tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post8429114624493404193..comments2024-03-21T05:30:03.220-04:00Comments on Science teacher: Why AP grates...doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12901661320505882735noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-42736419246895341472010-11-20T10:03:42.535-05:002010-11-20T10:03:42.535-05:00You're welcome. I'm guessing that Montclai...You're welcome. I'm guessing that Montclair HS is near you. If you go see it, I'll look forward to an interesting review.Sue VanHattumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10237941346154683902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-255753977078395342010-11-20T09:43:56.066-05:002010-11-20T09:43:56.066-05:00Dear Sue,
Wow, you just reminded me of a screenin...Dear Sue,<br /><br />Wow, you just reminded me of a screening of that very movie in Montclair High School November 30th. Here are the details:<br /><br />http://rtnmontclairhigh.eventbrite.com/<br /><br />Thanks!doylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12901661320505882735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-61205626495627974492010-11-20T09:39:47.742-05:002010-11-20T09:39:47.742-05:00This post reminds me of what I've heard about ...This post reminds me of what I've heard about Race to Nowhere, a documentary about this pressure. If you have time to watch adult movies (I don't), it sounds good.<br /><br />They are trying to make a difference with it. It might be worth showing in your community.Sue VanHattumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10237941346154683902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-20589791470297736052010-11-20T09:01:48.000-05:002010-11-20T09:01:48.000-05:00Dear John,
We have a remarkable mix of students h...Dear John,<br /><br />We have a remarkable mix of students here; we're also a Title I school, with a lot of good stuff happening here.<br /><br />I got bumped from teaching the lower functioning students when our school changed the name of our low end courses to suit the NCAA athletic requirements. Same course, different name, different credentials required. Go figure.<br /><br />"How packed stuff is" is as good a definition of density as anyone can give you. If you start thinking in terms of atoms (and their vast intra-atomic space), then that what it comes down to.<br /><br />In my class I call matter "stuff"--it makes as much sense as the word "matter," and gets the kids thinking less like the junior scientists they think they must mimic to "know" science.<br /><br />One of the wonderful secrets about science (at least the way it's often taught in school) is that science is metaphorical. When we strip out the metaphors, science makes little sense.<br /><br />I wish I had you for science when I was in junior high...or someone like you.doylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12901661320505882735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4956989639073843954.post-35835226971265793162010-11-20T08:50:50.212-05:002010-11-20T08:50:50.212-05:00I feel as though I am teaching students in another...I feel as though I am teaching students in another world entirely. My students cannot even name for me an elite university (it's okay with me, really) and they get excited about the prospects of going to ASU (though many of them still worry that they'll go to jail or dropout or not be able to afford it if they are undocumented immigrants). <br /><br />Yesterday I asked them who knew anything about density. A few of the students were able to look at the root word dense and have a rough sense. For most, it became an hour of measuring height and weight, feeling objects and guessing, sputtering around metaphors and eventually writing their own definitions. <br /><br />And they're definitions were hardly "scientific." I'm sure many scientists would cringe at a definition like "an object's stuffiness" or "how packed stuff is" but I know that it's the beginning of constructing knowledge. <br /><br />I'm comfortable with teaching the basics. I had a class full of kids who seemed to really want to figure out what made things dense and to me that was pretty exciting.<br /><br />It's not that I oppose AP classes. I always took AP English and History and twice took AP math. But I also refused to study for a test (if I didn't know it, why pretend?) and I was often baffled by the intense emotional reaction to getting into an elite university (especially when our community college had tons of professors who were recently retired professors from elite colleges themselves)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10956056168256756705noreply@blogger.com