REFLECTING ON REFLECTION

One would think that after many many years of teaching,  I would leave at the end of my work day (which is usually anywhere between 4pm and a night security telling me that I don't have to go home but I can't stay in my classroom) and not think about work.  That is definitely not the case.  If anything, I find myself replaying the events of the day and while most days gives me plenty to smile about some days when the insanely hilarious happens it provides me with tear producing laughter.  On the flip side, there are those days that leave me asking myself what I could have done better. Not all of the days experiences are positive events.   All my experiences whether good or bad provide me with new knowledge that I can utilize to be a better teacher, better person, better educator for students, for myself. It seems that this practice of mine has a name to it that is resonating and trending the field of education.  That term is REFLECTION.                      

According to Jennifer L. Hindman and James H. Stronge, 

              "  Examining your practice is one of the best ways to improve it.  

                    Reflection is about critically examining oneself, and it is a facet of effective teachers".

So as I reflect on reflection, I can honestly say that it has benefited me throughout my career.  It has allowed me to improve on those things that my reflections presented to me as needing improvement and repeating those things that worked well and it has allowed me to be a better teacher as well as a better student. In my opinion, teachers should utilize reflection for themselves and utilize it with their students because having students reflect on their own learning is a way to help them improve on it.   

STEM and STEAM

It seems that Einstein had it right all along.  There is a place and a relationship between art and science.  Thus, the education trend which seems to be causing a paradigm shift in STEM education is adding the A for Art(s) into STEM which would now be STEAM education.  Why the integration?  From what I have read, two words that help answer that question are CREATIVITY and INNOVATION.  Both creativity and innovation are critical parts of both STEM and the arts.   “Creativity is a function of knowledge, curiosity, imagination, and evaluation.  Three important levels of creativity are discovery, invention, and creation”. 1  “STEM lessons naturally involve art (for example, product design), language arts (communication), and social studies and history (setting the context for engineering challenges)”.2   As the shift from STEM to STEAM picks up momentum,  the classroom teacher must be creative and innovative in the application of the arts to the classroom lessons and remember that “it’s not STEM vs. STEAM—it’s about making every student a fully-literate 21st-century citizen”.3

 1 "Creativity and Innovation: Your Keys to a Successful ..." 2013. 14 Apr. 2015 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-burrus/creativity-and-innovation_b_4149993.html>

 2 "STEM vs. STEAM: Why The "A" Makes a Difference ..." 2015. 14 Apr. 2015 <http://www.edudemic.com/stem-vs-steam-why-the-a-makes-all-the-difference/>

 3 "STEM vs. STEAM: Do the Arts Belong? - Education Week ..." 2014. 14 Apr. 2015 <http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/11/18/ctq-jolly-stem-vs-steam.html>

What's Old is New Again

What's Old is New Again

 It always amazes me how fascinated my digital native science students are when I pull out my old electric circuit boards to help with a cell studies unit.  Immediately they inspect, observe, fiddle with, investigate, and try to figure out how the wiring is done.  This presents engage and inquiry and a desire to want to "play" with the board.  These are the same students that can't seem to keep their eyes off of the screen of their cell phones long enough to say hello to each other as they walk into the classroom.  What's causing the fascination?  I believe that my students are so inundated by and used to their new technology that it has become old to them and when presented with the "old technology" that is now the new one.  Whatever type of technology is being used in your science classroom for learning, make sure it is fun.  "PLAYING SHOULD BE FUN! In our great eagerness to teach our children we studiously look for "educational" toys, games with built-in lessons, books with a "message." Often these "tools" are less interesting and stimulating than the child's natural curiosity and playfulness. Play is by its very nature educational. And it should be pleasurable. When the fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning” (Joanne E. Oppenheim Kids and Play, ch. 1, 1984).

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"Why Use Games to Teach? - SERC." 2004. 11 Apr. 2015 <http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games/whygames.html>

DO YOU SPEAK SCIENCE? ARE YOU AN SLL?

DO YOU SPEAK SCIENCE? ARE YOU AN SLL?

Science has it's own language.  It is not always easy learning the language and yet, the success or failure of a student in a science class is in big part due to the acquisition or lack of acquisition of the language. Interestingly enough, each science subject in school has a set of terms that relates to the specific subject much to the dismay of many students, mine included.  This learning of a new language, the language of science, makes all of my students as I like to refer to them, SLL, Science Language Learners.   

Okay, so let's make things a little more interesting and let's compound that challenge by adding the fact that in my classroom, as in many classrooms throughout the United States, there are students who have been identified as ELL, English Language Learners.  Not only is this student trying to learn the English Language, they are  also having to learn the Science Language. Now, that's truly a challenge.  

I have often been asked to describe my job as a science teacher.  I usually respond by saying that although I have one title, Teacher, the reality is that I should have a minimum of four.  I am a Science Laboratory Teacher.  I am a Science Subject (mostly Biology) Teacher.  I am a Foreign Language  (2 languages, Science and English for my ELLs) Teacher.  Last but not least, I am also an Educational Technologies Teacher.  After my response, I usually get more questions.  Usually, why do it?  Why do something that has so many challenges to it and what seems to receive so little in the form of appreciation?  

To that I answer, BECAUSE I SPEAK SCIENCE and more importantly, SCIENCE SPEAKS TO ME and I want my students, actually everyone's students, to learn the language of science or at least to become fluent enough that they can be successful in earning their credit, learn about the beauty of the unseen and seen worlds of science, gain an appreciation for science, and hopefully, have SCIENCE SPEAK TO THEM and when it does, they can have a conversation and they will understand what we all know happens when you learn a new language.  It opens worlds, minds, opportunities, and possibilities.   

DO YOU SPEAK SCIENCE? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BECOME AN SLL.

FREE is the Right Price

As a classroom science teacher, I'm always looking for new activities and websites that will engage my students. BUT, the price must be right. The right price happens to be FREE. I'm recommending Howtosmile.org.

The How To Smile  website provides a large number of STEM activities for all ages and grade levels on numerous topics pertaining to mathematics, science, engineering and technology.  The website consists of “a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world'.