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Janelise Aldea Delgado Janelise Aldea Delgado makes a special effort to reach out to students who have difficulty in academic areas, but who show great potential. She keeps students' individual differences in mind as she plans her lessons, and often enlists their input to create a classroom environment of investigation and learning. Delagado's Green Alliance butterfly habitat is especially popular among students, helping them to learn about the care and protection of the environment and the importance of research. "My greatest satisfaction as an educator is when students develop to their full capacity and achieve their educational and emotional goals," Delgado says. "I also love to see my students share their knowledge about butterflies with younger students. What teacher wouldn't want a classroom experience like that?" |
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Rosa M. Costa Castro When Rosa Castro teaches her students geology, she uses different kinds of sweets that share characteristics of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. To teach binary fission and chromatids in biology, she uses large balloons as models. Her students draw, compose songs, act out plays and participate in field trips where they take photos of, and notes about, particular places to put into a PowerPoint slideshow for a classroom presentation later. And each day, her students complete an assessment so that she can see what they've learned. "I'm always trying to come up with lessons to bring my students activities that will make my class interesting and pertinent," Castro says. "I especially look for activities that will help bring equilibrium to their lives, goals, responsibilities and appreciation of the sciences." |
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Aileen Morales Figueroa In her 18 years of teaching, Aileen Morales Figueroa has seen that while elementary students are fascinated by science and discovery, they often lose interest by the time they get to middle school. Many feel that science is only for high-achieving students. Therefore, Figueroa uses certain teaching strategies to boost students' confidence and dissipate their fears and apathy. "I often integrate art, math and even music lyrics into my lessons," Figueroa says. "When I incorporate materials that students are used to, they gain a broader vision of the role scientific concepts play in their lives. I want my students to understand that science is for everyone." |
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Maryenís Sanjurjo Arroyo Students often ask Maryenís Sanjurjo Arroyo why they should study science when they don't forsee entering a career in biology, chemistry or medicine. Though she's taught for just five years, Arroyo knows that students who have a broad understanding of scientific concepts can use that knowledge to solve everyday problems that they'll encounter throughout their lives. Convincing her students of that, though, is always a challenge. Therefore, Arroyo uses diverse strategies to facilitate students' conceptual learning. She integrates technology, lab work and interactive games into her lectures and textbook lessons — especially when teaching concepts like mass, volume, density and solutions. For lessons on solidifcation of different substances, she heats lard pallets, marshmallows and melted chocolate. "This changes students' attitudes toward the class because they now see it as fun and interactive," Arroyo says. "Plus, because I'm constantly talking to my students, I can always detect — and correct — any erroneous interpretations of concepts." |
