Post from Wednesday June 23rd

This was my first reflection. I was posted elsewhere, but I should add it to the rest:

I am literally sitting here at 12:33 on the day after finals have ended with two kids that never bothered to show up for my class. Dragging them through a review of a semester's worth of material - actually forcing them to answer out loud before they take the final. And I am being paid as a substitute. But the one girl is pregnant. And the other kid I know is facing all kinds of issues. I can subtract race from this equation - one kid is white and the other AA.

The kicker is that they both seem to sort of actually like science. There is such a huge divide between my whole way of thinking and being and doing. Perceptions are so dominant. I am sharing this physical space with these students and we both have a common goal of discussing a certain topic and helping them to fulfill requirements to pass high school, but we just have so little in common. We just don't look at the world the same way. And it does matter. It matters a lot. I think what I am opening my mind to the most is that there is a vast divide that has to be crossed in order for me to get high school students in the 21st century to talk about science. Now that I am past the fact that they don't care and don't really like the content for the most part and they need to be motivated somehow to develop study skills that they may or may not have and are not remotely interested in developing - now what? I have to move on from here and so do my dear friends who love science and the art of teaching it.

Some things happened over the past 10 weeks that have changed my view of this whole discourse thing. No. 1 - I was more organized and managed my classroom like never before and that actually made all of the difference for some of the most challenging students. Just the fact that the environment went from being disorganized to being super-managed allowed them to succeed. So now the next level of progression is how do you make things exciting. How can you move into discourse? Motivation is the key that unlocks discourse. Without it -as in anything else in life, there can't be a conversation. Motivation through pressure to get good grades and competition for recognition works - but only to a point. That will get you to the first level - question and answer. Learning basic info. My science teacher buddies have pretty much settled for that - and I did too. But there are moments when the kids are interested and want to know more and then, of course talk more. I want to know how to create more of those moments. That is what this journey is really all about. I am hoping that the coming weeks as I listen to the classroom sessions from my buddies at BHS and I will show me some things that will lead us there. We'll see. The focus groups really bring out our backgrounds. Looking forward to it.