Core Standards for 6th Grade Science

In looking through the standards and thinking about the "good to know" vs. "must know" for better understanding, thinking about what I did and did not know before I started teaching, and what has made me a "better" person for knowing, I have to consider what makes me look more or less educate, and what has helped me gain a better understanding of the world around me. I remember in a professional development years ago watching a clip of Harvard (or perhaps another elite college) graduates being asked, "What causes the phases of the moon." Now, maybe for the dramatization of the video they only included people who gave clueless answers, but I was shocked at how few had any idea!

So, with that in mind, it has been my goal to make sure my students leave 6th grade knowing a few key things. They include: the phases of the moon, what the sun is made of and how far it is from the earth, that the sun is the main source of energy for most life on earth, why we have seasons, why we have eclipses, that microorganisms are EVERYWHERE and that some can be harmful and some can be helpful, that they understand the benefit of immunizations (I show them gory pictures :)), the importance of WASHING HANDS, and that heat, light, and sound all are in the form of waves. Since there are SO many lessons in learning these things, I have to be picky and choose what I think they should know to help them remember what I feel is most important.

My students next year will have access to tablets in my classroom. Modeling digital ethics is so important. First I have to explain to them the importance of being ethical. I will have to model this, and other things, as I introduce and demonstrate new activities. I already have planned a waiver they have to sign and have their parents sign that the students will NOT look up any inappropriate material, and there will be a severe consequence if they do. I will be explaining about the server in my classroom and their responsibility to use the media responsibly or they will be banned. Period. There are great lessons provided on the web, which we looked up in class last week, that are perfect for teaching ethics and responsibility. I already downloaded the Digital Literacy and Citizenship books into my iBooks.

We will also be learning about plagiarism (which we do every year). I loved the idea someone mentioned in class about having the students write a paper and then I use one of theirs as if it's mine. What a fantastic example! Every year I have students who copy/paste  things into their reports. As if I don't know the difference between their writing and Wikipedia.

Then there's the cyber-bullying issue. Since we will be building webpages for my project, and the students will be commenting on each others pages, this is something I will have to thoroughly address right away. There are some great videos about it online for this age group. Sappy and dramatic, just the kind of things these guys love :)

Plagiarism, inappropriate sites, and cyber-bullying are just a few of the ethical problems I will encounter. But hopefully through positive modeling and support, I can avoid a lot of it.