EEEEE!!

What I like most of the 5E framework is that it is a method that places the focus on the students, and how they can learn better. The 5E Learning Cycle method also gives you more flexibility in terms of time. You don't think in terms of individual lessons but as whole learning cycles, some taking more lesson time than others. My favorite phase is the Engage phase. I love trying to figure out different activities to engage my students. I think this phase is the key to the other four. If you have a strong Engage phase, the rest follow easily.

My biggest challenge when working with the 5E method I think will be putting in practice my creative ideas. Based on my experience, creating lesson plans following the 5E template, requires good disposition of the students, resources, time, and a good handle of the class. Also I think that every class is different and you can’t apply the same learning cycle plan for everyone and the modifications will be totally necessary depending where you are and the resources you have available to you. The challenge will be to adapt learning cycles to difference circumstances and environments.

About the 5E Learning Cycle...

The 5E lesson plan is a lesson plan building tool made to help teachers teach lessons and spark students' interest in the lesson being taught.  The 5E's stand for Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.  What I like most about the 5E lesson plan is the structure that is easy to follow.

What I didn't like about the 5E learning cycle method was really just what I found most difficult about it.  It is hard to not have an Engage phase or Explore phase that doesn't give too much away.  It is also difficult to not just give the students the information if you are really excited about the material. Overall this is a great lesson plan structure.

My Experience with the 5Es...

Over the course of this class, I learned a lot about the 5E learning cycle and how to apply it to teaching science in high school. One thing that I liked about the 5E style is that it makes learning engaging for students and keeps them interested in the process of learning more than other, more traditional styles do. Another thing that I like about the 5E style is that using it will give students some real-world examples of the concepts covered in class. I think that this style also works well for giving students a chance to explore the information themselves before they have it explained to them, which fosters their inquiry-based learning and allows them to become more interested in their pursuit of knowledge.

One of the biggest challenges that I had with using the 5E learning style was was giving too much information to students before the explain phase. A way that I overcame this was through practice with using engages and explores that made students ask the questions and find the information themselves before I gave them the explanations of the concepts.

Inquiry in the 5Es

I enjoyed the 5E learning cycle lesson plan method because it's a different approach to how science is taught. In my science classes, it was usually a lecture and an exam (REPEAT). Scientific inquiry is not promoted this way, but is promoted in the 5E lesson plan method. The 5E framework promotes inquiry and allows the students to be active learners. I enjoyed that in the 5E lesson plan, the teacher doesn't give all the information away. Students are required to ask questions and then seek the answers to them. The role of the teacher is a facilitator of learning.

My biggest challenge was trying to find an Engage step that doesn't give away the topic right away. What helped me was "Googling" the subject that I was going to teach on, finding a short lab and then uncooking the lab so that it promotes investigation among my students.

Flexibility in the 5E Learning Cycle

One thing I liked about the 5E learning cycle framework is that, when used as a learning plan and not a lesson plan, you can space out activities over multiple class periods and have all the time you need.  The different phases do line up rather naturally with the standard style of a lesson plan with a bit of extra time spent on things like exploring a topic a bit more in-depth.

I will say that my biggest difficulty was the Evaluate phase, as I felt that the evaluate in a formative sense fit better in the engage phase, having them consider some facet of the current debate.  All in all, I like the 5E and will try to use it.

"How can I be fully prepared for the real classroom?"

Question: "How can I be fully prepared for the real classroom?"
Answer by Ms. Carter

During my internship at WWHS this semester I learned the importance of stretch planning. The science teachers on the 6th grade team planned two weeks in advance to ensure that they had enough supplies and materials. For example, when we decided to make ice cream in a bag, we sent home permission slip forms for parents to donate supplies. Since we planned so far in advance, none of the teachers had to purchase anything. Also, planning in advance meant that everything for a week's worth of lessons was already prepared and printed. So in the event of an emergency or schedule change, lessons were already created and could easily be shuffled around. There was never a time when my cooperating teachers had to scramble at the last minute to come up with assignments. They always had a plan in place.

Lastly, creating unit folders will allow new teachers to build resources and collect useful unit information. This makes planning for lessons the following year easier. It is also helpful to keep at least one student interactive notebook per year. This will be a great planning tool, and also a way to prove that you covered all of the curriculum in an engaging and appropriate way. #alwaysbeprepared

My Favorite 5E Phases...

What I really like about the 5E learning cycle format is that it creates a good structure for making lessons and helps students use more critical thinking skills and teachers to be creative in the science classroom without just lecturing. I especially like the Engage and Elaborate sections of the 5E learning cycle. One grabs the students' interest in the topic and the other allows the students to build on the knowledge that they have just acquired.

My biggest challenge was finding ways to do formative assessments and making sure I varied the ideas for each lessons, including them through out. 

Manipulatives Showcase

One of our recent assignments involved making a teaching aid/ manipulative that you could use in your science class. Appalachian State University has some great resources for teachers in the Instructional Materials Center of Belk Library, including a room for creating teaching resources. The purpose of the assignment was for students to visit this room, The Idea Factory and explore the materials available to them as student teachers and also as full time classroom teachers if they end up teaching in this area.

Teaching resources presented at our showcase ranged in topics, versatility and involvement. Here are some examples:

Manipulatives Showcase (created with PhotoPeach)

Socrative

What is it?

Socrative.com is a website focused on student assessment. It allows you to create a variety of quizzes for students to take before and after a lesson. Questions can be true/false, multiple choice, or short answer. All questions are teacher-created, however, at the end of the quizzes students take a "what did you learn/how well did you learn it?" questionnaire that the teacher cannot modify. The teacher is then able to evaluate each question individually and each student individually. Students can also be grouped into color coded teams to compete with their peers.

My thoughts:

I believe this is an invaluable tool in the classroom. The interface is user-friendly for both student and teacher. It is casual enough to prevent students from getting test anxiety and the friendly competition is a nice (and optional) addition. If students know that it is more for progress assessment, they are less likely to freak out about it, especially if it is done regularly.

Animoto

Animoto is an excellent resource for creating videos without having to purchase expensive video editing software. Although it does have some limitations, it could be very useful in the classroom, particularly in classes of younger students or students who do not have lots of experience with video editing.

About Animoto

Animoto allows users to create video projects that are a happy medium between a slide show and a full-fledged home movie. It is relatively simple to use and easy to stylize - it comes with a number of preset themes to choose from, so students can customize the look and feel of their video. After choosing a theme, students can select pictures and video clips to add to their project, where each one is a separate "frame" or slide. It is also possible to add text as captions or notes to the frames, or even as a frame on its own. The project can be personalized further with the addition of music, giving a great degree of freedom in terms of what students are capable of doing with this resource. Students can adjust the pace of the transitions between the frames, and even add a "call to action," where they can add a link to a website. It can also be accessed through a mobile app where you can add pictures or videos directly to a project, increasing accessibility. Animoto even has a beginner's guide for people who have not used the program before, so all students should be able to create their own brief presentation.

In my classroom, I could have my students use Animoto presentations to share research with the class. For instance, if I was teaching a lesson on the solar system, I might have students group up to research a planet and show what they learned with their classmates. Animoto provides a simple, engaging, and customizable way for students to create a quality video project.

StoryBird

What is StoryBird?

StoryBird is a place where anyone can create a visual story in a matter of seconds.  StoryBird collects artwork from artists and animators around the world.  They allow anyone to access these images and create a story using them.  People of all different backgrounds, jobs, and ages have created over 5 million stories, thus making StoryBird one of the world's largest storytelling systems.  The different sections of StoryBird are create, discover, learn, connect, sell and chill.  The two biggest parts to StoryBird are the create and discover portions.  The create option is where any one can make their own visual story using the images and artwork on the system.  This can be used for fun, work, school, etc.  The discover option is where any one can go into the system and find stories about different topics that others have made on StoryBird.  This can also be used for many different purposes.  They have a specific page for professional writers and artists to either publish work through StoryBird or use StoryBird to create their work.

How can this be used in middle grades science? 

Story Bird can be used in any most levels of education.  It allows students to create a visual story with captions.  The teacher could require the students make their story on a specific topic or a general topic and let the students be creative.  I love the idea of using StoryBird in my classroom, because it gives students the freedom to be creative and use what they know to create a story.  I would use this type of assignment with some guidelines.  For example, I would have the students incorporate at least "x" amount of facts into their story and create a topic that forces the students to make their story about something that is at least somewhat relevant to the unit.  Another interesting thing about StoryBird is that it will allow the analytical, visual, and reflective learners a chance to utilize their talents and comprehension.

Final Thoughts:

This is a cool tool to use to assess comprehension and reading levels while allowing multiple learning styles to be engaged.  I have created a couple of StoryBird books and I have enjoyed each one.  They allowed me to be creative and have fun with an assignment.  One of the parts of StoryBird I didn't know about was that you can look up and read any one else's published stories.  That means as a teacher, this can be another simple tool that we borrow someone else's story for our class or our students can search and find a fun story that relates to the unit or lesson.

https://storybird.com/chapters/raindrops-3/1/

Using BOX In Your Classroom

Ever taken notes for an important class and put them into your binder or book bag? Then, a couple days down the road, they just seems to vanish out of thin air? This always seemed to and continues to happen to me.

Many students in today's classrooms really struggle with keeping up with not only class notes, but also handouts or articles that are given by the teacher. When they do take the appropriate notes, they more than likely cram them into their bags and never bring them out again. This is a problem for both the students, who are now coming to class unprepared, and the teacher, who has to deal with the fact that their students have lost the notes and may be off task.

Well, this is the decade of technology, so why not use it!! Introducing the amazing and very functional website called BOX.com. This website is the future of note taking for both the students and the teachers. All you have to do is go to BOX.com and create a free account. The account never expires and you can access it from any computer or mobile device as long as you know your username and password. All of your information is safe and secure and only accessible by you.

Organization: 
BOX is extremely functional and helpful. Organization is extremely important for note taking, and this is perfect for all those situations. Once you are logged into box, you can see all your folders or notes you have taken. I personally use this website for note taking and here is a screen shot of my homepage. Within your notes, you can also create folders for each class or subject. On my profile, I also created folders for future ideas and articles used in my classrooms.

                                                                                                        BOX Sync: 

BOX sync is a really neat feature of box. This is a simple and small download for your mobile device or PC in which enables you to download any articles or documents found online onto your box account. All you have to do, is upload an article and it automatically adds to that folder. This is great for students because once you have it downloaded, you can physically go into the article and highlight and make comments amongst the text. This is awesome for the students because they can go back and look at previous articles and review their comments or highlighted material. This is also beneficial for students during the classroom when you assign in class readings. Here is an example of an article I read, highlighted, and left comments for future discussion.

Classroom Incorporation:
BOX.com is a great website for students who have access to the internet. A plethora amount of students all around the world either have their own computer, or are given access during the classroom to use one. This is a website I would introduce on the first day of class to my students giving them another method of note taking or storing information to add to their techniques. As a teacher, you can use this to store important information such as lesson plans, classroom/student information, and any other important content. Box is imperative and very beneficial for all within the classroom. Go check it out and download now!

Google Forms

  

WHAT IS GOOGLE FORMS?

 It is a free tool from Google Drive that consists of online surveys, which you can use to do different kinds of test to collect and organize big and small information about something that you want.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

•            First: Create a Gmail account.
•            Then Follow these steps:

                              

When you create a Google Form, you have different ways to collect the information, using different type of questions

 If you are going to work with more people, you can share and make it together. This is a good way for do collaborative work.

     

For example you sent an invitation to your students about some information that you want to collect.

Then, Google Form organize and analyze the data and give the information in graphics and  with percentage.

EDUCATIONAL USES

-For Assessments: This is a good idea if the teachers do not have time to correct a lot of tests. If they want a quick answer about some topic during the class, for example about prior knowledge, students can answer using their mobiles.

-To Collect Data: When the teachers have a lot of students and they want to collect and organize information like phone numbers, addresses, parents’ emails, etc.

-Surveys: Students can use Google form to collect quantitative or qualitative data for an investigation. It is easier organize and analyze when you have a large amount of data.

-Work Together: students can make their surveys online with their partners, and work together in different laptops.

Final Thought

Google Forms is a very versatile tool that it use in different kind of person, in the schools, college, sport teams, business companies, because you can give different uses. In school is a really useful tool because you is a quick way to know the answers,  situation, data and knowledge of the students and teachers do not have to waste time reviewing papers.