A recent season of the Amazing Race was called Unfinished Business because it was composed of previous race participants who had not won. Similarly, the last day of our secondary science methods class within TCPCG used the same theme. I indicated that Jenna and I had provided them all we could and that now it was a matter of becoming immersed in actual classrooms with real-live students. In addition, I revealed that studies of experts suggest that it requires 10,000 hours of thoughtful practice to become really good at one's craft. Thus, while the course was officially ending, there remained considerable business to finish. On the other hand, there was a great deal that they had mastered and the last class meeting was their opportunity to demonstrate as much.
The premise of the competition was this: A local school was interested in hiring the teacher candidate and there was the expectation that a Demonstration Lesson would be delivered by the applicant two days from now. Using the key ideas we had taught to our preservice teachers, they were to use resources at their disposal to develop an exemplary Lesson Plan. They were to work in groups of 4 and there were several challenges dispersed throughout. The first challenge was to identify the elements named in a song being rapidly sung by the actor who plays Harry Potter.In this picture, you see the Yellow Team working on this problem:
On the BBC program The Graham Norton Show during Series 8, Episode 4 (broadcast in November 2010) the actor who plays Harry Potter sings a song about chemistry. In this show, what element came just before and what element came just after when he sings the name of the element whose chemical symbol is Sn?
I thought this would be a difficult task because the words fly by very quickly, the element names are not especially easy to discern, and I anticipated they would eventually search for the lyrics for this famous Tom Lehrer song. But each group figured out their answers in just a few minutes. In addition to being surprised how quickly they decoded the challenge, we were even more surprised how quickly they dashed out of the room to receive their next clue from our administrative assistant. They ran full tilt, took two different stairwells, and Monica said she knew when she needed to be ready because she heard their thundering approach. Turns out one of our students who had been told there would be a competition that required some physical activity had actually brought sneakers for the occasion. Apparently, we had been mistaken in our worry that they would not engage with this activity.
Inside the envelope (see sample here) they received a fictionalized email from their host teacher. I would remiss if I didn't acknowledge the extraordinary design and assembly work by my co-teacher.
Her passion for marine biology is matched by her enthusiasm for crafts. A week ago, she showed a video of a commercial that several of her friends had forwarded because it reminded them of Jenna. The class saw the similarities. Sure enough, by the end of the day, the classroom tables, floors, and even our faces were enhanced by glitter ("So much glitter!"). Why was their glitter? Because one challenge was to create a door hanger that would be a visual reminder of some aspect of science teaching that the novice wanted to keep in mind (e.g., wait time). Hot glue, colored markers, and glitter. Big jars of it.
In addition to the crafts, the teams were also required to generate a Lesson Plan outline that attended to the structure we had emphasized since the first day of class. Beyond addressing each component, that Lesson Plan had to be ambitious, collaborative, and public. A nice thing about our program is that everyone has a laptop and they could have done this work on a google doc or through some other collaborative electronic media. However, the closet from which glitter and glue sticks emerge also contained buckets of sidewalk chalk. Thus, each group had to generate their Lesson Plan in the parking lot.
I tend to believe I have a pretty good imagination. This was much more impressive than even I had the right to expect.
Inside the envelope (see sample here) they received a fictionalized email from their host teacher. I would remiss if I didn't acknowledge the extraordinary design and assembly work by my co-teacher.
Her passion for marine biology is matched by her enthusiasm for crafts. A week ago, she showed a video of a commercial that several of her friends had forwarded because it reminded them of Jenna. The class saw the similarities. Sure enough, by the end of the day, the classroom tables, floors, and even our faces were enhanced by glitter ("So much glitter!"). Why was their glitter? Because one challenge was to create a door hanger that would be a visual reminder of some aspect of science teaching that the novice wanted to keep in mind (e.g., wait time). Hot glue, colored markers, and glitter. Big jars of it.
In addition to the crafts, the teams were also required to generate a Lesson Plan outline that attended to the structure we had emphasized since the first day of class. Beyond addressing each component, that Lesson Plan had to be ambitious, collaborative, and public. A nice thing about our program is that everyone has a laptop and they could have done this work on a google doc or through some other collaborative electronic media. However, the closet from which glitter and glue sticks emerge also contained buckets of sidewalk chalk. Thus, each group had to generate their Lesson Plan in the parking lot.
The only disappointment is that my next methods class is held at night in a building far from a parking lot, and concludes in the winter. So until then, I have these pictures to remind just how much fun it can be to set people up with a challenge, encourage them to enjoy themselves, and then stand back and capture it with a camera.
