NASA loves teachers, and they really know how to connect you with out of this world experiences. Take this example of an amazingly surreal experience as I ask a question about science education to Bill Nye the Science Guy and astronaut Doug Wheelock.
Make sure you follow the NASA Twitter accounts for lots of interesting information. It’s also where you’ll learn about the next NASA Tweetup. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see a rocket launch for three miles away or have a chance to meet an astronaut.
Want someone to come to your classroom and share information about the solar system? Contact a Solar System Ambassador. They will provide free outreach activities, and there are several ambassadors around Georgia.
This post is in the spirit of my post from last year: My Top 10 in 2010. Last year was such an incredible year, and when I wrote that post, I had high hopes that 2011 would be even better, but I honestly could not imagine how the year could be topped. Well, I was right to have high hopes because this year has been even more amazing!
Here’s my top 11 in 2011
11.
Last year, I started “running”. I did several races including 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons. This year, I continued running, and in March, I had a personal best half marathon race. I finished in 3:00:40 – just 41 seconds over my goal time of under three hours. I also ran the Peachtree Road Race on July 4, 2011 – the world’s largest 10K race. I ran with my sister, and it was a great run.
I also started working out regularly and going to boot camp. I was very diligent with that through the first half of the year. Unfortunately, I got a bit lazy once August rolled around, but I’ve jumped back in it, and I’m happily working out and running several days a week! My next half marathon is April 22, 2012, and I am already in training mode.
10.
One of my goals was to blog more here. I did really well with this – at least the first half of the year. I participated in the Kick Start Your Blogging Challenge through Teacher Challenge, and that really got me motivated to blog. I did great for a while, but then I backed off again. No worries, I will keep reaching towards my goals of blogging more!
9.
NASA Georgia STEM Day. This was a one day conference at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, GA. I found out about it at the last minute and talked two of my colleagues into going with me. It was such a great way to start out January. It invigorated me, and gave me lots of great ideas. We also received some pretty awesome swag. You can see my post about it here. I am planning to go again this year on January 28.
8.
International Observe the Moon Night. I heard about this from a colleague I met on Twitter. She sent me information about a kit that our media center could receive if we committed to having an event. I immediately spoke with my principal, he was on board, and we applied for the kit and started planning. We did receive the kit – which included Celestron Skymaster 20×80 binoculars and a tripod as well as books and other fun things, and also planned all of the activities for the evening. We had the Atlanta Astronomy Club come out and set up telescopes, we had the Starlab Portable Planetarium from Chattahoochee Nature Center, the lunar sample disc from NASA, activities, and refreshments.
On October 8, the evening of our event, it was cloudy, but we hoped it would clear for the evening. It didn’t, we weren’t able to see anything with the telescopes, but that didn’t keep people from coming out. We had around 125 people of all ages attend. It was a great turn out considering it was a three-day weekend. Everyone had a lot of fun, and we are planning to make this an annual event!
7.
I had the distinct honor of being named my school’s Teacher of the Year in September. This was such an amazing distinction. If anything, it makes me want to do an even better job with my students. Through the process, I was also named a semifinalist in my county’s teacher of the year awards. My county employs over 11,000 teachers, and I was chosen as one of the top 25! This is such an honor.
6.
I applied in September to become a NASA Solar System Ambassador. I really wanted to do this after attending Space Academy this summer. I found out recently I was accepted for 2012. I cannot wait to share the love of space with my community!
5.
I flew in a Cessna with the pilot and one other passenger as part of Civil Air Patrol’s Top Flight program. I have never been in such a small plane, and it was so different from a jet flight. It is definitely an experience I will never forget!
4.
One year ago on December 31, 2010 I submitted my application to attend Honeywell’s Educators at Space Academy program. In March, I found out I was accepted, and in June I attended and had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I always wanted to go to space camp, so it was truly a dream come true. I was a part of the amazing Team Columbus, and we had so much fun. Plus, to make it even more amazing, I was chosen as my team’s Right Stuff Award recipient meaning I know have a space camp scholarship for a student! For more on this amazing time check this out.
3.
I was in Florida for the final launch of Atlantis, and I stayed in town for a few extra days in hopes of seeing the SRB return. I was able to see both the left and the right SRB return to port, but the highlight was watching the second of the SRB’s move through the locks. I have never been so close to an SRB in my life! Amazing!
2.
These last two are hard to differentiate! I applied to attend the #NASATweetup for the Mars Science Laboratory over Thanksgiving week. Well, initially I was placed on the wait list, and then I moved to the standby list. I was beginning to think it was not to be when one week before launch a spot opened up for me! I was excited to be able to go to this tweetup to see an unmanned rocket launch sending the next rover to Mars. Besides learning loads about Mars and Curiosity rover, I also met Bill Nye the Science Guy and astronaut Doug Wheelock! My students think I’m pretty cool for having met Bill Nye!
1.
I think this ultimately had to be in the number one spot. I had the privilege to be at the press site for the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis – the final flight of the shuttle program. I still cannot believe this chapter in space exploration has closed. It was my second shuttle launch, and it was just an amazing as the first one I attended.
Yesterday, I was attempting to usher students out of my room at a class change so they could get to their next class two floors down without being late. They were not in a hurry to leave, and I asked them why. I was a little surprised at the response I received!
Mrs. Wilson, this is where magic happens. When I’m in here, we have fun and do cool things. I’m not at school when I am in your room, but when I step out the door, I am back at school.
Wow! What an amazing compliment! I am sure there was a bit of good natured fun in the comment, but I believe there was a lot of truth to it as well. Students want to be in my class because we have fun! Students want to be here because we do cool things. And they like the way the room looks.
I know I am not the perfect teacher, and I have a lot of things I am constantly trying to improve, but I am proud that my students think my classroom is where magic happens.
On Friday while walking through the hallways with students during a class change, one of my students asked me what Australia smells like. I told her I didn’t know but I knew someone I could ask.
When I got back to my classroom, I tweeted @malynmawby who lives in Australia to see what she thought in response to the question. She responded later in the day and @brittgow also provided some insight.
I’ll be sharing all of this with my student Monday, but it also got me thinking about how certain places do have associated smells. I’m going to ask her what Georgia smells like. Right now, no distinct smells stand out to me.
However, I grew up in Florida in the town that produces Tropicana orange juice. It’s also right on the Gulf of Mexico. When I was younger, we lived only a couple of miles from the Gulf. The air was always salted and often smelled of the sea – seaweed, salt air, and sometimes dead fish.
When I was older, we lived on the other side of town close to the Tropicana factory. When they were producing orange juice, the air smelled of cooked oranges and warm orange juice. I was reminded how much I enjoy that smell when I was visiting during Thanksgiving last week.
So for me, my hometown in Florida smells like warm oranges and the sea. What does it smell like where you live?
It’s Thanksgiving week in the US, and for the second time, my district has the entire week off. Let me tell you, it’s a really nice break at a much needed time.
NASA-JPL/Caltech
I registered to attend the #NASATweetup for the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover which is right around Thanksgiving. I found out I was on the wait list, and then the stand by list, but by last week, I wasn’t expecting to be able to go to the tweetup. However, on Friday afternoon, I received an email that a spot had opened, and I was invited. I of course jumped at the chance!
I cannot wait to see this launch and attend this tweetup. Students love Mars. I guess because it seems like a reachable goal to them. I am really looking forward to sharing all of this with them. Ironically, I was already planning to get them started on the Mars Student Imaging Project to compare the geology of Mars and Earth while teaching weathering, erosion, deposition and soil when we return from our mini-break. This will make it that much more exciting!
I decided to teach my geologic laws lesson this year using a new metaphorical style. I had done a modified new metaphorical last year, but I didn’t include the evocative question, and I gave my students more guidance. This year, I let them get more creative.
"Geologic" Cake
I started with the evocative question: How are the geologic laws for determining the Earth’s history like a layer cake? Then, without telling the students the laws we would be studying, I asked the to brainstorm answers to the question. Next, we created a three flap foldable for our notes. On the first flap, we put the law of superposition, and we wrote the definition inside the foldable. I then had students think of a simile for the law of superposition. One of the great ones I heard is the law of superposition is like our school. The oldest students are on the bottom floor and the younger students are on the top floor. Great thinking; I love when the come up with something I had not thought of myself!
We continued to the process for the laws of original horizontality and uniformitarianism. One of the best similes for the original horizontality is it is like a pyramid: it’s in horizontal layers and the largest layers are at the bottom. Again, not something I had thought of before, yet every single class period had someone who made the connection. I loved it!
Finally, we went back to our evocative question and looked specifically at how a layer cake is like the laws of superposition, original horizontality, and uniformitarianism. They really made the connections that I was hoping they would see. And to solidify it even more, we ended the class by eating a small sliver of layer cake.
I loved the kids’ reactions to the cake. They were excited, loved the lesson, and they were very appreciative of the cake. Several students said they could not wait to go home and tell their parents about today’s lesson! I was so excited when I heard that. Today’s lesson made an impact, and it was fun.
What creative ways do you teach difficult concepts? Please share!
I decided that I wanted to do something different with the rock cycle this year. I had changed it up last year to make the students think more about the processes that form rocks. Here’s the lab from last year. It worked well, but I wanted to do even more.
So, I decided that this year, we would start with a blank sheet of paper. I would use this lab to not only model the rock cycle, but also to model how to create a lab report. I walked my students through writing the title. We developed our question together. I had the students write their hypothesis with their partners, and then we developed our materials list. Finally, students worked with their partners to develop the procedures. Students could choose whether to use crayons, gumdrops, or airheads to represent a rock through the rock cycle. They could also start and end the rock cycle at any point. The only requirement was that they made all three types of rock.
After they completed their procedures yesterday, I collected their papers, checked them over, and made comments. Today, we corrected the procedure steps, discussed how to collect data and that it was the next part of the report, and the students got a chance to complete the lab.
Tomorrow, students will write their conclusions. I am so excited about how well this went. In order to write procedure steps, students really had to understand the processes that form rocks. Since they could create the rocks in any order, they could easily see that the rock cycle can work in any way. Because we were working with three different materials to represent the rocks, they could not only see their results, but compare them to others in the class to see what made the better model.
I heard amazing discussions going on between my students yesterday and today. I really think they have a great grasp of the rock cycle. I am looking forward to seeing the conclusions that they draw as we wrap this up tomorrow!
These were words I heard several times today. We were wrapping up our Great Rock Mix Up unit, and once students had identified all of their rock types, subtypes, and names, they realized there was a pattern to the rock names. All of the rock names were listed in alphabetical order! My students exclaimed I had tricked them since I obviously not only knew all along what rocks were which, but I also had grouped them in a specific way.
There discovery led to a great discussion of grouping. I reminded them that just like they grouped the rocks in any way they chose on day 1, I had chosen to group them alphabetically. I reminded them that none of us are wrong, but categorizing rocks by formation is how scientists do it.
Finally, I asked them if they would have preferred it if I had stood in front of them and lectured while they took notes every day instead. Of course they said no! So I asked them if they really minded that I “tricked” them, and they realized it definitely was a more interesting experience.
This led to our next activity which is to find out personality, multiple intelligence and learning styles of students. This will help me as I create their new teams. Plus, students are getting to know themselves better. It was so exciting today to see students get their results from a Jung style personality test and realize that it did describe them well. And since we are taking these assessments, it has let me explain to my students how I teach and learn, which of course is why my rocks unit was all hands on, inquiry driven.
At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure they have forgiven me for tricking them!
Through a Twitter contact, I found out information about the International Observe the Moon Night, which is held on October 8th. Somehow, I had not heard of the event. The Lunar and Planetary Institute is providing some kits to school media centers and public libraries that host an event. As soon as I heard about all of this, I knew this would be a fantastic event for our community.
I immediately contacted my principal, and he was interested. We chatted about it, and he thinks it is a great idea. We are going to invite all of the schools in our clusters to participate with students and families. We are a preK-12 cluster, so we should have a wide range of participants.
I am planning our activities right now. I’ve decided we’ll open the evening with a short presentation about the moon. For the remainder of the evening, families will be able to meander throughout several activities. We will have stations about scale size and distance of the Earth and moon, a moon passport to learn features of the moon, moon phases flipbook, color pages, lunar storybook corner, moon photography, share your moon stories, a lunar timeline, and write your own lunar poetry. We will also have the NASA lunar samples on hand to share with families and the Atlanta Astronomy Club will help us with our lunar viewings.
I am really excited about how quickly this is all coming together. I expect it will be an amazing evening! If you have any information or expertise you’d like to share with us, please let me know.
I was nominated for teacher of the year at my school. It’s quite an honor! So, I am currently working on my application for the next round of the process. (It’s due Tuesday.) One of the questions is to share my philosophy of teaching. I thought I would share it here, too.
___________
I believe students enter my classroom with a thirst for knowledge. I want to foster that thirst in order to enable my students to thrive. It is my goal to demonstrate to my students that science is exciting, amazing, and incredible. I want to instill in my students a life-long love for science. I want them to realize science is all around us and a part of our everyday lives. It is also important that I know what is going on in the realm of science. Discoveries are made in the fields of science every day, and I need to know what those new discoveries are. In order to be the best science teacher, I first need to remember that I am also a scientist.
With my students, I incorporate a variety of techniques to ensure a meaningful experience. Science is something that someone does, so my students need to have a multitude of opportunities to do science. Hands on inquiry is a central pillar of my class. I cannot just talk about science because that would not be an authentic experience. I incorporate labs and demonstrations. I use inquiry and discovery since there is nothing better than to make your own discoveries while doing science. I teach my students to approach problems with curiosity and direct them towards asking great questions. I provide problems with open solutions in order for them to solve problems creatively. I provide a safe environment where it is okay if you fail because in science, we often learn more from our failures than our successes. We learn from our failures in order to find the solutions we are striving towards. I encourage my students to work together in groups because scientists work together as a community. I allow them to practice that in the classroom so that they have a true idea of what a science lab is like.
Technology and science are interrelated, and I am teaching a 21st Century student. It is important that my classroom reflects the technology that my students use at home and will need to know for their future careers. My classroom will be a multimedia experience. I endeavor to keep up to date with new exciting technology that can be used in my classroom. I reach my students in their native digital environment and also enable them to use the technology available to them more effectively. Some of the ways I can do this is using my own created web site that is updated daily, blogging with students inside and outside the classroom, student web portfolios, and incorporating podcasts and other technologies that foster a worldwide learning community.
I want my classroom to be a place where all students are comfortable so that they are ready to learn. I do this by creating a safe environment with clear rules and expectations that are followed consistently. I know my students as individuals, and I do my best to reach their individual learning needs. I differentiate my instruction in order to challenge all students. I incorporate lessons that reach the four learning styles (mastery, understanding, interpersonal, and self-expressive) in order for all students to learn in ways that are comfortable for them and to challenge them to learn in new ways. I encourage my students and make sure they know that I believe in them and their abilities. I set my expectations for my students high, and I know that they will accomplish the goals I set for them.
Being able to instill a love of science in my students is an honor; it is my ultimate goal for my classroom. There is nothing more rewarding at the end of the school year then to hear students who did not enjoy science when they entered my classroom now proclaim it is their favorite subject. Science is fluid and ever changing, and I want my students to know and experience this. I want to create student scientists who will approach the world with awe, wonder, curiosity and a sense of ownership in order to continue to discover, question, and become an informed scientific member of society.
These last two are hard to differentiate! I applied to attend the #NASATweetup for the Mars Science Laboratory over Thanksgiving week. Well, initially I was placed on the wait list, and then I moved to the standby list. I was beginning to think it was not to be when one week before launch a spot opened up for me! I was excited to be able to go to this tweetup to see an unmanned rocket launch sending the next rover to Mars. Besides learning loads about Mars and Curiosity rover, I also met Bill Nye the Science Guy and astronaut Doug Wheelock! My students think I’m pretty cool for having met Bill Nye!
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