Monarch Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly, a photo by Tman89 on Flickr.

Welcome to Mrs. J's life science class!

Students came in this year, as they do every year, so excited. With brand new packages of pens and pencils, new notebooks and binders, students entered room 205. As they entered, my new students stopped to peer at the netted cylinder that stood on our front demonstration table. To them it looked like a laundry hamper with leaves at the bottom. “Are we composting?” “What’s in here?” “Hey! What’s on the top?” “Oh, cool!”

Curiosity does not always come easily in a classroom setting. Students tend to think that it is uncool to show interest in their school work. But it is essential to create an environment where students can be inquiring. So a few days before school was supposed to start I had gone out to local meadows to collect monarch butterfly caterpillars. We have 13. The caterpillars were fed with milkweed daily. They grew quickly and before a week had past several had climbed up the long expanse of netting in our butterfly habitat. Several have already formed into their smooth green chrysalis. It won’t be long now until our monarch butterflies emerge. Once the butterflies have stretched and dried their wings and are ready to fly we will tag them with special labels provided by Monarch Watch, an educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas. Once released, the monarchs will make their long migration toward Mexico. Scientists in Mexico will be collecting many of the butterflies and when they find some with labels this information will be recorded and entered into a monarch butterfly database.

So our year has started strong, with prepared and curious students. This week was all about students getting to know each other, their classroom and their textbook. On Wednesday night the assignment was to design a graph to display the data that we collected during the class student scavenger hunt. Some students knew what to do right away and some struggled. This assignment carried two objectives, first, to introduce my students to Johnson’s Rules for Graphing, second, it allowed me to see how they would handle a problem like this. I will design a lesson or two about graphing using what I learn from seeing how my students graph. At the end of the week students received their “Welcome” sheet and their textbook. Time was spent learning about how to use the textbook and then completing the first textbook assignments. Students will need to have their books covered and the “Welcome” sheet signed by next Tuesday, September 13.

Next week I will be introducing my students to our digital classroom. I will be asking each student to show his or her parents how to move through our class wiki and this blog. I would ask that a parent not request to become a member of the wiki although you can view it at any time. Please feel free to follow my blog. I will use this to communicate to parents and students by posting at least one time per week. You are welcome to post constructive or encouraging comments or ideas at any time.

My class page is linked to the school website. To access my school webpage from the MMS website please click on “Teams,” then click on “Grade 7.” Next, find my name and click on the mouse in the right column. This will bring you to my school webpage. From there you can connect to this class blog and the class wiki. You can access this blog by clicking on the blue blog button on my school webpage and you can access the class wiki by clicking on the blue Link button and then choosing the first link.

Thanks for checking in to my class blog. I’m looking forward to an exciting year of science and discovery!

Final reflection

My final reflection marks a new beginning.

In my initial post I stated that, "Although I am on a slow learning curve with technology I am encouraged. Appropriate use of technology in the classroom has the potential to open many doors to learning. Once the "overhead" is dealt with there is incredible potential for differentiation, collaboration and creativity during inquiry and problem-solving activities. Through this course I look forward to exploring the possibilities that technology offers for not only my student's learning but my own."

Actually, I wasn't encouraged. I wanted to drop the class. I was overwhelmed and the course wiki drove me crazy. I couldn't figure out where the assignments were posted, I couldn't figure out how and where to post a comment (just scroll down, silly), and my laptop had just crapped out(sorry for the slang). To make matters worse, whenever I tried to post on someone's blog I lost it.

Well, I'm still a digital immigrant but I'm learning this new language and I'm adopting the culture. I am pleased with what I have learned but very aware of my status as the new kid on the block. I can't wait to initiate my wiki this year and I pray that I will be able to push through the challenges. I hope that my vision will be embraced by many students. Perhaps there will be a handful of kids for whom this opens a door for success and confidence. In any event I have emerged successfully. I am very thankful to my classmates for their encouraging comments, help in times of trouble, and above all, their inspiring ideas. Thanks also to Eric for setting things up in a way that facilitates individual growth with lots of group support.

Good luck all and God Bless.

Week 6 Reflection

I think I'm finally getting it. I'm beginning to overcome some of my techno-fear. But its a long time before I will be techno-savvy. I'm posting the Jing video of my wiki even though it needs serious resizing. I was up until 2am last night trying to figure out just how to resize so that the video fits within my blog. I remember some discussion as to how this is done but as I try to solve this problem I feel like I'm going around in circles. I would love some suggestions!

But in setting up this wiki I explored some things in greater detail and I was able to actually include them in a reasonable manner. Here are some things that I was able to use... and I hope I used them well.

1.) I used the Creative Commons Search to find a good picture of duckweed.

2.) I learned how to use SurveyMonkey (so easy) and was able to link an introductory student survey onto my wiki. I will use this to identify students who may have technology challenges.

3.) I was able to use Jing to showcase and provide an explanation of the pages on my wiki. Unfortunately I have no idea how to resize. I do not have JingPro.

4.) I have started to be able to clarify how I can effectively use this wiki in my classroom. I am starting to see how I will be able to manage all 125 students who potentially may use this wiki.

To me, this is sweet success. It's hard to pull myself away from my computer now because things are so much easier for me than they were six weeks ago. How cool is that?! Anyway, my final project is not fully done but I've made some major headway.

I've got to go BLAST some genetic sequence data for the Yellowstone Lake Ecology class final project. I'll return to this later...

Week 5: Tools Exploration

My big focus this week was to clean up, decorate and streamline my blog.  I've also linked my blog to my class webpage.  I've also played with the set up of a wiki but, as usual, I have a very slow learning curve so I will need to spend a lot more time with it in the coming days. Unfortunately I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to post comments on the blogs of my classmates.  Occasionally I am successful but more often than not I am not successful and I still don't know why.  I would love some suggestions!

Eeny, meeny, miney, moe...

It seems to me that blogs and wikis are potentially powerful classroom tools.  I want to incorporate one or the other but which one?  According to Eric’s article, wikis “are easy to use, accessible, and allow students to collaborate on projects both in and outside of class.”  Ohhh, I like that.  I also like the potential of inviting experts to collaborate with my students – how cool is that?!  On the other hand, I have struggled to navigate the wiki for our webtools class.  Perhaps a wiki is too complicated for me.  Perhaps it is something I need to grow into.

A blog, as Eric states, is “more straightforward.”  A classroom blog can be an effective tool for parent communication.  It can be a good place to spark a conversation and it can facilitate pre-learning of challenging topics.  I don’t see that I could successfully monitor individual blogs for each of my 120-125 students so mine would be a single classroom blog where I would post current events, project descriptions, summaries of course content, or maybe simple discussion prompts.  Then my students could respond directly in the comments.  The blog seems to be easier to manage but it doesn’t seem to be as versatile as the wiki.

Both blogs and wikis allow participation from a student that is without the pressure that’s found in the classroom setting. A student can research information for his/her responses. A student can write out a response and rewrite until he/she is comfortable with what’s been said and how it’s been stated.  Also, these are great tools for ELLs and provide the provide opportunity for differentiation.

I’m not totally sure which I will develop.  I’m leaning toward wikis… what I view as the larger challenge with the best potential results.  I think I’ll decide tomorrow….

Using online data to generate an argument.

Webtools 2.0 assignment: Generating an Argument (Sampson and Grooms, 2010)

Which River in Connecticut is the Healthiest? 

           As indicated in the introduction to the Project Search Student Water Quality Testing Manual, the quality of Connecticut’s rivers and streams has greatly improved following the passage of the Connecticut Clean Water Act of 1967 and other related legislation.  But just how clean is the water and which river in Connecticut is the healthiest?  This will be the focus of a student assignment that is based upon the Sampson and Grooms instructional model, Generating an Argument.  At this point in the year students will have studied the local watershed and they will have completed a full water quality analysis of a local river.  The analysis includes physical, chemical, and biological parameters.  

          For this activity students will be divided into small groups.  All students will be presented with the same question to answer.

Task 

Which river in Connecticut is the healthiest?  
          Access the Project Search data webpage http://www.projectsearch.org/downloads.htm. Scroll down to the water quality summary reports.  Examine the data.

Generate an argument 

What does the data say to you? 
          Examine all the data.  Find a data set that reveals a healthy river or stream.   Compare the data from this stream with the others. Make a decision.  Which stream/river is the healthiest.  Use data to support your decision.

Produce a poster 

Use Glogster or a digital method of your own (approved) choice to create a poster that shares your decision.              The poster should include the following:

• The question clearly stated. 
• Your group decision.
• The evidence/data/rationale that clearly supports your group decision.
• The name of each group member.

Examine and compare the arguments of others.

To share your work with others, we will be using a round-robin format. This means that one member of the group stays at your work station to share your groups’ ideas while the other group members go to the other groups, one at a time, to listen to and critique the explanations developed by your classmates.

Remember, as you critique the work of others, you have to decide whether their

conclusions are valid or acceptable based the quality of their explanation and how well they are able to support their ideas. In other words, you need to determine if their argument is persuasive and convincing.

• Is their explanation sufficient (i.e., it explains everything it needs to) and coherent (i.e., it is free from contradictions)?
• Did they use genuine evidence (i.e., They organized their data in a way that shows a trendover time, a relationship between variables, or a difference between groups)?
• Did they use enough evidence to support their ideas (i.e., They used more than one piece of               evidence and all their ideas are supported by evidence)?
• Is there any evidence that does not support their explanation?
• How well does their explanation fit with other theories and laws that are used in science toexplain or describe how the world works?
• Is their rationale adequate (i.e., They explain why the evidence was used and why it supports the       explanation)?
• Is their reasoning appropriate (rational and sound)?

Write to learn

            After the round robin poster session return to your group.  Share what you learned and then participate in the whole class discussion.  Finally, write a persuasive and convincing argument based upon the question, Which River in Connecticut is the Healthiest? Be sure to include the following:

A.  Restate the question. 
B.  Indicate what qualities you used to compare the health of the rivers. 
C.  What is your decision?  
            1.) Explain your reasons. 
            2.) Include supportive data. 
D. Pay attention to the 6 traits of good writing.  Focus on the following traits:  word choice;                     voice(scientific); conventions.

Sources

Sampson, V. and J. Grooms. 2010. Generate an argument. The Science Teacher 77 (5): 32-37.

Project Search:  http://www.projectsearch.org/download.htm

Week 4 Reflection - better late than never!

Using Online Data

Students like to sound knowledgeable and so they often make statements based upon things they have heard their parents, or sometimes a favorite teacher, say.  Continually I ask my students, “How do you know?” or, “…based on what data?”  When I ask them to form conclusions after a lab investigation I always require them to use data to back up or support their statements.  But it seems that no matter how often, or how I say it, a high percentage of my students fail to provide adequate data to support their conclusions.  They just don’t seem to understand that their opinions hold no value without the data to support them.  While reading chapter 6 in our text I realized that what my students really need is practice in this area.  I don’t usually give them the practice they need because data collection is time consuming and labor intensive.  However, as our text points out “the internet provides immediate access to numerous data sets.”  Existing online data sets allow students to “explore phenomena beyond their classroom and school settings.”  I’m in!  The task now is to organize my lessons using best practices to make the work more user  friendly and effective at the middle school level.

Generate an argument 

The Sampson and Grooms article describes the relevance of, and methods for,  assignments that “generate an argument.”   While I want to develop lessons based upon this model, I see several challenges as described below:  

1.)    I teach grade 7.  These can be curious and capable folks but they often have no sense of how little they actually know.  I will need to insure that my students have, or have the ability to develop, adequate background knowledge in the area of study.

2.)    There is a lot of data out there.  I need to find ways to isolate and restrict the data bases my students will use.

3.)    I need to find a relevant argument that engages these young minds.

I really like how the model includes group cooperative work that could easily incorporate the creation of a digital presentation.  I like how the members of each group then need to share and defend their conclusions.  But then each student must provide an additional written piece to summarize their argument and provide the reasoning behind their conclusions.  This represents a great combination of learning activities.  I look forward to seeing how my classmates develop this lesson.

Yellowstone BioBlitz!

This is an experiment. For the course, Yellowstone Lake Ecology, I need to develop a lesson plan or digital presentation that somehow connects to at least one of three YouTube videos. So I'm actually just playing around to see if I can embed one of the videos in my blog.  If it works I will continue on to completely develop my blog post. If it doesn't, well, I'll just keep at it.  Whether the video embeds or not I would really appreciate any and all suggestions as to how to embed a video successfully and effectively. I did try JING since I think that I am fairly comfortable with that tool. Unfortunately the file is very large and it did not load easily from JING.

Please send your suggestions my way.

Slowly moving forward

I am slowly moving forward.  This week I was finally able to purchase my new laptop (since the mother board of the old one crashed) and so I was able to do some exploring. This summarizes the things I have finally been able to work on.

Media Analysis

This was something that everyone else looked at last week.  I had fun sharing the videos with my 2 college age kids.  Since they were brought up to be skeptical of what they see on TV they had a lot of fun discussing with me the kinds of comments that their classmates might have made while viewing these videos.

It was easy for my own children to be skeptical of the videos but I wonder about the students that I teach.  First of all, my student's background knowledge in these areas is extremely limited.  Also, they are raised NOT to question. So using a video like this would be a very valuable tool to encourage a more skeptical approach to material that is presented through the internet. I like the 4 D's approach that was described in Brunsell's article, "Teaching Kids to Think 2." It would be good to begin a school year with an activity such as this.

Delicious

I was able to set up a Delicious account.  I really love this concept as I, like Linda, tend to find websites when I am working at home and then I need to email them to myself.  But even better will be the opportunity for sharing websites with my students and with my colleagues.  Unfortunately I do not really have any bookmarks yet as I am working on a brand new computer and have not yet collected new bookmarks.

Voicethread

What a cool  way to collaborate!  I have not yet worked with voicethread enough to create something to share but I love the concept for collaborative work in digital storytelling.  I think that I will encourage students who already have used this tool to use this as part of a multimedia project assignment.

Twitter

I continue to struggle with Twitter.

Google Reader

I love using Google Reader it really helps me to be more efficient in reading many new blog posts.  I have yet to subscribe to everyone's blog but I'm getting there.


So that's where I am - moving forward, a bit behind, but finally, I'm moving forward.  This week I head to MSU for the Yellowstone Lake Ecology course.  I hope I'm able to spend many quality evening hours gaining and developing my skills.

Science & Literacy

In her article, Science & Literacy, author Marlene Thier identifies three strategies that help form the structure of support that students need if they are to be successful learners.  She states that "students need a compelling reason to read, write, listen, and speak, and meaningful science content offers that reason."  She points out that students need to be exposed to science-related issues that are relevant to their lives.  I agree with the author but, as a teacher of middle school students, I find that one of my biggest challenges is in convincing my students that authentic issues affect their lives.  This year in the closing reflection of an ecology unit, students were asked which assignment were the least valuable.  The predominant choice was one in which human impacts on the Long Island Sound watershed were discussed.  I did not test my students on this reading.  This is why my students thought that it was not valuable.  They "didn't need it" to be successful in my class.  Perhaps I did not do well to connect the reading to their lives.  Perhaps I did not develop and present clear performance expectations to help them direct the focus of their learning.

On the other hand, perhaps I did not help my students to develop effective strategies for reading the article.  In her article Thier demonstrated a technique that encourages students to develop strong and independent reading skills.  By making notations throughout the reading and by writing questions, notes and summaries, a student becomes personally involved with the reading.  While I did introduce a reading strategy with this assignment I do not feel that it was specific enough to be effective.

The third strategy that Thier describes involves metacognition, or, the ability and tendancy of a student to think about his or her own thinking.  While writing a summary of the Long Island Sound article I wanted my students to question their own understanding of the content and its application to their lives.  My lesson fell short.  My students were unable to target what they did and did not understand.  I like the author's suggestion to include group problem solving methods with direct prompts to direct their thinking.

Teaching literacy to support inquiry-based learning is a bit of an art.  This article was relevant for me because the strategies that were described are similar to techniques I use but they are more detailed and specific.  The school year has just ended but I have made my notations to use these techniques next year as I try to reshape how I help my students to develop their literacy skills.

Guiding Principles

I'm sure this is a work in progress.  Currently I use computer technology to do "old things in old ways" and "old things in new ways."  I am clumsy in my methods and understanding.  I have visions as to what I would like to do but, as of now, I have no idea how to get there. 

Already the organization of this class is throwing me off.  Do I go to the pbworks page? If so, where do I look?  Why are there comments and posts everywhere?  How do I go from a variety of blogs, to the class website, to the online readings, to trying out the webtools?  How the heck do I Tweet!! Arrrrgggghhhh!  I have so much to learn.  I'm sure it will all be better once school is not in session, we are not yet done… sigh.

That said - and I feel much better now that I have vented - I will begin the rough draft of my Guiding Principles.  This post is quite overdue but I just somehow missed the assignment on the Week One page.

Current technology usage:

J      I have a very simple webpage. On my webpage I post my class assignments.  I include files for project descriptions, rubrics, lab report templates and the like.  I have internet links and a calendar posted. 

J      I utilize some Smartboard and PowerPoint presentations.

J      I utilize some YouTube videos.

J      I utilize online assignments from resources such as http://www.sciencespot.net/.

J      I have my students organize some of their data on Excel spreadsheets.

J      My students produce and save some project assignments in class folders that are located and available only on our school computer system.

I've taken this class because I see more possibilities but, as I've said above, I don't know how to get there.  In any event, the technology that I incorporate for classroom usage must:

ü      Be accessible to all students.

ü      Encourage student to explore beyond the realm that is available in our school.

ü      Allow for differentiated learning.

ü      Encourage collaboration locally and globally.

ü      Enhance inquiry learning.

That's all for now.  Please bear with me as I come to the end of my school year.  My dad is sick too so I'm doing a bit of juggling.  Things will even out soon… I hope.

Setting the Stage

I bought my first computer in 1983.  It was a Commodore 64 - cutting edge.  It came with no software.  I had to write my own programs.  I played with it a little but mostly it sat alone in the corner of my bedroom.  I didn't have the skills needed to fully utilize my new computer.  

Flash forward. In the late 1990's the school in which I worked implemented a phone program that allowed students to call a number and they could access the night's homework - this was cutting edge technology.

Flash forward.  It is the year 2011.  I am a digital immigrant; my students are digital natives.  My students are adept at playing a variety of computer games, they easily access digital videos, they take and send photos with their cell phones, and they enjoy social networking.  But ask my students to independently access a file from my webpage and they are dumbfounded. 

In chapter 10 of the course text, Educational Technology in the Science Classroom, the author cites Pew Foundation studies where "the authors conclude that there is a 'digital disconnect' between limited use of technology in schools and extensive use of technology by students to complete academic work outside of school." This is not consistent with my observations. I see that my students more often than not are challenged to use the simple technologies that I incorporate in my classroom. As a result, while "the ultimate goal is to enhance student learning" I see that most of my endeavors to incorporate technology involve a high level of "instructional overhead" which limits our accomplishment.  Students do not at this time see the connection between the technology that so easily engages them in their free time and the investigations they are asked to conduct in the academic setting.

In a school where high stakes testing is the common practice my students have been trained to provide rote answers and to follow set procedures for solving problems (as in the "scientific method").  As I see it, in science education, the first challenge is to convince students that their technological savvy is transferable and applicable to their academic work. We need to have courses devoted to teaching technology methods so that the instructional overhead in a content area course is reduced. Then we need to convince our students of the value of the true inquiry investigation.  This would bring us to using technology to create new and different learning experiences as described in the article: "Evaluating Technology Use in the Classroom." 

Although I am on a slow learning curve with technology I am encouraged.  Appropriate use of technology in the classroom has the potential to open many doors to learning.  Once the "overhead" is dealt with there is incredible potential for differentiation, collaboration and creativity during inquiry and problem-solving activities. Through this course I look forward to exploring the possibilities that technology offers for not only my student's learning but my own.

Introduction

Hello! 
My friends call me Su and my kid's friends call me momma j.  I live with Allan, my husband of 25 years, 2 cats and a female dog named Rufus.  I have 2 college age children, Ian and Jessi, who live with us during the college summer session.  One of my favorite things to do is listen to Allan, Ian and Jessi perform in their band called the Ragamuffins.  When I'm not listening to the Ragamuffins I prefer to hike with Rufus along my favorite local river.

I have taught high school chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology, and marine biology.  Currently I teach middle school life science.  We participate in the Trout Unlimited program, Trout in the Classroom, and we look for every opportunity to have class outside!