Our Last Lesson Was AMAZING!!

YES! This small token means SO MUCH!!!

Thank you so much to Room 21!!!

This past Monday was our final rocks and minerals lesson. L and I were really sad to be leaving. Before the lesson L kept saying, “I’m going to miss our kids!” and I agreed. We would both miss working with this wonderful group of kids and our 2 great teachers.

L organized some presents (on behalf of both of us—thanks!!!!) and they were so appreciative. We weren’t expecting anything in return, so after our prep time at the beginning of the lesson we were both taken off guard when they presented us with 2 handmade gifts! First, we received our own pet rocks, which were modeled after us and in fancy velvet cases! Second, we got an anthology of each student’s How To Be A Rock poems (which are AMAZING—I’ll see if I can post some of them by whiting out the names). The Anthology also had several pages of personal notes to us from each student and teacher. It was SO GREAT to be honored in that way—and we weren’t expecting anything like that at all!

So, after that auspicious beginning, we knew our final lesson would unfold in an encouraging way!

Our science question for the lesson was “How does the surface of each of the 12 minerals look when light is shined on it?”

The lesson entailed performing a field test to ascertain each mineral’s luster. So our challenge lay in first explaining what luster exactly is (simply the way light shines off the surface of a rock, mineral or crystal) and how to describe it. We used foil, plastic, glass and an eraser to demonstrate metallic, waxy, glassy and dull luster. We also brainstormed other words to describe the mineral’s luster and then we had the students get all their materials and begin their field tests.

We closed up the lesson with discussion on some of the discrepancies that student s found regarding their quartz specimens (some were foggy or waxy on the bottom, but glassy on top) and pyrite (some pyrite samples were not super metallic, you had to actually shine the light in a very specific way to catch it). Finally, we thanked everyone profusely…it was definitely a great lesson!

Overall impression of teaching the rocks and minerals science unit was excellent! I really enjoyed the opportunities to both interact with students while improving my content knowledge. I think it was a win-win situation since the teachers and students we worked with also seemed to really enjoy it.

What did you learn about teaching science?

Preparation of both supplies, lesson plan (including science process skills and science question) beforehand is essential! I learned that time management is a crucial element and that as a teacher I need to actively limit the questions I take from students in order to keep the class on track and progressing in a timely manner.

The weekly feedback that L and I received was very helpful and also helped encourage us, since sometimes we felt a bit discouraged after a lesson if we knew we made mistakes (fortunately there were less of the discouraging times). The feedback was very specific and always helped us improve the next lesson.

Our classroom teacher was wonderful! She had a lot of enthusiasm about science and working with her students in general. She also did not hesitate to offer L and I constructive criticism and feedback (sometimes while we were doing our lesson—which took a bit of getting used to, but in retrospect really helped us learn about best practices!). I always appreciate an opportunity to work hands on, since there’s so much that you learn while actually doing something.

My content knowledge on the rock cycle, rocks and minerals and field tests improved massively. Before this lesson I didn’t know much about rocks and minerals. As a result of fielding a multitude of astute questions (it felt like nearly every lesson I faced a barrage of intensely inquisitive and intelligent questions from these fourth graders!) I was forced to seriously brush up on my earth science knowledge. This proved to be an opportunity which I really appreciated and enjoyed!

As L and I taught lessons on rocks and minerals I learned a lot about science process skills. First, I had an opportunity to become familiar with each of the process skills. Before teaching the rocks and minerals unit I only had a basic theoretical understanding of science process skills. After teaching these lessons I have a more developed sense of how utilizing each of the science process skills will play out in a classroom with students. I also learned that each lesson should only focus on one or two, that way students have an opportunity to perfect each process skill. Most people intuit that when we seek to understand our world we ask questions and make observations. Communicating our observations and making predictions dovetail into the observations we make about the world around us. I loved teaching science to elementary students because they were so enthusiastic about engaging in all of these skills. As a result of this enthusiasm it was a pleasure to work with these students—on several occasions I thought to myself how fortunate I was to be working with these wonderful individuals!

My level of confidence has most definitely increased as a result of this opportunity. As L and I closed our final lesson a couple days ago there was a huge difference in both our comfort levels—we were so much less nervous and confident. We had a great relationship with Ms. B and Ms. F and we knew nearly all of the student’s names (or at least could see the name tags on their desks).

I found the blogging useful, but I also found it hard to write each week. I know I will use a blog when I teach since I think it is a fantastic way to communicate with students. I know that it will be a great way for me to post additional information, specific details that may need reiterating as well as provide additional information for parents as well. I think maintaining an open forum will be advantageous since I will only have to answer questions once by posting and then others can refer to that information. (I have firsthand experience of how frustrating it can be to answer the same question more than once, and a blog is a great way to ameliorate that problem).

I think this project went really well and would recommend doing it again. Any win-win situation like this should continue as long as it benefits all parties.

Suggestions for doing this again: provide the science workbooks and all of the lesson plans a couple weeks ahead of the first lesson plan. I found it difficult to get a feel for the broad context of the lesson because I couldn’t read the final lessons—I know I could’ve been more proactive about finding that information, but in an ideal world each student would have access to it from the get go. Other than that I felt like it was really well done. I heartily recommend the experience for future elementary education graduate students!

Lesson 6: This mineral smells like….wet cement, magma, popcorn, rotten eggs!

(***This is a belated blog post and appears out of order with other posts)

Lesson 6 was on observing and describing each mineral’s appearance, texture and smell.

We had a few challenges with materials management for this lesson since we were working with water; we needed vessels and lots of paper towels. Neither of those items were in the rocks and minerals box or the classroom, but I was able to get a large roll of paper towels from the supply closet while Ms. B got some plastic cups. We gave each student several pieces of paper towel, but in retrospect I think we should’ve have given them more. I would’ve also given them less water in their vessels, stressing to them repeatedly to only use a *very small* amount. While I made a large mineral profile sheet Leah put our agenda, science question and lesson goal as well as process skills up on the white board.

During the first part of this lesson we focused on modeling exactly what we wanted the students to do, reminding them to consider the science question of “What do each of the 12 mineral specimens look like, feel like and smell like?” while conducting their field tests. I also did my best to use accessible vocabulary while explaining the relationship between rocks and minerals. We also spoke specifically about sulfur and feldspar.

Lastly, before we moved on to the field tests Leah passed out vocabulary lists to each student. As each student looked the list over we explained that they would have a quiz later that week, but they needn’t worry since they knew every word on the list based on our previous presentations. (We were so pleased to hear that each student scored a 100% on the quiz!!!)

I explained how to conduct field tests to the students and then the class paired off to conduct field experiments. The experimentation went well. Again, I felt like it took us a long time to get around to letting them do the hands-on activities and although we made a vow last time, it was still very difficult to halt the many questions we received while moving through several additional goals. We also encountered some difficulty in gently explaining the difference between subjective and objective observations, since as we conducted a class dialogue on observations some students shared some rather subjective observations, such as our mineral A smelled like magma or our mineral F smelled like popcorn. Another student remarked that it was impossible to know what magma smelled like and we tried our best to correct this misconception while still encouraging the student. In retrospect, it was a classic teachable moment!

Lesson 6 was the best lesson yet, since Leah, and I working really well together. We both began to get a lot more confident presenting in the class while being observed, working with Ms. B (we both grew accustomed to her style—we actually began to really appreciate her candid feedback and additional comments).

Lesson 8: Shining a Light on the Minerals!

This week's lesson was GREAT. Our students are doing a fantastic job with their observations and are understanding so much! L and I were so pleased when Ms. B reported that every student got a 100% on their rock cycle test last week! We were so pleased!

This week the students' attention and comprehension manifested in a variety of wonderful and challenging questions. It demonstrated that they were very engaged (even through my slightly verbose and complex explanation of some of the technological applications of some of their minerals!).

Here's how this week's lesson played out:

Went over the agenda as per usual. Shared science question: How much light does each mineral specimen transmit?

Goal: Light field test on each of 12 minerals, record observations. Then sort minerals according to ability to transmit light. Discuss findings, similarities, differences between specimens.
Overall, very smooth lesson.

Began lesson by sharing key pieces of information on 2 specific minerals that relate to the streak field tests they conducted. Both of these minearls also have important industiral applications today.
Hematite: streaks a reddish-brown or brownish/gray. Used hundreds of years ago by indigineous people as a pigment. Still used as a pigment today. Foudn all over the world, often is blackish/brownish in color and bumpy. Iron is often made from hemattie and iron is major ingredient in steel. Iron age began 3000 years ago with egyptians....ability to do metal work woudl forever shape history!

Graphite: streaks with a gray/black. NAme comes from 'graphos' greek to write, used for last 400 years to write with. Originally not encased in wood, so ppl got dirty using it. Now graphite used as industrial lubricant. You can tell it may work well as a lubricant because it feels slippery. For example, when graphite is ground it can be used with a lock/key as a dry lubricant. Graphite also has many other industrial applications because it conducts electricity and can withstand very high tempratures. Electrodes are made from graphite. Electordes conduct electricity from one place to anohter. (these last 2 remarks led to some extremely interesting questions, such as "Is an electrode similar to an electron?" I proceeded to try and differentiate the two and used another $10 vocabulary word: sub atomic particle. But I think the student that asked the question was able to understand! whew!

LD used wax paper, cardboard and transparent plastic to introduce the concepts of opacity, translucence and transparency...helped students describe these characteristics in their own words.

The observations conducted by each student pair went really well. The field test was relatively simple--it was to shine a light on each mineral and record how much light it was able to transmit. The class was super enthusiastic, as per usual. I was a bit surprised when Ms. B told her class it was too loud. I felt like the loudness was a reflection of their enthusiasm and they were working with partners, right? I felt like this took a bit of the momentum out the lesson and I know that I want my style to be more of a facilitator than a presenter. I don't want to be a dominator, but I want my class to have order too. Definitely thinking about the "middleway" of classroom managment!

One group noticed that mineral A, feldspar, was slightly translucent on thin edges....also had a very bright pen light. GREAT OBSERVATION!

This was a quick field test, so we had time to do a very good conclusion discusssion. Nearly every student was anxious to share their findings...again I LOVE their enthusiasm for learning and participating...a wonderful lesson indeed!

The Streaking of the Minerals!

The highlight of this past Monday's lesson was actually a writing assignment, which went over really well. In fact, it was better than we anticipated!

One of this weeks evaluation criteria was about including writing in our science lesson, so we decided to do a "How To Be" poem. A How To Be poem is composed of facts or statements about a certain thing. The example Ms. B gave me was from How To Be A Shark poem (find it on the last page of this handout) and had lines like: "Devour fish, or squid, or seals/And don’t worry if you break a tooth on a bone/Because you’ll grow 30,000 new ones in a lifetime." L and I agreed that this form would be perfect for our 4th graders, so we created a concept map based on How To Be A Rock!
We worked on the poems as a class and we were all impressed with the responses from our students. One of the best things about our 4th graders is the pure enthusiasm they exhibit as they approach nearly every task we give them. Once the students caught onto the structure of the poem they all had some fact to contribute. And nearly every line they contributed was a fact!
It was amazing to see how all the students participated!

It was wonderful to see how excited our teacher, Ms. B was at how well the process of writing poems came out. She confessed that she had never done anything like this in a science lesson and none of us anticipated it would end up being such a valuable assessment tool--which it was! L and I could easily ascertain what facts were popular as well as any misconceptions.



This week the students took part in their second field test, the streak test. I started off by demonstrating how to gently rub each mineral on both a white and black scratch plates to test the color of the minerals. The students would be testing the results of their scratch plate field test with the observable color of the mineral.

The students had plenty of time to complete this round of field tests and we closed out the lesson with a discussion about the similarities and differences between the observable color and scratch plate tests. Many students remarked about graphite--they were pleased that it left a dark mark when rubbed on both the white scratch plate and their science workbooks.

Inherent Properties of Rocks, uh I mean, MINERALS!

L and I really fought hard to balance all the information we felt like we needed to convey during this week's lesson. Combining lessons 4 and 5 seemed like no small task to us and we spoke at length debating about what the best aspects of each lesson to cut would be. It was a challenge since lesson 4 was the transition from studying rocks to minerals while lesson 5 was making physical observations of 12 (!) new mineral specimens! Condensing these activities into a 45min lesson was no small task...especially since one of our review criteria this week was on our conclusion!
(Last week we weren't even able to get around to a proper conclusion, so we really felt the pressure to manage our time in an efficient manner!)

Time management has been a challenge for us since the beginning and we should've allowed the students more time to observe the new mineral specimens. However, we also decided to begin a KWL chart (already Know, Want to learn and Learn) as well as starting one half of a Venn diagram on the observable properties of rocks (which we will later use to compare rocks with minerals). Amazingly, there was time for them to examine their minerals!


As we surveyed the students on what properties we observed it became apparent that some students had mistaken subjective observations for observable physical properites. For example, one student volunteered that her specimen #6 smelled like 'magma'. Another noted theirs smelled like popcorn! Leah and I weren't prepared for this and I tried to explain the difference between an objective observation and a subjective one. As I did I think I also dropped a few other $5 and $10 vocab words...and didnt even realize it was a problem until later that day...shux!

It was around this same time that I got a bit flustered and was thinking minerals as I spoke, but ended up saying 'rocks'. Whew! Fortunately L caught what I said and thanks to her we were able to get back on track.

I think Ms. B's students were ready to start doing some hands on science by observing the 12 exciting mineral specimens after listening to a few minutes of this lecture. Note to self: for future lesson plans, allow students the maximum time to do hands on work!

Like previous weeks we had no problems with classroom management and the students were an absolute joy to work with, as they were incredibly enthusiastic and were engaged 100% (even while I was talking about inherent objective properties represented in the atomic weight of mineralogical molecules!)

And, like I have in the past, I am making a new determination to simplify our lesson...stay tuned for an update next week!

2nd science lesson: more planning=more fun!

The second Rocks and Minerals lesson L and I did went really well! We are having as much fun as our students exploring!


First, we are working with a really great group of kids! They listen, they are very engaged and excited about the material. When we entered the class we were first introduced to Stephanie--a young female students large (at least a few pounds!) pet rock(!), happily swaddled in a bevy of fleece blankets! The students are so enthusiastic and interested in learning! It's absolutely wonderful to work with them!

And, we have a very supportive teacher that we are working with too. She has helped inspire the students by initing them all to choose a pet rock for the duration of the unit! One student even brought in a large collection as loaner pets in case any student needed to borrow one.

Most importantly we learned from our previous experience: we realized that 45m goes by really quickly and that we don't need to pack the time with activities...instead we need to focus on allowing the students maximum time to interact with their specimens in hands-on exploration.
We also planned more this time...we created a script so we would know *exactly* what we were doing, what we would need and who would be leading that portion of the lesson or discussion. This helped streamline our presentation and lesson A LOT....and best of all it made it so much more fun!

Solid planning is really essential to creating a "golden" lesson we learned.

The students are really excited about working with rocks and we are looking forward to next week's challenge of combining 2 lessons while introducing minerals!

"Friends, Please Back Away from Mr. G and Ms. D...."

L and I knew our first lesson on gneiss, granite and conglomerate was a total success when, as we were wrapping up, excited 4th graders literally swarmed around us with several pocket geology handbooks, a mineral encyclopedia and all sorts of interesting specimens from their own rock collections. The students were so excited to share with us that Ms. B commanded, "Friends, now move back from Mr. G and Ms. D so they can leave the classroom now..."

Yep, we were super popular during our first teaching experience. It was wonderful fun and we both laughed since we started off feeling rather stressed out about our lesson plan, our equipment and being 0bserved. If teaching is going to be like this it's going to be both CHALLENGING but also super AMAZING!

The students were so enthusiastic about learning and they were equally fastidious in following directions and listening as we presented information. It really was a phenomenal experience as far as classroom management and positive interactions with the students go. (although, I would LOVE to see how those same kids start to behave when Ms. B is gone and they have a substitute--my hunch is they may be a bit more rambunctious!)

We began our lesson with a short brainpop movie on the rock cycle (disclaimer: since I cant link right to BrainPop I linked to a cool activity about magma on their site instead)

After we viewed the movie about the rock cycle we sang the rock cycle song. OK! Actually it was this rock song and Leah led off AMAZINGLY!!! Seriously, you must hear her sing!!! Everyone clapped afterward and one of the male students admiringly exclaimed,"professional!" It was a great way to start our lesson.

After that fun introduction to the unit we went back to the carpeted area of Ms. B's room and talked about what scientists do. First, we talked about what type of science studies the earth and rocks. Then we talked about making observations of physical properties. Lastly, we talked about lab safety and the importance of showing respect to lab equipment, our specimens and the importance of hand-washing.

During the next part of the lesson had student share some of the questions they had about rocks and what they would like to learn while studying this unit on rocks. We also did a class brainstorm on what they already knew about rocks. They were well informed, especially when it came to making calls about igneous, sedementary and metamorphic rocks! After we talked we got to the heart of the lesson by passing out 3 live rock specimens for them to observe. As L and I surveyed what groups were coming up we also realized we should've left a lot more time for students, since the time for our lesson was nearly over! We gave the students a 2 minute warning and then quickly did a wrap, leaving plenty of excitement for our appearance next Monday, when we'll study 12 specimens!

L and I are determined to streamline our class presentation in order to maximize the time for students to make and record their observations while sorting their geologic specimens according to their properties. After this first lesson I know that with proper planning we will ROCK our next lesson for Ms. B's 4th grade class!!!

PS. Teachers Amusement Center has tons of really funny science-y jokes and stuff!
And, unrelated, but good is: 10 Creative Ways to Teach Math
but I think it relates to nearly all subjects)