I recently had a discussion with other science teachers about the role of writing in our classrooms. The discussion that ultimately emerged revolved around the idea that science shouldn’t be teaching students the writing process…that is the English teacher’s job. I highly respect the opinions and views of my colleagues, but this belief blew my… Read More »
Lists
I’m fairly new to the education blogging realm. I haven’t even been posting consistently for a year now, but I’m getting better at it and I’m refining my ideas and my voice as I continue to post. I’m even newer to Twitter, having just signed up for an account in March. Again, I’m finding my… Read More »
Fear of the Cell Phone
I have to be honest…I almost posted this yesterday, about an hour after I posted about the fishbowl discussion. But, I decided to bite my tongue and think through everything that was flying through my head. Not many things increase my blood pressure, but when I read this article from the Boston Globe website, I probably… Read More »
The Fishbowl – Not Your Normal Discussion
As a science teacher, we don’t get many opportunities to discuss difficult topics. Sure, content discussion happen, but I envy the english and philosophy teachers who get to discuss the deep thinking questions. True debate is hard to come by with some of the other more “empirical” contents. My AP Chemistry class was debating a… Read More »
Opportunity to Succeed
I presented the flipped class and mastery learning models of instruction at the EARCOS Teacher’s Conference in Malaysia this past March. This is my first year using these methods, and honestly, I’ve been making a lot of it up as I go along. It’s worked out pretty well so far and students are engaged and… Read More »
Virtual vs Tangible Labs
At this moment, the AP Chemistry exam is in 19 days. I have about 1.5 chapters to cover with class only 3 times per week. I was at this same point last year, but the exam was a week later, so the situation wasn’t as stressful as it is this year. But, that’s the nature… Read More »
Student Nuclear Chemistry
I love being a teacher and I love being a soccer coach. But, those tend to get in the way of one another. Being an international school, we compete with other international schools from all over Korea. I travel at least once a week, which means I need to miss school more frequently than I… Read More »
Why I Am Skeptical of Sal Khan
I suppose the title of this post says everything: I am skeptical of Sal Khan and I am worried about the influence he is having on education. Now, if you’ve read this blog before (thank you, if you have), you might be wondering why I’m saying this. I am teaching a flipped chemistry class…his big… Read More »
Terminal Velocity
This week, my students are about to finish unit 7, thermochemistry. Looking back one year, I was a little bit further ahead (in terms of content) but this same chapter was chapter 6, not chapter 7. That’s a very roundabout way of saying this year, using the flipped model, I’ve been able to add an… Read More »
Evidence of Learning, Part 2
A few days ago, I wrote a post about a particular student, “Anne,” coming to grips with a very difficult topic to discuss…evolution. Even though I was only the substitute teacher for the day, I gave them a homework assignment asking them to reflect on the discussion. You can read their responses if you’re interested.… Read More »
