Do you HAVE TO LEAVE? :(

I want to thank my AMAZING PARTNER Jillian! I was so lucky to have her wonderful ideas and positive attitude throughout this experience. We really worked so well together and I am going to miss having her the classroom with me! She is going to be an amazing, caring, and exciting teacher and I know she is going to have a great affect on so many children! :)

Jill and I had a great last lesson and the students really seemed like they were going to miss us and most importantly, they seemed to learn A LOT. Every week Jill and I were so amazed with their progress and their level of intelligence, I wonder if I was that smart as a 3rd grader?! After our lesson was complete, we decided to show them the Matter video from ITUNES again because the kids just seemed to LOVE it! They were dancing and trying to sing along, it was great! The kids gave us thank you cards and I almost cried!

My overall experience was truly amazing. I have learned some amazing teaching techniques especially with classroom management. It is amazing how every single day my toolbox grows and grows and I CANNOT wait to let the toolbox fly open!!!!! I learned how extremely important it is to have a good "control" over your class but that noise is OKAY! The first lesson I was so nervous because the kids were all talking and I felt that they were not gaining anything from the lesson but boy was I wrong! All of the noise and chaos can be good as long as they are talking about the lesson and staying on task which for the most part, they always seemed to be! I think this experience is great because you CANNOT TEACH THESE THINGS! No matter what book you read or what activity you create, you do not gain the full experience without actually doing it with a class!

The weekly feedback was really important to Jill and I. We gained so much amazing advice from getting feedback from not only the classroom teacher but our professors as well. Jill and I tried to incorporate all of the feedback we possibly could into as many lessons! It was great to receive advice from such experienced teachers because truly, they know best. It was also great to hear what other classmates were doing and what worked and what did not. We used a sticker idea from Deb and Megan to make sure each student knew exactly their job, thanks girls! Our classroom teacher would take notes as we were teaching and after the lesson she would sit down with us and go over things we did well and thought we may need to work on. She suggested things such as calling the kids over to the rug by the pet they have and by complementing the students who were doing things right so other students would notice, and (HOPEFULLY) do the same. Jill and I really got along great with her and gained so much from her feedback as well. The more advice, the better!! :)


I was a little nervous about teaching changes of matter because I felt that I would not have enough content knowledge about it. Each week to ensure that I did, I would review the lesson and look up things I was unsure of and that really helped! I felt just like a third grade student but it was great because now I have a plethora of knowledge on matter!


I feel that my level of confidence has increased but I am normally a pretty confident person. I think more than anything I did not get as nervous as I did in the beginning. I really felt more comfortable every time I stood in front of the classroom and my nerves eased with every lesson.

I also learned how important process skills are in a classroom! We made colorful signs with a process skill on each one and hung them up in the classroom. Each week, we would review what each process skill meant to ensure that the students were understanding what they were and how important each one was in science and in the classroom!

I really think that blogging was a great idea! I already mentioned how it was great to see how other people were doing and what was working for them and what was not. It also was a great way to reflect on each lesson. Blogging really made me think about every detail of every lesson and I think that helped me become a better teacher!

I do not have any other suggestions. I think things went very smoothly and the school we were in was such a great environment for a first time teaching experience!

I fell so in love with the teacher and class that I am actually student teaching with them. I cannot wait to get started and getting one step closer to becoming an Elementary school teacher!! I wish everyone the best of luck!! I know we will all be amazingggggg teachers!!! :)

Um.. they both are sugar!!

This week went pretty well! Jill and I always start off by setting up all of the materials which I think prepping ahead of time is so important for a lesson. It just makes the transition go so much smoother! Jill gave a quick review of last week's lesson and than an introduction to this weeks lesson. I went through how to correctly
 fill out the record data sheet to ensure that students knew what they were doing.

After we reviewed our data sheet, we had the students observe the sugar cube and observe the sugar grains. The students made some great observations of the solid's properties. The kids described the solids as white, hard, and both as sugar(Which was so cute!) One of the things we did again this time was give out stickers to the student who would be stirring and the student who would be holding. We felt this would ensure that students would not fight over who go to do what and we talked about that next week the other partner would do it.

We were very surprised to see that we had many kids who had the sugar cubes dissolve quickest. When this question came up, I asked the student if they did something special besides just stir it. The student replied that he was kind of hitting it with his stirrer so he thought that is why it broke down quicker. Many other students said they did not hit it with their stirrer and many students said they had a tie. We talked about all of the reasons why they thought their particular solid may have dissolved quicker.

We had difficulty incorporating the T/E into our lesson but my partner did an AMAZING job talking about how the stirrer is better to use in the water. She asked the students and many replied that it was harder, wouldn't fall apart, etc. She is the best!

We had students fill in their science journals about what was their favorite lesson. We thought it would be interesting to see what lesson they liked best. I am going to be so sad when the lessons are over but luckily I will be student teaching with this class next semester and I just cannot wait!!! 

I really feel that Jill and I have grown a lot as teachers. We feel that we have developed some really great strategies and can't wait for our own classrooms to put them to use! :)

Can we watch it againnnnnn???

Time seems to be flying!! I can't believe how fast the end of the semester is approaching! The kids seemed to LOVEEEEEEEEE the video we showed them on solids, liquids, and gases! Jill brought her computer and introduced the video, which was great! They were laughing the whole time but they showed that they were actually listening to it as I asked them to name a few solids, liquids, and gases afterward. They all responded correctly and I was very excited. I than called them back to their seats by color. I made a mistake and said everyone who is wearing blue(not thinking BLUE was a POPULAR color) and many kids got up to go back to their seats. I now know next time to call something not as common like orange, yellow, purple, etc. 

Jillian introduced what we were doing for the lesson and reminded students about process skills and important vocabulary we were going to talk about. We than had one person from each group(a designated person) to WALK up and get the materials from the table which were all laid out for them. We than had them review the cups and see if the cups look any different than they did last time. We discussed their observations with the class and Jill wrote them on the board. Jill did a great job of after recording the information, than made sure to go over it with the students. What a partner! :)

It was important to us to keep everyone on task with the amount of materials and steps so we made sure to go step by step(even as basic as "everyone take your cups off your mat") We gave them an allotted time to do each step so they knew to stay on task.  We went through every direction with them so they knew what they were doing and things went very smoothly throughout the lesson.

The kids seemed really excited for this lesson and really worked great in their groups. We had some groups as big as six but they all worked really well together and were asking each other great questions that Jill and I were able to hear as we walked around. 


The kids all seemed to really understand that the gravel and the toilet tissue did not change. A few students pointed out that the water rose because as the rocks settled, it made the water higher. (How smart are they!!) Another student said that the toilet tissue become soggy because of the water which made it heavier which is the reason it sunk to the bottom of the cup. They did a great job of separating the solids and liquids as well. They seemed to love the funnels and they thought they were so cool!

Overall, the lesson was a great success and our teacher was really happy with us. She was glad to see that we were using all of her recommendations from earlier lessons (and from our professors) and using them to further the education of her students! I don't want to leave these kids!! :(

YAYYY.. SCIENCE TIMEEEEEEEEEE!!

YAYYY..SCIENCE TIME!!  Boy does that feel good to hear!! The kids seemed so excited when we walked in and it really makes all of the extra work and time SO SO worth it :)


As for our lesson, I felt that it went pretty well! Jill made great signs that we put up on the board with process skills such as OBSERVE.. and Make INFERENCES.. We also included vocabulary words and our objectives for the week and added them up their as well. We reviewed our process skills, vocabulary words, and objectives in the beginning of the class which I think helped keep the students on task and give them a better idea of what we were expecting of them!


There was a lot of materials this time and anytime there is water in the classroom, we as teachers have to be extra careful, so we designated one person from each group to walk carefully to the materials table and to get the tray that was laid out for them.  This helped with our classroom management a lot and we also used stickers (Deb and Megan gave us this idea! :) ) and put them on the hand of each child as it was their turn to, for example, stir. This allowed every student to get a chance to be involved in the activity and we thought this was especially important since this week it was bigger groups of students than last week. I really feel that we are getting a better idea of how to manage a classroom which I think is so important in order to have a successful learning environment.

We went through each step very slowly which was recommended by our teacher and it really helped all of the students stay on task. (and us as teachers too! :) We are really learning some great teaching strategies from this experience! 

The students really seemed to understand the idea of dissolving. We talked about a solution and when we mix lemonade at home we add a solid into a liquid and it turns into lemonade. It was like LIGHTBULBS.. "ohhhh yaaa" they all said. It is such an amazing feeling when the students make connections and really seem to understand things!

Overall, I felt that we had a successful lesson and am looking forward to what is going to happen next week! :)

It's kind of like.... HOCKEY!

Our lesson plan went fairly well overall. The kids seemed to understand what we were expecting of them(even though we need to write the objectives on the board next time to be sure!) We took a lot of the feedback from our classroom teacher last time and worked on things that needed to change, mostly with classroom management. This included simple suggestions such as call each row over to the rug instead of all at once or have one partner get the materials from the table instead of both going over, etc. Jill and I made some adjustments and think we did a fairly decent job with the management aspect. 

We were talking about a sieve and the children were not quite sure exactly what it was. One of the things we've been talking about in our classes is how important it is to relate material to real life situations of the students and I know a lot of the kids in the classroom played hockey. I than said, "Why do they call a hockey goalie a sieve?"  I than suggested what happens when they call a goalie a sieve and one of the boys said, "because he lets the puck go through him into the net." I was so pleased he understood! I than went back and explained to the class that a sieve is something that let's things through it. After that we talked about other times they've used sieves and they really seemed to understand it!
(The picture is of one of my best friends. He played here for 4 years and now is playing Pro Hockey! He is the reason I was able to explain that.. but he is NOT a sieve!!  :)





I feel that the students are really learning and understanding what we are trying to teach them. Even though at times I feel like the classroom may feel a little chaotic, I just need to keep reminding myself that chaos when they are learning and understanding is good!! :)  We were given a few additional suggestions that we will include in our next lesson plan and hopefully will continue to grow as teachers!

Andddd my partner was great once again! Go Jill!

Science Lesson # 2.. !

The second science lesson that Jillian and I did went fairly well but was a little chaotic. First and foremost I would like to thank DEBI FOR COMING TO OUR RESCUE and bringing extra ice!! Seems as if someone in the teacher lounge needed their refreshment a little colder and used our ice!! Anyways.... :)  After we got our ice we put it into bags and laid the materials out on the table all labeled. Last time the teacher really liked that we allowed for the students to have a transition and get out of their seats so we did it this time as well. We brought the students over to the rug and reviewed what we learned last time to ensure that students were understanding what they were being taught. After our review they went back to their seats and we began our experiment with melting the ice cube as quickly as possible. 

As I walked around I was pleased with almost all of the students' methods and reasons why they were doing what they were doing. Many said comments such as,"I am rubbing my hands together because it will warm my hands up and the heat will cause the ice to melt." One child was even clever enough to put it on the back of his neck! One thing we did not do was make clear rules for students such as telling them that pounding the ice bag with their fist was not allowed. We now know this for next time though!


Many of the students had melted their ice within a time frame of about 2 minutes to about 6 minutes. The longest was about 11 minutes. We brought the students over to the rug and talked to them about what they learned and reviewed solids and liquids once again.

On the first day students thought that solids could not be ripped and put that as one of its properties. I asked them and they said no it can't be ripped(I think they were thinking a solid was always hard) so I took a piece of paper and ripped it up in front of them. I than asked them if it was still a solid and some said yes and some said no. So we than discussed what exactly a solid was(takes a shape) and than they all decided that the paper, ripped and all was indeed a solid!


Overall, the lesson went fairly well. It seemed a little chaotic because we had less control than last time but I think it is important for students to be in charge at times as well. I think it would of went a little smoother if we laid out specific rules and allowed students to go to the rug in groups instead of all at once. We learned a lot from this lesson and I am looking forward to the next one! :)

Moonlit Meteor Shower VISIBLE this week!

Moonlit-meteor-shower-visible-this-week

This would be so cool to see! :)