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