Infecting Students with Passion, Infusing Family with Love
Author: Marianna Ruggerio
Marianna is the Physics teacher at Auburn High School in Rockford, IL. She currently teaches AP Physics 1 and AP Physics C. When she's not in disguise as Nerdy Physics Teacher she is busy at home as Nerdy Physics Mom with her husband Fr. Jonathan and sons Adrian and George.
One positive aspect of working with other teachers nationwide is you are forced to think carefully and critically about precisely what you do and why. Arguably we are supposed to be doing this as part of our daily practices, but too often we get so lost in the day to day we lose sight of the art.
It is my hope in this next series of posts to reflect and share on how I (currently) teach various topics in physics, and how that has shifted from how I used to teach those ideas. Before we begin on this journey together, it is important to lay out my values and beliefs around teaching this course.
Any student can learn physics, and curiosity about the physics world around us is an innate attribute of humanity. Look at any group of people from across the globe and you will find scientific curiosity and thinking. You will find ingenuity and creativity. Humans are constantly looking to explain nature and then use what is available to us to create, build and explore. This innate curiosity isn’t limited to rich, white men, it is literally a piece of our very humanity.
Intuition can be a powerful tool to co-construct knowledge: I was educated in a physics room where we regularly engaged in what Eugina Etkina calls “expose and shame”. Students are given a scenario with no prior knowledge and asked to guess the outcome. The outcome is always the opposite of what students expect. The unexpected is supposed to “stick” in students minds. Not only does the result not stick in students minds, this creates a classroom culture where students avoid taking risks and making mistakes. What I’ve learned from the modeling curriculum and the ISLE method is that we can help set up specific experiments and demonstrations where we first let student intuition help construct an understanding about an idea. As that idea becomes more solidified we can begin to introduce scenarios where student intuition may not have previously led them to the correct answer, but they can get there using the knowledge they have built in the course.
Order matters. Language matters. This idea is one that I have finally begun to fine-tune and refine just over the last few years. All of mechanics really comes down to 2 ideas: forces or conservation. When we boil physics down to the “big ideas” we can see what is truly important. The challenge, however, is that students tend to work in a very granular manner. They like to do things a particular way each time (algorithmic thinking) and they like to go equation hunting, thinking that thee “plug and chug” part of the problem is “the work” rather than all of the work that comes before the work. As a teacher I have two roles here: emphasize and make clear the big picture, and make all of the work before the work visible to my students. These ideas have shifted how I first present material to my students as well as where the emphasis lies within the classroom.
Shut Up and Listen: Not them… YOU! Getting out of student conversations and letting them run the room is a big challenge. Actually listening really carefully to the conversations happening in the room is another challenge entirely. I cannot count the number of time’s I’ve wanted to bring everyone back in after a time limit, only to realize groups were just getting to the good stuff in their conversations. So much of their learning happens while engaging in conversation, so we need to the make space for it.
EVERYTHING is an opportunity for an experiment: I learned this after working with Eugina Etkina’s ISLE curriculum and workshop and it finally solidified what I always believed to be true but struggled to put in a concrete way. I’ve never been one for showmanship, and I started my career around a lot of physics showmen. When I was in college it was the big “learn through inquiry” push, which was a step in the right direction but lacked structure. When I student taught I was supposed to do a day of thermo demos, but instead I turned it into stations. This is one part of my teaching style that has only grown over the years. “Demonstrations” are and should always be treated as observational experiments. If we want to treat our students as aspiring scientists, we should model our classroom on the scientific research structure.
My primary responsibility is to ensure students learn. This can only be achieved if a certain culture exists in my classroom. My room must be a place that is culturally relevant and responsive. It must be a place where students can take risks, ask questions and be heard. It must be a place where failure is part of the process, but never the end result. Where students know I care about their well-being and mental health as much as “finishing” the content by the end of the year. My classroom must be a place where the grade students earn is a reflection of what they have accomplished and learned in a semester, not an average of mistakes and compliance. These norms are achieved in many different ways within and outside of the actual curriculum.
I imagine I will add to the list as I start formalizing my thoughts around how I teach each of the units and build my classroom culture. One of the beautiful parts of blogging is actually taking the time to reflect on practices and receive feedback!
At an AP Institute I was introduced to the demonstration where you roll different cans down a ramp and a can of broth is ridiculously fast compared to others. The reason, of course, is that the low viscosity of the broth means the liquid does not spin. In turn the fast majority of the can + contents has translational energy only.
I wanted to do something more with this excersice than “guess which is which”. After some poking around I settled in on this lab that I now run each year. Be forewarned: the results aren’t spectacular, but the lab comes back with great data and a great experience. Students regularly report this is their favorite activity of the year.
We start by laying the foundation of the race. I have 5 cans: An empty can with the lids off, an empty can with lids, refried beans, condensed cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth. I provide students with the following information and ask students to rank by which gets down the fastest.
We share results and comment on similarities. Groups generally predict the empty can without lids will be last, but the rest gets messy. Did students put the refried beans because it was a cylinder or because it has the greatest mass? Where do you put the broth (many throw it in the middle). The cream of mushroom soup has a smaller diameter.. how does that matter? We’ve talked about all of this already, this is a great application.
After our discussion (mass is irrelevant, radius is irrelevant) we talk about modeling each can. The empty cans and the refried beans are obvious: hoops and cylinders. But what about the mushroom soup? When you dump it out you get a cylinder of soup in the pot, so it’s like a hoop + 2 disks + a cylinder of soup. We race the “obvious” ones…empty vs beans, empty + lids vs mushroom soup. Then we race the winners and losers… empty first. I poll the class about the beans and soup. It’s a 50-50 split. I tell them this is a good guess. We have tot race best 2 out of 3. Beans wins by a hair.
Then enter the broth.
After broth is the hands down winner, we talk about what’s happening. What is the liquid DOING? (Many studnets think itt’s spinning like a hoop). I demonstrate with a VOSS bottle and dyed water (VOSS is nice and smooth).
For homework I ask students to develop an expression for ANY object down the ramp. How can we do this? Well one thing worth noting is that every moment of inertia is some object MR². So let’s replace “some number” with k. I tell students they need to figure out the expression and what they will plot to yield a straight line and what the slope will represent.
The next day we review student work. It’s a cool derivation.
We get down to the fact that students need a graph of v² and height. Ok cool. But how will we compare our results? We go back to the models. Students are responsible for coming up with the velocity at the bottom of the ramp for their assigned can. For this activity I put students in ability-level groups, assigning the empty cans and the beans to the students who are usually C and lower, the broth to my B students and the mushroom soup to my A students. (more on that choice another day). After students have a chance to work through their derivation we review all of them. One of the things we discuss previously is that when determining velocity at the bottom it’s always the √number*g*h and that number is between 1 (hoop) and 2 (sliding only). The numbers we get all fall in line with our expectations and observations…including why mushroom soup and refried beans are such a close call!
Student work for can of chicken broth.
Before we begin the lab we need to have a discussion about reducing error. We have a major problem. Height is easy enough to measure with little uncertainty, but we are looking at an expression with final velocity SQUARED. This is problematic for several reasons. First, the square means that uncertainty is going to propagate and blow up. Second, we’re looking for FINAL velocity. Cherry-picking that data point is sure to be messy with tons of uncertainty and, frankly, a waste of our tools. So what IS consistent and reliable no matter what we do? Students quickly realize it’s acceleration! We know how to best collect that data from other labs: run a regression through the position or velocity graph. We can then use a spreadsheet to manually calculate the expected final velocity for a specified distance.
Students are able to get data that generates amazing straight lines and then they use that data to determine the moment of inertial of their cans.
Student data for chicken broth
Some of the cans will be pretty far off from the theoretical models, but that’s ok! We tried to really simplify something real and complex! (The original idea from which I got this the activity used cans filled with concrete and other materials that are much closer to the models.)
I think I’m ready to reflect on last school year: the year of COVID-19. While we may not be post-pandemic, and while a myriad of mitigations will likely still be in place next fall, we have three effective vaccines, and nearly no mystery left.
Over the course oof 180 days we had 4 different schedules.
For the first 130 days we had 100 contact minutes with students per week, down from what would normally be 250 minutes.
I created and recreated so. many. materials.
This was the word cloud from our employee engagement survey in September. In hindsight I’m able to see and respect the positive words much better now than a year ago today.
From our employee engagement survey. Any surprises there? And no, it’s not better now than in September. pic.twitter.com/cyKE4lRS3A
My students are far more incredible and capable than I’d ever given them credit. Even with half the instructional time, I’m pretty confident about my AP student preparation for the exam. My regular level physics students were doing incredible work by the end of the year, with much stronger evidence of learning.
I need to reevaluate my purpose. I believe my purpose is to equip students with skills to do science and to be critical thinkers about the field of science. This doesn’t require a specific number of topics, it requires depth of opportunity. In my regular level class I slowed the pace way down. Work and energy and momentum spilled into second semester and I did not get to electricity and magnetism. However, by testing students frequently, retrieval practices, standards based grading, among other things, my students truly learned and grew in ways I was surprised and delighted to see.
Digging into identity is a special privilege. I was really surprised by how much certain students opened up in their reflections. I also saw some of my students make growth in their own self-perceptions as we learned about scientist after scientist after scientist.
Where do we go from here?
The easy answer is: not back to the way things were.
We just can’t. It would make all of our time and energy this past year worthless.
I can’t go back to teaching in such a way that I lack trust in my students to truly drive their own learning
I can’t go back to teaching in such a way that my classroom is somehow a bubble of “classical Newtonian Mechanics” rather than a microcosm of the society and systems we live within.
I can’t go back to a place where compassion has boundaries, statutes and limitations.
This year is impossible. You better believe I'm taking and celebrating whatever wins I can find. I am thankful for my #ITeachPhysics community, I couldn't do this without you. I am also thankful for how much I learned in my MEd program. (we are running 8×25 min classes) pic.twitter.com/28JCpsRg1w
I did it! Light demo with an interactive lecture (4 screens going and signed into zoom twice!) all on zoom AND with a nerdy t-shirt! It's 3:30 now, right? 🤣#iteachphysicspic.twitter.com/0DxJ5LkYU7
Two physics Ss working on Snell's law, 2 APC Ss working on a magnetic field lab, 1 working on a test, 1 getting caught up. I had one in earlier and another one zoom in for help. Office hour time has been INCREDIBLE to TRULY support Ss, but district decided it wasn't worthwhile. pic.twitter.com/P7BKilCmA5
Seniors left today. Cue the cards Cue the tears 😭 I haven’t had a proper goodbye in THREE years since I had maternity leave the year before covid…it was super sad today! pic.twitter.com/GntAz7xPEa
One of the distinguishing attributes of first year physics students is the novice-style approach to solving problems, typically based upon common variables or equation hunting. Having students shift to more expert-like strategies, based upon more over-arching ideas or concepts is often a challenge in physics teaching. This talk will discuss several strategies implemented in an urban-emergent high school for both traditional junior level students, as well as AP level students to help shift student approaches from novice to expert.
If you plan on attending AAPTSM21 I hope you will engage in conversation with me! If not, this talk is accessible to all!
This week I had the incredible opportunity to keynote for RU’s student teacher celebration. I was super anxious about putting together such a speech… especially because I’ve sat through far too many graduation speeches I never liked… I had around 6 people read and listen to my drafts before delivering the final product. The result was deeply personal and really the product of my journey through education from student teacher until now, at the completion of my master’s.
Transcript:
On that first day of student teaching; the day we finally get to grasp the reigns; many of us believe we are more than ready to take on the world of education…though we might be grasping white-knuckled. We realize pretty quickly though that we still have a lot to learn
Two weeks into my student teaching experience I was expected to do a series of demonstrations on circular motion. You know, swinging buckets of water over your head. I had practiced the night before and with full confidence did not feel the need to practice the morning of. I got this I thought.
I grabbed the strings tied to the pie tin filled with red water, flung it over my head and SPLASH… red water everywhere…like a cheap horror flick. Except the only thing I had murdered was my pride. I learned one thing that day: always practice the demos that morning.
I proceeded to successfully complete the demo the next hour, only for my nervous fidgeting fingers to dump the water AGAIN as I explained the demo, my cooperating teacher laughing uncontrollably at me. The story should end here, lesson learned… but it doesn’t.
A week later I had the immense privilege of attending the national meeting for physics teachers which just happened to be in Chicago. I was sitting in a room with a handful of teachers I held in high regard, including my former AP Physics teacher. Teachers were presenting “take-5’s” 5 minutes to talk about a good idea for class, and one teacher shares the brilliant idea of using the cardboard circles from the pizza place as a platform for swinging water over your head.
I tried to sink low in my chair to avoid the elbowing and snickering happening next to me. After the take 5 the teacher asked if anyone wanted his sample. My cooperating teacher and his colleague sprung from their seats pointing at me: “she does!”… I was wishing I could dissolve into the chair. The story, of course, was shared with the REST of the teachers in the row (including my former AP teacher) but then…. something special happened. This cardboard circle got passed down the line of teachers and they each signed it leaving me words of encouragement and advice.
Today I have the great privilege and honor of doing the same for you. Hopefully without any embarrassment on your part.
If I were to ask what makes a great teacher we would all agree on one answer: relationships. A teacher who cares for their students as humans, shows compassion, goes above and beyond. We each know have been touched by at least one of these teachers. Many of you today might even be able to name THEE teacher who inspired you to go into the profession yourself. When tonight is over I call on each of you to send a note to that “one” great teacher.
My one is John Lewis, my AP Physics teacher from 2005 whose life and legacy continue to impact me to this day. Mr. Lewis was…quirky. His voice would crack at random, he seemed far too fascinated in minutia, and every day we started class by playing a game by his rules, not the normal ones. For example, “one of these things is not like the other” but then he would ask us to find a way to make everything go together. Mr. Lewis believed in celebrating “yes moments” which are similar to Annie’s “bright spots” but are a specific celebration of tenacity and the final breakthrough when reaching an accomplishment. Mr. Lewis continued to act as a mentor to me throughout and beyond my college years, pushing me to be involved in our professional organizations, and in short order pushing me to present..
I had the unique privilege of working with John back at my old high school. I got to observe him from a different lens, that of a colleague, and how he navigated negativity and school politics while continuously upholding his own values and morals. It is easy to believe that our systems are so broken that it is impossible to work in them when we are fundamentally at odds with the foundation of the system itself. John proved this to be otherwise: when you focus on that which you can control, you can create lasting impacts.
John’s mentorship was so subtle I almost didn’t realize it was happening. I truly believed it was my unique and special relationship…until I I met another new teacher who was also his former student. We ended up casually comparing notes and found that we had both experienced very much the same process, down to the graduation card signed “your colleague, John” this process was now revealed to me as subtle, methodical and absolutely brilliant. It has taken over a decade for me to recognize and decipher everything John did for me as a student and as a mentee, and none of this would have happened without a genuine relationship.
I want to pause for a moment and recognize that each and every one of you clearly has great capacity to be that teacher because you chose to complete this degree amidst a global pandemic. In a time where everything about relationship and connection was stripped from us. In a time of uncertainty, unrest and upheaval you finished this program and you are committed to this path. You already know that there is such a thing as depth of compassion that has no bounds, you have already gone above and beyond in so many ways and…..you haven’t even had to chaperone a field trip.
We also need to take a moment to recognize the community that formed and shaped you, supported you and grounded you. Whether this be a family member or a loved one, a friend or a faculty member. They need to know that this is their moment too. It is through the relationships around us that we are who we are.
Our very humanity is built on relationships. Relationships are the foundation that lays the cornerstone of trust, and once the foundation and the cornerstone are laid, the household of belonging can be built, and this household, when filled with the community becomes the home to many, and sometimes the children even come back to visit. Teachers do not get to know the idea of “empty nesting”.
Teaching is unique because as students we often only truly see the value of what we learned long after we have left. Eventually we realized that Mr. Lewis’s voice cracked not because he had a problem, but because we had stopped paying attention. I realized when I began teaching in the gifted academy at Auburn that the games we played at the start of class were to coax us out of offering only the “right” answer when we were sure, and make us comfortable thinking outside of the box and offering anything we could think of
As teachers we are not only shaping moments in our students lives in their present, but we are creating lessons, whether for good—-or bad, that will be carried a lifetime. This is a great responsibility. Are you creating a home of belonging for your children?
In each and every choice that you make, from the way you greet your students to how you offer feedback, to random interactions in the hallway, you are expressing to your students what you believe is important.
Relationships can only begin through communication. The words we say carry weight and the way we say them determines their value. What are the values you wish to impart on your students? Who do you see yourself as? Are you the sage on the stage, the imparter of the gift of knowledge and wisdom to your students? Or are you a life-long learner? Fallible? A leader but also member and facilitator of your learning community? Our words should create the image that we desire our students to aspire.
Relationships are built on compassion and understanding, when we listen to learn we can try to understand another point of view, even if we do not agree with it. If a student asks you a question and you can’t do better than “because that’s the way it is” or “that’s the rule” or “because I said so” you have not been intentional in your choices. Ask WHY all of the time. WHY did my student respond this way WHY do I feel so passionate about this? What does my identity, positonality, relationships and prior experience bring to this classroom? What do my students value and why? And most importantly, when you ask these questions about your students and their families, don’t answer the question based on your own observations. Ask THEM.
Relationships are the foundation upon which the cornerstone of trust is laid. Trust is being able to say every day “Center your own learning. Ask for what you need, make space for what others’ need” and to be able to give that freely, even if it wasn’t the lesson plan today. Trust is believing that each child that walks through your door wants to be successful, even if every barrier has been built around them and thrown in their path that it seems the child in front of you is choosing to disengage. Trust is the space where “I don’t know yet,, I can’t do this yet” are valued for their honesty and openness to keep trying. When we lay the cornerstone of trust we set a precedent that all answers have validity, because even an incorrect answer or an answer steeped in misconceptions is an answer of value. Conversation is more important than correct responses.
Relationships in education extend beyond your classroom. As a teacher you commit to being a life-long learner. The teacher who refuses to learn, to become stagnant in their ways because “it’s the way things have always been done” or because “it works for them” has reached a point of intellectual death. Keep your mind stimulated and alive and never be too afraid, too embarrassed or too proud to ask for help or feedback. Mentorship doesn’t end because your formal education has ended. Find your trusted group of colleagues and find a mentor (or two, or three!). They can be in your building, in another building, another district, another state even! The pandemic has shown us just how open our world can be. Go to the conferences, connect with the community, and before you even think you’re ready…. SHARE what you are learning with others in as many different ways as you can.
We think we know what is best for us as we live in whatever moment we are in, but the wisdom in lived experience is how our mentors know how much discomfort is necessary for growth. Surrounded by teachers I admired, I never felt worthy of presenting in their company. But when you keep things to yourself you are keeping a gift away from someone who needs it.
Relationships are the foundation that lays the cornerstone of trust, and once the foundation and the cornerstone are laid, the household of belonging can be built. Our students come to us with so many intersecting layers. Their identities are comprised of race, gender, class, citizenship, age, and ability. Students are also potentially coming to our classes with stereotype threat and imposter syndrome, which work together to cloud the joy and potential they could have in our classes. It is possible that for up to 17 years the child in front of you has been told explicitly or implicitly that they do not belong here, whether here means this country or this city, or this math class, or this AP class. Some of our students have been told they do not belong for so long they have no reason to believe otherwise. It is not our job to “save” the child. It is not our job to “inspire” our children. Children…yes, even the 17-year-old ones, are inspired by their natural wonder in the world around them. It is our job to show them that they too are a part of and can join the community in the areas of our expertise and passion and also how to be stewards of our world because their unique contribution based on their unique experience matters. When we show a student they belong and are valued in our world, we show them that we believe their lives matter.
I want to close with one last story. Teachers will never say they have a favorite class, but…. There are certain classes that are uniquely special. It was my 8th hour class my first year at Auburn. This class was special, not because of anything I did, but because of the love and joy of my students. In April, with only 8 weeks left, we received a new student into the class. She had moved from Chicago where she went to a magnet school and rode the public bus two hours each way to go back and forth from school. She was brilliant and motivated. She had a plan for her life she intended to execute. She was welcomed with open arms into the family home of our classroom. She shared that our class was the only one where she talked because it was the only class she felt she belonged. When finals week came around she was absent and I made the mistake of not following up. It was the last day of the school year and it’s not uncommon for students to come in and out of Rockford. I assumed she moved back to Chicago.
Summer passed and a new school year started and I ran into her in the hall. Shocked and surprised I asked her how her summer was and what happened to her during finals. She proceeded to share a lengthy story, none of which was her faulty, and resulted in her moving in with her grandma in Chicago during finals. I asked her if anyone else knew. She said no, she just wanted to get her credits so she could graduate and go to college. Standing before me was this brilliant, resilient young woman, so familiar with barriers that she had no fight left to give. I, on the other hand, was ready for battle. How could we make this girl make up 4 semester credits when we only knew her for 8 weeks? I went to the counselor and shared the story, he was on the same page as me and he worked with teachers to create a plan for the student to get her rightly deserved credits. She was able to graduate on time and with a scholarship to her college. It is important to note that this is not my success story. This is the success of that whole class who created a place where she belonged and felt valued. A place she knew she would be trusted, and that trust formed through the relationships in that class.
Relationships are the foundation that lays the cornerstone of trust, and once the foundation and the cornerstone are laid, the household of belonging can be built, and this household, when filled with the community becomes the home to many. What is the house that you will build?
Teaching during the pandemic has created a heightened sense of every emotion imaginable. Teachers were shocked and enraged that districts would ask them to return to the classroom in the fall. Scared about the safety of themselves, their own families and their students. Overwhelmed by the demands placed upon them to reinvent their craft while simultaneously needing to engage more with students, connect more with families, communicate more with colleagues. The sheer amount of “more” is enough to feel like we are drowning.
As many schools begin to reset, and in some cases reinvent themselves, it’s easy to ask “can I really do this any longer?” the answer to that question inevitably will have to be “yes” for most teachers, but how?
Teach with compassion. Many teachers have been doing this from the start, but it remains an important reminder. What is it you hope to truly teach and instill in your students? Is it a large collection of facts or is it more than that? It is easy in any year to say “that child is failing because they will not engage” and place the blame on the student, the parents or the environment. While this is never the right approach, it is even more problematic under the current circumstances. Behind the black boxes and muted microphones there are real, live children. Many of whom want desperately to not fail this year, but often lack the courage to ask for help. Many of them already blame themselves for their apathy and lack of motivation. It is upon us to teach with abundant and unending compassion.
Practice genuine gratitude. When yet another change comes down the line it is easy to quickly become upset, apprehensive and defensive. The complaints begin to gush like an open hydrant, often directed at individuals who barely have more control than we teachers do. When everything is manageable we tend to keep our heads down and just do the work. Take a moment to look up for a moment and express genuine, specific gratitude. Share it with your students, your colleagues, your administrators. We all need to be teaching and leading with compassion, and part of compassion is the ability to share appreciation.
Find and celebrate the bright moments. There is no doubt that this is one of the most challenging school years for all of us. There is no debate that the vast majority of this school year is dark. For this reason it is all the more important to find the bright moments. What has the pandemic caused you to do to or learn or focus upon that you might not have in another year? Who has been a source of comfort or stability at this time? When did your students impress or surprise you, even in the face of everything we are struggling with today? Name those moments. Write them down. Share them with someone trusted.
When met with the fire of adversity we have two choices. We can let it burn us alive, or it can refine our personhood leaving us stronger, wiser and more compassionate towards those around us.
Physics Education Researchers know that active learning is better for students than lectures. At the same time, anyone who has attempted active learning environment knows that students do not always believe this to be true. The same holds true for study methods and habits. Instead students will balk and complain that “my teacher doesn’t teach”. Most recently a student told me they believed that by asking them to actively learn and collaborate, “the burden of the teacher has been placed on me”. I believe it was at this point I was ready to post Rhett Allain’s Telling you the Answer isn’t the Answer on every tangible and virtual learning environment I occupy. I didn’t do that.
At the end of Chapter 6 of The Science of Learning Physics, Mestre and Docktor share that students should learn about the research surrounding effective studying. I would argue that the same should be true about the active learning environment. In the past I have mentioned this casually to students, however the challenges of COVID required me to shift casual mentions to intentional direction.
Brian Frank shared that Jennifer Docktor had a webinar on the book. Excited and curious I watched the video. I was most excited that it was only 30 minutes, meaning it would be digestible for my students. The talk is an overview of the highlights of each chapter of the book. If you haven’t already ordered it and are interested, this is a great entry point!
Hey #iteachphysics#modphys friends, Dr. Jennifer Docktor is giving a talk (pre-recorded, can watch any time, with live discussion on Jan 30) on "The Science of Learning Physics: Cognitive Strategies for Improving Instruction", check out the linkhttps://t.co/v0DdhTVY04
Shortly thereafter I assigned the video in google classroom and provided the following:
As you prepare for finals and reset for semester two, I’d like you to listen to this talk by Dr. Jennifer Docktor. She is a professor of physics at UW Lacrosse and recently co-authored a book about how students learn physics. Watch the talk and write a short reflection. Include the following. Remember, you should be digging deep and synthesizing, rather than simply agreeing or disagreeing.
What resonated with you?
What ideas challenged your current thinking about how we learn and learn best?
What do you now wonder after listening to this talk?
What resulted in an “aha” moment for you.
Lastly, as a student, what can YOU take away that you’ve learned in order to improve your learning next semester?
I will be completely honest. I have a few students who have been extremely verbal about their hatred for active learning. I read their reflections last. I was also nervous because as a teacher, I’m a life-long learner. There are components that Docktor discusses and shares that I haven’t yet implemented or perfected, especially thanks to the COVID monkey wrench. Would students call me out? However, I was really impressed by what the students had to say.
Some students reflected on recognizing the intentionality put into our classes:
“I like our weekly practice tests, but I didn’t know they had an educational backing. When she started talking about interleaved practice, I thought about the momentum problems with a twist and some other homework problems that we’ve had.”
I had several students comment about applicability and connections to education outside of physics
“I now wonder, after listening to this talk, if other fields of science education, and other education in general, put this much effort into how material is taught to students, or if I have just never been aware of how I am being taught in the past.”
Another student actually posed that physics exposure happen at the elementary level so that kids have a better scaffold of experiences, rather than needing to uproot firmly held misconceptions in high school. (Big YES to that!)
What I really enjoyed, however, was students seeing themselves in the studies. Many students admitted to equation-hunting rather than starting with the big picture. I found this particular statement to be really fascinating about why they default to equation-hunting,
“I do this myself sometimes the reason why I do this is when I don’t feel confident in the work or I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Students overwhelmingly reported that an idea that resonated with them was how they are not blank slates, and experiences shape misconceptions. They saw themselves in the research and were shocked (and in some cases bothered) to hear that lecture and note-taking are ineffective, along with many of their tried and true, but passive study habits. One student who has been particularly insistent shared “the studies she talks about seem to prove me wrong about the lecturing method being more effective”
After completing this excersise here are my lingering questions:
Given the demands of AP 1, how can we encourage students that they are growing and learning by leaps and bounds, even if they aren’t at a 4 or 5-level for AP yet? I feel this is easy for me in my non-AP courses because I set the bar, and so I can raise the bar as the year progresses, without students realizing this has occurred.
Many students shared the sentiment of “well everyone is different, and this doesn’t apply to me” neglecting that this is a large body of work and research spanning decades and involving thousands of students. I’m wondering if more work in the realm of cognitive science and how we learn would be beneficial. But how to weave this into the structure of my courses?
Launching off of my previous post about sharing, I thought I’d share some ideas for putting together a presentation. Let’s be honest, we might all be teachers but if you’ve been to any meeting we’ve all definitely sat through really bad presentations.
First you choose the technique, demonstration, resource or activity you are going to share. Even a twist on an tried and true idea is valuable!
Remember the power of a story in lesson planning. The same holds true for a presentation. What are your four Cs (conflict, causality, complications, characters)?
Rather than start talking, draw your audience in with the main conflict. For example, if I were sharing one of my testing strategies I might open with: “Every year I found students who would totally bomb the multiple choice. I worked with some students one on one to improve their approach to the problems and I wondered how I could scale this up to an entire group.”
Perhaps your conflict is a demo where students missed the point, or a lab that where students missed the big picture.
The next part is causality: what were the series of events linked to the conflict that make you adapt something new or shift? In the example I provided I would probably follow up with something like:
“AP Physics 1 has these exceptionally challenging multiple choice options on the exams. I need to give students real AP items as much as possible, but it’s not uncommon for students to miss EVERY item. “
It is at this point that you can start presenting your idea. Walk us through what you set up and why, making the your thought process visible to your audience. Did you run into challenges on the way? Or perhaps you had some concerns, initially. Did students end up doing something you hadn’t intended? All of these additional complications build a compelling story, and also help your audience begin to envision themselves going through your process.
Lastly, don’t forget your main characters! Your students! You know that, in truth, sharing of ideas is best done when you can actually do it yourself like in a workshop. When that isn’t possible lean heavily on pictures of students working, student samples and quotes from student feedback.
Here’s a sample talk I first crafted for an AAPT meeting and decided to also make a youtube version (disclaimer: I don’t like these slides, see what I did to revamp them in the next section!)
What about Slides?
While the meat of your presentation is truly in what you say and do, if you prepare slides it is equally important that they receive the same kind of care. Generally speaking you can plan on 1-2 slides per minutes of talking. Avoid font under 24. Avoid bullets. Avoid typing out anything you’re going to say. You know literally no one wants to hear you read your slides. If you need to say “I know you can’t really see this but” then you need to take it out. If you include any data, graphs or charts the point of the chart should hit you in the face. Don’t make your audience need to analyze the graph like an ACT exam! It’s a presentation!
Ok, so I’ve clearly nixed everything on the slides right?
Slides are a visual, so they should literally be that. Can you boil your idea for slide 3 into three words? Better yet a single word? What high quality images can you put on the slide? Keep the color schemes simple and readable. Bear in mind that if you have anyone in the audience who is colorblind pure colors might not be visible. Stephanie Evergreen has lots of great resources on this topic. Here’s a checklist for your presentation.
Remember the video above? I actually decided the slides were pretty bad, so I revamped them before giving the presentation at a national meeting! Here’s a sample slide, and here’s the whole deck
You Don’t Know Until You Try!
It’s ironic that as teachers we effectively present daily, and yet presenting in front of collegues (or god-forbid college faculty!) is terrifying! Remember a few things:
Everyone is together to learn and grow together! No one is going to chew you out. Even the absolute worst presentations I’ve seen still get a few questions asked afterwards.
You Got this! You’re talking about something you do in your own space. You are the master of it! I mean.. in as much as you can get up with confidence that you’re not going to mess up.
The positive feedback loop is real and addictive! Once you start you won’e stop! The encouragement and continued conversations from your peers after that first time make it so much easier to present again and again. Before you know it you’re running workshops!
For more examples here are a few other talks I’ve given:
When I student teaching my former AP teacher told me I should come to a Physics Northwest meeting. PNW meets monthly during the school year at different high schools so teachers from all over can get together for “Phood, Phellowship and Phun”. The host school provides dinner and after an hour teachers get up and share different ideas from their classroom.
After attending several my former AP teacher nudges my shoulder and tells me next time I should get up and present.
Mentally I scoffed at the idea. All of the teachers presenting had 15-20 years of experience. They were incredible at their craft and obvioulsy way better than me. (cue imposter syndrome). There is NO WAY that I could possibly have anything of worth to share!
However, as I continued to attend meetings what I noticed was that often teachers did share something familiar, and other teachers would share hints, tips or a twist. This was truly a collaborative environment. So eventually, I got up and shared. Feedback was really positive. About two years later another new face shared the same resource, and still received positive feedback! While I still get anxious about sharing (I presented at a national conference for gifted education before any AAPT meeting), sharing makes everyone better. Even if you think you have nothing to share. Everything is new for someone in the room.
I presented at my first state section AAPT meeting only recently. Those presentations are far more formal than PNW, last 15 minutes and typically include a slide deck. I decided since I likely wouldn’t know too many people at the state meeting I could present something possible valuable. I got up to present and there wasn’t a single high school teacher in the room. I was presenting exclusively to college faculty. Add to this that one of the long-time, major members, who tends to comment and ask tough questions on every presentation was in my room. I was so anxious. Yet, by the time I was done I had great interactions with everyone (including the one faculty member who made me most anxious).
About six months later I signed up to present at the Chicago Section. This was the most nerve-wracking of all. There reason being that Chicago Section is packed with teachers I admire and aspire to be like. Teachers who have all been teaching since I was in high school. Teachers who train and speak and publish. I know that we all support each other, but for me the stakes were high. I was pregnant so my already elevated heart rate peaked to 120 as I sat in my seat during the presentation before mine. On top of this, I had decided it would be a great idea to bring four students with me.
Once again, I was shocked and surprised (I really shouldn’t be at this point). My presentation had one of the highest rates of engagement and conversations lasted all the way through lunch break. Naturally, the positive feedback loop makes it a little easier to share the next time around.
Not only are sharing or presenting a way to build connections (especially hard if you’re super introverted like me!) but it allows you to get some great feedback. After all, we are better together. Everything is new to someone in the room.
Find your local section of AAPT, post some pictures of something you did this week on twitter using the #ITeachPhysics hashtag and welcome to the family.
25 minutes. In the length of time it takes to watch a sitcom on Netflix, I’m expected to engage 25-30 students in physics. Time has a funny way of shaping our priorities.
This week I started reading Ainissa Ramierez’ book The Alchemy of Us. It is a new release and if you are the kind of person who loves fascinating connections I strongly recommend this read. In the first three chapters Ramierez focuses on time and clocks, steel and the railway system and the telegraph and communication. What endures for me is the thread within these three chapters of time. Modern transportation and telecommunications effectively shrink our world, bringing all of us closer together by reducing the time required for an interaction.
The time permitted for interactions with our students has been slashed dramatically. In a normal school year I would have 50×5=250 contact minutes with each class. In our pandemic model that time has been cut in half.
Teachers have panicked about “getting through” material and wondering how much more they can sacrifice from their curricula. Meanwhile administration and society continues to discuss the “learning loss” or COVID-slide, which, mark my words will end up being measured by some new costly exam from Pearson.
When time is stolen from us, we have the opportunity to recognize what is important.
As a teacher it’s important for me to recognize that the enduring teachings and understandings my students will walk away with have little to nothing to do with physics content. It would be arrogant to think otherwise. Who would I be, to think that my teaching of physics content is so life-changing that it is absolutely critical to a student’s future? The sheer diversity and variety of curricula attest to this fact. Yet, students can choose to pursue whatever field they desire, provided the opportunities, the awareness, and most importantly, mentorship.
What is enduring?
Problem solving skills. The ability to question. Discernment. Attention to details. Skepticism.
If we can teach our students to think like experts, and masterfully tackle a challenge, does it really matter the volume of content we use to teach these skills?
I’ve had similar conversations regarding final exams. At 20% of the overall grade, finals do very little to move a student’s letter grade. Final exams provide me with little information I already know from weekly assessments, except for showing me who studied for finals and who did not. Our administration has directed us to give “holds harmless” finals, meaning a final exam cannot hurt, but only help a student’s grade. Many teachers are insistent on giving their traditional finals, even though the district is not providing us with a traditional finals schedule. Add to the fact that the PSAT has taken away one day during finals week (because, clearly the answer to learning loss is running the PSAT/SAT not one, but five times this year), and a second day is purely for enrichment and student support, yet teachers are going to force this upon students anyway. I cannot help but ask “to what end?” What is engrained so deeply in our own academic culture that we feel this is the only way learning can and should happen? Is it, perhaps, a byproduct of the Puritan mentality that every minute must be spent in productivity, that “time is money?”
There have been numerous reports that black and brown students have thrived in remote learning. Many of these reflect specifically on microaggressions in schools, but I cannot help but wonder if perhaps a component has been the ability for students to take ownership of their own time through asynchronous learning opportunities. I consider how, in my own circles, we often joke about “Greek time” or “Arab time” and wonder if the strict, factory-like bell schedules and “on time every time” mentality potentially creates another layer of hostility to the learning environment.
In a time of great opportunity to shift the narrative of what it means to teach and learn, so many have dug their heels into the ground of a crumbling system. If Schitt’s Creek and Arrested Development can tell a compelling story in 30 minutes, why can’t we teach meaningful academic lessons in the same time?
Physics.Teacher.Momma. 