Fantastic day...again...does anything go wrong in Oz?

04/18/2012

0 Comments

 
What a day!  I just want to quickly write about my day before I head to bed early...I'm exhausted and looking forward to the weekend!  Tomorrow, I only have "Animal Inside" and will have a lot of other things to do, including some grading, and coming up with a few lessons for next week!  I want to leave BSC with a bang, and don't want to just coast these next few days.  Only 6 more days of teaching left (I have off next Wednesday for ANZAC Day).  I will have experienced two of the most important Australian holidays before leaving in a week and a half- Australia Day and ANZAC Day.

Today, I arrived at school a little anxious and nervous, since I would be observed during both of my lessons.  During period one I made some photocopies and went through the investigation that the year 11s would be doing during period three; I wanted to make sure the lesson would be flawless!

I met Rod over at the science center before starting "Bones" class.  The lesson went really well and I received some great feedback!  Rod spoke with a few of the students to see what they thought of me. The students with whom he spoke with indicated that they "enjoy my teaching style and find my questioning challenging and insightful!"  I was quite pleased with this feedback from the students.  

Before period three, I had some time to set up for the stomata investigation that the year 11s would be doing.  Making sure all of the equipment was available, I felt confident that the students would get a lot out of the lesson. I was right- the students were extremely engaged and enjoyed the lesson!  At the end of the lesson, I had a discussion with Rod regarding the lesson.  His feedback regarding all of his observations made the hard work over the past three months that much more rewarding.

I am very fortunate to work in an environment where student can thrive, as all of their learning styles are being catered to.  When I move home to find a job, I am antsy to see if I find any science classrooms that hold up to the standards they have here at BSC.  I hope I do!

I am off to bed tonight feeling like a true Australian- content with life and optimistic for the future!
Add Comment
 

A WEEBLY project observation, an assemblage, Mary Kate working hard, and a little rain

03/21/2012

0 Comments

 
One observation down, one to go!

Another day of beautiful weather and sun in East Gippsland!  Well, at least until it started raining for an hour or so in the late afternoon, but who’s keeping track?  I have almost come to expect rain when the mornings are like the one that I had today – sunny and warm.

Today was the big day!  Rod came to BSC to observe my lesson today for my period two “Bones” class.  During the observation, the students were working on their final project.  I introduced the final project earlier this week, and the students seem to really enjoy working on it so far!  I’m glad their optimism carried over into today’s day of work.

Basically, the students in “Bones” are to build a website using weebly.com to show their understanding of a particular bone that was assigned to them.  On Monday, I went around the room with 25 bone names in my hat and asked each student to pick a name.  I thought it was the fairest thing to do!  The students were given a tutorial on Monday on how to use the Weebly editor to build their website.  Since I am very familiar with Weebly (I use it just about everyday to write in my blogs), I was able to help the students with some of the basics.

Today, I really wanted the students to work on their projects, using all the time to their advantage to complete as much as they could.  I also wanted to go over paraphrasing with them and how to put someone else’s information into their own words.  The students did really well with the small activity that I had planned to gauge their understanding of how to turn research into their own work.  The students were really engaged on the netbooks and were extremely eager to find out more, not only about their bones, but also how to use Weebly technology to create the best site possibly; I need to come up with more projects like this one!  The sites are starting to come together and are really turning out well!

Eventually, when students start finishing up their sites, I will have them working together to build the main site that will link all of the sites together so there is a main interface that allows the students to see everyone else’s work.  I am also looking into having the students use links in their own web pages to other students’ sites, especially if there is a connection between the bones or another student’s bone is mentioned.  I am pumped to see the final products!

After period two, I met with Rod, Linda, and Pam to go over a few things, and then made my way to year 11 biology class.  Unfortunately, the students had an assembly today and were not going to be in class for too long.  I have such a great time teaching that group of students!  The assembly, in the main gym, was devoted to giving awards to the many leaders in the school who have showed leadership not only in the school, but also in the community.  The East Gippland representative in the Victorian Parliament, Tim Bull, was even there to give awards to students; I was very impressed with the whole assemblage!

After arriving home today on the bike, I hopped on the computer and skyped with Mary Kate, who was diligently studying for an exam that she has tomorrow; I wasn’t too surprised that she was up late making sure she had covered every last detail.  Best of luck to her!

I’m really hoping tomorrow brings good weather and no rain!  I was pretty sad that I wasn’t able to ride the bike today after coming home due to the rain, so I’ll just have to make up for it in the coming days!

Add Comment