and tedious, thing.  Enter; the Scientific Method.

At first glance, teaching students about the Scientific Method sounds about as fun as teaching students Latin. It sounds impossible, by far. But the reality of science, and teaching students to start donning lab coats in order to become scientists, boils down to the systematic steps of the Scientific Method. Without the method we are lost when it comes to discovery. Once students understand and master the concept of the Scientific Method, students are well on their way to discovery.

As Justin, Amanda and I began plotting out our Unit Plan and focusing out lessons on Life Science, we debated how to introduce the Scientific Method. Did we start off the lesson with jumping into the steps? Is Scientific Method a lesson on its own? We found ourselves at odds, looking at the same picture with different lenses. We decided to place the procedure of the Scientific Method during our Cooperative/Inquiry Lesson Plan.

Now looking back, I think that the Scientific Method should have been taught first, or should have been its own lesson, so that students had a firm grasp of it to begin with. By the end of our time with the Bishop Dunn students, Mike and Colleen presented their lesson entirely on the Scientific Method and the students responded to it eagerly, a surprise to us all. All groups felt some reward, we watched the students implement the facts, tools and procedures that we had spent weeks giving them.

I decided to go on a small hunt on youtube for a video about the Scientific Method. I found a lot of rap videos and awkward teachers making fumbled lyrics about the Scientific Method, all i the name of education. God bless teachers, really.
But I did find a really great video by none other than Cookie Monster. Of course Sesame Street would have a well thought out video about the Scientific Method. I should have known.

I recommend this video for any teachers working on the Scientific Method. I know that Cookie Monster, or Sesame Street in general, is geared towards younger students, but really, it's funny. That's why Sesame Street is brilliant, but I won't ramble on that.

The video covers all aspects of the Scientific Method; Ask a question, Do research, Form a hypothesis, test your hypothesis, analyze data and present your outcomes. And Cookie Monster and scientific guy do it well!

In conclusion, Scientific Method does not have to be a terrifying subject to teach, after all.

The Last Last Last Last Group

The last group!

Also known in certain circles as Group 4 or to me as Colleen and Mike.

Group 4 introduced the Scientific Method to our extension class. The students at this point really rocked the lesson, they already had done the Scientific Method so many times they could do it in their sleep (maybe).

Also, hold the phone, NAME TAGS?? Brilliant. Colleen and Mike has each child make and design their own name tags as an icebreaker. Which solved the age old quandry our class had: which James am I calling on? We had James F. and Other James. Because that really sets the tone for that kid, Other James. (He's fine) I mean seriously brilliant. Why didn't I think of it? Why? Because I'm not Colleen and Mike. They would think of that. (I AM NOT UPSET).

Third Times the Charm

Let's hear it for the undergrads!

At this point, the third group, the aforementioned undergrads, really saw the highs and lows of two groups that went before them. The undergrads really put a lot of work into developing their lesson plan. There was clear concrete effort made and utilized and the girls worked together nicely.

Their unit plan was based around geology, specifically rocks. Rocks rock. A pun of a pun. I'll take it. As a huge rock nerd I loved learning even more about rocks, sometimes peering over students shoulders so that I could also take a close look.

The third group had a difficult direct lesson that left some students swimming in the dark. At the end of the lesson, when we all sit around and lament how we did wrong, the undergrads saw their mistake and cringed at the lengthy graphic organizer that kept one student puzzling. Like anything in life, once that pitch has been thrown, it's hard to take it back. And sometimes you have to throw the ball before you can do anything.

I was impressed with the speed and organization of the third group. They were well rehearsed and eager to make a mark. They lacked confidence and communication, but that was to be expected, its a nerve-wracking experience. And they did it well. Thumbs up to Group 3!

Second Group

 Introducing Group 2!

Oh it's me and Justin and Amanda.

What can I say about being Group 2, teaching a whole class instruction?
It's insanity at its finest. I guess I could say that. I could also say that I learned what kind of work goes into preparing a lesson, strengthening my teacher voice and leaning very hard on my partners.

We were saddled with Life Science which sounds all fun and games but IT IS NOT. Life Science is not strictly about pack animals like one of us seemed to think (me), but about the dichotomous key and habitats and gene splitting. WHAT.

Let's move on.

Justin came up with our lesson and found a great idea to launch off of, Harry Potter's Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and the dichotomous key. It was great, it was intense and tedious and gross and fun.

WHYYYYY

Preparing was a nightmare. I also take Methods Social Studies with Dr. S and what I had been praying against all semester came true: I had to conduct a whole class lesson back to back, and start fieldwork for my third class. I didn't cry once this semester but I definitely broke a few things (RIP calculator). On top of that, we had endless snow days on Tuesdays only, which is how that perfect storm of stress came about in the first place.

By the time our whole class lesson came to fruition it felt like I had been held in a holding cell for years on end. It was years, right?

Once Justin and I got in-front of the classroom it all fell into place. We knew our Unit Plan so well that it was like trying on an old coat. We knew that the elbows needed mending and that the blue clashed with the plaid but we were rocking it. And I can say I feel that we did.

We missed a huge step, like the bottom step of a stair case, when we forgot to go through the steps of the Scientific Method, but we recovered from our fumble as gracefully as we could. By the end of the whole saga, we were happy with out result.

First Group

The first group to present at Bishop Dunn consisted of: John, Colin, Kelly and Catherine. They had the overwhelming responsibility of carrying the weight of our class, in terms of fieldwork. Almost no one in our class truly had an idea about how the fieldwork would eventually become. We have all worked with students before, and almost everyone in Methods Science has performed fieldwork with Bishop Dunn students in the traditional sense, which means that we work almost one-on-one with anywhere from one to three students at a time for about five weeks. We prepare mini-lessons, or lesson blocks, which cover lessons we will be performing in 45 minute segments with our assigned students. What we were all not used to, by any means, was the idea that we could teach to a whole class.

Dr. Smirnova arranged for us to work with a classroom of third-fourth graders, about 10 total, for an hour and a half. Dr. S broke our class into four groups and gave us lesson frames and examples of what she expected from us. But in reality, none of us knew what to truly expect until we were thrown into the classroom. Colleen, Mike and myself had an insider's peek at the process since we take Methods Social Studies on Mondays with Dr. Smirnova, but science is not social studies.

Therefore, the first group became our leading example. They grappled with this new set of demands and learned by failure and triumph to fulfill Dr. Smirnova's expectations.

And it was a lot.

The group provided excellent activities and the students truly loved every second of it. They loved being scientists and explorers, note takers and taste testers. The first group learned the hard way the standards that Dr. S sets are no joke. They is no gray are or maybe. There is only Dr. S. The first group learned exactly how to conduct a whole class instruction: Direct Lesson, Inquiry and then Cooperative. And within those three lesson is a world of detail. And we all know that the devil really is in the details.

I commend the first group for trying their hand at a difficult task and secretly thank them for all they taught me as I wrote down feverish notes.

Fieldwork Overload

I don't think preparing for fieldwork is really possible.
Is it?

You have to mentally prepare yourself to somehow wrangle students you don't know into a room to lecture them and hopefully engage them in a content area they may love or they may hate. On top of that, for this particular class, our fieldwork is on display for our peers as well as for our professor.

So how do you prepare?

You read a lot, research even more and tell yourself that somehow, someway, it will all be okay.
Because for all the stress and run around, gathering materials, losing pages, computers crashing and deciding at the last minute to change your objective, it all boils down to whether or not you walk in that door with personality, performance and an ability to call a child by his name.

For this particular fieldwork experience I will be drawing upon the use of my prior experience in Bishop Dunne. I feel confident that I can work with almost all age groups, that I can engage kids, challenge them and keep the rhythm of a classroom. No easy feat by any means, but it is why I want to become a teacher in the first place.

As I sit here and review the rubrics, glance at the Unit Plan that is still being developed and watch yet another snow day come drifting by, I am excited to get into the classroom!

The First Discovery

Scientific Me

What is scientific me?

My experience with science has been varied. My first most vivid memory of science was during high school. I had an amazing biology teacher who, in many many ways, scared me. She was passionate and loved her work, but was a strict disciplinarian. I would sit in her class, dreading being called on, afraid to answer a question and wishing the class would end. I will admit to one thing; I was not the best student. Which most likely attributed to my panic in Mrs. Cuesta's class.

I struggled to maintain interest in biology and my grades really mirrored my disinterest. My teacher, Mrs. Cuesta, called my mother to tell her that I was not performing well. Infact, I was underperforming. I am the youngest of three, which meant my mother was onto my procrastinating ways. By the end of their conversation, my mother and Mrs. Cuesta had become fast friends. Fast friends. In a 45 minute conversation. Somewhere along those 45 minutes, Mrs. Cuesta decided to give my mother bags of Hosta. I stepped into my bio classroom one morning, on-time and with two minutes to spare. Mrs. Cuesta handed me two bags bursting with Hosta, noting that if I wanted to store the Hostas in my locker, I had less than a minute to return to run to my locker and return to class, on time. And, in typical Mrs. Cuesta fashion she told me with a droll that if I wasn't on time I could either donate one dollar to her charity or receive a demerit.  In that moment, running through a packed hallway while holding two soggy bags of Hosta, I kind of hated her. 

Now, to this day, my mother looks out the window onto her Hosta gift which came from my terrifying teacher, and sighs, lamenting that I could have been a scientist. 

Which is interesting. What is a scientist? Is it me? My four plants dying in my room will say no. But really, I am. I am experimenting whether or not coffee grounds help plants, perhaps act as plant food. By the way, no, they do not. 

Experimenting!

I would categorize myself as many things, but one of those, is that I try to be an artist, when I can.  Personally, I believe all artists are scientists. We experiment with light, color and drying time. We take the idea of classical paintings and say, wait. Pollock threw paint at canvas and Picasso decided that noses belonged near our ears. And with those experiments we came across new genres and breath taking work. We are experimenting all the time. 

And who doesn't love experimenting? Isn't that when we learn? Isn't that the fun of learning? Being able to be wrong in our pursuit to be right?

When I think about who I will be in the classroom, conducting a slew of children through the newest and greatest curriculum. But what kind of scientist will I be? I think about Mrs. Cuesta: brilliant, terrifying. Did I learn? Did I take away excitement for science or did I come away an uneasy feeling when I thought about biology? I know Mrs. Cuesta would be upset to know I am the latter. And that is something I do not want my students to walk away from. I want my students to be curious, grossed out, skeptic, and leaning forward into science.