I was voluntold to teach physics in my first year of teaching. Here’s the story: of a chemistry teacher teaching whatever science class her boss asked her to. Spoiler alert: it was a trainwreck.
For my very first year as a teacher, I had four preps. Grade level chemistry, honors chemistry, project based chemistry and accelerated chemistry. I couldn’t handle it so I dropped it down to three. I taught the honors and grade level kids the same stuff as often as I could. It was too much to balance. Especially before I figured out my planning method.
The accelerated kids were taking their entire year long chemistry class in just one semester. Plus I only saw them four days a week. I somehow taught them everything they needed to know for their state final. I got 25% of them to pass and 100% attendance. Guess which stat my principal cared about? All of us, both me and the kids felt like we had just run through a flaming obstacle course and we barely made it out alive. And then, the bad news came. I was told to teach these same kids physics.
I only took Physics 152 – over the summer
I hadn’t taken physics since my freshman year of college. And I took Physics 152 over the summer. And if you’ve taken a summer class at the local community college, I’m sure you know the magnitude of what I’m about to say. Lab reports were optional. They were going to be used to bump you up a letter grade if you didn’t have an A. Halfway through our three hour class, we’d pause to watch half of a movie. Like a Hollywood movie. We watched Saving Private Ryan, for Pete’s sake. I took physics in high school and did really well, so of course, I knew I was going to be just fine in the class and didn’t do the labs. I was working and had a boyfriend at the time and I had better things to do. I never thought this decision would haunt me so much.
But then I had to teach physics
So I taught physics. The teacher down the hall had a friend who taught physics at another school. She was gracious enough to give me her powerpoints and some labs but honestly I didn’t use them. They were good for sequencing and pacing my class. But my understanding of how to TEACH physics was so minimal that they truly weren’t helpful.
I bought some middle school textbooks and retaught myself the fundamentals. In doing this, I was able to figure out how to structure my course. I had to make sure the basics were in there, and sequenced appropriately. There had to be a good amount of flow. And at this point, I had no idea if the kids were being instructed to take the state final after one semester or in the following school year.
I was drowning again. I had figured out how to plan lessons for my chemistry classes using the All Star Planning Method. And then this physics debacle made me lose my footing again. I was pulling stuff out of nowhere just trying to chew up the clock.
Doing EVERYTHING to avoid physics
I assigned a scientific reading project. Kids had to read a science book and give a presentation. That ate up about a week. I mean, it was certainly a worthwhile endeavor. The kids were reading about topics that interested them. And it made them excited to learn more. We started watching Cosmos, which was popular on TV at the time. I again got them engrossed in more fun science content that gave me some time to sit in the back of the room and plan for their class.
Finally figuring it out
And then I truly figured out how to integrate the two. Hollywood vs. Science. I would watch a science movie on a Saturday morning when my new puppy got me up in the early hours of the morning. I’d sit with my laptop and draft some questions about why the movie violated the Laws of Nature that we were learning about in class. The crowd favorite was Gravity starring Sandra Bullock. Neil DeGrasse Tyson had put out a Youtube video with CinemaSins, kind of roasting the movie.
So we watched Gravity with some questions to navigate if the movie was quality. The kids got to decide if different portions of the movie were violating Newton’s Laws of Motion specifically. And I can tell you, that was the strong suit in the class. The kids loved being able to see Newton’s Laws in action and they especially loved watching the movie. Plus putting on a movie for 35ish minutes at a time made for an easy week for me and gave me some time to catch up on grading and planning.
Here’s the ending you’ve all been waiting for
I continued doing this as long as I could with documentaries & YouTube videos, while I in the background, continued to teach myself how to teach physics. I still feel like I have NO IDEA how to teach physics. I did get into physical science this year, that had some VERY preliminary skills, that I could handle. And honestly, I’ve actually really enjoyed it. Not enough to go teach physics ever, but it’s been pretty cool.
Luckily I was told about two months into the course that the kids wouldn’t have to take the state final until the end of the following school year, so I had plenty of time to learn everything I needed to effectively teach them. And then we got to do things like this for fun, and no longer out of desperation. (only kind of laughing at that…)
Why teaching out of your wheelhouse is a problem
And the point of this blog post is to say, that science teachers, somehow always seem to get the short end of the stick. The math teacher can move across any grade. They may not be happy, but it’s within the realm of possibility. The “Science Department” is a lie. Science itself is departmentalized! A chemistry teacher is usually pretty versatile, and I should have been a decent candidate for teaching physics. My undergrad research was in nanoparticles and the photoelectric effect. But me, trying to teach two dimensional motion, is basically the same as me teaching Shakespeare. It’s out of my wheelhouse.
And I can tell you, the kids suffered. I mean, not like very many of them were super distressed that they had three semesters of physics, that started with lots of movies and documentaries and reading assignments. But really, they didn’t have an expert, or even an enthused person in the front of the classroom. I don’t know what the answer is, but boomeranging science teachers all over the department certainly isn’t how it should go.
How I can help
I’m not totally sure how you wound up on this blog post. But if you happen to be a first time chemistry teacher I’d be happy to give you my unit outline for teaching chemistry. After teaching physics for the first time with basically no guidance, I felt that this needed to be put out into the world for all the first time chemistry teachers. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do know quite a bit about teaching chemistry. Click here to get the free chemistry curriculum outline!
