EDF4403 Session 5

Well we're over half way there, placements are over and its just a downward slope of essays and portfolios until the end of the course.
I'm not sure whether anyone is still doing this log now that it has been assessed, but I thought I'd keep going as I find it a good way to vent to nobody in particular - my husband must be heartily sick of listening to ramble on.
Once again I got really frustrated with the workshop on Thursday. I spent a long trip to Traralgon and back trying to work out why I should have a different teaching philosophy for teaching chemistry than any other subject I might teach. I was going to send an email to ask for clarification, but in the end decided it wasn't worth it, I'll just end up going with the flow. However for anybody else in the group who was wondering the same thing (and didn't say anything - thanks a lot :-) ), here is the email I was going to send but never did...

---
Hi Deb,
I have just done a trip of my own – not as far as you – just three hours to Traralgon and back and rather than thinking about pleasant thoughts of the school holidays, mock interviews and the end of this course, I spent almost the entire time thinking about one issue from Thursday morning – you guessed it – ‘Why would I be a different teacher teaching chemistry than I would be a maths teacher?’
It’s really bugging me. So I went back to my teaching philosophy, portfolio pieces and I started to list all the things that I want to be as a teacher: enthusiastic, supportive, caring, varied, motivated and motivational.
Also what do I want to achieve?
Ø Job satisfaction
Ø Mutual respect
Ø A feeling of making a difference
Ø Educating students about the world around them regardless of whether they continue past year 10
Ø Teaching problem solving and life skills
Ø Ensuring that even if students leave school as early as possible they will still be functional members of the workforce and society
And how will I go about it:
Ø Trying to tie learning back to things that relate to the student
Ø Variety
Ø Encouraging students to make the most of their skills in demonstrating their understanding
Ø Demonstrating that I am there to help them achieve to their fullest potential
Ø Using as much of other areas of the curriculum as I can to make learning ‘real-world’ or interesting to students whose interest may not lie in science or maths – my interests are history, travel and IT.
So regardless of what subject I am teaching, the above lists will underpin how I go about teaching and the type of teacher I become.
One feature of my teaching is the preparation I do for each lesson, probably more in chemistry than maths because my content knowledge is weaker. However I would expect in a very short time this difference in content knowledge would disappear as I become more confident.
Perhaps part of my issue is that I do not necessarily see myself as a maths or chemistry teacher (maybe I will if I teach these subject for a while). At the moment my teaching goals are not that specific, and my focus has been with those students who will most likely get out of maths and science as soon as possible, and ensuring that they have a basic understanding of the world they are about to enter.
So with this chemistry portfolio looming, and your comments that seemed to imply that we will/should/must be a different teacher teaching chemistry than another subject, I am looking for clarification. Do you expect me to have a different philosophy for chemistry education than maths education? Should I have different goals? Does teaching chemistry require a different set of skills to teaching maths (I admit in chem there is a literacy issue, but this is also an issue in maths teaching)?
Any insights would be appreciated

Regards

---

so there it is. An outline of my philosophy and an argument as to why I don't think I should have a different philosophy.
If anybody happens to come across this I'd love to see your comments

Thanks for reading...