I am teaching SPH 3U0 for the third straight semester. The kids know when they walk into my room that I put down a hard academic fist. I have high expectations for them and push them to produce their own work. I want them to spend a semester with me and leave my class knowing they have changed something about the way they learn, study, and/or think. Physics requires a high level of problem solving with a secure understanding of the core concepts. This is not an easy thing to get "A" students to understand, at least not in my experience.
This past semester I took to using out school's WOW (workstation on wheels) cart, which houses a laptop, speakers, LCD projector, and document camera. Before each class I would post the outline for the days notes so that student could print them out if they wanted to. The idea was that they could have my class work toward whatever type of learner they were. if they were audio learners, they could listen and then find the completed notes online that night; if they were visual they could watch and "fill in the blanks"; if they were kinesthetic they could copy everything on their own....or a combination of the options. In the end, I heard more complaint than "thanks"...although I suppose the complaints are always louder. They saw it as me "not doing anything for them"...and some believed that when I used "open" problems and made them figure out what they needed to know in order to answer the question that I was simply "not showing them what to do". In the end, I found the Grade 11 university bound students to be closed-minded and unable to see the benefits of "different" ways of teaching.
So this semester I have come up with a new plan. Part of it is circumstance (I currently have 31 students and therefore have 16 2-man desks in my room so it is very difficult to bring technology into the room - I can't wait until we finally have projectors installed in our new ceiling plates) and part of it is me wanting to find a better way to serve my students (both through teaching then and helping them create better study habits and take ownership for their own learning NOW - let's face it, the downfall of most first year university dropouts is that they don't know how to do this). So here is what I am currently trying:
- Assign reading (and note taking) for homework for the next days class (the idea being that they come into class with an idea of what they are about to learn and will already have things they can ask questions about)
- Work through a brief lesson that leaves the kids with a short note and some examples of how they can use the concepts
- Assign practice problems and give at least 40 minutes of class time to work on them (so that they can have easy access to asking each other questions - let's be honest, if 31 of them have questions I am of no use)
- Continue to work in labs, demos, POEs and gizmos where possible
I guess the goal I have set for myself here is to create as much of a student-centred classroom as possible. I want them to work together toward their goals (goals that they set for themselves and shared with me on day one of the class) and strive to learn as much as they can about themselves (as learners) and about the subject (physics). I want to give students the chance to OWN their own successes. To feel like the results they earn are a result of their hard-work and dedication (instead of thinking of a mark as something a teacher gave them).
But here's the thing. There are always students who will be led to water and will not drink (that will be given time to work and will chatter instead). There will always be students who don't find passion in school or the subject (who settle for the 70 when they could get the 80).
I suppose there is the other side - the one I will have to wait to see. The side where a student comes back after a year in University and has realized the work, effort and care I put into their class. Who finally understands that what I did helped them be prepared for something ahead of them. That understands that I was hoping to make them better students, better people. That understands that it was all because I cared. I know I had teachers who did this for me, for my friends. And I know that I have gone back to make sure that they now knew it. It is funny, when I mention this kind of thing to friends, they realize that they never thanked the person that did something for them - they realize that their teachers are people too.
In any event, what I hope to accomplish this semester is a growth in myself as a teacher. I hope that I continue to learn new things about my course, my students, myself. I hope that I find new ways to reach the university bound student. I hope that I find ways to look outside of who I was as a student. I hope I find ways to look at who I was as a student and search for ways to help my students find those things. Everyone is capable of being intrinsically motivated by learning - it is just that not everyone knows it yet.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Monday, December 5, 2011
Concave Mirrors in Action
As a Physics teacher it can sometimes be difficult to picture ways to modify labs and make the content of the Grade 10 Applied Optics unit accessible to my students. I think that I have mentioned in a previous post that I really like the group of kids I am working with this year. A bunch of them are very curious and they ask good questions (even if they are off topic sometimes, you've just got to go with it!) and most of them are just trying to be successful enough to not only finish their Science credits, but to achieve a level 3.
One afternoon I was talking to a colleague about how teaching mirror and ray diagram rules are too complicated for these students and that I wish I could find a way to make them accessible through a lab and to find a way to create a meaningful summative evaluation. She inspired me to work on creating templates for the beginning steps of doing curved mirror ray diagrams to give them the chance to follow instructions for the actual rays while still giving them an understanding of the principle axis. I felt that a concave mirror would be the easiest way to do this.
The image shows the core diagram that was given to them for each rule (we did three of the rules). The instructions were put on the overhead (it is a good way to keep enough light in the room to not end up tripping over one another) for each one. The first set of instructions was detailed with specific areas to be labelled and fill-in-the-blank sentences at the bottom and was completed as a formative exercise (along with the second rule and set of instructions with slightly less detail). The following day we did the third rule, with even less detail and less support from the instructors, as a summative evaluation, and each student had to submit their own drawing (for the benefit of time each pair only had to create one diagram for the first two rules, unless they were speedy).
The students were engaged in the process and wanted to do well. Many of them asked to have the rubric so they could check over their work and double check that everything was included. The students averaged in a level 3 and were all very happy with their results when the rubrics were returned to them. I will definitely be seeking to involve more ideas like this when I teach this course again, and hope to be able to evolve it more and continue to use fewer "content-based" lessons throughout the unit. They seemed to have a decent grasp of the idea of a focal point, although they may have overextended this idea and lost sight of the fact that the third rule relates to the centre of curvature. A goal for increased understanding the next time I teach the course!
Hooray for collaborative teaching!
One afternoon I was talking to a colleague about how teaching mirror and ray diagram rules are too complicated for these students and that I wish I could find a way to make them accessible through a lab and to find a way to create a meaningful summative evaluation. She inspired me to work on creating templates for the beginning steps of doing curved mirror ray diagrams to give them the chance to follow instructions for the actual rays while still giving them an understanding of the principle axis. I felt that a concave mirror would be the easiest way to do this.
The image shows the core diagram that was given to them for each rule (we did three of the rules). The instructions were put on the overhead (it is a good way to keep enough light in the room to not end up tripping over one another) for each one. The first set of instructions was detailed with specific areas to be labelled and fill-in-the-blank sentences at the bottom and was completed as a formative exercise (along with the second rule and set of instructions with slightly less detail). The following day we did the third rule, with even less detail and less support from the instructors, as a summative evaluation, and each student had to submit their own drawing (for the benefit of time each pair only had to create one diagram for the first two rules, unless they were speedy).
The students were engaged in the process and wanted to do well. Many of them asked to have the rubric so they could check over their work and double check that everything was included. The students averaged in a level 3 and were all very happy with their results when the rubrics were returned to them. I will definitely be seeking to involve more ideas like this when I teach this course again, and hope to be able to evolve it more and continue to use fewer "content-based" lessons throughout the unit. They seemed to have a decent grasp of the idea of a focal point, although they may have overextended this idea and lost sight of the fact that the third rule relates to the centre of curvature. A goal for increased understanding the next time I teach the course!
Hooray for collaborative teaching!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Simple Labs Don't Make for a Bored Class - Yay!
I tried this lab last year, mostly out of desperation with a difficult class teaching a course I had never taught before, but decided to try it again to see if the engagement it created the first time could be reproduced. Because labs require writing they are always going to be difficult with a class with a number of students with communication exceptionalities, etc. The students continually require attention from the instructor to get through the process and I was lucky to have a second body in the room to help out for Day 2 and 3 of this process.
When I showed the lab to the aspiring teacher who was helping me he was concerned that it would be too simple for them and would not engage them for three periods. The lab is simply investigating the combination of two ingredients to determine the best tasting mock champagne. It allows me to have them work on skills such as writing a procedure, hypothesis, identifying variables, creating an observation chart and drawing a conclusion. As well as have them practice an important skill - measuring liquid volume. And they love that they get to drink their lab!
The next one will be more complicated - measuring the pH of stomach acid and its changes as different antacids are added to it. We will probably have to practice a couple of the lab writing skills again before we get there. As this one will be a summative piece of their chemistry mark.
An aside: We changed our formal (but formative) lab in Grade 9 Academic this year to a simple, but fun, lab using Alka Seltzer tablets, water and film canisters and went "Smarter Science style". The kids loved it. Can't wait to evaluate the formal lab write-ups that went with it. I hope they learned something through all of the peer and self evaluation that we tried in my class with it this week. (Cross your fingers for me, next year I hope to do some action research with peer and self evaluation).
When I showed the lab to the aspiring teacher who was helping me he was concerned that it would be too simple for them and would not engage them for three periods. The lab is simply investigating the combination of two ingredients to determine the best tasting mock champagne. It allows me to have them work on skills such as writing a procedure, hypothesis, identifying variables, creating an observation chart and drawing a conclusion. As well as have them practice an important skill - measuring liquid volume. And they love that they get to drink their lab!
The next one will be more complicated - measuring the pH of stomach acid and its changes as different antacids are added to it. We will probably have to practice a couple of the lab writing skills again before we get there. As this one will be a summative piece of their chemistry mark.
An aside: We changed our formal (but formative) lab in Grade 9 Academic this year to a simple, but fun, lab using Alka Seltzer tablets, water and film canisters and went "Smarter Science style". The kids loved it. Can't wait to evaluate the formal lab write-ups that went with it. I hope they learned something through all of the peer and self evaluation that we tried in my class with it this week. (Cross your fingers for me, next year I hope to do some action research with peer and self evaluation).
Friday, September 30, 2011
Inquiry Based Ionic Compounds Lesson
I am so excited about the lesson I conducted this morning! Engagement. Learning. Oh, so great.
I spent approximately 2 hours yesterday preparing this lesson. I created a word document with a variety of elements represented in Lewis Dot Diagram format, arrows, regular element symbols along with charges and numbers that could be used to create the ionic compound formulae. Then I printed out enough copies to have 5 groups going at a time so that they could work in smaller groups to manipulate the pieces and learn from each other. The elements that become positive ions were blue and the negatives were pink - this because I gave them a periodic table to keep in their binders that is blue and many of them coloured the non metals pink when looking at the periodic table in the back of their textbooks.
So this morning we went into a larger classroom that I had booked so that they would have the space to work. It seemed a bit harder to get them to settle down to give instructions, but the space was nice to have. I demoed the use of the manipulatives once for them and then asked them to get into groups of 3-4 (so that there were 5 groups). I gave them a set of the papers and then asked every group to create the same compound. I would give them time to work on it and go around and observe, scaffolding where necessary. It was great to see them so engaged and to see the ones that understood it well teaching their peers and helping them through the process. I wish I'd had my camera with me.
Anyway, at this point I am rambling and if you have read this far, I thank you for sharing in my joy. Hopefully the fun continues in the weeks to come! Next, polyatomic compounds!
Thank you Smarter Science (and a couple of my colleagues) for the inspirations behind this lesson!
I spent approximately 2 hours yesterday preparing this lesson. I created a word document with a variety of elements represented in Lewis Dot Diagram format, arrows, regular element symbols along with charges and numbers that could be used to create the ionic compound formulae. Then I printed out enough copies to have 5 groups going at a time so that they could work in smaller groups to manipulate the pieces and learn from each other. The elements that become positive ions were blue and the negatives were pink - this because I gave them a periodic table to keep in their binders that is blue and many of them coloured the non metals pink when looking at the periodic table in the back of their textbooks.
So this morning we went into a larger classroom that I had booked so that they would have the space to work. It seemed a bit harder to get them to settle down to give instructions, but the space was nice to have. I demoed the use of the manipulatives once for them and then asked them to get into groups of 3-4 (so that there were 5 groups). I gave them a set of the papers and then asked every group to create the same compound. I would give them time to work on it and go around and observe, scaffolding where necessary. It was great to see them so engaged and to see the ones that understood it well teaching their peers and helping them through the process. I wish I'd had my camera with me.
Anyway, at this point I am rambling and if you have read this far, I thank you for sharing in my joy. Hopefully the fun continues in the weeks to come! Next, polyatomic compounds!
Thank you Smarter Science (and a couple of my colleagues) for the inspirations behind this lesson!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Remembering Thousands
I had every intention of creating a blog entry about my first week of teaching in year three. The incredible week it has been, starting off courses using Smarter Science teaching strategies and watching my Grade 9 Academic and 10 Applied classes be engaged in the first week of Science - my gosh it has been amazing, and I am scared at the idea of keeping it up and making them better Scientists...keeping them interested or helping them find an interest they thought they had lost of never had. But today is September 11, 2011 - and that scares me more.
This weekend I have watched the Dateline special surrounding September 11, 2001 (where FDNY survivors and the families that passengers of UA flight 93 called that terrible day) and the made-for-TV-movie Flight 93. I will eventually watched the feature film United 93 (I taped it) as well. I often think to myself that time is a strange concept. We have this concrete idea of seconds, hours, days, and years...but when I really think about it, time is this subjective and relative concept that has a different meaning in every context. For instance, how 10 years have managed to pass since 4 planes were hijacked in the United States on the East coast. I was in my first week of Grade 11 that day. I was 16, and still didn't truly grasp what had happened.
This summer I had the opportunity to go to New York City for the first time in my life. I spent one afternoon taking a walk down to the World Financial Center (WFC) and Ground Zero with a friend. We went into the Winter Garden in the WFC where you can see over the fence that surrounds Ground Zero and took pictures. You can see where the World Trade Centers used to stand, where the reflecting ponds will be in working order, as of today, to commemorate all of the lives that were lost that day (over 3 000, including 343 FDNY personnel). From many angles we saw the Freedom Towers that are being built nearby - the new additions to the already gorgeous Manhattan skyline - incredible architecture in that city.
I am willing to bet that watching these specials and movies this weekend would have found me emotional regardless, but I believe that having been there made the connection that much stronger. At 16 I had nothing to relate to. I was not alive during WWII, none of my living family served in that war overseas (only in Canada) - yes I have heard first hand stories of survivors from the concentration camps in Europe, and yes I took Canadian History in Grade 10 and we learned a lot about WWI and WWII - I had no true concept as to what war was. I have seen footage of the WTCs falling, almost straight down, more times than I can count now. I have heard the story of a group of Ladder 6 firefighters who saved the life of an elderly woman, and only lived to tell the tale because somehow the staircase they were in was spared. I have heard the story of UA 93 through the eyes of the air traffic controllers and families and seen what was left of that plane after it crashed in a field because the passengers on the flight decided they were going to die anyway, and didn't want others to suffer with them. There was almost nothing left of that plane. It was traveling so quickly that it effectively disintegrated (along with the people on board) on impact.
So I think what I fear most about going to school on Monday, is trying to talk to my students about 9/11/01 and realizing that they were 4, 5 or 6 years old when it happened. And discovering that we already have another generation of kids who don't really get it, and maybe never will. But if I've learned anything in the years of my life, history tends to repeat itself. They will know despair, hatred, and intolerance one day. I only hope, that they have the role models now to show them how to grow, learn and make a difference. I only hope, that more of them become the heroes of tomorrow than become the bystanders of today.
This weekend I have watched the Dateline special surrounding September 11, 2001 (where FDNY survivors and the families that passengers of UA flight 93 called that terrible day) and the made-for-TV-movie Flight 93. I will eventually watched the feature film United 93 (I taped it) as well. I often think to myself that time is a strange concept. We have this concrete idea of seconds, hours, days, and years...but when I really think about it, time is this subjective and relative concept that has a different meaning in every context. For instance, how 10 years have managed to pass since 4 planes were hijacked in the United States on the East coast. I was in my first week of Grade 11 that day. I was 16, and still didn't truly grasp what had happened.
This summer I had the opportunity to go to New York City for the first time in my life. I spent one afternoon taking a walk down to the World Financial Center (WFC) and Ground Zero with a friend. We went into the Winter Garden in the WFC where you can see over the fence that surrounds Ground Zero and took pictures. You can see where the World Trade Centers used to stand, where the reflecting ponds will be in working order, as of today, to commemorate all of the lives that were lost that day (over 3 000, including 343 FDNY personnel). From many angles we saw the Freedom Towers that are being built nearby - the new additions to the already gorgeous Manhattan skyline - incredible architecture in that city.
I am willing to bet that watching these specials and movies this weekend would have found me emotional regardless, but I believe that having been there made the connection that much stronger. At 16 I had nothing to relate to. I was not alive during WWII, none of my living family served in that war overseas (only in Canada) - yes I have heard first hand stories of survivors from the concentration camps in Europe, and yes I took Canadian History in Grade 10 and we learned a lot about WWI and WWII - I had no true concept as to what war was. I have seen footage of the WTCs falling, almost straight down, more times than I can count now. I have heard the story of a group of Ladder 6 firefighters who saved the life of an elderly woman, and only lived to tell the tale because somehow the staircase they were in was spared. I have heard the story of UA 93 through the eyes of the air traffic controllers and families and seen what was left of that plane after it crashed in a field because the passengers on the flight decided they were going to die anyway, and didn't want others to suffer with them. There was almost nothing left of that plane. It was traveling so quickly that it effectively disintegrated (along with the people on board) on impact.
So I think what I fear most about going to school on Monday, is trying to talk to my students about 9/11/01 and realizing that they were 4, 5 or 6 years old when it happened. And discovering that we already have another generation of kids who don't really get it, and maybe never will. But if I've learned anything in the years of my life, history tends to repeat itself. They will know despair, hatred, and intolerance one day. I only hope, that they have the role models now to show them how to grow, learn and make a difference. I only hope, that more of them become the heroes of tomorrow than become the bystanders of today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)