Teacher Andrea T

Today was the big day! Our girls presented their findings from their investigation.  The girls did a really great job and I think they really enjoyed being able to present and show off their knowledge to their friends and family.  The girls were a little hesitant in the beginning but then they were up for the challenge.  The first group of people to our interactive table, we really had to help the girls out.  Yet by the next group they girls just took over.  This was wonderful to see.  They were really taking charge of their investigation and hands-on active.  We also rotated to have one girls at the poster discussing the investigation that had done in the last ten weeks.

We could have used a much longer table.  We were trying to squeeze people in at the table and not everyone was fitting.  I also think that at the beginning we should have let the girls explain more about their investigation while they had every one’s attention.   Once people reached our station most were more interested in making pretzels.  The adults were the ones interested in the poster more than the kids there.

I really think this was a great experience for the girls.  We even had a couple of our girls interviewed for the news! It was great to see one for the girls explain everything they have done and be so excited about it on the news!  I really hope the station plays her!   I know she  will be really happy and proud about it.  I really am glad that I was apart of this program.  All the work and long hours was worth for seeing how much the girls learned and enjoyed the program.

I think of our last day of Science STARS went really well! We were able to complete everything that we needed for our presentation and interactive session for Saturday.  We split the girls up to finish all the work for the presentation.  We had two girls work on the poster design and start typing up the information.  One girls worked on the slides for the 3 minute introduction.  Then the fourth girl worked on our interactive board, for the instructions to make pretzel dough.  The girl working with the presentation slides finished early, so she was able to help the other girls on the poster. 

The girls were all engaged and focused on completing the work.  I think that with the presentation on Saturday, they really wanted to make sure they had everything done.  The were excited about the upcoming presentation and invited their families and teachers.  After we were done on Tuesday, all we had left to do was glue on the information.  So me and the other three leaders finished the poster and interactive poster board. 

The one really big arrow I had for the week was the girls never really got into a large group to discuss the findings and conclusion.  We had discussed the conclusion with everyone but not as a group.  This was do to time and planning.  Some activities took much longer than we anticipated.  Next time will we really have to try to work in time for a whole group discussion.

Well this week we did not get as far as we would have liked.  We did finish both of the graphs we needed for our data analysis.  One of our groups was able to talk about their graph and the presentation but other did not get the chance.  The other group was held up on the computers because we could not figure out how to change different aspects of our graph on excel.  Here I thought I knew how to do everything we need on excel and STARS this week just proved me wrong.  Take it I am used to the newer version now, that is no excuse for not knowing how to fix our graph.  We should have just had the girls create another one, it would have been faster.  The girls and us in the group that got stuck on the computers were really frustrated.  I told the girls to blame me for their frustration and I got one of the girls to relax and smile about our issues.

Next week we really have to focus to get everything done for the presentation.  We want the girls to feel comfortable and ready to present their investigation and findings.  I know the girls will want to have a nice poster and presentation, so I think they will understand that we need to get everything done on Tuesday. 

 After all the stressful planning and work needed to create informative and engaging lessons, what really matters is the students.  They are why we are teaching in the first place.  We need to find ways to connect and relate to our students.  The connection can be in the classroom or outside of class.  Students need to know that we are thinking of them when we teach.  We need to teach to the students, not to the material or tests.  The information we will go over will be associated with the material on the test but how we teach needs to reflect the needs and likes of our students.

One thing I realize, that no matter how busy or stressed you are have student happy and excited to see you makes it all worth it.  You are teaching for the students, it feels great to have the students appreciate you!  Students excitement gives you energy and makes it easier for you to be excited about teaching to the students.  Students really respond to energy and your attitudes about the material you teach.  This is also related to how well the students are able to connect to the material or to you.

I am nervous that when I am at school where the student population is different from what I am used that forming the connections will be a lot harder.  I will definitely make the effort to build those connections because teaching is so much more enjoyable with both you and the students want to be in class.  Right now at my placement I have had similar experiences as the students, which made building the relationships easier.

 We were in the computer room again this week to graph and analysis our data.  The girls liked to be in the computer room and use the computers.  The girls us that their teachers are happy they are learning how to graph on excel.  Plus the girls proudly told us that they showed their teachers the graphs they have made so far.  It was nice to see that the girls are proud of the work they have done and want their teachers to know. 

We have one girls that really understands the excel program and graphing.  She even had more graphs completed from the data we gave them the last time we met.  I was really impress how quickly she pick up the computer program and understood how and why we are graphing the data.  We had her in a group with another girl that was working on the rate of carbon dioxide produced.  The other two girls were working on our other graph of the height of bubbles.  The graph of the height of bubbles was a little more straight forward for the girls that were having some difficulties with understanding graphing.   All four of the girls were really trying to complete and understand their graphs.  They all asked question to us and each other.

This week at STARS we had a few visitors.  One of our girls was really happy and excited to talk to our visitors about our experiment and what data we have collected.  This was one of the girls that has been struggling at times, so it was really nice to see her get so excited to talk about our experiment. 

This was our second day in the computer room and we still have not organized and graphed all of our data.  We will have to start next week in the computer room to finish up.  We were hoping to finish with the data  in the computer lab by the end of this weeks time.  Yet the girls were very involved and engaged with the activity and it was important for us that the group enjoyed a usually boring task of graphing and organizing data. 

Next we’ll finish graphing the data and work on the analysis.  Then we will start to plan our presentation.  We would like to have the girls decide what they think should be on our 2 to 3 slides.  We hope to start to get the girls excited about the presentation and teaching their experiment to 5th graders.  Already the girls have invited a lot of their teachers, family, and friends.  I hope that their is a good turn out to support our girls!

I have mentioned before about the importance of having a mentor.  After observing a department meeting I also realize how important it is for the teachers in a department to have good relationships.  You do not necessarily have to be friends but to have comfortable and good working relationship.  This will go a long way towards making an easier transition for novice teachers as well as keeping veteran teachers engaged.  This will help prevent teachers from falling into a rut and losing interest in the reason they became teachers.  A teacher does not want to lost their reasoning for becoming a teacher; they lose their ideals for helping the students to succeed.  This support along with a mentor will be great for novice and veteran teachers.  

Support will help teachers continue to learn how to reach their students and become better teachers.  It will also encourage teachers to ask for advice and help from other teachers in their department.  The knowledge that others are their to help out is a great resource and some stress relieve knowing you have people behind you.

Due to our assignment for class I have been thinking about the technology used in the classroom.  I think that it is important for students to be exposed to the technology available today.  They will need to be familiar with technology as they move on in school and need technology more and more.  I also think that for any career in the future some sort of technology will be involved.  Today technology is such a large part of careers.  I mean just think of this blog, I am using technology that I did not have when I was in school.  Keeping a blog is a new thing for me.  Over the summer I had to learn how to use the word-press program and how to add media.  I am still not that great at using all the features available.  As teachers I think we need to keep up with the new technology that could be used in our classroom.  Blogs can be a good addition to class assignments or projects.  I would like to find a unit to add a video project.  The students like to play around with the video programs on the computers in their computer lab. I would just need to learn how to assess them with the program.

School need to have funds to have the new technology and I know that not all the school have money available to them have new computers.  Resources are going to be the largest problem with using technology in the classroom.  School may not have the ability to supply you with the technology you would like to use.  Right now my placement school has a good resources to be used for the students.  I will try to make the best use of them as I can. 

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So there are two major problems with using technology in the classroom.  Probability the biggest one is if the school even has the technology or the ability to get the equipment or program for you.  The second would be if you can use the equipment or program.   Once you get passed these two possibly large barriers then technology is great to have in the classroom and very beneficial to the students!

This week our group focused on graphing and using computers to graph.  We did an introduction activity with candy.  We gave each student a bag of different color candy and told them to make a graph to represent the candy.  Most of the girls automatically graphed the candy by color but one girl was trying to be different.  She did not  want to do a graph the easy way.  This was interesting because most students and kids want to do work the easier way.  From this activity we learned a lot about our girls ability to graph and understand the graphs.  One girls is way ahead, while another is going to need a lot of one-on-one help.  The rest fall in between the two ends or extremes. 

We also learned a lot from our next activity on the computer.  Some girls knew how to use the computer program but not how to interpret the graph they made.   While others understood how to make the graph and did not know how to use the computer program.  We only six girls and four leaders we were able to have a lot of one-on-one time with the girls.  The low ratio allowed us to really see how well the girls understood the information and process of graphing, as well as help with learning how to use the computer program. 

Even if they do not retain any science knowledge from STARS (which of course they will) the girls will really benefit from making graphs and learning how to interpret them during STARS.  This is a skill they will continue to use and improve on while in school and possibly in their future careers.  This baseline data gave my group a good understanding of where each of our girls are with graphing and reading graphs. 

Our activities allow us to have some nice one-on-one time with the girls to help build our relationships with them.  I think that our relationship with the girls affects how much they are enjoying STARS.  Not only did we work on building our relationships but we were able to have a good individual assessment of their abilities.  The assessment will really help our future activities and know who will need the most help with those activities. 

I think that we should have used our own data when they were practicing on the computer. This would have gave the students some ownership of the data and graph.  Plus they could have begin to make assumptions about the affect of different sugars in yeast and water.  We could have used a tutorial for the basic use of the computer program for graphing.  That was the problem with some of the girls, they just did not know how to use the graphing program. 

Next week we will continue to graph our data.  Then we will focus on analyzing the data collected and graphed.  We will scaffold according to the assessments we got from the prior week (2 weeks, there is a holiday next Tuesday). 

More and more I am realizing how important it is for teachers to relate their material not only to real life but to their students culture.  A students culture plays a larger role in their lives and if you can reach out to the students by finding ways to connect the material to their lives specifically then they will be more interested and engaged.  Right now my placement is similar to the school I grew up in.  I can relate very well with the students and have no problems sharing information about myself to my students.  If they can see how the material is used in real life but all to something similar to experiences they have then I have more interest in what I am teaching.  There are more questions and interest when they have something they can relate the information or concept to. 

I know that is other places, possibly my next placement in the city, it will be a lot harder to relate to the school.  We will probably not have the same experiences or interests.  I will have to find a way to reach the students, so the information become valuable to them.  Otherwise school material and information gets put in the back of their heads and only comes out during school.  Students need to see how they can use what they learn in school to help with their lives.  We want students to use the information we supply them with to make the best out of their lives. 

This goes along with my last weeks post, you can not judge a person by how they look.  I will need to set aside any prior stereotypes I may have and look to the students below the image.  Their culture is a part of that person that could help me understand and get to know the student.  The nicest student may dress like a person you want to avoid, yet a person perfectly dressed maybe your worst nightmare in class.

This was another good week of STARS.  The girls were engaged in the activity!  We were able to collect more data, so each sugar or sugar substitute will have three data points.  The carbon dioxide probes we used generated a graph for each reading.  This will be a good example to show the girls the type of information that is available to them in science.  This week we continued with our experiment from last week to get the extra data.  The yeast responded so much better this week.  I think last week we ended up killing some of the yeast because the water was too hot.  The girls were able to see the results more with the different heights of bubbles formed. 

I was a little disappointed in the start of our group session.  There was some chaos that I was not expecting.  We had our experiment set up about the same as last week and we had the same procedures but the girls did not seem to know what to do.  I had to walk them through each step again and for a few girls, for each of their cups.  I thought that because we were picking up were we left off last time that the girls would not need as many directions.  I was wrong, now I know that I should reintroduce the directions for the students, especially if it has been a week since we have seen the students.  Next time I will be more organized and ready. 

The pretzels went over great! The girls really got into making the dough and creating their pretzels.  Next time it would be nice to have them be able to cook the pretzels after they finish making them.  We did send the girls home with directions on how to cook them.  I think they liked being able to take something home from STARS, to have something to show their parents or guardians.  I think December 6th will be great to show other what they have learned but most of the girls are really nervous about talking in front of people.  Also I believe we found our interactive activity for December 6th.  I think the girls would like to should people how to make pretzels.  Then on our tri-fold poster we can have information about the whole experiment with yeast.

We need to keep the girls conversations more about science and away from social happenings.  There also needs to be an improvement of behavior management.  We still have the talking issue at times and we had a few issues involving the flour from our pretzels.  But we did have a good thing come out of our flour issue…the girls named themselves the “Kitchen Warriors”!  It was great that the girls were so into the pretzel that they created a name for themselves.