Science with Susan - Egg dissection

Today Susan modelled an egg dissecting lesson.
What stood out for me:
The flow of her lesson was well thought through.
- Comparing the structure of a bird with a human
- Explaining vocab such as similar, structure, model and symbol
- Using every opportunity to talk about observation (Listen to the sound it makes when I open the carton, are all the eggs the same colour, what are these (carton things in the middle to keep eggs from breaking) etc. Not necessarily giving them answers, but getting them thinking about things.
- When students cam up with questions that was good , but not about what her lesson is, she did not get side tracked, just saying, "You are such a good scientist coming up with these questions".
- Introducing new vocab using the "common" name first to hook the new vocab on. e.g talking about the skin which is actually the membrane.
- Allowing the students to "play" with an egg with a buddy. Moving around and pointing out things. (Just enough time - not too long)

So what:
* I found this lesson very helpful to remind me to be very clear on what I want as an outcome of my lesson. Not to blur the lines. What do they really need to get out of the lesson, not to get distracted and off topic with questions, BUT noting their observations and acknowledging it.

* Pace the lesson to engage as many students as possible, do not let them wait too long. They want to be busy.

* Keep the information short but powerful. Don't "force feed" with information!!

* Refer back to notice, think and wonder and being scientists.

* Revisit new concepts throughout the week. Not necessarily lessons, just quick revisits, even if it is during maths time.

Mindfullness

In August I tried out some mindfulness activities in my class because my class was stuggling with sitting still on the mat while listening to somebody talking. However, my attempts did not work so well. The kids couldn't settle and kept on laughing during a breathing excersice. It kind off put me off trying and after 3 attempts I stopped.

During my appraisal meeting with my principal she highlighted that this is often the case with me. I try something and then give up if it does not work immediately.

So, this term I want to try again, BUT take it very, very slow. I started with the simplest of breathing exercises and I did the same one every day for a week.

What stood out for me was that the first day I had about 4 students that refused to join in. Day 2, only 3 did not join in, of which one of them joined in while sitting on the couch instead of the mat. By Friday, everybody joined in.

SO WHAT?
Don't give up so soon.
Start simple and repeat.

Did it make a difference?
Yes very much. Even my colleague, Rhys, said that when he did it, it went so much better. The students were calmer, and able to listen to instructions afterwards.

Our DP gave me a booklet about mindfulness which I would like to read and get a better understanding.

Science PD - CBD 1 Oct - Planning

During our Call Back Day we focussed on Science being all around us, even in things we take for granted.

We should be starting to make a shift from being just consumers to planning and thinking of the cross cutting functions which is important.

I decided to follow the lead of my students when they got excited about a birds nest. After feedback from Susan, I realised that my initial LTP was too little detail, and I was trying to squash too much info in one lesson.

Initially my co-teacher and I set aside 1 lesson for each of us in our timetable for science. But Susan suggested that I rather have shorter experiences, throughout the week. This is quite challenging for me to try and fit it in, but I hoping that the changes I have made to our timetable, will provide those opportunities and engage the students,

E.g. My plan that I had for week 1 in 1 lesson, Susan broke down into 3 parts.

This was my initial LTP

This is my new lesson plan, as suggested by Susan.

Next steps:

* Get the hang of planning in detail in order to strengthen my understanding

* Make a mental shift that science should be revisited and can be done more than once a day or week

* Research and find as many as possible hands-on examples to engage students

* Focus on the Big Idea : CHANGE

* Be very deliberate about making the connections to the five facets in each of the experiences

*  focus on how learning and experiencing things changes how we understand the world and ourselves

x

Room 1 students voice

After some discussions with my principal and our PD session with Cynthia Greenleaf, I thought it would be good to get some student voice from my class. This was their response:

What helps you to be  a good learner? 
"doing handwriting, music, when it is quiet and relaxing, my friends, when nobody talks, my teacher".

What in Room 1 makes it hard for you to learn? 
"when everyone is loud, when everybody is screaming, when everyone is not good".

What do you like to do during a brain break? 
"sitting down and eating, play tag, rugby, touch, hide and seek, soccer, kiwi kids".

What are you interested in to learn about during science? 
"bubbles, explosions, dinosaurs, books(not sure if this was meant to be bugs as well), bugs, cutting worms, water".

So what?
After their input, we discussed that we need to volume down in room 1 in order to give others and ourselves the opportunity to learn. Also, it was good to see that they would prefer a physical activity during a brain break instead of something like blocks/lego's. And the science question, was just to give me an idea of what interests them. I was proud of Room 1 for being able to verbalise what supports their learning and will do everything I can to enforce a classroom culture of respect to others.

PD- Cynthia Greenleaf (Aaron)

Focusing on Argumentation:
I attended a talk on argumentation by Cynthia Greenleaf, from California. How to use it in class.

Setting up the rules of what supports and what comes in the way of learning during group work. e.g. if I don't feel like my ideas are valued, noise etc. What is socially acceptable or not - norms.

Do activity, have a quick de-breath - check - in, get the children's buy-in.

Focus on reasoning, find the evidence.

Slip - Trip - Go Meta (Possible questions to ask to reflect on the activity)
How did you work with others to figure this out?
What are some ways a group member challenged your thinking?
Where you able to challenge other's reasons or ideas?  (this encouraged thinking to go metacognitive)
List some things a partner noticed or said that shifted your thinking?
List some things you noticed or said that helped the inquiry?
List some things your group could do better next time?

Phrase norms so that it is in a positive statement. e.g. let's be comfortable while we wonder about. Confusion is cool! (Posters/shower curtains) Break the norms down in reading, thinking, talking.

When things are getting too "hot" (over conversation) - break into smaller groups (Manage process).

How may our collaboration norms serve students in online interaction?
This will help students pick up on social cues via digital. e.g. what I said might hurt your feelings.

E.g. Presenting a picture, everything can be contested, will encourage students to practice argumentation.

Norms face-to face is important, but we also need to prepare our children for digital to digital situations.

Children can write the transcript of their conversations to help them pick up on the norms.

What have I taken from this PD?
This emphasises what I have noticed in room 1. My students struggle to read facial expressions and linking it to emotions. I have done a bit of work on recognising feelings. I think it is important for them to understand face to face how words can affect people, in order for them to be sensitive for it when they go digital.

I would love to set the baseline for argumentative discussions, I will look into it to find out how this could be introduced in the younger classes. In my opinion it is a very important strategy for life, because being argumentative will help our children to make good decisions as adults. They will be able to look at all the possibilities/outcomes of decisions they might take, before they make it.

Inquiry - What is mindfulness?

I am very interested to learn about mindfulness. My students have made huge progress since the beginning of the year. They are more willing to take risks. The more I keep to my routine and make the transition into class easy, the more they calm down, however, I still find that they are very hyped up after any activities outside the class e.g. Kapa Haka or assembly.  My hunch is that they get over stimulated and find it hard to calm down or they are just tired and don't want to go straight back into learning.  I tried letting them lie down and listen to a story, but was surprised to find about 6 of them, struggling to settle, to such a point that I had to stop trying, but the class was immediately a bit calmer due to the rest of the class having 3 minutes "resting time".

My DP suggested Sparklers Christchurch website. I started the one activity where they lie down for 30seconds without talking, just listening to their breathing. I still have 2 students that cannot settle. But it is becoming easier for the rest. I have 2 boys that is able to immediately relax and nearly falls asleep.

Then I watched 1 News Now where Point England's principal advises that mindfulness
training is the thing that will make a huge positive change in the behaviour of school students.

So....what is mindfulness really? How can it improve my children's performance in school work and behaviour? Is this the magic pill that will improve co-operation, kindness and volume levels in my class? Will this help my students with coping strategies when they feel angry and teach them patience?

So I snooped around on Google and found this...

This linked in with the observation that Susan(Our science tutor) and I observed during a science lesson. The children could not identify feelings or read expressions. So we worked a little on emotions. It seems like mindfulness can build on this. 

Here is a website with some ideas of mind fullness activities. Teacher Starter

Next step: 

Find out what mind fullness really is, how it works and how can this help my students. (Exciting)

Kaitiakitanga -Science

For term 3 we are working on a big idea in science: My big idea is to show that even little children can make a difference caring for the environment,.The route that I want to take is to work from a point of making them aware of life under the ground, and then working toward the value of keeping our grounds clean, and how a worm farm can support us in looking after our environment.

Week 1 we created a demarcation to investigate over a few weeks. We took some rocks and placed them on healthy grass in order to see how it will change. Last week, I gave the children a clipboard with a mini beasts spotting chart, and a table where they could jot down the insects they do spot under the logs and rocks. They had to draw it, name it, identify how many legs, whether they had wings, etc. We also looked at bones and examples of invertebrates and vertebrates.

Initially I did not think they would be able to do the activity, but was surprised that they were able to complete the task, with the exception of 2 or 3 children. The children seems very interested in the activities,  and is eager to learn about the critters.

Although I got this idea from Susan, I try to modify it a little and bring in a variety of activities to enforce the learning. My focus for myself was to explicitly introduce vocaublary, get them interested and excited about science, and observe change.

What I am struggling with is to explain why things are the way they are, due to my own lack of knowledge. When I know I am introducing things, I ensure that I am prepared and know how to explain it, but sometimes the children come up with questions on the spot, and I can't really answer them. E.g. why are the insects under the rocks and scurry away when you lift it up.

So what:
what I thought I could do is to write their questions down, do the research and give them the answers the following week.

Also, I am not yet using the questions as Susan has suggested we do. I want them to start wondering about things. So I should print those questions/prompts, or decide which one I want to focus on and add it to my planning.