Diarrhoea in the lab

Valentine’s day was a strange affair. There was no/minimal teaching in the morning. Form 5 was preparing for a fundraising event for their prom, which involved lots of food, cakes and roses. The school was a bit sickly from the entrance. Roses and hearts strewn across the walls, merry little couples mooching about the place and a distinct lack of science made me want to hide in the corner and get on with some planning.

By lunch time I ventured out to play in the staff vs. students cricket match. I say “play,” I did some fielding and stood at the end of the batting queue until we won so I didn’t need to bat by default. This happened to be a very good thing as I am rubbish at cricket and the kids are pretty good at launching the ball down toward the batter. Although I hardly moved, I still managed to work up a sweat- it is getting hot again after the rains of January.

To round off the sickly feel of the day, there was a Valentine’s Day blood drive going on. I am not sure how many units we got in total for the event but we were hoping for 100 or more. Thankfully, I got my fix of chemistry during my blood donation. They did the cell count by dropping you blood in copper sulphate. If it floated, you were good to go. Next up was the blood type tests done by precipitates.  It your blood caused certain chemicals to lump together then that is your blood type. A+ by the way.

Today was back to the grind. I have just started week 7 of 14. It has really dawned on me today how valuable a half term is! I am glad for the longer holidays at Christmas and Easter though. And more importantly, I enjoy the work. It is just challenging enough to keep me working hard without getting too frustrated.

I had another crazy practical today with A Levels. They somehow made a chemical that looked exactly like diarrhoea #nospellcheck.

Form 3 are working really well at the moment. They were the behaviour-issues class I mentioned last term. This term I haven’t cracked it but it is a lot better. They are in an efficient routine at the start of the lesson. They work in groups that have been recently adjusted so it works. And my piece de resistance is the smiley face wall chart. The termly reward being whatever snack I have learnt to bake at home. Today they made huge periodic table posters to summarise what they have been doing so far this term. Tomorrow I am just going to sit back and record how they work together as a group for Parents Day (this Friday).

Valentines Day and Skype call to Denmark

Things are moving along nicely in this 14 week long term with no breaks. In each class I can see the end of the tunnel of the term. I have an outline plan for each class that fits in all the content with some added lee-way for Guyanese interruptions.

One of these interruptions is coming on Friday, Valentine’s Day. The school is having a “dress-up” day. This means a non-uniform day where everyone wears red and white (need to go shopping). There will be a cricket match, staff vs students, in the afternoon and I have been asked to participate. Little do they know that I am possibly the worst English person at playing cricket?

The following week we have one of the dreaded Parent-Teacher conferences on the Friday. The students are all dreading it. The mentality among the students is fear. They are more scared about this than their GCSE exams. This holds true even in form 5 where their exams are two months away. Thankfully, I am on top of it this term. I have been collecting my assessment data and know exactly which paperwork to fill in so there should be no surprises when I need to write the mid-term reports next week.

In the lab, things have been heating up. I don’t understand why Professor Snape died for Harry because his job was great fun. Last week we did a practical where an acid instantly turned from clear to bright pink, we made plastic from milk, got the DNA from a banana and watched as a clear solution turned jet black of its own accord. It is like teaching magic. I had a discussion with my head of department today and we both agreed that we wouldn’t be teachers if we couldn’t teach science.

My side hobby happens to be teaching geography to form 5. The whole year I have been pestering my cousins for resources because they teach the same syllabus in their UK schools. We have planned an international debate between our classes on the line, “The Arctic and Antarctic should be exploited for natural resources.” Strangely, my class want to argue for it.

Earlier in the week I made another Skype call. This time it was with my A Level class and a marine scientist who works in Holland. She was fantastic and managed to persuade the students that studying chemistry at uni gave you great options. She even showed them a Powerpoint presentation through Skype which was technology at its finest!

So overall, life is great. I’m spending most of my time teaching and planning still but that is to be expected. I’m looking forward to the next term when my exam classes will have left and I can get stuck into the LRTT course I have planned for the summer.

Teaching break-throughs! The internet, pair work and S.EX.

On my visit to Guyana in 2011 I came back convinced that I understood the main issue with rural Guyanese schools. I told Dan (who I made the trip with) that we would just have to set up a school with air conditioned classrooms.

I don’t know why I thought that this would be the silver bullet but I was yet to have a proper experience as a teacher and find out how complex education is.

This week I have taught some great lessons in hot, sweaty classrooms with no resources but a blackboard and I have also taught some terrible lessons in air-conditioned rooms with powerpoints and a projector.

The biggest factor for me is the internet. The internet opens up so many boxes for a teacher. Resources. Lesson plans. Random activities that you would have spent years thinking up yourself. I made a Skype call to Rob this week who talked to my class about one of the topics that they are studying and that he is working on. I found out about an easy practical that we did on Thursday; making esters that smelt of apples. I read a blog that made it clear in my mind how to avoid teacher burnout; more SEX (Sleep early, EXercise daily).

The internet is my saviour here in Georgetown and I now think it is crucial for development; especially at schools.

My other break-through came after 2 weeks of failure. I have been teaching chemical calculations to form 4. Most of them have struggled, a few of them have got it, a few of them have given up trying. I was in a moment of despair. But on Friday, I handed out these mini-question slips to the class. Randomly and in an unplanned fashion I said, “Work on each question as a pair, when you have finished, come to the front to collect the next question.” As a pair. This was the key. Within 10 minutes, every student was getting the problems right. It made a huge difference compared to the recent 30-40% average mark from the previous test on calculations.

So break-through number 2: When teaching calculations, I will always do pair work first.

Hopefully break-through number 3 is going to come from the marinating jumbo prawns fresh from the market today.