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! :)