Apr

26

Earth Day 2013

Posted by: | April 26, 2013 | Leave a Comment

In the week leading up to Earth Day on April 22, 2013, the students read an article and some books that I put on display for them. I also gave each science group a big piece of chart paper for them to draw what Earth Day is all about, and here are their amazing ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then read “Just a Dream” by Chis van Allsberg and then I gave the students cut out circles to draw what they hope their future Earth will look like. They drew beautiful pictures of animals and plants and they included incredible details of what we learned in our science classes! I can’t wait to post them on our spring bulletin. They also traced green handprints all around the globe to frame their drawing.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a sample:

Every handprint is printed a promise to make Earth Day every day!

Three cheers for a thoughtful Earth Day in our class.

 

 

 

Apr

26

Science is inquiry!

Posted by: | April 26, 2013 | Leave a Comment

My last conversation with my advisor was very insightful. She pointed out that sometimes teaching is so teacher- focused (i.e. getting through what has been planned) that the students’ natural inquiry are overlooked. After our conversation, I planned a loosely structured lesson during which students researched different key science words on our ipads. I really listened to the questions they asked, and made a few video recordings to watch in hindsight. It was really encouraging to see the students so engaged in their research. I hope to teach them a new computer research skill every week because they really feel motivated to interact with our ipads more effectively.

One of the student’s question was captured in a short video clip. He asked, “How can they take seeds out of a seedless grape?” I will play this video clip to the students next science class, and I wonder what observations they will make. I think I will also bring in a bag of seedless grapes for them to chew on this inquiry…

Apr

20

Best practices

Posted by: | April 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment

Reflection prompt:

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           ― William Arthur Ward

 
Response: The quote is a very beautiful summary of my conversations with my F.A. and S.A. this week. I think that telling only forces students to  learn by rote (e.g. telling students the definition of a word), while explaining something to students subjects students to a passive role in their learning (e.g. teaching students the root words and its meanings, breaking down bigger words).
Demonstration is an important part of a lesson I think, because it is a time for a teacher to model the activity before encouraging students to practice it themselves (e.g. demonstrating a science experiment). My goal as a teacher is to inspire, which is to make learning much more student centred and meaningful to them. I am still learning about what the best practices are to inspire students. I wonder if setting up a classroom for students to have research and exploration time built-in is where the inspiration might happen. Perhaps the goal is to teach students how to teach each other, and the teacher, so that they are in charge of their own learning.

 


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