Caroline+W.

Teaching Tremendously Science: Teaching Tremendously was such a great experience because I got to see how well or poorly I had laid out my lessons and because I got some great feedback from my peers. My science lesson went very smoothly, but I also got some useful advice from my "students." While completing an activity sheet about identifying solids, liquids, and gases one of my "first graders" said that glue was confusing because when it dries it looks like a solid. This had never occurred to me, so I was so glad to be able to think about this before I teach this lesson in the field. Another thing I realized was that I need to come up with a good explanation for what gases are and how we know that the sun is a gas. One comment that my peers told me was that I had great classroom management, which was so great to hear! I felt so confident in my ability to run a classroom after hearing their feedback.

Math: My math lesson was based on classification, and started out smoothly. The lesson originally used buttons, but I had modified it to use rubber bands since those were easier to find. Once we got to the second part of the lesson, I realized that rubber bands were not going to work, so I had to stop and rethink where I wanted to take the lesson from there. I'm so glad that I had this experience while teaching my peers because I realized that it's alright if this happens in real life. It is so much better to stop and rethink the lesson than to continue with something that you know is not working. While my peers recognized (as did I) that I needed buttons if I were to teach this lesson in the field, they also complimented my ability to roll with whatever suggestions and answers they had to my questions. Getting such positive feedback from my peers gave me a self-confidence boost so that I feel a little more ready to teach in the field.

One thing I would change about Teaching Tremendously is that I would put people in the same grade-levels together. While I definitely appreciated the opportunity to see what other grades' lessons looked like, I would have loved feedback from my fellow first-graders. It's hard to know what will and won't work for other grades that I have not observed, and I value my first grade team's opinions a lot. I will still probably meet with him to talk about my lessons, but I wish I could have run through my teaching tremendously with them, as well. Other than that, this was a great experience!

Formative Assessment The Stiggins article made some valid points about why standardized testing as assessment is and is not useful. I definitely agree that it can give teachers quick, consistent data to look at in terms of all the students they have in their class. Teachers can clearly see where each of their students is in their learning. That being said, there are obviously downsides to standardized testing, especially an increase in test anxiety. I really liked the idea of using "assessment FOR learning" because I can see how this would be so helpful to students. Assessment results will always (hopefully) be helpful to teachers, but so often kids are just left in the dust after the test. For example, a written test at the end of a science unit may prove that only half the class really learned what they were supposed to have learned. I have known many teachers who would look at this and say, "Oh, well. That unit is over." By using assessment FOR learning, teachers could then use this information with their students to figure out where the gaps in their learning were and what they can work on to fill them in.

I could use concept mapping as a formative assessment during my science lesson to see how students' understanding and organization of their ideas about the states of matter is coming along. Our science text book suggests concept mapping as a formative assessment, and I think this would be a great way for me to see concretely how students are organizing their thoughts. During the explore part of my science lesson, students will be completing the BrainPop activity sheet "Classify Objects Into Groups that Are Alike." [|BrainPOP jr. activity sheet] I can use this as a formative assessment to see where my students' gaps in thinking are regarding the classification of the states of matter. Based on their answers, I will able to discuss common misconceptions and guide their learning more easily. Finally, I will observe my students as they explain their reasoning for classifying the images as solids, liquids, or gases to one another. This informal formative assessment will also help me direct their learning and recognize the gaps in their understanding.

I will collect their activity sheets at the end of class, but by this point they will have had a chance to change their answers if they want to. I could use my smartphone to take pictures of their activity sheets after the first time they complete them, and then I could compare these photos with their final product. This would be a good way for me to see whether I successfully cleared up misconceptions that they held about solids, liquids, and gases before our class. If I had students concept map, I could also collect these and review them. I probably wouldn't grade these, but I could make sure that they flowed and made sense with logical connections. If students' concept maps did not clearly identify the similarities and differences among the states of matter, then I would use this information to decide which areas to focus on in my next lesson.

“Solar Farm Field Trip” NCSCOS Math 1st grade Competency Goal 4: The learner will understand and use data and simple probability concepts. 4.01 Collect, organize, describe and display data using line plots and tallies. 4.02 Describe events as certain, impossible, more likely or less likely to occur. NCSCOS Science 1st grade Competency Goal 1: The learner will conduct investigations and make observations to build understanding of the needs of living organisms. 1.04 Identify local environments that support the needs of common North Carolina plants and animals. For the science aspect of this field trip, we would talk about the different types of energy and could easily connect sustainability into this discussion. We would discuss how pollution affects the environment and the habitats of people and animals that live in our community. Before the field trip, we would discuss what solar energy is and how weather can affect it. ([]) Students will have already discussed weather every morning during calendar/ board work, so they will clearly understand the different types of weather such as sunny, cloudy, and rainy. Every day of the week before we go to the solar farm, I would ask one student to mark a tally under what type of day it is in terms of weather. By the end of the week, students will be able to see what our local weather trends have been that week, and I will then have them predict what the weather will be like the next week. For our activity on our field trip, the objectives would be that… TSWBAT predict what the weather will be on the day of our field trip TSWBAT explain how weather affects solar power On the day of our field trip, we would walk around the solar farm to look at the PV cells, and I would remind students that they work by soaking up energy from the sun’s rays and that these cells follow the sun all day as it moves across the sky. Before we left school, we would have predicted the day’s weather in terms of whether it was “certain, impossible, more likely or less likely” to be sunny that day. After the field trip, we would return to the classroom, where we would use The Weather Channel app ([]) to find this week’s forecast in 5 cities around the country. Each student would be given this chart: Students would place one tally mark for each day in each city in the correct place on the chart. After this activity, we would discuss where a solar farm would be the most useful based on how much sunlight it receives.
 * || Sunny || Partly Sunny || Cloudy || Rain/Snow ||
 * Taylorsville, NC ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Phoenix, AZ ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Detroit, MI ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Oklahoma City, OK ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Philadelphia, PA ||  ||   ||   ||   ||

"Music and Math" Content: Music, especially sheet music, is very mathematical. In order to read music, students need to be able to count the beats and the rhythm and to keep time. Fractions could very easily be used to explain rhythm and beats in music. The tempo is generally already written in fraction form on sheet music, and clapping out the idea of four beats in one measure where each beat is a quarter note is a great way to incorporate kinesthetic learning into a math fractions lesson. [] This is a link to a math and music lesson that uses this idea of clapping and creating music to learn about fractions.

Pedagogy:Putting formulas to music is another way that music can help students learn math concepts. For example, in my 8th grade algebra class we learned the quadratic equation “x equals negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac all over 2a” to the tune of a Jack-in-the-box. Songs are a great memory retrieval device, so they are a great way to help students memorize facts and formulas.

Technology: [] This is an app for Play Math HD. In this game app, students can play a piano and practice their times tables at the same time. It develops musical rhythm and reviews math facts.

Sustainability: A lesson on math and music can be related to sustainability through the idea of noise pollution. This video clip from youtube could be used to engage students in noise pollution, and could lead into a discussion of some ways to prevent or deal with future noise pollution in a local environment.[|Noise Pollution]

Assessment for a music and math lesson should definitely include formative assessment during instruction to ensure that the students are correctly applying their knowledge of fractions to make rhythm. If I used the Noise Pollution video, I would follow this with a class discussion about what contributes to noise pollution and ways to prevent it in the future. I could either listen to their answers and check their understanding that way or I could have them make charts or projects to explain what noise pollution is and how they suggest to fix it.

“Counting on Estimating…”

My question: What is the fastest way to get to Wake Forest campus from Crowne Polo apartments? Content: This question could obviously be used using the math concept of estimation. We could look at the various routes to campus and compare the differences in distance and speed limits on each road. Using social studies, we could discuss communities and apartment living. Science could be tied into the lesson by discussing what type of vehicles could be used and how they are similar or different. Sustainability: In discussing different types of vehicles, we could talk about what effects different vehicles have on the environment. We could compare how driving and riding a bicycle would have different effects on the environment, as well as various types of cars. In terms of cars, we could compare the pollution and the amount of gas that each car needs to get from one place to the next. Pedagogy: In class, we explored estimation in terms of questions related to Wake Forest campus. Because the problem/issue was relevant to us as Wake Forest students, we were all more motivated to find an answer. When students can connect with the problem and find it personally relevant, they are much more likely to participate and to genuinely want to know the answer. My question is also personally relevant because I live in Crowne Polo and would be relevant to other students who live in similar off-campus apartments or students who have friends there that they visit. Technology: To answer the question of the fastest route to campus, we could use googlemaps ([]) or MapQuest ([]) to view the streets of Winston-Salem. Both of these websites would provide maps that show the layout of the roads in the area so that we could outline possible routes from Crowne Polo to Wake Forest campus. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geometry-stash/id324651852?mt=8 ^This is a mobile app for geometry from iTunes. Geometry could be used to solve my question by discussing the various shapes of the routes to campus, and how circular or angular routes would affect the time the trip takes. There should definitely be formative assessment during this assignment. The teacher should check students’ understanding of how to use maps and of certain shapes as they use these to determine the answer. A summative assessment could be having the students explain their thought processes to the class, and then the class could go out and determine which route really is the fastest. [] This is a pretty good article about different types of pollution, what causes this pollution, and what we can do to prevent and/or reduce it. There is a lot of information, but the language is fairly simple and upper-elementary students would be able to understand it. Younger students would probably need more scaffolding, but all teachers could use it as a resource.

Content: We could answer this question through discussions of multiple content areas. Certainly math could be applied to this question and the answers that we come up with. The ideas of abundance and scarcity are numerical concepts, so that could lead into more in-depth discussions of these concepts, and then to applying these concepts to solve these authentic problems. The problems are authentic because the question we want to answer is something that truly affects everyday life, so the students would be able to connect to the problem and hopefully realize the importance and everyday use of mathematics. We could easily incorporate social studies into answering this question, as well. Many of the answers dealt with matters of transportation and community life, so this could lead into a discussion of different types of transportation or how communities function. Depending on the answers to the question, we could find a book that relates to the problems we have found. In this way literacy could be incorporated into the lesson, as well. Discussions of waste and pollution could easily lead into a science lesson on the environment. Due to the broad range of possible answers to the scarcity/abundance question, there are many content areas that could be connected to this lesson.

Pedagogy**:** In answering the questions of what we have “too much of” and “not enough of” on campus, the students left the classroom to explore their environment. Students were given a question, and they had to find the answer themselves. Small group projects like this that get students out of their seats are great ways to promote interest in learning, and when students are genuinely interested in what they are doing they will be more likely to cooperate and to perform well.

Technology: In class, we used mobile phones to record our answers to this question through photos and videos. We could also use technology to create a presentation of our results. We could make a power point slide show presentation, a website, or a collaborative video of several groups’ work. There are many ways to use technology, and often this can give students more opportunities to apply their creativity to presentations. By allowing more outlets for students’ creativity in projects and assignments, you can more easily foster a love of learning and can avoid drilling the fun out of school. Giving students opportunities to work with technology in the classroom is also very important because it gives them skills that they will need when they leave school and enter the modern work force.

Sustainability: Many of the answers related to too much trash on our campus, which could easily lead into discussions of sustainability. We could discuss how more efficient trash collection or more wide-spread recycling could affect campus. In terms of transportation, we could discuss how car pollution affects the air and the environment in general. A great mobile app from iTunes related to sustainability is Terra: the Nature of Our World ([])

Assessment for this assignment could be done several different ways. One way would be to ask students to compile their research and data that they recorded into presentations, and to provide a rubric to measure their success. Another method of assessment would be to have everyone discuss their results together, and to judge students’ learning based on their contributions to the discussion.

I found a video ([]) that discusses transportation and where the United States is going in terms of what transportation will entail in the US in the future. It also discusses globalization and the need for the United States to improve transportation in order to stay globally competitive with trade, import, and export of goods. This would be a great video to show upper-elementary school students, and it could lead into more in-depth discussions of globalization and/or transportation. It also provides some new questions for students to research and answer.

Another video that I found ([]) discusses ways that New York City is implementing more sustainable transportation. This is a great video because it gives specific examples of how communities can improve traffic flow and provide alternative transportation to its citizens. After watching this video, I would ask students to come up with some ways that their specific community could do similar things to reduce traffic and to promote sustainability and a cleaner environment.