Not all dragons have green scales and great wings for flying... some are the metaphorical type that we each at times face... This is the story of one of mine... I was on the freeway driving north for my
first BAWP presentation. Me presenting! – me absolutely
scared to death! I was scheduled for a two-hour
presentation to a group of Oakland High School science teachers on using reflective
writing to help kids make sense of newly learned concepts.
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| Me in my laboratory at the time with a pond water infusion |
The whole sequence of events that led me to this moment just kind of evolved.
I suppose the process began for me when I was
selected to attend a series of staff development programs in the local county
office on “Critical Thinking”…we had release days once a month to attend and heard a variety of speakers. This was a powerful learning experience for me!– Up until that
time I, like more high school science teachers had assumed that our job was to present the
facts of our subject for our students to memorize and then test them on what they had learned. I saw students as empty vessels waiting
to be filled with the knowledge that I had to impart.
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| Me lecturing on comparative anatomy - this is a horse skull |
In this series I learned a new paradigm – that of putting emphasis
on helping students to develop a series of learning skills, in addition to
learning the critical concepts and facts. The goal was to enable students to become life long learners in this world of rapidly expanding knowledge.
One example of what I mean can be seen in Blooms Taxonomy – a
hierarchy of teaching formats that engage higher more complex thinking
skills:
Take a look:
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html.
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| Me explaing a fine point of anatomy to a student |
Within this new way of thinking– I experimented with my own
classes – I tried several ways of helping kids to go beyond mechanical
memorization to include more learning skills.
I was also influenced by lunchtime
conversations with other teachers in my school– particularly two English teachers who introduced me to the idea of reflective writing.
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| Tolman Hall - C Berkeley |
Then I received an invitation to go up to Tolman Hall at UC
Berkeley for an interview with Bay Area Writing. ( I think my assistant
principal was involved ).
BAWP is a
grassroots group with the motto “Teachers teaching teachers”.
If there is a school that wants to improve
the skills of the teachers, they contract with BAWP
for an 8 or 12 part series – The host school
decides what specific skills they want to promote – then the staff of BAWP
selects from their group of skilled presenters to provide a once-a-week series
at that school site. I took samples of my students work and met with the BAWP
staff to explain what I was doing.
Apparently they found it interesting that I as a Biology teacher was
experimenting in this area. (Most of their presenters teach English.)
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| Non traditional writing activity: Student assignment to make a diagram with explanation to show how the addition on colors is different from the subtraction of colors. It is not permitted to copy anything from books or internet sources. |
So they signed me up for the month long summer training
session. I met with a group of about 20
other “new guys” and we talked and wrote and reflected on the art of using
writing as a tool for facilitating concept learning. It was great fun and I made good friends.
But now the 'rubber was about the meet the road' – and I was
being sent out to “do it”…. You have to understand – teaching kids is one thing
– but standing up to a group of crusty old experienced Bay Area science teacher peers was
daunting.
By nature I was rather shy and
happy to be more of an observer than in the center stage.
In short, I was terrified.
I went in well prepared with three hands-on
activities.
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| Free writing assignment: Write in your own words: What environmental conditions would be most likely to support the evolution of each type of bird beak? Support your answer with examples. |
For each,
I first described a process and then had the
group participate. I provided time to ask questions and debrief the experience.
After arrival, I set up the show – and then
as I often tell my young teachers - I attempted to take on the identity of
someone who had done this 100 times – I projected positive ‘body language’ – I
attempted to ‘practice what I preach’ as I connected with each participant with
my best confident voice.
I was bluffing.
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| Using this diagram as an example explain in your own words how a virus infection is different from a bacterial infection. |
The session went well – I had good
response – and now I felt relief – but more than relief – I experienced a ‘presenters”
high… I loved it.
Over the next several years I gave over 80 presentations to
teacher groups – and every time I felt a certain positive tension before I
began. A violin does not make beautiful music unless there is a proper tension
in the strings. But the satisfaction was also there afterward.
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| Cut 6 cells from this diagram ands glue in sequence of cell division - then explain in your own words what events are taking place in each step of the process. |
My BAWP involvement was one of the great formative
experiences of my life – Overcoming a great fear and moving beyond it was life
changing for me. Now only did it reshape
my approach to teaching – but I was the most fortunate one - I learned so much
from my participants in each presentation. – and I learned that I not only
could – but I enjoyed- speaking to groups of adults.
The Bay Area Writing Project went on to be copied in every
state of America – there are similar “Teachers teaching teachers” groups
exploring the use of writing in all grade levels and subject areas not only in
all states, but the concept has been adapted into thee languages of several European
countries… notably the Scandinavian countries, England, Germany, and also in the US
Military base schools around the world.
All of this can be traced to the idea of the founder – James Gray – an
English teacher at San Leandro High School.
It is gratifying to say that as I visit Bay Area schools
today, when I observe my interns and student teachers, that many of the
approaches we were advocating in the “early years” are now accepted as accepted widely
used classroom teaching methods.
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| Team of 2 activity: Given this Venn diagram of the 5 kingdoms in life - write an essay to explain the cell differences in each kingdom. You can use your textbook as a reference, but all explanations must be in your own words. |
This last Saturday was a reunion meeting of the old
BAWPers at Tolman hall.
I love a good
reunion – lots of hugs and stories… plus good food.
Many of my old friends are now retired from their teaching careers - but many continue to be involved in some aspect of education.
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Student lies on 'butcher paper to trace outline - team of 4 draw in and label bones ( using text as reference).
Each student must explain in his or her own words the sequence of events involved in the transfer of force by a heavy weight held in the arms of a standing person to the feet. |
