Day 2 and we're still alive! :)

     Today was our second day teaching the butterfly unit to our second graders. For some reason, I was more nervous today than I was last week but now, in retrospect, I feel like it went really well!!
     I started off focusing on the introduction. While the students were sitting on the rug, I started with a story to get them engaged. All of the students were eager to share about a time when they saw a caterpillar and I think it got them really excited to learn about all of the different parts of the caterpillar.
     Paige and I definitely have no problem with materials management. We had everything ready a few days ahead of time. When we first got to the classroom, we organized all of our handouts in the order that we would give them to the students. We also made a plan for how we would hand out the materials - for example, we agreed before class started that Paige would hand out the worksheet while I was doing the introduction. Having a plan in place and getting materials ready ahead of time definitely help with materials management.

     The last part we were focusing on was the connection of our lesson plan to the frameworks. Because we were using hand lenses to observe caterpillars up close, our framework dealt with observation. We want to save the frameworks that directly deal with butterflies and the life cycle for when the caterpillars actually get here, so we thought we'd do these other activities as warm ups. All in all, I think Paige and I did really well staying on task and connecting to the frameworks. Many times throughout our lesson we referred back to our key questions and kept bringing the conversation back to observation. Paige and I did really well this week and I can't wait until the caterpillars get here next week!

Planning, Safety, and Teamwork

Yesterday was our first lesson in front of a class of second graders and it was exhilarating! It was a blur and I feel like I don't remember it all, but I know I loved every second of it!! The students loved the"What's in the Bag" experiment. 
Paige and I planned our lesson two weeks before, and even though we reviewed it multiple times, I went into the classroom feeling like we were going to forget something or we wouldn't remember exactly what we wanted to say. When we got into the classroom, there were some technical difficulties with our video that we wanted to show, but because we had planned enough activities, it wasn't a big deal. I was really proud of us at this point; we didn't let a little glitch ruin the rest of our lesson, and we were able to eventually get the video up and running. And even if we didn't say everything exactly as we scripted it, we remembered all of the important parts and the kids really got a lot out of everything we said.
I was in charge of discussing safety. The students had really great ideas about why it is important to be safe when exploring science, even things Paige and I hadn't thought of (and they were all so cute using the wafting technique)! We talked about the importance of safety when using your 5 senses - not tasting something unless a grown-up says it's okay, not touching anything sharp, using the wafting technique when smelling, not looking at bright lights for too long, and not shaking the bag violently and hitting your neighbor when listening. The kids did really great and followed our directions closely.
Working as a team was ideal for this experiment and I was glad I had Paige with me. Near the end, I had a really important point I wanted to make, but I was floundering and couldn't think of what I wanted to say, so Paige was able to help me out. Another thing that was great about working as a team was that we could float around to each group and answer all the questions more quickly and effectively, so a child wasn't waiting for a long time. I really liked working as a team! 

Exciting and Scary!!!

       With our teaching experiences fast approaching, it gives us time to reflect on the things we are super excited about and the things we wish would just hurry up and be done with! For me, there are a number of things things that I'm excited about and excited to get over with! :)
       I am most excited about seeing the student's excitement when the butterflies emerge. I love that this experiment will be exciting for both boys and girls (bugs and butterflies)! Since my planning is all done, I'm excitedly anticipating the result and hope the lesson goes well; I know chances are the lesson won't go exactly according to plan, but that's okay with me too. I'm really excited that I have a partner up there with me who can help me if I get stuck.
       As of right now, only a couple of things are making me nervous or scared. Although I've made great strides, public speaking makes me a little nervous; even though the audience is a room full of 7  and 8year-old students, I'm still a bit apprehensive. I'm nervous that despite all of my preparation, a student will stump me with a question that I just don't have the answer to.
       I feel confident that the lesson will go really well. Although I'm nervous about a couple of things, the positives far outweigh these. I hope the students are as excited about this lesson as I am and I can't wait to get started!!