Becky+K.


 * Science Reflection: **
 * The first few minutes of teaching my lesson was very nerve-wracking. I was worried that something was not going to make sense in my lesson or it would not flow well. Luckily every one of my classmates was incredibly supportive. We all wanted constructive criticism and we all wanted to improve our lesson plans based on our classmates’ reflections. **
 * I learned several things from watching other people’s lessons. I learned how difficult it is to teach kindergarten. Anna was very effective at bring the specific topics to life in the classroom. The kindergarten topics are subjects that by now are very common knowledge for us. Anna really had to think like a 5 year old to create her lesson plan! Also, I was surprised by how little use of technology I saw in the other lessons. **
 * My classmates had some great suggestions to improve my science lesson that I am going to implement. I am going to place the letter in an envelope and act really excited and open it in front of the kids so they get excited as well. I am also going to reorganize the data from the two different cities into one document so it is easier to compare them. **
 * I am very glad that my classmates enjoyed my science lesson. They assured me that my problem-based activity, video for direct instruction, assessment activity that reaches the top level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and engagement of the students through a letter from the National Weather Service are all exciting and effective. **


 * Math Reflection: **
 * After already teaching the science lesson, I felt a lot more comfortable teaching my math lesson. I was more excited than nervous and anxious to see other student’s ideas. **
 * I really enjoyed Mackenzie’s lesson which connected graphing to playing a game of twister. The lesson was so creative! You could tell that she put a lot of thought into the lesson plan. The kinesthetic learning made the lesson more exciting and fun. The learning is certainly more memorable if students experience the information rather than absorb the information. **
 * Again, my classmates had some great comments that made me re-think aspects of my lesson plan to improve it. One student said that she did not understand why I was having them add together the velocities of the hurricanes since it did not seem authentic. I completely agree. I decided that I want to lead into that part of my lesson plan by asking the kids if I wanted to strengthen the wind of a hurricane what kind of math problem would I use (and vice versa for weaken). This will connect increasing and decreasing wind speeds to addition and subtraction. This will establish a greater context for why we are creating math problems with the data. Someone also said that I should maybe find a hurricane safety video that is more kid-friendly. I am not sure what to do about that. I can see how the video is geared more for adults but I thought that the students would enjoy the authenticity of the video and feel grown-up watching it, especially since relating the wind speeds to safety inventions to protect buildings is a grown-up concept. **
 * I got some positive feedback too which made me feel good about the lesson. Students said that they loved the kinesthetic element to my lesson. They also liked how I made the lesson authentic through the integration of the subjects and use of media like the news clip. **

Summative assessment tends to result in students either being successful which provides motivation or failure which forces students to eventually give up. Summative assessment easily categorizes students based on scores. This is not what we should be doing as teachers. Teachers need to motivate every student to do his or her best. The article discussed how formative assessment through assessing for learning is the best way to ensure success for every student. Utilizing rubrics and examples to show students good and poor work helps students set goals for their own work. This also results in students to be able to self-assess. It is time-consuming and difficult to manage the data, but frequent formative assessments in which students understand what they need to do to be successful will motivate every student because success is achievable for every student.

One idea for formative assessment is to use whiteboards in my lesson for students to all answer a question and then show me the answer. This enables every student to have an opportunity to answer the question and enables me to view their thoughts. Another way to include formative assessment is to use hand gestures that signal whether the students understand a statement or question or not. This encourages students to self-assess their knowledge. A third way to create formative assessment for my lesson is to have students turn and talk to a partner about an aspect of the lesson or re-teach a part of the lesson to a partner. In order to be able to hold a discussion about a concept students must first understand the concept.

Sources for formative assessment ideas: [] [] [] (This website especially has some great resources for formative assessment)

I will document the information received from collecting information on my students’ understanding by utilizing checklists and writing summaries of their thinking. I will use this information to guide where I need to go with a lesson, whether I need to re-teach or clarify something, as well as to ensure that every student is staying on the same page with the entire class. Formative assessment is especially helpful to inform my future instructional decisions because it is imperative that every student has sufficient opportunities to understand a concept. A smartphone can be used to collect data by using it to record a student’s answer to a question or conversation or to take a picture of student’s work to upload on the computer for documentation.

I would plan a trip to the solar farm after discussing different forms of energy with the students. I would have the students attend the farm as if they were researchers that were going to need to develop a presentation that either supports the solar farm or discusses challenges to harvesting solar energy. Students will have developed prior knowledge on solar energy and then utilize this knowledge to explore the solar farm, and then create an authentic presentation that expresses knowledge on solar energy.

The field trip will connect to science in relation to forms of energy and math in terms of utilizing skills of estimation, measurement, and time telling.

Before going to the solar farm, students will have to have viewed this video clip ([]) and explored these websites that explain advantages and disadvantages to solar energy ([] []) and made a list of three things they learned about solar power and three questions they have about solar power which will be their entry ticket to attend the field trip.

Once at the solar farm: 1. 1. Students will observe individual solar panel as I explain how it works. 2. 2. Students will use the Numbers application ([]) to keep track of any numbers of information they have learned from the trip that they may want to use later in their presentation. 3. 3. Students then will go on an estimation exploration. I will have students estimate how many solar panels there are, how much land the solar farm takes up, and how many homes the solar farm provides energy form. We will then discuss how we could find out the actual numbers if we didn’t have the data. We will discuss students’ estimations after and compare them to the actual numbers. 4. 4. We will also spend the few hours documenting the direction that the solar panels are facing based on the sun direction, which will involve students practicing telling time. 5. 5. Students will be given digital cameras to take pictures of aspects of the solar farm that they would like to feature in their powerpoint presentation they are going to create so they will then have time to take photographs.

TSWBAT describe what a solar farm is. TSWBAT explain and evaluate pros and cons to utilizing solar energy. TSWBAT develop a presentation to persuade that there should be more or less solar farms.

The field trip is related to second grade science goal 2.05: Discuss and determine how energy from the sun warms the land, air and water, second grade math goal **2.02:** Tell time at the five-minute intervals, and second grade math goal 2.01: Estimate and measure using appropriate units.

To assess learning from the field trip students will have to create a powerpoint presentation either to support the construction of more solar farms or to dissuade constructing more solar farms. Students will have to include information that they have learned from visiting the farm and from research that supports their stance on solar power.

There are numerous studies that show that studying music increases students’ sat scores. Music is similar to math in many ways. The main way that math and music is similar is in their use of patterns. When learning music students practice counting, geometry, ratios and proportions, equivalent fractions, and sequences. Using music to teach other math skills makes math authentic since students can see how math is used in reading music. Play Math is a neat application that enables students to practice multiplication tables while playing the piano ([])

Music can be used in many ways during lessons. Classical music like Mozart can be used to activate students’ brain waves. Music can be used as white noise in the background during work. Music can also be used to memorize facts in a fun way. Programs such as School House Rock have songs all about math ([]) Math music can also be used as an anticipatory set to get students engaged in a math lesson.

For formative assessment, students can create their own math songs utilizing math facts or rules. This brings students to higher-level thinking by creating something with their knowledge and understanding.

You can relate using music to teach math to sustainability by making instruments out of recyclable material. Students can count beats using the instruments as well as practice geometry and measuring by constructing the instruments.

“Counting on Estimating” is an important subject to teach in elementary school. Nowadays since so much math can be done using a computer or calculator, estimating is the most helpful in real-life situations. A question I would establish in my class to begin an inquiry math lesson is how do we reduce the line of traffic waiting to get into school in the morning. This subject can also be related to social studies in terms of over-crowding in areas. In class I would first have students estimate how many cars they think drop off students in the morning before school versus how many buses. Then one morning I would have students come to school early in the morning to count how many cars and buses there are. Students can use the adobe photoshop application on the ipad to edit and add words to the photos to visually document the traffic problem. ([]). For a literature connection, students could read a book that is related to traffic.

For a summative assessment I would have students create a powerpoint presentation using photos that were edited using the photos edited in the photoshop application. The powerpoint would outline the traffic solution and their proposal for how to solve the problem. I would have the principal attend the presentations to motivate the students to invent creative solutions and construct convincing presentations.

Pedagogically the inquiry method in math is a very effective approach. The inquiry method exemplifies how math can be used to establish a problem as well as solve a problem. Students will also have an opportunity to feel like they can make a change in the school. The ability to use math to recognize a problem and formulate a convincing presentation with a solution enables students to reach higher level thinking skills in relation to Bloom’s taxonomy.

This lesson can absolutely be related to sustainability. The growing population has resulted in an increase of traffic on the roads and pollution. Students could even invent new transportation that could be used to get to school instead of cars and buses that would creatively reduce traffic and pollution. I could use a website that suggests green ways to travel to school to show children after they have created their own ideas. ([]).

"Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" is an important subject to teach in elementary school. It can be touched on in several subjects. In math the teacher can easily touch on this subject by having the students survey their own classroom. The students can discuss "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" in relation to objects in the room and classmates. In science, students can go on a walk outside in the classroom and discuss "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" in relation to how many animals, insects, and plants students see. While observing students can use the Numbers Application for the ipad to keep track of the numbers of animals observed. The students can later use the application to graph the numbers. ([]) The observation can be related to the science lesson containing resources that are needed for living things. From there, students can discuss reasons that there are less than or more than of certain living things in that area. In literacy, students can read articles about animal scarcity. An article about why an animal became extinct can be related to the lesson and linked to science as well. ([]) The discussion of the articles can be linked to policies enacted by the government to help save animals that are scarce which would integrate social studies into the lesson. ([|http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/)]

For a summative assessment I would have students invent their own animal that would be able to survive well in the area of the school location. Students would have to describe what aspects of the animal would make it likely for their animal to exist in abundance in the area.

Teaching a lesson like "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" is a very effective approach pedagogically. First of all, it is an authentic activity that brings the comparative concept into a real-life setting. Additionally, it provides opportunity for students to get out of their seats and walk around. It also provides opportunity for student collaboration and discussion. The assessment in which students create animals that would be able to exist in abundance in the area enables students to reach higher level thinking skills in relation to Bloom’s taxonomy.

This lesson can absolutely be related to sustainability. Sustainability related to the capacity of living things to be in abundance. Lack of resources related to poor sustainability often causes scarcity and extinction of living things. Students can create their own sustainability program that if implemented would have enabled the extinct animal to endure.