For the past two years, I have organized our school science. We organized our fair as an extracurricular club where interested students could participate. Previously, we only had a handful of projects each year. Some were great, and others were not as good.

This year, I decided to make completing a science fair project a required portion of my class. We’ve been working on our projects since October. Today was turn in day.

Almost all of my students came in early today to set up their projects. And then they stayed with me – each other really – and excitedly dashed around the room looking at each other’s projects. They were asking questions, analyzing conclusions, and critiquing each other’s methods. It was so exciting! My students have become scientists. Their projects look amazing, and I am so proud of them!

I am working on my gifted endorsement for my state teaching certificate right now. I am also teaching gifted classes for the first time this year. I love it so much, but I can definitely feel myself stretching.

For instance, I just wrote a lesson plan for my class in the New American Lecture format. I took concepts that I normally teach, but I totally re-invented my previous lessons. I worked really hard to create something new and different, and also to make sure that I incorporated critical and creative thinking skills.

I submitted my lesson this evening, and I will hear feedback on it next week from my instructor. I’m not 100% satisified with my product, but I am pleased with the progress I am making so far. I am looking forward to creating seven more lessons in different styles and continuing to stretch myself.aszz

Yesterday, I explained how I taught the water cycle to my traditional science class. Today, the water cycle was on the agenda from my gifted science class. From discussions last week with my gifted classes, I knew that these students have pretty extensive background knowledge of the water cycle. All I needed to do was review and refine their knowledge.

I had my students evaluate four common water cycle diagrams looking for similarities. All of them showed similar drawings with snowcapped mountains on the left hand side, a large body of water on the right, and clouds and sun in the sky.

I challenged by students to draw a water cycle diagram with their group - but to make it completely different. Show it on a different scale – in a different location – a new perspective. Make it look unique and interesting. A two of my favorites involved the water cycle happening on your back porch, and the water cycle at the water park.

This was a fun activity, they have solidified their understanding of the water cycle, and I didn’t stand up and lecture to them!

Every lesson that I teach revolves around an essential question. All teachers at my school do this, and students have become accustomed to having an essential question totalling relating to the day’s lesson.

Today, my EQ was, “How does water move through the hydrologic cycle?” Last week, we discussed the global distribution of water. Today’s lesson introduces the hydrologic cycle. I begin class with a warm up question, and after we discussed this (prior knowledge of the water cycle), I passed out a piece of string and 9 different colored beads to each student. We then proceeded to make a bracelet. Their instructions were to place the beads in any order they wanted on their bracelet.

I of course then heard lots of students asking me, “What does this have to do with the water cycle?” My response is always wait and see. Once everyone made their bracelet, I explained that each bead represented part of the water cycle. We then tried to figure out what each one represented. Once we had determined what each bead stood for, we wrote down in our notebooks this information. Finally, I asked each student to explain how water would move through the cycle in the order they placed the beans on their bracelet in.

I love this lesson because it really shows them that water can move in any direction through the cycle. There is no one correct process. It can “start” anywhere. Plus, students walk away with a bracelet – a visual representation of what they learned.

I’ve attached the visuals I use with this below the cut. Read the rest of this entry »

I gave a short questionnaire to my students after a test the other day. I told them they could do it anonymously. I asked them the following three questions:

1. What is your favorite thing about this science class?
2. What is your least favorite thing about this science class?
3. If you could change anything about our class, what would it be?

I also let them know this was their chance to “grade” me and make comments about my progress. Curiously, some of my students groaned and said they don’t like participating in these types of surveys. Well, if they are tired of them, at least a lot of us are asking for feedback!

Most of the comments were ones I expected to see, including many students asking for a new seating arrangement. The most surprising answer was someone suggesting that the class could be more festive. I have no idea in what way they want the class to be more festive. I assumed in celebrating holidays. (Many of the other teachers decorate doorways.) However, @rockteacherjan said something that made me think that perhaps they meant celebrating learning. I need to think about this, and see what I can do to increase the celebration of successes in my room.

But since I think the student might have meant holiday celebrations, I decided to get some decorations for my classroom: a 3-foot pre-lit tree and some ornaments, gel winter window clings for the door, and LED color changing snowflake and star for the whiteboard. I’ll post photos once it’s up. Let the festive-ness begin!

Ever since attending my first science conference (Georgia Science Teachers Association annual conference in February of 2007), I knew I wanted to present a conference one day. Well, I think it is time. At least I hope it is – and I hope I can do it.

I recently shared some vocabulary strategies with colleagues at my school. I focused mainly on things I had found from my PLN. They thought the info was great, and I felt like they really gained something from the things I shared. However, I know from reading the tweets of those in my PLN that there is so much else out there in terms of ways to integrate technology into our classrooms.

I am considering submitting a proposal for the 2010 Georgia Science Teachers Association about integrating Web 2.0 tools into the science classroom. I would love to share ways other teachers are already using these types of tools. If you could spare a few minutes to answer my survey, I would be ever so thankful.

I will have my proposal submitted by the end of this week, so I will be sure to let you know how it all turned out. I will also update you to let you know whether or not it was accepted. Thanks again for your assistance!

It’s been a crazy time at my house lately. When school started up in August, we lost three days to furloughs. That set me back a bit – I need those days in the classroom! I also found out that instead of teaching one gifted class and three traditional classes as I initially expected, I am teaching three gifted classes and only one traditional class. This was an exciting surprise, and I rearranged my plans just a bit.

In September, we lost two days of school to rain! Okay, not really, it was flooding. We had so much rain that many roads were flooded making bus routes unsafe to traverse. While we were out of school, we had an addition to our family – a golden retriever puppy for my husband’s birthday! Devon’s been lovely, but as neither of us have ever had a dog before, it has taken some getting used to!

Devon prancing with a leaf.

All that to say hopefully I will have a free moment every now and then to update.

That brings me to what I learned at lunch. On Fridays we have advisement with our students. Each teacher has an advisement group. Advisement time is centered around the lunch hour. With my students, we go to lunch first and the go back and do our advisement “lesson”. However, the entire point of advisement is more about building relationships with students then it is about completing the predesigned lesson plans.

Yesterday, I decided to try something different. When only two students had taken a seat at our lunch table, I sat down next to them. As the other students made their way to the table from the cafeteria line, they began to fill in around me. They were excited to have me sit with them at lunch. They told me jokes, asked riddles, shared stories; it was a really fun time.

When we got up to leave, the table was absolutely spotless. They are usually pretty good about picking up after themselves, but there might be one or two things that are left behind. Not yesterday. It was spotless. I was so proud of them.

Yesterday I learned that spending time with my students during that unstructured time of lunch can be fun, and it really helps to build relationships with them. I may even eat with them every Friday.

At Dangerously Irrelevant, we have been challenged to express wants, desires, and concerns to school leaders regarding technology. After thinking about so many ideas revolving around technology and education, one thing kept coming to mind – Open Source Software.

School districts spends millions of dollars on software licenses and packages for their students in order to help them be productive. From operating systems, to spreadsheet and document editors, course management systems, attendance programs, electronic grade books and the like, a lot of money is necessary to set up good software solutions for the school environment.

Or is it? Open Source Software is becoming a large force in this day and age, but I fear too many of our leaders are unaware of the options, potential, and cost savings involved.

Open Source Software is generally free and in addition to the code involved, users are able to manipulate and change the code to meet their individual needs. This new code or version of the software may then be redistributed. So you can use the software as is or customize it to suit your individual needs.

Today, school budgets are being cut in response to the slowing economy. Now more than ever we need solutions like Open Source Software to expose our students to a wide range of software tools and applications. Why pay for software when we can find similar solutions with no cost involved?

Last year, I decided to reinvent my class web page. The previous year’s site was okay, but it looked too professional and not quite fun enough for my sixth grade science classroom. Also, I did not use a content management system to run the site and manually updated the site in html every day. It was time consuming, and I was looking for a shortcut.  I decided to use Wordpress as my content management system as it is a great blog platform/content management system and free to use even when hosted on your own site. I then began to think about the redesign aspect of the site. I came up with several ideas and finally narrowed it down to its final incarnation. I created all of the images and gradients myself using a program called Inkscape, an open source vector graphics editor. This program is similar to Adobe Illustrator. If I wanted to an photo imaging program, instead of the expensive Adobe Photoshop, I would recommend the Gimp.

These are just three examples of software options that allowed me to create a website free of charge. The only out of pocket expense I had was the hosting fee. Besides Open Source Software, there are other options that allow productivity on a budget. Google has an impressive spreadsheet and document editing in Google Docs. It also allows collaboration and the ability to edit from any machine connected to the Internet.

I don’t claim to be an expert in the options available for Open Source Software, but I do want you to come away with one thing: look for alternative solutions. Even when there is no money in the budget for a piece of software that may do wonders for your students or faculty, don’t give up, research your options, and you may just be surprised by a free, open source alternative.

#LeadershipDay09

This year I have had the opportunity to teach summer school. It’s 15 intense days, and we’re now in the home stretch – only two days left next week.

Today, I had a student tell me he didn’t want summer school to end. Well of course I had to ask him why. How many children do you know that want to be in school – especially during the summer! He went on to explain that he really enjoys the small class size. He told me he does better in a smaller class and gets less distracted. He even told me that when he was in lower elementary grades, he was in a smaller class to help him focus better.

This got me thinking about class sizes – which are always such a hot topic. My state has a class size limit of 28 students in regular education classrooms. However, with economic strains, we may soon be able to have additional students in a class. For me, every additional child in the classroom totally changes the class dynamic. For instance, this past year I had a class of 24 students and classes of 28. Both classrooms ran so much differently. I found we could get more accomplished in the smaller class – and we’re only talking about a difference of four children!

What really struck me today, though, is that the students crave smaller classes even more than teachers do. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had the resources to support smaller classes! I honestly do not know what the solution is, but it definitely makes me think.

This year, all of the science teachers at my school will have two classrooms that are side by side and linked by a door. One will be used as a classroom space with desks and chairs and one as a lab with lab tables and chairs. Having this extra space opens up so many possibilities – not just for lab space but for many activities. I am thinking I can have groups in both rooms spread out and working on projects. I can remediate with a group in one room and extend with a group in the other. Plus, when we have projects requiring lots of space, we will have all we need to spread out and get things completed. I am really looking forward to this, and I’ll keep you updated with how it all goes.

There are many great sites with more information about the benefits of using Twitter an educator. I’ve compiled a list for you in case you would like to do some further research.

• Twitter for Teachers - Site offers information about how teachers can use Twitter to create a PLN (personal learning network) as well as using Twitter in the classroom.
• Twitter4Teachers - A wiki directory of teachers on Twitter. You can find people to follow and add yourself to the list.
• Top 100 Tools for the Twittering Teacher - an overview of 100 tools you may find helpful from ways to manage Twitter to classroom tools.
• Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter - a great list to help convince you.
• 10 Things Teachers Should Know to Get Started with Twitter - a great blog post to help you as you start out. Explains @replies, direct messages, retweeting, and other Twitter-isms.

Hope these links give you an even great perspective of the value of using Twitter as an educator. Have you joined Twitter yet? If not, what are you waiting for?