Slow-motion NSTA13 Round-Up

Via the NSTA's New Teacher Academy*, I had the opportunity to attend a Professional Development Institute Class. These were special, one-day, all-day sessions on a number of subjects. I chose Inquiring Into Inquiry: Creating an Inquiry-Based Classroom. This is a topic in which I am fully vested because I feel completely incompetent (scared, even) of letting my students take control. 

But here's the thing. You know that party that you're so excited to attend, it's going to be just the BEST time E-vah. And then you go and it's just not - not what you expected, not what you wanted, maybe even not what you were told it was going to be? Well, that was this PDI. It was a let-down. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't actively bad. It just wasn't what I wanted - needed - it to be. It was the type of thing that by the end of the conference, three-plus days later I could barely recall anything but blah.

Intervention

This was about to violate  "Keri's Theory of PD" -- "anything learned from PD makes it a good PD". And that could not be allowed to happen. Into the breach stepped Nick (Last name unknown), another NTA Fellow. He had shown himself to be a remarkably upbeat type, so I asked him what he got out of that class. His answer dispelled the Charlie Brown cloud that had been hanging over my head regarding the entire thing. So here is what I learned from PDI-8:

1. There is no one "look" of inquiry. It can involve text/article readings just as much as it involves labs. (Thanks, Nick!)
2. I now have a great list of sentence stems to offer my students so that they can beging to "think like a scientist". I plan to combine this with a tip from another PD and create a "word wall" that we can point to as we develop a more formal register.
3. Not so much learned as met. By attending this pre-conference even, I made connections that really helped for the remainder of the conference and . As a result, I felt so much more comfortable and got more our of the remainder of the conference because we were able to share/compare our experiences. 

Upcoming: Electric House Project and more reflections on NSTA

Cool find: Scroll down until you see the headphones. What a great idea!

*New Teacher Academy is organized by NSTA and sponsored by many other companies including DOW (my sponsor). If you are in your first five years of teaching science, I highly recommend applying for this program. It is a year-long program that provides an online mentoring community, in-depth explorations of topics that help you reflect and improve on teaching, webinars that cover topics from classroom management to lab safety to inquiry to whatever and finally, the program sends its fellows to the annual NSTA conference. 

My students made me want to cry.

In my first year teaching, the thing that made me want to cry the most was the knowledge that the teacher they would have in five years would be so much better than the teacher I was then.

Three years later, I feel like I'm in that same place. Today, we were doing review for our state test. This was the question: 

As we were breaking it down, I asked them to compare  inertia and mass. In a Pre-AP physics class, not one student could do this. Not one. 

Wouldn't you cry, too?

Of course, my next question is - short term and long term - how to fix this. 

What would you do? Have you been here, too?  

Ironically, I leave you with this:

Pre-Conference Reflection

I’m lucky enough to have received a fellowship to the NSTA’s New Teacher Academy.** One of the boons of this gig is the opportunity to attend the annual NSTA Conference. This year it’s in San Antonio.* I’m sitting in my hotel right now, Psych in the background, as I type this. I meant to do this reflection post about a week ago, but good intentions and all that.

With one day’s schedule topping out at 595 offerings (and there’s 4 days of conference), deciding what to do is intimidating. My first choices are primarily related to how to teach. At the 2011-12 state conference, I obviously focused on content. At the 2010-11 state conference, my first year teaching, I was focused on strategies and management. None of this was planned, but looking back on it and planning for tomorrow, I see my conference “themes” as indicative of my growing confidence in the classroom. Additionally, I’m shifting my focus from what I’m teaching to how I’m teaching.

Among the workshops I’m taking are:

·        Creating an Inquiry Based Classroom

·         A Lab Workshop Using the Modeling Method

·         Flex Paced Flipped Mastery Physics

·         Thinking Like a Scientist: Inquiry-Based Activities to Jump-Start Critical Thinking

*Do you know a new teacher? One with less than 5 years in the classroom? Send them to the New Teacher Academy page. This could be the best professional development they ever do.

**Irony: The last year I can apply for the program is when the conference is in the same state I’m from. Le sigh.

Your turn:
What are you focusing on to become a better teacher?