So, this week has been great but exhausting! I am helping to lead county staff development for our science office, and our first presentation was Monday. It went incredibly well, but it was a long night to start off the week. Plus, my allergies have been really bad this week, so I haven’t felt the best. Thankfully, it didn’t impact what was going on in the classroom.
Monday
On Monday, I had planned some housekeeping items and then to start our first real lab investigation. Unfortunately, the housekeeping items took the entire class. Now, I know that taking time to talk about clubs (like the awesome space and aeronautics club I host), continuing get to know you activities, explaining the course overview and how to sign off on it, and finishing our notebook set up sounds not nearly as important as our content. However, in the past I have rushed these activities too much, and I have not given the proper attention to classroom procedures. By taking time to make sure everything is just right, I know in the end it will give us even more time in the lab. So, although it felt in a way like we did not accomplish much on Monday, I know that really we did because my students are learning our important procedures.
Tuesday
We began class with our new warm up procedure. I decided that this year I would focus our warm ups on test strategies and practice questions (one per day). Previously I’ve been so adamant about not “teaching to the test” that I have ignored these important skills. I think there must be a balance between preparing our students and also allowing them to soar as independent thinkers. I hope this will help me work on finding the balance.
Then, we started our very first lab activity! I wrote about it the other day here. It went really well and the students enjoyed the activity – plus they learned a lot from it. The other cool thing is that all of my students but one were able to participate because they had their lab contracts already completed and turned in. (And since sitting out this one lab, all students now have them turned in!)
Wednesday
One Wednesday we finished up our ‘One of These Things is not Like the Others” lab activity and then discussed our findings. It was really interesting to hear the reasons that students had pulled out a rock or mineral as not being part of the rest of the group. They were making great observations, and it helped us all to see that even though there is one agreed on way to classify rocks, there really are multiple ways to group them.
Our summary activity was to write a 55-word story. This is a really neat strategy that I learned from our literacy coach. Students have to choose concise, descriptive words to fit in everything they learned in only 55 words. At first, they think it is a lot to write – until they get started. They turned them in on Thursday, and I was extremely pleased with the connection that they made!
Thursday
On Thursday we started “The Great Rock Mix Up”. (I’ve previously discussed and shared this unit here.) I skipped the sorting activity since we did the “One of These Things” activities instead. So we started in with sorting the rock clues. As I was walking around, I noticed that the groups were working well to decipher what clues went with which categories. (They had to categorize the clues as describing igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks or being general rock characteristics.) I was able to go through and let the students check what they had done with two of my classes, and this is where I will start with my other two classes next time me meet.
Friday
On Friday my students went to the media center. My fabulous media specialist is teaching my students how to do research for their science fair projects. She has developed some great engaging activities and is explaining to them how to get ideas, how to find good articles, and how to use the tools at their disposal to collect the information. It was originally going to be a one day lesson, but we were the test class, so she will be working with my students again on Monday to finish up.
Overall, it was a fantastic second week. My students are doing really well, and my classes are working seamlessly with few problems – even though my classes are large (34-35 in my gifted/accelerated classes). Several students have mentioned already how much they are enjoying science. This is such an exciting thing for me to hear!
