Subject 1 - Science (Rules!)

Teaching Science 6 was the first subject I taught! Pretty exciting and overwhelming, I must say, especially since this grade has Provincial Achievement Tests in June. I love elementary science because it's not as boring as high school. High school I remember taking physics and chemistry, not the most exciting topics out there. 

I taught not just my homeroom grade 6 class, but all the grade 6 classes science. Also take into the account that each class had approximately 27 children. So if I do my math right 3 x 27 = 81 children's names to know within the first two weeks. Ha. Welcome to my life. On top of learning their names, I also struggled with learning classroom management skills, teaching the science topics and assessing their learning. Of course all those improved significantly for me! #proudteacher

The science topics I taught was from the science unit Evidence & Investigation where the students learned about fingerprinting, forgery and analyzing crime scenes. How wicked is that!? The topics I specifically taught included chromatography, fabric samples and soil samples. All these lessons included discovery learning and varying experiment trials. It was pretty neat to watch the kids learn like this!

For these weeks, I essentially had to create one lesson plan, because it was the same for the three classes. At first, I didn't like doing the same lesson 3 times a day as it was tiring and repetitive for me, however it was the best opportunity to improve my teaching skills with different classes! I was able to see where my weaknesses were and change it for the next class right after. The only downfall with this was... there were SO many of them! I mean 81 names to know within the first week? Tough. Now I know that in the future, is to create my own seating plans! (Which I did during Spring Break)

Since I taught science with using science experiments, I remember getting the materials the night before. I was scrambling around West Edmonton for soil and fabrics because I needed the right, and I mean the right materials for my lessons. Then, I had to go home and test it. Those were long prep days, but totally worth it! 

Soil Samples

Soil Samples