What Is My Personal Vision for My Classroom?
Needs Assessment
· What is my personal vision for my classroom?
- Student lead and driven lessons
- Group work being done with scaffolding
- Students doing authentic research using computers
- Students analyzing data using graphs and tables and creating an interesting way to share their data such as a video, PDA, poster
- Using STEM to help analyze and disseminate the data
- Students can have input in picking what they want to study
· What are the realities faced in the classroom that may help or hinder my vision?
- Access to computers
- Changing schools schedule from 50 min to 90 min classes next year
- Large Classes
- Competing with standardized testing
· What are realistic ways the experience can be shared with students?
- Through journals, pictures, videos
- Skype calls
- PolarConnect
- School News and webpage
- District webpage and press release
Specific issues to address:
· Three to five student needs related to specific curricula
- Difference between sea ice and land ice
o Which one adds to global water levels
o Which freezes first, which stays frozen longer
- Cryosphere
o What is it?
o Why is it important?
- Arctic Environment
o Geography
o Importance of the polar region
o What does cold really feel like and how does it affect the body
o Types of animals and plants in the region
- IceBridge and IceSAT missions
o Explain the purpose of IceBridge
o Explain why it is needed
o What it does
o Why is it important?
- Differences between the Arctic and Antarctic
o Ocean vs Continent
o Humans living in Artic/ No humans on Antarctica
o Antarctica is colder
o Seasons
· Three to five changes you would like to make to your teaching methods
- While working in groups, organize my students according to jobs done on a research team
- Administer lessons that are more student driven
- Enable my students to work independently
- Implement more alternate assessments such as projects and portfolios
- Introduce additional technology resources
· Three to five things you expect to learn during your experience
- Difficulties faced while doing remote research
- How to keep researching while enduring poor weather conditions and dealing with other factors outside of the scientists control
- Learning about the different equipment used and how the data is then disseminated to others
- A better understanding of the logistics that goes into planning an expedition
· Three to five concepts you would like to teach “better” or differently
- More student lead and driven lessons where the students analyze real data and interpret that data
- Grouping students and making sure each member of the group knows their job and having the students work together on a presentation
- Having more student centered work and less lecturing
- Having students pick topics that interest them
· Equity and expectations related to ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic, and differently-abled students
- Interviewing female and male scientists, getting their backgrounds and finding out what made them want to be scientists
- Finding scientists from all regions of the US/World and asking them about their experiences
- Finding scientists from different cultures and interviewing them, showing my students that anyone can become a scientist
- Go over opportunities offered by the school and other organizations for high school students interested in the field of science