My name is Aubreyann Kinglsey. I live in Provo with my husband, Adam. We got married in May. We like playing ultimate frisbee and board games. I served a mission in Fortaleza, Brazil from September 2011- March 2013.
I am a Physical Science Teaching Composite major, with an emphasis in physics. This is my last semester of classes, then I student teach in the Fall. When I am finished, I will be able to teach middle school integrated sciences and I can also teach Physics in high school. I would be happy teaching either. They both have pros and cons.
I chose to be a teacher because as I was growing up I realized that learning was more than just remembering things for a test. Nobody ever told me that. I didn't feel like I was ever taught how to learn. I want to teach students how to learn and to enjoy it. Science is so fun to teach because it is highly interactive. I hope to show them that science is fun and exciting.
Literacy, in my opinion, is being able to read text, or other things such as graphs, and extrapolate meaning. Literacy is incredibly important in physics because a majority of the problems are story problems that need to be interpreted. The student wouldn't be able to answer the questions, if he/she didn't understand what the information is saying. I have found that students, including myself, struggle with story problems because the process isn't as obvious. It requires a lot more thought and analysis. Literacy is essential for success in physics.
Hi Aubryann,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your recent marriage! I liked your comment that you have to teach students how to interpret story problems. I am just reading a book called "Designing Engineers," which talks about how engineering students in college learn to read word problems. The author says, "Students fail because they misread and misappropriate the text and reading is all that most students have recourse to, along with lecture notes and mountains of other similar problems. A few may actually have seen or felt a hydraulic cylinder in action, but how would this help? Indeed, this real-world, hands-on experience might even detract from a correct reading and prove dysfunctional by leading the student further astray" (p. 103).
So reading word problems is huge in physics and engineering! When we do the think-aloud assignment, you might want to choose one of these story problems so you can model for students how to unpack them.
Thanks for a great first posting and I look forward to reading more of your ideas as the semester progresses.
P. S. Here is the URL for the book I was talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Engineers-Inside-Technology-Bucciarelli/dp/0262522128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421371507&sr=8-1&keywords=designing+engineers
I have one daughter on a mission right now and the other will be leaving on March 4th. Chelsea is in Latvia and Tanya will be going to Irvine California speaking Spanish. I love having missionaries. Teaching science sounds like lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteI have a question for you I have been really debating whether or not to go into high school or middle school. What tipped the scale for you that made you want to teach in middle school? Also I think it is amazing that you are already almost done with the program and that you are getting ready to teach.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I love about middle schoolers is they are still interested in life. They can be intrigued and they haven't gotten into the "whatever" stage. You can blow their mind with cool science principles. They become friends with teachers easier. However, I am going to be doing my clinicals in a high school this semester, and my opinion may change. High schoolers are cool in the sense that you can do more mature experiments and they can think more critically.
DeleteI am also a science major and agree with your ideas on literacy. I think it's so important that students are able to interpret the information they are provided with. Sometimes people think of science as memorizing facts and remembering processes, but that's not the whole picture. What makes science so exciting is that it is full of discovery and always changing! The only way students can truly understand this is if they can develop the skills necessary to find meaning and apply the information they receive.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to reading your thoughts the rest of the semester!