Student-Centered Learning Two.

Being an educator has it's ups and downs. I was hired 2/3 of the way through the school year last Spring to complete both a Chemistry course and an AP Chemistry course. With standards-based education, this meant I had a predetermined number of topics to cover and complete successfully for each class. In retrospect, it was probably the most intense few months of my teaching career. The students survived the challenge, I survived (with a few bumps and bruises along the way) and we all made it successfully through the course content. Glad I've been teaching for a while!

Most of us that are passionate about being teachers think about teaching over the summer even though we are "off". I'm no different. Perhaps it's my career as a former scientist but I've always been motivated to change my classes to make them "better". For me, this means creating a class where kids learn science the way science in the real world happens. Not so easy in chemistry. I mean, you can't just let kids randomly mix chemicals together...

The biggest shift for me is changing our classroom environment from being teacher-centered to student-centered. This means reducing the amount of lecture time to a minimum. For a relatively seasoned veteran, it can be difficult to relinquish this control! With a lecture based environment, I talk and present, students take notes and ask questions. As educators, we tend to be blind to the fact that well over 90% of our students become disengaged by this process and/or are so busy taking notes, they are unable to absorb the information being presented. It's something that has bothered me for years.

Shifing this paradigm takes lots of time, thinking and energy; something not readily available during the school year. Lab activities most usually are designed to demonstrate one concept. "See? This is what I'm talking about!" It takes a while to create activities that introduce concepts, guide thinking, foster independence and allow conclusions to be drawn all while following the scientific process.

So, for me anyway, challenge number one becomes turning yourself into a resource. In hand with this challenge is finding or creating activity-based projects that allow students to work both independently and together to develop understanding of major concepts. Ideally, we are creating a system where students are learning how to learn and the instructor serves to guide the process of exploration of the content.

Very few textbooks have been created to approach knowledge this way. Most Chemistry textbooks follow a set path and read more like well, textbooks. "This is what we know!" (No explanation of how or why given.) The American Chemical Society (ACS) created the first chemistry-based, contextual text with Chemistry in the Community (ChemCom) (as far as I am aware). It started with a scenario where all the fish in the lake of a community died. It took students into chemistry from an environmental approach most could relate to and did it by using small-group activities. In it's most recent incarnation, I was sad to see that it seems to have deviated from this approach. In all honesty though, I haven't had the opportunity to really look at the changes that have been made to see if this new approach might work better. And, as a disclaimer, I've never used this text as written. I have used many of the lab activities because they are well  thought out and easy to build on.

I stumbled onto my latest favorite as a sample text left by my predecessor in one of my bookshelves. I received a pre-print of this book over 8 years ago and thought it was garbage. This text is called Active Chemistry and it was authored by Arthur Eisencraft and co-developed with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. It is project-based and has students working in small groups on activities. I can't praise this book enough for it's approach! Of course I'm just beginning to use it and am experimenting by using the first chapter with my students this fall. It creates exactly the environment I want in my classroom from day one!

Students work as individuals, with a partner and with small groups. In this book, "activities" can be anything like labs or projects. It reminds me of what I remember as "Project-based Learning". I like the fact that, within a week, students are doing their first lab with chemicals and thinking about the results they observe. This guided-inquiry approach has been touted for years but, until recently, educators have had to create their own activities.

Recently published this year by the POGIL Project (Project Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) and Flinn Scientific are a series of books written/edited by a friend and former colleague Laura Trout. Students are organized into small groups, each student with a different role in the group, and guided through activities geared toward understanding major concepts. The teacher acts as a facilitator, stopping the groups at certain key points, to reinforce learning. The POGIL website is wonderful and has guidelines and sample videos so you can see how this might "look" in your classroom. These activities are thought and discussion-based and address the more challenging concept in science.

Also worthy of note, both AP Biology and Chemistry have (or are about to) transitioned to laboratory-based courses. The hope is to shift away from a knowledge-based approach to science to more of an application-based approach. Most of us that teach AP Bio or Chem are already trying to figure out how to shift our introductory classes in this direction (we'd be silly not to!).

I'll try to update how this is all working when I have some down time; most likely the holiday season.

Harvesting Fir

Without gainful employment at the moment, I have decided to harvest more of the large fir trees on our land. I personally hadn't thought about cutting myself until our neighbor, who logged for us two years ago, suggested it. Funny how that happens. It was one of those "oh yeah, I could do that" moments.

Fir trees grow bigger in our area of town. These start out as those $50 Christmas trees people pay a premium for during the Holidays. They grow naturally here to 60' tall; then they die (which all trees eventually do anyway) and fall over. So, instead of having an area littered with a bunch of dead fallen big trees; I've decided to selectively harvest the larger ones. This also allows me to manage an area of forest I haven't yet and get additional firewood for next season.

So, with a homemade skid plate attached to my tractor, I bundled up and ventured onto our acreage. I have a new respect for folks who cut trees for a living. It's definitely difficult work. The trees are not just large but there are many variables to consider. And, there are many things that work against you. The slightest breeze can push a tree in a different direction than you would like it to fall. Even the most perfect cut doesn't always work like it's supposed to. Other trees catch your tree as it falls. Obstacles, such as holes, rocks and old frozen stumps make it impossible to get close to the butt of the fallen tree you need to chain up to. You accidentally tag the ground with your freshly sharpened saw chain dulling it on one of your first cuts. Yes, the learning curve is steep. And, the work is dangerous.

So, I take my time, take care of my equipment and wear protection (like all good boys do!). Most folks that do this for a living have a winch. After using a skid plate, I can see the utility of a winch. Because I have to get right up to the butt of the tree I'm pulling out, my tractor has to be able to fit. This means having a tractor-wide swath cut right up to the tree at a convenient angle. Each tree creates a unique situation. Collectively harvesting many trees involves creating a strategy. It's a fun challenge that occupies both mind and body.

I know it takes me longer to get my wood. But then again, my goal is not just to harvest but to leave this portion of our property looking nice. I build brush piles for the critters. I cut up the trunks of old fallen dead trees and fill in the low spots. I spread out the branches from felled trees and run them over to crush them and turn them into mulch. I want this area to recover quickly and look nice for the future. I take pride in leaving a harvested area looking nicer than when I started.

Student Centered Learning

I've decided it's time to blog about my life as a teacher. After being painfully unemployed for 9 months, the perfect teaching gig appeared as a gift from the universe. That may sound very esoteric but I've come to believe that things happen for a reason. Being in a position of wanting a job, with a family to support and all, for so long, helped me discover a deep appreciation for many things in my life and a rich feeling of both gratitude and humbleness.

I've been a teacher for almost 10 years now; before that a research scientist for about 16. I'm the type of person that's probably wrapped a bit too tight at times. I love to explore ideas and concepts and discuss the philosophical foundations of almost anything. This process works best over a good beer or two.

Being a teacher has been fun; intense most of the time as I re-learn information and then find a way to make it both palatable and fun for an audience of teenagers. As I grew in my profession, I always felt that there was something missing; that the vehicle for delivery of information didn't quite fit the model for learning in the real world (especially as a scientist/science teacher). I've worked at 4 different high schools and always wondered why they went to great lengths to hire bright educators then put them in a position where they were expected to respond as a minion with little input into creating an environment that worked as a community of learning. I mean, most colleges and universities work that way. Why wouldn't high schools?

Everything happens for a reason; I truly believe this. I have found my niche. I was so discouraged and bitter after leaving my last position, I was ready to toss in the towel as a teacher and go back to science. I'm angry that my talent and intellect was viewed as a disposable commodity and not a resource. Sad.

I'm now teaching in a school (and school district) that has made a commitment to move towards "Student-centered learning". So what the heck is this and why is it different? I'm not sure I know the answer quite yet. I know that I am part of a process (and dialog) that is involved in perpetual change. That we have made the commitment to change how we view the education process, excuse me, the learning process. The biggest difference is the lens we view this learning process through.

• I don't teach anymore, I facilitate (I tell my students I am their "spirit-guide" through chemistry).
• Soon, there will not be specific classes. Students will complete a series of "topics". When they successfully complete a number of these topics, they will get credit for a "Chemistry" class. Topics may occur in more than one class. ie. if a teacher so chooses, a project in one class may cover more than one topic. So, I might design a project on the history of chemistry. Upon completion, the learner would get credit for one topic in chemistry but might also get credit for another topic in history. Or perhaps a topic in english if there is a writing component. So, the structure creates great potential for co-curricular dialog. This piece is evolving and will continue to evolve. Part of our last faculty workshop was a discussion of where we go next.
• A complete K-12 program of topics exists and the topics are assigned at each "grade-level" ("grades" as we know them will go away soon too). So, a complete continuum of learning is defined for all 12 years. How often does this happen? You would think every school district would have something like this in place. NOT! In my experience, there is a complete disconnect when one reaches the exterior walls of a school. Middle school science teachers have little to no idea what learning happens at the high school level and vice versa. The beginning of a class is usually a two-week diagnostic process to figure out what knowledge kids come to your class with. And, if you get kids from multiple middle schools....ugh.
• Students move at their own pace through my curriculum. Yes, this creates a multi-tasking nightmare and poses our biggest challenge. It means that the content of my classes has to be created, complete and designed to allow a great deal of autonomy.

There's so much more. What is most interesting is the outcome. I was dropped in to this mid-year. I always had this notion that Chemistry required a certain level of "intellectual maturity" and that it was a class mostly for juniors. This notion has gone out the window. I have high school freshman that are moving through my content at a pace faster than most of the juniors I've had in my past 9 years of teaching this subject. What a difference empowerment makes!

The biggest difference between traditional education and student-centered learning is; when students are left to moderate the pace of the class, it's much more enjoyable for them as they work in small groups and they move much more quickly than if the classroom is teacher directed. I can't yet attest to student understanding; it will take me a year to get my ducks in a row and be able to evaluate this. I know for sure that the outcome at the very least, is equivalent. But, if I had to guess, I'd say that this is a much more powerful way of learning. Best of all, it's a better paradigm for how knowledge is acquired in the real world.