During my year of student teaching, I observed that working in a classroom is a lot like working in a chemistry laboratory. Here are some similarities I noted:

1. In order for a process to go smoothly in either location, a lot of planning must be done. One cannot enter unprepared and expect to improvise without being extremely experienced and capable.
2. Regardless of the thoroughness of preparation, things can and will diverge from the plan, thus demanding improvisation of even the less experienced and less capable.
3. Many conditions affect the reactions of chemicals and/or students. Some variables are controllable while others are not.
4. Chemicals and students activate under differing conditions. Some excel under high pressures and temperatures; others remain inert until the heat is turned down. It is essential to learn the properties of the components.
5. If results are not satisfactory after a reasonable time, the hypothesis and methods require reevaluation and redesign.

As a scientist, I began this academic year with hypotheses that I set down in my reflections on teaching science, on adhering to state standards, and on relating to adolescents. Now that my student teaching stage of research is over, I need to evaluate those hypotheses and adjust them to better explain the world I entered.

In my first hypothesis, I predicted that to be an effective teacher, I would need flexibility, a good imagination, and tools to make abstract ideas concrete.
 

Click here for initial reflection on teaching science.

I think I hit the nail on the head, but I underestimated how hard I was going to have to pound. Teaching is exhausting and more demanding than I imagined. During the summer, I had hours to contemplate the best way to teach chemical equations. However, with papers to grade, parents to contact, and progress reports to write, a teacher does not have the luxury of such planning time during a semester. I found that in order to survive, a teacher must utilize every available resource. By discussing existing plans with fellow teachers and examining suitable websites, I learned to adapt othersí ideas to fit my purpose and to use creativity to make the questions more thought-provoking or the experiments more time-efficient. Because many science students lacked basic writing and math skills, class time was often spent in remediation rather than in teaching students to think like scientists and to apply the lessons to real world science problems.

My second hypothesis proposed that the national and state standards justifiably emphasize science as a way of viewing the world rather than a series of facts and hold the community, not just the teacher, responsible for student outcomes.
 

Click here for initial reflection on science standards.

What I found, however, was that standardized testing placed pressure on teachers to get through too much material in too short of a time. I observed that students often were unable to grasp the importance and complexity of a topic before the teacher rushed to cover yet another objective. Science became a series of facts after all. To keep with the spirit of the standards, teaching the majority of the material thoroughly is better than glossing over all the topics on the standards. Indeed, sometimes less is more.

My third hypothesis, that I am capable of helping each student set goals and enjoy success, needs rethinking.
 

Click here for initial reflection on teaching adolescents.

I agreed with Carl Rogers when he maintained that students "who are in contact with problems that are relevant to them wish to learn, want to grow, seek to discover, endeavor to master, desire to create, move toward self-discipline." However, I, and perhaps Mr. Rogers, did not have a realistic view of the "problems that are relevant to them." Now that I do, I see that some of my students have no time to sleep, much less to dream of goals and success. The events of September 11, 2001, and a shooting death of a fellow student were added to a "relevant problem" list which already included having no time for homework when holding a full-time job to support the family, absentee parents, drugs, gangs, pregnancies, and health concerns. My desire to create 150 meaningful relationships was naive, but I learned to be thrilled any time I helped a student taste success. Additionally, I realized how important it is for teachers to observe students out of the classroom context. Whether it is through sports, a club, or quiz bowl, I should make the effort to see the students in other environments displaying different strengths and facets of their personalities, giving me incites into their motivations while making me more accessible as a teacher and fellow human.

I maintain my earlier hypothesis that made me apply to Duke's MAT program: trading in my lab notebook for a grade book, my spectrophotometer for a white board, a lab bench for a school desk, is the best way for me to make a positive difference in the world. I will not win a Nobel Prize for science, but maybe one of my students will.
 

Back to Reflections.

 

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