How Do I Recommend Myself?

It's really easy to go to someone to ask for a recommendation letter. You find an adult who you feel knows your potential and would be able to write a few good things about you. But what happens when the tables are turned? What happens when your the one who has to write a recommendation letter? Oh sure you might think it's easy because you know the person, you know their potential, and you really want to sell them. What happens when the person you are writing a letter for is you? Suddenly it's not so easy; how do I write a letter to recommend myself without sounding full of myself?


Writing a recommendation letter for my E-Folio was harder then I thought.  I wasn't sure how I would write it even though  I knew what I wanted to say. After I wrote it, I felt this was a wonderful activity because it allowed me to sell who I was, and be proud of the work I have accomplished this year.

Chapter 14 Questions

If I was doing a PowerPoint on my philosophy of teaching science I would make sure respect is a major character. You can't have a class without respect from both parties. I believe that every child is unique and they are the way to our future. I would want my students to express themselves and feel free to explore. I would show this in a PowerPoint by having pictures and quotes.

I am very interested in the certifications offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards because I feel there is a lot of useful information. Their website is packed with all different things for education. Check it out:  National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. I believe "We teach who we are" means that teachers teach based off what they are comfortable with. They go off the way they were taught, what they liked and what they didn't like. It is important to be reflective on ourselves as teachers so we can always try to better ourselves. There is always room for improvement and it's good to look back on the day to see what could be changed to make things go smoother.

Chapter 13 Questions

Since I am creating a portfolio for my science class I will put what we should have in ours. We should have an opening page, a scientific me page, a page for our different activities, a page for out blog, a page for our lesson plan, and pages that we think belong in there. Our portfolios should be personal to us and show who we are through an educational standpoint.



It is important to use multiple forms of assessment because students take to different things. I know I am a horrible test taker because I psych myself out before hand. I second guess myself and change my answers and usually don't do well on them. I prefer getting assessed through an essay or a project. That is just the way I am; but there are other students who thrive for tests and go horribly on projects. We are all different, we learn differently, so we should have options to get assessed differently. I have seen so many different types of presentations from all sorts of technology resources. I hope that I can incorporate all of these tools into my classroom because they all have something fascinating to offer.  Writing in a science or math course does not surprise me. I have written essays for both classes and they proved to be useful. I had to research a topic and then write my opinion on it. By writing on the topic, allowed me to research deeper and give me a better understanding of it. Blogging about the earthworms is easy to incorporate into the classroom. For my blog about earthworms I put pictures, videos, and experiments I found online. I then reflected on what I learned about earthworms. I found this activity very insightful and useful!



Chapter 11/12 Questions



Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each team member is responsible for their material and helping their teammates learn. This atmosphere gives the student a sense of accomplishment.


I found this information based off my research:

Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members:

• gain from each other's efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
• recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)
• know that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members. (We can not do it without you.)
• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).

We should plan because it gives us a skeleton of what we want to do. Teaching is all about flexibility and a lot of things don't stick to plan, but having one will give you a guideline of what you want to try and accomplish in the day.



It is important to have a group of diverse members because each student can bring something different. They can help each other understand what is being said and they will all learn different things from different backgrounds.





I don't remember a teacher who was especially good at making us think by asking asking questions. All my teachers encouraged asking questions and would never come right out and say what the answer was. they would respond by asking us a question to have us think more about it or have our peers help us out.


**Some of the other questions were answered in previous weeks**

Chapter 10 Questions

Students can get more control of their own learning if there are student based activities.  When students work in groups they control the atmosphere and what work gets done. The teacher walks around the room to monitor the students progress but usually just let the students take over.

It is important to learn the history of science because students should know how it all came to be. Sometimes when background information is shared on the topic students understand why it is the way it is and wont be so closed minded to it.


Mystery boxes were some of my favorite things to do in school. My teacher had a box filled with all different objects and you got to put your hand it to try and guess what was in it.  Another mystery box we had was to guess how many objects were in the box. We got to move the box in whatever way we wanted too but we were not allowed to look inside. This built my scientific skills because we had to use knowledge we already had on objects and try to figure out what was inside by its shape and size.

Building models allows thee students to go abstract. If a teacher stops them at a drawing then they are only getting a 2D point of view. If they design and build they will be able to see what they are learning in a 3D perspective.





Chapter 9 Questions



What is meant by constructivism? Constructivism refers to the idea that learners construct knowledge for themselves. Building a model is constructive because the student is creating it on their own.  They get the research for it and build it the way they interpret the information. Creation is the top of the pyramid for learning because the student learns at their own pace and eventually teach others what they learned.

 First graders can become moon observers by simply going outside with a parent to look up in the sky. They can see the shape of the moon, the color, the size, all different things. They don't necessarily have to keep a journal but they can ask their guardian questions about it and maybe spark their interest in outer space. If I was standing on the moon looking out at Earth the Earth would look the same to me as if I was on Earth looking at the moon.  The Earth is spinning at the same speed as the moon and goes through the same phases. The only difference is that the Earth's rotation and phases would be opposite of the moons'. If the moon was at 3/4 then the Earth would be at 1/4.

Having students make solar system models with fruits and vegetables allows the students to learn the solar system through constructivism. Students will have the opportunity to find information on outer space. The child making the model can do it hands on to understand the different sizes and how they look up in the sky. The virtual model of the solar system can increase the students learning experience but making it will allow them to have a full understanding.

Chapter 8 Questions



 Schools that demand an exact adherence to a specified curriculum run the risk of losing important moments for learning and teaching because there is no flexibility.  Like I stated in the previous chapters’ teachers have to teach to a test and can’t allow room for creativity and exploration.  Moments that allow students and teachers to go off task to discuss or discover something new are the moments teachers live for.  But it seems like that has all disappeared and everything is mechanic now.


 I would define the sinking floating lessons as inquiry lessons. It allows the students to ask questions and make discovers off their questions. For the Dead Sea lesson I would think the students would ask how deep the water is, how big the water is, and if there is anything living in it.  I would also expect a question asking where the Dead Sea is located.  I would structure my lesson around the floating and sinking of the hard boiled egg.  I would ask the students to give me their reasoning to why the egg sank in regular water but floated in salt water.  I would then move onto the Dead Sea and ask the students if they know what it is.  After they given me their answers I will go into how the Dead Sea is saltier than the ocean.  I will ask the students to tell me what they know about the ocean and then have them research some information on the sea.  After everything is completed I will ask them to compare and contrast an ocean to the Dead Sea.  My ultimate goal is to have the students understand that when there is a high salt content things float.  They will be able to see that the ocean isn’t that salty if they can swim in the ocean.  If they were to go into the Dead Sea all they would be able to do is float and not swim.


  Thinking back to my science experience in school I remember studying plants vs. animals in almost every grade.  We went through the systems that are found within the organisms, later on in school years we would draw pictures of the cells, do projects on them, and then eventually in the higher grades look at the cells under microscopes. The spiraling curriculum has helped me because each year I learn something new to add onto my stack of knowledge.



Chapter 7 Questions

Our technological revolution has made it difficult for us to distinguish what is living and what is nonliving because something that is nonliving can be used to show something living. Before we had modern technology students could plant seeds and watch them grow in the classroom, they could have an earthworm tank, or eve dissect a frog.  With our modern technology they don’t have to do that anymore they can just go on the computer and watch a video of it being done and have it be completely virtual.  When a person is in the situation first hand they might not be able to tell the difference between living and non living because they always watch it over a screen.


 In my area I have a lot of wild flowers.  We have wild tiger lilies and sunflowers.  I could dig some up and plant them in a flowerpot to bring in.  I would encourage the students to think about how the flowers got there. What made them wild? How do my neighbors flowers end up in my garden?  


I think if a student is intrigued by something at a younger age it will stick with them as they get older and they would want to learn more about it. Inquiry based explorations has the students asking questions and by allowing the child to explore their own questions to come up with their own answers will have the students wanting to learn more.

Chapter 6 Questions

 Koch describes messiness in the classroom as a wonderful thing.  Teachers want students to be engaged and eager to explore their questions to create some solutions; but as most teachers soon learn it is hard to get students excited about science. She describes a classroom she went into to do some experiments.  The class was very quiet and very neat. Her experiments required the students to move around and get dirty and figured they would not get a meaningful exploration in that environment. Children can see that the answers in science aren’t always neat. Our lives aren’t always neat and a messy room is just part of doing science.


   I think this quote is showing us that many teachers use order.  They want to hand the students the information they need to know without allowing the students to explore.  Teachers take away all the creativity because they have to stay on schedule and teach to state tests.  We hand the information to students because they cannot spend too much time in a particular thing.  I think when she talks about viewing as an outsider she means that the students are strangers to the information and by not allowing them to get creative and get into the topic they will continue to be strangers because all they are getting, is it drilled in their heads.


 If I cannot answer a question my students ask me I can do a number of different things.  I can look up the answer myself to tell them. I can have them research their question while I research it and we can combine what we find.  I can have them ask their peers or another adult.  There are many different ways to go about helping a student with their questions; the teacher just has to choose the right method.

Chapter 5 Questions

1. There are some scientfic topics I remember studying about during school that dealt with the enviromnet around me. I remember the fossil unit I learned in elemntary school, it talked about the different fossils found in New York State. My uncle is an acreologist and I called him when we started the unit. He sent me a huge box filled with all different types of minerals and fossils he found around our area. He told me to bring it into the my class to let my teacher used. I thought it was really cool, he gave me enough for each student to have theeir own personal rock that had something different in it wheather it be a fossil or a gem. Another topic I remember was learning about the different things that live in the Erie Canal. We went there for a field trp and we all got a piece of coal to bring home.  There were diffeent stations there was the water staion that had us do hands on activities with a tank with the different types of things living in the water. There was an insect station that a lot of people didn't like because they don't like touching bugs.  The coal station was fun because I remember learning about the coal mine and the process of what happens underneath. I found all the different activities we did very useful because it allowed me to go and experience everything first hand.

2. It is important to connect things to students' everyday lives because it is something they can relate too.  If the teacher connects it to something the students have no knowledge on then the student doesn't obtain the information.  If it is connect to something in their lives they will be able to remember whaat was being taught because they can look back and be connect to an experience they haave had. This is a way of learning because the students can associate things in the classroom to things in theiur lives.

3.I feel naturalistic intelligence isn't any more sepcecial then the other intelligences out there. They all have a unique quality that makes the different from one another. Naturalistic intelligence is when a person has the ability to identify and classify things in nature. It is something special to connect with nature and be known as a "Nature Lover" but like I said I feel all the intelligences are just as special.

4.I feel it is important for steudents to learn about greeen science because it is important to learn about the environment. We are the generation that can change the future with global warming and have the knowledge on what we are doing in the environment.  By learning greeen science the students can learn ways to help their local envrionment.

5.I think the fields trips I took when I waas younger would of been more meaningful to me if it was stressed that it waas right in my back yard. The field trips we went on were mostly close by and if I understood then what I know now how everything happened at those places has affect history I would have been like wow.

Chapter 4 Questions

1. According to the textbook an observation is the perception of an object or an event, using as many senses as possible. Inference is a reasonable explanation that we construct on the basis of our observations. Inferences sometimes lead us to set up further investigations. For example one can observe that the sky is gray and make an inference that it is going to rain.


2.There are six science process skills

• Observation
• Communication
• Classification
• Measurement
• Inference
• Prediction

An example would be using the process skills for the fuzzy caterpillars.  We can observe that for the season they are very fuzzy. Communication and observation go hand in hand, we usually associate color to other things like sky blue, or lemon yellow. The caterpillar is brown and black, probably to blend in with the dirt. We classify this creature as a caterpillar because of our background knowledge of the creature. Communication can go hand in hand with measurement as well, we compare the object to things. I would say the caterpillar is almost the size of my index finger. We can make an inference that the caterpillar's are very fuzzy because the winter will be cold. So my prediction based on the process skills I used would be, that based off the fuzziness and the size of the caterpillar, we are in for a very cold winter.


3. It is important to construct students in planning instead of just conducting because it allows the students to process the information. By planning, the students can formulate an idea and a plan of action that they want to follow. If a teacher jumps into just conducting an experiment the student has no time to process information about the experiment and goes into it blind sided.


4.If I had a video microscope in the classroom I would set up a plant station. I would have the students learn the structure and functions of a plant cell and its parts. The video would allow the students to see the cell system and how the different things within the system moves around the cell