Little Scientists

Knowing that you can't learn for you students is a hard concept to grasp. I mean I know it's impossible, but actually reading it proves a stronger point. Dreaming of being the education profession, I think I went into it with this feeling that I was going to be able to change the lives of all my students. Even though I still believe that, I am a little more realistic now that I am older. In no way have I lowered my expectations, I just think the quote made me realize not to take things personally if a few students don't learn every single lesson. I believe children have to be truly interested in what they are learning to get everything they can out of it. Even I am not interested in every single topic, so I wouldn't expect my students to be either. However, I wouldn't want my students to just give me answers because they think that's what I'm looking for. I'm guilty of it and I hope to change that. I think children try to use big words and add extra information to make their answers seem longer. I think children really want to impress their teachers, especially when they aren't comfortable with the material they learned.

I think it was awesome Mr. Wilson let his students explore the icicles in their own way. I feel it would have really discouraged the children if he stopped and corrected them. By letting them discover the melting for themselves, they were able to use trial and error. He created an extremely comfortable environment for them, in which one student didn't even participate in the project he planned. I think that takes an amazing amount of patience and flexibility, two important qualities teachers need to have. I think many teachers would have felt out of control in that situation because things didn't go according to plan, but Mr. Wilson was able to look past that and see what was truly important for his students to learn. He didn't ask them to memorize definitions and he didn't try to teach new concepts while they were exploring. He just let them be and become scientists. 

I chose to put in the cartoon above because I think it fits perfectly with this post and even blog in general. Our science class is like the "neighborhood" and this chapter was sort of about using things in your own life that can relate to science, just like the icicles. I think it's important for kids to use things that are familiar to you and your students because there is already prior knowledge there. Living in such a beautiful area, the Hudson Valley has unlimited resources. Trees, water, and even small animals are all around us and they are the perfect additions to any science experiment.