Timing Activities is My New Favorite Thing

About a week ago in first period, I gave instructions for students to trim then add pages to their notebook. Students took their time, worked at their own pace, and it was a complete disaster. I had allotted about 3 minutes for students to do this, but never communicated that to them, so notebook set-up took more like 8 or 9 minutes. Ineffective use of time.

As I was watching the students work slowly, I realized I had never communicated my expectations for time. During second period, I added to the directions, "you have 3 minutes to complete this and the time starts now." Then I put up a countdown stopwatch from onlinestopwatch.com and paced students by announcing the time remaining every 30-45 seconds.

It's amazing how including this visual timer has really improved the pacing of my lessons.

Great teachers come in many forms

While reading an excerpt from The Courage to Teach, I came upon a quote that made me stop to think. The author recounts several anecdotes about teachers and students, adding that the stories "remind [us] of many facts about good teaching: that it comes in many forms, that the imprint of good teachers remain long after the facts they gave us had faded" (22).

I am particularly inspired by the idea that good teaching comes in many forms, because it celebrates the diversity of technique and practice that is present in the classrooms of effective teachers. Even within a highly effective school team, while commonalities are no doubt present, each teacher will likely have a unique style. And that's a good thing.

I'm reminded of a particularly fabulous class I took in college, which by almost all definitions of best practices and buzz words in education, the professor would be deemed terrible. The class met once a week for a lecture with 300+ students, and was held from 7 - 9:50pm. The professor lectured for the entire time, without the use of visual aids or multimedia.

But the class was fabulous, and possibly one of the most engaging courses I've taken in my entire educational career. I'm trying to reflect on why that class was so engaging, and why I still have the notebook from that class that took place over four years ago.

The professor was engaging and charismatic. He shared his personal experiences and made the content come to life. But most of all, the course was relevant and he was knowledgable. Entitled Media, Money, and Power, the class focused on the way corporations controlled media outlets and how general public opinion around current events was formed in deliberate ways by those who had a vested interest in the outcome. He talked about issues we cared about, particularly from a perspective we had never heard before. And while attendance in most college classes typically dwindled as the semester went on, his lecture hall was consistently filled. He didn't enforce attendance by taking it for a grade, or offer pop quizzes to force students to attend lecture. Instead, he provided an incredibly relevant curriculum in an incredibly engaging way.

As I move toward my third year in the classroom, and think about my former students in the past two years, I wonder: will my class be one to remember four years down the road? and how do I make the content so relevant, that students can't wait until the next class? if my class was held in the evening, and attendance was optional, would students show up?

Feedback from Students

At one point during my teacher training, someone wisely said, "if you want honest and effective feedback, ask your students." I honestly can't remember the context of this advice, or even the person who said it, but I remember my initial thoughts were, "Yes, that's so true! My students are with me day in and day out! For the good lessons and the bad! They are the ones who can tell me how to improve!"

When I read over my students' end-of-year surveys a few weeks ago, my perspective changed. Out of all the surveys that were turned in, I had only a handful of really effective feedback that could be used. I will highlight the others below (teacher question in bold, student response in green).

What was the worst part about the interactive notebook used in science class?

"Carrying it around all the time"

"Too much writing"

"Too much work"

"Don't make us answer questions after a lab. Just do the lab and that's it."

"Everything."

How could the interactive science notebook be improved?

"Taking notes should be optional"

"Stop using cornell notes"

"Don't do writing like the full page conclusions for the labs and stuff"

What changes would you make to this chemistry class to improve the atmosphere or learning environment?

"Let us light stuff on fire and do explosions without goggles."
"No homework."
"We can turn in one lab per group."

"Give us some free days to just sit and talk. Don't do work all the time."

When I read a lot of these surveys, my jaw literally dropped and my mind went blank. Then I thought "Um. Seriously? The overwhelming consensus is less work and more unsafe experiments? How did we travel this far down the wrong path?"

I think there are a lot of different issues tied up in this outcome, mostly stemming from investment in my class. I obviously did not spend enough time investing students in the importance of working hard in chemistry and doing assignments like writing lab conclusions, taking cornell notes, and practicing independently at home. A lot of my students did really well and had really positive gains throughout the year, but did they know why the assignments were important? Many students learned to write great lab conclusions and make strong real-life connections, but did they understand the importance of this task? I need to effectively portray the importance of different assignments and procedures to my students, not just what we are doing in class but why are are doing it.

On the other end of the spectrum, many of the other surveys I received contained some sugary comments about how much students liked me and my class, how they learned so much and were really going to miss me. I suppose these responses are nice for emotional reasons, but have no value as far as improving my practice. These responses make me wonder, "how do I teach students to give effective positive feedback?"

Perhaps these survey responses are also a symptom of a school culture issue. It is challenging to maintain the momentum in a difficult class when other classes have very different expectations.

Overall, I guess it is difficult to expect students to give me effective feedback when I haven't modeled this practice or directly taught it. This year's end-of-year surveys left a lot to be desired, and also a lot of room for improvement in regards to investment.