Hey
everyone,
I’ve written
before about one of the classes I’m taking this semester called “Complexities of Urban Schools”. It’s an
introductory level education class here at Clark that casts a critical eye on
the U.S. public education system. It’s a diverse class in which, typically
through assigned readings and in-class discussions, we examine the many
problems that socioeconomically disadvantaged children and/or minority children
face when it comes to schooling, how the current public system perpetuates
these problems, and what we can do to hopefully fix the problems. We also
occasionally use documentary films and collaborative team projects to examine
these problems. One additional way through which we study the education system,
though, is by sitting in and observing an actual class in a local public school
in the Main South neighborhood of Worcester.
Our weekly
observation hours are an integral component of the experience that this unique
class offers. Everyone in the class gets assigned to a local elementary or
secondary school based on
their interests regarding what grade level and/or subject
that they would like to teach. Since I’m interested in the physical sciences I
am observing at the high school level. Every Friday I observe a junior-level
physics class and a sophomore chemistry class at University
Park Campus School, UPCS. This school is actually co-operated by the Clark
University education department (The Jacob Hiatt Center
for Urban Education.)
UPCS is a
very unique school and quite an anomaly in the Main South community. It serves
grades 7-12 and is comprised of only 232 students, which means that there are
about 38 students in each grade level. The school’s small size creates a very
friendly and welcoming atmosphere. The social dynamic amongst the students is
truly amazing to see. The students, very many of whom are of poor and/or
minority status, are all friendly to each other and seem to actually care about
each other. Bullying, harassment, violence, and other things of this sort just
don’t seem to happen. And the students aren’t just socially well-footed; they
all value and care about their education just as much. Academic achievement at
UPCS is unrivaled. Despite the circumstances of the neighborhood they serve,
they have over a 90% college attendance rate among their graduates. The people
who created this school and those who run it do a terrific job. I could easily
go on about the wonderful things that are happening at this school, but I want
to get to what my first day of observation actually consisted of.
Weekly on
Fridays I observe a physics class from 11am-12pm and a chemistry class from 12:30-1:30pm.
This Friday was the final school day before their February vacation, so
expectedly they weren’t doing much. The physics class was working on a homework
packet and the chemistry class got to build sculptures out of aluminum foil (they
each got 1 mole of aluminum (Al) to work with (1 mole Al = 27 grams); this was
the relevance to chemistry, the assignment was mostly just for fun on the day
before break.) It was in the physics class that I experienced a truly great
moment. A student asked me for help! The packet the students were working on
pertained to work and energy. A girl was stuck on one problem in which a ball
started from rest at the top of a hill (point A) and rolled down to the bottom
of the hill (point B), and she had to calculate the velocity of the ball at
point B. I read the problem and thought about it for a few seconds, and then I decided
to grab a marker, stand up to the whiteboard, and give it my best shot.
The key to
the problem was the concept of conservation
of energy (this is one of the most fundamental laws of physics; there is an
absolute plethora of ways to apply this concept throughout physics, chemistry,
and even biology). So I explained conservation of energy to this girl and
showed her how to find the ball’s velocity. At first she didn’t quite follow my
thought process, but after discussing it a second time and walking her through
the algebra she was able to grasp the problem. The class ended at that point,
but as she left this girl told me she understood the problem and felt confident
that she could finish it for homework later.
I taught
physics to someone, and I succeeded! This was the first time in my life that I truly
took on the teacher role in an interaction with another person. Of course I’ve explained
things in the past to struggling classmates and I’ve casually taught and explained basic
scientific concepts to my friends in conversation and what not, but this was
different; this person’s understanding of a problem, and thus her grade,
depended on my ability to explain the material to her. This was a wonderful experience.
It felt so incredibly good to successfully explain a physical concept to a
student. The experience was quite energizing and motivating and really turbo charged
my enthusiasm for studying education and becoming a physics teacher.
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