This is my fifteenth year of teaching chemistry and physical
science to high school students. I love
my job. Each day I have something
exciting going on in my classroom: a
demonstration, a lab, or a group activity. But my science-teaching career didn’t start
off this way; I had a horrible first year of teaching (don’t we all?).
My first teaching job was in a small high school in rural
Virginia. I was the only chemistry and
physics teacher at the school. I had no
one to turn to for help with all the issues that a new teacher faces, and more
tragically, no other science colleagues to work with who loved teaching
science. I was on my own in my lab with
20 students for five periods a day. I
made all the mistakes that new teachers make in their first year. After the first week, I lost the kids
attention and I had no idea how to get it back.
My carefully crafted lectures were incredibly boring and way over my
students’ heads. By Christmas, I realized
that my bad classroom management skills were making my life miserable. I didn’t know what to do to make it better.
Lab prep consumed so much of my time, and then the experiments were disasters. Let’s just say that I was very discouraged by
the spring term. By the end of the year
I was ready to throw in the towel. I
actually took three days of sick leave when I got my new contract. I was immobilized by the thought of going
back for another year, but I was certain that things shouldn’t be like this in
my classroom. After three days of
crying, fretting, and soul-searching, I decided to sign on for another year at
the school. I vowed to make it a better
year by seeking out help from other chemistry teachers.
Over the summer I attended a weeklong workshop for chemistry
teachers in Virginia put on by the local American Chemical Society (ACS)
chapter. Excuse the cliché… this
workshop changed my life. On the first
day, we met Bassam Shakhashiri, the guru of chemical demonstrations from the
University of Wisconsin. He did a
demonstration presentation for the group and then followed it with a hands-on
workshop so we could learn how to do these demonstrations. That was the day my eyes were opened to the
wonderful world of science education.
This blog is not only a celebration of my 15th
year in the classroom, but also a tribute to Dr. Shakhashiri who changed the
trajectory of my teaching career (or some would say “created a monster”). My plan is to perform one demonstration each week from Shakhashiri’s
Chemical Demonstrations, A Handbook for
Teachers of Chemistry, the “bible” of chemical demonstrations, a five-volume
set of demonstration books. Even though I
do demonstrations in my class almost every day, this year I will incorporate one
new demo a week from the Shakhashiri collection. I will use the blog to reflect on the
preparation, performance, and effectiveness of the new demonstrations.
Thank you so much for posting your teaching experience! I'm currently working on a single subject teaching credential in Chemistry and Physics in California. I've already purchased the first three volumes of Dr. Shakhashiri Chemical Demonstrations Handbook a few weeks back. I've subbed for several years, but I still find the idea of teaching a lab course a little intimidating. I've been pouring over Shakhashiri labs--so clear to follow! I never realized the ACS offered workshops for chemistry teachers. I will definitely be on the look out for that.
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