Oh how far I have come!

Well, 15 weeks have come and gone. It feels like just yesterday it was move in day and classes were beginning. I remember feeling anxious on the first day of my science methods class. After working through the entire semester with Dr. Smirnova and the rest of my peers I can finally say that I am more confident in myself as a teacher than I ever have been before. This class has taught me many wonderful new ways of teaching my students including the use of technology. Before I started this class I had never really used technology in the classroom before. Learning about all of the different devices and tools that are available for teachers to use was extremely beneficial. I have learned so much over the course of this semester about teaching young students about science!

I have also never taught in front of a whole class before so this was another new experience for me. At first I was extremely nervous about it, but after many nights of preparation and many weeks of dedication I have to say it was a very rewarding and fun experience. The 6th grade class at Sacred Heart Elementary School has offered me memories that I will never forget. Those students helped me become a better teacher. My peers also helped me become a better teacher through giving me positive feedback and things to work on to improve my teaching. After this experience I can say for sure that teaching will be my career. I hope to inspire each of my students and to spend every day working with young learners to better their education. 

My favorite topic that we covered was space science. I find this topic the most interesting. For this topic we created glogsters on different articles found on Newsela and shared them with the class. We also created wordclouds and timelines based on these articles. I find it extremely interesting to learn about space and all of the planets. I look forward to teaching this topic to my students one day!

edTPA was also a new experience for me. This was challenging, but after working on it for many hours and doing research I have completed it to the best of my ability. This has helped prepare me for when I submit my real edTPA exam to the state. This was great because it helped prepare me and gave me practice in advance. My favorite task to complete was task 2 because this included videos. During this task I was able to reflect and watch myself while giving a lesson. I was able to pick up on things that need improvement, as well as positive things that I did! 

I was also able to experience many different types of instruction. Inquiry instruction is definitely my favorite style because I have not had much experience with it before. Helping students turn into scientists and make new discoveries was my favorite part. For my inquiry lesson each of my students became a scientist for the day and was able to explore rocks by following the scientific method! 

During the semester I was also able to experience different forms of feedback. I was able to give and receive feedback from my peers. Here are examples of my feedback to my peers!

Overall, this class has offered me numerous opportunities to improve as a teacher and become the best I can be! I am very sad that this class has come to an end, but I look forward to having Dr. Smirnova again next semester during Social Studies Methods for Childhood Education. I will be able to learn even more about social studies! I am very proud of how far I have come this semester and I am looking forward to continuing my journey of becoming a teacher!

Efolios... Take a look at what I have accomplished!

Have you ever made an efolio before?

My answer to that is... NO! Now, after my semester in science and technology methods, I can say YES, I have successfully created my own efolio that contains all of my work from the semester, including my unit plan, edTPA, projects, and many other pieces of work. This experience was very challenging for me. I have never used google sites before, so learning about this site took a lot of time. I had to learn on my own how to edit each page, insert pictures and videos, and embed my documents into the page. 

Creating this efolio took many hours and complete time management. Efolios are not just simple sites to keep all of your work together. This efolio keeps all of my work together in specific spots with many colors, pictures, animations, and videos. I did not begin creating my portfolio until a few weeks ago. At that point I had many assignments completed, so I was able to upload them to the google site. Other pieces of my work still needed to be completed, so I was not able to upload them yet. In order to get all of this done, I sat done and made myself a plan in my notebook on when I was going to work on my assignments and when I was going to upload them to my efolio. I have always done a good job at managing my time. I find that if I make myself a plan it will not be as hard for me to complete all of my work. If i save everything until the last minutes I become stressed and flustered, so in order to avid this, I set myself a schedule and work to achieve my goals. 

Overall, creating this efolio helped me continue my time management skills, as well as, work with a new form of technology. I enjoyed using google sites and I believe it is a great tool to use in the classroom. I struggles to figure out how to use it at first, but after practice and dedication I was able to figure it out and reach my goals! 

Jigsaw time!

For the past two classes we have been working on a jigsaw project on the 6 different kingdoms. Each group was assigned 5/6 members and each student took on a kingdom. We each filled out a chart with our information for the topic. My kingdom was archeabacteria. I researched the definition, cell type, cell wall, nutrition, and other characteristics of this monera. 

Once we each filled out all of our information we split up into subcategories where we talked specifically about each of our topics, so I met with all the students who had the topic archeabacteria and eubacteria because they are both monera. After we got together and discussed our topics we created presentations using google slides on our topic. We included images and videos, as well as text to provide the information necessary to help our students understand the material. After creating the presentation we split up who was going to say what during the presentation. We made sure that everyone had an equal part to discuss. While the other kingdoms presented to the class we posted in the forum 3 positives and 1 wish as feedback for our peers. Feedback is a great way of learning how to improve your skills.

I have never participated in a jigsaw project before, so this experience was new to me! I had a great time while doing this and I believe it is a great way for students to collaborate with their peers to find information on a specific topic. I look forward to using this in my class one day!