Different Types of Energy

     Today was the second day of educators teaching for science. Group two was up and they were going to educate us on some of the best ways to save energy. They began by discussing hydro-power, solar and wind energy. All of these topics seemed to interest the students and they were excited to begin learning them. 

     Unfortunately I was not there to witnesses group two's direct lesson due to an IT seminar. However, I was there to witness the inquiry lesson. The inquiry lesson was created using iPad's and a web-quest created by one of the group members. This activity had them going through the web-quest and watching different informational videos, as well as, reading different things related to their specific topic. Each group had a different project which they were working with. The students seemed to really enjoy this. I wish that there would have been more of an experiment for the students to complete because I felt like they were sitting to long and not staying engaged the entire time. Overall, group two did a great job and the other teacher candidates could see the amount of effort in which they exerted into the lesson and their plans. 

     After group two finished speaking, Dr. Smirnova and her guest began to discuss the science fair and the expectations of the science fair. the science fair is this upcoming Friday and we must bring our projects, as well as, grade the school's science fair projects. I think that this is going to be an interesting experience because I have never been to a science fair. I am excited to see what everyone creates their projects on. As for my project, I am doing an experiment on Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I choose this topic from the beginning, because I didn't realize that we needed to complete an actual experiment. When it came time to complete the experiment I tested whether recycling two pieces of material a week could decrease the amount of garbage one inputs into the world. The answer was yes, it does decrease the amount of garbage input to the wastelands. 

   

First Day of Fieldwork

      Today was the first official day of fieldwork was today and I felt that it went well. We used our planets to create a fun game for the students. Our getting to know you activity was also unique compared to the other groups, because most of the other groups used worksheets. I felt that our game was a bit more interesting for students because we got to know them in small groups. We were able to focus on specific students, and we were able to take notes of different students that couldn't sit next to each other. I also felt like when the students came over to the group they were able to develop a sense of what our group was like as well. It was personal and I felt that the students enjoyed the activity. Afterwards, we were able to discuss with the class of teacher candidates about how the activities went. Overall, the entire class did well and the students seemed eager to come back next week. 
     As for lesson planning, my group met again today to finish preparing for our lessons for next week. When we spoke to Dr. Smirnova, we learned that we had gained a week to prepare for our lessons due to the snow days. My group at this point is developing well. I find it hard to teach comfortably when one has not taught before. Besides myself, my other group members have no experience in teaching students in any way. Their is a type of confidence that goes in to teaching, but I feel as though it is developed not known. My group seems to also be putting forth little effort in reference to trying to meet up and preparing the material. There is only one group member that has consistently put forth the effort in this group. It has been rather difficult to prepare for this lesson as well because of my group's lack of experience. I am eager to see how we do next week and I think that my peers feel the same. As for the lesson plan and materials, we are ready to go and have been for a few weeks!

The Teaching Experience

     For our fourth week in classes, Group 1 is ready to teach. Jill, Sean, Jade, and myself were preparing to teach the topic of The Solar System and Climate Change. When preparing for this process, I had have some experience to refer to from Social Studies methods. In terms of the rest of my group, they had no experience. We met up on Wednesdays for about three to four weeks and worked on our lesson. I felt in terms of our lesson that it was planned out; however, I think personally it was overwhelming that I had to depend on one group member so much. 

      When looking back to our direct lesson plan, we created a Prezi for the students to follow along with. The Prezi was focused more on visuals, rather than words. I felt that if there was too much to focus on the students wouldn't have been as successful. We started off by going over the solar system and giving the students an acronym to follow for the planets. The students seemed to like this the most because it was a resource they could go back to and use for future references. The only wish I have for the direct lesson plan was that we maybe utilized more of the technology that was provided. I also felt that the guided practices for the lesson weren't as engaging as I wish they could have been.

     On to the Inquiry lesson, I felt that this lesson was fun and maybe not as thought out as it should have been. The experiment itself seemed to get the students up and engaged in the lesson. Even though the lesson could have been more thought out, I feel like the students really enjoyed the activity. Trying to preserve ice was their activity and I personally felt it was impossible but the students accepted the challenge with a grain of salt and completed that activity in a timely fashion.

  

      Overall, the lessons together provided the students with Vidal knowledge that they are going to use when being taught for the rest of our fieldwork experience. The students learned about the solar system, the planets, and climate change. They also learned why it is important to try and preserve the Earth as a whole. These lessons were great at proving that everyday is Earth Day and the students can make a difference. 

Science Research and Fieldwork

      We are in our second week and the snow has cancelled another class. This week we met online, as we did last week. This week we discussed the Inquiry lesson and group's progression. This week we were ready for the first day of fieldwork as well. We also began reading our textbook. 

     To begin discussing the inquiry and the 5E's. The five E's are: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate. We discussed the meaning of each of these and their importance in the Inquiry lesson. To begin the engage section is the introduction of the lesson, and the beginning to the teacher's story. This is where the teacher candidates should create an intriguing story for the students to get them interested in the lesson. The second part, explore, is the experiment of the lesson. This is the soul, the body of your Inquiry lesson. This is the part of the lesson where the students discuss the Inquiry method. The inquiry method is: to identify the problem, develop a question, then a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, and finally creating a conclusion. The nest section of the inquiry lesson is the explain section. The part is where the students must explain their findings and elaborate on their conclusion. Explain directly relates to the elaborate and evaluate sections. The students will elaborate their findings and then they will be evaluated through their elaborations. 

     Group 1, my group, have prepared both of our lessons at this point because we expected to have to be teaching in a week. For our getting to know you activity we prepared a game in which the students would roll a pair of dice and answer the question which correlated with the number they rolled. On the same paper as the questions were pictures of all the planets in the Solar System for the students to understand what our topic was about. My group also met today to further discuss, and begin preparing for our lesson next week. We met and went over the lesson two to five times, editing it a bit more each time. My group feels nervous and we may need some more preparation time for next week. 

     Last week I also worked on my About Me project. For my About Me project I used a word generator and used the shape of an apple. I used word such as teach, caring, love, children, elementary and such. I emphasized my want and need to be an educator.