Early in my Master’s program, I remember one of the experienced teachers (a wise, wise man) say that one of the big difference between novice and experienced teachers is that novices think a lot about themselves in the classroom: how they are doing, what techniques they are using, etc, and experienced teachers think about the students and what they need.

I am getting pretty good about thinking about my students (being a parent has really helped me there) but I tend to transfer my feelings about life, learning, and success to my students. I think my previous post is an example of that. Who says my students want to do learn and do a good job just for the sake of understanding the joy and beauty of chemistry? Second chances, and all revisions, are a lot of work, and that is one thing they really don’t want more of.

I do think I am still too self-centered in the classroom. This is one thing that my students don’t see directly, but affects how I plan and my expectations for their reactions.

I should think of someone I know who thought that high school was okay, and that chemistry is okay, and try to plan for them.

One of my students referred to a task we were doing in class today as “touchy feel-y flower child” methods. Not something that one expects to hear in chemistry class, when classifying compounds as either ionic, polar covalent, or non-polar covalent.

This was because I was discouraging the method in the book, which no one except high school textbook authors uses. High school books always want you to subtract the electronegativities, and compare the difference to some arbitrary standard that changes from book to book, to classify a compound as ionic or covalent, polar or non-polar. So annoying. What I always did, and say real scientists doing, was using a general sense of periodic trends to compare polarities, electronegativities, and electron rich and electron poor areas. The textbook method is too formal and impractical, it is not useful. I guess my use of the word “intuition” or “feel” for the periodic table was frustrating for her; she describes herself as having a very “math” brain. I think it is fair to say that most scientists think mathematically =). But sometimes being overly quantitative is arbitrary, time consuming, and provides no useful information.

They were not convinced. A very interesting and unexpected dilemma.

Today, I actually had notes on my computer, in a little PP presentation, to save some time while reviewing and to have fast access to some practice problems.

The LCD projector would not work. It searched, and searched, and searched for my computer. I tried to play with it after class, but no dice.  Why???

It was okay. Review can be okay.

If there is one thing I can safely say that I am doing very well, it is being flexible. I have had a number of things get in the way of what I had planned, from the students not knowing something they should have been taught, not having my photocopies made, programs updating within 24 hours, and so on. Each time I have had something else as valuable, if not as exciting, for my students to do.

Of course, it is easier to be flexible when you know exactly what you want them to learn (usually), when you have a lot of ways for them to practice and review (almost never), and when you have what you are doing for the next week at your fingertips (almost never).

One of my teachers got back to me right away with math ideas.

There are two videos that he made last year, mini-documentaries that I found inspiring. And yes, I did spend my Saturday night watching them. (family was asleep or at departmental parties).

Here are the links, but I will also keep them on my video resources page.

amazing teachers

student interviews

The first one profiles award-winning math teachers, and the second one interviews students about what makes a really good math teacher.

I am familiar with the principles presented, but it was wonderful to see the different personalities and classrooms of the teachers, and to see some concrete examples of the theory.

Basically, I am on the right track. I need to start simple, use baby steps, take time, and repeat. Two things that hit me especially from the first video were the teacher who was amazing at using humor and fun in his classroom, and the teacher who emphasized a variety of problem solving strategies. I want signs like the teacher from Baltimore. It made sense to me, to have a tool box of strategies that the kids are familiar with. Then when they are having trouble you can ask them, have you tried X strategy? what about Y strategy? and they have reminders on the walls.

I didn’t make my goal this week of one lab or one demo. I have ideas, but no time. I also don’t always know what we have or don’t have.

I have been emailing old teachers for help on teaching math to my students. This was inspired by Friday. On Friday we spent the entire period on one math problem. One. Problem. I knew it was hard, but I didn’t think it was that hard. Especially because, in an attempt to “model” I helped the class come up with a “road-map” to solve the problem.

It went like this. For HW on Thursday they had this problem. Most of the students could not do it (with the exception of 3rd period; about half of the students did it there.) Friday we began by laying out the 4 or 5 steps necessary to get the answer. Then they had time to do the problem. They still needed A LOT of one-on-one help. Every step was something they have done before, many times.

The problems are manifold. Sometimes, it is understanding what the questions is asking. In this case, we had pulled out the question, and the given information before they tried it for homework. Other problems include, only looking for one step, not working backwards, not looking at what they can do with the information given, not knowing how to use something (often the mole ratio, or moles in general), algebraic errors, logical errors, I could go on.

I have concluded that they need more practice problem solving. =)

I guess this is how I can learn to teach math, since I will be certified in it and I have never really done it. It is an opportunity.

I think the math expectations are really, really, low, and a lot of the teachers just lower their standards to what is easy for the kids. Which I can understand. But I just tell myself that teaching chemistry (and many sciences) is basically teaching the kids how to use math. I really have a terrific advantage over math teachers, because we are applying math, and I should be able to figure out something interesting where they can use math.

Today I had planned to take my students to the computer lab, to do some computer simulations on Molecular Workbench.  I love molecular workbench. I think the models and simulations are very good. They also have ways for students to answer questions (which I have found to be high quality so far) and submit reports. It is free. Last week, I downloaded it onto one of the computers in the science computer lab, and played around. I planned to have my students download it and go for it.

A week later, when they all try it, it won’t open. It turns out that MW had upgraded their java the day before, and so it wasn’t compatible with the settings on our computers. A work order has been put in, and everything will be upgraded, and the application applied on all the computers and the central server. This is very good. It still put me in a tight spot on Wednesday.

Fortunately I had ideas for Thursday, that I was able to implement. We went into depth on the dissolution of ionic and polar compounds.

Lesson: always ask the technology people for advice on technology. Department heads probably have a pretty good idea of what is going on, but it is not their job to know all the details. Ask the expert.

One thing I have realized, is that for all the talk about scaffolding in grad school, we were given very few examples of how to do it. I have all kinds of charts showing how a teacher is supposed to help the learners become more independent, and guide them to a place where they don’t need you very much. However, I can recall no concrete examples for math or science. I have no idea how I can make my students more comfortable with open-ended tasks.

What I am going to try, is to provide more structured instructions for the open-ended task, to guide them through the thought process. I plan to do this for the drawings especially, and for certain word problems. I don’t know how to help them internalize the process though. I am afraid of providing a crutch (especially for word problems) that they will rely on and never internalize the strategies for problem solving.

I guess I just answered my own question, I need to teach strategies explicitly. I really don’t know how to do this. Hopefully as I make up the structured, yet open-ended, tasks, I’ll be able to identify the strategy.

I am an idealist. In many ways, this is a great help as a teacher. I truly believe that every single one of my students can improve, learn, and achieve in my classroom. They might not all get A’s, but in my heart I know that they can at least all get B’s, if they try. Even the student who is clueless about stoichiometry right now, I believe they can learn it while we do solutions and molarity and titration.

What happens when they don’t? The gas law test has depressed me, because I still have some students who say crazy, backwards things. Some of the things they have observed themselves, and they still explain it backwards (this really confuses me). I have asked other experienced teachers (my best friend and my husband) if this is just a fact of life, that realistically, no matter what I do, some of my students will not get it. They both said yes. No one could accuse my husband of being an idealist, but my best friend certainly is. It is a fact, that some students will not get it, not even at the most basic level. That is just reality.

Another problem, is that I take it so personally. This is my job, and I spend a lot of time thinking, preparing, planning, trying to create relevance, to clear up misconceptions, to make it interesting and valuable, because I think chemistry is very important, and I think I can show that to them. Realistically, this class is a very small part of their life. Just at school, they have 5 other classes. They have bands, orchestras, sports, friends, relationships, parents, and jobs. The 5 hours a week they spend with me is a little corner in their brain. Even if they like chemistry a lot, learning it does not dominate their days the way teaching it does for me.

How does a teacher keep their idealism, in the potential and ability of every student, while still growing a thick skin towards the indifference that they are going to see from some of their students?

How does a teacher show their students that they can learn something they hate (like conversions and stoichiometry), when they are convinced they will never get it?

First period has it rough. First of all, they are so sleepy that everything takes longer. They are at a definite disadvantage just by class starting so early. Second, on homeroom days, the most minutes are taken out of first period. I thought all the classes were treated equally, 5 minutes from every period or something like that. No, first period gets the brunt of it. Next, all sorts of assemblies and things go on during first period, such as todays honor roll breakfast. I couldn’t do much in class, because I only had about 6 students, and then I couldn’t do much in my other classes, because then they would be SO far ahead of first period, who already tends to be a little behind.

It is killing me.

Clearly, I need to have a few more valuable-but-non-essential activities for second and third period. Especially third period. Third period has a class average of A-. The other two periods have a class average of C+. I don’t know if it’s them or me. Some students are really getting it, and are a little bored. The other classes are not quite there. Are they not working hard enough, or am I crazy?

Well, we know I’m crazy. But am I unfair or are my expectations completely off? I don’t know.

I work quite hard to have a smooth transition and use every minute of class time. I have the students hand in their work, I take attendance and hand back work while they do a warm up problem. I have all my papers for the day handy, and in order, for them. I have notes and problems ready so we don’t waste any time. Then the school wastes my time. Grrrrrr.