I don't know why I'm struggling with this so much b/c it's a subject that interests me but I am. I teach high school: comm arts, social studies, math, science, and life skills, but for some reason, trying to teach science is a struggle. Most of it is the lack of resources, but honestly I do have some 6th grade science textbooks and I don't really like those either--it would help if I had workbooks with them. I finally got a Promethean board so I'll probably find some cool stuff soon to use with that but anybody have any ideas? Science should be fun but I'm so stressed out over this. (Kiddos average about 60 IQ) Am I just overthinking this? We have done some good stuff but I'm running out of ideas already.
The idea of science workbooks is enough to give me the vapors. What are your topics/standards? There are so many fun, easy, cheap/free 5 minute demos and hands on activities that you can do as a lead in to discussion.
I'd be happy to offer some ideas- I teach science to grades 3 to 6 and I'm always finding easy and cheap experiments to do which can incorporate technology. I teach younger grades - 3 to 6 - so that might help if your students need remediation or other modifications.
Also, this might be helpful- http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/ I'm assuming it is similar to the SmartBoard Exchange site which is what I use since that's what I have in my classroom.
Mollydoll, I hate the workbooks too but I'm working with a timecrunch b/c of the 5 subjects I teach plus I'm the only sped teacher in our high school. That on top of the fact that we have a new process coordinator who has found errors in every IEP and eval report we have and all must be fixed by Oct 15! I have 22 IEPs. That said, I haven't found a science workbook yet that I like. I like what you said about lead-ins to discussion--that's actually my favorite way to teach. BioAngel, I just got my new promethean this week. Well, it's used but I'm glad to have it. I've been all over the internet but it seems so broken up--would be nice to have something with continuity. I've decided I'm going to stay home this weekend and build curriculum--did some this summer but everything was different when I got back and I didn't have quite my same classes and they didn't tell me I was getting the Promethean. Or rather, they did but I didn't believe them anymore.
teaching science to the kids will be more fun, i used to teach science for 4th std before 2years. enjoy n all the best
What do you mean by "it seems so broken up"? The technology, your school?? I'm not sure what you mean. That is tough- at my private school we only added 10 students over the summer and I found out 1 student left that we were expecting to return- so just minor changes for me. I'm thankful that I know what I'm going to be teaching each year- that doesn't really change: science- always grades 3 to 6. (It may change in the future- my P is trying to have me just teaching 4 to 6- if that happens I'm going to try to take those new prep periods and turn them into 1 extra period of science for grades 4 to 6- I don't see my students enough) Remember though- technology is a tool- it's not what you should base your curriculum/lessons around. So if you have a really good lesson that doesn't use that piece of technology, don't feel like you have to come up with something new just so you can use it. :thumb:
BioAngel, by broken up I mean that there is no flow to it b/c there is no real curriculum--at least not for free on Ms. Google. Actually I think I got if figured out--I dug in my shed this weekend and found an old (but not too old) AGS Physical Science textbook that I must have dug out of the freebies at my old school. It has all kinds of hands-on activities that I can put together for free or cheap. Tomorrow we'll describe the physical properties of matter and I have a collection of small objects for them to use for this. Now that I have a reasonably designed textbook, it will be easy to see what I need from the internet.
