“Don’t smile until Thanksgiving.” When I started teaching, that was the advice from a few veterans on the staff. Fortunately for my students, I disregarded that advice and followed the example of my advisor: “Be fair, firm, and friendly.”
For getting an academic year started, I’d recommend the work of Harry and Rosemary Wong, whose book The First Days of School you may be familiar with but which is worth a reread. It’s impossible to redo the first day of school, but it’s not too late to establish routines in the classroom. These routines are different from lists of rules or from teacher-directed or lockstep regimentation. Check out How to Start a Class Effectively by the Wongs for some ideas for these routines. One that I found effective was to post an agenda so that when the students came into the room, they knew what the main of the lesson was, what activities they were going to work on in class (or for homework), what needed to be turned in, what materials they needed (pencil, notebook, paper, textbook, etc.), and perhaps a bellringer activity. I’d also establish routines for the end of class (so that students just don’t race out of the classroom) and for transitioning between activities during class. These routines may take some time and modeling until they become automatic, but it’s worth it.
The featured articles in the September issue of The Science Teacher have some even better advice for getting started: using concept maps, implementing inquiry assessments, and fostering creativity.
The article Mapping for Conceptual Change describes the use of concept maps before and during instruction and also as an assessment. Some other resources for concept maps include Graphic.org’s description of Concept Maps, the Cmap Tools mentioned in the article, a Concept Mapping explanation from the Study Guides and Strategies web site, and Concept Maps on the website of the Inspiration mapping tool. To see lots of examples, google “concept map” and search the Images.
You can see the value of routines in the article Whole-Class Inquiry Assessments. The authors describe how to scaffold this type of activity so that students learn how to engage in inquiry. If you want some examples of inquiry-type assessments use the Performance Assessments Links in Science site (one of my favorites). You can also go to SciLinks and enter the code TST090801 (or click the code). This set of websites also addresses reading issues in science.
Creativity in science is not just about drawing diagrams or making arts-and-crafts models! The authors of article Creativity in the Science Classroom describe how to get students thinking and problem solving “outside of the box,” reminding me of Einstein’s statement that “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
I suspect there are teachers who are not smiling yet and who think that their students are not “ready” for conceptual, higher-order, creative thinking (and tell them so, with their words or choice of assignments). But don’t give up if the students don’t “get it” at first. It’s been my experience that most students (with modeling, scaffolding, and encouragement) will surprise us with what they really can do, even at the beginning of the year.