At my small high school, I am the only chemistry teacher and I rarely get to collaborate with others who "speak my language." Unsurprisingly, my colleagues just don't appreciate fun words like stoichiometry, polyatomic, and ebullioscopic. So this week I traveled to Allendale, Michigan to be surrounded by other chemistry teachers and professors at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE).
During my five days at Grand Valley State University for the BCCE, I had the opportunity to attend a variety of 3-hour workshops and symposia about chemistry and teaching. I learned about Target Inquiry labs designed by GVSU, how to better implement the Science Writing Heuristic for chemistry labs, the cognitive science of learning, implementing Engineering Practices into learning cycles, and much, much more. I also got to chat with others who view the world through the lens of chemistry and try to help their students be successful.
I love learning about science and how to best teach science. Over the past eight years, I have participated in many different initiatives related to improving teaching and learning and I really do believe in the effectiveness of multiple research-based practices. Ideally, I want all of my science units to include essential questions, inquiry, learning cycles, relevance, science literacy, engineering practices, standards-based grading, and more... This is one reason teaching is so difficult - there will never be enough time/energy/resources to design instruction using all of the best practices! And, more ideas and new initiatives come down the pipeline every year! Therefore, it is impossible to perfect the act of teaching. It may look easy but truly good teaching doesn't happen naturally and it is difficult to repeat as both students and expectations change. This is why professional development and collaboration are vital for teachers at all levels.
Overall, I am so happy I could travel to the BCCE and I have many resources to survey and ideas to organize before school starts in 12 days. I wish the BCCE was just a bit earlier in the summer but now I am even more excited for school to start! And, I'm thinking that I need to create my own cohort of chemistry teachers in Southwest Iowa because collaboration with other chemnuts is an incredibly valuable part of my professional development opportunities.
During my five days at Grand Valley State University for the BCCE, I had the opportunity to attend a variety of 3-hour workshops and symposia about chemistry and teaching. I learned about Target Inquiry labs designed by GVSU, how to better implement the Science Writing Heuristic for chemistry labs, the cognitive science of learning, implementing Engineering Practices into learning cycles, and much, much more. I also got to chat with others who view the world through the lens of chemistry and try to help their students be successful.
I love learning about science and how to best teach science. Over the past eight years, I have participated in many different initiatives related to improving teaching and learning and I really do believe in the effectiveness of multiple research-based practices. Ideally, I want all of my science units to include essential questions, inquiry, learning cycles, relevance, science literacy, engineering practices, standards-based grading, and more... This is one reason teaching is so difficult - there will never be enough time/energy/resources to design instruction using all of the best practices! And, more ideas and new initiatives come down the pipeline every year! Therefore, it is impossible to perfect the act of teaching. It may look easy but truly good teaching doesn't happen naturally and it is difficult to repeat as both students and expectations change. This is why professional development and collaboration are vital for teachers at all levels.
Overall, I am so happy I could travel to the BCCE and I have many resources to survey and ideas to organize before school starts in 12 days. I wish the BCCE was just a bit earlier in the summer but now I am even more excited for school to start! And, I'm thinking that I need to create my own cohort of chemistry teachers in Southwest Iowa because collaboration with other chemnuts is an incredibly valuable part of my professional development opportunities.