Outdoor teaching

Since I am not teaching in a classroom setting, I have been volunteering to teach science outdoors or away from the classroom. I have learned several things that I could take with me when I start my student teaching again. For instance, a few weeks ago, I taught geology out in the woods to 4th graders. I learned that it is important that I keep my talking to a small amount and allow the students to be actively engaged with the activity. During a 20-minute session, I probably only talked for a total of 7 minutes. I quickly introduced the topic and lesson along with some boundaries because we were out in the field and I did not want to lose the students. At the end of the lesson, I wanted the students to discuss on what they saw while they handed back my equipment. Students would rather enjoy the activity than hear a teacher talk all of the time. In terms of rules, it is important to have relatively few than many. A good number of classroom rules is 3 to 5. If there is too few than the classroom can be chaotic or the students do not know what the expectations are. Whereas, if there is too many, then the students would not have fun or feel safe in the classroom.

National Science conference

The national science conference ran for 3 and half days. Even though that I have been to several other conferences, I was practically overwhelmed with this one. During each session hour, there were so many interesting topics that it was difficult to decide which ones would be beneficial for me to attend. Each day other than the last day ran from 7:30 until 6 PM which is a recipe for potential exhaustion. I came home with lots of neat ideas that I could incorporate into a middle or high school science classroom. My newly acquired materials ultimately weigh slightly over 100 pounds. However, I still have the dreading task of sorting through all of my materials when I get back for my spring quarter. As of right now, I am still trying to recooperate from the conference so that I can do well during my spring quarter. In all, the national conference was good for me and my potential education career.

New life for me

Well, I am back to my joyful self. I had a week to calm myself down. I felt down and out-of-luck but remember what I said what happened to me several years prior to the program. People sometimes make life-changing decisions when they are feeling down. This time around, I will stay in the program and will not change careers.

I love teaching. This coming path of my journey to become a secondary science teacher, I picked up two courses that I felt were beneficial for a general education teacher to know about. One of them is the Exceptional Child, which is traditionally a special education course. However, with students with special needs being in general classrooms, I felt that I need to learn how to meet their needs with my curriculum and lesson plans. I am willing to help them succeed. The other course that I picked up is about victims and bullies. This course would be helpful for me because I was victim throughout my school years. I feel that I can contribute to the discussions.

Sometime this summer, I am hoping that I can pick up coursework that is geared to literacy or the reading endorsement in Oregon. Even though I would be endorsed in Science, reading and literacy do not end when a student leaves their Language Arts/English Literature class. Some of my potential curriculum revolves around literacy and comprehension.

Future posts coming soon.

Half-day student teaching

I am extremely frustrated with myself...my student teaching is not what I hoped for. I felt that I had a disconnect between my college classes with my student teaching experience. I do not entirely know why this occurred. What made matters somewhat worse is that my mentor teacher was rarely around to help me guide through the process. Teaching is very difficult but still enjoyable. A good amount of things go to into the teaching process. The definite thing that I need to work on is my classroom management.

As of right now, my student teaching is placed on hold until 6 months from now. I will not be able to much during the next term if only one class that does not have very many assignments. A month ago, I was on the path to graduate in June with my fellow colleagues in the program. But it looks I will not be able to do so. This makes me pretty upset and burned-out. I have been college way too long....10 years and I need to get out so that I can get a job somewhere.

Halfway done

It has been quite a journey so far...there has been bumps in the road. However, it has been well-worth it. I truly believe that I have found a niche that I will enjoy for the rest of my life....teaching science. It will be a tough life but enjoyable and noble in my eyes. Stay tuned for more updates on my journey in becoming a secondary science teacher.

Poor Pluto

Poor Pluto got kicked out of an exclusive club called the "Nine Planets of the Solar System". Is this a good or bad thing to occur? I have very mixed feelings about the denotion of Pluto. Ever since I could remember, Pluto was considered to be the ninth planet of the solar system. Of course, Pluto was a quite different planet from the other eight. However, none of the planets were really exactly alike.

Apparently, the debate over what should be considered a planet has been going for a long period of time. It is important to determine the criteria for an orbiting body to be considered as a planet because new celestrial bodies are continually to be discovered. According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Pluto met 2 of the 3 notions on what is considered to be a planet. As a result, Pluto is considered to be a dwarf planet.

In the field of science, many ideas and principles change periodically. I believe that it is important to illustrate on how science can change, Pluto makes an excellent case. It is important for students to realize that everything printed in a science textbook is not static. In terms of scientific lesson plans, I believe that Pluto should still be included. Pluto is particularly important to illustrate to students on how far it is from the Sun. Sometimes it is very difficult for people to realize on how far is far.

Done with Ed Tech

Wow!!! My first 4 weeks of graduate school are over. When I entered the program full-time, I was quite overwhelmed with the assignments and keeping track on what is due when and for what class. As for Ed Tech, it really tested my knowledge on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and blogging. It was a quite a review for me with Photoshop, which I have not played with in the past 4 years. As for Dreamweaver, I never really got to experience it before the class, so I had to learn it on the fly. Dreamweaver was made available to us in the lab, however, at home, I have Front Page at my disposal. Frontpage is considered to be Dreamweaver's rival in webpage design. In Ed Tech, my biggest challenge is to be able to help whoever needed some help with their pages. Educational Technology can be quite confusing to some people, but I needed to know where I can help some of the students. Usually, it would take me 3-5 minutes in order to determine the problem and how to fix it.

How to prevent plagiarism

Plagiarism is easily done with the web but teachers need to come up with ways of preventing it in the classroom. There are social, ethical, and human issues behind why should plagiarism should be prevented, such as students need to learn how to responsible with technological systems which is one of the standards assessed with ISTE.

Is a paper accessed from a web-oriented business an easy A? No, because the papers are uneven....some are better than others. So, it is important to illustrate to a class what a good paper and a bad one look like. This may prevent students taking risksand spending valuable money on a paper written by another person. Also, teachers can allow students to turn in their papers in sections (outline, early drafts, sources, and the final draft) as a way to see how the students are doing with their research. A third way to prevent plagiarism is by having students give an oral report on their paper. If they can give a good one, this means that they understand the material rather than faking it.

Bolkan, J.V. (2006). Avoid the plague: Tips and tricks for preventing and detecting plagiarism.
Learning & Leading with Teaching March issue. p. 10-13.

Are Wikis worth the trouble

The Wikis encyclopedia is highly known on the web to have a variety of information. But it is worth my trouble to go there in order to get some information at a topic? Yes and No. I can definitely go to the website to get the basics of some valuable information but I would not go much further than that. There is no way of knowing all of the information is correct because anyone in the world has the ability to change the information, which might be a notion that information can change more rapid than it did in the past. But, there is no authority on how correct the information is as if it was a reliable website from a governmental agency, university, or an organization.

the chalk board has vanished

This new strategy will change technology forever--giant, touch-sensitive computer screen. It is interactive and computer-driven, which can allow students and teachers to share assignments and surf the web by using their fingers as pens. By using the interactive computer screen, students can demonstrate how they came up with solutions to various math problems, which are eventually saved onto the teacher's computer. It is a way to illustrate a wide range of learning materials including video clips without using a TV plus VHS/DVD. I believe that this new form of technology would make teaching engaging with kids that have technology surround them everywhere they go.

Cohn, D. (June 9, 2005). Boards get brains, chalk vanishes. Wired News [Online]. Retrieved on August 6, 2006 from http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,67710-0.html

My homestate and grad requirements

I have mixed feelings after reading an article from the Dallas Morning News about there are new graduation requirements in my homestate. Starting this year, students will need more science mathematics courses in order to get a high school diploma. In the past, the state required three years of math and science. According to the article, the state has some of the toughest graduation requirements in the country. These new requirements would help aspiring students to enter careers in science and engineering but it would hurt the future artists and musicians. Also, it would require students to take fewer amount of elective coursework. For students that want to take a lighter load need to have parents', counselors', and the school administration's permission in order to do so. On top of these new requirements, students have to also pass the TAKS test, which replaces the TAAS test, in order to receive a high school diploma.

Back when I was in high school, the minimum number of credits for science: 2 and mathematics: 3. However, I took 6 credits of science because I was able to make time for it due to that my high school adapted to block-scheduling (6 credits vs. 8 credits per semester). Now, the majority of the Texas high schools have adapted to block-scheduling model. Students can find a way of squeezing in required courses while still taking classes that they are passionate about.

Hacker, H.K. State to require more of grads. (July 16, 2006). The Dallas Morning News. [Online]. Retrieved August 6, 2006 from http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi

My new life as a future teacher

People say that sometimes good things happen when you hit a rough spot in one's life. Well, it is true. Let me tell you a story. During Spring Break of 2004, I reflected on my first quarter at Oregon State University as a post-bac student. At the time, I was a geology major that had high hopes of entering the back-door of the graduate school to become a hydrologist. However, that was not the case when I had problems with my first term, which was a very tough one indeed. During the first week back from Spring Break, I discussed with my advisor about what can I do with my bad term. I knew that I am excited when I get a chance to talk about science. So, we determined that education might be a good road for me. That first term, as a potential science educator, I took an Educational Psychology class. For some reason, the class became very natural to me and I seemed to be comfortable with it. The Educational psychology class was a break-through for me, it showed where my true niche was, education. But what was funny, I never truly believed that I would become a teacher. For two years, I was very persistent on getting into a graduate level teacher-prep program. During the first year, I was called in for some interviews. At one of the universities, but I will not say which one, the dean of the school believed that I would not do well in education. The following year, I was very determined in trying again. This year, things turned out very well because I wanted to stay in Oregon and I obtained admission to a wonderful university with many caring professors and fellow future educators. I strongly believe that if one works very hard and is persistent, dreams do come true.