REFLECTIVE PERFORMANCE BY LAUREN SMITH SCIENCE AUTOBIOGRAPHY At

REFLECTIVE PERFORMANCE BY: LAUREN SMITH

SCIENCE AUTOBIOGRAPHY At the beginning of the semester, you had an idea of a good science teacher candidate. Within this assignment you describe the differences between a good and a bad science teacher candidate.

SCIENCE AUTOBIOGRAPHY • What were your thoughts then? • My thoughts about a good science teacher candidate at the beginning of the year was that they are very knowledgeable in the field of science and that they need to have a degree in science in order to be a science teacher. • A bad science teacher candidate was a teacher that knew absolutely nothing about science, so they could not teach children about science. They also were not prepared for class.

SCIENCE AUTOBIOGRAPHY • What are your thoughts now? • My thoughts now about a good science teacher candidate is that they are interested in science and want to teach the subject. They do not need to have a degree in science to teach science, they just need to know the information and want to teach the subject. A good science teacher also wants to get students excited about learning science. Good Science Teachers are prepared and ready to teach everyday. • My thoughts now about a bad science teacher candidate is that they may have knowledge in science or even a degree, but they have no interest in teaching the subject. They do not want to get students excited about learning science. They are also not prepared every day and they don’t show interest in the topics they are to teach.

SCIENCE AUTOBIOGRAPHY • If your thoughts changed, why have they changed? • My thoughts have changed because I have learned more about what makes a good science teacher and what makes a bad science teacher while listening to Dr. Yoon talk during class. You don’t have to have a mastery in science to teach science in elementary school. You just need to have the passion to want to teach the subject. Also, science is around us so it is easier to make connections with students about new topics they are learning in science. A bad science teacher has no passion to teach the subject, and does not make the subject fun and exciting for students to learn. They only teach what the students need to know, and don’t guide students in wanting to ask questions to learn more.

SCIENCE IN YOUR CLASSROOM • What is your personal philosophy for the teaching of science • My personal philosophy for the teaching of science is to make it fun. Students learn more when they are enjoying and loving what they are being taught. I want to include hands-on activities as much as possible in my lessons. By using hands-on activities, students will be able to make more connections with what they are learning. I also plan on making my lessons engaging and interesting so that students ask questions to want to learn and try new concepts. I will make sure to teach using the TEKS and give formal and informal assessments throughout my teaching so that I can improve on my lessons and make sure that my students are getting all the information and materials they need to succeed not only in school, but in their future endeavors.

SCIENCE IN YOUR CLASSROOM • How do you plan on incorporating science into your future classroom? • If possible, I would like to add science into other subject areas like writing, reading, math, and social studies. I think it will benefit my students more if they can connect the multiple subjects together. Depending on the grade, I will include checking the weather each day into our daily morning routines. Each student will have a science journal in which we will take notes as a class and they will have a question of the day to answer on the bottom of the page. I will also incorporate fun science projects for students to do, at least one every 6 weeks. Technology will also be utilized during the incorporating of science with fun videos, games, and songs for students to watch, listen, play, and enjoy.

SCIENCE IN YOUR CLASSROOM • How confident are you in your ability to teach science in the future? Support your philosophy with readings, textbook, articles, class discussions, and other sources. • After taking Dr. Yoon’s class, I am more confident about teaching science than I was at the start of the semester. Our class discussions about the different strategies to use for teaching science has convinced me of the importance of science in the classroom. After reading an article from Education Week, I now know that in order to do great in my teaching of science I need to have well planned and engaging activities for my students. I also know that in order to teach science every year, I also need to continuously learn more about the field because it is constantly changing all the time. • Source: https: //www. edweek. org/ew/articles/2016/10/26/the-key-to-good-scienceteaching. html

REFLECTION OVER THE COURSE • How has this course helped you to develop your teaching philosophy and/or ability to teach science? • From listening to Dr. Yoon, I have become more experienced in science and the teaching of science. She has given ample amounts of examples and experiments that can be used to help benefit teaching students about science. From watching the different group presentations, I have gained more knowledge of the different avenues I can use to teach certain units of science to my future students. I enjoyed learning about the different connections I can make from our everyday lives and how I can make correlations with those connections into science. I can share these correlations with my students.

REFLECTION OVER THE COURSE • What recommendations would you make to improve the course in the future? • One recommendation I have is with the quizzes we take every week. I think it would benefit the class as a whole to cover the questions and the answers the class after the quizzes are due. It would help to know why one answer is correct and the other answers are wrong. • Another recommendation I have would be to cover the 5 th grade science STAAR test that we did at the beginning of the semester so that the class can know what each individual needs to work on to better there understanding of the subject area.

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