I have discovered that there are certain banned words in my classroom. I have started referring to some things as “banned.” In the future I hope to make a poster.

“I hate________ (logarithms, chemistry, dissolution, math, etc)”

“I don’t get it.”

“I can’t do ____________ (stoichiometry, logarithms, diagramming, etc)”

This is not because I dislike questions. I love questions. I want to hear their struggles.

I would like them to say (and think) along these lines:

“I have struggled with this in the past.”

“This topic didn’t click the first time around.”

“I need more practice on ____________ (logarithms, diagramming, etc) until I understand it better.”

“I would like you to explain this another way.”

And so on. I think the difference is pretty clear. Defeatism really frustrates me. So I’ve banned it. =)

Overall, the new quarter is going well. It is going very quickly.

I feel like I have got my stride. I spend less time figuring out what I need to do.

My motto has been, babysteps, practice, babysteps, practice. I don’t let myself show them an equation, or teach them anything, unless they get to use it that class period, in some way. And I try to make sure that they need to use it later on in the quarter, in a lab or something.

I have been lecturing more. I am learning that it is possible to be student centered while I lecture. My students are finding things much easier. The past week or two have been lower order basics however, facts, and a lot of procedures. I have a two part lab planned for this week and I want to make them use these skills. They have found the skills so easy, that I will be quite sure that the problem is a lack of skill at higher order application, evaluation, and metacognition if they are struggling. It will be hard for them to know what to do where.

They also really struggle with the fact that they have to remember, and use, everything we have already done. They may not forget about molarity. They may not forget about dissolution. If they do, they will not be able to solve the problems. Their instinct is to only use what they have learned in the last week. I try really hard to fight that by having problems that specifically force them to use formulas and solve problems from a month ago. I also hope that those people who didn’t get it the first time around will have more success the second time around. This will help them on the final.

The big project thing isn’t panning out quite yet. I know what I want them to do for the final, but I really, really, need to put it all together NOW so I can give it to them and they know where we are going.

After writing the last post, I think that more of my sympathies for revision are explained. I get to teach all this stuff again next year. I will do it so much better. I’m trying hard, and doing a pretty good job (at least all the people who observe me seem to think it’s about as good as can be expected), but it will be so much better.

My best friend (an experienced teacher now) told me to give myself the gift of time. I reassure myself with that. This unit was only so-so this year, but next year it will be better.

I guess I want to share that reassurance and opportunity with my students.

Being a first year teacher, and like all teachers, not having nearly enough time, I often scope out other teacher’s materials on-line to modify or use in my classroom. This sometimes leads to interesting results. Today, for instance, I have a great practice set for Lewis Dot structures, but it doesn’t match well with the method I taught them from a different teacher.

I was trying to remember how I learned Lewis structures. I know I did; I know there must be a time when I did not understand why carbon wants to make four bonds, or didn’t have the octet rule buried somewhere in my brain. I just can’t really remember.

This is another reason I like to look at other teacher’s materials. They have years of experience and have tested their methods and systems. I find  a lot of good stuff. It just doesn’t always fit together well.

The moral of this story is that I need to do all the practice I assign using the method I am going to teach.

And I will do that. When I have all my materials together in advance, and my daughter starts napping again, and when my homeroom students work so that I can get some work done.

In other words, when pigs fly. At any rate, not until after my students have tested it all for.

Today lab was pretty good.

However, the pre-lab needs work. It apparently was not clear enough what reaction was happening, and what product they were forming. Most of my students didn’t realize what they were making, why they were filtering, etc. Maybe that is typical of high school chemistry labs. It drives me crazy.

I realized that some of their calculations are really hard (seven or eight step problem, novel twist on limiting reactant). I have decided to do work on the lab tomorrow in class. We can do the theoretical calculations as a class, and then they can use their data to do the rest of it.

I have started making notes on post-its, and sticking them to the page protector that my document is kept in, so that I can remember what revisions to make.

I have tried to teach molarity in an open-ended way, so that they can see the logic of it, and experience a little bit of how scientists solve methodological problems.

Today I put all their solutions from last week on the board, and told them that they were almost all right, because most of them had used them to solve a problem. Now, I wanted them to find the one that would be most useful for the chemistry lab. I gave them an equation (HCl and NaOH making NaCl and water) and told them that we had to figure out which units would make the most sense for using two solutions to get a certain amount of NaCl.

This turned out to be a more complicated question than I anticipated. I actually think it would be easier if I just had them do a lab and make it up. I am going to have them do a lab and calculate their own amounts, but then they’ll have the molarity already.

The other snag that I wasn’t prepared for was that they really, really, like to use grams. They don’t like moles. While I wasn’t so naive as to think that moles was obvious, I did think that with a hint or two, and the chemical equation, and a daunting number of calculations if grams are used, would incline them in that direction. Boy was I wrong. I one class the entire class insisted on grams, so we did a sample problem, and several of them figured out a way to do it. Not an easy way, and not a versatile way, but a way. I was a little non-plussed. In the other two classes we had quite naturally ended up at moles. Third period is really smart like that.

I ended up having to just say, “wow, you guys came up with something really workable. In this class, we’re going to have to use the other solution (with moles) because that is what is standard practice in science.” I really hated to say it, but I didn’t know what else to do. I definitely need to think through this for next year. I think what I did was better than straight lecture for most of the kids, but it could be a lot better, and much more inquiry based.

Yesterday, in the middle of the lesson, I was getting a little frustrated with how little participation I was getting, and slow it all seemed.

Then it hit me. I had planned a boring day. No variety, just me leading lecture/ Q&A.

Poor kids.

I am almost never sick. However, I still planned to make my sub plan this weekend. For this month, it is very simple. There is a very good Nova video about a very good African-American chemist, Percy Julian. In a perfect world I would have guided notes for them on it, so they had something to turn in. However, this was not done before I caught the wicked rotovirus that is going around my apartment complex. It only had about a 24 hour cycle, but I am now re-hydrating, and generally convalescing. I must think of some other way to help them process the video, and at least remember the existence of this chemist.

Lesson: Never slack off or put off a substitute plan. You never know when you will get sick.

Today we did a textbook tour, where the students looked for different ‘features’ of their textbook. It was interesting to see what they noticed. Most of them admitted to never looking at the diagrams, captions, pictures, or graphs. Which I expected from research and my “content literacy” course in grad school. I hope now that some of them will look at the little things, the typography, and such, to know what is going on. I really hope some of them will look at the pictures, graphs, and diagrams.

It is ironic, that it is a big deal to have beautiful, four color, textbooks, with lots of pictures in them. It is seen as essential, even though it is much more expensive than simpler, smaller, black and white texts. The students don’t even use all the expensive, colorful, add-ins. Districts could save a lot of money if they had simpler text books. But of course that will never happen.

I am conflicted about snow days. Part of me loves a surprise day off as much as anyone, and part of me hates having my schedule so upset. Today, however, the roads were ridiculous, and I feared for my life driving home.