Mod 1 Video Discussion

I feel that I have a bit of an uphill battle since I'm teaching life science and cover a lot of dense subjects (cardiovascular system, endocrine system, excretory system, etc.). Sometimes its a struggle to spruce up the learning process with activities when some of the concepts feel irreducible, and if they are, is it "teaching to the depth of the standard." What comes to mind is an activity the other two 7th grade science teachers and I did where we had kids stationed in certain patterns and they moved an index card around to help demonstrate how electric messages are transported through the nervous system. I imagine that to a student learning English, they might not make connections right away between the transporting of something and the relevance to the particular system (lots of body systems "move" different things around, and students are expected to understand the differences between the systems). Upon that thought though, I can see how the shared experience with the class could help build up future understandings. They get to interact with native speakers still, and, while maybe not understanding the specific learning goal I am trying to accomplish in general, they can start (or continue) establishing an "affective filter" with which they may eventually use to learn the subject matter through their learning of English. I suppose my answer kind of skirts between the goals of learning English as well as the goals I'm trying to set for the content, but my hope is that this course will help me better balance those two matters on a daily basis.