I'm gearing up for my last term of Student Teaching and the return to a high school classroom. I spent the last 10 weeks in a 6th grade classroom teaching Science (Inquiry and Ecology) and a little Math too. Their energy, enthusiasm, and interest in anything "hands-on," made them perfect for my teaching style and experience.
But, I enrolled in this MAT program to get my certifications in High School Biology, so, back to the high school. The Fall went well, and I should be feeling more confident about my abilities with this task. But, I'm not.
Why am I worried? Because the units I'll be teaching are Cycles and Ecology/Populations (according to my cooperating teacher). I did not verify with him that "Cycles" meant biogeochemical cycles (which, I think he meant) or Cell cycles (which is totally possible since the lead-in unit is Mendelian Genetics). So, that's one reason I'm worried: he's not answering emails and I'm not sure what I'm teaching.
The second reason I'm worried is that, no matter which unit it is, there's a slight problem with the teaching style, classroom set up, etc, that I need to come to grips with. These students do not have their own textbooks - there's a classroom set. There are no computers in the classroom (let alone computers with internet). The plants we were supposed to get started in Fall/Winter haven't been started so that will set me back a bit. And interesting, hands-on discovery-type labs are not very plentiful for either cell or biogeochemical cycles. These are the features that have me feeling like the entire unit will be lecture and worksheets - and no engaged and active learning. In my world, classroom time is spent in labs - in DOING the science, not hearing about it. And, when reading and memorization and diagrams are necessary, there's got to be room for individual interests to drive the learning. That's significantly less possible when they don't have their own text books or when classroom time can't be handed over to them.
This means planning library days (if that's even possible) so they can do research on human impacts on biogeochemical cycles. Field trips to a park for the ecology lessons. And other "out of classroom" experiences that, as a Student Teacher, make me nervous. So, here I sit, torn between wanting my students to "own" their learning and wanting to plan things that will be successful and not cause additional unknown stresses on me (or my CT).
How can they "own" their learning in a room with limited resources? How can I plan projects that engage multiple intelligences and encourage creative thought, in a room where they've spent the last 6 months filing out lots of blanks on note-taking worksheets, watching movies, and not finding motivation to think outside the box? Do I want to work within the patterns they know and expect, or do I want to do things that will effect classroom management because they are so different from the norm?
And, how hard to I want to push myself, how many risks do I want to take? Is there is a significant advantage to planning those library and other field trips that I actually can't gain for my students in the classroom?
I think the answer to the last question is "YES!" Now, I need to convince myself of it and keep planning those units until they work - for ALL students, for my CT and the MAT program, and for ME.
