Middle School Science for the Future!

While applying for a summer internship position I had to answer the 6 essay questions about my teaching.  It gave me a chance to reflect on my teaching life and philosophy.  I am posting the questions and my answers here.  Please feel free to comment as I have not yet turned in my application.

Teaching Experience: (500 words or less) This is 559 words…help!

Hello, my name is Elizabeth Sigman and I have been teaching for 8 years in public and private schools.  I have worked in 3 different communities and have found every experience rewarding and challenging in its own way.

My first experience was with a small private school where I taught pre-algebra, advanced algebra, pre-calculus and biology all at the same time!  Students and parents were very supportive and well educated.  I enjoyed the small class sizes and freedom in choosing how I would teach the curriculum.  The breadth of curriculum I had to teach all at the same time challenged me.  Teaching this many different classes required a lot of preparation.

My second teaching experience was at a boarding school for Native American students.  Students came to the school from 61 different tribes and 16 different states.  All students qualified for free lunch and many students came from home situations that could make a grown person cry.  I was the science department head, and participated in Site Council and Technology committees as well as presenting SMART board techniques and online resources for the Office of Indian Education Program technology conference.  I taught many different subjects in my 5 years there including Integrated Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physical Science, Earth Science and Pre-Algebra.  I grew gardens with students, built rockets with students and entered students in the National Science Fair for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  At Chemawa I enjoyed the incredible diversity of cultures that my students came to school with and was challenged by the previous lack in education that many of them had experienced.

While at Chemawa Indian School I was also a sponsor for the Gifted, Talented and Creative program.  GTC students extended their learning beyond the classroom in a variety of ways, including field trips to Chicago, the Northern Redwoods, the Oregon Coast, and Eastern Oregon.   Kids involved in the GTC program also completed many extra projects in science in areas including Botany, Chemistry, Physics and Engineering.

During my tenure at Chemawa I also participated in a project called Eagle Vision.  This was an intensive summer program that taught teachers how to teach and integrate the use of Geographic Information Technology (electronic mapmaking and problem solving) into existing curriculum.  This resulted in an entirely new way of teaching students to solve the complex spatially related resource management problems that every reservation faces.  When they were finished with this course students could collect, analyze and present spatially related data.

My third teaching experience has been at Montebello Elementary School in Phoenix.  Eighty four percent of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch and the students are almost all Hispanic, African American or refugee students.  Located near downtown Phoenix, this school is a safe haven for students who sometimes live in dangerous conditions.  At Montebello I teach 7th and 8th grade science to 6 classes per day as well as 1 reading block.  I have been a part of the Safety/Discipline Committee, Diversity Day Committee and Technology Committees.  Montebello has stretched me in helping me to learn to present information using cooperative learning techniques and to teach to students who do not always know how to speak or understand English.  At Montebello I have found that the students are warm hearted and the parents are very supportive.  I enjoy communicating with parents and students at this school.

What are the reasons you are applying and how is attending important for your students?: (500 words or less) 479 words

My reasons for applying for this institute are threefold.  First I want to continue expanding my teaching “tools” in order to help my students reach their goals.  Second I feel that in the current economical situation it is essential for my students to be very competitive in the areas of science, math and technology.  Third I feel that it is important for STEM teachers to collaborate in this current technological climate.

When I began teaching I had all kinds of ideas about helping kids “discover” what they already knew.  What I did not have were the tools to help me make that happen.  Through my various teaching positions and from students and other staff I have learned over the last 8 years what it really means to let students discover without “telling” them.  I am, however always looking for new ways to teach that will help my students learn what they need to learn without me resorting to direct instruction techniques.  I have found that constructivist approaches to learning help students to have a deeper understanding of the subject area.  This is great but it also requires a lot more prep work and thinking on my part than just telling them what I think they need to know.  I am always looking for new ideas.

As the economy of the United States begins to change this year I have been talking to my students more and more about the fact that they are not just going to be able to join their dad’s landscaping business and make enough money to support a family when they grow up.  My students have a marked lack of technology background and will need to be competitive if they are to succeed.  I am looking for ideas on how to help them understand how important the STEM subjects are as well as how to help them bridge the gap that their economic status places on them.

As the world becomes more and more connected by technological advancement, careers are changing faster and faster.  Students will need to know how to be flexible, technology knowledgeable, consistent learners in order to compete in a changing job market.  In order to prepare students of low socioeconomic status for this market we need to teach smarter and not harder.  Teachers need to collaborate consistently on how to improve, both our teaching techniques and student interaction with the outside math and science community.  I want to connect with other teachers who have the same vision in order to set up partnerships between students at different schools that can help facilitate learning.

For all of these reasons attending the STEM institute is very important to me. I want to see that my students go on to be competitive in their outside job and school environments.  I feel that it will improve my teaching and the learning environment of my students.

What are your strengths and in what areas do you wish to improve? (500 words or less):  479 words

My strengths as a teacher include using technology to advance student understanding of the subject, cooperative, discovery based learning, and experience in working in teams as well as leading teams.  Some challenges that I have faced included communicating with and teaching students who have little or no English proficiency, and adjusting curriculum to meet state standards.

In my classroom we consistently use the SMART board and CPS responders to re-inforce learning.  Using the SMART board to present material means that I can set up a lesson and use it over and over again.  I also use responders which help give me and the students immediate feedback about how well the class is doing with understanding any concept.   I have used map-making software to teach spatially related problem solving.  I have also used blogs and many other online resources in my daily classroom teaching and assessment.  I post my grades online so that students and their parents can consistently find out how they are doing.  I am still developing a classroom website where I can post lessons so that students can access the curriculum even from home.  I have put this on the back burner though as only about 10% of my students have access to the internet from home.  At my other school experiences I have used online blogs, wikis and geographic information systems to teach science.

My students consistently work in groups during class and are lead to develop their own ideas about the topics we are discussing.  They develop their own ideas about each topic by discussing it, experimenting with it, defining it for themselves and then being held accountable by random questioning and testing methods.  This helps build a framework for them to understand the concepts we are learning.  I find this method to be particularly helpful in teaching student who don’t speak English as their first language.

I enjoy working on committees at the schools I work at and have even taken leadership roles like science department head and managing field trips.  I have presented at national conferences in the area of technology and enjoy collaborating with other teachers as well as local business leaders and community members.

At my last school and current school I have had the rewarding experience of teaching students who came to class with no previous understanding of the English language and various levels of previous education.  I have found that the use of technology like SMART boards and responders helps to bridge that gap.  Also using computers 1 to 1 helps some students who have a hard time communicating otherwise.

I find it to be a continual challenge attempting to adjust whatever curriculum I am using to the state and national standards for that subject.  I am consistently adding to and re-inventing the way I teach my curriculum so that I can ensure that my students are prepared.

What is your ideal vision for teaching science/math and some of the obstacles you face? (500 words or less)  542 words….help!

If you walked into my dream classroom you would see students working in groups to create their own ideas about the science subjects they needed to learn.  This would be the background information that would support new student-led research in the area of curriculum being studied by the students.  Students would use technology to investigate their ideas and to present their findings.  Students would be comfortable with many different kinds of technology as well as creating their own technology (hardware or software) when needed.  Students would use many different sources to integrate ideas and data across distances and areas of interest to solve problems.  Students would define technology as being a wide range of tools including simple machines and computers.  You would never see the teacher standing at the front of the classroom telling students anything.  The teacher would be helping to facilitate research and discussing ideas with students.

Some obstacles to this type of teaching include a previous lack of emphasis on the critical thinking and creative skills needed for this type of learning, a lack of student understanding of the need for these kinds of skills, and a lack of technology in the homes of the students.  Due to our current emphasis in education on content recall we have stopped emphasizing not only critical thinking, but especially creative thinking skills.  Students have little or no understanding of how to systematically search for a working solution to a discovered or posed problem.  I think that the only way students can learn these kinds of skills is through continual practice.  Students should also not be allowed to advance to the next level until the mental leap necessary has been achieved.  I think that we should worry less about teaching students the methods to solve problems and worry more about whether or not the student has the mental agility to create his/her own solution to the question posed.

Over and over again as I have been teaching I have heard students tell me that they do not need to learn “this”.  Many of my students believe that they will be able to jump into service-related jobs and will not need to learn higher-level thinking skills or problem-solving skills.  Their parents have done just fine without a college education and they do not see why they should really care about their own education.  This means that they are used to attempting recall problems but they are not used to, nor do they see the importance of analysis, or synthesis problems.  If there is not a set of “steps” for solving the problem, many of them seem to give up.

As I have said before only about 10% of my students have access to technology at home.  My district is technology-rich when it comes to teacher use of technology for presentation and assessment of curriculum, but does not have the resources to provide for students what they lack at home.  Students are comfortable with gaming systems, but do not know how to type a web address.  I would love to find a way to integrate the existing technology that my students do have access to (cell phones, PSPs and other gaming systems as well as ipods or mp3 players) in learning and teaching curriculum.

How do you teach math and/or science and what are some of the strategies you use? (500 words or less): 435 words

Some of the many strategies I use in my classroom include effective use of technology, excellent discovery based curriculum, cooperative learning techniques and ensuring that everyone consistently understands the “mission”.  In my classroom we use the FOSS and SEPUP science curriculums for seventh and eighth grade.  Both the FOSS and SEPUP science kits are designed to emphasize discovery-based, hands on learning.  The general model for a lesson includes setting up the background knowledge through teacher questioning, an experience that introduces the new learning, teacher question led analysis of the results of the experience and sometimes further experimentation and analysis.

I combine discovery-based science with many different cooperative-learning techniques.  Students are seated in groups for class discussion and learning which helps them to discuss ideas and collaborate in creative investigation of science ideas.  One of the cooperative learning strategies I commonly use is called Think-Pair-Share.  I will ask a question of the entire room and then give the class a minute to think about their answers.  After that I give the students a chance to discuss answers in their teams.  Then I randomly call on a student using numbered sticks.  This ensures that all students think about their answers and discuss them with their teams before being called on.  We have routines that are consistently taught and reinforced for group discussing, analysis and learning.

After my students have completed the beginning of class routines when they walk into the room I wait until everyone is quiet and facing me.  Then I explain the learning goal and the language goal for the class period.  I tell them what they will be able to accomplish and remember by the end of the lesson as well as how I will expect them to communicate their learning.  Routinely during the class period I point out and explain how we are accomplishing the “mission”.  Neither the students nor myself are allowed to waste effort on anything that is not in keeping with accomplishing the “mission”.

I use many types of technology in class.  I always present my lessons using either power point or a SMART board notebook program.  I like using the SMART notebook program better because it allows me to involve my students in the presentation of the lesson.  They write ideas on the board, and give feedback.  We routinely use the computer lab to allow students the opportunity to individually access the multimedia resources that comes with our curriculum.  I give tests using the CPS responder system.  This is a class set of remotes, which can be used by students to instantaneously answer multiple choice and true/false questions.

How will you share what you learn during the summer institute with your team and school? (500 words or less): 350 words

I hope to share what I learn this summer in a variety of ways including training/presenting to other teachers at the district and school levels, discussing my ideas and reactions online with other professionals, encouraging other teachers at my school through the tech committee, and through modeling for my administrative staff what I have learned.  I learned of this institute through my district training group and was told that, should I be accepted into the program, I will be obliged to share what I learn in district training sessions and classes.  I would be required to teach or co-teach classes to other teachers in my district.  My principal would expect me to do the same at the school level as well to help teachers be bolder at teaching science in K-6 classrooms.

I currently discuss my ideas on teaching at my online blog, http://mssigman.edublogs.org.  This has been an excellent release and a good way to get feedback on my ideas for teaching in general but also for tech in teaching.  I enjoy discussing with other teacher how they/I teach as well as how students learn.  It has radically changed my ideas on education.  I also read and comment to many blogs.  Some of my favorites include The Fischbowl (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/) and Dangerously Irrelevent (http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/).

I am a part of the Tech Committee at my school which was created just this year to advance the use of technology in teaching curriculum.  We perform many functions within our school including a sort of “Dear Abby” service for tech issues, setting up technology tools for other teachers, writing grants to help our school acquire more technology and bringing up new trends in educational technology.

At my school our administrative team closely monitors us, to see how we are implementing our curriculum.  I feel that the more often the administrative staff see us using technology and effective techniques to advance student understanding of STEM subjects, the more enthusiastic they will be about encouraging other teachers to change their concepts and methods of instruction.  This could eventually change the culture of instruction at the school level.

Filed under: Middle School Science, Relevance, SMART, Science, Technology Literacy and tagged STEM, summer internship, teaching, technology