Thanks so much, Veena, for typing all the out for me to rejoice over! Now you have it where you can find it again. Isn't it wonderful how much good sense students have about teaching and how they want to be taught. Your questions to them were good and their responses are so real and supportive. Well done to collect comments before the last day this Friday.
I'll have to print that list and go over it carefully--interesting how several picked our your diagrams and one mentioned the blueprint!
WELL DONE--enjoy the last 3 days, I hope it helps to have a better sense of what this group of students is thinking about your work with them. Did you show this to your associate?
Yours,
tom
Monday, March 7, 2011
Student Feedback
I thought I better take this opportunity of spending so much time with these wise teenagers to get some feedback on my teaching. I gave out small cards with once sentence on each side. Here are the results from the two classes today-- on the left of the slash is what each enjoyed and to the right is their advice for my future as a teacher.
The aspects of the lessons and teaching style that I found most useful and enjoyable were... / Here's what I thought could be improved in order to enhance my learning...
-your explanations and diagrams, good pace speaking / no quizzes
-nice legible writing on the board / reach for the stars
-your explanations and diagrams make good sense / drop the quizzes
-clearly and creative, saying the important points several times, explaining slowly
-very knowledgeable, always makes eye contact, lets everyone answer / needs to take more time going over lesson
-nice, we can ask questions freely, not a boring class / talk louder, write better on the board, explain things better
-everything / be louder and more clear, write more clearly
-cool teacher, good explanations / more confidence
-blueprints in the beginning of the lesson, nice introduction / sometimes messy handwriting, hard to read at times
-everything / too many mini quizzes, we've learned too many lessons in few days
-the examples and diagrams you gave, and the sheet you drew showing all the equations with waves / not too much, but real-life application examples of the physics you're teaching are always good
-explains well, nice, good blueprints / messy handwriting
-not tons of words, diagrams = good
-participativeness, you ask us lots of questions getting us to answer making us more alert / ask specific people not class as a whole
-optimistic, happy to teach, motivated / putting the sentences in notes in, more clear terms, hard to understand what you're trying to say
-when you took time to explain each question a student would have, I thought you were a great teacher despite the lack of experience, thank you for being so helpful when I asked for help during the dynamics lab / not much, you were great!
-demos (you should spend more time on them as a cooldown for classes) / you get flustered easily, be a little more casual with questions and deflect them towards the lesson as they will probably be answered eventually
-the many diagrams, the chart provided for wave unit, neat writing-easy to understand / too many arrows makes a diagram hard to see, preferably a slightly more organized structure for lesson plan because examples and the "main note" should be clearly separated, too much info at once, too fast as well
-your diagrams and practical applications shown while teaching were well done / talk louder and write neater
-very knowledgeable, good with explaining the math behind things / could improve explaining ideas, could be more interesting
-I (heart) miss kumar! she should teach physics here! she explains well, talks in a way I can understand
-the explanations and boardwork were very clear, a very nice teacher
-clarity, tone / slower
-positivity and overall presentation, patient and understanding / slow down and make sure class truly understands, more examples, please don't assume we understand or follow a certain step
-I liked your teaching style, your diagrams / talk louder, explain lesson in more depth
-knows what she is talking about and has a deep understanding of each lesson / I'm fine with the way you teach
-went over what would be taught first, a detailed lesson / don't second guess yourself
The aspects of the lessons and teaching style that I found most useful and enjoyable were... / Here's what I thought could be improved in order to enhance my learning...
-your explanations and diagrams, good pace speaking / no quizzes
-nice legible writing on the board / reach for the stars
-your explanations and diagrams make good sense / drop the quizzes
-clearly and creative, saying the important points several times, explaining slowly
-very knowledgeable, always makes eye contact, lets everyone answer / needs to take more time going over lesson
-nice, we can ask questions freely, not a boring class / talk louder, write better on the board, explain things better
-everything / be louder and more clear, write more clearly
-cool teacher, good explanations / more confidence
-blueprints in the beginning of the lesson, nice introduction / sometimes messy handwriting, hard to read at times
-everything / too many mini quizzes, we've learned too many lessons in few days
-the examples and diagrams you gave, and the sheet you drew showing all the equations with waves / not too much, but real-life application examples of the physics you're teaching are always good
-explains well, nice, good blueprints / messy handwriting
-not tons of words, diagrams = good
-participativeness, you ask us lots of questions getting us to answer making us more alert / ask specific people not class as a whole
-optimistic, happy to teach, motivated / putting the sentences in notes in, more clear terms, hard to understand what you're trying to say
-when you took time to explain each question a student would have, I thought you were a great teacher despite the lack of experience, thank you for being so helpful when I asked for help during the dynamics lab / not much, you were great!
-demos (you should spend more time on them as a cooldown for classes) / you get flustered easily, be a little more casual with questions and deflect them towards the lesson as they will probably be answered eventually
-the many diagrams, the chart provided for wave unit, neat writing-easy to understand / too many arrows makes a diagram hard to see, preferably a slightly more organized structure for lesson plan because examples and the "main note" should be clearly separated, too much info at once, too fast as well
-your diagrams and practical applications shown while teaching were well done / talk louder and write neater
-very knowledgeable, good with explaining the math behind things / could improve explaining ideas, could be more interesting
-I (heart) miss kumar! she should teach physics here! she explains well, talks in a way I can understand
-the explanations and boardwork were very clear, a very nice teacher
-clarity, tone / slower
-positivity and overall presentation, patient and understanding / slow down and make sure class truly understands, more examples, please don't assume we understand or follow a certain step
-I liked your teaching style, your diagrams / talk louder, explain lesson in more depth
-knows what she is talking about and has a deep understanding of each lesson / I'm fine with the way you teach
-went over what would be taught first, a detailed lesson / don't second guess yourself
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Amazing!
I've been trying all day to make time to respond to you Veena. That was one of the most intriguing accounts I've ever seen of a practicum day. It says a lot about the respect the students have for you that they were forgiving and so helpful, right down to that parting comment. gives you faith in humanity!!
I'm very grateful to you for sending that when you must feel exhausted--hopefully it felt good to record it. I hope you manage to catch up on sleep this weekend!
One week to go and then you can SLEEP!
Yours,
Tom
I'm very grateful to you for sending that when you must feel exhausted--hopefully it felt good to record it. I hope you manage to catch up on sleep this weekend!
One week to go and then you can SLEEP!
Yours,
Tom
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Who *really* helps who?
The formula I included in my lovingly drawn concept map "cheat sheet" for the wave unit was wrong. n did not refer to the number of loops when it came to an air column with one end open, the plus was supposed to be a minus, and so... the practice problems were going slightly awry. I was really low on sleep and it was crazythursday- four periods in a row, alternating between math and physics.
I was very tired, got a bit muddled, almost tripped on the leg of a portable screen and later, as the students were leaving, knocked down the string from the standing wave demo and the clamp came tumbling down in beautiful synchronicity with my state of being.
One period earlier in math class, I announced to the students that we were now going to get out our pencils and notebooks and start *stretching* the graphs. I mean, sketching the stretches. Shifting the skretches, munching the functions and scrunching the compressions. One girl in the front smiled kindly as I fumbled.
Back in physics.... the students helped me through my confusion with great and exhausting energy. We changed n to represent the harmonic number so that it was consistent for all the standing wave formulae, the plus became a minus. It felt like for the first time they really *understood* what had been going on all this time as I was dancing up there in front of class excited about my presentations of concepts... not because I did anything to help them, but because I needed their help. One student seemed even more excited than usual through the confusion: This is what real science is about! he exclaimed as I follied and sorried... All of us working together to find a solution!
The bell rang and as the clamp came tumbling down onto the floor, I mumbled, Sorry... it's been a clumsy kind of day, and as Ricky passed me on the way to the door he said: Don't worry, Miss. It happens to all of us sometimes.
I was very tired, got a bit muddled, almost tripped on the leg of a portable screen and later, as the students were leaving, knocked down the string from the standing wave demo and the clamp came tumbling down in beautiful synchronicity with my state of being.
One period earlier in math class, I announced to the students that we were now going to get out our pencils and notebooks and start *stretching* the graphs. I mean, sketching the stretches. Shifting the skretches, munching the functions and scrunching the compressions. One girl in the front smiled kindly as I fumbled.
Back in physics.... the students helped me through my confusion with great and exhausting energy. We changed n to represent the harmonic number so that it was consistent for all the standing wave formulae, the plus became a minus. It felt like for the first time they really *understood* what had been going on all this time as I was dancing up there in front of class excited about my presentations of concepts... not because I did anything to help them, but because I needed their help. One student seemed even more excited than usual through the confusion: This is what real science is about! he exclaimed as I follied and sorried... All of us working together to find a solution!
The bell rang and as the clamp came tumbling down onto the floor, I mumbled, Sorry... it's been a clumsy kind of day, and as Ricky passed me on the way to the door he said: Don't worry, Miss. It happens to all of us sometimes.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Four classes
I really appreciate your sharing your great day with me, Veena. It is truly a joy to see you enjoying yourself so much.
One exciting feature of teaching is figuring out a concept for yourself before you teach it, and it's almost magical when you can use that excitement to help students sort it out for themselves. I'm sure you will always remember that moment and its payoff! I'm so pleased that you could identify and respond to the students need to see a node for themselves!!
And when you can get your teaching in two different subjects to complement each other, it's another big bonus. No wonder you feel so positively about the day!!
I hope you have many more such days in the next 2 weeks. Do you think it helped that your associate wasn't there so you weren't being watched in quite the same way?
Yours,
tom
One exciting feature of teaching is figuring out a concept for yourself before you teach it, and it's almost magical when you can use that excitement to help students sort it out for themselves. I'm sure you will always remember that moment and its payoff! I'm so pleased that you could identify and respond to the students need to see a node for themselves!!
And when you can get your teaching in two different subjects to complement each other, it's another big bonus. No wonder you feel so positively about the day!!
I hope you have many more such days in the next 2 weeks. Do you think it helped that your associate wasn't there so you weren't being watched in quite the same way?
Yours,
tom
a first: four classes back-to-back
Today was an important day... I taught four classes back-to-back and my associate teacher was away ill. For Physics Grade 11 we covered wave interference and superposition, leading up to the formation of standing waves. After an introduction, some brief examples of superposition when two waves meet, and a step-by-step diagram of node formation through the meeting of a crest and a trough of equal magnitude, I showed a simulation: http://www.walter-fendt.de/
This simulation really helped me to understand particle motion vs. wave motion and visualize a wave reflecting back on itself. It was a pleasure to share something with students that had given me insight into a concept..... it seemed to be working for them too... I heard some "Oh!"s ripple through the class.
We ended the class with talking about harmonics and demonstrating standing wave formation on a string attached to a vibrator (weights hanging on the other end to keep it fixed). We increased the frequency of vibration to find the fundamental, first, second and third harmonics. A number of students needed to see a node for themselves to really believe that there were points that remained perfectly stationary throughout the interference.
In Grade 11 Math we introduced periodic behaviour, talked about the periodic nature of trig functions and manually sketched some graphs of sine x and cosine x. I thought it would be too simple and they would get bored really quick, but both classes seemed engaged by the exercise. It's hard to know what students know, what holds their interest... it's often surprising. Tomorrow we move on to transformations of trig functions.
It's neat how we are covering periodic behaviour in both physics and math right now. I see some of the same students in both classes, and they bring up concepts and ideas that we talked about in the other subject... that's a great feeling.
This simulation really helped me to understand particle motion vs. wave motion and visualize a wave reflecting back on itself. It was a pleasure to share something with students that had given me insight into a concept..... it seemed to be working for them too... I heard some "Oh!"s ripple through the class.
We ended the class with talking about harmonics and demonstrating standing wave formation on a string attached to a vibrator (weights hanging on the other end to keep it fixed). We increased the frequency of vibration to find the fundamental, first, second and third harmonics. A number of students needed to see a node for themselves to really believe that there were points that remained perfectly stationary throughout the interference.
In Grade 11 Math we introduced periodic behaviour, talked about the periodic nature of trig functions and manually sketched some graphs of sine x and cosine x. I thought it would be too simple and they would get bored really quick, but both classes seemed engaged by the exercise. It's hard to know what students know, what holds their interest... it's often surprising. Tomorrow we move on to transformations of trig functions.
It's neat how we are covering periodic behaviour in both physics and math right now. I see some of the same students in both classes, and they bring up concepts and ideas that we talked about in the other subject... that's a great feeling.
Friday, February 18, 2011
a simple harmony & transformations
this past week's physics topic: SHM, shhhhhhmmmm.... simple harmonic motion.
this past week's math topic: review of sine and cosine law, identities, the *ambiguous* case... transformations of trigonometric functions.
I had a long chat with my associate teacher in the work room on thursday. Mid-way through what was turning out to be a good week of first classes, she made me believe in myself as a person and as a teacher (the latter, for the first time). Something shifted, some inner resistance of mine broke down, and the last two classes of the day felt profoundly different- I relaxed into myself, the students felt it (I am sure) and we all enjoyed ourselves, as people in a room, being together, discussing, doing, learning.
Did I mention that I believe in angels? (and angles, too. unknown ones.... waiting to be figured out)
this past week's math topic: review of sine and cosine law, identities, the *ambiguous* case... transformations of trigonometric functions.
I had a long chat with my associate teacher in the work room on thursday. Mid-way through what was turning out to be a good week of first classes, she made me believe in myself as a person and as a teacher (the latter, for the first time). Something shifted, some inner resistance of mine broke down, and the last two classes of the day felt profoundly different- I relaxed into myself, the students felt it (I am sure) and we all enjoyed ourselves, as people in a room, being together, discussing, doing, learning.
Did I mention that I believe in angels? (and angles, too. unknown ones.... waiting to be figured out)