You know its been a good week when P3 on a Friday is a McFlurry run. So this week started as such a downer from an amazing weekend. figuring out how to implement some of the awesome ideas into the topics I am already teaching or am going to be teaching, I will be honest is a very daunting prospect especially working with in the framework I am in. I am finding it is much easier with my Yr 8 class as they are a lot more open to new ideas and approaches that either of my Yr 10 classes. I fact that saddens me a lot. My year 10 want me to give them all the information and not do any fun activities to acquire it. To be fair I do hand them all the notes they need but my reason for doing this for both my Yr 8's and 10's is that they just take so damn long writing notes and it is time wasted.
What I would love to be able to do is give them the notes, and use that as a platform to build on there knowledge and to build on the key competencies in class, not just run them through them and move on.
On Monday it was a pretty cruisey couple of lessons we were looking at speed time and distance time graphs, just the theory behind them and getting the students to work through the tasks in their booklets and too practice their graphing, boring but very practical. On Tuesday and Thursday we had the real fun.
The lab that I planned for them was to set up 3 obstacle course for the students to complete in groups. The premise behind it was really simple, the students take turns completing the course and time how long it takes them to complete each stage. Once we had the data we all went back to class to do the analysis and calculations to enable them to draw distance/time and speed/time graphs. One of the biggest thing I saw the students take from this activity was cooperation and problem solving. I gave them there instructions once for doing the activity and the analysis. The rest of the time it was up to them to work together and figure it out as a group. Everyone got stuck in, even my 3 new international student. The students made sure each other was on task and that everyone was doing there bit. Each of the groups showed good levels of leadership, team work, cooperation and problem solving. With out each of these attributes this activity would not of work as well as it did, and most importantly physics was fun!!!!
My Yr 8's have had a pretty fun week. We have been looking at the spectrum of light as an extension of refraction so lots of hands on activities with the light box kits and prisms. The weather has been playing ball to with lots of rainbows to have discussions about. We even tried a really cool activity (it failed but who cares) where the students put the spectrum on a piece of circular card divided into eights and spun it to make it look white. the concept is awesome, but who new finding indigo and violet would be so. Really obscure colours that are not in students pencil cases. They loved making them and connected with the idea behind them so it is a win in my book.
Friday, the McFlurry run was my solace for a pretty interesting double first thing. In hindsight I pitched the work a bit to high, but in saying that though it was really nice to see the students really get stuck in the give it a really good go. lots of positive encourage and hints and tips. They showed me up which was embarrassing but to be expected, it is reassuring when they prove me wrong and really stick to their guns. The double was suppose to be P1 recap P2 next part of the topic but ended up being P1 and half P2 recap and just intro of the next part. And you know what I don't care. It was a really good extension exercise for them and it made them think and problem solve and work together, yes it was messy, yes it was confusing for my less able students at time, but by the end of it they finished and all had the right answers and the ways of getting to each answer were numerous which is great, and they proved that I am a fallible human not some super, knows everything science teacher. The other Yr 10 class I had P6 and 7. Completely different class completely different outcome. P 6 was finishing up the first part of the topic, looking at acceleration, it went smoothly, I have to take a different approach with this class as the ability is slightly lower and it is majority boys. We had more fun, more laid back, it is P 6 and 7 on the Friday after all. Anyway we did the equation work a detailed answer on the board to get everyone up to speed and on the same wavelength then set them to work for 30 mins. P 7 was a recap lesson that pretty much end up with students catching up with work that they either hadn't finished in class this week, or hadn't completed for homework. I was generous, the music was playing and a lot of really good work was achieved, questions were answered and confusion cleared up. It was a great success topped of with one student at the end remarking it was "the fuunnest lesson this year". High five, pat on the back. Teacher win!!!
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