Reflections

It's the last day of class - I've just left my Summer I session of bright and energetic future teachers. They are the source of my energy and passion for teaching. I am so blessed to be involved in their training! I wanted to post some of their written reflections concerning our family science event at the Boys and Girls club (see previous post).

•“Science is not just about beakers, microscopes and animals; its about learning and discovering new things not only about our world, but about ourselves. Science relates to everything.”
•“I was also very proud of our class as a whole at how everyone took the time to present their material in an interesting way and really want to make that difference in these young minds….They wanted to learn about topics and some were so impacted by what we were teaching them that they even came back for a second helping of knowledge.”
•“This event really showed me that you can do a science lesson about anything. I know it sounds like a simple statement but I never would have thought that I could talk for ten minutes to kids about orange juice.”
•“Watching the children smile as they interacted with us and our project really reassured me that I was going into the right profession. These children just wanted to learn and by being there our class made that possible.”
•“I feel the more passionate the teacher is about a topic, the more passionate the students will be. The excitement to teach almost seems to ‘rub off’ as excitement for students to learn.”
•“I learned that one of the best things you can do as an educator may not be to specifically teach a scientific concept, but to engage students and motivate them to want to learn science.” (emphasis added by student)

On Monday, we start the second summer session. Another group of future teachers will come in and be scared about teaching and learning science (because most of them were taught with worksheets and textbooks), and I have about 19 class days to cover an entire semester. And you know what? I love teaching, and I love them. Another family science event coming up!