Lab In Every Lesson

My Interview With A Very Special Student

Currently, the most-downloaded episode of the Student-Centered Science Teacher Podcast is Episode #12, "What Students Say About Student-Centered Learning In Science".

In a way, this makes perfect sense to me.  As a teacher seeking to transform my instructional practice, I was most concerned about how the students would receive it, what they would do with it, and how it would impact the standards-based assessment outcomes that are most commonly used to measure learning. 

I thought, "What if the students don't cooperate?" and "What if the learning experiences I designed don't connect with assessment-content and skills?".  

In Episode #13, though, I was only able to report on what my students have said.  I wasn't able to actually have my students actually speak to you.

Today, though, I'm bringing you an actual interview with an actual student!  And, guess what?!  He's not my student!  No .... he's my son.  🥰

Max is in fourth grade and apparently has an amazing science teacher (not me!) who values student-centered principles, encouraging her students to learn through experimentation.

Recently, he shared with me the specifics of a lesson he completed and the feelings he experienced at the end of a relatively long lesson.  His words were impactful, even to me.  They exemplify exactly what I seek to achieve in my classroom, both content knowledge and growth mindset.  The words he uses to describe the experience are priceless and oh-so inspirational!

Though this episode is a bit different from some others I've prepared for you, this one will motivate you to ditch the "What ifs?" swirling around in your head and get right to the business of making the mindset shift you'll need to transform your classroom and begin to offer your students more interactive science lessons rich with meaningful learning experiences.

 

 

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If you’re interested in creating learning experiences for your students that measure up to that which Max described in his classroom, consider downloading the details of my 5-Element Framework for planning interactive science lessons on my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements.   Or, if you're more interested in gaining some insight into the practical aspects of delivering and executing student-centered instructional strategies in your classroom, you might benefit from the free guide, "Things To Consider When Making The Switch To Student Centered Learning".  Just share your email at www.labineverylesson.com/considerations.  

If you'd like to respond to this episode with comments or questions, please do so in the FREE, non-Facebook community at community.labineverylesson.com.

Teach chemistry?  Shop for ready-to-deliver interactive science lessons at https://www.labineverylesson.com/shop. 

If you loved this episode or any other on the Student Centered Science Teacher Podcast, please leave a review on the podcast player of your choice OR give me a shout-out on your favorite social network!  Help me spread the word!  Take a snapshot of that review or social shout-out and share it with me to receive a FREE interactive science lesson of your choice from those currently available in my store.  Just go to my website, www.labineverylesson.com, and click on PODCAST in the menu at the top right.  Then, follow the instructions on that page.

5 Ways Technology Can Leverage Student-Centered Learning in Science

Technology is a cornerstone of student-centered learning in science in our modern society.

In this episode, I’ll give you some examples of which technology I love for my own student-centered science classroom, but this isn't going to be an episode focused on examples of technologies that work or those that may be among the best.  In fact, there's no way any one person could possibly share that information because because there are just so many choices out there!!!  Each and every day, I swear I discover yet another amazing tool I’d love to try, and they all have a unique and focused purpose. 

So, I'd rather spend my time with you today -- and your oh-so-precious time! -- describing five ways that the integration of technology, in general, is going to leverage your attempts to create a more student-centered classroom environment.  And, guess what?  These five ways span every aspect of your job as a teacher, from content area expert to social-emotional support and family-connection-extraordinaire!

 

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Interested in viewing my differentiated evaluation project about integrating technology-based, student-choice skill practice?!  Here it is! 

https://lmkarosas.wixsite.com/spacedpractice2021

 

And, as promised, here's the link to redeeming an EXTRA 30 DAYS on the existing FREE 30 DAYS offer from BookWidgets!

https://www.bookwidgets.com/giftcard/DB6J-B339-E3CG

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If you’d like to jump ahead or follow along with me throughout this series in the coming weeks – OR if you usually listen to me while driving in the car or while doing chores, I have some notes for you!   You can download the free guide, "Things To Consider When Making The Switch To Student Centered Learning",  when you share your email at www.labineverylesson.com/considerations.   And, if this was the first episode of the podcast you’ve heard and you’re as interested in planning for a student centered science classroom as you are interested in leading one, you can download the details of my 5-Element Framework for planning interactive science lessons on my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements. 

Remember, if you'd like to respond to this episode with comments or questions, please do so in the FREE community at community.labineverylesson.com.

If you loved this episode or any other on the Student Centered Science Teacher Podcast, please leave a review on the podcast player of your choice OR give me a shout-out on your favorite social network!  Help me spread the word!  Take a snapshot of that review or social shout-out and share it with me to receive a FREE interactive science lesson of your choice from those currently available in my store.  Just go to my website, www.labineverylesson.com, and click on PODCAST in the menu at the top right.  Then, follow the instructions on that page.

Adjusting Curriculum Sequence To Support Student-Centered Learning

Three years ago I made the switch to student-centered learning for my virtual chemistry classroom. 

When I did, I felt as discouraged by fear as I did invigorated by a change toward what I deeply believed was something better, something so much more meaningful and impactful to the lives of my students.  I did not believe my students would cooperate.  I felt absolutely sure that they would revolt!  No other teacher at my school, to my knowledge, was challenging them with a daily activity for which they had to provide a written account of their experience.  Our practice included a lot of lecture, a lot of guided note-taking, and a lot of scaffolded questioning.

Rather than allow these fears to overwhelm me to the point of preventing me from following through on the learning I had done to prepare for this change, I chose to plan for the worst and hope for the best!

In this episode, I invite you to consider how changes to your curriculum -- the sequence of lessons you deliver throughout a unit, semester, or throughout the entire year -- might support the instructional goals you set for yourself and for your students when you make the commitment to plan for and deliver a lab-style activity in every lesson, every day.  More specifically, I'll address specific considerations such as student readiness, classroom routines, and the time it might take to address the potential obstacles you might identify for your unique learning environment.

 

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If you’d like to jump ahead or follow along with me throughout this series in the coming weeks – OR if you usually listen to me while driving in the car or while doing chores, I have some notes for you!   You can download the free guide, "Things To Consider When Making The Switch To Student Centered Learning",  when you share your email at www.labineverylesson.com/considerations.   And, if this was the first episode of the podcast you’ve heard and you’re as interested in planning for a student centered science classroom as you are interested in leading one, you can download the details of my 5-Element Framework for planning interactive science lessons on my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements. 

Remember, if you'd like to respond to this episode with comments or questions, please do so in the FREE community at community.labineverylesson.com.

If you loved this episode or any other on the Student Centered Science Teacher Podcast, please leave a review on the podcast player of your choice OR give me a shout-out on your favorite social network!  Help me spread the word!  Take a snapshot of that review or social shout-out and share it with me to receive a FREE interactive science lesson of your choice from those currently available in my store.  Just go to my website, www.labineverylesson.com, and click on PODCAST in the menu at the top right.  Then, follow the instructions on that page.

Getting Real About What It Takes To Make The Shift To Student-Centered Learning in Science

You may have heard, seen, read, or assumed that making the switch to a student-centered classroom will create more time for you, provide you with more freedom, or that you’ll work less hard.  With teachers continuing to leave the profession for a laundry list of reasons related to overwork, under-appreciation, unreasonable expectations, and the general difficulty with maintaining a work-life balance, it seems like simply learning how to implement student-centered learning strategies would ease the burden they carry, providing them with more opportunity to enjoy their profession and their personal lives.

I have to remind myself of this sometimes, science teacher friends … NOTHING REALLY GOOD IS EVER FREE AND OFTEN ISN’T EASY.

I am living, breathing proof that those promises claiming student-centered classrooms provide more pleasure and more fulfillment for teachers CAN BE realized.  They ARE possible and, I’d even say they’re LIKELY!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!   But the notion that they just, POOF!, happen?  That’s unrealistic and it’ an unfair, irresponsible idea to peddle.

The reason I started this podcast is that it wasn’t a stressless, work-free transition for me at all.  It was a TIRELESS effort to re-engineer my chemistry lesson plans to support student-centered learning and prevent me from falling back to those teacher-centered habits of lecturing and demonstrating.  On account of it being a complete and total mindset shift, it took REAL FOCUS, REAL INTENT to craft new, interactive, science lesson plans.  And, because I believe whole-heartedly in the benefits of consistency in near-everything, I set out to craft A NEW SCIENCE LESSON PLAN FRAMEWORK that would guide the development of EVERY NEW CHEMISTRY LESSON PLAN I wrote.    

I, too, benefited from the consistency that I intentionally integrated into my classroom.  NOW, dare I claim that planning new interactive science lessons IS easy for me?!  Differentiating the student-centered learning activities I incorporate into each interactive science lesson IS easy for me! 

Is it still time-consuming?  HECK YES. 

This episode will provide you with a practitioner's perspective of what it takes to make the shift to student-centered learning for the students in your science classroom.  This episode isn't for the weary or the easily-discouraged!  Most of it is pretty heavy, but I promise you'll reap the rewards if you listen through to the very end . . .

 

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If you’d like to jump ahead or follow along with me throughout this series in the coming weeks – OR if you usually listen to me while driving in the car or while doing chores, I have some notes for you!   You can download the free guide, "Things To Consider When Making The Switch To Student Centered Learning",  when you share your email at www.labineverylesson.com/considerations.   And, if this was the first episode of the podcast you’ve heard and you’re as interested in planning for a student centered science classroom as you are interested in leading one, you can download the details of my 5-Element Framework for planning interactive science lessons on my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements. 

Remember, if you'd like to respond to this episode with comments or questions, please do so in the FREE community at community.labineverylesson.com.

If you loved this episode or any other on the Student Centered Science Teacher Podcast, please leave a review on the podcast player of your choice OR give me a shout-out on your favorite social network!  Help me spread the word!  Take a snapshot of that review or social shout-out and share it with me to receive a FREE interactive science lesson of your choice from those currently available in my store.  Just go to my website, www.labineverylesson.com, and click on PODCAST in the menu at the top right.  Then, follow the instructions on that page.

Teachers Are Servant Leaders In Their Student-Centered Classrooms

Mastering the art of creating unique, engaging and effective lesson plans is only part of the challenge we face in making the switch to student centered learning in our classrooms. While I believe that an effective lesson plan is the cornerstone of student centered learning, its delivery will ultimately determine its worth.

This episode begins a series on aspects of your current classroom and teaching style you might consider as you seek to implement more student centered instructional strategies.  Remember!  What you do and how you do it matters! 

If you think making the switch to student centered learning is as easy as purchasing a few new lesson plans or activities, think again!  I'll teach you the best approach to take with your students, the way you want to deliver your science lessons or interactive explorations, to increase their interest, their willingness to engage, and, ultimately, their achievement.   

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If you’d like to jump ahead or follow along with me throughout this series in the coming weeks – OR if you usually listen to me while driving in the car or while doing chores, I have some notes for you!   You can download the free guide, "Things To Consider When Making The Switch To Student Centered Learning",  when you share your email at www.labineverylesson.com/considerations.   And, if this was the first episode of the podcast you’ve heard and you’re as interested in planning for a student centered science classroom as you are interested in leading one, you can download the details of my 5-Element Framework for planning interactive science lessons on my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements. 

 

Remember, if you'd like to respond to this episode with comments or questions, please do so in the FREE community at community.labineverylesson.com.

 

If you loved this episode or any other on the Student Centered Science Teacher Podcast, please leave a review on the podcast player of your choice OR give me a shout-out on your favorite social network!  Help me spread the word!  Take a snapshot of that review or social shout-out and share it with me to receive a FREE interactive science lesson of your choice from those currently available in my store.  Just go to my website, www.labineverylesson.com, and click on PODCAST in the menu at the top right.  Then, follow the instructions on that page.

What Students Say About Interactive Science Lessons and My Student Centered Classroom

YOU are someone’s favorite teacher!  That’s right … you brighten that kids’ day, make them smile, or pick them up when they’re feeling down.   We’re all drawn to different people for some reason we sometimes can’t quite articulate.  But, are you someone’s favorite teacher because of the lessons you’ve planned?  Have you’ve helped them overcome some huge hurdle?  Or, are you showing up every day to encourage them through challenge after challenge you designed for them to encounter in your science class?

 

You might have never considered that rigor and challenge or any content-relevant reason would be a reason you’re someone’s favorite teacher.

 

In this podcast episode, I’m sharing with you all the comments I’ve received from students in the past two years since I’ve been delivering interactive science lessons to support student centered learning.  From the basic to the super-detailed, you’ll get the complete student perspective of just how impactful student centered approaches are to supporting academic success and to supporting the social-emotional aspects of learning science. 

 

SPOILER ALERT!  Students think student centered learning is amazing! 😉

 

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For information on the 5 Element Framework discussed in this episode, visit my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements.  There, you can download the complete guide that provides you with examples or recommendations of how to implement each element into your own lesson plans. 

 

If you loved this episode or any other on the Student Centered Science Teacher Podcast, please leave a review on the podcast player of your choice OR give me a shout-out on your favorite social network!  Help me spread the word!  Take a snapshot of that review or social shout-out and share it with me to receive a FREE interactive science lesson of your choice from those currently available in my store.  Just go to my website, www.labineverylesson.com, and click on PODCAST in the menu at the top right.  Then, follow the instructions on that page.

Going Virtual with Student Centered Learning

Do you think student centered learning only works in a traditional classroom with four walls?

If so, think again.

This was a limiting belief that I had for probably 9 of my 11 years as a cyber school science teacher.  No one had ever suggested that I could be more than a talking head or provide more for students to work with than a set of guided notes.

Now, most of students share the same rich experiences as those in the best traditional brick and mortar science classrooms.

Still, I do have a small group of asynchronous students.  These students have earned the flexibility to not attend classes as scheduled and, if they so desire, to work entirely on their own. 

Knowing the rigor of the course had increased substantially and that these students would no longer be able to start up a video recording or read through an inadequate text to master the content each day, I set out to find a solution unique to their needs. 

It turns out the solution I built didn't only serve those asynchronous students but also provided support to my students who were attending daily live class meetings.  It also allowed me to assign new lesson content in my absence during in-service days or personal time off.  This coming school year when my meeting software changes and the rest of the teachers at my school are worrying about how to review student work in real-time during class, the solution I built will seamlessly become part of my new classroom management routine.

In this episode, you'll learn about the solution I created and, hopefully, consider why and how it might also work for you going forward into, potentially, another uncertain school year.

 

 

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SHOW NOTES:

• Get the guide, "5 Elements of Effective Interactive Science Lessons for Student Centered Learning", to learn how I prepare new technology-based science lessons that encourage scientific method mastery in my students each and every day.  The guide includes links to former podcast episodes where each of the elements was discussed in depth.
• Sign up for a 30-day free trial of BookWidgets, the cloud-based software tool I use to create digital interactive notebooks that mirror my interactive science lessons.
• Review this podcast in your player or share it on social!  Then, visit my website to share it and receive a promo code for any interactive science lesson of your choice from the Lab In Every Lesson store ... FREE!

 

Why I Include Skill Practice At The End of Every Interactive Science Lesson

In this 5-Element series, I’ve been reviewing each of the elements of my lesson planning framework in the order of how I present them to students throughout the progression of a lesson. 

In this episode, I discuss the fifth and final component of my lessons:  skill practice. 

For me, skill practice is included on the heels of data dependent analysis of our Learning Experience activity or activities.  It’s the piece that ensures the transfer of standard-based content and skills from the Learning Experience I created and students have executed.  It was born from the very real concern I had when I first made the switch to student centered learning in my chemistry classroom that my largely at-risk student population might complete an activity but not connect the fundamental lessons from it in a way that allowed them to apply the knowledge to unique scenarios. 

Tune in to learn the many different reasons and benefits to incorporating Skill Practice into the end of an interactive student centered science lesson.

 

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To revisit any of the 5 Element Framework discussed in this series, remember to visit my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements.  There, you can download the complete guide that provides you with examples or recommendations of how to implement each element into your own lesson plans. 

When you share your email with me to get the guide, you’ll also get added to my email list.  That might be super useful if you think any of my prepared lessons might work for your students in your classroom.   Each time I publish new lessons for sale – those that aren’t already on TpT – I’m going to be publishing them to only my website for 1 week at a lower price before publishing them on TpT for the masses.  When you’re on my email list, you’ll get first-dibs and a discount!    

How Regular Data Analysis Complements Student Centered Learning

In the Data-Dependent Analysis portion of my student centered lessons, I teach students how to use data they collect during their interactive Learning Experience.  We pull back and reflect on what they’ve collected to consider what they’ve learned.  In the planning, it’s nothing more than a series of questions – sometimes scaffolded questions -- leading students to the big idea.  We work toward uncovering that which I want and need them to see, that new knowledge they’ve generated.

 

This element of the interactive science lesson doesn't prepare them to be chemists when they leave my chemistry course.  It trains them to be informed citizens of our world who don’t act primarily from a place of emotion and passion.  It conditions them to gather as much information as they can for themselves, to sit back and consider that information from a variety of angles, and then – perhaps combined with their passion and emotion – create a course of action. 

 

I believe we science teachers can do that, that we are the best position of any other on our faculty to fulfill that huge responsibility, if only one student at a time! 

 

In this episode, you'll hear a few real-life analogies to the more academic analyses we expect our students to conduct as we seek to gain perspective of our purpose.  You'll get some great content-based, instructional examples where data-dependent analysis has been incorporated and from which you'll learn how to incorporate into your own lessons. 

 

The complete guide to the "5 Elements of Effective Interactive Science Lessons for Student Centered Learning" can be downloaded at http://www.labineverylesson.com/5elements when you provide your email address. 

When you share your email with me to get the guide, you’ll also get added to my email list.  That might be super useful if you think any of my prepared lessons might work for your students in your classroom.   Each time I publish new lessons for sale – those that aren’t already on TpT – I’m going to be publishing them to only my website for 1 week at a lower price before publishing them on TpT for the masses.  When you’re on my email list, you’ll get first-dibs and a discount!    

How To Prepare Student Centered Learning Experiences That Work In Any Learning Environment

The phrases, “learning experience” and “student exploration” are some I’d use to describe what I learned from my study of the Visible Learning for Science text if I had to explain it in a sentence or two.  I emerged from my reflection on it with three main professional goals for the 2019-2020 school year, my worst-ever year for student engagement:  to collect student artifacts, to enhance rigor, and to foster growth mindset.  I wanted to acquire evidence of their learning, I wanted that learning to be challenging – considering the 60% mindset I’ve discussed in former episodes – and I wanted my students to feel loved and nurtured through the process – both by me, their teacher, but also to learn to give themselves grace in the doing.  And, that’s where my lesson planning began.

 

But, I’m a cyber school teacher!  Don’t think that didn’t give me major pause!  HOW WAS I GOING TO CREATE MEANINGFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN SCIENCE FOR STUDENTS WHO COULDN’T PUT THEIR HANDS ON ANYTHING?!  I turned, first, to technology and then revisited my own professional classroom goals to realize any medium can be transformed into a "learning experience".

 

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To revisit any of the 5 Element Framework discussed in this series, remember to visit my website at www.labineverylesson.com/5elements.  There, you can download the complete guide that provides you with examples or recommendations of how to implement each element into your own lesson plans. 

When you share your email with me to get the guide, you’ll also get added to my email list.  That might be super useful if you think any of my prepared lessons might work for your students in your classroom.   Each time I publish new lessons for sale – those that aren’t already on TpT – I’m going to be publishing them to only my website for 1 week at a lower price before publishing them on TpT for the masses.  When you’re on my email list, you’ll get first-dibs and a discount!