Wednesday, February 10, 2016

NGSS Science and the 21st century competencies





I chose to watch the NGSS Science webinar to get a better idea of how the 21st century competencies can be integrated with the science standards.  The NGSS focus on core ideas of science and engineering as well as showing the interconnectedness of science and nature.  All of the competencies can be implemented through the NGSS, the webinar also showed several websites to visit to help with this implementation.



                                                                                      My students were really engaged during the the showing of these new sites. The concord consortium website is very helpful when wanting to download good content for students to read and watch that help them build a knowledge base of new topics.  Sponge lab was another website we used, the video clips were easy to find and followed the standards perfectly.  We are learning about weathering, erosion, rocks minerals and the layers of the earth. It was so much easier to find good content without having to muddle through the abundance of videos on youtube.  I am excited to continue searching and exploring more websites to use to integrate the 21st century competencies and NGSS in my science curriculum.

E-portfolio

     The E-portfolio webinar was completely new to me.  It was great learning about this "new" way to display information.  This personal website of sorts shows student learning through documents and media.  Through the websites students keep track of artifacts and show their learning and level of DOK.
 I chose to use the Seesaw app to have the students begin their first digital portfolios.  It's a great website for younger students to use and elementary teachers to facilitate.  It is especially good for the self-regulation, skilled communication, collaboration and self-reflection components of the competencies.  Through the website students can comment on their peers  giving them feed back and reflect on their own work as well.

Students who self-regulate are better able to plan and successfully complete their project . Students who acquire these skills will be more able to work not only independently but also in a group setting. Self-regulation skills are also closely linked to that of leadership skills. Having students have open ended projects with rubrics and goals to help guide them.  I think it would be a good idea to have the kids help prepare the rubric too.  I'm going to start this in my class




digital writing

         I chose this webinar because I have been wanting to know more about what resources are available  for my students to create and publish digitally.  I like the idea of using the web resources to create lessons that are built on implementing the 21st century competencies. Through the number of online resources for digital writing students are able to publish and write for authentic audiences. They are well equipped to applying critical thinking skills and the technology is most definitely required to compile the final product.  In some cases Students are indeed the designers of the technology.  Students are also able to implement skilled communication by having a set of                                                                                                connected ideas relevant to the topic                                                                                                        displayed in a multi modal way. 

 My students have begun working with little bird
tales.  They are doing a unit on rocks and minerals
using expert groups and other GLAD strategies.  Using their notes, input charts and other information they are able to collaborate in their groups making slides and they can use the voice option to actually talk about what they have learned.  They are also able to use pictures and words to explain their findings.