Tough to learn, tough to teach…

Tough to learn, tough to teach…

Amazingly it is nearly half my lifetime since I finished my science degree. I did not have much trouble with the Chemistry in High School but I remember college Chemistry being a difficult time for me. This did carry through to the in depth Biochemistry. Also, as I freely admit to the students, I have good mental arithmetic but there are areas of Math I left behind me as soon as I could. To this day I use my process for powers and exponents.

I am not sure why the biochemistry was an issue for me. The diagrams and flowcharts of processes should have been up my alley but I struggled to make them stick in my mind. The large classes and distant professors made help quite difficult but I did work with groups of friends in order to make progress. With the Mathematics, there were areas in which I worked well, but others I wanted to just get through. This continued in college when on a youthful whim I chose the honors Mathematics track. I needed tutoring from some family friends to keep me above water in that venture. Certainly group studying and one to one work have served me well when times have been difficult.

I am seeing issues with the same topics now as a teacher. I am working with the Math Department at Curley to ensure that all the students will be taught the relevant parts of algebra and powers before they enter the Chemistry class. I have found myself getting stuck teaching students how to deal with multiplication and division of numbers in scientific notation. I do use my system which makes sense to me to teach the students but it still takes time for them to take be proficient. I am also teaching Photosynthesis and am struggling to make it relevant and interesting. The process and cycle are quite in depth and I feel present students don’t “just learn” things like they might have in years past. But it is a struggle to make it seem worth learning to most.

I already feel like I have learned plenty (but just the tip of the iceberg) in terms of understanding the mind and views of adolescents, and have a clearer view of how to approach curriculum and assessment but it is improving my instruction and being more creative in the classroom that I am most interested in learning in this course. I feel like that would help me now. I am spending time using the book, powerpoints and a variety of worksheets to help the students learn the process. I am working to make the students take and use effective notes, and trying to open their eyes to different study strategies in an effort to help. I feel these attempts which may or may not be successful for this particular topic will at least increase their learning and also will be valuable skills far beyond the science classroom.

Thanks