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...
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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
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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...
3 comments:
Hi Kate,
This made for a very interesting read, because I feel quite similarly to you. I was surprised that Deb thought it was 'disappointing' that I think my Chem teaching approach is a subset of my whole teaching approach. Perhaps I should've said it's an intersection with my whole teaching philosophy, but there's certainly massive overlap & I also struggle to do anything but provide examples pertaining to Chem that reflect the values goals etc. that I bring to my overall teaching. This is pretty much what I concluded was her designed outcome - to make us think how we will be as teachers in a chem classroom, how (if at all) will it be different etc? So yes, I think it's a load of crock, and I get more out of reflecting on the journal than I ever will on building this portfolio to get the amazing PGO, but I'm over worrying about that. Actually, I'm thankful it's PGO, as I reckon my chem mark (if it were marked) would pull down my chances of getting into hon's. I also think I'm going to get much more out of the curriculum assignment - it's a much more valid and authentic task than the portfolio, given we're already doing one for 4006.
I will continuing my reflection btw....just haven't got there yet!!
Cheers
M
Hi Kate,
I'm feeling lost on this idea too. I sort of see where Deb is coming from that you are a different teacher in different subjects but I'm finding it really hard to put my thoughts into anything somebody else could understand.
Maybe what it is, is something about the difference in our approach to the subjects. For example in chemistry I focus alot on making real-world connections, because I find students find this difficult themselves.
But with physics they find this easy. It doesn't take much stretch of the imagination to see how electronics fits into life. Instead what I find is that my approach and teaching method is about making physics exciting. About restoring the magic to a subject that students (and teachers) often find dull.
But then I examine Chem again. I have some emphasis on making chemistry exciting and magically. But I find that is less necessary often, because students find mixing chemicals and creating colour or burning metals exciting already.
So maybe there is a difference in the teaching. Like you I do see these as kind of subset to my teaching philosophy. But now that I'm writing this I'm wondering if maybe I'm thinking about it backwards. I wonder if how we form our overal teaching philosophy is some kind of subclass (not sure of the word, but think of an upside triangle) of my philosophies on how I see chemistry and physics should be taught.
Hey,
I was just tackling my portfolio when I thought of this. Not sure if it any help.
In Deb's intro thingy one point she makes is that this course is to get us thinking about why students should learn chemistry. Also in the first tute she showed us that graphical picture of a student's idea of chemistry. So what I'm doing to try and work out how to start is creating two brainstorming sheets where I am looking at:
a) What do I see Chemistry as?
b) Why do I think students should teach Chemistry?
I thought it might make clearer what sort of chemistry teacher I am and how that might be different to the whole overal teacher thing.
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