8_27_09

Having doubts about the benefits of going in and teaching science...so many of the kids are not really motivated to learn, etc. what am i doing different than victor? a large part of the problem is attitude, cultural importance of homework/learning/doing well in school, etc., doing a "wow" experiment in the classroom is not going to change that. how do you motivate kids to suddenly make learning/doing well a priority? in life, you have to learn and do well sometimes even if you're not "wowed" by the subject matter.

8_19_09

Today went well...did the owl pellet lab. the first 3 classes were more traditional--introduced the topic with, "How would you study the diet of a local animal?" as the hook, then explained what Owl Pellets were, gave them instructions for dissecting and studying them. The last two classes we decided to do "Inquiry" based. Had some trepidations, didn't know how it would go, but started with, "You guys are aliens from another planet studying animal life on earth, you find these objects, observe and study them." They were definitely much more curious and intrigued, there were screams of, "They're bones in here!" and, "WHAT is this??" as they began. Because we didn't tell them owl pellets were regurgitated food beforehand, they weren't prematurely grossed out, and more of them seemed to be interested--one group even asked for additional pellets to dissect. And because their curiosity had been aroused, they were attentive during the discussions afterwards--it was funny, at one point I had their full attention but ran out of things to say, I was up there like, "Oh man, they're all looking at me, I don't want to waste this opportunity, what else can I say?" :) I think the students learned the same info with both traditional and inquiry, but there was more excitement during the latter...also worked well, b/c this was post lunch, and the kids were more restless anyhow, so Inquiry held their attention more. I may be a fan.
Again, I observed Victor for the first class, then taught the next 4. In terms of schedule, I've decided that I'd want to be there for all the classes, and then the HSP after school club on a regular basis to observe/pilot.

First day

The first day (yesterday) went pretty well, I observed Victor for 1st period, then taught for the next 4. We did the "Penny Drop" lab: how many drops of either alcohol or water will fit on a penny, when dropped from a pipette either 2 cm or 6 cm away from the coin. I led students in a discussion of background and setup, interacted with students during the lab, asking inquiry based questions, ("what do you notice about...."), and led a discussion about the conclusions afterward and how well they fit the students' hypotheses. Last three classes were English Language Learner classes, so I found that I had to explain things more slowly, and sometimes use more diagrams, and while I walked around during the lab, I needed to re-explain things more concretely. I also attended the afterschool science club, which was a lot of fun given the presence of highly motivated students, some of whom i recognized from the HSP demo during the training. Learned a couple of cool science things as well--loved the "food drops on half&half" one. We'll probably demo some of our things there in the future.

Teaching is pretty exhausting! It's not the kids so much as having to be "on" the whole time, and not being able to take breaks or go on a walk...this first day, I was at the school from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, so a pretty full day! Next week is Food chains and food webs, we might do a kinesthetic activity for that one. We'll talk over the weekend for planning. Victor has suggested a couple of times that given that the full day can be pretty exhausting, it might be better to come in a little later, teach 3 classes, and stay weekly for the Science Club too give myself a helpful diversity of teaching experiences.