Thursday, August 30, 2007
Posting from Tom 8-30-2007
This has been a very learning week for me. I somethimes pitty the kids who are my students. I get what I think is a well planned out lesson ready for each class hour, but for some reason things don't quite ever go to well. My lessons never seem to take as long to present as I think they will so I end up wondering what to do at the end of class. I had quite the experience today, I was trying to show the difference between chemical and physical changes. I wanted to have some cool reaction ready for them so I came in early and started trying some stuff I'd heard of. when I started feeling naucase and dizzy I did some research and found out the fumes I was creating were toxic. So I moved on to the next little idea, potasium and water. It worked great the first time but the second time I tried it the potasium exploded and pieces flew all over. I caught a peice under one eye (yes it burned me decent) and another peice in the other eye. Needles to say I am now a big fan of safty glasses!
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3 comments:
Although I think you might think you are performing at a level below what other teachers might be doing, I think we all go through these trials before we begin to determine what works for us. I had similar problems with timing and found logistical planning around the 42 minute period I had to be a nightmare. For my own classes, I try to plan, plan, plan, but I think the thing that helps me most and is probably most educational is taking time during classes and all of the plans I have to listen to the students and explore their ideas. When I do this, I find it hard to get anywhere close to what I planned finished, but I think in the end all are probably better served.
As far as science safety-these stories are killing me. Was there anything in our science safety module about reading chemical safety sheets before experimenting? BE CAREFUL and keep on pushing yourself to find what works as I believe the students will respond to your genuine passion about science.
Tom, what ages and classes are you teaching? I am teaching all earth systems this year. If you are teaching any of that I would be happy to send you anything that I have tried that worked well for me. As for your difficulty, I don't think it is uncommon for any new teacher to struggle with the same things. For biology I had two weeks planned out at the first of last year and some activities that I thought would work wonderfully. I found out quickly that half of what I had planned would not work well at all, so I was very glad that I had planned out a lot to fall back on. During my first week I had a really rude student that would sneer to the class at everything that I said. I had a confrontation with her and really lost my temper. By the end of it we were both yelling and I kicked her out of my class. Without help from my mentor teacher I would have really been in trouble. I remember going home and wondering if I was totally stupid for trying to be a teacher. I couldn't think straight or sleep well that night. I felt that way a few times, but over time it got better. I'm sure it will for you too. This year I have a student that is a know-at-all. He is very vocal and questions many things that I teach and pushes me to the limit with very difficult questions. Last year I don't know what I would have done with one of these but amazingly I have found it very rewarding and I have been capable of dealing with this much better than I ever thought that I would have been able to. I think that you will find the same happen to you as you gain experience. You might think that there are certain things that you cannot deal with and then over time they become easier and then you will surprise yourself with your capabilities. Don't worry too much, just keep planning and trying - I'm sure you are doing great! Good luck.
James,
It is encouraging to here your resolve to succeed. I am not sure we will ever be perfect as teachers, but I do think that as we continually work to address those things we aren't satisfied with we will see results.
Thanks for your post!
Todd
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