Oh the things we missed out on in Teacher's College. I actually can't remember much besides student teaching and learning abstract concepts that were irrelevant to us then and well into the first years of teaching. I have to imagine the education those undergrads are receiving now is of much higher quality and well organized. I hope they have the ability to design and teach science lessons that are meaningful to students. They have the time. I am now learning about designing science lessons that inspire students to think, ask questions, and truly wonder about the world and phenomena around them.
Designing effective science instruction is very similar to designing lessons in other curricular areas. The only difference is that I and many teachers like me have feared this one area in the past. We have had the least training and had the least amount of instructional time in this most important subject. I am now learning to let go, let the science happen, and let the "organized chaos" (as some of my DESI colleagues call it) unfold. This is not a "subtle shift". This is a monumental shift that we need to take for the sake of our students. Learning in an inquiry based way can only encourage and motivate students to excel.
I was given the book Designing Effective Science Instruction today at our workshop. This book was written by our presenter Anne Tweed, a leader in the field of science education. I plan to use this resource, among others, to help design and plan science this year with my colleagues. If any science educators would like to read it along with me, please comment and we can have a bit of discourse about the what is happening in our classrooms.
We were also given an awesome "Flip" video camera! What a great tool for instruction. Can't wait to use this for our experiments. Thank you Harry!
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