Our Time to Shine!

   This week was finally my group's turn to teach! We were all so nervous and spent numerous hours rehearsing our lessons, but it was all worth it because both lessons went pretty well; the worst part was that we ran out of time both days! The first day, we did direct instruction and after every couple of slides, we dedicated a slide to review what was on the last couple of slides to check for understanding. We created stoplights for the students to use while answering questions to say whether they agree or disagree, which everyone seemed to love. There were some students who didn't take the materials seriously, but they were effective for the most part. We broke up the two different topics by doing a guided practice activity where the students created foliated and non-foloiated rocks using clay and sequins. The students had fun with it and they were good about putting it away for the rest of the lesson, which was such a relief! We had to rush through the second part of the lesson and the guided practice for the rock cycle, so the students were all a little confused. If we would've had a couple of extra minutes to explain the cycle better, then I think the activity would've gone much smoother. We also didn't have much time left to explain the independent practice to them, but it was six simple questions about what we learned and they had their note sheets, so they were able to figure it out.

   Our inquiry lesson was cut even shorter because the students came in late, but they also had to leave early, which we didn't find out until we only had 10 minutes left. Other than our time constraints, everything went relatively smoothly. The students loved being able to go through the rock cycle using crayons. I stayed in the front of the room for a majority of the inquiry lesson because that's where we had the crayon maker plugged in. One or two students came up at a time to see that the crayon maker was melting the pieces of crayon that I put in. I asked every student that came up to me to tell me which process was happening on top (melting) and what happens when you pour the liquid into the mold (cooling), then they told me what type of rock was forming and they sat back down. The students all thought that the crayon maker was really cool and wanted their own. We ended up running out of time of course, so not every student was able to do the metamorphic stage. We also had a whole closure planned out, but we didn't have enough time to do it. I wish we would've brought more sharpeners for the students, so they could've gone through the sedimentary rock part quicker and we weren't have been so pressed for time.

   Overall, both days went relatively well and we're all so glad that we made it through the week and can finally relax, especially since we all had midterms this week too!

Learning About Rocks

   Group 2 taught their lessons this week and they did a direct instruction lesson the first day, then an inquiry lesson the second day. During the direct lesson, they used individual whiteboards for the students to write their answers down to some questions. Their PowerPoint was a little difficult to read some days because of the format of their text, but they had students read definitions off of the board. I think that if students were going to be asked to read the definitions, then they should've been written in a clearer way. Information should always be displayed easily, but especially when students are asked to read it. Other than that, the lesson went smoothly for the most part. At one point, they filled out a chart about the differences between igneous and sedimentary rocks where the teachers displayed the answers in a tiny font and just had the students copy the information. It might've been better to put up one thing, then have them list the rest on their own then share what else you had in case they missed anything. I liked the idea of having the students put the post-it on the door as they were leaving.

   The teachers started the inquiry lesson with a word cloud, which they also printed out in order for the students to be able to have a better view of it. For the activity, the students were each given play-doh and got to create their own rock (either igneous or sedimentary). Once everyone created the rock, the teachers gave each kid a popsicle stick with a number on it and they had to go to that number rock and guess which type of rock the person created. After that, the students went back to their seats and the teachers pulled out the popsicle sticks again one at a time and the students had to stand up and say which type of rock they made, then the person who guessed for that rock checked whether they were right or wrong. I loved this activity; it seemed like so much fun. The use of the popsicle sticks was an amazing idea and it worked out so well. I wish there was a way to incorporate it into my group's lesson because I thought it was such an efficient way to do the activity!

And So It Begins...

   Group 1 went this week and they chose an interesting approach for their lessons. Instead of doing a direct instruction lesson the first day and an inquiry lesson the second day, they chose to do an inquiry lesson the first day and a cooperative lesson the second day. Personally, I was very confused in the beginning because I was unaware that they weren't doing a direct lesson. The students obviously enjoyed both days because they had the opportunity to do fun activities throughout both days, but I think there should have been a direct lesson to teach the concepts first. In the beginning of the inquiry lesson, the teachers went over several vocabulary words quickly and then moved onto the activity. I think that the vocabulary should've been done slower or broken up a little bit more between the to lessons. Other than that, the first day the students were each given a mineral bag where they had to identify the different types of minerals that their bags contained, then they presented their findings and one fact about their mineral. It was a great idea for the lesson and the students definitely enjoyed the activity.
   For the cooperative lesson, the students were asked to create a poster for one of the minerals that were in their bag during the inquiry lesson. The teachers brought in cool little gems and decorations for the students to use, so the posters looked awesome! After each group completed their poster, everyone went around and voted for which poster they thought was the best one. It was set up to be like a mineral show, which one of the teachers actually said she's been to before. I think it was so cool to have a teacher share that she's personally been to one. The lesson was such a great idea and the kids had so much fun doing it. The teachers seemed much more comfortable the second day as well, so the lesson as a whole was a success.