I didn't realize that today was our second to last soil lesson! I was sure we had at least two more.  I'm a little disappointed our time with our fun third grade class will be ending.  I feel as though we haven't covered enough to make it all come together.  Hopefully Mrs K can finish up the unit without us!
I left the lesson today feeling slightly frazzled, but according to our observer we did a good job! That was a relief to hear.  We didn't get to all of this things on our lesson plan, which is the first time that has happened to us.  Also the activity didn't go exactly as I had pictured it.  We were planting cucumber seeds into clear plastic tubes, so when the seeds start to grow we will be able to see the root growth.  At one point they had to pour sand clay and humus samples into test tubes, using folded pieces of paper as funnels, and their was a sort of tricky process for them.  To be honest I can't think of another way to have made it easier/ go any smoother.  
Our Process skill forces for this week was technology and engineering.  The part of the lesson that we didn't get to was going to assign with the engineering frameworks, so hopefully we'll get one more shot at covering that next week!
Over all, Today was a good lesson.  Hopefully some seeds start to grow before our last visit next week!

Here's a little holiday-ish joke for you...

What do you get if you divide the circumference
of a pumpkin by its diameter?

Pumpkin pi.

hehe:)

Technology and Writing

Our lessons have been getting better and better, and I definitely feel a lot more confident in front of the class! Last week our lesson was about how soil supports plant life, and students planted seeds in local soil along with another sample of solid (either sand, clay, or humus).  The two process skills we were focusing on were integrating technology and writing in science.  For technology, we watched a BrainPop video with the class.  We had watched BrainPop with them before so we knew this would be a hit.   We also included technology for the students to share their responses of their observations on recording worksheets.  we used a doc cam and selected a few students to display their work and explain it to the class.  They seems ed very excited to do this!  For writing we had students write predictions in their science journals.  We also had them write out in worlds, descriptions of their observations.  They usually just draw picture of what they see, but this time we had them accompany their drawings with handwritten captions.   Im really pleased as the progress of the students knowledge as wee as our progress as science teachers!

Last weeks lesson was a great improvement from the edible soil lesson, I'm very relieved to say! It wasn't flawless, but definitely better.  One issue was that our lesson was a continuation of what their classroom teacher was supposed to do with them the previous Thursday.  I guess since they missed so much school, they hadn't gotten to it.  She was able to squeeze it in with them Monday before they went to lunch, so the materials we needed we at least prepared. But since they had JUST done it about an hour before we go there, the lesson definitely didn't have the same effect it was supposed to.  It was supposed to be on how soil particles settle after a few days, but we had to work with soil particles that had settled in one hour! we did our best, and adjusted as well as we could!

The focus skills for this lesson were content vocabulary from the soil unit, common misconceptions about soil, and  the flow of the class.  Each week we spend a lot of time planning how much time we figure each portion of the lesson will take, so the flow of the class hasn't been an issue at all for us.  As far as content vocabulary is concerned, we spent time going over vocabulary words from this lesson and we explained why it's so important to fully and deeply understand content vocab.  We asked them what settle means, when we say we are looking at how soil particles "settle in water".  We thought this word might be confusing as it has many definitions (according to thefreedictionary.com, 28 different definitions to be exact!).  We discussed science content vocab as well.  

For common misconceptions we gave students a worksheet with some soil related misconceptions such as "Is soil the same things as dirt?", "Soil is brown", "Is soil alive?", etc.  The students got most of them right, but we stumped them with a few! 

Overall we had a great 4th lesson!

Lesson #3 didn't go quite as planned, but it was definitely a learning experience for me.  The first few lessons in the soil unit are very similar- or at least the activity portions are similar.  They involved slight variations of observing of soil and soil components.  So in effort to switch things up, we planned an alternative/fun lesson for this week where we taught about soil layers through making an edible soil model.  It seemed like such a good idea in theory, but for 2 beginner teachers to try to pull of that lesson, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

Overall the objectives of the lesson were met, but the "carrying out the lesson" portion, which was a good majority of the time, was chaotic.  It's ironic that this week one of the focus skills was classroom management, because it was definitely the area where we struggled the most in this crazy lesson.  There was constant chatter throughout the activity and it was super hard to keep the conversation focused on only soil.  With candy and the food we were using, the third graders were SO distracted.  Which is to be expected- they're kids, and we gave them candy!  Not to mention they'd come back from a week off, and they had a substitute teacher.  We discovered this week that classroom management is a lot tougher without the presence of their regular teacher.  In the past she hasn't had to chime in much, but this week's lesson was particularly hectic and we definitely could have used her help.  

The second focus skill this week was process skills, which was another area where we made a bit of a mistake.  We wrote in our lesson plan that the process skill we wanted to focus on this week was "drawing conclusions" but the teachers who observed us pointed out that it would have been much more relevant for us to have taught "making a model".  It seems so obvious now, I with we had thought of that!  It would have been a really great way to explain the point of the soil activity, and this activity would have been a great way to learn about the process skill, making a model.  It was hard to use this activity to explain "drawing conclusions", and I'm sure the students were confused. 

To look on the bright side, I think the lesson conclusion went well.  The conclusion this week was definitely key for our objectives to be met.  We revisited all of our key questions and all of the points we wanted to cover had been represented in the activity.  I think it would have been much more powerful if we had been able to preface the activity better and more clearly.  By the conclusion when the models were completed, we were able to show them what we were looking for, but if they had known what we were looking for from the beginning I think the whole activity would have been much more meaningful.  

Having gone through that, I still think this would be a tough lesson to try to pull off.  It would take a lot of rethinking and restructuring.  It's not something I would recommend to a beginning teacher.  Full authority in the classroom is a necessity for this one!

This has provided us with an opportunity for drastic improvement for next weeks lesson! Live and learn, and progress.

This week's lesson went well! When Erik and I walked in to the classroom we got a very warm/excited greeting from the students.  It was a very encouraging way to start off soil lesson number 2! 

One of the focus areas for this week was lesson intro, which I actually had a hard time with.  Lesson two was almost identical to lesson one, it just involved more substances to observe.  Finding a catchy way to connect with the students lives was very tricky.  In the future I can imagine this will continue to be a portion of lesson planning that I might need to spend extra time on.  

As far as materials management goes, there have been no issues thus far.  I think our successful material management comes from the fact that we plan well, and prepare all the materials for each group of students beforehand.  If we used the material gathering strategy the way the kit's teachers' guide says to, it would definitely take three times longer than the way we do it.  

The number one area for improvement in the flow of our lessons is hand washing procedures.  Last week the kids ended up all forming a singe file line and took a while to get through everyone to wash their hands. This week we tried to implement more of a rotation in groups strategy. We even wrote out in our lesson plan, an explicit description of how we would carry this out.  Regardless of the thought we put into it, the hand washing ended up going almost exactly as it did last week!  We may need some professional help here for what we should do in the future.  

Pfewww... My. Spracklin and I made it through our first lesson, and it wasn't any were near as difficult or stressful as we thought it would be! It feels really good to have made it past the first nerve racking experience in the spotlight, speaking to a full classroom, with professionals observing and critiquing.  Its a small step forward for us as teachers, but right now it feel like an ENORMOUS step! I'm very happy to report that Lesson #1: What is Soil? in grade 3 of the South Row school was quite a success! It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun.  

I think that the planning and preparation were the biggest reasons everything went so smoothly for us.  Luckily we can learn from the mistakes of others, like in Sarah's Case, so we knew how important the planning portion was going to be.  Erik and I worked together very well.  We took turns presenting material to the class at the beginning of the lesson, and we both interacted with the students during the hands-on activity.  We came up with a good system for passing out materials, but the hand washing process needs a slight tweek.  We've made a minor adjustment yo the procedure so that shouldn't be an issue from here on out.

Anticipation & Excitement!

I am very excited about our preservice teaching opportunity at the South Row school! I feel a bit of nervous anticipation, but more than anything I feel very excited! My biggest concern is regarding timing, and being able to get through a lesson and fulfill the objectives, with only one hour!  Another concern is trying to fit the 15 week unit into our 7 or 8 visits, and coordinate with the teacher when lessons might overlap.  We decided to alternate lessons with our classroom teacher, and we're starting the unit off with lesson 1. It's an introduction to the unit, to soil, and it also involves making observations of soil.  The classroom teacher will build off of our lesson to present lesson #2 later in the week, but I have to admit I'm kind of bummed because lesson 2 looks really fun! The students will be making compost that will be involved in each lesson for the rest of the unit. I would really want to be there for that one! 

Working with soil will be messy!! 

This is a picture of my little brother 

getting very muddy in our backyard!  

He looks happy, but he'd just gotten 

into huge trouble for filling the 

sandbox up with the hose!

Caught ya!

What I'm looking forward to the most is just being in the classroom and teaching a whole class! We've had the opportunity to work with students one on one, or possibly in small groups, but this will be my first time in front of entire class. It's definitely an over whelming feeling, and a ton of pressure, but more than anything I'm really excited!  Going into this with a co-teacher adds comfort and takes off some of the pressure.  I'm very happy to be working with Erik, and I know we'll make a great team!

The Imporance of Lesson Planning

At the heart of learning science, there is a combination of curiosity and discovery.  With the acquisition of new knowledge, and understanding, getting to the "a ha!" moment often leads to further curiosity and questioning... This may or may not deviate from the intended focus of the lesson.  Taking advantage of a teachable moment could be a great way to spark further interest in science, but its a good idea to have a lesson plan with specific goals and objectives so the lesson doesn't stray too far off.  Having a planned-out lesson with explicit procedures, and a clearly stated objective will be helpful for keeping the teacher focused on what he or she intended to teach.

Its also important to keep students on task, by making the objectives of the lesson clear.  The objectives or the key question for the lesson should be posted in the classroom.

This way, the purpose of the lesson is explicitly stated for them, and if they stay off task they can easily be reminded to  take a look at the objectives. 

One important step in planning a science lesson is to do a trial run, and practice any experiments in advance.  Once your in the classroom, if any students are having difficulties, you will know how to help them.  Trying it out will also be a good time to make sure you have all of the materials you will need, or give you time to figure out,and gather anything else your lesson might require.  Planning for a lesson and practicing an experiment before hand also gives you time to put together any charts or other graphic organizers for students to collect data, or make specific observations. 


For teaching elementary science, safety is an extremely important aspect to consider when planning a lesson.  With so many materials needed, and possibly equipment,  its important for teachers to think about any safety precaution necessary to be taken.  When creating the lesson plan, it would be a good idea to set aside a few minuted to explain or demonstrate how to use the equipment.  Students will also need to be taught certain safety tips such as "wafting smells".

Online Resources for Teaching Elementary Science

Check out http://www.kidsites.com/sites-edu/science.htm! It has a ton of links to interactive science websites, and it for a would be a great resource it use in the classroom! I've clicked on most of the links, and I've enjoyed every single site listed! I've learned a ton of new and super interesting info too!

One link in particular that I enjoyed a lot is Color Matters.  It's a website about how important color is in our world, and how the concept of color can be explored in terms of psychology, physiology, design and science.  I found the section "Color and Appetite Matters" fascinating! Apparently the color blue is an appetite suppressant! 
There's also a section called Color Matters for Kids, with articles on topics like why school buses are yellow, and how/why colors are symbolically tied to genders, cultures, etc. 

Another link I enjoyed a lot and I think would be a great classroom resource is Funology.com. This website explores "the science of having fun", and provides tons of science facts, along with experiments, crafts, recipes, magic tricks, games and more! One activity that caught my eye was instructions on how to make an "indoor rainbow" with a basin of water, a mirror and a flashlight.  I'm going to try it and see if it works! There are a ton of other really great and creative ideas. You have to check the site out!

My Science Story

When I think back on my academic experiences, nothing science related in particular stands out in my mind.  Despite my lack of memories, I know I always liked science and did well in the subject. 

Unfortunately, my most recent academic experience in science left me with a pretty strong negative impression of the subject... 
I started my undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut as a pre-pharmacy major.  I ambitiously attempted my science and math filled course-load, but despite my best efforts, I ended up withdrawing from chemistry for two semesters in a row.  Feeling frustrated and defeated, I switched my major and swore off science!
I switched my course of study a grand total of four times before I decided I wanted to become a teacher. 
I went from pre-pharm to pre-business, to HDFS (human development and family studies), to psychology.  At that point I decided I wanted to go in to teaching, but the education program at UConn would have meant a few more years of out-of state tuition.  With the intention of applying to graduate school in Massachusetts for elementary education, I got my undergrad degree in psychology, with a minor in communication. 
I really liked psychology, and once I'd decided on that as my major I actually made dean's list for four semesters in a row! What a turn around from two semesters with "W"s on my transcripts!  But even though I liked psych, I knew I wanted to go in to education. 

Psychology incorporated some science, mostly physiology and the workings of the brain.  I found this type of science much more comprehensible than chemistry!  And in terms of elementary education, I think having a background in psychology will be helpful. 

Although my initial undergrad science courses left me feeling discouraged in my scientific abilities, I look forward to taking the course "Elementary Science Methods" this semester.  I anticipate being reminded why I liked science so much in elementary school, and getting my confidence in the subject back! 

I learn best when I can clearly see real world application in the material, and I prefer a hands-on learning approach.  I will be applying these learning preferences to my teaching strategies in my classroom when I'm a teacher.  As an educator who will be teaching science, "My Science Story" is far from over!  I can't wait to be in a classroom and get started on the next chapter!