Laura+M.

Teaching Tremendously

On Tuesday, I had the chance to teach my science lesson. I was pretty nervous about it because it was my first lesson I had ever written and it was my first time ever really teaching. I had such a good group though, everyone was laid back and turned out to be very helpful. As I was going through my lesson, I realized that some things that I thought would work or go a certain way in my head didn't turn out the way I thought. For instance, some of my questions I had planned out were answered differently than I had anticipated. I'm not sure whether my third graders would give the same answers, but I felt like my group really got into character. I think for when I actually teach, I'm going to have to have multiple questions/answers planned out in my head and several ways to get my lesson back on track if the answers aren't the way I thought. On the plus side, my planet demonstration went very well and I think my class would have a fun time doing it while learning new information.

Thursday, I taught my first math lesson. I wasn't as apprehensive as I was on Tuesday, which helped things go more smoothly. For this lesson, I didn't have some of the materials I would need to actually teach it for real. However, it ended up working out just fine with my group. I was able to go through the process of having them make a sundial and then record/measure the shadow on the sundial using the sun outside. From the feedback I got from my group, everyone seemed to really enjoy making the sundial and I think my class would love it too. I think that I will have to modify this lesson a little more than I was planning for the students who need more instructional assistance. For this, I might pair students together so they can have a helpful partner or I might scaffold this part of the lesson more to benefit my struggling learners.

Overall, I really enjoyed these two days, I think they gave a great insight for how things might go in the actual lessons. Even though I was teaching to my friends with no pressure, I gained more confidence and I feel more prepared to enter my class and instruct them on one of the objectives of my competency goal.

Laura Mayerchak March 29, 2011 EDU 296- Math Assessment There are a couple of good things that I learned from the Stiggins article that was posted on Sakai. In order to make it easier to determine what exactly I found interesting or great to keep in mind, I will use bullet points to list my new knowledge. · Policy makers are increasingly turning to assessment in schools to make sure that students are more competent and not left behind. · Assessment serves as a motivator, but also as a great intimidator. In the form of final exams, pop quizzes, and report card grades, assessment does the opposite of motivate students to do well because of all the anxiety it causes. · There are emotions tied to assessment- students will be optimistic when they succeed on an exam and feel confident with their abilities, but the students who score poorly causes them to question early on their own capabilities as learners. · Students who score in the bottom third or half fail to develop necessary reading, writing, and mathematical proficiencies that are needed to succeed in this diverse culture. · Now in today’s society, assessment and grading procedures have to be redesigned to permit the possibility of all students’ success at some appropriate level. · Teachers must believe that all students can achieve success academically, and must show their students that they are capable of doing this. However, this process is not as easy as it sounds, teachers must accommodate the fact that all students learn at different rates, while following and meeting state standards by the end of the year. · Instead of just testing once a year, a new approach to test more frequently is starting to emerge. This can give notice that instruction within the classroom is not working and can be changed before the end of the year exam in order to increase results. · A second approach that has recently come about deals with managing data more effectively. Computer programs are being developed to better handle students’ test scores. · Assessment for learning is also a rising approach to formative assessment that gives access to more frequent evidence that students have mastered state standards. There are multiple ways that I could create a formative assessment for the lessons I have planned in my unit; however, I will focus on three that would work for a science, math, and literature lesson. 1. For the first science lesson, students are demonstrating how the earth, moon, and sun rotate around each other and how these planets represent patterns of movement in the sky. Students are required to create a “space journal” in which they will keep their thoughts, new vocabulary, worksheets, quizzes, and other handouts. At the end of this lesson, students will have a few vocabulary terms to define with an illustration to supplement their definitions. They will also be asked to answer a few simple questions about the demonstration in class that allows them to make connections to what they have learned, set goals, and reflect upon their learning process. 2. In a math lesson within the unit, the students will be studying shadows and time throughout the day. For this lesson, they are creating homemade sundials and will be required to record the shadows at three different points during the day. For homework, they will be asked to predict what the shadow might look like at 5 o’clock, based on their observations from the day. They will be allowed to take their sundials home to make recordings and then will be asked to bring in their predictions with the real data to class the next day. As a formative assessment, their “admission slips” into the classroom will be their space journals with the data filled in on a worksheet they were asked to fill out along with their observations. The teacher will be able to quickly determine which students have it, which need a little help with the concept of shadows and how they move in relation with the sun, and which will require more instruction on the subject. 3. Continuing with the theme of objects in space, students will learn about the stars and their position in the sky. In order to do this, the teacher will find a book about the stars that relates to the third grade level and read it out loud to the class. The class will begin with a preview-predict-confirm activity with the book in which they first look at the pictures and talk to each other about what they see. They will be given pieces of paper to predict what words will occur in the text. After, they get to read the book and check off the words they thought would be there from the pictures they saw. For formative assessment of this activity, students will create a graphic organizer with stars as the main topic. They will be expected to write down facts they learned, which will be a starting point for the next lesson about light and how it travels. There are other ways to formatively assess students’ knowledge of a subject such as: observations, questions, discussion, practice presentations, visual representations, quizzes, and think-pair-share. Most of the formative assessment that will happen in my lessons will just be documented in my head and I will be able to use the assessments as a base to take my next lessons and discussions. Some of the information will be given grades, such as the space journal- this will ensure that the students complete their assignments, along with rewarding their efforts. Formative assessment can inform my future instructional decisions by providing the information I need in order to continue teaching a certain topic. If I see that a majority of my class doesn’t understand a concept, I will have to reevaluate and plan to take the lesson in a different direction. If students were doing an activity that required the teacher to be monitoring their progress at certain intervals, a SmartPhone could be used to record their data or progress throughout. Then the data could be made into a chart and displayed on a smartboard for further investigation of how the activity went.

Solar Farm Field Trip! A city in North Carolina called Taylorsville has just recently started running a solar farm that powers numerous homes and businesses in the community. Not only does this farm use photovoltaic panels to harvest energy from the sun as a typical solar farm does, Taylorsville uses a special tracking system that follows the sun’s movement through the sky to increase the capture of sunlight, increasing the amount of energy produced. This would be a great place to take a class in order to learn about the process of energy harvesting through solar plants and there are many ways to incorporate what they would learn at the farm into different content areas. Next is a brief outline of what grade level the field trip would be appropriate for, what the student outcomes are, NCSCOS objectives in correlation with the grade level and a schedule for how the day would progress. Grade Level: Third NCSCOS Objectives: · Science Competency Goal 3: The learner will make observations and use appropriate technology to build and understanding of the earth/moon/sun system. o 3.01: Observe that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object and is reflected and/or absorbed. · Math Competency Goal 1: The learner will model, identify, and compute with whole numbers through 9,999 o 1.06: develop flexibility in solving problems by selecting strategies and using mental computation, estimation, calculators or computers, and paper and pencil. Student Outcomes: · These students will be able to: o Identify that the sun is a source of light o Explain how light travels through observations and information presented throughout the field trip o Examine the photovoltaic panels in order to understand how light strikes an object o Determine whether the light is absorbed or reflected by learning how the solar panels work to create energy o Illustrate an example of what light looks like when it’s reflected and when it’s absorbed through a worksheet to be filled out after the field trip Field Trip Outline- (5 E’s format) · Engage: o While on the bus, teach the students a song about light. This song can be found at this site: [] o Although there is extra information in this song that doesn’t apply to what is being learned in the field trip, students will be engaged in the topic of light, which will kick off the trip · Explore: o During the field trip, students will be asked to think about how the solar panels work and why they might be important for our environment. o Questions to be asked and addressed: § What do you think happens to the sunlight when it hits the solar panels? § Is the light absorbed or reflected once it reaches the panels? § How do you think sunlight is possibly harnessed to create energy? § What can solar energy be used for in our lives? · Explain: o After the trip, either on the bus or back in the classroom, ask students to share their answers to the questions above. Students should also have the opportunity to post any questions they might have in response to the field trip on a class “I wonder/I think” chart. o Once students have given thought to the topic, provide them with access to: [] o This kid-friendly website explains what light is, how it travels, along with images and explanations of reflection and absorption. · Elaborate: o When the class has a working knowledge of how light travels, they will break into groups (or work individually) to apply their knowledge of lights in straight lines until it hits an object. In order to further their working understanding, students will fill out two worksheets in which they will identify different angles and measure these angles with a protractor. o For access to the pdf’s of these two worksheets see this website and select “Types of Angles” and “Measuring Angles 1” § [] · Evaluate: o Assessment can take place throughout the field trip and afterwards during the activities.

Laura Mayerchak February 27, 2011 EDU 296- Math "Connecting Music and Math"

There are so many ways music can help teach math. Ever since I can remember, music has been a part of my life. My mom and I would sing to songs while riding in the car, I was in many of my church’s plays, my extended family would go caroling and play their instruments, I joined band in the sixth grade, and from there my musical appreciation has grown. I remember when I was in elementary school, some of my teachers used different musical means to teach students certain things. Not only did they use silly songs to help us remember and recall facts, but certain teachers who had an understanding of music were actually able to incorporate counting beats, rhythm, and time changes into the lessons.

So I wasn’t solely relying on my background experiences on how to use music to teach math, I looked up a couple of websites that gave me some good ideas. Music has certain patterns that correlate with beats such as eighth notes, quarter notes, whole notes along with others. Not only could a teacher talk about the patterns found in rhythm, but she could use the beats to teach a lesson on fractions and could use the actual representation of each note for the students to have a concrete example of different fractions. Music can also span across the core subjects; students can use literacy to write or compose a song, students could study the different music from other cultures and countries for social studies, and students could investigate the way music is made through a lesson in sound waves.

Coming back to the idea that music can help teach math, there are many ways to implement this pedagogically into the lesson. From the example given above about using music to demonstrate fractions, group work can be done to complete a chart or graph on the different “fraction” beats heard in a particular song. Worksheets or handouts can be made and given to students to complete on an individual basis and fun hands-on activities can also be incorporated into a math lesson on music. Here, technology can also be used, if the teacher has access to a computer, she can bring up a music score (sheet of music with all the notes that a musician reads) and show the students how the beats are divided up between the measures on the page. The teacher can also use technology such as the smartboard or even just a cd player to bring in music to the classroom.

Many people think sustainability can only be related to the environment and the population; however there is a social sustainability that links in with music. In many schools, the budget is being cut and the first to go are the “specials” such as art and music. By incorporating music into the classroom, students will not lose their appreciation for this part of our culture and teachers will be helping to sustain its importance. In helping teachers and students alike to sustain music, it might be beneficial to find a few resources that can be used in the classroom or at home. A way to assess students’ knowledge in both math and music can come from an educational software program called SuperKids: Math and Music. ([]) //Math & Music// develops students' mathematical skills and exposes them to music from around the world, the physics of sound propagation, the physics of musical instruments, and the biological structures associated with hearing. There is also an app for the iPhone called Math Fun Facts ([]) that uses octaves and other harmonies to create fractions and divide ratios. This funny little song by Peter Weatherall can be shown to students as an introduction to working with greater than less than signs. I know this concept always confused me when I was in school and it would help to have a little song to sing when I’m trying to remember where the sign points when it’s greater than another number. ([]).

January 30, 2011 “Counting on Estimating” Question: How many rolls of toilet paper are used on average to roll the quad after each Wake Forest win? This question relates directly to estimating by asking for an average number of toilet paper rolls. There are several aspects that need to be solved before this question can be answered, however, which provides a way to instill inquiry thinking. These questions include some of the following:

How long is one roll of toilet paper? What is the distance that this roll can cover? On average, how many students help roll the quad? If each student uses two to three rolls, how many rolls are used in all?

Although some of these questions might be pretty hard to answer without observation, estimating can come in handy. The content of this experiment can not only apply to math through estimation, but it spreads through almost all core subjects. This experiment’s findings could be useful for social studies as it might apply to the culture of a college. Tradition is a big part of history and our school’s history has provided this fun tradition of rolling the quad with toilet paper to celebrate a victory with our sports teams. More than that, it becomes a science lesson by talking about where paper comes from, the process of making toilet paper and why this tradition might be harmful for the environment or our resources.

Sustainability comes to mind at this point, which directly relates to the previous thought about how rolling the quad impacts our environment. Of course everyone here knows that toilet paper comes from trees and if we demolish our resource of trees, there will not be enough oxygen for life to survive on earth. Another way sustainability ties into this particular question and experiment deals with our surrounding campus. This tradition typically promotes “littering,” by having students leave things in the environment that do not necessarily belong there. If a species built a habitat near the quad, this extra supply of paper could be potentially harmful or endanger its life.

Similar to the experiment last week, this science question offers several ways to incorporate different pedagogies into teaching. This activity is inquiry based and provides room for expanding by asking different questions related to the topic. Finding the answer to this question can be done individually or in groups or even with the entire class participating. After estimating, it would be beneficial to physically watch and count how many people are rolling the quad after a game and how many rolls of toilet paper each person is using on average. The results can then be recorded, graphed, and presented back to the class. A good way to record results and make sure the count is accurate would be to use technology such a camera or smartphone to either take pictures or a video of the quad after a win. This would ensure correct numbers and make the answer more reliable.

The “Interactive Estimator Quiz” ([]) is a fun and easy way to assess student’s skills and understanding on estimation. This activity allows the teacher to establish a time limit for the quiz, a difficultly level, and the problem types such as addition, multiplication, or percentage. Although this app does not exactly apply to my estimation question, “Target Height Calculator Pro” ([]) would be a neat app for children to use for estimating their potential height. Targ et Heig ht Calc ulat or Pro by GLN LLC calc ulat es the esti mati on of a chil d’s gene tic heig ht pote ntia l. Targ et heig ht is base d on the heig ht of both pare nts and the chil d’s sex. I’d even like to try this one! Sid the Science Kid is such a great resource for children! This youtube video is a neat way to introduce estimation into the classroom and have kids work on these projects in real life. ([]) __

January 20th "Less than, More than, Scarcity, and Abundance" Going around campus to find specific answers to the questions posed in class was an excellent way to learn not only my opinion of the matter, but also the opinions of others that I go to school with. To refresh, the two questions were: “What do we have too much of on our campus? What do we have too little of on our campus?” Because these dealt with less than and more than concepts, I believe numbers play a large role in the activity our class participated in today. Students were required to think in terms of how much is too much and how few is too few in relation to an average. Generally, our findings were of material value and some intellectual value as well. Several answers are below:

“What do we have too much of on our campus?” Too much cost, too much arrogance, too many freshmen… “What do we have too little of on our campus?” Too few clean dorms, too few outlets in the library, too few parking spaces…

The content of our findings and probably the findings of elementary school children if they were asked to do this activity can be incorporated in not only Math, but the other core subjects as well. Of course, mathematically speaking in terms of greater than, less than in a number sense is important in understanding relativity and gaining a background of how numbers can change depending on subject. From a science point of view, talking through the concepts of scarcity and abundance can be applied to an ecosystem with the rise and fall of certain species as one example. We learned in social studies that one of the central characteristics of social studies is that the subject matter comes from life experiences and through social studies; we can help children make sense of the people, places, and events that make up our human experience. By applying this activity, it will directly tie into a personal life experience and one in which each child will be able to relate to another and the world around them. Of course, there are many children’s literature books that incorporate the topic of “number sense.” One being: //Number Sense and Nonsense: Building Math Creativity and Confidence through number play//. ([])

Pedagogically, this activity was inquiry based, performed out of a class setting, and was done in groups of three or four. All of these methods contribute to the learning experience and are beneficial methods to teach a topic. Our group used technology such as a smartphone to take video clips of other student’s responses and to also take note through a text option of what some people answered. By taking a video, it is very easy to quickly go back and review a response or post it online for others to see and learn from. Sustainability is the capacity to endure and the ability for one to sustain life has numerical ties dealing with scarcity and abundance. If there are too few resources, one will not be able to survive. Also if there are too many resources, a species could overpopulate, causing harmful effects for another species or even a population.

A number sense assessment could be found in an activity such as a game called “My Rummy.” Recommended for elementary school aged children, this math card game helps teachers develop an understanding of addition and subtraction concepts. [] Mathster is an iPhone app that uses simple equations like ?+?=14. The player is given many numbers and they have to work to fill in the blanks to get the correct answer. This games works to improve simple addition and subtraction skills. [] Math is so easy, even a dog can do it! This is just the neatest video ever! (I’m partial, I love dogs.) Educationally, to show this in a classroom might give students the confidence that they can do math with positive encouragement and some practice. []