Blog #7: Engineering Lesson

On Tuesday, Amanda, Lisa, Alicia and I taught an engineering lesson in a small group with four kindergartners. Our lesson focused on standard K-2-ETS1-2 that states, “Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.” This lesson had the students build a model house based off of the story, The Three Little Pigs. We integrated our lesson by incorporating literacy and science. During this lesson we read to the students the children’s book, The Three Little Pigs. This story was familiar to all the students, but we wanted to make sure the students knew the three different houses that were in the story and the materials that were able to withstand the big bad wolf. The students then used the variety of material provided to build their own houses that could withstand “the big bad wolf” or hair dryer.

When reflecting on how the lesson went, I think that the lesson went well and the objective was accomplished. What I think we did well in our lesson was how we accommodated for the ELL students or all the students in the small group. For example, The Three Little Pigs book was bilingual. If a different teacher that was bilingual was teaching this lesson, the teacher could use what she knows about the group of students to see if  reading the story in English or Spanish would more beneficial. By observing the students as Lisa read the story, I was able to see how well they could answer the guided questions. I could tell that the students were able to follow along in the story and its important details. Another way that we accommodated for the ELL students is by including many visuals and a hands-on activity that lined up with the standard. In this lesson, students were using the examples in the texts to test materials we provided to have the students build their own houses.  In addition to what went well in our lesson, I also would change some parts as well.

If I were to teach the lesson again I would have included more materials for student to build their houses with. For example, I would include lighter materials that would not be able to withstand the blow dryer in order to give students examples of less strong materials. I say this because in our lesson, all four of the houses that the students constructed all were able to withstand the blow dryer. We had planned to ask the students, what objects are the most strong and which are the least strong. It wasn’t until Amanda quickly constructed a house out of straws that a model house blew over.  After that example the student were able to answer the guided questions correctly. I learned from that example that the lesson may not go as planned, but it was a good that we were able to be flexible and think of an idea on the spot. When constructing their houses, it was helpful to have one-on-one attention with the little amount of kids in our small group. That allowed all of the teachers to see the student thought process and get to know the students better.

Throughout my time at Brigham, I had an ongoing goal that I tried to accomplishing as I spent more time in the classroom. My goal was to get to know the ELL students in order to accommodate for their needs. I think that teaching in a small group helped me get closer to my goal. After planning and teaching the lesson, I am able to check to see if my accommodations for the students were effective and beneficial. After observing the students engagement, I think that our planned accommodations were appropriate for the ELL students. Throughout my ISU classes and clinical experiences, I feel that I am now more comfortable teaching ELL students and know effective teaching strategies. I do think that I have more to learn as a student’s teacher, but feel my Brigham experience contributed to my confidence in the classroom. I am glad that I was able to get an opportunity to work with ELL students and realize that it is not as intimidating as I expected. 

Here is a blog link to our engineering lesson idea: http://sewingschool.blogspot.com/2011/01/he-huffed-and-he-puffed.html

Here is a link to more engineering lessons for kindergartners: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=kindergarten%20engineering%20lessons&term_meta%5B%5D=kindergarten%7Ctyped&term_meta%5B%5D=engineering%7Ctyped&term_meta%5B%5D=lessons%7Ctyped

Exceeds: I wrote a 700 word blog. I also included a link to more kindergarten engineering lessons and included a link to our lesson plan idea. 

Blog #6: Clinical Science Lesson Plan

                For my clinical science lesson, I was given the opportunity to co-teach with Alaina about food chains. Both Alaina and I have been teaching science lessons to all of the 1^st grade classrooms every Friday. We are in charge of teaching 78 students in the commons. Because we are familiar with teaching the same group of students, that helped us prepare for this lesson even better, more specifically, when it comes to classroom management. What we have experienced in the past lessons is student’s involvement when using technology such as learning games on the SMARTboard. We made sure to include an interactive technology game to support our main topic of food chains. Our goals for our lesson were to teach the students how a food chain functions using vocabulary such as food chain and energy throughout the lesson. As a way of assessing the students we had them create their own food chain by having them draw pictures and labeling a food chain that was in sequential order and was visible that the students understand the food chain concept. This worksheet gave the students the freedom to think creatively and use whatever animals they could think of to complete a food chain. This was the way we decide to assess the students because it was an opportunity for the students to work independently or with a buddy, allowed the students to move about the commons.  Also with the large amount of students being taught at once, we thought this strategy for assessing was most appropriate with the time allotted.

            When reflecting on how our lesson went, I feel there were areas that needed improvement and areas of strength. A part of our lesson that stood out to me as a strength, was the technology support we used. The first technological support was a PowerPoint where we had the children create a food chain as a class. Instead of showing the students a finished picture of a food chain and explaining it, we had the students piece is together as a class. For example, we showed the class a picture of an eagle and had them guess how an eagle might get its energy. We provided guided questions so that the students would answer the animal or plant we had prepared for. Another technological support was an online game. The website provided pictures and blank boxes to drag the picture in the correct order. We completed a few example food chains together. What was most beneficial for the students was how after the food chain was completed, the website would show an animation of the animals actually eating each other. This was a part of my feedback form that my CT liked as well. I think we should have worked on more food chain examples from that website instead of only the three we did. I think that website was a good support for the students. A strength of our lesson was the classroom management and how we dealt with loud noise. The students have been taught by Alaina and I enough to know how they should respond to the quiet chant. A saying we use is, “3,2,1 ZIP” and also T:“When the teacher is talking”…S: “You are not!” This classroom management strategy really helps when the students are doing turn and talks or working independently and need to come back as a group to get them to quiet down and look back at the teacher. Lastly, I thought that Alaina and I co-taught very well together. We made sure to divide up the lesson evenly so that we both got our time to speak. I feel we were prepared with the amount of activities and potential extension activates as well. For our lesson, I am glad we had an extra book to read that would support our lesson because we needed it. In addition to the strengths of the lesson, there were also areas of improvement that I would change if given the opportunity to teach the lesson again.

            An area of improvement that I noticed in the lesson was the hook activity. I was in charge of leading that. The hook activity had the students stand up and link arms. I used that to help the students connect their 1^st grade chain to a food chain. As I was leading it, I found that the students were being crazy, swaying back and forth,  and being loud as they laughed with their neighbors. I found it challenging to get the students attention. If I could do the activity differently I would change it up a little and have the students sit down and link arms so that they are not tempted to move back and forth like they did. When discussing this activity with my CT she suggested I introduce the main topic of food chains before I do the activity so the students know the correlation and reasoning behind this instruction. I would also change the way we introduced new vocabulary. I think it was harder to explain the vocabulary word, “energy.” What we could have done to further the students understanding and give them more visuals would be to make a web and have the students share what they think energy is and maybe some examples. I would also add an individual activity where the students cut out picture and put them in the correct order by cutting and pasting. This would allow the students to have more concrete examples and would be clearer for the teachers to see if the students understood the food chain concepts.

            Overall, I feel our lesson was well thought out and prepared for in advanced. I feel we were prepared and were able to keep the students engaged throughout the lesson. I think the turn and talks really benefited us in order to prevent the students that were not sharing to get off task and get distracted. With experience we have gotten so far in our clinical teaching the students every Friday, we were able to get to know the students and understand their tendencies and learning levels. As a student teacher, I am constantly learning from my lesson I teach in order to better my teaching.

Below is Pinterest link for ideas for teaching Food Chains to young students:

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=food%20chains&term_meta%5B%5D=food%7Ctyped&term_meta%5B%5D=chains%7Ctyped

Exceeds: Included a Pinterest link to support Food Chain science lessons and gave my CT a copy of the lesson plan to keep for further instruction or a lesson for next year.

Blog #5: Pre-K Classroom Part 2

                Last Thursday was my second opportunity to co-teach in the pre-K classroom. This lesson was focused around a review of all five senses and had the teachers help lead individual centers. There were 2-3 students at one center at a time. I think the small groups for the majority of the lesson helped me work on my long term goal for this clinical. My goal that I have slowly been working on is to get to know the ELL students and through that, find ways to differentiate instruction and accommodate for their needs.

When reflecting on this goal, I realized that the pre-k classroom had fewer ELL students than the kindergarten room and also had few students total in the classroom. I think there are some benefits and down sides to having a smaller classroom and fewer ELL students. For one, in the pre-k classroom, it is easier to get to know the students and their needs when there are fewer students. Also having fewer ELL students means there could be more chances to get to know the ELL students in order to accommodate for their needs. The second point would be the amount of conversation I had between the two classrooms. I found that the kindergarteners were more talkative than the pre-k classroom which is to be expected. The more talkative the students are, the easier it is to get to know the students in the 30 minutes that I have every time I am in the classroom. Like I talked about in my earlier blog post, I feel that the lack of conversation also had to do with the new teachers coming in to the classroom and the students not know us. I’m sure the students would be more talkative with their everyday pre-k teachers.

Last Thursday was the last time I would be teaching in the pre-k classroom. I think I learned the more outgoing students from the more shy students. I also learned n situations like that were communication is limited, focus on body language and hand movements to be able to really understand the student and what they are trying to say or answer. That was the difficult part of teaching the younger students. I think that the lesson that I helped teach accommodated well to the student’s needs by how they had hands on centers prepared and ready.

For my particular center I focus on the sense of touch. I think the items that the students were feeling throughout the center time were item that the students are familiar with. I think that is very important when preparing lessons for young children, just like it is important to teach the students using vocabulary they are familiar with or would understand. That is part of the differentiating instruction process. I am learning from clinical experiences what the students at certain ages know already or are working towards learning. I have seen a great jump just from the pre-k and kindergarten clinical the ability levels in each classroom. Overall, I feel my goal in the pre-k classroom was harder to accomplish and, as a result, I feel with more teaching experience I could have gotten closer to my goal. Pre-k needs hands on learning with many visuals which is what I consistently saw in the pre-k classroom. This type of teaching is great way to accommodate and differentiate instruction for ELL students.

http://www.ldonline.org/article/36679/

EXCEEDS: I provided a link to help pre-k teachers learn strategies for teaching ELL students

Blog #4: Pre-K Classroom

This week was the first day I was in the pre-k classroom. From what I heard from other people about the preschoolers, I knew going into the class that communication would a challenge.  I also was told there was much less students than there were in the kindergarten classroom.  My first reaction to that information was that the students would get more one on one attention from all the student teachers, which would be helpful for the students. By having more teachers, the students might open up more and communicate. I was not sure if this information would affect the lesson positively or negatively, but was interested in getting to know a new class that I have never worked with or taught before.

My long term goal for this clinical experience is get to know the ELL students and through that, find ways to differentiate instruction and accommodate for their needs. I know now after reflecting on this same goal while I was in the kindergarten room, that getting to know the students and their needs will take time. I don’t think the half hour that I was in the pre-k classroom I was able to get to know them that well. I believe a big factor in getting to know the students would be through communication. The preschoolers did not talk that much at all. I think there were about three students that contributed to the introduction and sharing time on the carpet. For the most part, the students would just stare at you and the teachers would have to answer their own group questions. The teachers did a good job providing guided questions. For the preschoolers, they needed a lot of prompting for most of the lesson.

The students were learning about hearing for this lesson. For the center I was assigned to, I lead the string cup telephones. This required the students to talk with one another so the other student could hear them in their cup. This was where the communication played a big factor and had an impact on how smoothly the lesson went. From what I observed,  the students needed guidance on what to say in the cup or they would just yell in the cup without conversation with the other students. It was challenging to understand what the students were saying and it was not clear. I think going back to my goal, I feel I did not accomplish it in the time allowed. I did, on the other hand, learn about their tendencies. I learned who the quiet one and talkative one were in the group. The quiet ones needed more direct instruction and the more talkative students needed less. I also felt that some of the students were quiet around me because they were shy and did not know me. For all I know, the students could have a more outgoing personality around their teachers and family because they have known them for so long. I think if I continued to teach in the pre-k classroom the students and I would get to know each other better.

Something that I feel would be beneficial to me in reaching my goal would be to know their names. Even when I asked the students their names I could not understand them. I also feel that it would help if I knew who the ELL students were. Even though I struggle with speaking Spanish, it would help because it would make me more understanding for not communicating.  Going forward, I think I would try to accommodate for the pre-k students by incorporating a lot of visuals and pictures in my lesson. I would also make sure to model what is expected of them clearly so the students can participate as much as possible and,  in the long run,  get the most out of the lesson being taught.

Below is a link for more 5 senses lesson plans that could be taught for further instruction:

http://www.pinterest.com/janamarie76/5-senses-preschool-theme/

EXCEEDS: I went over the word requirement by 150 words and I incorporated a link to 5 senses lesson ideas.

Brigham Lesson Reflection

For my life science lesson that Alicia and I taught at Brigham Elementary, we decided to teach the students about living and nonliving things. We decided to incorporate many visuals in our lesson as a way to accommodate for the amount of ELL students in the classroom. Overall, this lesson was engaging and active, making sure that students are moving a few times throughout the lesson. Previously to this lesson, I had helped teach the kindergarten group once so I had an idea of what to expect from the students during this lesson. The lesson we taught was a follow-up lesson from the last Thursday when a different group introduced the topic of living and non-living. The lesson helped us realize how much information students retained from the previous week. I was surprised by how much the students remembered, which in the end benefitted both the students and my partner and I.

The three main parts of the lesson that we engaged the students with was a song, a SMARTboard activity, and a card sorting activity. We were able to successfully complete all the parts of our lesson plan. I feel that there were several parts of our lesson that were successful with and made an impact on the students. One of the big strengths that I feel we had in our lesson was the timing and pacing of the lesson. We were able to stay on schedule and finish at exactly at 2:45 while still having room for a closing. Timing while teaching lesson plans has been something that I have been working on in my clinical. One trick that I have used in the past is figuring out a time in advance for the ending activity and that serves as a guide to see if I have time or should speed up. I have also used a timer on an ipad before. I set the timer to the side so it was not distracting to the students. One thing that I have learned in my classes at ISU is to make sure to have time for the closing in order to wrap up the main ideas which we made sure to do in our lesson.

Another part of the lesson that I thought was successful was how the majority of the lesson was in a small group setting. This was a result of the beginning part going faster than we expected, but in the long run, it benefitted the students more because they were able to get a more in depth conversation among the two teachers and 4-6 students at their table. We left 15 minutes at the end for the card sorting activity. The students took turns picking from language development cards and sorting their card into living and nonliving. The students self checked their answers and were able to explain their thinking process to the teachers. That is when I get to see their personalities come to life and really tell if the students were grasping the concepts being taught.

Another strength of the lesson would be the SMARTboard activity. I feel that the students were very anxious and willing to volunteer. The way Alicia and I made the SMARTboard activity engaging and excited is by use the “magic” teacher pointer. I feel that incorporating technology in teaching is crucial now days. Having an opportunity to use technology in our lesson was used appropriately to support our topic. What I realized is that students had positive reactions to the feedback we were giving the students as they went up one at a time. I saw a few students change their behavior (“I am looking for those students that are sitting crisscross applesauce and quietly raising their hand, waiting to be called on”) in order to get called on to participate. Having that guideline for being called on was something that supported our classroom management. Overall, I feel that we were prepared for our lesson with the materials we provided for our teacher helpers and the premade assessments we created. In addition to strength in our lesson, I also feel that there were some improvements as well that we could have changed.

One of the things I would change about our lesson was the beginning. When we began our lesson I felt I was busy trying to pull up the SMARTboard activity while Alicia was introducing our topic. If I would do it differently, I would have had the SMARTboard activity already up so that I could focus on the steps of our intro we have already covered. By the time I finished with the computer I went straight into introducing the song. Like I mentioned above, I thought the beginning of the lesson went much quicker than expected and we were able to talk about the song, three requirements for living, and the SMARTboard activity in a quick manor. That lets me know that lesson plans do not always go as planned. Alicia and I were flexible and moved on to the card sorting activity, which was the most important part in the long run.

Something else that I would change about our lesson was the amount of room we had to tape up the three parts of living and nonliving. After the students listed the three parts from the song and what they remember from last Thursday, we put up the list as they were named. We quickly realized as we were teaching that there was no room to put up the three parts. We ended up taping them to the side of the SMARTboard which may have not allowed all the students to see them. One way we could fix that situation would be to make a PowerPoint slide that has the three parts come in individually after they are mentioned. Then the students could have a better visual of the three parts as they were working in their small groups. Lastly, another part I would change would be during the SMARTboard activity, have the living and nonliving labels in English and Spanish. I believe that there were a few students that were just guessing and dragging a picture into one of the spinning circles. The translation may have prevented the confusion of what the different circles represented or were labeled as. In addition to the area of improvement in our lesson, we also kept in mind how our topic influenced our organization of the lesson plan.

When choosing our topic and week we would teach, Alicia and I chose to teach about living and nonliving because I have had previous experience with teaching this topic to all the 1^st graders in my clinical. I thought that there would be some activities that we could use in the lesson I taught to the 1^st graders. Also, the previous experience I had with 1^st graders helped me gage what would be developmentally appropriate for kindergarteners knowing that they are one year younger. Because we were the second day of teaching this topic, we had to compare our lesson plans to the previous lesson so that we did not teach the same things or do the same activities. One thing we changed in our lesson after looking at the other groups was change the cookie monster video to a song instead. Lastly, the pictures we used in the SMARTboard activity and the card sort activity needed to be familiar things to the students. They also needed to be pictures that were up to date, especially technology.

In order to demonstrate students understanding throughout the lesson, we used a few ways of assessing the students. One general way to check for understanding would be looking to see who is participating in group conversation, mainly during the SMARTboard activity. Also during the card sorting activity we had one teacher complete a checklist to make the students could categorize a card correctly and another student teacher doing an anecdotal record that was more specific to what the students responses were. I feel these assessments were aligned with our objectives and let the teachers know if students were able to grasp the living and nonliving concepts. These assessments could be recorded and used as a tool for the teacher to see if further instruction was needed.

This is a Pinterest link to other living and nonliving lesson plan ideas for kindergarteners:

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/q=living%20and%20nonliving%20kindergarten&rs=ac&len=20&term_meta%5B%5D=living+and+nonliving+kindergarten%7Cautocomplete%7C1

EXCEEDS: I wrote a 1,375 word reflection and included a Pinterest link to other living and nonliving lesson plans. 

Science #2: Day 1 with the Kinders

Going into the classroom on Thursday was the first time I got to meet the kindergartners. I came in with little knowledge about the students and classroom environment, only knowing that I would be teaching some students who are English language learners. My initial goal I set for myself and one I will work on every time I am in the classroom with the kindergartners is to get to know the ELL student  and through that, find ways I can differentiate instruction and accommodate for their needs.

I grew up in a school system that had very little diversity. Everyone in my classes spoke English. I do not remember learning Spanish until the end of middle school and into high school. Because I have not had practice, I do not remember very much Spanish. I think that is what makes me nervous for teaching student that speak Spanish as their primary language. As a teacher, it is so important to be able to help my students learn. I fear that the students will not be able to understand me and then miss out on the lessons I teach. Having a language barrier would be challenging for not only the teacher, but the students as well, especially when kindergarten is their first year and the content to support the students is so crucial.

When I was in the classroom, we learned about the five senses. Each teacher was able to be in charge of a center and I focused on their sense of smell. I thought centers were a great way to begin teaching the class. I was able to talk to every student and hear most students respond to what they thought they smelled in the bags. When talking to the students, I was surprised that so many students knew English so well and the way they responded to instruction. There were some instances where it was challenging because of the strong accents, but I could still understand the students for the most part. From the short time that I was in the classroom I was able to pick out the quiet students and those that were more outgoing and talkative. That is a step to getting to know the students. I understand how it can be challenging to get to know all the students when some are quieter. With the more reserved students, I was not sure if they understood my instruction, whereas the outgoing students were clearer about their thoughts. I think the way I modeled what was being asked of the students, they were able to understand the instructions even if they did not necessarily understand all of the English I was saying. I think that is what makes getting to know the students more challenging, because as the teacher, I have to use my best judgment without knowing for sure. For example, there was a student’s that was very quiet and just sat at her desk.  She was the third person to guess what was in the bag using her sense of smell. She may mimicked her pears and copied there guesses in order to give an answer. It is hard to know for sure.

In order to help accommodate for the students and work on my goal, I think I will translate the basic vocabulary into Spanish in order to support their learning.  This will hopefully help the students with their understanding of the lesson and limit the confusion that some students may have had. I think that my classroom goal will take time in order to get to know the student’s needs more, but I am looking forward to applying strategies for teaching bilingual students in the classroom. This is my first bilingual clinical experience, and I think it will be very beneficial to my teaching and my feelings towards teaching a bilingual classroom.

·         This is link to Pinterest gives teachers teaching material to support ELL students:

http://www.pinterest.com/erakol/ell-teaching-lifesavers/

·         5 Key Strategies for ELL instruction:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2013/10/25/strategies-for-ell-instruction/

EXCEEDS: I added a Pinterest board to support ELL students and, I added a link to strategies for teaching ELL students.  This support teachers like me who are new to teaching ELL students in the classroom. 

Science #1: My Science Autobiography

My name is Taylor Primrose. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, but at age three I moved to the Chicago suburbs and have lived there most of my life. When asked to look back at my science history, the elementary school years are pretty blurry and hard to remember the details. The thing that stood out to me most were certain science experiments that I really enjoyed and felt were memorable to me. My learning style to this day is physical and visual so I enjoyed hands on experiments that I could see up close and interact with. There were some science experiments that I feel I could carry on in my own classroom one day. I believe that I can make memorable experiences teaching science just as my teachers did for me growing up.

I remember in elementary school doing easy science experiments that involved making predictions such as observing a plant grow over time and drawing out what we saw happening each day. There was one in particular that fascinated me. It was a salt crystal experiment that involved dangling a string over a plastic cup filled with salt water. As the salt water evaporated it formed small crystals on the string. I also remember following the scientific method and recording each step as we did small group experiments. Another memorable elementary science experience I had was when my 4^th grade class took a field trip to Lake Michigan. We all got to go on a boat ride and observe the environment around us. There was a part of the field trip where we went inside to do a science experiment with the nature we just saw. I remember I got my picture in the paper working with my group, wearing safety goggles, and leaning over the experiment. I don’t remember the details of what we did, but that field trip was one stood out to me in elementary school and I still have the cut out of the newspaper in my memory book. That field trip was a great way to incorporate learning science and adventure all in one.

 High school science was the most memorable for me. My freshman year I took Biology. I struggled with the topics we learned in that class, but it was helpful to have many small groups and partner work so we could collaborate with each other. I met my best friend in that class starting out as biology partners. I would have never gotten to know her if we were not paired up in that class. That makes me realize why teachers encourage switching up partners, so that the students can better get to know each other. My sophomore year I took chemistry and used a lot beakers, scales and hot plates to do experiments. I enjoyed chemistry because it was partly math as well and I felt confident in me my math abilities.  My junior year I took Physics. I loved that class mostly because of my teacher. My physics teacher had such a bubbly personality that it seemed as if it was impossible to fall asleep in class. I think it was her passion for teaching physics that kept the students engaged. Physics focused on motion. I remember doing an experiment where we had to create a protection of a raw egg using our own ideas and drop it from a one story building window. Our egg ended up cracking, but it was the planning and anticipation that kept us motivated.  I think I liked that experiment because it was creative, it was competitive, and we all worked in small groups.  Most of all I think the teacher made the class what it was and for me it kept me focused and interested in what I was learning. My senior year I took genetics. I lucked out with another fun and engaging teacher. There was less experimenting in class, but the information we learned interested me.

I now study at Illinois State University as an Early Childhood Education major. I took Science classes for my general education courses. I chose to take Biology and Geology. Science college courses were a big adjustment from the way high school classes were run. It was harder for me to get interested in the content because they were mainly lecture halls. I did enjoy the lab section of biology because that was when we completed experiments and did more activities. Geology had a focus on rocks and comparing the color, hardness, weight, etc. From what I have noticed over the years of my science history, I think science classes became more focused on one topic and there was less hands on group work as I got older. It’s funny to look back at the experiments that stood out to me and the few that I remember growing up. You never know as a teacher when you are making a lasting impact on a student.

Going into college I knew I wanted to be a teacher and work with young children. I have had a passion for children ever since I was young and knew that I would love what I do if I perused teaching as my career. I had originally wanted to be a pediatric nurse but I changed my mind when I realized I just wanted to work with children. I hope to one day have my own classroom of kindergartners or 1^st graders.  I think the education that I have developed over my college years has really assured me that I am in the right field. When I teach science to my classroom I want to create an inviting atmosphere that supports all ideas and comments. I want my students to feel comfortable sharing their ideas and thoughts in my classroom. I also want to make sure that I have a lot of hands on and active experiments for the students. I want to try and veer from teaching out of science text books and incorporate more activities in the science lessons.  I will make sure that the lessons are engaging in order to help the students stay interested in what they are learning.  I want to create memorable moment in my classroom that my students can look back on and say that they enjoyed learning about science. 

I grew up in Libertyville, a small suburb outside of Chicago.  The town was predominately middle class. All three schools I attended were mostly white with little diversity in my classes. It wasn’t until college that I had more exposure to diversity at my university and clinical. In my clinical I have had experience with multiple diverse daycares, Montessori Preschool, 2^nd grade, and now 1^st grade for my PDS student teaching. From my experiences in different classrooms, I can tell that science is hard to make time for. I hope that when I have my classroom I can incorporate science into my daily schedule and make sure that science is not ignored.

My cultural upbringing contributes to the student I am today through the values that were taught to me growing up and the influential teachers that made an impact on me. I have had positive and memorable experiences with my teachers and I have learned ideas from them that I can use when creating lesson plans and in my future classroom.  

Below you will find links to science experiments that can engage your students and make science fun.

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects/saltcrystals.html (Salt Crystals)

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects/eggdrop.html (Egg Drop)