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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Third Graders and Science

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of getting to teach a science lesson in Mrs. Dunavin's third grade class. The students hopefully learned some things about matter. It is hard to tell, though, who learned more, them or me.

Here is what I learned/remembered yesterday:

1. Planning is crucial, and elementary teachers have to deliberately and carefully structure their lessons. No plan = chaos.

2. Kids know A TON more than we give them credit for knowing. I did not expect to have an in depth conversation with two students about anti-matter. Wow!

3. Just because a student has his nose in a book does not mean he isn't paying attention. When I asked one student to work with his group to figure out some ideas, he showed me his own science journal. Wow! I wish I could multi-task that well. I asked him if he had anything more he thought would be helpful to some of the students still figuring it all out. He did and he was mostly happy to pause his reading and share.

4. Teachers at MWE are awesome! They enthusiastically teach their subjects and the kids are learning. There is no way that a group of third grade students could have such awesome conversations with me if they had not been encouraged by so many adults on this campus to think, learn, and be proud to do it.

Thanks Mrs. Dunavin's class for a great Tuesday afternoon!