The teaching practice that I most wish to model is the "Frame the work globally and locally".   This upcoming school year is the launch of brand new class for students where they will design, grow and plant native species into the school grounds.  The hope is to grow this program and have it spread throughout the school district and the community at large.  We want students to understand that their own backyards and the school itself can be an important piece of the natural world that benefits both wildlife and people.  That wildlife does not have to be far off and away but could be outside a classroom window.  That the school grounds can be living, breathing learning laboratories.

It is important to keep all three of the teaching practices in mind, and although I don't teach science this thinking is important in all subjects.  The one that I model and will continue to model is to allow the students to be the expert in the area of study.  I have found that too many students are apprehensive about sharing what they know due to being fearful of being incorrect.  It is so important for learners to be comfortable sharing ideas and information and to lead others. I know this will translate to interactions they have in other classes because their thinking, knowledge, voices are important!

Living in the agriculture region of California, I always teach lessons on water conservation.  Students learn that they can make a positive impact by changing a few of the daily actions. They are always surprised to learn it is not just an adult issue.  They can help educate their family members about what they can do together to help. Teaching in a rural community, students often do not feel connected to the world.   “Frame the work globally and locally” to help them see why they need to learn and know about the topics.   Conserving water naturally leads to studying the effects of the ongoing drought.  It lets them be understand that are people who can make an impact on the world. I look forward to participating in Citizen Science to connect my students to a project and team them up with professional Scientists.

All of these practices are good!  If I had to pick one to focus on, I would say "frame the work globally and locally". This practice encourages us to meet kids "where they are at." I think it is important to focus locally because, depending on the project, the students can have an in-person, tangible experience with that organism or ecosystem. For the students who are somewhat indifferent about the environment or ecosystems, that real experience can sometimes be the hook for them to engage and take the project seriously. There's also a level of comfort when seeing something familiar. I like to expand those local connections with my students by focusing on something like migration. We might be observe a tree swallow here in the spring, but where does it go in the winter?  How might what is going on in the ecosystem while it lives here affect how it completes its migration?  What about the ecosystem where it migrates to? I also like to make our big world seem smaller, and those faraway, exotic places seem not so different. Comparing the organisms we observe in our local ecosystem to what is found in the same biome on another continent is always fun. You'll find many organisms that are quite similar.

I think that the first important teaching practice I would like to model is to "position youth as people who do science".  It is important to teach and show students how to record accurate data and observations.  Teaching the difference between observations and inferences is a great place to start.  This helps students to learn to separate actual observations from inferences about what they are observing and will allow them to better record quality data to share with scientists in the field.  "Framing the work globally and locally" means showing the interconnections with the science.  For instance, looking at fungus in the soil in Oklahoma is important here, because it affects our crops, but it is also a global problem with different types of fungus affecting other crops around the World. "Attending to the unexpected" is so valuable for students to learn that there "is no right answer".  So many students just want to know the "right answer", and that is not a real world scientific approach.

Framing students as people who do science is the practice I think I use most often...but I'm not sure I am as careful with my words as the article suggested. I think the "we are scientists' helpers" comment is actually something I've used before without thinking about the impact of that statement. Going forward, I'd like to encourage students to see themselves as scientists in a deeper way. I'll be more purposeful with my phrasing and I'd like to begin with some introductory lesson on how CS is citizens DOING SCIENCE...they would love that. I would also like to model the practice of connecting their work globally and locally. WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? is a question I get every single day. Gifted kids, and especially those on the Autism spectrum, need to know the relevance of their work before they buy in. I will be sure to be ready with global and local impact stories to show them why we're doing what we do.