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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Foldables in Science

I absolutely LOVE teaching with foldables.  I was introduced to them about 5 years ago when I was classroom neighbors with a former elementary teacher.  Once she showed me a foldable and I saw how great it was, I took the idea and ran with it.  Now I use them in almost every chapter!

If you've never used foldables, or don't use them very often, here are some reasons why I frequently use this teaching strategy with my students:

1 - Foldables are great for both my visual and my kinesthetic learners.  Visual because I usually require some sort of drawing/picture/diagram to be on the foldable, and kinesthetic because the students must manipulate the paper as they're writing notes and studying.

2 - Foldables are notes and study tools, all in one!  My students write their class notes right in their foldable, and when it's finished they have a great way to quiz themselves when studying for the chapter test!

3 - Foldables are more interesting and interactive than regular notes.  Just writing notes on a page is prety boring to the majority of students, but when they have to decide which section of a foldable to put the notes in, and when they have to include pictures/diagrams of the concept, suddenly the content is much more engaging!

4 - Foldables help students organize information. Let's face it, many middle school students cannot organize information on a page.  But when they create a foldable to put their information in, it's much easier to organize information by topic.

5 - Foldables can still be used with Interactive Science Notebooks.  This is my first year using ISN's and my students love the fact that we can glue foldables right into the ISN's.  It adds a whole new element to their notebook!

Here's a picture of a foldable that I made with my 7th grade students today.


This one is what we will use to record information about each of the layers of the atmosphere.  As you can see, foldables to me are so much more than just folding a piece of paper!  After we write down information about each of the layers, I give the students a chance to process that information by decorating the front.  The pictures that they use must correlate to what is actually in the atmospheric layer.  So for instance, weather happens in the troposphere (bottom layer) so I drew a cloud in the troposphere.  On the right side of the foldable I have them draw "air particles" to show that air pressure decreases as altitude increases.  So ultimately, even if a student is not much of a reader or studier, just looking at the front of the foldable will give them a lot of the information that they need to know!

Even though my students may sometimes feel like they're in an art or origami class rather than science, and even though I may have convinced my classes last year that I have a degree in paper folding ;), I'd definitely say that this is one of my favorite teaching strategies, and one that I definitely feel yields results!

Rachel

Monday, September 23, 2013

Clip Converter

In my last post I told you about Mr. Parr's great YouTube channel where he posts science songs that he writes for his students.  I thought that for those of you who have to deal with YouTube being blocked by your web filter at school I should fill you in on how to actually use those songs - and other great YouTube videos - in your classroom.

I attended a class in June where I learned about the Clip Converter website, and I must say, it's amazing! It allows you to convert YouTube videos to just about any other format. I convert the videos to Windows Media Player, save them to my flash drive, and then save them from the drive onto my computer in my classroom.  It's totally FREE, which makes it right in my price range. ;)  The file conversion is pretty quick, but then to actually download the file to my computer usually takes about 5-6 minutes.  (Of course, I have a pretty old computer so if you have something newer you may find it takes a lot less time.)

I've used Clip Converter for several files and have not had a single issue with it, so I would definitely recommend that you try it!

Rachel

Friday, September 13, 2013

Sing a Song of Science

I always try to incorporate a variety of learning styles into my lessons.  Walk into my room on any given day and you could see my 7th and 8th grade students creating foldables, drawing pictures, conducting experiments, writing poems and stories, and even singing.  Yes, I said singing.  Well, mostly just listening to songs.  I don't require that they sing, but they do need to listen and follow along with the lyrics.

What do we sing you ask?  Last year I happened across a most fabulous YouTube channel by a teacher named Mr. Parr.  He takes current songs and changes the lyrics to make them science-related.  His songs are amazing!  My students love listening to them, and several students have told me that they really help and have begged me to use more of them!  My 7th graders are currently working their way through their astronomy unit, so this week I used his Moon Phases song (set to the tune of Forget You by Cee Lo Green) and also the Tides song (set to the tune of The Other Side by Jason Derulo).

If you have trouble finding ways to teach to the musical learning style, I would highly recommend checking out Mr. Parr's YouTube channel!

Rachel