Student+Comments

 Hi Dr. Mehler, I took your science methods course last semester and loved it! I am in my student teaching in a first grade classroom at Fox Chase School and have begun to take over science. I used an interactive from your site about solids and liquids with my students. They were so engaged and interested! I think it was the first time I had the attention of every student in the class. It was great! I will be using another activity this week as well. I just wanted to write and say thanks for all of the useful information and tools I got from your class!

Also, I am thinking about taking the Praxis test for science so that I can teach upper level science. I will be certified in elementary/special education when I graduate. Do you have any suggestions for me? Thanks. Sincerely, Beth McDermott

Hi Dr. Mehler- Its Madeline Marchione from your Science Ed. Spring 2009 class! I hope you remember me! I am currently student teaching in the Fox Chase School, which is part of the Philadelphia School District. I have an inclusive 2nd grade classroom with 26 kids, 8 of which have IEPs, so I have been very busy! I began to take over teaching science, which made me think of you! My cooperating teacher wants me to teach strictly to the curriculum, which means a lot of read from the text book activites! Science is supposed to be taught 3 times a week for 45 minutes each time. However, it seems to be more like when my cooperating teacher gets to it, or if she has an extra 15 minutes. I'm continually searching for ways to make the text interesting and interactive, but I find it difficult because my teacher does not want me to deviate from the teacher's manual. Also, all of my lessons have to be kept extremely brief due to time restraints! However, I did get to do one inquiry based lesson with the students. They worked in cooperative learning groups to determine which of four balls bounces the highest. I was a little worried about how they would do with it, but I kept it very structured and they absolutely loved it! They all keep asking when we can do more experiments! Next week I am planning to do a sink/float experiment, but since my teacher doesn't want water all over the room, I have to do it as a demonstration! I'm sure the kids will still really enjoy it though! Unfortunately we only have one working computer in the room and it is in a back corner, so I haven't yet been able to use any of the interactives from [|teachingscience.org]. However, I have high hopes of taking the students to the computer lab or library to show them! I just wanted to write to you to let you know how much your class has helped me to become a better teacher! I cannot wait to take my science education portfolio on interviews with me! I know that you are very busy and have had many students, but I was hoping that you would write me a letter or reccomendation. As part of the student teaching portfolio we are required to include 3-4 letters of reccomendation. Also, I believe I will be attending on campus interviews at Temple University on November 2nd. I would really appreciate it if you could help me out with this, but please do not feel obligated! You have already helped me so much :)

Thanks for everything,

Madeline Marchione

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