So yes, by now you kind of at least know which person I am in the classroom but that doesn't mean you know who I am! I love to be outdoors. I love to go up the canyon in any season because there is always fun things to do whether it is snowmobiling, hiking, having a cookout, or biking. I love to sing and play the piano. It is what I enjoy doing in my free time even if I am not that good at either. My favorite food is artichokes and homemade mac 'n cheese but I HATE cantaloupe.. yuck. I really do like school. I think it is awesome coming to campus every day and learning something new.
I have chosen to teach Biology. Biology is fascinating. Science in general is fascinating but I like working with the macroscopic part of science more than always thinking in terms of protons and neutrons. I really enjoy asking a question and then going to find the answer. There is an answer for everything in Biology even if you can't find it right away. I also enjoy debating a subject. I think it is so important to view both sides of an issue and really decide what I believe.
I have always wanted to be a teacher. When I was younger I used to teach my stuffed animals math and spelling, so I knew since I was young I would teach, I just didn't know what. My senior year of high school I took Biology 1010 and I loved it. I remember everyone hating the class and always talking about how miserable it was and I just thought it was amazing. When I got into college people tried to push me away from being a teacher but I quickly returned and decided Biology Teaching was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Literacy, what a hard word to define. Literacy is the ability to understand, react, and question information presented. There are many different levels of literacy. I think as a teacher I will try to get my students to a higher level of literacy than many people are. I want them to receive information and really question and decide for themselves if they agree with that information. It is so important, in science, to question information. Scientists have opinions and there are two sides to every issue. In my science classroom I want students to decide which side they want to stand on. So therefore, I think literacy is very relevant in the science classroom. I am intimidated to apply it in my classroom because I may be asked questions I do not know the answers too. I may have my own views and beliefs challenged, but I want to challenge my students. I think I can challenge them by pushing them to achieve a higher level of literacy and have them begin questioning information and coming up with opinions of their own.
There is an increasing trend in "science as argument." A lot of things that are accepted as fact, for example, seafloor spreading--first started out as an argument with somebody providing evidence to support that argument before his work was accepted as fact. I think it's great to help students collect evidence (data) and then ask them to make an argument based on that evidence. That would require them to look at multiple sides of the issue--including counter-arguments or counter-evidence or counter-claims, before they came up with their own arguments and claims.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, your comment about looking at multiple sides of an issue made me think about this.
Thanks for a great first posting! Your passion for learning will make you a great model for your students.
Karen! It was great getting to learn more about you. I love how you used to play school and teach your stuffed animals. I especially like how you taught them math ;) I think that science is fascinating too. I was either going to be a science teacher or a math teacher, but in the end math won out. I like how you are going to have your students decide what they believe about a certain thing once they have receive all the information. They can decide on their own whether they agree or not. Anyway, great blog post! Your students are going to love you!
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