"Teaching" Science is Different...

I really dislike the way some administrators [NOT mine...they are AWESOME!] or higher ups expect all teachers to plan and teach the same exact way. Just as students need differentiation, so do teachers and the respective courses being taught. There is no way I'd expect a Reading teacher to teach the same way I do. Science lends itself more towards engaging hands-on activities...that to me is just expected of what I do. I remember the days [long ago of course] of sitting in Science class READING day in and day out, never DOING anything! Oh how I wished I could just DO something! That's why my kids DO, DO, DO!

A few years ago I attended LaSIP and another Science teacher training that were intensive, yet quite spectacular. They both focused on using the 5 Es of a Science Lesson that focuses, in this order, on Engage. Explore. Explain. Elaborate. Evaluate.  


Through the use of this method, accompanied with Kagan strategies, Thinking Maps, and other Literacy Strategies, my students are always engaged and doing something from the second they walk in my classroom.


Check out the link above...it is very informative and when coupled with your curriculum and a sound classroom management plan, can change your classroom environment into one that is always captivating and engaging. [The last few slides are irrelevant since this was used in a training somewhere, good none-the-less!]
Go ahead, check it out...after all, it is SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED!

Ever Walked Through Paper????

GOOD MORNING INQUIRING MINDS! Did you know that a square piece of dry paper cannot be folded in half more than 7 times???? Go ahead...try it! :)

I love finding weird, yet true science bits. My students especially love those bits, too! Like this one: Walking Through Paper. Maybe some of you have done this when teaching matter/physical changes. I tell my students that I can walk through paper and proceed to talk about physical changes while cutting a piece of folded paper. In the end, I open up the paper which is now a HUGE circle and walk through it. In the video on youtube, the girl cuts hers a bit too large. I try to cut along the blue lines of the paper to get that HUGENESS. Of course my students all want to do it too, so I allow them a few minutes to try. I assign them the task of going home and "tricking" their parents and writing a reflection of the "tricking". The next day they come back to school with such FABULOUS reflections that they want to share. I post these on a bulletin board for all to read. I love sparking that curiosity and creativity!

Go ahead, check out the "Walking Through Paper" video. After all, it is SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED!

Remember: "All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind". ~Martin H. Fischer

Science + Music = Lots of Learning Fun!

One of the things I kicked up a notch this year is the number of content-related songs used in my classroom. Youtube and Schooltube are excellent sources for science songs. I especially love the group They Might Be Giants. Their songs and videos are catchy and have really helped my students remember important concepts.

Sometimes, when I am brave, I will write a song to sing along with current popular tunes kind of like The Atoms Family Song . A few years ago, a student was in class humming and singing the Barbie Girl song. It was kind of distracting the lesson I was teaching on density so I challenged him to create a song about density to the same tune. Well in turn he challenged me too! The very next day, he came ready with his and I was ready with mine. Little did we know we would collaboratively write one of the songs that is always requested on the first day of school by new classes each year since! Here are the lyrics...THE DENSITY SONG.....it's kinda catchy!  And, here is a SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED video of one of my classes singing the song...just fast forward about 1 minute into it [my video making skills need some tweaking!].

CAUTION!

Whew!!!! My super-intense summer mini grad school session is finally over so let the blogging begin!!!

Last year I really didn't do a theme in my classroom...just a compilation of science "stuff". I did find on my favorite teacher site PROTEACHER.NET a link to some science safety posters that someone made. Well....like all teachers....I borrowed the idea [which was not copy-righted] and made some of my own to go along with my Science Stuff Theme. Here are my CAUTION POSTERS [normal 8 x 11 page size] that I made...I will probably tweak them in a few weeks to go with the robot/gear theme I want to use this year. So if you can use them, have at it! If you'd like for me to post the ppt version so you can change them, just let me know!!!

Stay tuned...more posts to come!!!