Science Magazine- Mosquitos, Viruses and the Immune System

Interesting article that highlights a symbiotic nature... with a virus...which isn't living.... Definitely more for older students (high school). Great representation of a scientific article.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/mosquito-spit-helps-viruses-make-us-sick?utm_campaign=news_daily_2016-06-21&et_rid=17056523&et_cid=576463

classroom job applications

I keep running across articles talking about teaching kids life skills in school. What if students had to apply for jobs in the classroom? Write a cover letter, fill out an application, answer basic interview questions and then get hired or hear feedback for why they didn't get hired. Also, science offers a unique place where you can write an abstract, which is basically telling people why they should read your article.... easily equatable to a cover letter where you spell out why you should be hired. Additionally, it adds to classroom culture and student ownership of their learning

6th Grade Science:
Note-taker for students who are out sick

Common Core: Key Details

Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.

Honestly, I have no idea how to interpret this. Does anybody have any insight into what a lesson might look like to cover 6-8.1?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.2
Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

 The "Tree Octopus" article would be a great way to teach 6-8.2. Prior knowledge and opinion would dictate that octopi don't live in trees, but the article concludes that they do. Teaching kids to provide evidence directly from the article to support the conclusion. 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.3
Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.

Achieved with any laboratory procedure. Make sure to include an experiment with measurements and daily observations during the year. 

Student Swags

Creating swags are so popular right now and they could be used in classrooms in a variety of ways.

1. For each assignment hang a collection of student work to display the activity. 

2. Have students create their own swags as a portfolio to show off their work for the year.

3. Create a swag to show students what work they are currently working on (A way to show the week's assignments.)

A GLAD 4th grade 9 (J)

I subbed two days in a row in a fourth grade class that is probably 1/2 bilingual. She runs her classroom with heavy GLAD influence.

Observations from her class:
1. Fuzzies. She uses fuzzy balls to reward students for good work. I LOVE this. They are fun and fun to say.
2. She has baggies pinned to the inside of each cubby for students to hold fuzzies and raffle tickets that they can then use to buy different things in the classroom, either privileges or objects.
3. Her reading time is set up basically as a rotation. They have the choice to read to self, read to someone, word work, listen to reading or free write. They have to do a variety of options throughout the week.
4. She has taped reminders to each of their desks, the names with the multiplication chart, ruler, etc., talk moves, and their group number (GLAD component).
5. She has a list of week assignments for students to be working on at all times. This includes items like scholastic news, etc. for automatic filler.
6. She has a cork board with pushpinned sticky notes alerting students to what hw is missing. I love this because I do it anyways!

GLAD

I have spent time at one school lately where the GLAD program is used consistently. There are some portions of the GLAD program that I don't really jive with, (particularly the hand motions and potential for singing... blech) but there are other parts that I find really interesting and organized.

Now, I know next to nothing about the program except for what snippets I have seen, but here are my first impressions:

• Organized in the way my brain thinks
• Good for building note-taking skills
• Good for team-building
• Good for motivating
• GREAT opportunities for inquiry-based learning
• students seem to enjoy it and get hands on experience

I realy could go on and on. I like it that much. 

QUESTIONS:

1. Where do you find the resources for the lessons?

2. How difficult would it be to construct your own units based on the GLAD philosophy?

Reading Groups

Spending time in elementary classes has given me a much needed education on elementary curriculum. One of the most interesting things I have observed from the teacher side is the reading groups. Every 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class I have been in has some sort of reading groups where a group of kids meets to read with the teacher each day. While the students are not with the teacher, they are working on other tasks like reading packets, silent reading or vocabulary.
If I was to teach one of these grades, I want to write out my ideas on the subject. If you are a teacher and have other unique reading group ideas, please share!
- Read chapter books together??
- Read scientific articles together
- Group students by interest, science vs. animals vs. space, etc. to help students read what they like.
- Individualize non-group times.

Teaching Note-taking

So far, my two main goals of teaching have remained the same. 1) Expose students to a variety of topics in an effort to lead them to what they are passionate about. 2) Give students study tips and life lessons to make post-high-school life easier.

A great tool to give students is note-taking skills.  The following is how I could teach note-taking.

This video. Is awesome.

http://collegeinfogeek.com/lecture-notetaking-systems/

show at the beginning of the year and explain that we will be taking all the different types of notes throughout the year. Plus, it gives students a way to see that I'm cool- I love Streetfighter, especially Blanka!

Use different lessons to outline the strengths of each style of note-taking. At the end of a lesson using  a different style of note taking, have students write an exit ticket on how they would compare the style of notes to other ones they have used before.

Also, a quick note on Cornell notes, the same idea (exit ticket points) could be given for having students complete the Cue and Summary sections of the Cornell notes before leaving class.

If I ever have to teach math again...

The following was written on 1/1/15, after a break from teaching math and before I began teaching science again. 

"oofta. Math is not my thing. I learned a lot, though. Here are some things:

1. must teach what you believe in.

2. getting bogged down in the details does NOT allow me to keep the bigger picture in mind.

3. my resolve crumbles in the moment.

4. having clear expectations on grading is VITALLY important.

5. signing off on work works.

6. removing distractions works.

7. there must be a way for small groups to run."

First Year of Teaching

Sucked.

Well, actually, it didn't all suck. I took a job that I thought would let me change the world and I was sorely disappointed. I learned SO MUCH. There are a few blog posts I wrote in the moment in a different blog that I will reshare over here to consolidate all the lessons I've learned about teaching. I wanted to preface those posts by recapping the past year. I taught at South Jetty High School for one year where I covered General Science, General Math, Statistics and oversaw many different independent studiers. I worked with a VERY small team and had no built-in science collaboration. I met some awesome people and learned about myself and the world of gangs, drugs and hard lives.

Energy of Matter Unit

The first unit I taught in Chemistry was probably one of the hardest content areas of chemistry to teach. The entire unit is completely abstract. I am so thankful my mentor teacher is as prepeared as he is and literally handed me the material every day to work with. I was able to write several of the warm-ups, but only some. My personality definiely shined through in places as well, just ask the students about my bad energy equation jokes. I enjoyed teaching this unit becuase it is coherent and student progress is really easy to follow. One day they are complaining this makes no sense at all and the next they are writing electron configurations like pros. In the future, I would make sure that I spend more time gauging the algebra skills of my students. Maybe going slower through the light and energy equations to make sure students have a solid understanding of how to manipulate the equations to do what you want them to. I felt rushed through this portion of the unit, understandably becuase I needed to take the time to go through it myself and refresh my own understanding. There were also many instances of questions asked that I couldn't give an answer to, my chemistry skills are not graduate level.