Supporting Diverse Learners

The TEDx talk by Sir Ken Robinson addresses the question of whether the school system is destroying students ability to be creative. Children have huge capacities for innovation. "All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them." We take students who are able to do multiplication in 2nd grade and tell them to wait until fifth grade. We take the creativity that young children have and we do not give it a place in the school system. Students are meant to sit and recite with no influence on their own education. Another main speaking point that the speaker talked about was the inability for us to grasp the future. "The education is meant to take us into a future that we cant grasp" No one has an idea what the world will be like in five years time let alone twenty years and we as teachers are supposed to be educating them for this. How can this possibly be done? Who knows if the standards we teach will be meaningful to the students in that amount of time or if t...

As a preservice teacher, I know my educational philosophy. It has developed by witnessing excellent teachers and through studying what works. My philosophy has also been developed by witnessing and experiencing the affects of teachers showing me what not to do. An article on Edutopia by Ben Johnson and another article on ThoughtCo by Beth Lewis outline different questions that should be answered in a professional educational philosophy. The educational philosophy statement is often the deciding factor between getting an interview and having your application pushed aside. It is essential for preservice teachers to have time to develop their educational philosophies. The philosophies should be challenged by classroom discussion and not just discussed in surface level classes.  In the article by Ben Johnson, There is a caption that caught my attention. " Over the summer, teachers reflect on the year and often redesign and perfect their teaching strategies and plans. In essence...

"Blackkklansman" is a movie about a black policeman trying to work in the South during the time of the KKK. After the movie I stayed for a conversation about the movie. This was marketed to the students as something that would be beneficial to the class we were taking. The conversation was all about how the movie made people feel, lighting and  screenplay rather than application of the movie to educational topics. It was more designed for film students rather than perspective educators.  While the movie would be somewhat beneficial to high school history teachers, it wasn't a movie that would be allowed to be shown due to the rating of the movie. For myself as a science major, it did not aid in anyway to my educational career. I went into the showing of the movie expecting to have an in-depth conversation about education but instead was met with a completely different topic. As an educator it is my job to make sure I am choosing meaningful assignments and requirements f...

To use technology or not to use technology, that is the question. In a study done by S. Selcen Guzey and Gillian H. Roehrig, focused on how technology was used and under what situations it’s usage is beneficial. They used teachers of several different technology backgrounds and ran a study on which teachers were providing more effective technology usage in the classroom. The study concluded that teachers that have more advance understanding of technology are better able to integrate it into the classroom. That is sort of a no brainer but the study also emphasized that teachers who constantly reevaluate how they are using technology in the classroom are making better use of the technology. As an educator it is our job to constantly look at what we are doing and make sure it aligns with our students needs.  One thing that always drew me to the subject of science was the hands on nature of the subject. It required hands on learning in order to be able to completely understand th...

This article provides a list of ways for science teachers to bring invitation into the classroom in a safe and economical way. Some of the ideas that I want to focus on that I have not considered before are; Innovation day, Classroom gardens, Field Education, and Genius hour. Each of these ideas would fit best into a certain realm of science and may not fit so well in others. Innovation Day: This is designed to be a day for students to be innovative thinkers. Students will be able to spend the day exploring topics that interest them and creating something based off of the interest. In my classroom, it would be interesting to spend one day per unit to let students explore the unit more in depth. They can choose any part of it and explore. It may be possible that I have several labs set up (That aren't dangerous for students to explore with) and allow students to figure out how to solve the problem they have come up with. For example I could have heat of fusion labs set-up and I...

Part IV: Theory and The Big Picture The author of  "Letters to a Young Scientist" begins this section by saying that science is the only way to understand the universe in its entirety. Social sciences and humanities can aid science in explaining the world but it does not fully encompass the entirety of the universe. So many students see science as just a subject they need to pass to move onto their majors in English, history, or psychology. In reality science encompasses everything and even though the subject matter may not be used in an English major or something like that, the skills learned can be used anywhere. Science is about the creative process and divergent thinking. Wilson moves onto the next chapter by introducing the idea that scientist have to see blanks in the explanations we have for things. They have to be able to see what is not there. This is an essential skill for any job that requires problem solving. Even if my students do not master the topic of scie...

In Part III of “Letters To a Young Scientist”, the author Edward Wilson talks about his work with ants. Through all of the chapters in the section he returns to the work he did with ants but I pulled out several key topics that I think can relate to the classroom.  The first think that I want my students to understand is that their work should be distinguished. Meaning, that students should not be satisfied with being able to reiterate the ideas that I share with them. Students should look to apply and adapt the knowledge they have to make new observations. Wilson also mentioned that he was originally working in mediocrity. He was reclassifying and documenting ants in an area of the United States. It was not until he had a mentor who asked Wilson why he was classifying ants when there was so much more they did not know about them. Sometimes it is terrifying to work outside of a comfort zone but the zones need to be pushed, sometimes it take a teacher to give the little push. ...

Chapter four of Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson focuses on one question. What is Science? In the chapter Wilson poses the idea of how ants are able to recognize the dead bodies of the other ants and drag them out of the ant hill. How does an ant recognize their dead? Wilson talked about how observations are the basis for the science. He used the observation of ants removing the dead from the nests in order to pose the questions of why, and how do they know dead from alive? I will allow you to research the answer to this question rather than telling you. The point of this chapter that I feel is most meaningful and should be brought into the science classroom is the idea of using observations in order to come up with meaningful questions. “ Because science is the wellspring of modern civilization. It is not just “another way of knowing” to be equated with religion or transcendental meditation. It takes nothing away from the genius of humanities, including the creative...

In a state like Maine it isn't a difficult task to find an outdoor space to study is not a difficult task. Expansive Classrooms: Taking Learning Outside by Erin Nicolardi is an article that talks about the benefits of teaching outside and how to get started. Nicolardi lists some different ways to incorporate outside classes into subjects like heath or English but these ideas can be adapted to other subjects as well. One way to start thinking about learning outside is having one day a year where teachers bring their class outside. I love the idea of getting every subject outside for one or more block on that day of the year. This gives students something to look forward to over the course of the year. Some of the ideas that Nicolardi gave were; writing poetry outdoors, storytelling, or Earthkeeping. The ideas given work more in an English/ art class but working outside is essential in a science class. Science deals with the real world and with real world processes, so the best ...

Innovative thinking is an essential piece of science curriculum. In the article " The Science Classroom Makerspace " by Michael Ralph deals with the idea of working innovative thinking into the classroom. Although the article talks about how to incorporate it into a biology class it is equally important to incorporate into chemistry and physics. Ralph motioned about how there is no way to add in more to the current curriculum because of the time constraint and all of the standards that need to be met. The best way to handle innovative thinking is to work it into the normal curriculum. I think that this is an essential idea, students will understand the concepts more if they are allowed to discover them in their on. The author also spoke about how he couldn't just drop this onto students. Students most likely have not had experience with design processes or innovative thinking up until this point. Ralph said that he would provide some support. In my classroom I would start...