Setting up remind and other 21st century communication

For this week we had parent conferences. During these parent conferences, I have been trying out a couple new forms of communication.

1: Remind
This service was recommended by my BTSA program. It sends text message or email reminders to everyone who signs up. I plan on using this service to remind students and parents when there are upcoming exams or projects due. I have had a lot of parents sign up, so maybe this will help.

2: Snapchat and Instagram
I am going to post a picture of daily agendas to these. I am fairly familiar with both services, so it is not so much a problem of using it. I hope by seeing their homework in apps which they use frequently, the students will be more likely to finish it or other class work that they have not finished. I don't love how snapchat goes away after 10 seconds, but that might be all the reminder that they need to do their work.

I haven't been keeping up on the daily blogging

A snapshot from this week:

Yesterday we did a lab with beans from the Windows on the wild book. I had 2 trays, full of pinto beans. Each tray was labeled renewable or non-renewable resources. Then the students used spoons to scoop the beans into cups. It went well in all of my classes expect for period 2. It is hard not to hold bias from one class on to the rest. Lucky period 3 is just such a good class overall.

Today we went over water as a resource and I tied the two concepts together. The rest of the week they have to work on their project in class. Yay, no more lesson planning this week. And I don't need another plan until next Thursday!

PBL challenges

Independent work is a struggle. I tried varied levels of scaffolding today, but the "we do" was still not enough for them to transfer how to write a bibliography on their own for the "you do." I guess I should add an "I do" into there as well.

So basically I started by asking them how to check to see if a website was reliable. I found some students didn't know the word reliable. But we cleared that up by saying true. Next, we did a google search for someone's invasive species as a class. And then I did the bibliography on the board for that species, having them feed me the information needed (title, author name, website). Finally, I told them the parameters for research (computer rotation, work with your partners, you can use your device) and let them go. Period 4 made me proud today, they finished completely. As expected, periods 1 and 5 maybe 2 pairs of students finished, and there was an intermediate amount in periods 2, 3, and 8. I expected there to be more than 8 though, because I set it up pretty darn well by that point. We will see what kind of success I have tomorrow when I check their homework. I have no idea what tomorrows lesson will be about, I am just staring at various materials, my standards, and the month-long plan. I guess I should do some long term planning for the next 2 weeks so I don't get caught like this again. I got lazy the last couple weeks. I should go back to doing every Thursday like I did during student teaching.

Yesterday I set up the PBL and gave them time to read one of the provided articles.

Using the same lessons as my student teaching

So I am using a lot of the same lessons from my student teaching, but I have been tweaking them. Today I was lazy, so I showed the video about various invasive species. The difference is, today I stopped the video after each question was sufficiently answered by the video. This way the students had a few minutes to process the information and put it down on their paper.

The students came up with a solution for all of the journals getting mixed up, they would color part of the cover so that the classes could not get mixed up! So inventive.

I also found out there is no technology for the students to do research with like I had hoped next week. So I will have to print out materials for the students to "do research" with and just have various stations. I want to do a food web activity tomorrow, but it doesn't look like I will have the string to do it. Too bad.

Lecturing

We all have those days, the days that we simply have to do a lecture. And for me it was today, because I was not prepared to do an activity. I printed up the notes for the students, and set up my projector, and was off and running. My first period is always so hesitant to talk as always. I tried to include a lot of examples as well as opportunity to come up with their own examples for each vocabulary word. But I can tell I had low engagement (down to probably 4/30 kids at some points). I want to finish this tomorrow so we can move on and do another activity.

In one period I had a good argumentation session around if shells are living or not. And in most classes they are comfortable with the think pair share. I want to tie in the PBL every Friday.

Expert Jigsaw Round 1

So yesterday and today I set up an expert jigsaw for the students to do. Oh man, was this painful. And this is a technique I have used countless times in the past. So the only class that was able to do it well was period 2, and period 8 was able to do it at a satisfactory rate. The rest of the classes were just a no-go on the reading. I think that I need to start next week off strong with another activity. I am thinking of doing the food chain one. That will really play into the NGSS. Then after that I will give the first mini assessment, the one that I saw in the science scope from last week's article reading session. So  next we are going to go over native species again, and then go into endangered species. I really need to plan better.

Day 1 Biodiversity

I am all over the place and really should have planned out a unit rather than isolated lessons. Yesterday's lesson was distinguishing between native and non-native species and introducing the students to the unit. However, not all of the students were able to even to figure out on their own what a species was. I ended up giving them a "do now," having them define what a native species was, watch the invasive species cane toad video, and then define what a non-native species was. Finally they did a quickwrite on their own (in some classes where there was time) differentiating a native from a non-native species. I feel like there was a sufficient amount of group work as well as individual work in this lesson. However, I am not sure how beneficial (however successful) this lesson was overall because it was too stand-alone and out of context. I really need to plan the unit.

Friday and Calls Home

We decided as a team to call every parent of students that did not do homework on the first assignment. It was a horrible idea. Of the 32 / 175 kids that did not do their homework, 8 of them did not have home numbers that I could reach. It was tiring calling so many phones, especially because many of the parents did not speak english. Hopefully this helps to get kids to do their homework in the future.

My script was: "Hello, my name is Ms. Lim, your student’s science teacher. __ did not complete their homework in science class last night. This year team awesome expects 100% completion of homework. Please sign your student’s syllabus and have them return it to class on Monday. "

I also did cooperative groups and handed out science notebooks today. Most of them either liked or hated working with new people, but hardly any of them had done something like this before. I hope I get a chance to use these groups with real content in the future.

Day 3: Scientific Identity

The second day of school I worked on the second half of the engineering design loop by having students finish their initial models, do a gallery walk, and then build a final model. Overall the paper tower activity took way more time than I expected, but was a fruitful experience. I even kept 3 towers as examples of creativity and design. I took a lot of pictures as well. 

Day 3 was more boring, but we worked on scientific identity. First I had students answer the question "Who does science?", then I had them draw a scientist. There was a bit of a disconnect between the two questions. I saw a lot of drawings of girls, but for the most part it was as to be expected. Old white men with glasses and lab coats. Then I asked a series of questions:

Is your scientist a boy? girl?

Does your scientist have messy hair? neat? is he bald?

Is your scientist wearing glasses? A lab coat?

Is your scientist old? Young?

Is your scientist white? Latino/Black?

The students raised their hands to respond to the question. I am happy to report that there was at least one from every single category in every class. And the results did skew to about what I would have expected. 

Then I showed a short powerpoint with minority scientists and went over the syllabus. I have no idea how I am going to keep track of the calls I will have to make tomorrow, but I am sure they will be plentyful. I hope the homework goes well. I also got to do the choices brainstorm with a couple classes, which is helpful to them in the long run. 

I am doing good with "Do Now's" so far. I hope to continue to do good with them. 

First Day of school

Today was the first day of school!

Originally what I had planned was the students would come in and I would greet them. After greeting the students I would have them make name tags and I would then jump into the engineering design loop and the paper tower challenge. It would just be a one day thing. Another teacher told me to have them have something on their tables as they walked in so I could take roll. This was in valueable information and worked out well in all my periods except for one which was more chatty. Another teacher told me to just let them choose their seats for the first week, because the rosters tend to change a lot in math, social studies, and science. So I let them do that as well.

What actually happened was the students walked in and sat down. Then I started before the bell like 3 times. I took roll as the students filled out the fakebook. Some were really fast, and there were 2 boys who hardly put anything more than their names. I had to move a couple students because they were chatty with who they sat next to. I alternated between periods, some I handed out all the materials for nametags, others I had the students come get them. At least everyone had a pencil today. Then as students moved on from fakebook I collected each one and said the student's individual name to help me learn it. And then I instructed them to read the instructions. When most tables were on to that part I stopped the class and had the students summarize what they read and the goals of the day. Then the students wrote or drew a plan and in the last 10 minutes or so, I checked the plans and distributed materials for the first trial. I made a powerpoint, but as per my teaching style, I forgot to use it. Also, I forgot to give out my raffle tickets. I won't be explaining that for a couple says anyways. It was pulling teeth trying to get some kids to talk to one another in some cases. In other cases it was impossible to stop them from having a huge argument. I need to work on my mediation skills it seems. I would say 80% or more of the students were actively participating. Probably even more were engaged. I got some pretty good designs, but not a lot of good plans. I did not scaffold them enough on what to write, I should have done guided practice or modeling first. And they probably have no idea what the engineering loop is. I am still concerned with learning everyone's names. The teachers too.

My management was too relaxed. I will have trouble in the future because of that. It is just not my style to be so on top of it all. Luckily I will have an instructional aide in all of my classes except for two of them.

Tomorrow I plan On finishing up this lesson. Finish the initial models, do a gallery walk, and then plan and build a second, taller model. I should write sentence frames on the board. Then I will do Wednesdays plan the next day, which was syllabus and rule writing. Then Friday we will practice getting in to and out of cooperative groups.

First week of school ideas

I am still looking for more activities to do in the first week of school that focus on team building and skills of inquiry/ the scientific method.

I plan on doing the MESA paper tower activity on the first day of school to build on teamwork. The second day I will focus more on classroom routines (draw a scientist: http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/sket.sci.html) , and the third and fourth days I will have the students start to get into the mood of inquiry. It is days 3 and 4 I am still kind of stuck on when it comes to lesson planning.

Ideas for inquiry activities:
- What is inside the box/ bag (http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/mys.box.html)
- Nature of science paper puzzle (http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/genscience/Choi04.html)
- Nature of science cartoons (http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/sunsets.html)

For more ideas see this blog: http://blog.sciencegeekgirl.com/2008/08/14/activities-for-the-first-day-of-class/

Today, my second day in my class (even without students) was really tiring. Lots of meetings, and meeting people. How will I lean my students' names if I can't even learn my co-workers'!! I am dragging my brother to help make a BIG push to set up my classroom tomorrow. Hopefully we can get the butcher paper up and decorate it with sayings and stuff.

First day of work! T-minus one week until students!

Today was the new hire workshop and then I started planning our PBL intervention for the sciences.

Overall, I seem very on the same page with the other science teacher, which is awesome. She is also very open to ideas (which I am bad at coming up with when I don't have all of my materials with me). I need to really beef up my planning over the next week before school starts. I am very comfortable with the school already! I got the keys to my classroom and looked through the stuff that was left behind. There are some specimens, and a lot of tools for science like microscopes and dissection tools. I also found a lot of general school supplies. So I think that the various items that I bought will go into the prize bin. I also need to get a prize bin. There is quite a bit of storage space, but not that much wall space. A huge amount of space on the white board, and I still need to go get a document camera/ overhead projector from the library apparently. I will be having 7 classes, with period 7 prep (which I hear is bad?). I need to start making friends with the other staff members, and remember their names as well. I am sure there will be time to do that tomorrow. I planned out a few of the things I will be writing on the walls using sticky notes today. I need to get that lesson planning in and set up my online environment. I need to figure out how to log in as well. That is what Thursday will be for hopefully, I am taking a class on that. We got MacBook Pro's to use in our classes, though I am not sure how I will use mine. I still need to do SO much in setting up in my class before school starts next week. I am starting to get excited :)

Interactive Word Wall

One thing that I plan on having in my classroom is a word wall. But not just the classic word wall, with words. And not the differentiated word wall with pictures and words, but I want to include an interactive word wall. This is inspired partly from instruction from CalTeach and partly from the linked article by Jackson and Narvaez.

To achieve an interactive word wall
"We ask students to supply the items (realia) and assign finding objects or examples for the wall as homework. Students can prepare labels, write definitions, create illustrations, and suggest relevant connections and patterns. The connections that they make are insightful and often surprising."

The article outlines steps to creating the word wall

1. Planning the word wall based on standards and classroom goals
2. Create a student worksheet based on pre-planning and sketches
3. Place the Word Wall
4. Build the Word Wall in Class
5. Complete Student Record Sheet and Word Wall Together

This seems like a lot of good work to start on, and I will do my best to get a few planned out before the beginning of the school year (at least one).

From Interviews to Employment

I graduated from UC Irvine in mid-June, and since then I have been on a handful of interviews. I went on 1 interview in LA, 1 interview in Orange County, and 4 in San Diego. Of these six interviews, I got two job offers, both from San Diego County schools. When I write it down like that, it doesn't seem nearly as discouraging as it did over the couple months when all of this was taking place. I was really doubting I would get a job, and I was ramping up my information to file to be a substitute and volunteer next year. But I did it! I am now going to be a first year teacher. And in the grade level/ subject that I wanted as well!

My goals for next year:

1. Stay Organized!! 

I plan on having at very least three records of my first year. First, this blog will serve as my reflection blog, and I will have at least one blog post a week reflecting on what worked and did not work in my lessons/classroom, ideally I will post every night before I go to sleep. Second, I will keep a binder with every classroom assignment/hand out in it. This binder will have a empty copy and a key in it. Third, I will maintain a companion science journal with everything I expect students to have in it, which students can look at if they miss a day in class. 

Ideally, I will also stay up-to-date on grades, and have them in the system at least 3 days before they are due each grading period. I will also do my best to keep a record of classroom discipline, which I will have to do for BTSA anyways. 

2. Read

I hope to read at least 1 article a week from NSTA and 1 book a semester about teaching in one way or another. I need to do a lot more reading on classroom organization and management. And about EL learners. And most of all, I need to learn more about classroom technology. 

3. Create Positive Relationships with my Students

It is selfish to say this, but I want my students to like me. I hope that by the end of the year they know that I care about them, and their academic progress. I will also try to hold them to a high standard, because I know that they can achieve when they try hard. I want to motivate at least one student to love science. And I want to do my best to support EL learners. 

But overall, my biggest goal for this year is to want to come back to teaching after my first year. So many first year teachers leave the profession, and I don't want to be one of them. Student teaching was hard, but rewarding, so I hope that I will have a similar experience with first-year teaching. And hopefully, after a few more years I won't find it to be so difficult anymore. 

Student Teaching Adventures - 6 weeks left

Every day with student teaching is a new adventure. Exhausting, hard-work, and so much more.

Yesterday I had an interesting experience. I work in a very Hispanic area, so seeing Asian people is a novelty, I do not have any Asian students, and I have seen probably one in the entire school. Needless to say, students have been interested in my race. One of my best students asked me yesterday, "Where are you from?" I get this question a lot, because I have a slight accent. And as always, I answer "I am from San Diego." At this point, usually students are satisfied, but this kid is always inquisitive, so he asked a different question "Where are your parents from?" Of course, I answered "San Francisco." At this point he got really frustrated. I explained to him that I may be Chinese, but really I am American. I could see the cognitive dissonance. If I wasn't teaching science, this would be a great time to talk to the students about race relations and immigration in America, rather if I was a history teacher. But that is a little out of my comfort zone for now.