Journal Entry #1 (C&I 426-01)

I can remember the first time I was interested in science, but I cannot remember how old I was. At the time, I was living in New Jersey, and my parents decided to enroll me in an after school program at a place called "The Nature Center." I was pretty young, and so I don't remember much about the lessons or the class itself. I do, however, remember doing an activity centered on the anatomy of a shark; it was dissection based, and then we fried up the shark and ate it. It was wonderfully barbaric and fun. Since then, science has always been something of interest to me. I love being presented with a challenge and subsequently figuring things out. What brought me to teaching, I couldn't say for sure. Before I committed to becoming a teacher by actively seeking acceptance into the school of education, I was at a loss when it came to what I wanted to do with my life. I suppose, in the end, it was my initial love of science, particularly that which deals with living things, my desire to share that interest, which made me want to teach. Now that I am in the school of education and learning exactly what it means to be a teacher, I'm realizing how much of a challenge that actually is, and am excited that I'm moving toward that goal.

As I was reading through Chapter 1 in the text for C&I 426 (the class that this journal entry is for) and going over the rubric for how I would rate my teaching skills, I thought that my answer to most of the questions would be unclear until I had some experience teaching. Theoretically, I have wonderful class management skills, but until I put them into practice and learn how I really act in classroom situations, I will not be able to accurately assess myself. I am confident, but still inexperienced. In areas like Course Content Knowledge, however, I am surprised to find that I am slightly unsure of myself. I've studied some type of Biology almost every year of my high school and college experiences and received a 4/5 on the AP biology exam, but it is hard to say whether or not I have the thorough, deep understanding needed to break things down and systematically teach them to people who have never seen the material before. I feel as if I would be willing to do just as much studying as my students my first couple years to make sure that I'm clear on the material and concepts.

I was assigned to ask several friends where they believed the mass in trees came from. Right off the bat, almost everybody said that it came from the soil. One said that it came from the sunlight; I asked him how sunlight could turn into plant material, and he replied that it was through photosynthesis. I asked him questions trying to steer him in the direction and get him to figure it out. I find it strange that so many people don't understand the concept, but then again, I didn't figure it out completely until I took Plant Physiology last year. I believe that helping students tie big picture concepts together is one thing I'll want to focus on as a science teacher.