It's only been two days...

It's only been two days, and yet I've learned a whole lot. I've gained a new found appreciation and respect for elementary school teachers, such as my mom, who do this not for 6 hours a day (as I do), but for an entire school day. Additionally, their job is to ensure that the kids learn the material, and actually retain information. I, on the other hand, am not required to assign homework or grades and am not responsible for ensuring students meet standardized testing metrics. Today, I came home exhausted (though marginally less than yesterday), collapsed, and fell asleep for 2 hours. Teachers of the world, I salute you.

Most of the kids in this program are a pain. I've chosen to categorize them in 3 overlapping groups:
1) The Overly Enthusiastic:
Some of the kids are too eager to do things, and decide it's okay to stand up, walk to the front of the class where I am, and start playing with my teaching materials. Since I brought a model airplane and balloons today to demonstrate propulsion methods, I suppose I was inviting trouble. These kids just won't shut up, and won't sit down. I appreciate their desire to learn and to engage in the material, but sometimes they just need to chill out. I had a roll of duct tape and wished I had used it more.

2) The Hopeless, Needy, and Disinterested:
This is a weird group, but all create the same problem. Perhaps 20% of a given class will not give a rat's ass what you're talking about, that is until you give them a balloon to play with. But for the most part, they sit to the side, talking to their friends, crying in the corner, or lying on the floor. They might not be the best students in the world, but at least they're somewhat quiet.

3) The I-Want-To-Strangle-Your-Scrawny-Neck Children:
Some kids are just rotten. I hate to say this, and would never tell a parent this, but some kids are just asses. Ranging from running around the classroom, interrupting my every other word, to talking back to me, I have no desire to teach these children. I'm still figuring out how to deal with these ones, but for now I've settled giving them stink eye during recess. They're more than happy to return the favor.


However, through all the headaches, dehydration, and fatigue, there have been some rewarding moments, even so early in the program. I'm happy to say my class is a hit, I've been told it's the most popular course in the program by the admins, in fact. The story goes like this.
-----The father of one of the students gets off work at 4, at which point it would naturally make sense for him to come pick his daughter up. Today, he came at 4, and pulled his daughter from my class to go home. One of the administrators told me that when this student's father came for her, she was really mad at him. She told him:
"Why did you have to come now?! I was in Science!"
"I thought you would want to come home."
"But we were just doing an experiment!"
The administrator asked: "So did you learn anything today?"
She replied: "No, we hadn't finished the experiment yet. Dad, can you come back later after we're done with Science?"

This makes me very happy. I think that since my class is the only one with hands-on demonstrations and kinesthetic learning, the kids are more engaged, and have more fun. Whenever I'm strolling around, I try to talk to the kids, and ask them how their day's going, what are they doing in other classes. When I ask them what they're learning in other classes, they reply "I don't know." But, when I ask them what they learned in my class, the spit out those short mantras: "Long and skinny flies farther" and from today "The balloon pushes the air out of its butt." Most seem genuinely excited to come to my class. They come up to me during recess and ask what we're doing today or tomorrow in class. This is very encouraging.

I thought my first post, the Mission Statement of this course, was a little silly at the time. I mean, it's hard to educate children, and for a novice teacher like myself, I can't expect to do much with them. But I'm finding that it's not absurd to get them excited about science. It's only been two days, but I think I'm definitely on the right track. The kids, though a pain, are actually learning things (albeit short and sweet, like some of them), and are excited to do so. I think I can get them to love science by the end of the class. You know why? Because Science is awesome.

Lesson Plans Day 2: Propulsion Methods

I realize how ridiculous making lesson plans for some of the classes are. For the younger kids (3 of the 5 groups), the realistic lesson plans would go something like this:

1) Review Yesterday's Lesson
-"We made paper airplanes! Can we make more paper airplanes?"
-"Long and pointy planes fly farther"
-"Short and fat planes don't fly as far"

2) Get everybody to sit down again.

3)Review Yesterday's Lessons
-"I want to make a pointy one!"
-"Long and pointy planes fly farther"

4)How do propellers work?
-"They spin"
-"They push the air back and make the plane go forward"

5)Why does the balloon fly around when I release it?
-"Can I have a balloon?"
-"They push the air out of its butt"

6)Take everyone to the bathroom

7)Why does the plane move forward?
"IT PUSHES THE AIR BACK!"

8)Why does the balloon fly around?
-"IT PUSHES THE AIR OUT OF ITS BUTT!"

9)Repeat steps 8 and 7 until the end of class.


However, the older classes are simply a treat. The above material which takes the younger classes the entire hour, takes the older kids less than 10 min. I'm continually surprised by the incoming 5th grade class, who seem to know a lot of science as it is. They knew that air was a collection of particles, and even simple Ideal Gas Law relationships. I have high hopes for this class, and hope to be able to do a lot with them.

I've learned that the well known science mantra is very true:
If it's green and slimy, it's Biology.
If it smells, it's Chemistry.
If it doesn't work, it's Physics.

I tried to explain how rockets work. The combustion of the fuel heats the air, causing it to expand push the rocket (somewhat true, and somewhat untrue). In order to demonstrate that making air hotter causes it to expand, I stuck a deflated balloon on the end of a bottle. Normally, this is done with water, which is boiled, and the subsequent steam fills the balloon. But since I'm in a limited classroom space, I decided to use an empty plastic soda bottle, and a hairdryer from home. I had tried this out at home, and it worked fine. After 10 seconds or so of heating the bottle, the little balloon puffed up. However, once I got to the classroom, I ran into a problem I didn't expect. The plastic bottle started to melt, and expand, while the balloon did not. As obscenities started to fill my brain, I came up with a horrible solution: I surreptitiously squeezed the bottle, causing the balloon the puff up. Though I eventually figured out a way to do it, I feel a little guilty at fooling the little kids. But I don't think they really care. All they took away from the experience was "WE GOT TO PLAY WITH BALLOONS!!!". Which really, is fine by me.

Another lesson learned: if you give kids an instruction, like hold on to this balloon and don't let any air out, some will hold on to it so tightly that it will melt the balloon, sealing it shut. I'm constant surprised by how earnest, eager, and excited some of these kids are. Then again, I'm constantly surprised by how difficult most of them choose to make my life.

Tomorrow we will be covering Bernoulli's Principle, qualitatively. This has been done by almost every science educator in the country, and should be a lot easier. I'll post tomorrow specific demonstrations.