SCED Week 9

This week, we began a hands on activity for our Water Cycle project, and that definitely is what I am most proud of and also most excited about!  I believe my group has really found a way to show students the variety of "life cycles" each water droplet can take as it makes its way through the water cycle!  While this is the part of my week that I am most proud of, it was also the largest struggle, because there was only one standard we could find that actually described the water cycle.  The other standards in other grade levels could have been "made" to fit into the water cycle but they didn't really fit what we were going for.  For this reason, we had to do a good bit of remaking our learning experience so it would fit a fifth grader rather than a first grader.
In this upcoming week, I would LOVE to really get a handle on my unit and decide exactly what direction my thoughts are going for that.  Once I can somewhat get my thoughts all out on paper, I would like to meet with Dr. Parker to see if all my thoughts are cohesive and working together in a way that would form a good unit.
This week, for our water cycle project I helped our group by being the "recorder" and kind of organizing all of our thoughts on paper.  I have recently found that organizing thoughts, making charts, making general plans, and making sense of ideas is one of my strong suites, so I hope that I was able to help my water cycle project team in that this week!
In looking for ideas for our water cycle project this week, I actually found a website with several awesome ideas of how to show examples of the water cycle to our students.  For example, the link: http://www.designeroptics.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=KSAngelisa_0S14_00_5115&gdffi=84d82f60f8c144ebb1fb886cd109bdaf&gdfms=FF922E6E98FA405EB76DAECD5AC970B8&gclid=Cj0KEQiA9ZXBBRC29cPdu7yuvrQBEiQAhyQZ9Ni0HDLkM6iQmaewXUydN1LKKWNXNw1qSPk8Lc4UanIaAhCA8P8HAQ has an awesome way to create your own "cloud" and show students that the water droplets actually do rise to form a "cloud," and then the cloud eventually rains back down to the "body of water."  This website contains tons of examples of how to show students the water cycle really does happen!
Something I found very interesting in the science world, is the fact that scientists may have come up with a way to use terahertz rather than x-rays for nearly the same purpose.  The wonderful thing about this discovery is that the terahertz are able to pass through objects much like x-rays without leaving harmful effects there for years to come.  This could be a future alternative to the well know x-ray machine! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170928142103.htm

The tweet above shows the effect of how we teach our students on their ability to get jobs.  This article revealed to us that an early emphasis on STEM gets students into the right mode of thinking.  This kick starts their learning for life and can have a direct impact on the jobs they are able to get in the future!

This tweet really stuck out to me this week because it shows how we are really suppose to get our kinds thinking.  Rather than seeing science as a sequential pattern that goes in the same order every single time, science is always happening, always changing, and sometimes never repeats the same pattern.  This example is of the transfer of energy but another example that is relevant to our current study is the water cycle.  Each droplet has its own journey that has no definite sequence to follow.

This tweet stuck out to me because it it something that I have never even heard of before.  I have heard of formative assessment but never with the culture aspect involved.  After reading about it, I learned that the key points of it are first to learn how to promote equity and social justice as the focal point of NGSS implementation work by focusing on learning and teaching as an inherently cultural process. Then, we must develop a shared understanding of how cultural formative assessment can reveal the interests, experiences, and identities of students.  

SCED Week Six

This week, we began a hands on activity for our Water Cycle project, and that definitely is what I am most proud of and also most excited about!  I believe my group has really found a way to show students the variety of "life cycles" each water droplet can take as it makes its way through the water cycle!  While this is the part of my week that I am most proud of, it was also the largest struggle, because there was only one standard we could find that actually described the water cycle.  The other standards in other grade levels could have been "made" to fit into the water cycle but they didn't really fit what we were going for.  For this reason, we had to do a good bit of remaking our learning experience so it would fit a fifth grader rather than a first grader.
In this upcoming week, I would LOVE to really get a handle on my unit and decide exactly what direction my thoughts are going for that.  Once I can somewhat get my thoughts all out on paper, I would like to meet with Dr. Parker to see if all my thoughts are cohesive and working together in a way that would form a good unit.
This week, for our water cycle project I helped our group by being the "recorder" and kind of organizing all of our thoughts on paper.  I have recently found that organizing thoughts, making charts, making general plans, and making sense of ideas is one of my strong suites, so I hope that I was able to help my water cycle project team in that this week!
In looking for ideas for our water cycle project this week, I actually found a website with several awesome ideas of how to show examples of the water cycle to our students.  For example, the link: http://www.designeroptics.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=KSAngelisa_0S14_00_5115&gdffi=84d82f60f8c144ebb1fb886cd109bdaf&gdfms=FF922E6E98FA405EB76DAECD5AC970B8&gclid=Cj0KEQiA9ZXBBRC29cPdu7yuvrQBEiQAhyQZ9Ni0HDLkM6iQmaewXUydN1LKKWNXNw1qSPk8Lc4UanIaAhCA8P8HAQ has an awesome way to create your own "cloud" and show students that the water droplets actually do rise to form a "cloud," and then the cloud eventually rains back down to the "body of water."  This website contains tons of examples of how to show students the water cycle really does happen!
Something I found very interesting in the science world, is the fact that scientists may have come up with a way to use terahertz rather than x-rays for nearly the same purpose.  The wonderful thing about this discovery is that the terahertz are able to pass through objects much like x-rays without leaving harmful effects there for years to come.  This could be a future alternative to the well know x-ray machine! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170928142103.htm

The tweet above shows the effect of how we teach our students on their ability to get jobs.  This article revealed to us that an early emphasis on STEM gets students into the right mode of thinking.  This kick starts their learning for life and can have a direct impact on the jobs they are able to get in the future!

This tweet really stuck out to me this week because it shows how we are really suppose to get our kinds thinking.  Rather than seeing science as a sequential pattern that goes in the same order every single time, science is always happening, always changing, and sometimes never repeats the same pattern.  This example is of the transfer of energy but another example that is relevant to our current study is the water cycle.  Each droplet has its own journey that has no definite sequence to follow.

Gabrielle's tweet gives a little insight on what we were doing in class today!  We were given the materials to make a basic parachute and then alter the parachute to see if it would fall to the ground at a different rate.  Our group had some great ideas of how to create the different styles of parachutes and they all had varying fall times.  This is absolutely an experience that would show students a perfect example of air resistance. 

SCED Week Five

This week, I would have to say that I am most proud of how smoothly our attempt at the Science Fair project went.  Though we did have to change a few things around, the actual process of melting the objects was rather simple.  The main thing that we learned through this process was that often times the process of an experiment has to be retried and altered before it can give us the best results.
This week I encountered the most struggle with my unit plan.  It seemed like I would get a few words out but not like them and have to start all over.  The part that I was really having the most trouble with was the EU's.  However, today in class Dr. Parker compared them to generalizations and explained that they are basically the same thing.  This also helped me with the EQ's, of course, because they are tied so closely to the EU's.  I think that now that I have at least somewhat of a grasp on these and the Conceptual Lens, I should be able to get a move on my unit!
The aspect of my thinking that I am most satisfied this week is that I was actually enjoying exploring teacher pages on twitter and finding the articles related to education more interesting and more fun to read than any of the other things on twitter.  I have found myself clicking on articles just cause and really enjoying this form of "research."  It's almost like I actually am beginning to think like a teacher!
Over the next week, I hope to get the direction of my Unit exactly pinned down.  It is really time to move past the backspace and rewrite stage and move into the building off what I already have stage.
This week I tried to be a little more on top of tweeting things that I found to be beneficial to my classmates and wrote rather specifically above each retweet how that would be helpful.  I believe that using networking and social media is so important for me and my colleagues and I would love to see us improve in that area!
This week for my outside research, I found PDFs that contain examples of essential questions, and they are really helping me get my thoughts in order in regards to my unit plan.   They are http://pcs4thgrade.pbworks.com/f/EssentialQuestions.pdf and http://sbo.nn.k12.va.us/science/enduring_understanding.pdf
One of the most influential tweets I found this week was this one:

because it really shows the difference in how we used to ask our students to think and science class and how we like for them to think now!  This link takes us to an article that gives an in depth view of how we are able to take students' minds and shape them into thinking critically and scientifically.
Another great tweet I saw was:

This tweet was brought along because apparently it was talk like a pirate day! However, what the people did in this tweet was rather remarkable and quite creative.  They made some wonderful analogies to how our classroom should be run much like a pirate ship.
The final most influential tweet was:

As I said on twitter, we were literately just discussing the topic of this tweet earlier this morning.  We were discussing how we may find wonderful materials that give us the best ideas for learning experiences or just for different ways to teach, but unless we can align them very well with the standards for the grades we are teaching, they are essentially useless.

This week, I have personally really felt like we have been drilling on the fact that "Teachers know the content they teach" because I have learned a lot this week about the water cycle and even last week about hurricanes that I would have never known before.  This standard also goes on to say that teachers make learning relevant to their students.  How can we make learning relevant?  We make it apply to them as individuals in their lives.  We have discussed this over and over again in class this week.  We must make the students want to care about learning something by making it relevant to them!

One very interesting and health related aspect of science that I found myself looking into this week was how important it is for us to get exercise.  An article claiming that 1 in 12 lives could be saved with just a little physical activity.  The article can be found at 

https://www.livescience.com/60490-physical-activity-prevent-deaths.html
On my last note, I would just like to mention how shocked I am that so many students have no idea what science even is!!! I am just now having my eyes open to how very evident it is that science is a part of everything and everyone!

SCED Week Four

It only took four weeks, but it feels like I am finally beginning to settle into the semester!  And it is crazy to think that the end of September is already just around the corner!!  This week, I must say that I am quite proud of how my terrarium has really just taken root and sprouted up like crazy!  I also would like to brag on the fact that, as of right now, we have had no fish fatalities!  It is really cool to see how we, as college students get so excited over the terrariums and how well they are doing.  I can only imagine the excitement elementary schoolers would feel in doing a project of this nature.
A struggle I encountered this week was when I was working on part of our group science fair project and trying to organize the thoughts in my head that needed to be put down on paper.  It was really an eye opener to me about how intentional we have to be with our communication to our students.  They can not read our minds, and they shouldn't have to.  As educators, we should be able to display our thoughts thoroughly and clearly.
Over the next week, we must get together as a group and perform the procedure that we wrote this week for our science fair project.  We also may need to adjust the procedure we have written once we actually get into performing the task.
This week, I really tried to be an active participant in our in-class discussions such as our discussion on hurricanes.  I typically like to be the one who records information and thoughts in a group setting, but I also have found that I don't mind speaking out in classes as long as I am aware of what we are talking about. I suppose knowledge really is power!
Of course, the most commonly discussed current event in the science world right now are the many hurricanes that are spinning about and gaining power in the ocean, while some others are crashing on the land.  One thing we discussed in class this week was what to do when a student brings up a question that you actually have no idea what the answer is.  You allow them to discover!  This was a very important lesson for me to learn.  We must always be prepared, on our toes, and informed about the current events in the world, because someones mother or father more than likely is watching the news.  This current event questioning really showed me a new way that teachers are able to "facilitate learning."  Though we may not always be teaching the information, we should be able to facilitate the process in which students are learning.  An example would be how we broke down into groups in class this week and studied hurricane on our own then reported.
This week, I learned several new things about hurricanes that I would have likely never known otherwise.  I learned about why some are hurricanes and some are tropical cyclones.  I also learned how they begin and where they get their "fuel" to continue gaining power as they spin about in the ocean.
The first tweet I have to share this week is actually a link to an article.  The article was explaining a few ways we can begin to integrate NGSS into our everyday activities in the classroom.  There are pictures throughout the article accompanied by explanations of how that photo shows the integration of NGSS.

The next tweet I found interesting is one that gives a fun and easy example of how we are showing students what is expected of them every day.  We are taught that it is best to show students exactly what they are learning and exactly what they need to do to be successful in a lesson.  This is a cool example of how a teacher chose to display her expectations or the standards to her students.

My last tweet is one that I found the most beneficial.  This tweet is actually a link to a website that is full of all different kinds of webinars.  The listed in this tweet was explaining ways to create performance tasks that actually give students an understanding of the main standard.

This tweet actually showed me to my own personal research.  When I got into the website with the webinars, I was a tad overwhelmed, but I was so excited to see all of the different titles as I scrolled.  The one I chose to stop on, however, was on instructional modeling.  The makers of this webinar chose to make one that involves a teacher presenting a lesson in the correct form that we are suppose to be learning.
This week was not super stressful and I hope that I can keep things in check as the semester progresses! :)

SCED Week Three

This week, I caught a snake!  Sassy the snake was a perfect way to pique my interest of nature and our terrariums.  This week, I am most proud of the way that I have really taken an interest in science as more than a subject.  Last week really opened my eyes to how science is everywhere, and the Science Through my Lens project pushed my thinking even more in that direction.  The largest struggle I encountered this week was finding good questions to go with the photos I took for that assignment.  However, in the group message we have with our class, Mallory shared a link to a page that contains different question prompts and where those kinds of prompts would fall on Bloom's Taxonomy.  This was extremely helpful because I found it very difficult to come up with a range of questions, and I know the same questions over and over would bore students out of their minds.

SCED Week Two

This week in Science Methods we began to prepare for and plan out our terrariums in class.  I am SO excited about this project and feel kind of like an elementary student again.  How often is it acceptable for college students to dig in the dirt and play with worms?!  I am also very excited to see how well we, as college students are able to do with this fifth grade project.
One thing that definitely was brought to my attention during class this week was how crucial classroom management is, especially when we are dealing with students in a lab atmosphere.  The room was a bit crazy with college students all working on putting their little ecosystems together.  I can only imagine what it would be like with fifth graders!
This week, I am most proud of the fact I am enjoying my classes! I have had fun learning about how to teach science, and researching fun things to do in the classroom.  I have decided that this semester is bound to be a good one if I am capable of enjoying the work I am putting in.  I believe a huge part of that is taking pride in the work I do and taking my time doing so.
The largest struggle I dealt with this week was the computer deleting my entire discussion board post!!!!!  But that's okay, I got extra practice writing what I learned from those documents this week! In all seriousness, however, I would say my largest struggle was that I missed class on Tuesday in Dr. Nanney's class due to something out of my control, and the class went over very important standards that day.  I have taken pictures of all the posters my classmates made in class though, and feel confident in them now after looking into them more on my own.
This week, I contributed by being more timely with working on and posting my discussion boards earlier so I could share my thoughts and throw some thoughts around with my classmates.  My goal in the future is to be present on Twitter more, because I believe that is a great place to bounce ideas and great resources around!
This week, after looking into the link with all the clips of phenomena, I got super interested and found some fun websites that give examples of how to show phenomena to our students.  I was surprised to see that many of the labs aren't as complex as I thought they would be.  But then again, if phenomena occur so naturally, I guess it makes since that you can display them in simple, natural ways.  Here is a link that shows how how simple science can show many phenomena: https://www.education.com/magazine/article/Science_Labs_Elementary_School/
This week on twitter I found:

This tweet is from a twitter profile that is absolutely PACKED with tons of ideas and advice on how to successfully implement NGSS in the classroom.  In this particular tweet, the writer is discussing what steps we can take to formatively assess our students along the way.  The article was discussing how we can incorporate formative assessments while also implementing the use of three dimensional learning.

This tweet caught my eye because it brings together the things we have talked about the past two weeks very clearly.  I understood the three dimensions of learning and that we are suppose to be teaching from the perspective of looking at phenomena, but now I can see a perfect example of how they overlap.  This is such a simple yet extremely effective way to look at phenomena and incorporate 3D leaning.

This tweet gives us an entire example of how we can show students the phenomena of density based on mass and volume.  Rather than simply showing the equations that I'm sure we all know by heart (D=M/V), the teacher showed the actual occurrence of how an objects mass and volume have an impact on that object's density.  The students go through the steps to discover density, rather than simply being told what it is.
The first thing that came to my mind for a current event involving a phenomena was, of course, hurricane Irma and hurricane Harvey.  Though the storm has caused so much damage and devastation, it proves to be one of the most incredible phenomena in the world.  The phenomenon of weather and how it occurs constantly and naturally without any impact from humans is a perfect topic to get students discussing what Science is and how it is everywhere all the time.
This week, I definitely see how students must know the content that they teach their students.  I was completely unaware of the shift to teaching about phenomena rather than just teaching information, and I love it!!! However, I am really going to have to educate myself in how to do so, as I was never taught this way when I was younger.  I believe this will be a challenge for me, but one that I will enjoy and one that will make me a much more effective teacher in the long run.

SCED Week One

Well here goes Fall semester!!! I'm not sure how it came so fast, but I am excited for what it holds!

Today in Science methods, we did an experiment that required us to create three boats out of tin foil that would float even with objects placed in them.  We planned our boats, built them, made a guess of how many objects it could hold, and then tested out our ideas. This activity was a great reminder of the scientific process and how we are expected to encourage our students to think scientifically about the world around them.  I was most proud of our science class today when we discussed how we could see science in everything around us.  We were able to find countless scientific principles in the simple things around us such as a car or a leaf.  The most encouraging thing to me this week was to see how easy it is to integrate mini science lessons into literately everything, because science is everything.

The biggest challenge I have faced since being back at school is just getting back into the swing of being a student, after being a nanny all summer (so basically playing mom).  I am having to refocus all my attention back to my school work rather than focusing on keeping children alive... but I suppose that is part of my future line of work!

Over the course of the next week, my goal is to fully embrace getting back into being a student.  In doing so, I also plan to become an active and encouraging member of the classrooms I am  placed in (especially the education ones).  I am very blessed to be surrounded by very bright and intelligent colleagues and I need to take advantage of that and collaborate with them as much as possible, because that may not always be the case.  I believe the best way for me to assist my colleagues is to give them encouragement along the way and offer to combine our strengths so that we can collaborate and learn how to overcome weaknesses.

I found this article about a teacher who was awarded for his creativity in the science field.  The article goes on to explain how he feels about encouraging students to enjoy science and think scientifically.  The article also contains specific projects that he did with his students.  This teacher is a wonderful example of how we are capable of and should be making science fun, exciting, and intriguing to our students.

The main focus of the article represented in the tweet above is that the world around students is changing and we must change with it.  There are many ways to keep students interested, and one of the best ways to do so (according to this article) is to allow students to design and create their own kind of science.  Each of the five ways involves pushing students to become interested because the activities where they must design and create demand all of their attention and they demand it fully.

This tweet stuck out to me because it is a wonderful example of how we can integrate science into the teaching of other subjects.  In this case, science is brought to life by literature.  Just as we talked about in class today, you can literately find a way to involve science in just about anything.  The world around us is science.  This is a very useful resource for when we have trouble finding science in things around us; it can remind us of how to show students science in the most unlikely places.

One current event that was brought up in class today is global warming.  Today, we took a few minutes to observe and consider the scientific properties of a simple tub of water.  We talked about water displacement, which is a present and somewhat pressing issue in our world, due to the melting of icebergs at the poles.  I was very intrigued by the similarities between our world's ocean and a tub of water.

This week's class and the experiment we did in class prepared me to become proficient in the standard "teachers facilitate learning for their students."  For example, Dr. Parker was facilitating our learning today through the science experiment we did.  He was there to assist, to explain, to keep things interesting, to remind us to look at the science behind everything, and to be sure that we were learning.  In order to be a successful science teacher, I must be extremely intentional by facilitating learning to my students in the most active way possible.  Passive teachers are not good teachers, but they are especially not good science teachers.  Science requires intentional constant effort from a teacher.  This is why the standard "teachers facilitate learning for their students" has been so active in the front of my brain.

SSED Final Blog Reflection

     Throughout this semester, I have had the opportunity to grow as a student through the process of blogging.  Honestly, this process has been one of the best reflection methods for me thus far!  I love to talk and I love to write, so why wouldn't I want to talk/write about what I am learning and how I am growing as a teacher candidate each week?!  I understand that everyone has different processes of reflecting (Trust me, I can tell you all about differentiating!), but for me, this was the best way to get my thoughts flowing.  It honestly was a process that just came natural for me.
     My favorite part about Social Studies methods was that we were always given different ways to learn and to show our learning.  While blogging was my favorite form of reflecting on learning and connecting my outside experiences to professional teaching standards, I know that others in the class probably preferred other methods such as recording the Tweet of the Week Videos.  This class gave us the opportunity to try many methods of learning, and I am appreciative that Dr. Parker embraced our diversity and planned the class to where a diverse population of students had the opportunity to thrive in different areas.  This gave us a great example of how educators facilitate learning for a diverse population of students.
     I was also challenged more than ever to reflect on my practice through this class, as an educator should, and blogging was one of the places that I did that the most.  One thing that I have always really struggled with as a student has been taking time to reflect on my practice.  I was always one to briefly read over something (in other words put too much faith in my writing skills) and click submit.  This class as a whole has taught me the importance of reflecting on things I have learned and the products of learning that I am required to submit.  Blogging in particular has been a part of my week where I must force my self to sit down and think, "What have I actually learned this week?" and "How will that knowledge or those skills be beneficial in my future classroom?" It has really been a way to help me get some of my thoughts from the week organized in my brain.
     If I was to blog for a class again, I would give it more time by blogging a bit throughout the week and then adding to the post as the week progressed.  I found that throughout the week I learned many things and had many effective experiences, but by the time I sat down to write about it all at once, I had trouble remembering everything that had happened.  If I blogged again, I would probably jot down a paragraph here and there so that I didn't forget the things like the great advice I got from my CE or the funny story that I learned a lot from in the classroom that day.
   The main lesson that I plan to take with me for years to come, is the idea that it is good to sit down,  discuss with myself (really think about) what I have learned, and organize all those thoughts in some way.  For social studies methods my way of organizing my thoughts was through blogging.  However, my goal as I finish out college and begin teaching is to take this idea of deep reflection and information organization with me.  That may look like recreational blogging in the future, or it may be a simple "take five" to reflect on what has happened the past few days.  I would say that in the future, my goal is to continue to reflect on my practice about every two or three days in order to keep my brain well organized and functioning as it should!

SSED Week Fourteen

     I can see the light at the end of the end of the tunnel!!! With our unit plans wrapping up and our lesson plan writing behind us, I absolutely can feel quite a bit of the stress being lifted!  I know I still have a long way of editing to go on my Unit Plan, but I am happy to at least see my thoughts begin to piece together and become coherent.  I have had a wonderful challenge in my clinical classroom this semester, but I am thankful all my lessons have been taught and my time there is coming to a close.  We only have one more week at Washington coming up this next week.  I have really enjoyed the overall experience of the environment I have received at Washington this semester.
     I would say that the largest lesson I have learned from my Unit Plan so far is that when I am given a large assignment, I really should be taking every free minute to put towards it so the last few weeks aren't jammed with the writing, rewriting, mind-changing, rewriting again cycle.  And let me tell you... It is a never ending cycle.  I have also learned that it is absolutely okay for me keep changing things as long as I am not second guessing my original plan... because then I end up in that cycle I mentioned earlier.  According to the professional teaching standards, teachers reflect on their practice, and I know that in looking over my unit time and time again I am learning how to effectively reflect on my work.
     This semester in my clinical placement I was given the opportunity to work with a grade that I had no experience with previously.  I was honestly terrified at first.  My original thoughts were, "Sixth graders are taller than I am, bigger than I am, and louder than I am."  These thoughts were actually true in many ways, but what didn't run through my mind was how sweet and how fun this age group is.  I was very blessed by my sixth graders this semester.  They were respectful and eager to learn every time I was in the classroom.  I still think that I am personally more fit for the younger grades, but I now understand why some people have such a big heart for sixth graders.
     I have continued my research for my PDP this week.  I have mostly focused on the portion about ELL students so far, so I did a little research on student-teacher relationships.  My favorite portion of information came from a website called Learn.Teach.Lead.  The link to the website is http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105124/chapters/Developing_Positive_Teacher-Student_Relations.aspx.  The most effective portion of this website was in a paragraph titled Communicating Positive Expectations.  This paragraph basically discussed good strategies for calling on students and getting them to participate individually.    
     I'm pretty excited this semester is coming to a close but I am really thankful for everything I have learned.  This semester has been the ultimate challenge for me thus far in college, but it has really pushed me to try new things and give my all more than ever before.

SSED Week Twelve

     Well I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for sure!!! We only have a few more weeks to get everything wrapped up and turned in!  While I am SO looking forward to the break, I am not ready for everything that is going to be due so very soon!
     I am happy to finally be almost done with my flipped lesson plan.  My group plans to teach one another on Monday and I look forward to seeing how that goes.  I am excited to teach to my peers but I am keeping in mind that it will not be nearly the same as teaching to actual second graders.  The video I created is probably a little bit odd for college students to watch, but I tried to speak slowly and explain things in detail as if second graders were watching the video.  I can definitely see how a flipped classroom could be very beneficial to my future teaching, because students (hopefully) have nothing to distract them from the video and then will come in the classroom with their questions ready to go.  It would allow much more class time for discussing and activities.  As far as my first flipped lesson goes, I am really excited to see how the learning activity plays out on Monday!
     In my clinical classroom this week, I observed a class that I hadn't before since I wanted to teach to both the core one (lower level) and core two (students).  It was interesting to see how my CE didn't change the content or the skills that she expected the students to know and perform.  She only changed the presentation of the skills and the application.  For example, both classes had a discussion about the text they read about King Tut, but the core one class discussed as a class so she could guide the discussion and keep the central focus and the core two students discussed in smaller groups without my CE's direction.  The discussion questions she asked them didn't vary much but the facilitation (standard 4) for each class greatly varied.  It was a good reminder that every student can reach the same goals, some just need different encouragement and a different path to reach that goal.
   

SSED Week Eleven

     As I am reaching the end of Spring Semester, I can feel all the deadlines nipping at my heels!  I will say that the most impactful thing I have learned in Social Studies Methods this Spring is how to manage my time wisely (and I am still definitely learning).  We are absolutely on the home-stretch and I can see the finish line.  BUT we still have lots to accomplish before we cross it.  Through my clinical experiences this week, I began to notice that I am learning how to interact with my students in a much more meaningful way.  Also, I am very excited to teach my Social Studies lesson to my students very soon!
     Flipped lessons are strange.  They are awesome and impactful for students, but they are completely unlike anything I have ever done before! I love the idea of them and I think I will love them as a form of teaching once I get used to recording myself teaching and explaining things to a computer screen.  The actual written part of the lesson was not extremely difficult for me (though it was still far from easy), but recording myself teaching the lesson is well beyond my comfort zone.  This has been my largest challenge yet.  I believe that in order to demonstrate leadership in my classroom, as a teacher should, I must be confident in my teaching.  By pushing me out of my comfort zone, this assignment appears to be developing me into a leader for my future students.
     In one of my classrooms at WES, Gabrielle and I discussed how great it was that we were getting to know the kids' names without peeping through their hands at their papers or using the famous "Now would you spell your name for me" line to figure out what it is.  The students are also beginning to tell us apart (which may not seem like a big deal, but Ms. Lindley and Ms. Lowman are apparently VERY hard to tell apart).  These connections that I have made with the students in the classroom have given me the ability to really offer them help in areas they need.  The students are beginning to trust me enough to ask for help and to admit when they don't quite understand something.  Teaching is SO relational and those relationships we make with our students are crucial to their learning!
   

SSED Week Ten

     This week we began our EdTPA bootcamp session! I think I am finally beginning to understand the difference between the three tasks (and also how the fourth one would work) and how they all work together and flow from one task to another.  We did an activity in class today that was super helpful!  This week we also have been asked to look at a "kiddie lit" book and start thinking of ways to integrate social studies into the reading and teaching of that book.  This week I have also been planning my social studies lesson for teaching, and my CE was kind enough to provide me with awesome materials!  My clinical experiences at WES this week were also great.  Working with small groups of students has taught me so much about how students learn and how to reach them.  I seem to learn something new about how to more effectively impact students' learning every time I work with them! 

     In Social Studies class today, we divided into four groups and each group went through a different task of EdTPA and pulled out what they believed were the most important parts of performing that task.  I was given task four, and honestly, prior to today in class, I have never even looked through task four.  I have briefly overviewed tasks one, two, and three and pulled out what I had to know to get by but never really dissected the document and annotated it the way we did yesterday.  We didn't get to task three and four in class today.  However, throughout task one and two, Dr. Parker had an explanation of how we would go about accomplishing each of the points the students pulled out of the document.  This was super impactful because I feel like now, at lest for task one and two, I have an understanding of not only what is asked of me but how I can go about accomplishing what EdTPA is asking me to do in my lessons.

     The "kiddie lit" assignment for this week was also rather eye opening.  I wanted to get my hands on a book that I knew was something kids will enjoy, so I chose to use one that the little girl I babysit brought home.  She selects a book from the library once a week to bring home and read, so I knew this would be something that at least looked interesting to kids.  The book she chose this week was called "If You Give a Pig a Party."  I was shocked that when I looked at the standards for social studies, they can so naturally be integrated into even the "silly" literature kids love so much.  This assignment has shown me that social studies integration can be fun and simple.  It isn't always a burden! 

     I was very blessed this semester to have received a CE who shares so many resources with me!  She has given me several books that include activities, games, ideas of integration, and much more.  She said she understands that I will only be teaching one Social Studies lesson but she wanted me to see some other ways to integrate Social Studies into everyday teaching, which is something we have focused on very much in Social Studies Methods this semester.

     At Washington, the teachers I am placed with typically use me and the other students who are in the room with us to break the class down into even smaller groups so that individual students are reached in a smaller student to helper ratio.  Every time I am with a group at WES, I learn something new about how students learn.  One thing that I noticed this week as I was doing a vocabulary activity with a group was that one student seemed to have some issues focusing.  I found out, however, that if I gave step by step instruction on even the most simple things such as "Place your pencil and scissors on the table and clasp your hands in your lap then put your eyes on me," and then made sure to make specific eye contact with that student every three or four seconds while I was explaining the activity or the next step, he was significantly more focused than before.  It is remarkable that we have twenty students in the room to teach and it will be our job to learn the best way to reach each individual student and keep him or her engaged at all times.  I absolutely learned much more about facilitating learning for each individual student this week! 

SSED Week NIne

     This week in Social Studies methods, we received some of the best news possible!  When we return from Spring Break, we are having edTPA boot camp!  (Which I know is exactly what I personally need to be proficient in writing these lesson plans.)  I changed my mind on my unit plan again, which I'm not surprised about.  However, the way the standards are beginning to align with the learning experiences gives me hope that I may have finally found what will click for my unit.  I also took a few more steps toward my PDP this week and some kinds of artifacts I would like to include in my final product.
     I have finally set in stone (well for now) the major parts of my unit plan, including the learning experiences.  I have finally figured out how to align  the learning experiences with the standards I chose.  I believe that I can still tweak my learning experiences to make them incorporate more technology, so I plan to be working on that over Spring Break.  I am excited that my learning experiences are now aligned with exactly what I have planned for my performance task.
     This week, after meeting with Dr. Parker about my PDP, I decided to create a blog site that will hold all my research and all my artifacts for goal one.  I was unsure of how exactly I could display this all this information, but I believe a blog sire will be the best option! I spoke with one of my teachers at Washington who has an ELL student, and she said she would be happy to allow me to interview her about how she facilitates learning for him and moves him towards thinking critically.  For my blog site, I plan to have an interview video, some links to effective resources for ELL students,  several infographics that explain effective strategies for working with ELL students, and an animated video that talks about how to move ELL students to thinking critically.
     For my second goal on my PDP, I began my observation of how teachers interact with students this week.  Prior to this week, I had conducted ample research about the most effective ways to interact with students, and I was surprised to see that many of the "best" ways to interact with students that I found were not implemented in the classroom.  Standard two states that teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students.  If there is not an open and effective line of communication between all students and the teacher, the environment is not meeting the standard.  My next step on this PDP is to find out simple ways to begin opening up communication in the classroom.  I hope that after my research on this topic, my classroom will have that respectful environment where all students feel open to learn, make mistakes, and talk to me about what they need every step of the way.

SSED Week Eight

     The knowledge I gathered this week from the overview and the videos Dr. Parker shared have helped me to even further see ways to present information to my students and allow them to show me what they know.  I enjoyed learning about both the TPACK approach to viewing knowledge and the SAMR model of technology integration.  After gaining a deeper understanding of knowledge through TPACK and the different levels of technology integration according to SMAR, I have decided to make a few small changes to my unit plan in order to reach students in the most effective way possible.
     Looking back on my notes from my clinical observations this semester, it has been interesting to see how the technology integration used by my clinical educator falls into a different category of the SMAR model each time.  For example, one way that she showed the first level (substitution) was by taking the chart students were asked to fill in about the article they read and putting it on the smart board.  The smart board was substituted for the typical pencil and paper alternative.  An example of a time I saw my clinical educator use a deeper level (modification) was when she allowed students to correct writing mistakes on the smart board and each type of writing mistake had to be corrected in a different color.  She modified her lesson on correcting writing in order to integrate technology.  Another thing I have realized after looking into the SMAR model is that technology is not integrated nearly as much as I feel like it could be and should be in classrooms.  Students are completely comfortable with technology due to the time period they are living in, so why not take advantage of this by pushing students to use technology as often as possible in our classrooms?
     The TPACK model gave me a new understanding of how I present information to my students.  I now see that there are ways to move from my own personal comfort zone (which I believe is TCK).  I have now started looking at my unit plan and trying to decide what would be the best way to incorporate the other branches of the TPACK diagram and even move several lessons over to the "sweet spot" that we see in the center of the diagram.  By keeping this model and these ideas in the front of my brain as I plan lessons and continue revising my unit, I believe I will definitely begin to see more differentiation and more creativity throughout my lesson planning and learning experiences.       The TPACK and SMAR models, when used, will ensure that I am facilitating learning for my students in a variety of ways.  I will plan appropriate instruction for my students while challenging them to think critically.  Along with knowing my future students well and a thoughtful planning, the TPACK and SAMR models will be great tools for creating lessons and learning experiences in my future classroom.
   

SSED Week Seven

     This week was without a doubt an eye opening week!  My favorite part of the week was the Digital Learning Day!  The highlight of Social Studies for me this week was that I have finally wrapped my mind around how I think my unit plan is going to end up looking.  And, I discovered the wonderful world of google cardboard.  I also have LOVED looking up research on and resources to support my PDP.
     Digital Learning Day was definitely a success! (And had some delicious food too) I gained so many new resources that I have no doubt I will use in my future classroom.  It was nice to just spend some time with other students and professors chatting about technology resources and also just the education process in general.  We all have learned many things since being candidates in the education program and sharing these experiences is SO valuable to our learning process.
     After backspacing and rewriting my guiding questions literately hundreds of times and rethinking every generalization, I think I have finally decided how each component ties into my performance task.  I am excited to see it all really come together in the next few weeks.  We spoke briefly about our units in class this week, but we mostly talked about the google cardboard and how to record using street view. We were like kids on Christmas morning out in the quad playing with the app.  I have been playing around with it more and I can't wait to get to use it for the virtual museum project.
     One part of my PDP involves ELL students and their learning process.  I have been overjoyed to find that there are TONS of online resources such as interactive "worksheets," verbal response activities, literacy games, etc.  I was able to share my two favorite resources at Digital Learning Day this morning!  My own personal feelings towards ELL students in the classroom is that they are often times overlooked and pushed to the side to complete a different "task."  I have noticed through some clicinal experience this semester that some teachers embrace the ELL students and work with them tackling literacy head on. However, many teachers seem scared to really dive into literacy with their ELL students and essentially give them something else to do in order to get them "out of the way," which is extremely disappointing and completely ineffective.  I am thankful though, to see many examples  of  what to do and what not to do.  This will have a HUGE impact on how I work with my future ELL students.
     After discussing a bit about my PDP with Dr. Parker, I hope that this piece of it regarding ELL students will allow me to begin a chain reaction of teachers who actively persue literacy for ALL students in the classroom.  In this way I hope to demonstrate leadership as an educator.

SSED Week Six

     This week, I feel like I am beginning to understand the components of the unit and how each one of them is important to the other.  Through discussion with classmates and watching videos I have also deepened my understanding of the three types of assessment we have been discussing.  To further my understanding of these three types of assessment, I decided to do a little research on my own, and found an effective powerpoint presentation.
    My mind is beginning to organize the assessment of learning, for learning, and as learning by how they will be used throughout my unit plan.  We had breakout rooms during our Zoom meeting this week and I was placed with Kelly.  It was really nice to bounce ideas back and forth and help one another understand our own personal view of the three words regarding assessment.  We talked about which parts of our unit plans are for learning (the learning experiences) and which ones are of learning (performance tasks).  We also came up with an interesting question.  We thought that is could be possible for some of these words to overlap.  When we asked Dr. Parker about this, he explained that what type of assessment it is depends solely on the way the teacher is using the information he or she is receiving from the assessment.  That, alone, was enough to give me a huge "Aha!" moment in respect to this topic.
     Through my own research, I found an effective powerpoint online.  My favorite part about this powerpoint was that it really dug into the teachers' roles in each kind of assessment, which brought drastic clarification to several of my questions.  Throughout the powerpoint there were also tidbits called "reflection" that each presented a few questions to think about as I am creating or planning assessments as, for, and of learning.  In order to create an atmosphere where my students can grow and succeed, proper formative and summative assessment MUST be present.  As a teacher, I will make it my goal to assess my students along every step of their journey in order to set up lessons and learning experiences that are fit for where they are along the learning process.
     My favorite thing that I saw in my clinical observations this week, was what my CE did at the very end of the day.  This was the first week I had been in her classroom in the afternoon rather than the morning.  Before students left her classroom, she had each of them open their planners, review what they had done that day, and decide what they needed to do that night to be better tomorrow.  She then (and this is my favorite part!) walked around to each student and wrote something (some much more than others) and asked for their parents to read what was written, respond if they needed to, and sign it that night.  Collaboration with parents or guardians is SUCH an effective tool and SO important to the students' success.  I plan to keep an open line of communication with the parents in my future classroom, because it will make all the difference to my students' success.

SSED Week Five

     Once again, Social Studies Methods has changed my entire GRASP(S) (pun intended) on teaching!  It never fails that I am pushed to think of things in different ways and keep in mind the classroom that will one day be my responsibility.  The main shift in my thought process this week was from thinking of fun and creative activities for assessment to thinking of performance tasks.  I am excited to learn more about the learning experiences and how they feed off our generalizations to lead up to our performance tasks.  I also can't wait to take my ideas for student activities and learn how to transform them into performance tasks.

     This week, I had the opportunity to plan with my clinical educator the lessons that I will be teaching in her classroom.  For my fine arts integration piece, she has recommended that I give the students the opportunity to select a creative way to display what they have learned.  This was SUCH an exciting moment for me as I realized that she is pushing me to create a performance task for the students!  I believe that fine arts will be a great place to start with this idea, because the standards naturally push students to be creative and expressive.  Creating performance tasks in other subject areas may be a bit more challenging.  However, integration of fine arts into core subjects would be the perfect way to approach creating a performance tasks for students.  

    One thing that was brought to my attention this week in a new form was the idea that we can give "assessments of learning," "assessments for learning," and "assessments as learning."  All three of these are important, though the last form of assessing appears to be less common.  I believe that one of my goals as an elementary educator will be to figure out how to assess my students as they learn.  Through my clinical observations thus far, I have not seen assessment while learning performed in the classroom as often as I believe it should be.  I hope that my attention to this subject prior to teaching will help me become efficient in assessing my students as they are learning.

     I believe that my brain has now clearly organized the differences between an activity and a performance task.  The next step for me to take regarding performance tasks is to be able to take all the many ideas I have about activities and transform them into performance tasks.  I hope to be able to create options and a clear rubric for my students to select and show their learning in a creative way.  I want to create an assessment environment where students are not always expected to come to one specific conclusion.  

SSED Week Four

     Week four of Social Studies Methods challenged me and brought much depth to my process of thinking.  My whole view of how to go about setting up my unit plan was completely altered this week, and I was challenged to think "outside the box" with how I should approach information.  I was also challenged through the Google Community page this week.
     Thinking of what my own personal philosophy of differentiation would be really shed light on the fact that very soon, with LOTS of work and prayer, I will be the one person who is in charge of twenty or more little minds who all need something different.  How am I going to satisfy each child's intellectual need?  How will I be sure that each child in my classroom is challenged just enough and not falling behind?  I believe that I understand the idea of differentiation.  I have read articles on it.  I have listened to professor after professor speak about it.  They have given me ample resources and strategies.  However, until this week, I had not realized that differentiation really is a task that must be personalized to, not only each individual student, but also to each teacher's philosophy of differentiation.  There is not a specific formula that each teacher must follow.  It is dependent on what he or she finds effective in the particular classroom at hand.
     Last week, I was challenged to change my way of presenting information with the idea of generalization.  I understood what it was, but I didn't completely understand how to go about presenting lessons or even just questions in this form to my students.  This week, the video on guiding questions gave me my "aha" moment.  Breaking the guiding questions down into three distinct levels gave my brain a way to begin organizing the questions I wish to ask my students.  When I was an elementary student, I recall that most of the questions given to me were factual.  However, moving students to think through conceptual and provocative questions is really what gives them the opportunity to explore the information that they have been given and see how it applies to them, as individuals.  When the students reach the conceptual level of thinking, their abstract thought process leads them to a deeper understanding.  When we, as teachers, throw the provocative questions out, the students then have the opportunity to make a connection with the presented information through discussion.  I am, by no means, a master of generalization now, but I can see leaps of growth in my understanding since just last week.
     This week, my outside "research" was a bit different than an article or tweets.  I have the opportunity to babysit a kindergartener two days a week.  Along with this, I am asked to pick her up from school and do homework with her.  This week, she was given a "story."  It was only four sentences of very simply structured sentences.  The directions asked parents to "discuss this short story with your child," so I decided to try using one of each of the questions.  I was able to find a question that fit into each category.  This was encouraging to me, because no matter if there are only four simple sentences about Kit's mom getting mad, it is possible to challenge students' thinking with each level of guiding questions.
     Through thinking about guiding questions this week, I was challenged to consider the ways I will push my students to think on a deeper level and how I will plan the best possible learning instruction for them.  The new understanding of teaching that I received this week directly links with the fourth professional teaching standard, which is "teachers facilitate learning for their students."  I firmly believe that this week has given me a depth of understanding regarding how I will effectively give my future students opportunities to learn and be challenged.

SSED Week Three

     Wow, this week has felt like a bit of a whirlwind passing by.  Social Studies Methods is absolutely a class that keeps me constantly on my toes.  I know in the end I will be so thankful for this, though, because it will prepare me for the world of teaching.  In that world I must be prepared and always on top of things.  This week, we went to meet with the teachers we will be interning with over at Washington Elementary and it was great to see how excited the teachers are to have us helping out in their classrooms.  I was absolutely astonished by the "Data Room" that we had our lunch and discussion time in.  There were pictures of each individual student taped to the wall in certain places that allowed teachers to easily see which students needed to progress more and which students needed to be challenged more.  It was the most real form of intervention or differentiation I have ever seen.  I hope to one day work in a school that has teachers who genuinely care about individual students and their progress as much as the teachers I met on Wednesday did.
     This week we had to get together our goals and activities to fill out our professional development plan.  I am excited to get the PDP filled out and approved with Dr. Parker, because I know that it will give me the opportunity to now set goals for myself that I know I need to accomplish.  I believe it will also put the Professional Teaching Standards more into perspective, as I will be addressing those standards in a real way that is applicable to me, personally.  I have found that what I enjoy most about this Social Studies Methods course is the amount of freedom I have through my blog posts and in our online class discussions to gather the information and express it in my own personal way of thinking.  I also love that I am able to see the different ways other students process information, because it is opening my eyes to just how differently we all think.  This is such a valuable tool as I must be able to understand so many ways of thinking to be sure I am reaching every one of my future students effectively.
      It was my turn to lead and moderate our class discussion in the google community page this week. I was a bit nervous to begin a conversation regarding differentiation, because I am honestly always nervous when discussing it.  I believe that every single piece of my lesson plans are more than likely going to contain some form of differentiation, so I can't understand why it is something many education students fear.  After discussing a little bit over email with Taylor, we decided that the fear stems mostly from the fact that we often times just don't even know where to begin when it comes to differentiating in our classrooms. So, I found an article that addresses this issue and decided to pull some discussion questions from it.  So far, it appears that the class responded positively to the article and had a rather lengthy and in-depth conversation regarding the discussion questions I pulled from the article.
     If I had to pick one word to describe all of my collective teaching program experiences for this week, it would be "real."  Through creating my personal plans for achievement, meeting with the teachers from Washington Elementary, and getting to be part of in-depth discussions regarding differentiation, I feel like this week my experiences became "real."

SSED Week Two

This week in Social Studies methods, I feel like I am finally getting the hang of having an online class.  This is the first online course I have ever taken, and it is an entirely different world than what I am used to.  Keeping involved and being an active member of the class looks completely different in an online class than in a face-to-face classroom.  However, I have really enjoyed learning how to use the discussion board to share my ideas and to see how others are thinking about the same things I am but in different ways.  I also have found several interesting teaching blogs online that give honest feelings of teachers dealing with tough situations involving challenging students.  However, I have found most of them to be encouraging.  Either these teachers are really great writers, or they really care about the students in their classrooms.

My creation of a concept visual to help me portray the difference in conceptual teaching and topical teaching was a fun experience.  I enjoyed this assignment primarily because I enjoy creating things, and I also love when I am given the freedom to express my ideas using my own creativity.  This assignment was especially effective for me personally because I am an auditory learner in the sense that discussing and hearing myself speak about things really helps me organize information in my brain.  All the assignments that require voice overs and verbal explanations have been my favorite ones so far.

Our focus this week was mainly on the Professional Teaching Standard regarding to the fact that educators facilitate learning for their students.  We discussed the differences between concepts and topics, and why learning concepts is much more valuable to students' learning than only learning topics.  Students have a desire to know why the information is relevant to them.  They want their teachers to explain to them the "big idea" and why it matters.  By teaching students conceptually, educators give students the connections they crave and facilitate a much more effective learning atmosphere.  Students care about concepts, but they don't care so much about topics.  Students desire relevant information, and will probably ignore whatever they believe is irrelevant.  When students care about what the teacher is teaching and believe that they are being taught relevant information, effective learning will take place.

This week was the first time that I deeply pondered the difference between concepts and topics and how they are so involved in lesson planning.  I have had to come up with concepts for lesson plans, and I have been asked to involve "x" amount of topics and standards and integrate them.  But this week was the first time that I believe I actually grasp the understanding of the difference in teaching concepts and topics.  Through my elementary years, I was taught topic to topic, with no relation.  I had no connection to my learning experience.  My concept visual was a flower with the center being the concept and the petals being the topics.  As an elementary student, my mind had free falling petals without any organization or relevance.  In my future classroom, I plan to give students topics that I have already tied together into a larger concept.  The topics and the facts are important, but they are not important alone.  I plan to be able to answer a student confidently when he or she says, "Why does this even matter?"  I hope that my students have coherent flowers floating around in their brains, so when they need to reference a petal they will know exactly what flower they need to find. 

SSED Week One

This week in my Social Studies course was an eye-opening experience.  I now realize that I was not fully aware of the effect of an encouraging Social Studies experience at a young age.  Through my reading of the article, "Powerful and Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Elementary School Social Studies," my eyes were opened to the impact of Social Studies in early education.  I never linked my inadequate social studies experience with my initial disinterest in all societal topics and issues.  Now, however, I understand that engaging students at a young age gives them the opportunity to grow into involved, well-educated, independently-thinking citizens.  Presenting students with Social Studies related information at a young age in an intriguing way has the ability to "feed the fire" for students in regards to their desire to dig deeper into Social interactions whether is they have occurred through history or they are present in our lives today.

All the information I have learned this week will be effective in my classroom when I begin planning lessons and activities.   I have learned ways to engage students and make their Social Studies time something they look forward to and enjoy.  On Pinterest, I have found many ideas of ways to "bring history to life," as that seems to be the least enjoyed of all social studies topics.  I also have found some fun videos on youtube that tell the stories we all have learned throughout years of history class in a fun way.  In the future, I also plan to look for many hands-on activities that will get students out of their seats and moving while we are have our Social Studies time.  I once used an interactive web-site as part of a lesson plan.  It gave students the opportunity to go online and discover the information for themselves.  Due to the fact that all the information was presented in a level way with no bias

This week, the most prevalent teaching standard, though they all need to be represented at all times, was leadership.  Without leadership in the classroom, the teacher will have no power over the attitude or the atmosphere that is associated with Social studies in his or her classroom.  However, when a teacher steps into the leadership role that he or she should be fulfilling, it is possible for that individual to set a tone in the classroom that is welcoming to Social Studies and motivates students to become involved.  One way that I like to look at how Social Studies affects the young minds is that they, too, are citizens.  Though they are small and their minds and ideas may change once every minute, they will one day be the citizens who vote and the citizens who are elected to serve.  It is valuable to educate them now and allow their thoughts to grow as they do.