Monday, September 17, 2007
Monday once again...
It’s Monday! I woke up today without an alarm. That is a good sign. Now all I have to do it keep it up. One of my worst fears is that I will over sleep and miss a whole day.
I had a kid with a bloody nose in first period today. It dripped all over his desk. All I could think of was “Prevent Disease Transmission!” “Blood borne pathogens! Run!!” I hope I cleaned it well enough.
Today’s lesson is on Observation and Inference, two things the kids are familiar with, but have never thought about specifically. So far I think the concept is getting through to them. I haven’t officially assessed it yet, but there are a lot of “ah ha” moments through the period. I start the lesson by showing them three progressive pictures of animal tracks (See Below) and ask them to make observations- NOT give opinions or inferences. Then I tell them to make an inference based on their observation – to tell the story they see in the pictures. That is when I point out that each person has the same observations, but different inferences.
Next I pass out the mystery boxes and have them make observations to try and infer what is inside. They go nuts. At some point they ask if I will let them open it and I ask them if scientists have a magic box they can open to see if they figured out their experiment correctly. No, they don’t. Likewise, they don’t get to open their box.
I conclude by doing the burning money demo and having them make observations and infer what is happening. They observe the fire and that the bill isn’t burnt, they infer that the liquid I dipped it in must be burning and that the fire must not be hot enough to ignite the bill. Simple, and they remember it.
Things kids say that we wish they didn’t:
• I axed my momma if I could…
• I know where is Waldo…
• How you know that is?
• You know I is…
• Who dat be?
I had a kid with a bloody nose in first period today. It dripped all over his desk. All I could think of was “Prevent Disease Transmission!” “Blood borne pathogens! Run!!” I hope I cleaned it well enough.
Today’s lesson is on Observation and Inference, two things the kids are familiar with, but have never thought about specifically. So far I think the concept is getting through to them. I haven’t officially assessed it yet, but there are a lot of “ah ha” moments through the period. I start the lesson by showing them three progressive pictures of animal tracks (See Below) and ask them to make observations- NOT give opinions or inferences. Then I tell them to make an inference based on their observation – to tell the story they see in the pictures. That is when I point out that each person has the same observations, but different inferences.
Next I pass out the mystery boxes and have them make observations to try and infer what is inside. They go nuts. At some point they ask if I will let them open it and I ask them if scientists have a magic box they can open to see if they figured out their experiment correctly. No, they don’t. Likewise, they don’t get to open their box.
I conclude by doing the burning money demo and having them make observations and infer what is happening. They observe the fire and that the bill isn’t burnt, they infer that the liquid I dipped it in must be burning and that the fire must not be hot enough to ignite the bill. Simple, and they remember it.
Things kids say that we wish they didn’t:
• I axed my momma if I could…
• I know where is Waldo…
• How you know that is?
• You know I is…
• Who dat be?
Chicklette 5:00 PM
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