Right ... because academic achievement levels in public schools is just "stellar". I suspect the poster you maligned will opt to teach parochial students rather than try and disrupt a liberal pipeline to prison. Parochial schools typically include Darwinism, along with creationism in their syllabus. Parochial teachers can nurture critical thinking skills rather than devoting their time to manipulating standardized testing scores, and instructing students on use of non gender specific pronouns. Academic fascism is just adorable. ::
Please keep in mind that science is a process. Science considers facts to be individual observations that required no logic. I hope you do not teach science as a collection of facts, let alone "random facts".
Good morning Will, always nice to hear from you, hope you are doing well this lovely day! As for my teaching I will teach as they tell me to teach. I will try to work in my own methods in there somewhere so hopefully that in 40 years this child would look back and say they remember me because I taught them something. I will not ever do this as much as I would like to however.
Well, it seems it is your "own methods" that are of interest, then. And, that would include the fact that in general those who teach must have knowledge significantly in advance of the material being taught. The curriculum as designed can be undermined or even negated easily by small injections of "personal wisdom". Also, I've seen studies that certain problems we have (such as general interest in science and number of women in science) begin at a surprisingly early age.
Well I am worried about that. My degree is in biology and as a science teacher I will be in charge of teaching and creating experiments in areas I've never studied. The amount of research I am going to have to do just to explain to 4th graders why the earth goes around the sun, because they will be telling their parents, literally frightens me.
Yeah, parents. You'll have a lot to tell them about objectives, methods, progress, etc. You're highly likely to be the expert in that. Plus, what the parents hear is likely to be garbled and not inclusive of what you're doing for their kid to succeed.
How did you get a biology degree without a year of physics? The majority of what is contained in this thread is in first year physics.
lol I've course I've taken physics but do you remember all the crap you learned in those classes? I don't. I will have to develop specific lesson plans so will need to research them in detail because I will be held accountable for the knowledge I pass down. A couple general classes in physics does not teach me all I need to know to present the points to the children. Luckily I kept all my books and I have bought more, I constantly research science stuff and bookmark it and frankly, discussing science here on this forum has helped out immensely. I just started the new semester which is basically an introductory part of my degree in getting my masters of education. Next semester I begin my internships in real classrooms in front of real students where I will find out how worthless of a teacher I actually am. I am doing my best to prepare for it however. And I didn't need a year in physics, I believe it was only two classes. Not really part of biology, that's pretty much a math thing.
Honestly that's the thing I'm most concerned about. Some whiney ass lawyer or doctor or soccer mom coming in my classroom who knows nothing about what I do, telling me how to do my job. I am sacrificing a lot and working very hard to learn my trade, they haven't but yet I am accountable to them. Then I also have the state telling me what and how to teach. That's another issue. I don't know, it just seems like an uphill battle on all fronts. Its frustrating and I haven't even started yet.
I would think any first term physics even in high school would include acceleration due to gravity as it's the most available example of acceleration. From there, all you have to remember is that acceleration is measured in distance and time (like meters per second per second) - no factor for mass! Thus, light and heavy object will fall at the same rate unless something else enters in. Yet, you refuse to accept that when given as an answer in a post.
Yes but that wasn't my field of study. Now I have to develop lesson plans and show physical examples of it so I must learn it. Chemistry is also another area I will need to learn. Now I can teach biology, the difference between bacteria and virus and everything in between. I can show them how to expertly dissect a frog but as a general science teacher I will also have to reach into fields I'm not that familiar with. So how would I conduct a demonstration that shows acceleration? I never saw one of those when I took physics, I basically read it out of a textbook and wrote some paper on it.
Nothing has changed for the better WRT to the abysmal content but considering the source it would have been remarkable if it had.
Of course I remembered most of what I learned in physics and chemistry--I love science. No offense, but that kind of attitude is not what a teacher should have. A year of college physics should prepare you for any kind of physics that you will encounter in a classroom. If you don't know the basics, how can you expect to teach it? I have been a science teacher. I taught high/middle school for 8 years (1992-2000). Most of what I taught in high school was 9th grade physical science, which is a very basic physics and chemistry course. My background (with a year of physics and two years of chemistry in college), is the only reason I survived it. I'm glad you're seeking out knowledge, but it disturbs me that you didn't have that basic knowledge with your degree.
Well, you have basically two choices in terms of parental involvement. You are either going to get a "whiney ass lawyer or doctor or soccer mom" parent who knows the subject matter you should be teaching, and compares you to the teachers they had, or you are going to get an uneducated single parent who doesn't give a **** about what you do in the classroom, except they don't want you to discipline their child and should only discipline the other children, and they really don't care about what their child is doing, other than they don't want to be inconvienced. There are a few in between. You don't give me the impression that you gave up much to learn your trade, as you don't even know the basics of your trade. The basics are not writing lesson plans and objectives. The basics is trying to keep kids motivated and caring enough about your course to learn your subject.
I'm doubtful you were really a biology major. At least in my experience, biology majors have to take a year of lab-based physics. I'm 52 years old, and I can remember doing experiments in physics lab (this was in 1985) with acceleration due to gravity. We had timers, and ramps, and measured how fast different weighted steel bearings (i.e. small steel balls of different sizes) went down the ramp.
I was only required to take Phy111 and 112 although I could have gone higher through electives, I chose not to. I didn't really like Physics, too much math. Not really much to do with biology. If I wanted that I would have gone into math or astronomy.
If I fail miserably (which is very likely) I shall remember your kind words. However there are teaching guides so you don't go in unprepared. Its not really about your knowledge but your ability to present information to the kids. I'm not doing original research here or writing theories, I am regurgitating basic information and I will be teaching around the 4th grade so I think it might be doable. I'm not teaching a senior class of college students here. Show them how to make a paper Mache volcano and I'm good I think.
The issue here would be lacking the fundamental grasp of what science is and does, as well as the very core concepts of physics which WILL inevitably come up when teaching basic science to kids. There also seems to be a bit of theological dogma in play which will instantly taint education and mindset away from the very idea of science and fact. Also you may end up with a prodigy child who knows your understanding is incorrect and all respect is removed, every teacher needs to maintain this.
You know that I do have a degree in a hard science, so I think I get the fundamentals. I graduated with a 3.6 GPA. Will I make many mistakes, yes, of course I will but I will learn from them. (hopefully) Do you really think I should stay a waitress my whole life instead because I may not grasp the details of physics?
You can't present information that you don't know yourself. Teaching guides are usually less than useful. I say this as a former reader of those guides. 4th grade only teaching science, or do you mean you will be a 4th grade teacher? If the first, sounds like a good gig, but you'd better learn the material better. If the second, the best thing you can do for science education is to teach math better.
Not based on your questions. You need to study physics before you teach it. I have no doubt you can get it, but you need to stop having a bad attitude about learning it.
