Sunny Day Sweeping the Clouds Away!

So I'm sure everyone who lives in Nebraska has noticed the beautiful weather that we have been having lately. This weekend I had a blast with a friend going down to Pioneers Park and blowing bubbles and just exploring. It was so much fun to just relax and act like a kid without a care in the world. This past week as been a relief to me homework and studying wise. I didn't have any tests this past week and there are none this coming week. So that is a very very beautiful thing! As I have been enjoying the nature I've been thinking about how to break away from traditional classroom settings. I keep thinking about how as I biology teacher I really hope I find ways to get my students outside during some class times. I think that a change of scenery is a wonderful thing for students. I know for me when I am trying to learn something I sometimes just need to get up and change the room I am in, the newness helps refresh my brain Also taking students outside to actually explore nature helps apply different things they may have been learning in class. In teaching and technology we have talked a lot about the idea of teaching for understanding. I am really excited about having my own classroom and trying out different ideas!

Why Teaching?

This semester has been one of those draining semesters that is starting to make me burnt out on being a science major. I've found myself completely bogged down with homework and studying. I've just been crazy stressed out, and then I start to wonder if teaching science is meant for me. These thoughts pop into my head as a struggle to understand my current chemistry homework assignments. So I've been thinking why did I choose Biology education as my major? Now I am going to refresh my own memory as to why I am passionate about teaching science, as well as enlighten ya'all on the journey that has led me to this major. When I started school  I was pre-med with the end goal of being an occupational therapist. I've always had a knack for science, especially biology and anatomy. When I was a freshman in college I felt very uneasy about my major. I just knew that occupational therapy wasn't for me. I then applied to work at Timberlake Ranch Camps. My first summer at camp turned into a life changer. I was a cabin leader that summer and spent my entire summer hanging out with awesome kids of all ages. This job helped me come to the realization I love to teach and have a passion for youth! Before taking this job at camp my interactions with youth had mainly been young kids at my local church. When I worked at camp I got to work with middle school and high schoolers as well. I absolutely loved working with that age group. I began thinking that maybe teaching is a career choice I should consider. I picked up a few teaching classes my sophomore year which helped me confirm what I already knew, and that was that I am meant to teach.  I returned to camp the following summer as the first aider. Which is so much fun! I get to combine my passions all together. I love children, Jesus, medicine and teaching. This job allowed me to interact with kids more on a science side of things. The thing about campers is they get really paranoid about everything when they are away from their parents. So I spent a lot of my summer calming campers down and explaining to them that they are okay and why the cut they got on their big toe actually won't kill them. As I continue on in my career at Timberlake Ranch Camps God continues to show me that teaching is something that I am called to do with my life.

Evernote

Alright, So this week our tech of the week is Evernote. I can see how it could be super nifty in the classroom. Having students use this to turn in notes they've taken in class would save paper and things I would have to take home to grade. It also would be an easy way for a teacher to share information or notes with students. The thing that I don't like about it is I was taking notes over chem and to me it's a lot easier to write out formulas and equations by hand then trying to make it work on a computer. I also know that I am a lot less likely to be distracted if I bring a notebook and pencil to take notes with as opposed to a laptop.  You can take a look for yourself at a few notes I took! The notes I took are pretty brief. I was just reviewing information and I omitted equations from my notes because I wasn't sure how to enter all of that into the computer.
 Chem 109 Notes

Gaming in the Classroom

This week we talked about the idea of games being brought to the classroom. Do games aid in learning? I LOVED games as a study tool and still do now that I am in college. I absolutely despise studying. I have the world's shortest attention span and I can get easily distracted. Studying all together just makes me super cranky, and then no one wants to be around me.

The idea of studying just stresses me out like to a crazy degree. Right now as I am writing this blog post I am putting of studying for a chem test tonight. Games however, trick myself into studying. I love playing online games or even taking online quizzes to test my knowledge. Why? Because I see the progress. I need that. It's kind of like my love for cleaning. I clean when I am stressed. Why? Because once I finish cleaning something I can see my progress and I just feel super accomplished. When I am just staring at a book trying to absorb information and study literally nothing gets done. I'm a junior in college and I still have no idea what I am doing when I try to study something. I just stare blankly at pages and notes hoping something syncs in. 

If I have something online that I can quiz myself over or interact with I am super productive. I don't get discouraged like I am just wasting time. This is because I can see my progress and I get feedback which shows me I actually grasped the information I was trying to learn. Games I think have their place in education. When I become a teacher someday I plan on using games as a resource for my students. It won't be something we take class time to play, but it'll be up as a study tool. I may even offer it as some form of extra credit to do outside of the classroom. I understand games aren't for every learner out there, and they also shouldn't be the only form of studying a student does, but why not take a tool that may benefit some students and make it available to them? 

Pinterest

This week's tech of the week is Pinterest. On Pinterest you can save links, upload photos or videos, and save others photos and videos onto a certain board. Later you can go back through your "pins" and look at the different ideas that you saved. It can be useful to find lesson plans and new ways of teaching. I have had Pinterest for a while and have two boards that are related to Secondary Biology Education. One board is a bunch of science facts and info. The other board is different ideas that other teachers have used in their classrooms. Here are my boards links! Check them out!
Science
Teaching

Science Major

As you all may have already gathered, I am studying to be a high school biology teacher. I changed my major several times throughout my first two years of college, and now I am currently trying to play catch up to finish college as soon as possible. Because of this I get to take three science classes a semester. It keeps me crazy busy. Right now I am currently procrastinating studying for my second chem test of the semester. chem is not my thing on any level. There is a reason that I am studying to get an endorsement in biology and not chem. One thing I do while I'm procrastinating from all the homework I have to do is look at lame science jokes. So I am just going to leave a few here for ya'll.
Enjoy:)

The Teaching Channel

My tech of the week this upcoming week is the Teaching Channel. It is this really cool website where teachers post videos of what they are doing in their classroom. It's really neat to look into other classrooms from all around the nation and see what they are doing. It's rad how a whole network of teachers is working and collaborating ideas through technology. Here are two real neat videos I found and enjoyed.
Making Science Relevant with Current Events
Students Create their own Biology Lab