Turtle Bay

Got to go to Turtle Bay in Redding, CA today. It was a group field trip organized by our museum director and their CEO so we could see their organization and compare notes. They're also a relatively new organization, and one that has had its own challenges in development and growth. We really had some great conversations with them regarding how their experiences and ideas could work in our situations.

Then a small vegetation fire started working its way through their Garden and Arboretum forced an evacuation and we had to cut our conversations short. Article and pictures can be found on Redding.com.

I'll post a pic or two (of the parts of the park we did get to see) later.

Evolution

On the projector, Mr. Campbell placed slides of the cartoon icon: one at his skinny genesis in 1928; one from his 1940 turn as the impish Sorcerer’s Apprentice; and another of the rounded, ingratiating charmer of Mouse Club fame.

“How,” he asked his students, “has Mickey changed?”

From "A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash" - New York Times, August 24, 2008

Teaching evolution in the classroom is not an easy task.

Even states that require teachers to cover the basics of evolution, like natural selection, rarely ask them to explain in any detail how humans, in particular, evolved from earlier life forms. That subject can be especially fraught for young people taught to believe that the basis for moral conduct lies in God’s having created man uniquely in his own image.

That's a perspective I never really considered. If you can reach them and have them understand that life evolves, how do you get them to understand they still have a responsibility to themselves and their community to act with a code of moral conduct, when the source of that had always been the God that created them?

I attended Catholic schools for 12 years. Fortunately, in an environment that was open to the idea of science and religion as two ways of looking at the same world, and believing in one did not mean that you were disbelieving of the other. I worry sometimes about how I would answer questions from students about evolution. I would need to follow my state's guidelines, the need for the students to pass the assessments, and my own personal choice to never lie to a student or mislead them, to give them the best information I can.

I like the response the teacher in this article has:

“Faith is not based on science,” Mr. Campbell said. “And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks.”

“But I do,” he added, “expect you to understand it.”

Sometimes I forget the debate is still going on in some states about whether or not evolution should be taught in a classroom. I'm glad I stumbled on this article, it's inspirational, and a great example of a teacher who deserves praise for courage and determination (as well as creativity in reaching students).

A Good Teacher or a Great One?

As I sit at my computer today, trying to gather thoughts and to-do lists into a more organized chaos to address as needed before my classes start in four weeks, I want to take five minutes to review a list of questions I found on Edutopia.org a few weeks ago "Pride of Profession: Striving to Become a Great Teacher".

Here are the seven questions the author, Ben Johnson, asks at the end of the article:

If I think of myself as at least a good teacher, what would I do differently in order to be a great teacher?

What student outcomes do great teachers achieve that I don't achieve?

What qualities does a great teacher possess?

What sacrifices would I have to make to become a great teacher? What am I willing to give up to become great?

What does a great teacher's classroom look like?

What kind of relationships do great teachers strive to create with fellow teachers and administrators?

What will be my first step toward greatness?

I'm going to answer just the first one and the third one today, because to me they work together: "If think of myself as a good teacher, what qualities do I want to develop to become a great teacher?"

I do think of myself as a good teacher. My students like my classes, parents share with me that their students come home excited and ready to go back for more, students learn something from it, and I generally have good control over a classroom. But I know of several things I wish I could improve on to become a great teacher.

• greater patience
• increased calm assertiveness to maintain/regain classroom control
• improved skills in communication and idea sharing to work with other teachers and the educational community

If I could improve those three things this year, it would be a great year.