I have been teaching SNC 1D for a number of years now. It is a course that we have developed fairly well and then it took a back burner for me for awhile while I was focusing on my teaching style and some new courses I was teaching. We have taken a skills-based approach to this course (lab, lab writing, research & organization, mind mapping) and sometimes that has meant that I do not rethink how I am teaching concepts.
This time around it dawned on me that I was doing students a disservice with the way I was teaching ionic compounds. I was already putting a focus on the octet rule and using Bohr-Rutherford diagrams to see patterns in the electrons on the periodic table, but I was making the mistake of using the "criss-cross rule" which I realized was not teaching them anything...they were memorizing not understanding.
This time around I tried to make use of the compound modelling they did to make connections to everything else. I put one of the wooden spheres under the doc cam and compared it to an element that it might represent by drawing its BR diagram and discussing the idea of each "hole" in the sphere and needed/extra electron as shown in the BR diagram and the ion values they could figure out from the BR diagrams an the patterns in the periodic table (group numbers).
I then showed them that when we make compounds the charges have to balance in order for all of those bonds to be satisfied, thus giving us a stable molecule, by using ion notation and adding ions until a balance was achieved. It took some of my students a couple of times of seeing this before is started to sink in, but I believe that more of them actually understood the concept in the end as opposed to having memorized some rule. Hopefully it will benefit them more as they move into Grade 10 science and Grade 11 chemistry.
My colleague and I also got to take our Grade 9s on a field trip this week to introduce the Biology (Ecosystems) unit. The Credit Valley Conservation crew showed our students how to plant trees and exposed them to invasive species in their own neighbourhood. This will make a great connection for us when we introduce their research project that requires them to figure out how an ecosystem will be effected by a specific invasive/endangered species and how that connects to human interactions with that ecosystem. One of the conservation workers had come into our classes the week before to introduce what they do and how we impact our local ecosystems. Some of my students had done a similar trip with their Geography class earlier in the semester, and they still enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it :)
Showing posts with label field trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label field trips. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Monday, December 20, 2010
A Weary Mind, Body and Spirit
Wow am I ever drained - and very glad that it is Christmas Break (though I could also have dealt with staying a few more days so that we had more time after New Years Day, but oh well). It pretty much feels like I have not slept since Thanksgiving. Combine the busy life with the season change, and it all makes sense.
November was busy at school. You get into the second half of the semester realizing that your courses are nowhere near half-way through their curricula, you don't have the energy to lesson plan, and every committee, club or sport your are involved in is about to get busier. Every weekend, something prevented me from sleep - a hockey tournament, the Future Aces Leadership Conference and an OSSTF new teachers retreat being the most notable. I have definitely learned a lot.
The Future Aces: A Conference Empowering Students was a great experience. It was really nice to get to spend some time with students with amazing leadership potential from across Ontario for a weekend. We had fun getting to know each other and hearing from very inspiring speakers like Matt Evans on the adversities he has overcome through comedy, Amanda on her lemonade 4 heart campaign that she has been running since the age of 2, and Paul Rosen on losing his dream to play in the NHL and almost losing his life. Students learned about various causes like MAD: Making a Difference (where Maddie started raising funds to build a community in Africa as her WISH when she was fighting cancer), OSAID: Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving, and human trafficking in Ontario.
To say the least the weekend away with a small group of students from my school was both rewarding and tiring. I cannot wait to have the chance to go again and am really hoping that I can keep the 8 kids together to accomplish what we have now set out to do. They have decided to host a week-long coin drive at school with various events involved to raise money for Maddie's Wish Project. It is going to be a challenge considering I have never run anything like this before, and neither have any of these students - but that was the whole idea!
On another note, some small milestones have been met in some challenging areas of my teaching life. I am slowly learning to put my foot down sooner, rather than later (it's a tough one for us nice folk). Some of the students I was having trouble reaching are buying into the routines in the classroom and are completing work and causing less trouble. Of course there are those who are not buying into it and I am still having trouble with. Some day I will find ways to deal with students who are vain or overly talkative class clowns, but I doubt that this semester will be the day. I am going to come out of this semester with some new tricks up my sleeves and with the knowledge that I have a lot of support around me. I am going to walk into next semester with a new way of starting things and the conviction to follow through with them and create a better learning environment. And I will do all of this knowing that it will not be perfect, that sometimes I will fail, that it is going to take a lot of time and effort. Time and effort that will be taken away from the already huge challenge of having three new courses to teach. Time and effort that will be taken away from coaching teams and helping Future Aces.
Somehow, it will all work out.
November was busy at school. You get into the second half of the semester realizing that your courses are nowhere near half-way through their curricula, you don't have the energy to lesson plan, and every committee, club or sport your are involved in is about to get busier. Every weekend, something prevented me from sleep - a hockey tournament, the Future Aces Leadership Conference and an OSSTF new teachers retreat being the most notable. I have definitely learned a lot.
The Future Aces: A Conference Empowering Students was a great experience. It was really nice to get to spend some time with students with amazing leadership potential from across Ontario for a weekend. We had fun getting to know each other and hearing from very inspiring speakers like Matt Evans on the adversities he has overcome through comedy, Amanda on her lemonade 4 heart campaign that she has been running since the age of 2, and Paul Rosen on losing his dream to play in the NHL and almost losing his life. Students learned about various causes like MAD: Making a Difference (where Maddie started raising funds to build a community in Africa as her WISH when she was fighting cancer), OSAID: Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving, and human trafficking in Ontario.
To say the least the weekend away with a small group of students from my school was both rewarding and tiring. I cannot wait to have the chance to go again and am really hoping that I can keep the 8 kids together to accomplish what we have now set out to do. They have decided to host a week-long coin drive at school with various events involved to raise money for Maddie's Wish Project. It is going to be a challenge considering I have never run anything like this before, and neither have any of these students - but that was the whole idea!
On another note, some small milestones have been met in some challenging areas of my teaching life. I am slowly learning to put my foot down sooner, rather than later (it's a tough one for us nice folk). Some of the students I was having trouble reaching are buying into the routines in the classroom and are completing work and causing less trouble. Of course there are those who are not buying into it and I am still having trouble with. Some day I will find ways to deal with students who are vain or overly talkative class clowns, but I doubt that this semester will be the day. I am going to come out of this semester with some new tricks up my sleeves and with the knowledge that I have a lot of support around me. I am going to walk into next semester with a new way of starting things and the conviction to follow through with them and create a better learning environment. And I will do all of this knowing that it will not be perfect, that sometimes I will fail, that it is going to take a lot of time and effort. Time and effort that will be taken away from the already huge challenge of having three new courses to teach. Time and effort that will be taken away from coaching teams and helping Future Aces.
Somehow, it will all work out.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation
Throughout the past three weeks I have been doing work with the Herbert H Carnegie Future Aces Foundation in Markham, ON. Future Aces is affiliated with many schools throughout the Toronto District School Board and the surrounding area doing leadership and character work with a focus on at-risk youth. It was really neat to get some experience in an Educational role outside of the classroom. This charitable organization definitely does some amazing work. I first heard about them when I was in my last year of high school and got to hear Herb speak at my co-op placement.
My tasks included creating a student journal for the student trip to Chatham, ON; developing a couple of Intermediate Science Character lessons; working through evaluations from the November Leadership Conference (which is run annually for Grades 7-10); attending and supervising the trip to Chatham (36 high school students from 5 high schools in Toronto attended); and organizing the ACES Team (Leadership Team) for the Returning Faces Conference in May (a follow up to the Conference in November). During my placement I was also able to attend one of their high school presentations - it was the first presentation at a school that started a Future Aces club just this year.
The most eventful part of my placement was obviously the excursion to Chatham, ON. The trip lasted for two nights and I rode the bus both ways with the teacher supervisors and the students. We met up with the Future Aces staff there. It was a bit of a 'no man's land' for me to be there on the "organizers" side of things, but to not really have much of a role with them, and not have a direct responsibility for the students, as their teachers had. In any event, it was interesting and I got to see some pretty neat things.
We stopped at the RM Classic Car Exhibit.
Visited the North Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, located on what was the Elgin Settlement - a last stop on the Underground Railroad where many Black men, women, and families settled after escaping slavery.
Spent time at the W.I.S.H. Centre, part of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, where we got to meet and speak with Ken Milburn - the first paid black firefighter in the Chatham department as well as the first black captain (it is believed that he may have also been the first in Canada of at least one, if not both).
Had a tour of the Milner House and Museum (we had also been to the house the night before while on our "Ghost Tour", it was neat to be back during the day time when the kids were less afraid!). The Milner house was built in the late 1800s and was restored as a 1905 home. Apparently the phrase "put a sock in it" comes from this time as the gramophone did not have a volume control - one would be told to "put a sock in it" to muffle the sound.
Our final stop on the Underground Railroad was Uncle Tom's Cabin, built on a part of the large portion of land that was once the Dawn Settlement. Rev. Henson played a big role at this settlement and was made famous when the main character in Uncle Tom's Cabin was developed based on his life. A small museum is housed here were we saw some of the torture devices that were used on black slaves.
We also visited some important First Nations sites. Stopping briefly at the Tecumseh monument (it was almost horizontal snow, so we did not stay long) and spent the better part of our third day on Walpole Island (aka Bkejwanong) learning from and speaking with some of the First Nations Youths, Elders, and the Youth Director. It was a really interesting day there and I think the students learned a lot (I know I did). I did not take any pictures on the Island, but definitely have many memories to take from the experience.
One of the important aspects of this trip for the students were the consciousness thinking sessions with Courtney Kazembe. We did a condensed version of his Awakenings session and it was interesting to what it unfold while he worked with high school students instead of his usual "middle aged" audience. I have much to say about this and will leave it for it's own entry.
Be the new you.
My tasks included creating a student journal for the student trip to Chatham, ON; developing a couple of Intermediate Science Character lessons; working through evaluations from the November Leadership Conference (which is run annually for Grades 7-10); attending and supervising the trip to Chatham (36 high school students from 5 high schools in Toronto attended); and organizing the ACES Team (Leadership Team) for the Returning Faces Conference in May (a follow up to the Conference in November). During my placement I was also able to attend one of their high school presentations - it was the first presentation at a school that started a Future Aces club just this year.
The most eventful part of my placement was obviously the excursion to Chatham, ON. The trip lasted for two nights and I rode the bus both ways with the teacher supervisors and the students. We met up with the Future Aces staff there. It was a bit of a 'no man's land' for me to be there on the "organizers" side of things, but to not really have much of a role with them, and not have a direct responsibility for the students, as their teachers had. In any event, it was interesting and I got to see some pretty neat things.
We stopped at the RM Classic Car Exhibit.
Visited the North Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, located on what was the Elgin Settlement - a last stop on the Underground Railroad where many Black men, women, and families settled after escaping slavery.
Spent time at the W.I.S.H. Centre, part of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, where we got to meet and speak with Ken Milburn - the first paid black firefighter in the Chatham department as well as the first black captain (it is believed that he may have also been the first in Canada of at least one, if not both).
Had a tour of the Milner House and Museum (we had also been to the house the night before while on our "Ghost Tour", it was neat to be back during the day time when the kids were less afraid!). The Milner house was built in the late 1800s and was restored as a 1905 home. Apparently the phrase "put a sock in it" comes from this time as the gramophone did not have a volume control - one would be told to "put a sock in it" to muffle the sound.
Our final stop on the Underground Railroad was Uncle Tom's Cabin, built on a part of the large portion of land that was once the Dawn Settlement. Rev. Henson played a big role at this settlement and was made famous when the main character in Uncle Tom's Cabin was developed based on his life. A small museum is housed here were we saw some of the torture devices that were used on black slaves.
We also visited some important First Nations sites. Stopping briefly at the Tecumseh monument (it was almost horizontal snow, so we did not stay long) and spent the better part of our third day on Walpole Island (aka Bkejwanong) learning from and speaking with some of the First Nations Youths, Elders, and the Youth Director. It was a really interesting day there and I think the students learned a lot (I know I did). I did not take any pictures on the Island, but definitely have many memories to take from the experience.
One of the important aspects of this trip for the students were the consciousness thinking sessions with Courtney Kazembe. We did a condensed version of his Awakenings session and it was interesting to what it unfold while he worked with high school students instead of his usual "middle aged" audience. I have much to say about this and will leave it for it's own entry.
Be the new you.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Loving Online Marking and soooo Much More!
Wow it has been awhile since an update was written here. It must make it seem like I don't have much to say about what is going on (I'm sure those of you that know me are laughing/scoffing at that comment right now!). There has been so much happening but I guess some of it had to compound (and a few of you had to remind me to write) before I realized there was much I wanted to share.
I am in the midst of my first ever science placement. Teaching in a different department has brought on many new challenges and excitement since I have started. Math and Science both had their perks and their low points. Some of the things I have noticed are as follows:
- Coming up with and being able to perform demos as a normal part of my classes is a lot of fun and a great way to think about learning
- Doing demos is a lot of prep work and cleaning up is annoying! (But it is DEFINTELY worth it!)
- I am way less confident working with science concepts, but teaching it has led me to refresh my knowledge and even do a bit of research of my own. It has reminded me how much I LOVE learning and being curious about things!
- It really is amazing that departments within the same school can have such different dynamics!
- Getting to work with a new Associate Teacher has been a great experience. New things to learn and different approaches to observe.
- Enriches classes are SO curious about the subject. They are amazing to watch in class!
- Teaching four sections of the SAME course is REDUNDANT and I cannot keep track of who has be told what (Yikes!)
There are definitely other things that I have come across, but many of them are not directly related to the subject change so I will stop there. I will leave you with a brief account of some of the excitement I have encountered in the past two weeks.
1. I started teaching the Grade 9 sections today. You definitely have to be conscious of the ways you manage a junior Grade compared to a Grade 11 or 12 class. But you can also have a lot of fun with the material with them.
2. I was on the bench for the girls' last regular season hockey game. What an improvement they have made! Unfortunately I couldn't make the quarter finals or semis - but I was super proud of them for getting to the semi finals!
3. An experience of dealing with coming back to class after a supply teacher has been there...I was away and my associate teacher ended up being sick. Needless to say I am behind with my Grade 11's and there are more interruptions to come (gross).
4. Spending 3 days and 2 nights at an outdoor centre on a Grade 11 Biology field trip. SUCH a GREAT experience as a teacher candidate! An experience I will take with me and (dare I say) reflect on. It is definitely something I would do again and even though I have seen how much work organizing a trip like that can be I am definitely interested in doing something like that in my professional career. Getting to see what the students can get out of it and realizing that so many of them would never get some of those outdoor experiences otherwise. Lots of responsibility (and definitely some risk involved) and many new challenges with discipline and problem solving - and experience worth having!
I cannot believe that I almost signed off without talking about the title of this entry! I only remembered becuase I was running off to do more of it before I head to sleep. ONLINE MARKING!!!
My Associate Teacher uses turnitin.com - how awesome! It took him some time to get all of his students on the site and connected with the class they are supposed to be connected to, but now I can post bins for them to submit assignments to (in word format) that I am using to do formative assessments with my students. I will assign a communication type question for them to do based on something I have taught and they have to submit it before the next class. I review it (make comments on the work online that they can then access!) and then discuss with them the next class common mistakes I noticed or even realize that I need to reteach a concept. Marking this way is sooooo much faster than formative marking by hand. I am much less overwhelmed by it this time around. Oh, and I can also send entire classes emails from turnitin to remind them of the assignments, etc. I highly recommend checking out what it is capable of!
Happy March!!
(March Break in 2 weeks!!!!!!)
I am in the midst of my first ever science placement. Teaching in a different department has brought on many new challenges and excitement since I have started. Math and Science both had their perks and their low points. Some of the things I have noticed are as follows:
- Coming up with and being able to perform demos as a normal part of my classes is a lot of fun and a great way to think about learning
- Doing demos is a lot of prep work and cleaning up is annoying! (But it is DEFINTELY worth it!)
- I am way less confident working with science concepts, but teaching it has led me to refresh my knowledge and even do a bit of research of my own. It has reminded me how much I LOVE learning and being curious about things!
- It really is amazing that departments within the same school can have such different dynamics!
- Getting to work with a new Associate Teacher has been a great experience. New things to learn and different approaches to observe.
- Enriches classes are SO curious about the subject. They are amazing to watch in class!
- Teaching four sections of the SAME course is REDUNDANT and I cannot keep track of who has be told what (Yikes!)
There are definitely other things that I have come across, but many of them are not directly related to the subject change so I will stop there. I will leave you with a brief account of some of the excitement I have encountered in the past two weeks.
1. I started teaching the Grade 9 sections today. You definitely have to be conscious of the ways you manage a junior Grade compared to a Grade 11 or 12 class. But you can also have a lot of fun with the material with them.
2. I was on the bench for the girls' last regular season hockey game. What an improvement they have made! Unfortunately I couldn't make the quarter finals or semis - but I was super proud of them for getting to the semi finals!
3. An experience of dealing with coming back to class after a supply teacher has been there...I was away and my associate teacher ended up being sick. Needless to say I am behind with my Grade 11's and there are more interruptions to come (gross).
4. Spending 3 days and 2 nights at an outdoor centre on a Grade 11 Biology field trip. SUCH a GREAT experience as a teacher candidate! An experience I will take with me and (dare I say) reflect on. It is definitely something I would do again and even though I have seen how much work organizing a trip like that can be I am definitely interested in doing something like that in my professional career. Getting to see what the students can get out of it and realizing that so many of them would never get some of those outdoor experiences otherwise. Lots of responsibility (and definitely some risk involved) and many new challenges with discipline and problem solving - and experience worth having!
I cannot believe that I almost signed off without talking about the title of this entry! I only remembered becuase I was running off to do more of it before I head to sleep. ONLINE MARKING!!!
My Associate Teacher uses turnitin.com - how awesome! It took him some time to get all of his students on the site and connected with the class they are supposed to be connected to, but now I can post bins for them to submit assignments to (in word format) that I am using to do formative assessments with my students. I will assign a communication type question for them to do based on something I have taught and they have to submit it before the next class. I review it (make comments on the work online that they can then access!) and then discuss with them the next class common mistakes I noticed or even realize that I need to reteach a concept. Marking this way is sooooo much faster than formative marking by hand. I am much less overwhelmed by it this time around. Oh, and I can also send entire classes emails from turnitin to remind them of the assignments, etc. I highly recommend checking out what it is capable of!
Happy March!!
(March Break in 2 weeks!!!!!!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)