drjax as a teacher interested in change...

This is Fitz...he's a star...

SOME LITTLE THINGS TO TRY IF YOU ARE A TEACHER AND ARE INTERESTED IN CHANGE…

• pretend you like trying to see something different every time you drive to work. Tell the children what you saw. Do it for a week. They'll probably follow suit. Then you can start looking for 'things you have never noticed before'. For example do this with a stone. the point is 'that looking carefully' is one of the most important initial stages of science. If you don't perceive anything you'll have nothing to talk about or investigate.

• suddenly announce that we're all going to look at shadows for 10 minutes and try and see things we've never seen before. Then talk about the experience or do anything else with it. Let people decide what they would like to do to communicate the experience to others. Have some charcoal about. If you try this you''ll notice that shadows are a lot more complex than you probably imagined. Real world phenomena are a lot richer than text book diagrams and abstractions. Text book shadows are not like real world shadows. They are the result of a lot of thought and simplification. They are also less likely to lead to varied and interesting suggestions for enquiry. Learn from the children about different ways of presenting results. Alternatively make suggestions as to how different responses might be made. You could probably find enough meat in shadow studies to last quite a while. You could enter areas of art, poetry, craters, clocks......

• wonder about something together. It might be some bubbles in a bowl of washing up. Have no plans. Allow any developments to happen. Wonder and awe have gone missing from our lives. We have tendencies to be too rational and analytic about everything. Give it a rest. What is wonder? Poetry might help?

• dig through your mind and find something about which you have always been unsure about and make a determined effort to find out about it and understand it. Then tell the children what you have done. Make sure you have access to information. One can go a lifetime being vague about something. It does one good to actually feel one has the power to know more providing one makes a little effort. There’s nothing stopping anyone from finding out about anything. Maybe, if the children see the result of your efforts and enthusiasm, they'll want to 'make a book about......' something and then tell others about it, if they wish.

• have some equipment out on a table and say to the children, 'we're supposed to be finding out something about '...', but I'm not really sure what we could do. Maybe they'll help! You can't know everything. No one does. Come clean about it and learn together. There's no shame in that. Also, its very good for relationships and friendship. Tell them what you have learnt. It could be that an idea you had held for a long time can't be right. Tell everybody about it in school gatherings. Spread the word, that nobody knows everything, even teachers, and some of what we think we know is probably wrong. We'll never know unless we challenge the knowledge

• go overboard with praise about something someone or everyone has noticed. Make them wonder what has happened to you. Break patterns. By breaking yours, you will help them to break their 'standard' view of you. Try it.

• take 15 minutes to talk with the children about some scientifically connected issue in the air at the moment that has nothing to do with the content of the national curriculum in science: Dolly the sheep clone, human cloning, life on other planets, ufos, organ transplants, the ebola virus, starships, Klingons.............that's all. Do nothing else, that's enough.Of course because of time limitations due to 'covering' the national curriculum you may not have any time for this. You will probably be surprised at the conversation and what individuals know or have heard about. You will no doubt touch on ethics, experience rich feelings and emotions and strong opinions. Practice your skills of elicitation. Get them to expand on what they mean, by asking them to clarify, go into things more, summarise etc.

It's a start...

PJ