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Evidence #1: Final Paper
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This assignment submitted as evidence for AP#3 – Continuous Improvement is my final paper for SCE 4310. The main focus of this paper was to take what I had learned from this course, along with all my other classes at USF, and describe what kind of science teacher I intend on becoming. I have combined the knowledge I have acquired as an education student with my own personal ideas and values to create a plan of the most important characteristics of a positive science classroom environment.
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First and foremost, this entire paper was created from a foundation of my acknowledgement of my inexperience as an educator. I feel that I brought forth some good ideas for my science classroom, but even the best innovations can be stopped to a screeching halt if room for improvement has not been given. Not only have I thought up ways to make science fun, interesting, and relevant to my students, but I took data I learned from my professors of other classes to and used it to improve my own ideas and practices. For example, I stress the importance of allowing your students to engage in hands-on activities and experiments to make learning about science more fun and to keep them interested. I do believe that reading from a textbook and writing down the definitions of the bolded words for that chapter and calling it your ‘science lesson’ for the day is definitely about as exciting as watching paint dry. However, as noted in my paper, I also point out that not all assignments and activities that require science textbook usage are bad; in fact, sometimes I believe it’s crucial. I also state that while even when your science lesson plan can have the best intentions, it is possible to be a huge bomb. The students could hate it, or get bored, it might take way more time than you thought, and the list could go on. The point is, even the best thought-out lesson plans by the most organized, thorough teachers can still go horribly awry. I am developing as an adult and as a professional teacher and I believe this paper shows that I am aware of that and I plan my lessons and teaching practices accordingly. I also take advantage of resources available to me – the knowledge of my professors, articles written by field experts, my internship cooperating teachers, etc.
I have taken knowledge I have gained from this evidence, such as the importance of keeping your students motivated, interested, and confident, and used it to initiate discussions with my peers, both USF Education students and my cooperating teachers in my internships. I feel another way to continuously improve as a professional educator is to obtain and use knowledge and ideas from others who have similar experiences as you. I believe I have participated in professional development with my peers because after certain discussions about specifically science in the classroom, I was exposed to other aspects I never thought of myself. A few peers in my USF courses brought up the point that not every student has the capability of staying focused on a science lesson or ‘getting the point’ when there are lots of hands-on materials everywhere for them to see and touch and be distracted by. I also was shown that not all students understand that there is always a more significant purpose to doing a hands-on activity or experiment in science. They just want to play and see interesting things. This revelation has made me to believe I need to first and foremost find a way to show all students that there is a purpose to every activity we will do and they need to find and understand what that purpose is. I also realized that some students do not have the attention span to be around so many different materials for a fun activity and still stay focused. That is also another idea for me to keep in mind as I continue to develop professionally and plan my lessons accordingly so each student is being pushed to their greatest potential. I think these discussions I have with my peers is a great way for all involved to continue to develop as a successful and professional educator because we are all constantly being shown new information and insights that we would never have thought of on our own. I also meet with my cooperating teacher in my internship before and after every lesson, science and all other subjects, and I ask for feedback. I like to know what she felt I did well and what she feels I can improve on as well. Going back to my evidence, this all correlates because this paper is just one example of my daily life as a level II intern. My thoughts, feelings, and opinions of how I think a science classroom should look is one aspect of how I think everyday in the classroom. I am constantly looking for ways and resources to help better myself and strive to improve a little each day I am in the classroom. If there isn’t improvement from day to day, then it was a waste for me.
I am interning in a 5th grade class whose teacher is a science nut. She loves spending most of the morning learning new science ideas, topics, and doing small science experiments. I use knowledge and ideas expressed in this assignment in this class every time we do a science lesson. During a lesson on different types of storms and cloud formations I decided it would be fun to take the class outside and look at what kinds of clouds were in the sky to use that as a basis for what they were about to learn. I did this when I was in elementary school, and I wrote about it in this paper. We went outside, there were practically NO clouds in the sky, and what little clouds existed were not nearly as important as the tiny tree frog that had jumped on one of the student’s leg. All 19 children were enthralled with the frog and never once looked to the sky. We went back to the room, but instead of being discouraged, I only used that to think of what I could do with them instead that would get through to them better. The next day I brought a bag of cotton balls to class and we used them to create the different types of clouds we saw in the book and glued them to a piece of construction paper. We labeled each type of cotton ball cloud and drew pictures underneath of what may be happening when those types of clouds were in the sky (for example, when nimbus clouds were in the sky people were carrying umbrellas and wearing raincoats). The students enjoyed this and we put their creations up on the wall so they can refer to it when we are doing a science lesson about clouds and weather. I think the students benefited from this evidence because in it I express the importance of a well planned lesson, but also the importance of flexibility. When the students were bored with my cloud-watching activity, I could have given up and figured they just weren’t into learning about clouds. I could have simply given them text book pages to read and study and that would have been the end of it. But instead, I learned from my error, tried something else, and ended up doing something that the students enjoyed and learned from as well.
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