More in the classroom

This week I was able to discuss my lesson plan a little further with my CT and talk about what he will be doing before and after, mainly talking the activity sequence. We discussed how he has another intern at a different time and they will be teaching a different lesson before me, and he will be teaching the lessons that we do not teach in the order that the book has them. He let me know about what kinds of experiments and activities they will be working on. He will be using some of the same sound systems that I will be using in my lesson plan, but I will be asking them to look for evidence as they use them while he, at least in the earlier lessons, will be having them just explore with them and have some fun with sounds to get them excited about the unit. As stated in the previous post, the class is behind in every subject, and because of math and literacy, science is kind of taking a back seat until other areas are caught up. While the students were working on some individual work, I was able to look through a few of his science containers, which he has from his previous job, and he is one of the teachers in the school who truly loves teaching science. Some teachers even come to him for materials or advice on how to teach a certain lesson. He had some pretty simple stuff in there for the sound unit, including some metal “forks” and rubber stoppers, tongue depressors that make a musical instrument when put between pieces of wood, etc. I believe that the students will really have a positive experience as they experiment with the sound systems. It will also give my CT a chance to see how much they know before actually getting into the facts and deeper experiments about sound. These kinds of pre-assessments can be really helpful in planning out the lessons, and I hope to talk to him about what he has seen after he has done these lessons with the students.