Reaction to Action

This week's assignment led me to reflect on my own teaching and learning. Since I finally chose a topic for my action research plan: Technology in the Science Classroom, I was able to think about the current problems our school is facing in regards to student achievement. How can we expect students to do well on TEKS that are not covered in the current grade level? For example, in science, the 6th and 8th grade curriculum is aligned, but 7th grade focuses on humans and their systems. What happens if the teacher skips it or doesn't teach it thoroughly?

How can we increase retention of TEKS between grade levels? As I tutored 8th grade science students last week, I noticed that some students didn't even know the difference between a food web and a food chain! Seriously! That's a concept from 3rd grade and these kids looked like they've never seen it before!I'm hoping that bringing technology into the classroom will help increase student achievement by making learning fun again. Hopefully students will participate and interact at a higher level of rigor.