Weather Patterns and the Instruments used to Measure Weather

Reflection

May 2011

        When I started my placement at Alexander Hamilton Elementary, the students were finishing up both a Science unit on the Water Cycle along with a Math unit.  I observed the first week to see how well the students participated and how my teacher interacted with particular students.  I was pleased with the different techniques Mrs. Morath used to teach her science unit.  I was also glad to review vocabulary for a couple of lessons on the previous unit that we used vocabulary words from the water cycle.  It is important to know previous vocabulary words along with using new scientific words throughout the lesson.  It provides the students with confidence to use the words as well. 
            As the students started a new science unit, I was more than willing to take over and find a pre and post test for this unit.   I pushed to make this unit interactive and creative as much as possible.
            The first day of the unit, I gave the students a pretest; a couple of the students were not happy with the pre-test but they were reminded a couple of different times that it is for my eyes only and is not for a grade.  The students began to take the pretest and to my surprise, some students did not do too badly even with the language on the test like Barometer, Hygrometer, and Anemometer (difficult words to read and unfamiliar).   The students tried their best and I was more than pleased with their efforts. 
            Some science lessons can be more interactive than others; for example, they allow student to perform science experiments.  For this unit it was difficult to put our hands on the weather, we only used one (1) of our senses (which was observing; sight).  There were not really any science experiments in this unit, so I was interested in making sure the students had a chance to remember this unit by using video clips and creating games to help them study. 
            Throughout the unit and Learning Experience, the students were aware of the New York state standards and my objectives that I was looking for them to complete.  Directions were given to the students and they were expected to work as a group when necessary.  The students did a wonderful job working together in small groups along with the whole class.  The only redirection that was given was to those who are often spoken to along with a couple of others that tend to “zone out”.  It was beneficial to have Miss Dawn sit with the two students with IEP’s throughout the group work to keep them on task and make sure the work was being done without reaching the students frustration levels.  Overall the students met the learning objectives throughout this entire unit.  They used the new vocabulary words learned along with orally answering questions throughout the entire unit.
            The students soon understood the importance of using the vocabulary words necessary for this unit and how they pertained to the real world.  The students gave perfect examples of why people watch the news to see the weekly weather, along with the importance of knowing the characteristics of specific storms that occur throughout the world.  As for the different weather instruments, the video clips allowed the students to see how they were used in real life situations, for example watching the wind vane point in the correct direction and the anemometer spinning to measure the wind’s speed. 
            My assessment was the entire unit test.  Mrs. Morath taught a lot of her subjects as a whole class group discussion, therefore I did the same and we worked together on a lot of the material given to them.  I thought overall the students retained a lot of the given information throughout the entire lesson.  The objectives were completed successfully and all the material was covered within the appropriate time manner.  Looking at the overall unit test I was pleased on the material contained throughout the unit.  I feel as though the students benefited from the time that was spent on the curriculum based on the test scores on the overall unit test along with the compare and contrast chart scores out of three points and the weather instruments matching page out of six point.  Not only did the students perform well, but it seemed as though the students enjoyed the hands on review along with the video clips throughout the unit. 
            One of the boys within the class, Justin came up to me after watching some of the video clips throughout one days lessons asking if he could re-watch them during dismissal time due to the fact that he loved them, especially the anemometer video!  Hearing this comment put a huge smile on my face due to the fact that I was nervous the entire time that I could not have it be a hands on learning experience. 
            My learning experience was initially reviewed on March 31st, 2011 at Daemen College by Shannon, Amanda, Rebecca and Catharine.  The focus question for the peer review was, “How could I include literature within this learning experience?”  Through the review process, a group member come up with the idea of having the students write a creative piece about one of the dangerous storms we’ve talked about and using descriptive words to describe what it was like to be in the storm.  Along with the students writing a creative piece I got the idea to try to find an article about the blizzard of ’77 since Catherine made a comment on connecting this unit more to the Buffalo area. 
            Some things that were mentioned throughout the peer review session were how to include another source of technology, dressing up in different weather related clothing (rain coat, snow suit), and to bring in more connections to the Buffalo area.  All of these suggestions are modifications that could be considered throughout this unit.  The one I really liked was bring in a CD player to play some sound effects of the different types of storms; the falling rain could have been used throughout the classroom to calm some of the students down!
            I am thankful for the warm and cool comments from Shannon, Amanda, Rebecca and Catherine; specifically, their “cool” feedback which helped strengthens my LE.  The entire peer review session was led with confidence and was a stress free atmosphere!