Student's Confidence

As future teachers, we want our students to be comfortable and confident in our ability. We want our students to have faith in our abilities. Gaining students confidence will only help build up our personal confidence as teachers. 

There are many different ways in which we can help students establish confidence within us. To start off, we must be consistent, and aware of any prejudice or bias you might have in yourself. Students need to see that you have organization and you value yourself as a person. Along with this, teachers must be approachable and available. We can do this by giving students times and telephone numbers or places for further assistance. Get to know your students and make sure they understand you, too, are human! 

I found a particular website that did a great job of breaking down the ways in which you can help students build their confidence in you. 

I am going to list here some of the great examples they give!

Click here for the link!

1. Do not criticize or complain.
2. Give honest, sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager desire to know you.
4. Become genuinely interested in people. 
5. Smile.
6. Remember that a person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important word in any language.
7. Be a good listener; encourage people to talk about themselves.
8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
9. Make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.

All of these things will enable students to put more trust in your abilities. They want and need to feel comfortable around you. When this comfort level has been developed they will then be able to focus more readily on the content being covered in class! 

Building confidence in your students is a GREAT way to build confidence in yourself!

Presentation of Content

Along with presenting yourself in a positive way to your students, It is also extremely important to have unique and successful ways in which you present the content you are wanting to teach. I find presentation of content to be extremely important, because all students learn in their own particular way so the way we present content must be adaptable to every students needs. We want our students to be successful and having productive ways in which to present content will only heighten your students success. Helping your students succeed will in turn boost your confidence in your ability to teach

I know I have posted about differentiation a couple weeks ago but I find it to be important topic!

I wanted to focus more this time on just the presentation of the content and how it can be changed to meet all learners needs.

I found a great slide show presentation of interesting ideas of how to change up the presentation of the content!
Click here to check out this slide show!

Along with great differentiation techniques, the slide show gives great advice about how to go about advocating differentiation in the school you work at.
Some simple ideas to spread the importance of differentiation are getting your committed staff involved! Start simple and work your way to more complex differentiation and lastly help others to be willing to try  new things out! The techniques can always be altered or extended down the road!

Discovering Student Misconceptions

I continued my research this week on misconceptions in science. My focus was on how a teacher could determine if students have any misconceptions and how to address them.

There are many activities that teachers can do to figure out if their students have misconceptions. One thing a teacher can do is have the students complete some sort of assessment. It is absolutely necessary to understand what the students know (or in this case, what incorrect knowledge they possess) in order to address the misconceptions. At the beginning of each unit a teacher could easily hand out a questionnaire or KWL chart to each student to see what they know.

Before teaching our science unit this week, we had each student create an individual KWL flip book. The students wrote down what they know about earth and plate tectonics and questions that they have. When we were looking them over, we noticed some interesting things. A few students might have possible misconceptions. For example, one student wrote that the earth's core is made out of lava which heats the earth, and another student stated that you would fall if you go on top of the world. We also realized common knowledge that the students have (75% water, 25% land) and what knowledge they lack (what plate tectonics are). I really liked this idea because it can be used for any subject or topic and it works for a variety of grade levels.

Other possibilities include:

• Having students free write about a specific topic. Writing can often show teachers possible misconceptions
• Learning what your own misconceptions might be. It would be difficult to teach material correctly if you have misconceptions of your own.
• Determining the difference between misconceptions and preconceptions.

I believe the most important thing a teacher can do to find/address misconceptions would be to understand what the possible misconceptions for the topic are and allowing the students time to discuss their thoughts on what they believe they know.

Resources used:

• http:www.utm.utoronto.ca/~astro/intro.htm
• http:www.nw08.american.edu/~tlarkin/pdf_files/ejp99.pdf

A review of the technology that can be used in a science classroom (hardware based)

In this post I will be offering a quick overview of three different pieces of technology that are out there for teachers to take advantage of in a science classroom. These are all hardware based (meaning a physical piece of equipment needs to be in place), whereas the next post will be software based (just need to install on a PC) technology.

SMART Board 600 series

Combining the simplicity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer, the SMART Board (which is basically an interactive whiteboard) connects to a projector to display teachers’ desktops on the interactive whiteboard. Any notes written with the digital ink are able to be saved to a file and accessed later. The SMART Boards come with SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, which really aides teachers in creating, delivering and managing high-impact interactive lessons. A software review of this product will be posted at a later date. Having a SMART Board in the class really engages the students and allows them to become active in the lessons by watching, listening, and doing all at the board.

*As a side note, SMART Technologies has many hardware and software tools for educational use. Visit http://www.smarttech.com/us/Solutions/Education+Solutions to see more.


Nova5000

The Nova5000 is a data logging device with many probes where its technology makes the classroom a mobile, dynamic and collaborative learning environment for all sorts of lessons. It can be transformed into a portable science station used for field projects or at home. Or it can be used in the classroom to enhance experiments, drawings, annotations, and note taking. The many uses of this piece of equipment include using MultiLab’s video playback capability to replay previously recorded experiments; students and teachers accessing an extensive online library of science worksheets, curriculum books for all sciences plus an interactive periodic table; allowing students to create sophisticated Lab reports in Microsoft Office compatible Word and Excel documents, as well as direct printing; and watching video of experiments being performed while simultaneously viewing the analysis of data collected. This product is made by Fourier Systems Inc out of Israel.


M3600DGL Series

This energy-efficient, variable, cordless microscope, with an LED that provides a white light with virtually no heat ideal for capturing images and protecting live specimens should be in every classroom. This new generation educational microscope made by SWIFT optical out of Texas has a modern look and built in 1.3 megapixel digital camera. With this microscope you are able to capture single and time-lapse images or video clips, as well as edit, measure, annotate, draw and magnify captured still images. The manufactures tout a “student proof” design in that it has a tamper-proof one-piece eyetube, the eyepiece and one-touch spring-loaded stage clip are locked-on, it has a plastic iris diaphragm shield which protects the iris and a unique slip-clutch system that protects against over-focusing.

Presence of a teacher

As I continue my research on the possible ways in which we can become more confident in ourselves as teachers, I found presence of a teacher to be extremely important. If we present ourselves in a positive manner, our students will respect us in a more positive way! Having students react positively to how we portray ourselves, will most likely boost our self-confidence!

Step 1: Build Relationships
Motivating your students to learn depends on how well you manipulate your teacher presence effectively. In addition to how you stand in front of students and present yourself teaching academic content, teacher presence is really about how teachers build a positive relationships with students, which is just as important (if not more than) teaching academic content. As future teachers, we want our children to feel comfortable approaching us about anything. We want them to see that we support and care for each and everyone of them. Developing a strong relationship with each student of yours will help motivate students to behave and succeed in the classroom.

Step 2: Develop Trust

Say what you mean and follow through. Give students sometimes the benefit of the doubt. If they say that they couldn’t find material on the internet, believe them. Give them a feeling that you are listening to them even when they give you feedback. Make sure they know how they are doing and that you are there to keep them on track.

Step 3: Hold High Expectations for your Students.
You want to help fulfill your students hopes and dreams and in order to do this, you need to challenge your students by pushing them beyond their limits!

Step 4: Dress Professionally
You want your students to take you seriously and for this reason you must present yourself in a clean and uniform manner. Students will learn from your positive example.

A couple other important qualities a teacher  should have in order to have a positive presence are
- integrity
-courage
-willingness to help others


I found some helpful tips for creating a positive presence to your classroom at this site: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachers/issue36/secondary/features/aheadofthegame/

Here are some of the tips that this particular website includes!

Top tips
A calm, relaxed facial expression that breaks into a smile when appropriate says that you're in control
Be at your door to greet your pupils as they come into your room. Make eye contact with each one of them
Be clear about how pupils attract your attention when they are working. Do they come to you one at a time, or do you go to them? Both can work equally well
Use names frequently through each lesson
Develop clear routines for pupils
Stand as much as is practical through each lesson. Be a visible presence
Use inclusive language when talking. For example, say: "We learned about", "The work we did", "Our classroom". This places you alongside pupils, rather than apart from them
Notice the impact your clothes have: smart, comfortable clothes in plain, darkish colours can work best

Professional Development

Professional development is an issue that we as future teachers must keep in mind as we start to teach. College has given us tools to start teaching but it cannot give us everything. As we begin to teach we need to think about what we can do to keep ourselves up to date with new and refurbished ideas.

I recently visited the Des Moines Area Heartland Area Education Agency (AEA) in Johnston, IA. As a future teacher I was able to tour the building and browse through the resources that the agency provides. There is one downfall with the agency, you cannot be apart of the AEA until you have a full-time teaching job. Once you become a teacher you can visit the AEA and rent items that the AEA has or you can sign up to have the items delivered to your school. They will deliver items all over the state. They have many resources to help with differentiation in the classroom.

For professional development the Heartland AEA offers workshops, trainings, and services to help teachers in the classroom. They focus mainly on the curricular areas of literacy, math, science, and technology. The professional development offered by the AEA is all over the state of Iowa. Their calender of October is packed with opportunities to help teachers become more effective. 

After I toured the AEA I felt excited to know that there was something out there to help me and others become more effective in the classroom. The people working at the AEA are extremely helpful and are easy to reach. I know in the future I will be a part of the Heartland AEA and use its resources.

Challenging myths...

Thanks to the resources from my fellow bloggers, I have found myself pouring over the NSTA website on a few occasions recently.  I have been looking for articles, or some sort of resource to give me further insight into my focus question(s), and have been coming up short.  In my last post, I indicated that I am interested in researching effective ways in which to communicate to my students, as well as "best" (I know that's a loaded word) methods in teaching science.
When I say "coming up short," I mean that many of the research articles and journals heavily support teaching science in a very scripted, methodological manner, without giving much thought to the nature of science (this definition captures some of what we have discussed in class).  In addition, I have been stumped to find many articles on opposition to teaching to different learning styles.  That's okay though, this ounce of frustration has given me more motivation to research, as well as more time to formulate questions.
Fortunately enough, I stumbled upon an insightful and informative article from the NSTA newsletter archives that is "to the point" and written in language that I can understand- not too "science-y." I was at first apprehensive about the article because it was written over 10 years ago, but I was intrigued by the title "Challenging myths: questioning common myths about science education."  I highly recommend taking a few minutes to read the actual article, but basically the author, Julie Luft, outlines 5 common myths that can hinder science education for our students.  In addition to what I have learned in class, this article affirms some of my thoughts/concerns that I mentioned in my last post about how to teach science effectively. 
While being a student in this class, and after observing a teacher teach in a manner to "dispel" these myths, I am beginning to actually see and comprehend what effective teaching is like, and the tremendous benefit for students.  In upcoming posts, I hope to interview "aforementioned teacher," and also address "questioning" in the science classroom...
If you have an opportunity to check out the article, let me know your thoughts!