Most memorable teaching moment!!
So I was late to the party last night with my twitter PLN and I was reading through the discussions and a question hit me.... Q7: What is a memorable teaching event that has stuck with you from years of teaching? What did you learn from it? This really had me thinking as it has been 20 + years of teaching and there have been many moments to remember. But I think my greatest memory goes back to mid career. So what was the memory....
I believe my most memorable moment was my whole term with my grade 10 science class in Manitoba. See in Manitoba grade 10 science is the last class of science you must take and it is not the easiest as it covered weather, chemistry, physics and ecology. A wide variety of topics and not very easy for most students. This meant there were quite a few repeaters of this class. So my first year in a different school and I had the pleasure of this course. So I am prepped, excited and ready to teach. I walk in and my class starts coming in. I look around and I have 10 boys from grade 10-12 in this class and that is it. SO we start talking and I find that everyone has tried the class and not been successful at least once. Great so now I am thinking why were they not successful and how can I adapt to their needs better....
It hits me.. we will start with the physics and use hot wheel cars everyday to experiment with newtons laws. So off I go to the store and pick up cars and we start. Surprisingly the students all arrived the next day and gave me the look of we aren't little kids who want to play with toys. But I started off demoing the lab and they became intrigued and joined in. It was a success they all participated and answered the questions. This went on for the week and then the next week started.. To my surprise a student came in with his personal box of cars. He explained that my cars were not as aligned properly and we should use these.
As the weeks went on the class became more and more engaged and successful learners. At one point the principal came to ask how I was doing with my sweat hog class and to his surprise I said it was great and it has changed how I will teach science from now on. And it has. Still to this day I always teach with fun in mind and give cool assignments that bring the fun back to our classes. Even today I had my grade 12 students make brain hats in Biology 12. Fun helps learning and teaches students to enjoy school and be confident being silly.