BSIE 2010: Session 2

When we were discussing the word association exercise last week before the teachers came, I was under the impression that many of the teachers would have many of the same responses to the words.  However, during the word association today I was pleasantly surprised that many of the words that were offered were actually quite diverse. I found it interesting as well, the way in which people think of word association. For example, I thought it was fascinating that Kate and Ashley were more about visualizing images then thinking of actual words to associate with the word that was given.

This led me to think about the different methods of learning within the classroom and the need for educators to be mindful that within a particular class not all students are homogenous. Learning styles for individuals varies as much as the outward diversity that is present within the classroom. Building off of this it would also be interesting to see how the students would respond to these word associations. Perhaps educators could learn a lot about how to alter their own classrooms with immediate unconscious student feedback? I thought of this especially after several teachers highlighted the negative connotations that they associated with certain words which unleashed her own feelings and experiences that maybe would not otherwise be known. Overall I found this exercise extremely insightful, thought provoking, and an activity that brought a sense of unity to the discussion table.

Another topic that was brought up during the discussion was the idea of standardized testing. This paralleled many of my own interests that I displayed when writing my application for the Summer Institute. I know it will definitely be interesting to listen to the idea and perspectives on standardized testing as the institute continues.

Education vs. Inquiry - The Unconscious

It was very suprising to see the differences in how people responded to the words"education, school, students" and to the words "inquiry, science, cinversation".  The unconsciouse responses for the first 3 words seemed to be more negative than the last 3 words.  I am eager to see how our responses might change at the end of this institute.  To become a more effective teacher  I do believe that my unconscious thoughts need to be more in synch with my conscious mind.  Hopefully the next 3 weeks could be the beginning of that change.

What struck me was the excitement, creativity, and human emotion in some of the words used to describe INQUIRY and SCIENCE and  CONVERSATION as compared with the lack of excitement, creativity, and coldness of the words used to describe EDUCATION, SCHOOLS, and STUDENTS. Maybe we need to create new constructs when we think of the field of education, the schools that serve as the location for education, and the students that populate these locations willingly or reluctantly. When my daughter served as a corps member for Teach for America, she developed her own idea that the physical environment, the buildings and interiors, were not conducive to learning. She tried to rearrange her furniture to make the room more livable for her first grade students. She brought in large plants and situated the student tables around the "trees" to create learning centers. She brought in her old stuffed animals and books that were her childhood favorites to create a bigger in-class library area. The children enjoyed the room and did not want to leave at the end of the day, and particularly at the end of the day on Friday.

I am not usually a warm and fuzzy person but I learned from my daughter's experience. In addition to a skeleton, human body parts models, science posters, and science puzzles, I brought into my classroom some stuffed animal/objects. OK they were science related items I purchased at the Mutter Museum and the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, but they made a difference. The students asked to have the items on their desks. I created a system where on test days, the 7th grade biology students could sign up in advance for the item of their choice. Over the last few years, this system became so popular that the students would sign up as soon as I announced a test. All 8 of the items now on the front desk would be taken for all 3 sections of grade 7 biology I teach. To my surprise, the AP Biology students who I taught in grade 7 remembered the items and even occasionally took one on test days early in the year.

Then there are the raisins. In my second year of teaching, I started giving each student a small box of raisins on test day. I started this for my section meeting before lunch. I thought it might help them to concentrate even though they were starting to feel hunger. Twenty years later I am still giving raisins, not just to grade 7 students but also to AP Biology students who remembered the custom from their earlier days in my classroom. The custom turned out to have another benefit. Raisins are high in iron content relative to other foods. By the end of the year, students associate the tests with the raisins, the raisins with iron, the iron with hemoglobin, and hemoglobin with the red blood cell's ability to carry oxygen necessary for aerobic respiration.

So often, I have heard students enter our science building at the beginning of the year and complain that the building smells as usual. I have had former students enter my classroom and say it smells like chicken wings reminiscent of the chicken wing dissection we do in grade 7 biology. In the first case, the building had been thoroughly cleaned during the summer and smelled like cleaning and disinfecting products, and in the second case, the room had been thoroughly disinfected after the dissection and again during the summer. The associations were strong and could work against the student learning. I hope by giving my students more positive associations, they will enter eagerly my classroom and others to follow. This is my step #1.  Creating a safe learning environment by establishing ground rules for respectful conversation is step #2. Creating fair and appropriate assessments that apperal to different learners is step #3. Now the students take over as we build together the story of each unit.

OK, so what is the bottom line. I hope that if my students were asked to participate in an exercise where they say the first 3 words that come to mind for education, schools and teachers, the words they would choose would reflect a positive association not just for science but for the more general categories as well. .

We are as similar as we are different, as Educators and simply people.  All of us have potential, and of us have the potential to bring out the potential in others.  However, how many of us truly live at our full potential and do so for the benefit of others?

Who knew that attending this session last Summer would introduce me to someone who I now share a true friendship with?  Shoshana and I have kept in touch frequently since first being introduced.

One of the benefits of Education is friendship.

Another set of words that came to mind with a couple of the topics are:

Schools:  inner-city, suburban, rural; Students:  elementary, middle school, high school; conversation:  politics, religion, sex.