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 :)