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

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/ph14e/stwaverefl.htm

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.

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)

India's Right to Education (RTE) Act

http://subirshukla.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-are-you-imposing-freedom-on-me.html

http://subirshukla.blogspot.com/2010/09/right-to-teach.html

I've been reading about it.

I'm arranging to do my alternate practicum at an international school in Bangalore.  Doing research on the school, I realize how hard they, and other schools like them, are fighting to absolve themselves of responsibility for complying with the Act's directive to admit a quota of students from underprivileged backgrounds (within a certain radius of the school).

I've been thinking a lot of about public education (which I deeply believe in... and then barely survived my practicum in) and private schools (where I had a marvelous experience with all the happy children and teachers.... in our beautiful little bubble)

GREAT reading

Greetings from Santiago, Veena, and thanks for some excellent reading.  Truly an amazing teacher you are with, what a complete night and day contrast from your first associate.

I wonder if some of the pressure comes from knowing, subconsciously, that you can NEVER be as good as she is (not this year anyway).  I´m just so very pleased that you have such a fine example of what good physics teaching can become.  You will find your own ways to excel.

http://aweekinsantiago.blogspot.com/

Yours,
Tom

Reflecting on my Second Practicum

Observations:

• From what I've seen, the school I'm at - a private school - is a fully functional, happy place, where teachers teach well and kids thrive.  There is a class limit of 19, and the teachers always smile and engage with you if you walk down the hall.  Students are playful and respectful.
• My physics associate teacher has a deep knowledge and love of physics, which I can see - and she has told me explicitly - is the key to her teaching philosophy.  Knowing her physics well allows her to take it to creative places, be in the moment with it, and respond to student comments in an insightful and fun way.  

Some of the strategies she uses:

• The lesson has a clear structure (even if it's a practice lesson, where students are working on problems from a worksheet) that she states at the beginning of the class explicitly, "Today's lesson is about ___.  The main purpose is to understand...." and she always concludes the lesson restating the purpose.  "So the purpose of today's lesson was to...."  Often she ends with, "I really hope you enjoyed today's lesson."
• If the period is a teaching period, she starts it off with an introductory analogy related to daily life to bring the concept to life, be it related to cars or bouncy balls.  She has simple objects at hand - like balls (momentum), beakers and test tubes (hydrostatic pressure) that she can just grab when a teachable moment arises.
• Her problem solving on the board is extremely clear and well-structured, she makes use of fun drawings with coloured chalk, and different colours for different kinds of forces.  Moons and satellites are given characters and personalities.  The earth is an evil dragon that traps the princess satellite in its orbit.  Can she escape?  Will a prince meteroite come and save her?......onto the formula for escape velocity... 
• The class is a social environment.  Students are allowed friendly chatter, but when it starts to get too loud and distracting she says a few simple words and the room hushes and heads are down.  There is a great deal of respect for her authority.  When it seems there is an energy in the room - for example about how many exams there are in the last week of school - she creates a vent for it before moving on: "Okay... it seems that this is really on your minds.  Let's go around and see what the most stressful aspect of this last week is for everyone..."  then back to the topic.  Or she will tell a story, or a student will tell a story about something that's happened to them, and all will be fully involved in that, and then "Ok.  That's enough side talk for now.  Let's get back to work."
• For her last two spare periods, she scheduled past students, now in university, to come in to discuss the fluid dynamics that they were not understanding from their current professor.  It seems like a true pleasure to her.
• She's a smart-marker, with clear answer keys defining knowledge, application and thinking marks.  Marks are only taken off for aspects that are missing, and students understand what the difference between knowledge/ application/ thinking are, and talk about the improvements they need in this language.  The rubric for marking a detailed lab report makes a daunting task almost simple.. the key concepts are clearly identified, the report has a logical structure that must be followed, and weightings are attached to each.  Beside each section on the marks sheet that the students receive is a column called "Reason" where the reason for that mark being taken off is explained.

Ok... we understand how wonderful my associate is, but what have I been up to all this time?!

• Observing a great teacher, that's for sure.
• Using her model for a lesson to inform and improve mine (I never really had one, to be honest... it's still in its infancy of formation)
• Learning to clearly think of my purpose for the lesson, and to clearly state it to the students.
• Learning to present information in a way that students can take clear notes from.  Learning how to make better use of the board, coloured chalk, and improve clarity in problem solving examples.
• Interacting with students A LOT in class.  The students in this school like to interact, engage, and participate.  They like to question, test and, in one of the classes I'm in, just throw out random comments just to say something :)  They have me running all over the place trying to address all their concerns about the content sometimes.  Today was definitely one of those days!  I think I could have been clearer in how I presented the material the first time, but honestly was not feeling as crisp as I would have liked. 

What I need to improve on:

• Learning to better direct the enormous energy of a group of students learning new material/ students at the end of the day who are generally engaged, but are kind of tired and just want to chat.
• Strategies to keep them on task when we're not doing work together as a class on the board (a pop quiz did work...)
• Practice with that whole "assessment for learning" stuff... (their pop quiz showed that some key concepts had not been understood by many)..... and how to get them to do that necessary after-school review if concepts are to really sink in?
• Review of physics concepts for myself.  It's been great fun reviewing the stuff I've had to in order to prepare for the lesson and the barrage of questions.... but I need familiarity with the whole curriculum in order to link concepts and build on them.  That all takes time, practice, and teaching, I guess.
• Oh!  I almost forgot a big part of my needed improvement.  I need to learn how to RELAX.  Being this tense and anxious about everything just drains energy that could be much better used.  My associate actually told me to just sit back and have a tea during one period... I think I wear my over-thinking about things on the outside.................

third law

Today I had the opportunity to teach a 11th grade class about Newton's Third Law of Motion. 

I had to do a lot of leaning on walls, watching items at rest, and drawings of cars and apples to feel even somewhat up for the task.... the colourful markers really helped!

My new associate teacher has a heart of gold and a mind of steel, and gave me a ton of constructive feedback that I will work hard to put into practice in the next couple of weeks.  I couldn't have dreamed of a better physics placement...