From first grade on, I have been a very hands-on learner. I can not recall any reading or writing assignment I had in school, but I can remember a large amount of the projects that allowed me to be explore and be creative. I attended school in Bedford, Ma, and had an unbelievable experience since my teachers planned lessons that were engaging and memorable. My science teachers especially embraced interactive learning in the classroom, and I can still remember many of the lessons I was taught and activities I participated in. My favorite unit, out of all science units, was the segment we did on clouds. I remember a guest meteorologist came into our classroom and did a presentation on how a cloud forms. I got to observe and participate a cloud being formed in a bottle. I remember after that we did a follow-up activity where we charted what the clouds looked like for a week, by recording data by designing the shape of the cloud with cotton balls.
That was just one of the many science lessons I will never forget. Not only did I do fun projects in class, but I got assigned homework that I did not dread. Some of my fondest memories of my youth are sitting at the kitchen table with my dad and constructing a science project my teacher assigned to me. From building diorama of an Arctic climate to planning a vacation trip to Mars, each project taught me something fascinating.
After elementary school, my love for science continued to blossom. My favorite science class I look was Forensics. I never considered forensics a science, but after I took the class I realized how much science is involved in crime investigation. We did a lot of neat experiments with finger painting and blood type analysis. Plus, I have always been a major fan of watching shows such as CSI and Cold Case.
I also enjoyed Biology and Chemistry. Physics was my least my favorite class out of the sciences, but it was still a whole lot more exciting than going to English class. I will always remember the Slinky project I did for my freshman Physics class. I loved watching the slinky walk down the stairs, but I could not for the life of my figure out its potential energy is. I think Physics was my least favorite only because it had difficult algebraic formulas which I was not able to compute.
The end of my science story, brings me to the few science electives I took in college. I took interesting classes such as Exploring the Universe and the Nature of Science. Even though I enjoyed the hard sciences in elementary and secondary school, I grew an interest for the soft sciences before entering college. I enjoyed taking Psychology and Sociology in my senior year of high school. The soft sciences gave me the best part of science to me and allowed me to do other things I enjoy; It had hands on experiments and observation just like hard sciences, but it also let me people watch, which is one of my unusual hobbies. I am excited that science will stay a part of my life, as I take the next step, and start teaching.
I love science because it is the subject that best fits my learning style! :)
A lesson plan to a teacher is like a play book for a coach. A coach is the most successful when they teach their team strategies for tackling an opposition before every game. It is the same case when a teacher is teaching a lesson and introducing a new activity to the class. If the teacher came in with no game plan or clear focus, then the students would not have a successful learning experience. A lesson plan starts out with stating the frameworks that will be covered. This allows the teacher to know the content he/she is introducing to the class is age appropriate and valid. Next the key questions are stated. Having key questions is essential in creating a focused lesson plan. The question should be shared with the students at the beginning of the lesson, so they know what they are going to be learning; then the question should also be restated at the end of the lesson, so the teacher can assess if the students grasped what he/she was teaching. The learning objectives of the lesson plan also helps teachers keep their lessons focused. They spell out what the students should be able to do by the end of the lesson. Another component of lesson plans is prerequisite skills, concepts, and academic language needed for the learning activity. Using the coach to playbook analogy again, this portion of the lesson plan would be like a coach scouting the other team. A coach needs to know what skills their team have mastered and need work on before entering a game. A teacher, needs to analyze what his/her students already know, and what they need to know before entering a lesson. A lesson will not be successful if students do not have any background knowledge of the content being introduced in the activity; like a team would not be successful if they did not know the skill level of the opposing team before entering a game. A lesson plan also includes a material list; this helps remind teachers what they need to have on hand in order to implement their lesson. Without having the correct materials, an activity might not be able to be done, especially in science where a lot of experiments are conducted. Safety considerations are the next important part of a lesson plan. It is useful for teachers to have a written reminder of the safety protocol, so they can ensure there are no injuries to themselves or their students. Next is the bulk of the lesson plan. It is important for teachers to have a beginning, middle, and an end to their lesson. The procedure part of the lesson is a helpful guide for teachers to keep the lesson on track. It explains how the lesson should run and the amount of time each task will take. If a lesson is carefully planned out and organized, then it will run smoothly and students' time spent on learning will be maximized. The last part of a lesson plan is writing out assessment tools. Assessments are crucial for teachers to not only discover what their students grasped for content, but whether their lesson needed revamping or not. Back to my earlier analogy, a coach can only improve his/her team's success if he/she recognizes the mistakes made during the game, and then address them the next day in practice. Like players, students need instructions repeated in order for the meaning to sink in. A lesson plan does not guarantee a successful lesson, like a play book does not guarantee a win, but what a lesson plan does do is it better prepares a teacher and minimizes the chances of a lesson turning into a disaster.
