Kaitlin’s Kaleidoscope of Contemplation

Is it possible for my head to explode from thinking? Although I feel better and I feel as though things are starting to come together and makes sense, the sheer amount of information (while relevant and useful) is beginning to build up and almost become overwhelming. My first week of student teaching is completed and as I begin the second week, I realize the amount of time that I will be spending planning as well as doing my own work. I am just thankful that many of the assignments and “to-do’s” overlap in all my classes and student teaching.

While looking for pictures for my Literacy Circle graphic organizer I cam across these flow charts that compare traditional and inquiry-based learning. I think it is clear, the most important difference is that students get to interact and observe the natural phenomenon while participating in inquiry rather than hearing about it from the teacher. Just a little something that could be hung in our classrooms to remind us always that it is important for students to not only learn about it but to also discover the learning themselves through their interactions with the phenomenon.

For my inclusion class (ED452 Instructional Strategies of Inclusive Classrooms), I was required to present an instructional strategy and how to implement it in the classroom. I chose Brain Based Activities which basically try to focus instruction in ways that promote brain development and growth to enhance the learning process. I found an article on specific activities that can help in science classrooms. It focuses on “energizers”. These are activities that encourage and promote blood flow to the brain to help students focus. Below is the citation for the article. Some of the activities sound very fun!

Almarode, J., & Almarode, D. (2008). Energizing Students. The Science Teacher, 75(9), 32-5.

So I’m going to start off with a rant. Trying to do inclusion and get my initial science certification should not be as difficult as it has been. All of the logistics are driving me crazy. They say we’re to find our own inclusion CT but they give us our content CT. They say we have to teach at least two classes that have multiple students with IEPs in them, but we can’t leave our content CT’s room in order to accomplish this task. How can we get two certifications when the program is not providing the placements and support needed to do it? How can they tell us that they need us to teach in inclusive classrooms if they don’t give us a CT that has inclusive classrooms. How are we supposed to practice teaching in inclusive settings if the schools aren’t inclusive. I feel lost like nobody has the answers to these questions and nobody know where the real problem lies. It becomes a major frustration for those of us that truly want to be inclusive educators but aren’t given the opportunity to practice and without practice we can’t become certified. I’m sure everything will work out in the end….but for the time being it is a distraction that can’t be ignored.

So somebody sent this video out on the BioForum listserv. Its pretty cool and I just wanted to share it.

I was a little disappointed that only one of our students showed up. However, I cannot be too disappointed because I knew one student was on vacation, another was having a birthday party, and the third had mentioned she may not have a way to get there.
I really enjoyed all of the videos rather than power point presentations. They were much more engaging and if people had questions about the investigations the students still had time to defend their work. However, I wish there had been more time for the students to help in the creation of the video.
The debrief after the STARS conference was very helpful. Although many of the suggestions we made won’t directly affect us, it felt good to vent and tell the people in charge how it felt to be overwhelmed while participating in STARS.
I think if there was one thing I could tell next year’s cohort, it would be to make a timeline for STARS and understand what you need to have a successful conference in December. For example, understand that there are two videos: one video assessment and one video presentation.

The JERK

Some of my students in my student teaching placement have gotten caught up in the jerk dancing movement. Below is a video of their “dance group”, Kid Loserz. Some are better than others but they literally dance down the halls, in class, all throughout the school day. The absolutely love it and have even created an after school club called “The Jerkin Club” (which the teachers find absolutely hilarious)

I was so proud of our girls today. We have had experiences before in which the large number of people in the room distracted them. However, today they were able to stay focused and answer our interview questions even though there was other people in the room, some of which they didn’t even know.

I also just want to say that our girls are awesome. Even though we only had two girls today, the other girl that has been consistently showing up came down to tell us why she wouldn’t be able to make it. Many of our girls have been doing this throughout the semester and it feels good to know they care enough about the program to come and let us know why they wont be there.

Today at STARS the girls finished their graphs and began explaining what their graphs showed. I was so proud when one of the girls that usually has difficulty articulating her thoughts was able to explain that when the graphs increased it as because they were absorbing light and heat and when the lines descended the houses were losing the heat. We spent quite some time trying to figure out what our graphs were telling us or even if there was any conclusive evidence. Because our two graphs looked so different we were not sure that we could come up with any conclusions. Although the second week looked more like what we had anticipated, the girls, Brittany, and I decided that we could not just throw out our other data.  Although we did not come up with any conclusive results, the girls were able to explain some of the ways in which we could have made our experiment better and possibly get more accurate data. Additionally, they were able to recognize ways in which we had changed out procedures between weeks one and two that might have contributed to the different ways the graphs looked. For example, during the second week we used two probes instead of just one. This allowed the girls to take temperature measurements more quickly and decrease that amount of time the houses could possible decrease in temperature. We will see if we can’t come up with something better next week when we have more girls.

This week was very distracting for our girls. There were just too many people in the room. It was crowded and loud. I wish we were able to get fun things for our girls and to get them up and moving around, but when we do they are not able to focus. I am not sure how to keep them focused while giving them activities they enjoy and are relative to their investigation. On a positive note, we were able to get our graphs started and we will be able to compare the line graphs to make conclusions about our data. AND our girls are sad that STARS is ending soon (as am I). Not that I won’t mind the free time on Thursdays, but I’m going to miss these girls. We’ve built some good relationships and they are all so smart and ask such great questions. Sometimes I wonder if I will run into them in the future. As part of the UTL program, I am anticipating being hired by the district and I keep wondering which school I will get a job at. Will I run into students from STARS or Camp? Will they be my students? Will they remember me? I hope someday I see these students again and find out where they’ve gone in their lives but I am afraid I won’t ever have that chance. It’s scary knowing you have made such a relationship with these kids and you don’t know what their future will actually entail.