Week 2 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

Overview: 

This week in EDU 410 we discussed assessments, what they are and why they are important, as well as Laws and policies that govern us as teachers. In Science Methods we looked at phenomena and we have been working on building ecocolumns. This was also our first week at work. So we have gotten to meet our students and get the new year started there.

EDU 410

Like I mentioned we discussed assessments in class this week. Assessments are tools we use to find out how much our students know and understand from what we are teaching. There are formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are done as you are teaching to find out if students are getting it, these provide you with information that helps you decide if you need to change the way you are teaching the material. Summative assessments are given after you are done teaching all of the material. Standard 4h from the NCTCS pays close attention to assessment and how teachers should use them. We also learned about laws and policies, including federal and state. These laws and policies tell us what we can and cannot do as well as what we are required to do in the education system.

Science Methods

On Tuesday in Science methods we talked about phenomena. Phenomena are events that we see happening around us. It could be things that we see everyday or something spectacular that is a very rare occurrence. For example the phases of the moon is a phenomena, or the solar eclipse that happened last week. We learned that it is very important to use phenomena to connect science lessons with because it helps students identify and connect with the lessons. My biggest struggle this week was probably that part in class. We had a short time to research a present information on phenomena to present to the rest of class. With the time limit I could not focus and soak in all of the information to then turn into something that I could share with the class. I am very bad with these short time limits, my brain freezes up and panics, and so this was a very hard assignment for me. I was just glad we were doing it in groups. I think the assignment that I am most proud of this week and most satisfied with is actually this blog. I struggle with these blogs and I am proud with how this one is turning out. However the assignment I have enjoyed most this week are the ecocolumns we are making. I am very excited about these. And it looks like I may be doing some cricket hunting this weekend for everyone in class.

Outside

I have been working at the PEAK program this week at my local elementary school. This will be my third year there, but this is the first year that we are doing PEAK. Before it has just been an after school program, running Mondays through Thursdays from 3-6pm. It was for students who needed extra tutoring after school and students had to be recommended for the program. This year instead of have K-5, we are including 4 year olds, and the days are Mondays-Fridays, as well as all teacher work days and holidays where we will be there from 7am-6pm. This is a huge change for us so we are just sort of figuring it out as we go. The program is also offered to everyone but it is not a free program anymore. This means we will possibly have more kids with a smaller staff, however these might not be the students who really need the after school tutoring because of money issues. I wanted to mention something that I learned this week with one of my students. It is not something that I really learned this week, but it is something that I knew, and got to actually put into practice and see the effects of. This student is a Kindergartener and he has some behavioral issues. He has huge attitude problems and wants to test to see how far he can go with every little thing. Questioning everything you tell him to do no matter what it is. In all of the educational psychology classes we take they always say that most kids respond better to rewards and praise then they do to being called down. This is definitely the case with this student. The first day everyone was having a time with getting him to  listen and behave, but it wasn’t until I took that time to watch every time he did something good to make sure I pointed it out to him, and I started giving him little responsibilities, that he started to make a turn for the better. It has still only been the first week but he has come a long way since just the first day. I want to take note of this, and remember it for future use with students I may get in the future.

Twitter:

This is a very interesting article, advocating for the encouragement of more people to look into vocational jobs. It just stood out to me because just last week we had an article that we read about how a lot of jobs were being replaced by “robots” and that we needed to encourage students to go for jobs that were not likely to be replaced. The articles were kind of contradicting. Here is a link to the other article: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/high_school_and_beyond/2017/08/are_you_helping_students_prepare_for_jobs_that_will_be_lost_to_automation.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB 

This is the link to this article: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/decades-pushing-bachelors-degrees-u-s-needs-tradespeople/ 

I thought this was something to think about. It is true for most people. When their work is going to be on display or it seems more important to students they will work even harder on it. When it just seems like busy work to them they will only work to “good enough.” I know I do this myself.

After this being the first week of school for most schools around here I thought this was a cool link. It is a few different ice breaker type games. Perfect for most ages. Most of these games I have never heard of.

Week 1 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

Well this is my first blog for the semester. I did blogs last semester for my Social Studies methods class, but I did not do very well with them, in my opinion. These blogs are really hard for me, it is always hard for me to cover everything from the rubric that I am supposed to. I am hoping that I can get better at it this semester. This semester I am taking Math Methods, Science Methods, and EDUC 410 which is an integration and assessment class. These blogs are for Science methods, and EDUC 410. This was my first week of classes, so far I am optimistic about them. Math and science are both my favorite subjects and I am looking forward to these classes. Most of this week has been introducing class, orientations to the courses, and pre tests. So mostly I have just learned how the classes work and their expectations. I was surprised about my confidence on the 410 pre-test, I felt confident in my answers for most of the questions before the course has even really started. In Science class, we did an experiment with tin foil boats, trying to see what designs worked the best by seeing how many pennies they could hold before they sank. I enjoyed it a lot, and was pretty proud of our boat designs as they held up a large number of pennies. This experiment provided a great beginning to class. My biggest struggle this week has been getting myself to do the assignments, I am still in the summer mode and it has been hard to get myself back in the zone. Because of this my action steps for this next week is to work on focusing on these assignments and scheduling out times to do them where nothing else distracts me and I have to do them. My job at the after school program at the local elementary starts next week too. I am looking forward to it but I am also worried about it because of the changes that it is going through and how that will pair with my classes this semester, as well as next semester. This week and next week are the beginnings of the new semester and I will be learning a lot of how they will work and how that will set up the rest of my semester.

Side note: One of the most popular science phenomenons that happened this week was the Solar Eclipse. I viewed this from an area that had about a 98% coverage and I thought I would share a couple of my pictures.

Outside Learning/Twitter:

I thought that this was a profound idea. It is a very strong point, what if students and teachers viewed their work through this lens of not stopping until they were proud? Don’t just stop when you think that it satisfies the requirement, or is “good enough”. Stop when YOU are proud, because that will be your best work, and it will mean the most to you.

I just thought that this was a good thought. This is really how everyone should look at people, especially teachers of their students. I mean this is the whole point. All students have their particular strengths and weaknesses, and what makes them who they are. Every student is different and we need to see that they are the best them.

This is a link to an article where a teacher discusses how she learned how important and effective formative assessment tools were. She included a list of good tools that could be used in the midst of a lesson, and help show how the students are understanding and getting the lesson being taught as it goes. This way the teacher can see when he/she is on the right track or when he/she needs to change it up as the students either get it or are having trouble. I already use Plickers and Socrative which were both included in the list and I absolutely love them.