Sunday, October 25, 2015

Shaker Heights High School

Shaker Heights High School was a lot different than I thought. It was very different than my high school. I observed two different science classes, a biology 2 class and a freshman physical science class. The teachers had two different teaching styles so it was nice to compare them to what we learned in class. In class we read about finding the balance between being an authority figure, but also being a friend at the same time.

The first class I observed the teacher seemed to be more of a friend. All the students were on their phones the entire class and were not taking the assignment seriously. They were supposed to think of a movement and say what muscles were being used. The students were just looking up music videos and dancing to them. The teacher wasn't really doing anything to stop them. At one point she did take on an authoritative roll and disciplined a student in the hall and sent her to the office.

The next classroom the students were independently studying for their exam the next day. The teacher was strict on having no phones and actually looking at the material. I think he was a better teacher and even though I only saw a few minutes of his class I got that vibe that he was strict enough to be a good teacher, but was also a friend to the students. I hope to find this balance in my classroom. After being in the first classroom I was scared that being a young high school chemistry teacher would make students think they could walk all over me and do whatever they wanted.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Blog Post 8

I decided to make my lesson about chemical reactions. I would put all of these reactions on the board and have the students balance them. 

6 CO2 + 6 H2O + light → C6H12O6 + 6 O2     Photosynthesis
C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy  Cellular Respiration
C6H12O6 → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 + Energy Anaerobic Respiration
C3H8 + 5O2 → 4H2O + 3CO2 + Energy  Combustion
Fe + O2 + H2O → Fe2O3. XH2O Rusting

            I think when Bill Ayers talks about “building bridges” he wants to display the idea that it is the teacher’s responsibility to take the information they are teaching and first off gear it toward things students are interested and second make the information applicable to the real world.

            After all of the equations were balanced I would tell them what each reaction was and what it was used for in the real world. This is how I would bridge the information to the real world. This would show them the importance of chemical reactions and why it is important to learn about them and understand them. Being able to balance chemical reactions is a very important skill to master early on in chemistry, but a lot of student struggle to understand why they are doing the balancing.

Ideas to keep in mind when planning/doing this lesson:
             
1. The purpose of this lesson is to teach a basic chemistry skill and to show the students why it needs to balanced and what results from the balanced equation in the real world. I will need to keep in mind that as new chemistry students they probably are not interested in balancing a chemical reaction this idea originates with Freire’s Banking Concept of Education, where he advocates for teachers to be more than just people who deposit information into their students. If the students can apply the skill to the real world they won't just be a depository.

2.  DiGiulio explains the effectiveness of relating the material to what students already know. Everyone learns about photosynthesis in middle school science and by providing the chemistry behind the process is just broadening the students knowledge about a topic they already know stuff about.

3. Ayers explains that good teachers put the needs of their students first. I would have the students try to balance these on their own, and then discuss them with the people around them. If I noticed that this system was not working for a student I would go individually help them and change my plan of letting the students working it out on their own.


4.  Ohanian emphasizes the importance of making lessons meaningful to the students being taught. All students know how important photosynthesis and the other reactions are they might have just never knew the chemistry behind it. Photosynthesis is the way plants provide us with oxygen and I think being able to breathe is meaningful to all humans.


Individual Observation

For my first individual observation I went to Mayfield High School and observed Mrs. Ancell's AP chemistry class. When I first walked into the school it reminded me a lot of my own high school. In the classroom the desks were set up in rows and each row was pretty far from each other. They were learning how to name poly-atomic ions and acids. They were working on packets as a class, she was doing them on the projector. Each subtopic was a different color so I think that will help the students remember how to do certain things. Associating color is a great way to memorize hard information. I still do that today. The thing I liked about her teaching style was she was going through each problem and letting the students say random answers and then other students would correct the wrong students and it was a group effort. After the students baffled with answers for a little bit she would tell them the right answer. After doing some problems she said it was time for notes. Instead of putting pre written notes up she wrote them with the kids and explained everything really well I think. After the class I reflected and really thought Mrs. Ancell projected the qualities of a good teacher that we talked about in class. She cared so much and wanted the students to succeed. Hand writing the notes really stood out to me as caring. She also said she stays after school three times a week for extra chemistry tutoring. By staying after school she is showing how much is trying to help the students. She is putting their needs first by staying late and not just going home to relax. I am excited to go back next week and observe her class again.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Post It blog

While reading the Paulo Freire article  I marked a few key points with my post its notes. In one section of his text he points out the major rules of the banking concept. They are as follows:

  1. The teacher teaches and the students are taught
  2. The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing
  3. The teacher thinks and the students are though about
  4. The teacher talks and the students listen
I do not agree with any of these. None of these benefit the student, which teaching should be about ultimately. I think people are always learning from each other and that teachers should also listen to their students. One thing that I learned from my chemistry professor is to love your job. Obviously, that is not something that a chemistry book was going to teach me. Everyday she showed us how happy she was to be there and she honestly changed my career path. I wanted to be a pharmacist for a very long time and then after I saw how much she loved her job and how excited she was to be there everyday I realized I was not that excited about being a pharmacist. I realized I wanted to be like her and to teach. I think that I also taught her something. I was a very good chemistry student and I would go to her for help and tell her things in the notes that were unclear. She said she was going to change them for next year. I think she also learned from me how much students studied for her class. She was not aware of the commitment people put in before I told her my studying schedule.
   I loved my high school and I think it was because my teachers were very open and knew that being an educator was about teaching your students, but also learning from them. I never felt pressured into believing what they felt they always allowed us to form our own opinions. A lot of times they would not even put their input in and would present both sides of an issue equally. I hope to be a teacher that is viewed as open. I know in teaching chemistry it is going to be difficult to allow free judgement and expression, but I will make sure to learn from the students and improve my teaching technique from their evaluations.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Field Blog 1 (with the class)

                I really enjoyed going to Mayfield Middle School. I observed a 7th grade science class. They had stations set up all around the room of experiments and that's how the student were learning the material rather than it being written on a chalkboard. It reminded me of when I was in middle school. Mayfield middle school had a sense of community to me, everyone was supportive of each other and working as a team. I forgot how hands on middle school really was, since being in high school and college most of my classes have just been straight lecture, taking notes, and there was no real student teacher interaction.  While I was observing I asked the students if they liked the class and their teacher. Most of them responded along the lines of "we do a lot of experiments they are really fun, we work in groups, the time goes by way too fast, we don't sit and take notes all the time." From Mayfield middle school I learned how important it is to be interactive and have activities for the children to do in order for them to learn the information. If they were to sit around and read the book they would have told me science was boring and that they hated it. Science in high school is a really hard subject, but I think there are some aspects that can be taught in an interactive way rather than lecture. I think staring off science in a fun way in middle school will change the way children view science in high school. I have heard a lot of people complain about chemistry and physics before they even had a chance to take it because their previous science classes were so boring. I look forward to more observations and learning how to teach science, especially chemistry,  in a fun, interesting, and interactive way.