The One Question That Changed My Teaching Methods

Editor's Notes

• #2: Good afternoon, My name is Kirsten Hope Walker. I currently work for Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, but this presentation really has more to do with my personal teaching throughout the years and how I approach writing curriculum no matter where I am. This talk has been modified from a original presentation I did here two years ago called “Teaching as an Ongoing Experiment” and so much of what I said then holds true now with the Danielson Framework that I decided to rework it and add the objectives as a framework for this presentation.
• #3: These are some of my favorite quotes regarding life and learning as an experiment. We are all scientists in that way. We are all experimenting with what does and doesn’t work in our lives. The experiments are never perfect, but they are all learning opportunities. Our jobs as teachers is to facilitate positive student learning opportunities and allow for experimentation so our students can grow into healthy adults.
• #4: I hadn’t heard of the Danielson Framework before this conference. I’ve been out of formal teaching for 10 years now, but I do mentor in a local middle school. As I read through the framework clusters, I think that all of it should be common sense and part of every day teaching, but from what I have seen in the school where I mentor, an official framework for teaching seems like a supportive way to help faculty have a more effective learning experience for their students.
• #5: So these are our objectives for the day and I will go through each one and provide examples.
• #7: When I was little, I dreamed about being a veterinarian, but chemistry and math were not my favorite subjects. A friend of mine remembers my dream of being a marine biologist, but there was that chemistry thing I just couldn’t get passed. I just wasn’t wired to be either. I did find myself teaching about the environment from a very young age in Houston where I lived. I played with snakes, lizards, rabbits, birds… you name it. Everything I learned I taught to my friends and family. I guess I was an environmental educator from a very young age.
• #8: Many of you may have seen this drawing in one form or another. I agree and disagree with it. I think both lines are true. I know many teachers that started teaching right out of college and stayed with the same school their entire career. How many of you feel you will be on this path? That works for some. Some of us have very different paths to get to teaching and it may not be all with the same organization and that’s okay too. I’m a very squiggly squiggly and my squiggle is still squiggling.  The point is, those of us with very squiggly lines bring a variety of experiences to whatever we do because don’t stay still. Again, both are good and fine, they are just different.
• #9: A.S. in Biology at William Rainey Harper College Prescott College in Prescott, AZ (Rock Jock school) B.S. in Environmental Biology at Eastern Illinois University M.A. Ed. in Secondary Education – Science at Roosevelt M.S. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (EE) at NIU
• #10: There are 3 different forms of education and we probably all do all of them at some point in time. The first, of course, is formal education. Formal education involves instruction that will be tested for knowledge retention and school metrics. Non-formal education is instruction that is not usually tested. It is often used for enhancement of a topic in a “change of pace and place” venue. Some examples are nature centers, museums, and aquaria. Finally, informal education is what you do when you talk to your friends, neighbors, co-workers. It involves casual talk about information you have learned and wish to share with others.
• #11: With every position I have had, I have learned. We all have. I bring those experiences into the positions I have had as ways to add value. I have taught informally at the McHenry County Conservation District, American Express, and the Hoffman Estates Police Department. Have taught non-formally at the USFW, ISTC, and IISG. And of course I have taught formally at HEHS and NIU.
• #13: I was teaching about isotopes to a sophomore level physical science class in 2004. A student named Megan Cleary raised her hand and asked one simple question, “Why do I need to know this?”
• #14: If you are every asked a question like that or are ever compelled to say to a student, “Because it’s on the test.” please consider a new career. This is probably the worst answer a teacher can give a student and makes learning completely invalid. I instead said to her, “ That’s a really good question, Megan and I don’t have a good answer for that, but I will tomorrow.” I was willing to be vulnerable enough to admit that I don’t know everything (including admittedly why I’m teaching about isotopes). I should have stopped class at that moment and had them do the research on why isotopes are important, but that was part of my learning.
• #15: So I found out that isotopes are used to track monarch butterfly migration. There are many more reasons that isotopes are important (cancer research, smoke detectors, control rods that prevent nuclear power plants from melting down, and forensic analysis for example), but this is what I found. I don’t know if it was sufficient to answer her question, but I will never know.
• #16: So how did I go about changing my curriculum?
• #17: I started the next year with my sophomore physical science class with an introductory unit called “Science is Everywhere!” I challenged my students to find a topic (of their choosing) and tell the class about the science of that topic. Of course there were students who wanted to push the envelope with topics including marijuana, napalm, tattoo application (and removal), and meth. I allowed them to tackle those topics as long as they investigated ALL of the health implications and presented all sides of the topic, not just what seemed cool. They did a great job on their presentations and some said they liked that they were allowed to research a topic of interest.
• #18: At Northern Illinois University, I was a graduate student in the College of Education and we wanted to show the pre-service teachers how to incorporate technology in their curriculum. We used GPS devices to make a game that traversed the entire campus to find clues to the next location as well as historical information about the buildings (Gidden, Haige, and Ellsworth families and barbed wire). It was a fun way to get everyone moving and problem solving.
• #19: In 2013 and 2014 when I worked for the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, we created a high school day camp that went to each of the five scientific surveys so that students could learn how science is done in research and how many of the researchers use math, science, technology, problem solving, collaboration, and literacy in their everyday lives.
• #21: Last summer I was lucky enough to be part of the EPA’s R/V Lake Guardian Teacher Shipboard Science workshop. 60 formal and non-formal educators from all over the Great Lakes region applied for 15 positions to work with scientists on research conducted on Lake Michigan. My job was to connect curriculum to the work they were doing on the ship. Honestly, it was 7 very busy days and to get curriculum in was tough because the teachers were so engulfed in the research and they loved it. I saw many teachers just brimming with ideas on how to incorporate the science into their classrooms. Some great videos of the trip can be found if you look for Jed allen Freels or Science Quest on You Tube. Jed was one of our teachers from Indiana who’s goal in life is to film all of the experiences he has during the summer and bring that information to his classes. It’s like first hand stories from their teacher and he has a great personality.
• #22: I recently finished The Medicine Chest curriculum. I incorporated metacognitive thinking, a flipped classroom option, and NGSS alignment to lessons on pharmaceuticals and personal care products. You will be leaving here today with a copy if you wish to take one.
• #24: I see jokes on social media platforms about how someone feels they got through the day without doing anything with the Pythagorean theorem or other complex math functions. And although it’s funny, it’s also another great reason to support the “why I need to know this” mentality in your classroom. If you have ever done anything that required a right angle (examples here) then you have used the Pythagorean theorem.
• #25: So you have taught how the Pythagorean theorem works, don’t stop there! Pythagoras was a pretty whacky guy! Tell some of the history of where the theorem originated. It helps bring the a face and story to something that isn’t exactly tangible. It also makes math more interesting.
• #26: Another example. I taught ESL Biology. I ended up doing a digital story for my first master’s degree on these students. I realized that I was trying to teach the language of science to students who came from so many different cultures. That meant I needed to approach teaching differently. The unit I needed to teach was biomes. I decided that the students were going to teach about the biomes of their home country. They needed to also talk about their culture and teach us some words that related to their biome. If they were in a desert, they could teach us the names of some of the common plants and animals. It was and interesting experiment where everyone learned a lot about each other and their we all became closer.
• #28: Use alternative assessment more. Stewardship projects, meaningful discussions, and debates can really give you a better idea of what they understand as well as what they don’t. I’m also a huge advocate of essay tests. Try this. For a final exam, instead of a scantron of 200 questions from the beginning of the year, have the students pick 3- 5 topics from throughout the year and explain them in writing (or type them, disabling the internet for searching) as if they were teaching it to other students. Do this 2 class periods ahead of the exam. The class period before the “final exam” time have another student from another class assess if they understand what the student is explaining and ask questions in writing about what was written. Then you (the teacher) look at the essays and student assessment. Create a grade based on the essay and feedback (which will be reflected on the student who assessed) and provide your feedback.
• #29: This is just a test of guesswork and doesn’t really prove anything other than they either knew or guessed the correct answer.