Three Years On

This time three years ago I was spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. All in the name of learning of course. So were am I now, this seems like a good time to reflect.
I was charged with improving my own science teaching, and lifting the level of science teaching through the whole school.
My own science teaching has definitely improved  for two reasons. there is more of it and the teaching has a much greater focus and I have a clearer idea of what I want to teach. Sometimes that clearer focus is in terms of knowledge, but more often it is the processes around finding out about science-or the Nature of Science. One of the highlights have been how the children can use the knowledge they have learnt and explain it in their own ways. we have had videos, raps, poems, as well as the more traditional charts and info-graphics. Many of these have also talked about the processes they used to find out or investigate their findings.
In terms of increasing the amount and level of science teaching in the school there has been some progress.We started off with a lot of input and discussion. Teachers were keen to try new things and we did things at school, syndicate, and class level. Over time this has dropped off a little, but not below where we started. With an increasing focus on inquiry learning and in-service around this I can lots of opportunities to keep science in focus.
Lots of good things have happened and rereading this blog has helped me focus again on keeping science teaching in the front of my mind.

Primary Science Week

It is Primary Science Week, but at our school it is also parent teacher learning conferences (parent/teacher interviews) so science week has been postponed. This is what happens in schools. There are so many things to fit in, so many things to do that sometimes priorities have to change. So science week will happen later in the term.

Being back at school it this ability to be flexible, but also to make sure the things you want to do get done. So yes I am doing a lot more science, I am helping and suggesting things to my colleagues, and trying things I haven't tried before. Here is one of those things. Last year I made a few videos and so I have taken that into the classroom. I had my class make a video to explain their findings about rock pools creatures. Unfortunately the day we went to the rock pools to film was a little windy so the children have had to add subtitles. They have learnt how to edit and put music into their movies. Please remember this is a first effort and there are a few areas that need to be improved. I have added one here but more videos are on my class wiki http://room1westend.wikispaces.com/The+Rocky+Shore
We are involved in science this term. Currently we are looking at earthquakes as part of the LearNZ programme.We are also are taking part in an international chemistry experiment as part of the Olympics at http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/collections/sport. Over riding all of this is a garden area out side the class room that we are monitoring and hope to turn into a Learning Garden (just awaiting funding news)
All of this is a lot more science than I have taken for quite some time, all as a result of last year, but it has to fit into the demands of school and all the other things I have to do.

Back at School

This is week 4 of the school year and it has been a busy start to the school year. having been away for 6 months it is surprising the little things I had forgotten but, to use an old cliche, it is like riding a bike and things are running smoothly now.
Science is a major focus in my class now, not only in the in depth unit I am teaching but also in incidental things and I have been sowing the seeds for something I want to do with my class later in the term. The major unit is about the rocky shore which makes sense to follow what I was working in last year. we have had four classes visiting two different rocky shore sites. Two classes visited the reef at Kawaroa while two classes visited the Tapuae Marine Reserve. The following day they swapped locations. The Kawaroa is walking distance from school and not part of a Marine Reserve so was a good place to be able to compare findings with. Before the visits each class watched a power point of species they might find down there and as they walked down to their first quadrat I heard them saying things like "there's a snakeskin chiton" and "look a radial limpet' It was quite exciting to know they had learnt these things. In groups they completed three quadrats at the three intertidal zones. They repeated this at the other reef on the following day. They also had time on both days to explore on their own. Back at school we are looking at the data we collected, and have other things planned. The other teachers have all talked about the children working like scientists on the reef, another comment that has excited me. Here is a video I made about how to collect data from a quadrat.

The incidental science teaching has been wide and varied, from watching a video about whale sharks and discussing what they eat (this came out of a current events contribution) to looking for living things in an area outside our classroom and talking about what makes athing alive, to how scientists would go about the same task, and why they would do this. This is also the seed I am planting in my class at the moment for a project later in the term.

In between the science there is writing, maths, swimming, art, music, reading, testing, and all the usual things that fill the start of the school year. It is certainly different from the lst two terms I had, but I am enjoying being in front of a class again.

December 27

Here it is the middle of the holidays and science is still a big part of my life.  In todays Taranaki Daily News there was a story about the setting up of the Tapuae Marine Reserve, and about its future. I feature in a little bit of the story and was interviewed a couple of days ago. It made me think about the importance of Marine Reserves as well, and how they are a place where the environment can grow back into balance. The ecosystems don't have extenal influences being put on them and so over time they can change back to what they once were.
Anyway here is a link to the story
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/life-style/6191815/Proud-to-be-kelp-huggers
Oh and yes I do know the journalist that wrote the story, rather well in fact, she is my wife.

Week 20

Week 20 and I have come to the end of the first part of my Fellowship. Wednesday was spent in Wellington with the Royal Society of New Zealand staff and the other teacher fellows. I had a 6 am flight to Wellington so it was breakfast in the airport before being shuttled to our venue. More coffee and chats was the first thing on the agenda and then we were put into groups for our presentations. Each person had to to a 8 minute presentation (with 2 minutes for questions at the end.) We were in groups of 8 or 9 so we heard about the different things people had been up to. It was really good to hear and learn about what other people had been up to. Half of the teacher fellows were part of the Awarded scheme and so their presentations were more about what they had achieved. The Primary Science Teacher Fellowship teachers presentations were more about the process of what we had done and the nature of science we had learnt about.
After lunch we had discussions about heading back to school and what to expect. Next year will be the begining of the next phase of this Fellowship, leading our staff to raise the level of science teaching in our schools. We were awarded certificates and had a chance to unwind before heading back to the airport and home.
 I have loved everything about being on this Fellowship because there have been new challenges and things to learn. Next year there will  be new challenges and new things to learn and I am looking forward to that as well. I am also looking forward to being back in front of a class because it is that aspect of teaching I enjoy the most, developing a class that works together. In lots of ways the Fellowship has confirmed that I enjoy being a teacher, and now I have a new string to my bow. I will be a better teacher of science from this experience, and I believe I will be a better teacher all round.

This will be the last weekly post but theree will be some posts next year as I try new science teachng in my class and with my colleagues. Stay tuned for those and until then have a happy Christmas and holiday.

Week 19

Spent most of the week in Auckland taking part in curriculum days taken by Core Education. The days are designed to help us when we go back to school next year by focussing on the curriculum. It was agood time to have the days because we have been so involved with science that we had lots of experiences to draw on and because it does make us think about next year. In lots of ways it is a nice culmination of all the work we have been doing. Our presenters Dale and Brigette are both excellent value and they complement each other and work well together. We had a lot of hands on activities to balance out the times when we had to do a lot of thinking. One of the highlights was going to Kelly Tarltons for an educational trip. We got to go behind the scenes a little bit and see a couple of turtles that had washed up on New Zealand beaches. They are being nursed back to health.

The other good thing about the week was getting together with the other teacher fellows. We get on easily as a group and we must have all been good because secret Santa visited us all when we went out to dinner. For the out of Aucklanders we got to eat out each night, Malaysian, Thai, and Italian. All very nice. We were lucky someone knew there way around Auckland and places to eat.

Week 18

Another busy week of learning.
I was at the beach by 6:30 on Monday morning, a good low tide and one last transect to do at the southern end of the marine reserve. Was a nice time to be there too. Saw a few brittle stars down near the low tide mark too which I hadn't seen before.
With the data collected I spent a couple of days with Elise trrying to put it into a format that can go onto a GIS map. We added some photos but it took a while to change the Excel data into a csv format for the map. Eventually the data will be online as a baseline for others to see. We spent a couple of mornings on this and there was a real sense of satisfaction when we got things to work. (Though an email this weekend from Elise means I have to change some things) It is about learning anew way to present data that will become accessible for lots of others.
On Thursday afternoon I spent the time with my class. It was to prepare them for a trip to the Marine Reserve on Friday morning. My approach was different just for the hour and a bit I was there because of the things we have talked about in developing an understanding of the nature of science. It was arushed session, I had to get in what we were going to do, some species they would see, why we were doing it, why scientists would do this, as well as the usual organisation and safety stuff.

Friday morning was a lovely Taranaki day and we were at the Marine Reserve by 9:15. I set out a 45m transect and put the kids into groups 5m apart. They had a quadrat and different recording sheets. They counted and recorded what they could see. They made a good job of this. We moved the tape up the beach and they carried out 3 qudrats in total. "Look Mr Smart we found a chiton!" (On Thursday no one knew what a chiton was or had heard of one) "We found a hermit crab" It was really exciting to hear the enthusiasm of the class and their genuine excitement at learning and finding new things in the rock pools. After morning tea they had achance just to explore the reef and they found some new things then as well.

I have missed this contact with my class and know I will look forward to being back at school next year, and I know I will be a better science teacher for my experience.