But I’m Not an English Teacher

How many times have you heard, “But this isn’t English class!” when you graded a student for bad grammar or spelling in your science class? I was thinking this when I reread my first two posts and saw the quality of my writing. I actually pride myself on my vocabulary and diction while speaking but then I try to write things the way I speak and things go horribly awry. I read voraciously so you might think that I might actually be literate. I must say that, alas, my writing is not all I would like it to be. That is one of the reasons I am doing this blog – I always attack my fears and faults. When I decided to become a teacher, oh so many years ago, I knew I had a terrible fear of public speaking – so I felt more inclined to do it, just so I could destroy my fear. (Sidenote: It did not work. Everyday I start out with my stomach on fire before I utter a sound. but once I get going, you could not stop me with a bulldozer.)

As a physics teacher, my students get used to me picking on their word usage. Understanding the difference between speed and velocity or velocity and acceleration can mean the difference of passing and failing the course. So words mean something to me and I try to pass that along to everyone I come in contact. With that said, please feel free to comment on my grammar or spelling and I will fix my writing as soon as possible.

In the past when I have written something, I have always asked my wife to check my work (I need to come up with a cute name for my wife in this blog since I know that I will be mentioning her a lot. Something akin to Jennifer Ouellette’s nickname for her husband – Spousal Unit.) She is not only my favorite person in the world but she is the Queen of Literacy. (Hmmmm, maybe that could be her nickname, or maybe not if I want to sleep inside the house….) Seriously, she has the English language down like no one I have ever met. Maybe it is because she reads much more than I do. Don’t believe me? Did you read 70 books during the two summer months? My wife did. That is so wrong. I felt great having read 15 books and then I talked to her. One of my goals in life is to beat her when it comes to reading. I will never achieve it but its nice to have goals.

So what was my point? Oh yeah. My wife usually proofread my work, but now I want to see if I can actually do some writing without her help. I probably will fail at this too, but it is nice to have goals.

We’re Doomed

I have tried to avoid all the negative press about this week’s LHC start-up. For month’s I have watched as the press latched onto all the wackos who were crying foul. It seemed that the American media at least has not printed one positive word about the LHC without giving greater time to those who have, shall we say, fewer active brain cells than the LHC itself. As a physics teacher, I was the person who, it seemed, everyone I knew came to when they heard the world was coming to an end. At first I kinda liked the attention. I had a rapt audience each time as I explained that the possibility of the world coming to an end because of the LHC was equal to the chance of Sarah Palin french kissing Hillary at the MTV video awards. It was cool that people cared about my favorite subject – until their eyes glazed over at the mere mention of the Higgs Boson.

So here I was living the good life in the limelight of popular science in the high school. Students and adults all begging for more info. No one really taking all the doom talk seriously, when along comes good ol’ Charlie Gibson on Tuesday’s ABC news. He actually ended his broadcast by saying. (This is as good as i can remember – I could not find the video on the net. If you find the actual video please email me the link)”This may be our final broadcast. Really, because tomorrow physicists are starting up a machine that some say will end the world” I was so mad that he said the line so seriously(yeah it could have been meant to be funny) that I jumped up and starting yelling. My wife came running into the room and i had to sheepishly admit to yelling at my TV. The next day, while talking to my students I looked up ABC news online and the headline read “Apocalypse Averted” when the LHC came online. While my students laughed with me, it was a nervous laughter. Honest questions came up abut the science they did not understand (it was, after all, only the third day of physics class and I had not touched on modern physics, the Standard Model, and the Higgs Boson – that was next week) and we had a serious discussion about scientists and ethics.

I felt that I had done a good thing for my students and helped them understand that the media was purposely playing with their lack of knowledge. The media was laughing at people’s ignorance of science. They knew that the average person would not know what the heck they were talking about, so they chose to make up a story that would be talked about at the water cooler – at the expense of scientists and science teachers everywhere.

It would be nice if media companies could actually try to do a little bit of teaching while presenting science. I would actually prefer that they leave science out of the news totally instead of doing a hack job and ruining my chance to actually interest students in the subject I find so dear. If you really want to understand what the LHC does watch the following video that has Brian Cox narrating. It is a nice example of what can be done with science and the media.

A New Year

I tried doing this blog a year and a half ago but got too busy. After the year I just had, I felt that I had to write my thoughts down so that other teachers could get some ideas from what i have learned. I am not a great teacher. But I am a teacher with too many ideas in my head. I wish I had time to act on a small portion of them. With that in mind, I want to mention a few of the things which have happened to me this year. I will probably bring them up from time to time as I have more experiences because of them.

During the past year, I took part in Cornell’s Institute for Physics teachers (and subsequently asked to be a part of their on-going lab creation program for high schools), I recieved National Board Cerification in Physics, Recieved a $2000 TEACH Award from Best Buy, recieved another $1000 grant from my district and then was awarded a NASA MESSENGER Fellowship. By all accounts a career year for an ordinary high school teacher. I mean that. It is not humility that causes me to say that I am ordinary. Those who know me will tell you that they cannot shut me up when I do something well. So when I say that all those good things i listed went to an ordinary teacher – I mean it.

Which brings me to the point of this blog. Or at least one of the purposes of it. I want others to follow in my footsteps. If I can recieve these honors , others can also. The only thing stopping everyone from what i have been able to see is time. Every time someone asks me how I can do something, they ask about the time spent doing it. It seems that no one ever has any time. My only comment to the complaint of not having time is “Make some!” Finding time is like ike going on a diet. Most people waste tremendous amounts of time and energy doing fad diets because they don’t want to do what really works – cut food intake and exercise more. The same is true about getting the word out about what you do in the classroom. You can spend all your time lamenting what others do or you can go after the goodies yourself.

My wife, who is also a Nationally Certified teacher, says that teachers are not used to SSP, or Shameless Self Promotion. I tend to agree with her. We both decided to attempt National Certification together and both of us had a tough time with part 4 of the writing, which is a self-reflecting personal biography about what you do well OUTSIDE the classroom which helps your students IN the classroom. She recieved her certification the first time she attempted it and I recieved mine the second time. It was the most intense educational experience of our lives. It also changed our views on many things including being vocal about the good things we do. Just think about all the negative stories out there about teachers(my local paper thrives on these.) We need more teachers broadcasting to world all the good they do. Maybe then someone will recognize us for the force we are.

So when you finish reading this, go and spread the word about what YOU do. Sign up for a new program. Apply for an award. Write a newspaper article or contact the newspaper about something cool you are doing soon. Shout at the world how great your students are and what you are doing to show them the light. And maybe people will start to take notice of the silent majority of teachers out there doing a wonderful job.

Have a great year!