The minerals and rocks unit is somewhat new for the science department at Eckstein. For that reason I had some freedom to do what I wanted with the unit. Since this isn’t a unit that was done extensively before there are limited numbers of rock and mineral specimens. Me being the student teacher I got to start off with rocks as opposed to minerals. Minerals is probably more appropriate to start with since many rocks are made of minerals. I decided to start the unit with an introduction to rocks with emphasis on how different types of rock have been used by various cultures through history. I Gathered quite a few pictures online of rocks as building material, artifact, or sacred site. Some of the pictures were of early stone tools, stone roads, ancient buildings such as the pyramids, Ankor Wat, and sacred sites such as Stonehenge and Uluru (Ayer’s Rock). The lesson ended with an extended talk about Easter Island and the Moai statues that dot the Island. I think the the lesson went pretty well. Even though it was mostly a discussion/presentation lesson the students seemed to stay attentive (or asleep). It was a useful lesson in that I think most people don’t really think about the rocks around them and all the ways rocks are used around the world. I hope the students learned, or at least heard, a couple of new and interesting tidbits. See the written lesson plan here.
Meta Reflection Standard L January 1, 2010
Knowledge of learners and their development in social contexts
Evidence of teacher candidate practice reflects planning, instruction and communication that is:
1. Learner centered. All students engage in a variety of culturally responsive, developmentally, and age appropriate strategies.
Over the course of this year I have been learning a great deal about teaching and students. For the Students as Learners class I came up with a Philosophy of Learners based on my experiences and the readings and discussions in our classes. In addition to the Philosophy of Learners paper I completed a number of reflections on various types of learners. These reflections were student motivation, exceptional learners, cognitive development 1, and cognitive development 2.
It makes sense that students learn better when they have an interest in the lessons. I try to create new lessons or modify existing lessons to gain the interest of the students. In a lesson about how earthquake waves travel we got the kids up and acting out the movement of waves. In our multicultural class we created a lesson plan that incorporated multicultural aspects. In addition we completed several reflective assignments on multicultural aspects in the classroom.
During my intro lesson for the rock and mineral unit I asked the students to come up with as many different ways that we used rocks as they could. I then showed a series of pictures of some of the ways we as humans have used rocks through history. The lesson ended with ended with a talk and images from Easter Island where the building of stone statues is believed to have been part of the cause of the collapse of the civilization there.
As I develop my lessons it is important to keep the age of my students in mind. One thing I have learned is to never underestimate the power of poster. No matter how fascinating I may think a discussion topic may be I can still look out onto a room of blank stares and yawns with only a few of my students participating. I tell them that they are going to be making poster models and most of the students engage and carry on discussions about the topic. This was the case in our volcano unit as we were discussing the anatomy of a volcano. Here is some examples of the posters created by students.
2. Classroom/school centered. Student learning is connected to communities within the classroom and the school, including knowledge and skills for working with others.
Our science class is centered around group work. Most students will find that life after school requires the ability to work in groups or teams and to cooperate with others. We try to emphasize group work in each lab and during many assignments. Each student has a role in the group, Captain, recorder, resource manager, and facilitator. We switch groups and roles often throughout the year so every student has the opportunity to work with everyone else and each student has the chance to serve in each group role. We had a lesson in which each group had to come up with an experiment of their own that would show the relationship between heat and the rate of evaporation.
3. Family/neighborhood centered. Student learning is informed by collaboration with families and neighborhoods.
Family and neighborhood involvement is a tough concept for many teachers, myself included. My hope is to be able to include families whenever possible. This is a lesson plan I created for the Multicultural class I took this past fall. The lesson is part of the earthquake unit. In it I had the idea of giving out questionnaires for students to share with their families about their experiences with earthquakes.
In addition to opportunities to include families on the learning process I have attended several intervention meetings with students and families. Two meetings concerned the students performance in the classroom and involved brainstorming strategies to help those students to be more successful. Other meeting have been IEP reviews. These meetings have focused on how the IEP is succeeding or not succeeding for the student and how it can be modified to better serve that student and teacher.
4. Contextual community centered. All students are prepared to be responsible citizens for an environmentally sustainable, globally interconnected, and diverse society.
I will try to guide my students in the proper behavior in today’s world. Starting in the classroom I can expect my students to display behavior appropriate, not only for the classroom, but also for society and the world in general.
The evolution unit began with the topic of extinction and how it is important to the concept of evolution. On occasion I have the opportunity to comment and discuss with the students the effects humans have had on the planet and the organisms that live on it.
