Icing on the Cake!

Believe it or not, our science unit is over!  And our last lesson couldn't have been a better ending to this wonderful experience!  Kathy and I were pleasantly surprised when we walked in the classroom to our students excitedly handing us cards that they each signed and decorated.  It was so sweet and made me feel both sad to leave and proud of all that we had accomplished.  I am definitely going to miss this class!  

Kathy started the lesson off by expressing a huge THANK YOU to all of the students and our classroom teacher.  We were so lucky to have such a helpful teacher and such hard-working students!  

Kathy then led a review of last week and explained the experiment for this week, which was a dissolving race to see if granulated sugar dissolved faster in warm or cold water.  Then, I went over the science question for the day (Does temperature affect the dissolving speed of sugar?) and this week's process skill (The Cool Concluder).  The students then gave me real life examples of dissolving that they have experienced, and identified whether the water was warm or cold and what type of solid they dissolved.  They came up with dissolving juice tablets in water, colored tablets to dye Easter eggs, and cocoa powder for hot chocolate.  

After explaining the steps, getting into pairs, going over safety, and collecting the materials, the students jumped into the experiment.  This week, our experiment went just as planned and each group found that the sugar dissolved faster in the warm water.  Even though this lesson did not include a record sheet, we decided to make our own so the students could record their results.  We also recorded their information on chart paper for the entire class to see.  To pull together several lessons we had on dissolving, we gave the students an assessment which asked them to describe at least two ways to dissolve a solid in a liquid quickly.  The possible answers were temperature, form, and stirring.  There was also a space for students to draw a picture of their answers.  We created a rubric in order to evaluate the assessments efficiently.  Throughout the lesson, Kathy and I had several other assessments including discussion questions, kid-watching, and review of their record sheets.  

This lesson went so smoothly that we had plenty of time for our final, fun-filled activity!  Kathy found a great idea to get the students active while reviewing much of the information they learned throughout the lesson.  The object of the activity was for the students to act out the molecules of matter in different states: solid, liquid, and gas.  Kathy and I modeled each state, and then we divided the students into groups.  We called out a state and the groups had to organize themselves to look like the molecules of that state.  For solid, the students locked elbows and stayed very still.  For liquid, the students had one arm on another student’s shoulder and moved slowly and fluidly.  For gas, the students spread out in their area, not touching anyone, and moved faster.  We then gave the students scenarios of changes in matter and had them model the change.  For example, we started with a cup of juice, so they modeled a liquid.  Then we said that we put the cup of juice in the freezer for a few hours, so they changed to a solid.  The students really enjoyed this activity, and Kathy and I were so happy to end the unit on such a positive note!  Throughout this lesson, Kathy and I incorporated differentiation and addressed a variety of learning styles.  We had the visuals of the chart, the record sheet, and drawing a picture to express understanding.  We also had kinesthetic activities in the hands-on experiment and modeling molecules activity.  Also, the students were able to express their thoughts and ideas in a group setting, with partners, and individually.  Our last lesson went very well, and it definitely reflects our unit as a whole. 

My overall impression of this experience is that it is incredibly valuable and beneficial for all involved.  Through teaching this unit we learned essential aspects of teaching that can’t really be replicated in a university classroom.  We got the opportunity to practice real teaching, something you can only learn by doing!  I also feel that we had the best of both worlds.  Although we were entirely responsible for all the preparation, planning, and teaching, we had amazing guidance from our professors, classroom teachers, and each other.  We also had great lesson plans to follow (and tweak if need be) and we had all of the materials we needed.  I never felt like I was “thrown out there”, which can be an issue with gaining teaching experience while we are still learning.  I think that this was a great balance of guidance and freedom for us to learn.  Not to mention, our presence was beneficial to all of our students as well!  I love win-win situations.

I learned that teaching science is engaging, hands-on, and has a ton of real world connections.  I also realized how science encourages the skills that can be used in any setting, like prediction (and other process skills), critical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.  I learned that teaching science involves a lot of preparation and materials, but that time is definitely worth it to provide students with an opportunity to engage in the experiment and explore with the materials.  I also feel that everything I learned about science teaching can be applied to teaching in general!

The weekly feedback from my supervisors was very helpful!  It was awesome to hear the positive comments and reinforcement that they included, but the constructive criticism was just was important.  Kathy and I took each comment seriously and made an effort to improve as much as possible from week to week.  The feedback gave us a much needed reference point and provided us with suggestions that we were able to implement.  

The classroom teacher was also very helpful and gave us a lot of freedom in her classroom.  She shared with us some of her procedures like going to “the red zone” to gain the students’ attention.  This was really important to make smooth transitions from the experiments to the group discussions.  She also always had something positive and supportive to say after our lesson.  I think the biggest contribution of the classroom teacher was that she created a great learning community and we were able to be a part of it, which made teaching in her classroom so enjoyable.

My content knowledge of the changes unit definitely increased throughout this experience.  Although I had background information on the content, I brushed up on everything before each lesson and made sure I understood new information.  It was essential to be comfortable with the content in order to effectively teach it, so Kathy and I had that goal in mind each week.  I also gained so many resources for different science content that I can use in the future!

I learned a lot about science process skills and have experienced how valuable they all are.  Kathy and I concentrated on a different process skill each week, but we always pointed out that the students were using several different process skills for any given experiment.  It was great to see how the particular process skills applied to the different lessons.  We made sure our third-grade scientists realized that professional scientists in the real world use these process skills everyday.  These skills can also be applied to learning other subjects in and out of the school setting.

My level of confidence definitely increased throughout the unit.  At first, not knowing the routine, timing, and students’ names was challenging.  With each lesson, we got more comfortable and the lessons began to flow.  Part of my high confidence level was also due to knowing that Kathy and I were working as a team.  If I forgot something, Kathy was right there to save the day!

Overall, I enjoyed blogging.  It was time consuming, and some weeks were more difficult than others to fit it in, but I feel that it was beneficial for me to reflect on the lesson.  And now I am grateful to have my entire experience documented!  I also really enjoyed reading my classmates’ blogs and being able to keep updated with what they were doing in the class and their great ideas.

I don’t have any suggestions for the way the program is run, but I would suggest that the students next semester keep ahead of the material and copy needs.  Although we always pulled it off, sometimes it was a little hectic to make sure we had everything and sometimes we picked up the last materials on Monday morning.  I definitely suggest continuing this program.  This experience was incredibly beneficial and directly applicable to our future teaching experiences.  We were able to learn, experiment, reflect, improve, and really get a feel for teaching.  

I want to say an extra THANK YOU to my parter, Kathy!  This experience would not have been the same with out her!  We were a great team, and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to teach with her!  She is a natural teacher, enthusiastic, dedicated, truly caring, and will touch so many lives in her future classroom.  Thank you, Kathy!  Job well done! 

I am sad that it's over, but so happy to have had this experience!  Thanks for a great semester!