CDL - Excellence in Content and Pedagogical Knowledge
No one will trust a bus driver without a licence. No one will trust a doctor without med school. No one will trust a tattoo artist without seeing some of their work. And no one will trust a teacher without the proper credentials and know how.
In 2015, I graduated from Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA, with a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry.
I am currently enrolled at Ole Miss in the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a two year masters program. I am a licensed teacher in the state of Mississippi teaching chemistry and physical science at West Point High School (endorsement 185).
I am currently enrolled at Ole Miss in the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a two year masters program. I am a licensed teacher in the state of Mississippi teaching chemistry and physical science at West Point High School (endorsement 185).
Chemistry in high school was a class I was sure I would not do well in. Everyone talked about how hard it was, but when I took it, everything clicked. I loved math and science and combining the town in chemistry was so much fun. I would constantly be helping other students and, eventually, my sister with their chemistry work. My teacher even let me teach AP Chem for a few days while she was out. I was asked to review kinetics with the class so when she came back, she could dive into more detail. She always told me I would make a great teacher, but advised me never to go into teaching because it was so challenging. When I told her I was going to teach, she laughed at me and told me I should go into the industry, but I wanted to make chemistry as easy and fun for people as she had made it for me.
Being a teacher now, I understand why it's so challenging. Figuring out ways to teach that will reach the most students can be exhausting! You could literally plan till midnight every night and still feel like there was more to be done. I've managed to plan some fun activities for my kids without keeping myself up too late for the past two years.
Below I have my lab safety handouts so when students go into the lab, they understand the importance of lab safety. My physical science class did a project called "Oh the places you'll go... around West Point." They had to draw a map of a route they might take after school. They needed to know distance from one place to another, direction and time it would take them. Then they calculated the distance, velocity and total displacement over the whole trip. One of the favorite projects in my class is the bridge building project (pictures on Your Seat page). My first year, the students made bridges out of spaghetti and hot glue, but this year I changed things up. I modified a project from Teachers Pay Teachers, which gave the students a budget which they had to use to purchase materials. My students always feel so challenged by this project because I leave it wide open so they can decide what to do. Most thrive on the challenge and I have amazing bridges come out of the project. They love testing day too, when they see whose bridge holds the most weight. We put the desks in a circle and they count down the 10 seconds that the weight must hang. I also have my physical science students use M&M's to balance equations. My more visual learners really like this activity because they can see what is going on. Finally, chemistry does a s'more lab for limiting reactants. They figure out what ingredient they are given limits the number of s'mores they make.
Being a teacher now, I understand why it's so challenging. Figuring out ways to teach that will reach the most students can be exhausting! You could literally plan till midnight every night and still feel like there was more to be done. I've managed to plan some fun activities for my kids without keeping myself up too late for the past two years.
Below I have my lab safety handouts so when students go into the lab, they understand the importance of lab safety. My physical science class did a project called "Oh the places you'll go... around West Point." They had to draw a map of a route they might take after school. They needed to know distance from one place to another, direction and time it would take them. Then they calculated the distance, velocity and total displacement over the whole trip. One of the favorite projects in my class is the bridge building project (pictures on Your Seat page). My first year, the students made bridges out of spaghetti and hot glue, but this year I changed things up. I modified a project from Teachers Pay Teachers, which gave the students a budget which they had to use to purchase materials. My students always feel so challenged by this project because I leave it wide open so they can decide what to do. Most thrive on the challenge and I have amazing bridges come out of the project. They love testing day too, when they see whose bridge holds the most weight. We put the desks in a circle and they count down the 10 seconds that the weight must hang. I also have my physical science students use M&M's to balance equations. My more visual learners really like this activity because they can see what is going on. Finally, chemistry does a s'more lab for limiting reactants. They figure out what ingredient they are given limits the number of s'mores they make.
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