Bugs Bugs Bugs!

The research article that I chose was called, "What's Bugging You?" There are multiple reasons what drew me to this article. One of the main reasons was because of the colorful palette that is displayed in the front. I'm not a fan of bugs, but I know there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to bugs. Students are always discovering new attributes when it comes to finding bugs. This article went into depth on how there are misconceptions that students need to figure out on their own. Let's break this article down into tiny pieces. The main point of this article was to show the 5 E's in the inquiry process. This is an important aspect because this helps the students hit a higher order of thinking, which relates to Bloom's Taxonomy. Through each process this teacher pre-assesses the students prior knowledge. The first aspect that she hits is having the students circle which insect best fits their perception of how insects should look. After that the teacher begins to talk about an insect-collection excursion, this is where the students are going to use the 5 E's to explore about more insects. This article breaks down the 5 E's into smaller sections to explain the main difference. First let me write down the 5 E's before discussing them. The 5 E's include: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. These 5 E's all have distinct attributes that are discussed within this article. The first E is engage and the teacher engaged her students by asking what is the most common insect that you know. Not only is she engaging the students, but she is also asking them to tap into their prior knowledge to answer the question. After she heard some of the students answers, she shows them a well known website that goes more into depth about insects. Before starting the lesson she makes sure that students know the concept of classifying. If students are unsure of this concept then she explains what it means. She does this by relating other objects and having the students classify distinct features. Once the students have an idea of what they will be doing she hops right into the Explore section. At first the teacher most model how to do this experiment before the students proceed on their own. The students are collecting data on the insects that they see outside. The materials are listed below that are needed for this experiment:

With these materials the students are to find different bugs that are placed within the bins and compare and contrast the bugs that are inside. The bugs will range from different sizes to having distinct features. Students will have to write down features and draw pictures based on what they see. Towards the end the students can even ask questions that relates to the content and base their answers of the question. Depending on the age you can take this a step further on writing a report about the bugs they discovered. After the explore section comes the explain phase. This is where the students are asked to go more into detail on explaining their insects. The features that make up this insect, the drawing they created, why they chose this insect. Those are some examples of what students might explain during this section. This is also a time where the teacher can ask students questions based on their observations. She can relate the questions to different content and see if the students are understanding this process. The fourth step is Elaborate and during this the students are making models of their insect. This is going to be a hands on experiment for the students to conduct. They will use the data they collected in the previous section and create a bug using different materials that are supplied within the classroom, but they must make their insect adapt to their natural settings. This would include making insects with wings, legs, long bodies, etc. Last but not least is the last E which is Evaluate. During this section the teacher evaluates the students on the content they previously just learned, also known as a formative assessment. This is an individual assessment for the students. The teacher will ask the students to write down three attributes that make up an insect. Based on the results the teacher will see if the students understood the content. It is important to do this because if the students didn't understand this assignment then they are not reaching a higher order of thinking. I like to think of the 5 E's as a process. Students have to finish one step in order to make it to the following steps to understand the material. This article is a prime example of how to follow the 5 E's. I'm glad I chose this article to analyze. I look forward to blogging more about articles I find online. Until next time bloggers :) 

Daily Changes Within An Ecosystem

Last week was an absolute rush teaching at Bishop Dunn. Now that we were out of the "hot seat" it was now time for the third to teach. The teacher candidates who were in this group included: Alyssa, Amanda, and Kelly. They were in charge of explaining the changes that are happening in the ecosystem. There lesson was a continuous of what our group taught in the previous week. Before the third group started to teach their direct lesson; they reviewed some important information that is will be needed through this lesson. Alyssa asked the class questions based on their prior knowledge and I noticed a some misconceptions during this portion. The students seemed to miss pieces of information, but they were all fixed by the end of the direct lesson. After accessing their prior knowledge, Alyssa showed the students and Animoto to give a brief introduction to what the students will be learning. I really liked how they watched the video independently the first time through and then Alyssa explained the importance of the video while them watching the second time through. This was an excellent idea because it helped the students focus on the importance of this video. The one suggestion I have for the video is to maybe tell the students to watch out for some of the vocabulary terms and ask them to name some words that they noticed in the video. After the video the transition into the development section was smooth and precise for the students. Group 3 decided

to use a fill in the blank worksheet to have the students follow along and take notes. This helped them focus on the lesson and gave them a clear outline of what to expect. All teacher candidates seemed very knowledgeable of the material and was making eye contact with all the students. Making eye

contact is an important factor because students can connect with what the teacher(s) are saying at that specific time. Another attribute that I really liked about Group 3 was making sure that they were relating the material to real situations. Alyssa did this when talking about the hereditary genes. The students began to make connections between their family traits and themselves as well. Throughout the development Amanda, Alyssa, and Kelly executed it flawlessly. They were engaging for the students and you could tell the students were soaking in all the information. The only other suggestion I had for this group was to make sure that there is not a lot of information on one slide. Putting too much information on one slide will not only send the students, the teachers as well into cognitive overload. Just be very cautious of this factor when designing a PowerPoint or displaying an visuals. Visuals should only have 7 key points or sentences because that is the number that anyone can withhold. This group transitioned into the guided practice with ease and the students seemed excited to hear what they had in  store for them. Kelly and Alyssa modeled how the guided practice will work. I liked how they modeled this process because I can see this game getting a little confusing at times. Each group had poster board that they had to hold up that displayed their answers. As a group they were asked to discuss and figure out the correct answer. This game was engaging for the students and they seemed to really enjoy the competition. The only suggestion I had on this section would be to call out different numbers to keep them on their toes. Calling out the numbers in sequential order does not really have an effect on them. Another guided practice they decided to do was playing Kahoot. Kahoot is another engaging game that allows the students to have friendly competition amongst each other. This tool helps not only the students, but the teachers as well because it is a summative assessment on what the students just learned. The students got a little out of hand during this section, but they reeled them back into the lesson. At the end of the guided practice, the students were asked to fill out an exit ticket, but there was no clear closure to the direct lesson. Overall the direct lesson went well and I was excited to see what they were going to do for their inquiry lesson.

Adaptations Investigation

The inquiry process will always be my favorite lesson because this where students are doing hands on activities. Before group three presented their inquiry process; they first reviewed what they learned on the previous day. After the review the students were presented with a Voki that was given a problem for them to solve. There task was to become a Zoologists and fill out a graphic organizer based on the research that is provided. During this section, there was no clear modeling but the students seemed to understand the task that was at hand. Alyssa, Amanda, and Kelly gave the student research articles based on the adaptations of the animals. They were asked to fill out any information they found and record it on their graphic organizer. Through this the students were following the inquiry method. It is important to have the students follow through this method because it helps them organize their thoughts and become experts on the inquiry method. When the students were done with their graphic organizer they decided on animal that fits all the criteria that they mentioned in their research. This portion was engaging for the students because they got to be creative, but there were some issues that were faced during this part. Some students were annoyed that they couldn't incorporate their ideas on the picture. There is no way of avoiding this trouble though. After the students designed their own animals it was time for each group to present their findings and animals that they created. I noticed with the first group the teacher candidates challenged them to

answer questions based on their observations. This is an important factor because it makes the students think about their research and how they implemented it. I wish that my fellow teacher candidates did this questions for every group, but they were running out of time at this point. Towards the end of this inquiry lesson the students were asked to write an letter to Lou the Zoologist about their research and discoveries. This was an excellent independent practice to wrap up all the key items that the students learned. I think this group did an amazing job with presenting the direct and inquiry lesson. I can't wait to see what the next group has in store for all of us. Until next time bloggers :)

Our Ecosystem Needs Help!

For my inquiry section, we decided to create a Web Quest. This was an excellent idea in the beginning, but then I realized how much work it was to complete the task. I had six groups in total to complete. Each group had to an organisms to search and find out what is happening to their ecosystems. Designing a Web Quest for fifth graders was less challenging compared to the second graders. The few aspects that I needed to take into consideration were reading, writing, and presenting the material. Before I started my Web Quest, I laid out exactly what I needed to do. I started to Google search some Web Quests to get an idea of what I was going to do. Then I managed to fins one Web Quest that related to the topic that I we had taught. I decided to take this web quest and add more organisms inside it to accommodate the six groups. In order to complete this Web Quest I used Google Sites to create each page. The beginning section of the Web Quest is the problem that they have to complete. This coincides with the Voki that was introduced to the class previously. This section was by far the easiest to create because it did need a lot of information. Moving on to the next few pages was

rough. I spent all day on these sections because there was so much information involved. The students in this classroom at an average reading level, therefore, it was easier to assign them the articles that were included in the Web Quest. They can pick and choose what to write down on their organizer we supplied them with. The way I designed this Web Quest correlates with the graphic organizers that were given to the students. There was a fill in the blank section for them to write their hypothesis and their conclusion. Unlike the second graders Web Quest, I decided to use less pictures and more words on the page because the students are in a higher grade and they don't need that guidance like the second graders. After reading the first article students need to stop and write their hypothesis based on the first article. Once the students are done with writing their hypothesis they can begin to look through the articles and find out what is happening to their organisms. Each article is personalized through online resources and this took up the majority of my time because I needed to find articles that were relevant to their organisms. After finding articles I made sure to hyperlink the online resources inside the Web Quest. The one factor that I had consider during this assignment is making sure the students or teacher candidates had access when presenting the information to the groups. One way I did this was just sending my fellow teacher candidates the link that is setup right to the Web Quest. There were so many important factors that I had to take into consideration. Once the Web Quest was designed I wanted to make sure everyone also had access to that specific Web Quest that I had created. It is so important to think of all the things that could go wrong throughout this experience because I spent so much time on this. Bishop Dunn was generous to lend us some iPads for the students to complete this Web Quest. Our group had to meet with one of the teachers to make sure the Web Quest worked on that portal because they use a different online tool. When we first went in there the Web Quest pulled right up, but one of the Java games did not show up, which then made me rethink to use a different tool. Meeting with the teacher helped us get rid of any minor details that I missed within this Web Quest. There was one group in particular that did not have an internet access when we taught, but we managed to print out the articles and they followed along like everyone else. We were thankful that the students were okay with using a hard copy of the articles.  Overall the students seemed to enjoy this Web Quest because we incorporated technology. Below is the link to the Web Quest that I created for the students. Until next time bloggers :)

Help Our Ecosystem

Let's Be Fair

I remember when I did my first science fair in elementary school. This was to showcase all your brilliant science ideas for the entire school. To me science fair's were not something I enjoyed because it required a lot of outside work and my parents helped me a lot. I felt like it wasn't my own work and there was no clear point of doing it. This semester we were asked by Dr. Smirnova to conduct our own project for a Science Fair at Bishop Dunn. My first thought was when do I have time to do this? As soon as I asked that question I started to have flashbacks based on my past experiences. I tried not to think of all my horrible Science Fair experiences and decided to start all over. With this being said I started to brainstorm ideas on what to do to conduct this science fair. Immediately I thought of what type of drinks stain your teeth. After I decided my topic I had to gather all the materials together. The materials that I needed to conduct this project was: hollowed eggs, drinks, cups, etc. First step was to setup the materials and start recording data based on the first day. I conducted this experiment for three day and made sure to record all the progress. During the experiment portion, I was impatient and wanted the experiment to be done. After three days I looked through my past research and saw the distinct correlation between the different drinks. Not only did I use a chart, but I also took pictures of the hollowed egg from each day. I can see how visuals and charts helps you see the different correlations from day to day. According to Lane Wilkinson, "This process of inquiry extends beyond the academic world to include instances such as evidence and data collected by groups and individuals in communities and the public at large, and the process of inquiry may also focus upon personal, professional, or societal needs" (Is Research Inquiry, p. 1). The inquiry process was being implemented while conducted my experiment. When students are doing an experiment they are going through the inquiry process and discovering new attributes. While I was doing my experiment I was finding new discoveries by visuals. I used the eggs as the visuals within my experiment. The first step in the inquiry process is to make a hypothesis based on your experiment. I thought about the different drinks would effect the egg shells and based off my prior knowledge I wrote down what I thought was going to happen. The next step in the inquiry process was to implement the experiment. During this section, I was testing my hypothesis to see if it was right. This process took a longer time then I imagined, but I managed to collect all the data that was needed to conduct this experiment. I made a chart and took pictures to collect my data to post on my poster board. Finally it was time to see if my hypothesis was right which led to the next step in the inquiry process, which is writing a conclusion. I calculated all my data and came to the conclusion that the Coke was more acidic then the other beverages that I provided. Throughout this experience my thoughts have changed on Science Fair's. Personally I think science fairs are productive if the students have time to work on them in the classroom and know the steps of inquiry. When I was in elementary school I was unaware of these steps. I knew that you had to include them on the poster board, but was confused on the reasoning. I'm glad that this class made me understand this importance of the inquiry process.
Student Work
The day of the science fair it was our turn to grade the students on how well they designed their experiment. We were all given a rubric and we were asked to judge fairly based off of their presentation skills and the design of their poster boards. I was ecstatic to see all the projects that the students implemented. The first project that caught my attention was the density of different liquids. Her poster board was neatly organized and she had a lot of visuals. In the front of her poster board there were the materials that she used to conduct the experiment. I proceeded to ask her to explain and elaborate on her chosen experiment. The main aspects I looked for while her presenting the material was eye contact and how confident she was explaining the material. This student in

particular did an amazing job presenting and explaining the different processes of the inquiry process. To me it seemed that she understood exactly what to do and reached mastery level for her science fair project. I only had time to look at a few more presentations, but most of the students that presented were confident with their material and you can clearly see they worked on their own to complete their experiment. Immediately I could tell that some students asked for help from their parents because their projects were in depth and those students were having a hard time explaining their material. I think this science fair helped the students see the different ways to execute an experiment. Overall my thoughts have changed on science fairs because I can understand the importance of learning the steps. Also the students seemed to very engaged throughout this experience. I'm glad to have experienced this for a second time and have a different outlook. I will definitely execute a science fair within my classroom if there is any time when I student teach. Until next time bloggers :)

How Finland Broke Every Rule

Recently Dr. Smirnova gave us an article in Social Studies to read about Finland's school system. Before reading this article I had an open mind on how other countries and places taught their students in a classroom setting. While reading this article, "How Finland Broke Every Rule" it was interesting to see how exactly the students learn. The first couple of paragraphs discusses what a fourth grade classroom in rural Finland looks like. William Doyle stated, "Instead of control, competition, stress, standardized testing, screen-based schools and loosened teacher qualifications, try warmth, collaboration, and highly professionalized, teacher-led encouragement and assessment." This aspect is completely different compared to the American education reformers. We require our teachers to be qualified when choosing them for the job, but not as highly qualified in Finland. Another attribute that is different is the standardized testing. Standardized testing is a big deal for New York. Students are required to either take regents and many other testing. America thinks that tests really measure the students capability of their cognitive skills, but in actuality it doesn't. Taking tests require students to memorize the material, but this doesn't help their higher order thinking skills. In Finland students are not immersed in technology as much as other places. They do have the high tech devices, but they are never really seen in the school system. There is usually just a smart board and a teacher's desktop. Comparing that scenery to our college; there are certain rooms that only have those two aspects. This can be seen in our lecture rooms with the desks facing towards the smart board. The one aspect that is different in Finland is the teacher only uses their smart board when he/she is delivering simulations of personalized teaching. This is unique characteristic that I have NEVER seen before in a school system. I'm not positive on what exactly it means, but the thing I take out of it is someone virtually teaching the students through technology. This is one aspect that I definitely am going to look into! If there is a simple way of creating the simulations, I would conduct it in my own classroom. 
The classroom management is also done a little different in Finland. I like the fact that classroom is setup for student to slouch, wiggle and giggle for the students. Just that little movement allows the students to be kinesthetic learners. This is definitely one attribute that should be added to the classroom in America. Teachers in America refrain students to move around and "do silly things" because they think it will distract the other students from learning. I like having this attribute in the classroom because students need a moment to be silly and get all of their energy out in some way. The other major difference is the atmosphere. In Finland the students are encouraged to constantly experiment with new approaches to improve learning. The students are learning by doing which hits many points on the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid. There are so many attributes in Finland that make me wonder about the American school system. Finland seems to have terrific success rates and the students seem to be more interested in learning new things. Right on the side of this blog, I added a video which includes more information on the Finland school system. The one thing that surprised me was the dropout rate compared to the American dropout rate. They mentioned that students DO NOT dropout in Finland and if they do then it is only 5% compared to half the students in America. This video really goes into depth about the school system and what you see inside their different schools. I recommend watching this video to anyone that is interested in learning about this AMAZING school system. Until next time bloggers :) 

Strategy Game

Strategy is the most common aspect when you are teaching a classroom. It is important to hit all of these different techniques when presenting a new lesson. Dr. Smirnova provided us with a link that discussed about the different strategies. As I was reading this article I highlighted certain things that really stood out to me. Once I went through each paragraph I sat back and reflected on each material. The way I did this was by writing down notes in my Goggle Docs. This really helped me distinguish between the different strategies. The one way I will remember material is to write down each component that is important to me. So below this text I will copy down some of the notes I used to help me remember each strategy.

Instructional Strategies

1. Direct
1. Teacher Directed

2. Indirect
1. Student Centered

3. Interactive
1. Sharing amongst their peers in small groups with the entire class.
1. Examples: Brainstorming, cooperative learning groups, problem solving, role playing, debates, etc.
4. Experiential

1. Inductive, learner centered, and activity oriented

5. Independent 
1. Individuals are expected to analyze problems, reflect, make decisions and take purposeful actions

Doing these small things will help me remember each specific strategy and will help me remember the differences while I'm teaching. I managed to find pictures that correlate with the different methods to help provide examples on top of the true definition. In class today, we did not have enough time to go over the different strategies, but I am really looking forward to going more into depth about these five different strategies. It is so crucial to know these different techniques because when you are teaching a lesson it is important to know the major differences. This way it is easier to know when to use each strategy. My friend Bryanna, brought up some good points when I was talking to her about this post and I would like to clarify certain aspects. She asked me what teaching style is the easiest and hardest in my opinion. Looking at all of these teaching styles it is really hard to pinpoint the top two, but I clearly identify two. Personally the easiest teaching style for me would be Experiential because of the intentions behind it. Students are learning on their own by teaching and discovering new attributes. I am a kinesthetic learner and I think it is important to incorporate this within your classroom. Not all students learn by lecturing because some students are more visual or even auditory learners. Teachers must accommodate everyone's needs in a classroom. Experiential is the easiest for me because I am a hands on learner and in this teaching strategy students are learning by doing. This can be through role playing, field trips, experiments, etc. This also allows the students to have social interaction with their fellow peers. I think this is an important teaching strategy and definitely should be used in a classroom setting.Overall I think the hardest teaching style would be direct. Direct is teacher centered and there are no room for errors. This sets the tone for the unit plans that you will be teaching. If the students don't understand the material, how do you expect them to proceed with the lesson. This section is called "drill" for a reason. The teacher should drill the information into the students cognitive section before moving on towards anything else. Another reason why I said direct teaching style is hard because there is little student interaction. This is directly teacher centered and sometimes teacher aren't sure of ALL the students in a classroom are understanding the material. There are a few ways that teachers can check students knowledge, but does that actually reach a part in the Bloom's Taxonomy Pyramid. This will lead me right into my next blog which is going to be strictly on Bloom's Taxonomy. Keep watching my blogs and hopefully everything will eventually connect.

Class Moved To Online

I've missed blogging for a little while, but now I'm back. I wanted to take a moment and begin explaining what happened a few weeks ago! Well here I go, so a few weeks ago we had a little snow storm which caused Bishop Dunn to close. Dr. Smirnova, decided the safest way to still have class was through Adobe Connect. I've used Adobe Connect before, but it was exciting to use it all over again. I walked to the computer lab that we were originally supposed to be in and began logging on as I usually do. Dr. Smirnova began with her introduction and went right into the lesson. With Adobe Connect you can do a lot of neat aspects. She decided to project a PowerPoint in the background so we could all see it. While we were all viewing the PowerPoint she did a voiceover on what she wanted us to know. Her PowerPoint was about designing lessons for edTPA. The cover page really caught my attention because edTPA is such an important aspect to learn about for student teaching. There are five different models of teaching just like the blog below. The five types are behavioral, information processing, social interactive, experiential, and independent study. These five strategies do sound very familiar to me. Some of them were actually used below this specific blog. Moving along, the next couple of slides were discussing the "meat and cheese" of writing a lesson plan. This would include: goals and objectives. These two terms I am very familiar with, but it never hurts to brush up on aspects. The examples she used would were:

Objective Example: Given a task to work in a group of 4 and the resources on the American Revolution, the student will create a poster, following the criterial of the rubric and scoring at 3/4.

Dr. Smirnova supplied us with an outline when designing your own objective which is also very useful. The formula she gave us was: Given (a task or materials)the student will verb (from Bloom's Taxonomy) with (an expected level of performance). You have been hearing me talk about Bloom's Taxonomy so much but what really is Bloom's Taxonomy? In 1956, Benjamin Bloom collaborated with a few other colleges and designed a framework with educational goals. They broke it up into small little sections, what you might know as a pyramid. The six sections of this pyramid include: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Each section has a purpose to accomplish a higher order thinking. Remember is always at the bottom of the pyramid and creating is always at the top. As you can see by the pyramid to the right. There are multiple versions of this Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid, but they all correlate back to the original one. Before getting into the detail about they other pyramids let's first break down each part. 

Remembering/Knowledge

This process involved the recalling of specific material. It can be a recall in pattern, structure, or setting. I like to relate this section to the direct lesson. Throughout a direct lesson the students are recalling the information that is given to them. This is hitting the first section in Bloom's Taxonomy. It is pretty amazing to see some sort of correlation between the two.

Understanding/Comprehension

It is just the next step in the process. This refers to the type of understanding or apprehension so that the individual can make connections with the material. A good connection with this would be having the students answer check point questions based on the direct lesson. The students are understanding the material and applying their cognitive skills to answer the question. Which brings us right to applying. 

Applying/Application

This process uses the abstraction of particular and concrete situations. I know this definition doesn't really explain the attributes. Basically what the definition means is to have the individuals taking the material and using it in and out of the classroom setting. The students/individuals apply their knowledge into the "real world." 

Analyzing/Analysis

It is the breakdown the material into component parts so that the structure may be understood. The outcomes in this sections have a higher intellectual level than comprehension and application. Through this step individuals are understanding the relationship between the content and structural form of the material. 

Evaluating/Synthesis

The second to last step would be the evaluating section which is confusing because in the original Bloom's taxonomy model this would be the last, but they focus on the same attribute in this part of the pyramid. This is where individuals are able to put the pieces back together to make it into a whole. It is either done by research or unique communication. You can say during this step the inquiry process would be a good way to hit the higher order thinking. 

Creating/Evaluating

Last but not least creating! This is the ability to judge then value of material. The judgement are based off criteria that is set for the individuals. Through the teaching model the cooperative lesson plan hits this top section. This is where the students are creating their own presentation, but also giving a peer evaluation. 

Look at the Bloom's Taxonomy model, there are many attributes that carry right into teaching. Dr. Smirnova mentioned many of these attributes throughout her Adobe Connect conversation. I look forward to having more of these online meetings and learning more about Bloom's Taxonomy along the way. Until next time bloggers :)