Blogging to be a better teacher

I am starting this blog to not only reflect on my own practice, share some teaching ideas, but also to hopefully hear from some other science teachers who have innovative ideas on science teaching. I am passionate about giving kids the opportunity to be scientists rather than just know about science. Being a scientist involves curiosity, wonder, problem solving, research, collaboration, writing, testing, thinking about the implications of your ideas, reflecting, respecting the opinions of others, challenging yourself and so much more.

I believe it is important to allow students to construct their own understanding of science principles. So, last week, I gave groups of 2 or 3 students a mirror and gave them about 30 minutes to figure out the law of reflection. Prior to this, we had discussed the scientific meaning of the word 'law', but that was all the instruction I gave to the students. I gave hints by holding the mirror at different angles and asking what they could see. I then said 'why', and sent them away. In all classes, the groups were able to figure out the law on their own.

I have added a journaling component to all my science classes this year, and in fact, all 5 science teachers in my school have gotten on board with journaling and reflection. I think this is going to be an interesting addition to the class because it will help students reflect on their growth in my class for the year and allow them to make connections between the subjects in school and to the real world. On this day, I asked them to explain how they felt while trying to figure out the law of reflection. They shared with the class that it was frustrating at first, that is was confusing and hard, but they also said that they felt proud to have figured out the law on their own, and that they felt that they would remember the law better for a longer period of time because they had to struggle and do it on their own.

It was a very successful combination of activities. Today I taught about concave and convex mirrors and had them each predict where rays would go based on their understanding of the law of reflection and the students were incredibly successful at understanding how light bounces off these mirrors.

It is clear that having kids construct knowledge takes more time, but the teaching of concepts that stem from the original concept goes much more quickly, with greater depth of understanding. So, whenever I can, I will be encouraging students to work through problems on their own, with guidance, of course, but with less direct teaching.