This Week - What's the Chance Activity

This week my students in both my 7th and 8th grade science classes completed an independent activity that focused on probability and heredity. It was one of their first truly independent activities in science from the lab outline to what information to include in their background information to completing the lab and answering the follow-up questions in full detail. I continue to find it interesting observing the two different groups of students and how differently they approach the activity. The 7th graders continue to need help and support and have numerous questions for me. The smallest thing that they are confused about causes them to come to an almost halt until they receive some help and assistance from me. My 8th graders are the complete opposite. They are very independent students and are able to just take directions and make their own plan. They very rarely ask questions. All of my 8th graders seemed very engaged in this activity. I found that it was a good balance between the amount of work that they had to do and the amount of active activity they were able to do. It kept all of them on task. My 7th graders for the most part stayed on task but they definitely needed more guidance from me and more assistance to keep the process going. I could tell that all of my students enjoyed this activity which took us a few days from start to finish because each day they came in to class and got started right away. They didn't need motivation from me. This is exactly what I want to see when my students are completing activities in class. They were engaged and focused on the tasks at hand.

Update for the Week

This past week I was able to do different activities with my 7th and 8th grade science students where they were actively involved in their learning. Right now we are studying cell division. The students learned about cell organelles in the first chapter and this second chapter focuses on different cell processes. When the students were learning about cells in the first chapter they were able to use microscopes to observe different types of cells (onion root tip cells, cork cells and animal cells). This week the students looked again at the the onion root tip cells and this time they were looking for different types of cells. The different types of cells that they would see would show that the cells were going though cell division but that the cells were at different parts (different stages of mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase). This was an inquiry based activity because the students were not given specific instructions and guidance from me to walk them through the activity. They were instructed to find different types of cells within the onion root tip and relate those different types of cells to what they know about the stages of mitosis. Many students enjoyed the challenge of this activity while others struggled with not knowing what exactly they should be looking for and be seeing through their microscope. It was really neat for me to see those students that worked really hard at finding the different types of cells and how they worked together with their group members. It was also cool for me to see when they were successful in finding the different types of cells and how much they were talking about the different phases that they saw and how cool they thought it was.

Update for this past week

I am finding that with some of my groups of students I am feeling success with the new ideas and they seem to be buying in to what we are trying to accomplish. However, with another group of students, I don't feel like I am finding any success. I continue to battle a lot of classroom management issues with this group of students. They are known as "that" class and I work hard to do a lot of positive things with them but it gets hard with some of the blatant disrespect. I have not made the same amount of progress with this group as with the other group and I am finding that it is harder on me when there are groups at so many different points throughout the process. I lose my train of thought, miss something to discuss with a particular group. I am wondering if I should decide to exclude this group from my data collecting. I will still implement some of the same ideas but not be so tied to my exact plan. This may help my overall feel of how everything is going and I may feel more successful with the progress I have made so far. Definitely things to think about over the weekend and to think about over the long MEA break.

Update for the past two weeks

As a result of MAP testing the past two weeks, I have lost a total of 4 preps each week. I only get one prep per day and to lose that prep and even had lunch duties some of those days. As a result of the lost prep time I found it more difficult to stay on top of my schedule set a few weeks ago. I felt like I was in constant catch-up mode and it was difficult to introduce new ideas to my students. My hope is that this upcoming week with a more normal schedule will get me back on track. I'll keep you posted.

Update for the week

This week the students were introduced to the 5 E lab format that we will be completing for upcoming labs and science classroom activities. The students seemed to understand the 5 E's and came up with some interesting and unique ways to understand what each E meant and how we could incorporate them into our science activities and labs. I am pleased with their understanding so far but I am a little worried about their understanding when it comes actually incorporating the ideas into each lab. For my 7th and 8th graders this week the activities were structured around parts of a cell and the structures in a cell. Students worked in groups to create a gelatin cell model where they had to come up with different craft/home/food supplies to use for their organelles. They also had to create a key and write a paper that described the function of each organelle and their rationale for why they chose those specific objects/items. Overall this was an activity where students stayed very engaged and worked hard to complete their tasks. There were some issues with specific students participating with their group, sharing the amount of work in a group and with the items that were brought in (ie: students who brought candy in thought they should be able to eat the extra candy).

Next week I look forward to introducing the first activity using the 5 E format and incorporating the 5 E format into other facets of our curriculum as well as daily activities. I will continue to watch to see student engagement and the ways that I can increase student engagement.

The Students are Noticing!

My students are already noticing changes in the classroom this year. We spent more time discussing expectations, playing getting acquainted activities and catching up than last year. It feels like a calmer start to the school year. I can tell that students are taking more ownership of the rules and expectations and from that comes more hands-on learning. There have also been changes in our science curriculum this year. We purchased a science curriculum titled "Interactive Science" where instead of textbooks the students have workbooks. They can write, highlight and take notes right in their book. They are also enjoying the variety of mini-labs and activities that have are connected to this curriculum. I can see and feel their enthusiasm for science and I am hopeful this will continue for the year!

AR Question and Action

I am exploring the world of action research and through my action research I will be focusing on the question "How does a shift from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom increase student engagement in the middle school science classroom?"

 In order to answer this question I have planned to integrate a five part plan into my daily science curriculum with the focus being on labs and experiments. The five parts include: engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and extension and evaluation. These five parts will be the outline for the labs and activities completed in the science classroom. Students will learn about the five parts and will set-up and complete their labs using these five components. It is my hope through these five steps that students will be more engaged in their science learning and will feel that their classroom is student-centered.

Day 1

Welcome to my blog! 

This is a new experience for me since I've never had a blog before. I follow blogs of a few friends and family but have never started one myself. I am a little apprehensive about having all of my ideas and opinions out on display but I'm willing to give it a shot. I am hopeful that this blog will be a place where I can post the process of my action research and ideas for my classroom.