The Art of Teaching

The article discussed this week can be found below: Researchers show that smaller area means not only fewer species, but also, shorter food chains. (2013, November 25).   News Medical Life Science. Retrieved from: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20131125/Researchers-show-that-smaller-area-means-not-only-fewer-species-but-also-shorter-food-chains.aspx             To continue our knowledge on determining which text is appropriate to introduce our students to, Pearl and I have chosen to continue with the topic of food chains due to its versatility. For the past two weeks, the overall message of the articles we have used have had a heavy focus on how our actions have influenced the world around us. Specifically, these articles presented the problem that animal habitats are not how we have once known them to be. Where our actions such as littering, and emission of greenhouse gases have nearly devastated the primary produc...

The article discussed this week can be found below: National Geographic Society. (2019). The Earth’s vast food chain under the seas. Retrieved from Newsela website: https://newsela.com/read/natgeo-marine-food-chain/id/49887/# In continuing our journey on finding the best literature for our students, I am taking all of my observations and thoughts from last week and I am keeping those concepts and ideas in mind as I continue. This week, Pearl and I decided to select an article that continues to support our topic of ecosystems and food chains. We decided to continue with this topic because there are multiple factors that contribute to the appearance of a food web or chain. For instance, I mentioned that high school students learn about the environmental factors that give rise to food chains and this week our article focuses on one of the ecosystems for living organisms and that is marine or aquatic habitats. When conducting on our search for articles that pertain to foo...

           In furthering our knowledge about finding texts that best suits our students, subject matter is one of the most crucial things to consider when determining which text is best for our students to use. When Pearl and I were talking about which topic to work on we concluded that we should pick a topic where wanted to focus on ecosystems and food webs. This topic is one that is first introduced to in middle school and is further elaborated on in high school. For instance, in middle school, we are first introduced to the food web as the primary producer serves as the food source for the primary consumer. The primary consumer then feeds the secondary consumer and it keeps going in this cycle until the top predator has been accounted for. When our students are in the high school biology class, they are then introduced to the different environmental factors that give rise to the different food webs we see in the world. The hope of...

When I think about my take on assessments, a lot of things come to mind. I feel that assessments are extremely important to determine the success and achievement of students both throughout the lessons and units that are being taught in the classroom. Furthermore, the way we go about assessing students’ knowledge is equally important. While summative assessments in the form of standardized testing is not going away anytime soon, students need as many hands-on experiences to be made in the classroom in order to connect the classroom concepts to the world outside of the four walls of the classroom. The students that fill the chairs in our classrooms are unaware of the difference between formative and summative assessments. Due to students not knowing the difference between the two, it can lead to one not being able to see the relevance of all the forms of evaluation students become exposed to in the classroom. In traditional teaching techniques, educators lecture to students for mos...

Students are not a one size fits all group of individuals. I believe each student is capable of learning if they are in the presence a positive and safe learning environment. Students that are in our school systems may come from different socioeconomic status (SES) and this should not automatically put this connotation on a student that coming from a low socioeconomic status means they are not able to accomplish academic achievements. In addition to varying backgrounds, each student is unique from the things that interest them, their values, hobbies, and of course how they process information. Every student has a different learning style and thus has a different way of demonstrating their knowledge on information presented in the curriculum. Due to the ideal that no two students are the same, this also means that students express their comprehension of learning differently. For instance, one student may thrive on giving a presentation in front of the class, whereas another ma...

Standardized testing is commonly known for its uniform method of evaluating student performance. However, while these tests may have been designed with good intentions, standardized testing can ultimately do more harm than good. One of the biggest things I dislike about standardized testing is the fact that to prepare students for these tests, teachers have to "teach the test" (McMillan, 2008, p. 5). Given that teachers can be limited in how they teach the curriculum, it reduces the chances of making a fun and engaging environment for students to learn in (which is necessary in Science classes because this subject is not as exciting as other subjects to some students). This reduction in flexibility and creativity ultimately produces an overwhelming amount of pressure for not only students but teachers as well (ProCon.org, 2018). Teachers have to worry about how their evaluation may be impacted if their students do not perform well while not doing well on a standardized test i...