Posts Tagged ‘Science’

Good Teachers Are Prepared to Stuff Up

March 6, 2018

 

So a science teacher causes a fire in the name of a fairly interesting looking scientific demonstration.

The fire department was called and it would have been an utterly humiliating experience for teacher and school alike (not to mention a costly one).

I hope his boss does something very counter intuitive and  congratulates him on his lesson. It’s so easy to conduct a boring, safe and incident free science lesson. Many science teachers go for that option only to find out that their class has lost interest and turned to their mobile phones to pass the time.

All teachers make mistakes, but the good ones are prepared to make them in order to teach in an engaging and enlightening way.

I hope he tried the very same experiment all over again the very next day!

 

Click on the link to read Teacher Installs Bike Peddles at Student Desks

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Click on the link to read Teacher Praised after Stripping in Front of Her Students

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The Science of Parenting

July 19, 2014

Courtesy of

 

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Student Shot by Teacher Protests His Sacking

February 4, 2014

richard west

I might be crazy, but I have a lot more time for a teacher that thinks big and gets it horribly wrong than one who turns to textbooks and worksheets for inspiration. Bringing a pellet gun to school in the name of physics is an accident waiting to happen, and you can understand why the authorities didn’t appreciate its appearance (nor the subsequent accidental shooting of a student). But, boy that could have been a brilliant lesson!

I commend the student for forgiving his teacher and for flying the flag for a teacher that made a terrible mistake in the name of engaging his class:

A high school senior in the UK who was injured by his physics teacher in an experiment mishap has launched a campaign to have the man reinstated after he was sacked.

Richard West was suspended then sacked when a pellet he fired in a physics experiment rebounded off a chair and struck one of his students in the leg.

But victim Ben Barlow has since set up a Facebook fan page and an online petition for his favourite teacher to get his job back, writing “You’d do more damage with a safety pin”.

“Mr West set up an experiment where he was going to shoot through paper into cardboard boxes at the end of the room to work out the speed of the object and its deceleration,” the 17-year-old student wrote.

The incident occurred in November but last week Mr West lost his job.

Now the “Bring Back Westy” fan page is approaching 3000 likes and dozens of students leaving comments of praise and calling for their teacher’s return.

School principal Adrian Richards told the UK’s Metro it would be inappropriate to comment on the matter as it was “still in the appeal phase of the process”.

 

Click on the link to read Science Not For the Faint Hearted (Video)

Click on the link to read 7 Tips for Building a Better School Day

Click on the link to read Student Rant Goes Viral

Click on the link to read Could This be the Most Violent High School Test Question Ever?

Click on the link to read Six Valuable Steps to Making Positive Changes in Your Teaching

Science Not For the Faint Hearted (Video)

January 15, 2014

 

 

 

I used to love the science television shows where the presenter would warn the audience not to try the experiment at home. That extra element of danger made the scientific explanation all the more interesting. Science lessons at school uniformly omitted the dangerous experiments and all that remained were the standard, tired, almost boring experiments.

Still, as much as I would have loved my teachers to perform the experiment above, I certainly wouldn’t have volunteered my services for the demonstration.

 

Click on the link to read 7 Tips for Building a Better School Day

Click on the link to read Student Rant Goes Viral

Click on the link to read Could This be the Most Violent High School Test Question Ever?

Click on the link to read Six Valuable Steps to Making Positive Changes in Your Teaching

Click on the link to read 10 Art Related Games for the Classroom

Brilliant Teacher Alert! (Video)

December 27, 2013

Take a bow Mr. Wright! You are an inspiration!

Teachers are Better with a Sense of Humour (Photo)

December 23, 2013

In University we were instructed not to smile until Easter. That way our students would never feel close enough to us to treat us like a friend. It is this kind of rubbish that infiltrates many teacher training lecture rooms. They tell you not to become emotionally involved with your students, but what they are really saying is become emotionally distant.

Students need to see the human face of their teacher in order to respect them. Remember, that there is a big difference between a dictatorial teacher that demands respect and a caring one that commands respect. The best way to manage student behaviour is for them to WANT to behave for you. They must want to gain your approval and respect. The only way to achieve this is to believe in them, set fair expectations for them and be prepared to share a laugh at times.

I stumbled across this wonderful answer to a science question which shows that the student in question had absolutely no idea what the correct answer is, but didn’t want his teacher to think less of him because of it.  The teacher’s response to the answer is simply brilliant!

science

Click on the link to read Would You Want Your Teacher Chair Replaced by a Yoga Ball?

Click on the link to read Worst Examples of Teacher Discipline

Click on the link to read Why Students Misbehave

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Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

If Only All Science Teachers Were Like This (Video)

December 5, 2013

 

 

 

Watch how this brilliant physics teacher explains gravity to his students.

 

Click on the link to read Teacher Having a Ball Whilst Grading Papers (Video)

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Scaring Our Children About Climate Change is Poor Education

September 24, 2013

gore

 

This post is not about the legitimacy of climate change. I personally believe in climate change but require more evidence as to the extent of how our actions will cause ‘dangerous’ ramifications,

There is a campaign to teach children climate science following a certain ‘consensus’. Only trouble is, education doesn’t and should never operate using a consensus model. Education is about an exchange of ideas and the search for truth. It isn’t about hammering one line of thinking at the exclusion of others.

The worst byproduct of the ‘consensus technique’ of teaching children is that educators realise that many children won’t understand the science of it, so they have resorted to alarmism and outrageous prognostications instead. This not only scares children, but is phoney and grossly insensitive.

 

One of the most shameful aspects of the scare-mongering over “global warming” (sic) is the way that children are exploited and frightened.

Save the planet for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, goes the line. Over and over again. Children will be hardest hit, and so forth.

There is anecdotal evidence that young children are being seriously frightened by this event, an event that may in fact not be happening, may not have very serious consequences, and probably cannot be stopped.

A young child wrote to the website of UK magazine Country Living, saying she was scared because she had read a report that “global warming” (sic) would bring more and poisonous spiders to her garden.

A four year old boy had to receive psychological treatment because he had become irrationally and uncontrollably frightened into believing the end of the world was nigh and that he was about to die.

 

Surely instead of frightening kids with stories about dead polar bears and melting ice caps we can teach the positive aspects about looking after our environment, such as recycling and conserving electricity and water.  After all, positive behaviours are best brought about by positive messages.

 

Click on the link to read Our Children and the Disgusting Climate of Fear

Meet Albert Einstein: The Reality TV Star

October 29, 2012

It’s a shame that children don’t know who Albert Einstein is:

A third of primary school children believe Albert Einstein is a reality TV star, a study has found.

Some 29 per cent think they have recently seen the scientist, who died in 1955, on shows such as The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.

Many were unable to identify great scientists or their achievements;  more than a third of pupils aged 11  to 14 did not know Isaac Newton discovered gravity, despite it featuring on the school curriculum.

Meanwhile, 6 per cent thought  X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos created penicillin while a million children believe chart-topping rapper Professor Green is a real academic.

Furthermore, a confused 35 per cent of five year olds think London Mayor Boris Johnson discovered gravity with one in five primary school children believing that England and Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney is a scientist.

Stephen Hawkins is a hairdresser according to 22 per cent of eight year olds.

I mean no disrespect when I say that I wouldn’t want Stephen Hawkins cutting my hair.

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Click on the link to read Study Reveals Children Aren’t Selfish After All

Where Have These So-Called “Master Teachers” Been All this Time?

July 19, 2012

I am very frustrated by the lack of investment from many of our “best teachers” in helping mentor their less experienced and less confident colleagues.

In a post in May, I raised the question – Do experienced teachers give enough back to the profession? I argued that these experienced teachers could be a vital resource for improving teacher quality.

It seems President Obama agrees:

President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a $1 billion program to recruit high-performing math and science teachers to mentor and evaluate their peers and help students excel.

The so-called Master Teacher Corps program calls for recruiting 2,500 such educators at the outset and increasing that to 10,000 over four years, paying them $20,000 stipends on top of their base salaries. Each teacher would be required to serve at least four years.

To help launch the program, the Obama administration has pledged to release $100 million already available to school districts that have made plans to develop and retain effective teachers of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the plan would raise the prestige of the profession and increase teacher retention.

I just wish experienced teachers could offer more voluntarily without having to be bribed to help with costly incentives.

Click on the link to read my post, Do experienced teachers give enough back to the profession?


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