Teacherman

Rollercoaster Physics: What a wonderful lesson - cleverly crafted with a lot of care and attention. I wish my physics lessons had been more like this at school! The teacher has asked the students to design and build a simple roller-coaster that will allow a marble to run as far as possible without falling off the end of the tubing. This project-based lesson is designed to enhance the children’s understanding of kinetic and potential energy and Newton’s laws of motion. • Academic Expectations The teacher clearly has high academic expectations for her students. She has pre-taught them the concepts of kinetic and potential energy and she expects them to apply these concepts to the activity to produce a coaster that will allow the marble to run for as long as possible within a strict set of limitations. The teacher also expects the students to work collaboratively and allocate responsibility for certain tasks to each other. Each team member is expected to pull their weight in orde...

One thing that has come through loud and clear in studying for this unit is that the teacher sets the tone for the class environment and all the interactions therein. Where the teacher leads the students will surely follow, and if the teacher models caring and inclusive behaviour then it is more than likely the students will do the same. Successfully creating that environment is the tricky part, and this is where teaching moves from a science to an art, but the information contained in the resources in this unit provided lots of well thought-out strategies. The first step is to strike the right balance between cooperation and dominance, and Marzano (2010) acknowledges that this is a fine line to walk. In relation to cooperation it seems that just getting the little things right can reap big dividends, so I will endeavour to smile and greet students at the door by name each day. Teaching in Asia, I have some students who prefer to use English ‘nicknames’ in class, and some who pre...