Science Never Sucks

One of the most surprising conclusions I’ve come to as a new teacher is that new teachers should not be in the business of creating curriculum. We should not be creating or even searching for unit plans, tests, power points, labs, worksheets, guided notes, or activities day in and day out.
Why?
One, we suck at it.
Two, it takes too much time.
Three, there are better things that we could be doing.
Here’s the pitch. Given that there are already experts who love curriculum design, who have the time, experience, and research, to have created units that already anticipate student misunderstandings and that already align state and national standards to assessments to activities, a new teacher’s value added is not in designing the curriculum, but in doing all the things that the curriculum designers can not do because they are not there, with our students, in those precious moments of learning.
A new teacher should…

I’m coughing up phlegm and my nose is a chapped cherry red from constantly rubbing against tissues. Our history and math teachers are both out on family emergencies. One of them can’t make it back for another week. That leaves one grade level teacher for the 7 hours we have our kids every single day.…

I interviewed at KIPP NYC’s three elementary schools this weekend! My day began with a demo lesson for 1st grade science at KIPP Infinity, then proceeded into a whirlwind tour of the three schools where I interviewed with the teachers and school leader of each school. A staple of any school interview is a debrief…

I want to create a series of posts on my blog called Teacher Tip Tuesdays (twitter hashtag #teachertiptuesdays). The vision is for teachers to be able to search #teachertiptuesdays and a keyword of their choice like (organize papers) and then have a plethora of how to posts to choose from. Any teacher can also join…

Commitment is as much a mindset as it is a set of actions. So, this year, I am committing. I am committing to 100%. I commit to 100% of my students being 100% engaged, 100% of the time. This means that if I or another student am talking, all eyes are on the speaker, all…

Right now I’m struggling with two things. One is pacing. The second is data. On the first challenge, my lessons are taking twice as long as I plan them to take. I think the next step is to sit down with someone, go through a lesson plan together, and then have them observe to see…

With students doing all the modeling, thinking, and heavy lifting. http://alwaysformative.blogspot.com/2011/09/cycle.html

Offer for Portals, a PC/Mac game that lets students explore the wonderful world of physics through real-world animation, is free until September 20th. Download it here, now: http://www.learnwithportals.com/.

I’m having so much fun. I just spent about an hour and a half teaching some of the top students in my class how to do a demo about states of matter changes so that they can demo it with their classmates. Tomorrow they’re going to practice the demo in my room so that they’re…

About this Blog

A process of discovery.

Region: Houston
Grade: Middle School
Subject: Science

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Science Never Sucks

New Teachers Should Not be in the Business of Creating Curriculum

What would your school do?

What I Should Have Told My Interviewers

THIS is what I aspire to. THIS is what is possible.

What Do You Think About This Idea?

My Commitment for the School Year

My Biggest Challenges as a Beginning Second Year Teacher

This Is What I Want My Class to Look and Feel Like

Physics Teachers: Download this App Now

Teaching My Students to Be Teachers

About this Blog

Follow Teach For Us

Subscribe to this blog (feed)

Causes

About this Blog

Follow Teach For Us

Subscribe to this blog (feed)

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Causes