Keeping Unit Plans engaging and organized!

Unit Planning!

When preparing a unit plan, you have to remember many steps to make sure it is accurate and organized. Unit plans generally consist of multiple lessons. The first lesson being taught should be a Direct Instruction lesson which introduces the topic being taught to the students. The following lessons should be more inquiry based. In this case, give the students problems to solve so they can test their knowledge on the topic. Finally, the last lesson should be a cooperative lesson. This type of lesson should be fun for students. Students can break up into groups and take what they learned turning it into engaging games. These games can also keep the students learning!

While completing a Unit plan make sure to include a rationale or overview of what you are teaching. Include an audience as in who you will be teaching the lesson to. Then, include a development section breaking down how you will teach the lesson. This part should include various different ways of how you will teach the lesson such as giving a powerpoint, guided practice, engaging game, etc. Then, include a post test part to check to see if the students understood. Always test the students knowledge. While forming a unit plan, be sure to follow the state standards given as it will help you with planning a lesson. Unit planning is a lot of work but also very fun when you are organized about it! 

Finals, Finals, and more finals! Why Stress?

It is that time of the year again when everyone is ready to break down and sleep for days! Finals time! I want to provide some advice and small things I have learned this semester that helped me. One of the main things I have learned throughout my Science Methods course was to not stress and pace out your work! Much of our work was scattered out but all due at the end of the semester. In a case like this, why wait till last minute to complete? I tried my best to keep up with the work pace and get all of my work done when it was given. This had helped me a lot due to the fact that I did not have much to worry about during the end of my semester which is now. I completed most of my live binders portfolio a few weeks back and now I have time to sit down and fix it up to make it the best I possibly can! I have time to study for other classes as well because most of my work is complete. During my time in the Science Methods course, I learned to stay organized and get things done. The professor has showed my colleagues and myself different tools to stay organized. Some tools included the live binders portfolio which had included all of our work throughout the course with descriptions on how we completed it. Also, we used google docs to save much of our files in a folder made for just this course. This course helped me get prepared and organized and definitely left me less stressed out this time of year! 

Presenting Skills

Presenting can be challenging for many individuals. As for others, it can come very naturally. For me, I used to dread presenting. My anxiety would sky rocket and I would get so numb. I disliked everything about presenting especially talking in front of a large class. No matter how comfortable I was with the class, I was still so nervous to present. During my Science Methods course, we completed many different activities that we would have to present. I feel as I had gone through different courses in college, I have presented more and more. I still get extremely nervous to present as it comes natural. After my science methods course, I have felt more confident in presenting and public speaking. Receiving various feedback whether positive or negative helps a tremendous amount. In this course, the professor has the students comment three pluses and a wish after the presenter is finished. This helped as well so I could see what I may be strong in and what may need work. To this day, I still get nervous presenting but I feel better and stronger after taking this course.

Trade Book Activity

Today in my Science Methods course, we had to present our Trade Book activity. I had chosen a trade book that had tied in with the science course and what we had learned. I had created a Book Trailer to present to my colleagues. The trailer I included was on an animoto. I created an animoto about the book and some essential facts that had occurred. This video included sound to keep the students engaged. After the video, I discussed the book and what I would do with it when I am a teacher. Some things I discusses included:

- What projects I may do with this book topic.
- How I would introduce it to the students.
- What students would find interesting in the book.
- What age group this book is best for.
- Important parts of the book.

For projects, I would allow students to create their own posters of a food chain and food web. Looking through the different examples in the trade book, the students would have to pick examples they would make on their poster project. I would introduce the book to students in a way that will keep them engaged and focused. I would show them different pictures and discuss the facts. The students might find the images in the book interesting as well as the facts about the different animals eating other plants or animals. This book would be best for a fourth or fifth grade class. 

Newsela and the various articles included.

After participating in the Science Methods course I have learned about multiple sources online in which I can make different presentation with. For my most recent presentation, I used an online timeline called "TimeToast". Here, I used different articles about my chosen topic and broken them down onto the timeline. My topic was the Spitzer Space Telescope. One of the most used sources I used throughout this course especially for this project was the website called "Newsela". On Newsela, we chose various essential articles that tied in with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Some of the articles included how the telescope found the smallest star as well as finding gas giants. This telescope was said to be one of the first infrared telescopes going into space and finding different objects.

The photo above is the actual Spitzer Telescope. It is in Space surrounded by various stars and seeing what is within a star and the different gas giants. This telescope had its first launch in the year of 2003.

Teaching Earth and Space Science.

WEATHER

Today, my group and I presented our project on weather to our colleagues. In our presentation, we included the different forms of weather such as; Rain, Snow, Freezing Rain, Clouds, Fog, Sun and more! Weather has a big impact on our Earth. Much of the climate and weather is detected by our Sun. The sun is seen as the biggest star in our solar system! As close as the sun gets to the Earth, the warmer Earth will be which is generally known as the season of Summer. While the Earth is pointed towards the Sun, that will then detect night and day. Pretty interesting! Rain forms in cloud as evaporation and condensation come into play. They form in the clouds and become heavy leading it to hit Earth making rain. When temperatures are at freezing, the rain then turns into freezing rain leaving everything to ice. That is why ice is also known as freezing rain. Snow is rain except snow occurs when temperatures are freezing and it forms little ice crystals that fall to Earth in different shapes.

SPACE

Along with Weather, we also focused on space and our solar system. I was assigned the planet called Uranus. Named after the father of the Roman God, Saturn. Uranus is the 3rd largest planet as well as the 7th planet of the Solar System. Named after the father of the Roman God, Saturn. Uranus is the 3rd largest planet as well as the 7th planet of the Solar System.  First discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel. Herschel had believed it was a comet but later discovered the planet. Turns on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 minutes and one trip around the sun every 84 years. Referred to as the “ice giant”. Uranus is one of the largest gas giants with mostly helium and hydrogen inside. Two sets of rings are included as well as one of the coldest temperatures going at -224 degrees Celsius. The two rings were formed when Uranus's moons were broken up. Only one spacecraft has flown to Uranus in 1986.

My Professional Portfolio

A professional portfolio is essential while studying Education. The portfolio holds all of the activities I had completed throughout the Science course. In a way, the portfolio keeps me organized and sorts my work to show my accomplishments. A professional portfolio contains many different parts that have to be filled. These parts consist of the unit plan and topic. Along with that comes the completed lessons I had created with the group evaluations. My scientific me project was also completed and attached to the portfolio along with my science fair project. These two projects show my knowledge about science and what I previously knew or studied to help me with my current knowledge on science. Also included in the portfolio are different parts that include resources I may have used along with pictures and videos of me while teaching. This is to show the reader and viewers exactly what was done so they can see for themselves. An essential part of the portfolio is my resume. This portfolio can be used for jobs I may be interested in as people can see what I have accomplished and have my resume right there to look at as well. A portfolio is a lot of work but also engaging at the same time. This is a learning experience!