Good teaching: top ten requirements

The NSTA listserv is a wealth of information. Sometimes I feel like an interloper reading the discussions, not able to offer much comment. However, it is amazing to me the camaraderie that exists in the education community, specifically among science teachers. A soon-to-be first year teacher asked for advice and many educators from around the country have offered some great morsels. I thought the following was nicely stated:

. Good Teaching: Top Ten Requirements
By Richard Leblanc, York University, Ontario

One. Good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason. It's about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It's about caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone, most importantly to your students.

Two. Good teaching is about substance and treating students as consumers of knowledge. It's about doing your best to keep on top of your field, reading sources, inside and outside of your areas of expertise, and being at the leading edge as often as possible. But knowledge is not confined to scholarly journals. Good teaching is also about bridging the gap between theory and practice. It's about leaving the ivory tower and immersing oneself in the field, talking to, consulting with, and assisting practitioners, and liaisoning with their communities.

Three. Good teaching is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each student and class is different. It's about eliciting responses and developing the oral communication skills of the quiet students. It's about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it's about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times.

Four. Good teaching is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. It's about getting only 10 percent of what you wanted to do in a class done and still feeling good. It's about deviating from the course syllabus or lecture schedule easily when there is more and better learning elsewhere. Good teaching is about the creative balance between being an authoritarian dictator on the one hand and a pushover on the other.

Five. Good teaching is also about style. Should good teaching be entertaining? You bet! Does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having your eyes fixated on a slide projector while you drone on. Good teachers work the room and every student in it. They realize that they are the conductors and the class is the orchestra. All students play different instruments and at varying proficiencies.

Six. This is very important -- good teaching is about humor. It's about being self-deprecating and not taking yourself too seriously. It's often about making innocuous jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human with your own share of faults and shortcomings.

Seven. Good teaching is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It's about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It's also about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to still further enhance instruction.

Eight. Good teaching is supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible institutional support -- resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching is continually reinforced by an overarching vision that transcends the entire organization -- from full professors to part-time instructors -- and is reflected in what is said, but more importantly by what is done.

Nine. Good teaching is about mentoring between senior and junior faculty, teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one's peers. Effective teaching should also be rewarded, and poor teaching needs to be remediated through training and development programs.

Ten. At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic rewards ... like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens. Good teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn't imagine doing anything else.

From:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/topten.htm

Biotechnology Award

Many of our teacher enrichment programs use biotechnology as a tool to investigate research questions. Techniques such as PCR, cloning, and sequencing have revolutionized all of modern science. Many Florida teachers are now incorporating biotechnology and molecular biology content in their classroom, with some teaching entire courses specifically focused on biotechnology. I have discovered an award for teachers of biotechnology. The one given through NSTA is below:

Ron Mardigian Memorial Biotechnology Explorer Award
The Ron Mardigian Memorial Biotechnology Explorer Award will recognize and reward an outstanding high school teacher who has made biotechnology learning accessible to the classroom. This award has been established in memory of Ron Mardigian, the inspiration behind and founder of the Biotechnology Explorer program.

Eligibility: High school
Award: The award will consist of $750 towards expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference, $250 in cash for the teacher, and $500 in Bio-Rad products. The awardee will be honored at the Awards Banquet; the awardee and one teacher guest of the awardee will be invited to dinner with members of Bio-Rad's Explorer team.

Download an application

Perhaps a CPET alum might want to apply?

Kid's Challenge

There are so many fantastic competitions for students to become involved with. The Kid's Challenge is a great one. The website has many resources for students and teachers. The grade range is geared more toward upper elementary/middle school, but we can all learn something. The deadline is very near for this year, but perhaps you will want to consider incorporating the idea in your curriculum for next year. Who wouldn't want a free planetarium for the classroom?!

The deadline for the Kids' Science Challenge is February 27th, 2010. The KSC is a free national competition for third to sixth graders, funded by the National Science Foundation. Students enter their ideas in three science fields: Bio-Inspired Designs, Detective Science and Imagining Sports on Mars.
If their idea is chosen, they visit and collaborate with scientists and engineers to see the idea come alive. Last year's winners were featured on NPR and the Today Show!

The first thousand students who enter receive free hands-on activity kits. We have about 200 kits left, but they are going fast!
We also have 8 classroom prizes left (including microscopes and planetaria) for teachers who send in 25 entries or more from their classes.

On our website, kidsciencechallenge.com you'll find entry forms, videos, downloadable activities, educational games and curricula aligned to national standards. Kids can enter individually or as teams. Thousands of students and educators have participated in the KSC and downloaded our curricula, including many NSTA members - see our ad in the January issue of Science and Children.

Olympics in your classroom

There is so much cool science and math that can be showcased during the olympics. Bring the winter sports into your classroom with the help of the eGFI website. They have many, many resources including lesson plans, activities, and experiment for students. Give it a visit and perhaps build a luge in your classroom or discuss the aerodynamics of speed skating.

Research presentations

Have you ever wanted to show your students a presentation straight from a researcher? For our program participants, they go back to the classroom with all of their Institute presenations on CD, but now there is a new resource to draw from. http://www.hstalks.com

The University of Florida has a license to The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection, a vast collection of audio visual presentations, specially commissioned from leading world experts. The 1,000 plus talks are divided into comprehensive series and are presented by many of the same speakers you would like to give a guest lecture or hear present at a conference. The talks are ideal for research scientists, graduate students and advanced undergraduates and can be viewed on campus now at

Alachua County Science Teacher of the Year

Kudos to Steve Everett on being awarded the SiVance Alachua County Science Teacher of the Year!

When not with us during the summer, Steve teaches AP/IB Environmental Science at Eastside High School in Gainesville.

Congratulations, Steve!

(Steve is second from right.)

UF Emerging Pathogens Institute teams up with Alachua County Schools

A very cool thing our UF Emerging Pathogens Institute is helping out with is the free vaccination of preK-8 school children in Alachua County. Through grant monies, public and private school students are being offered FluMist, the vaccine against seasonal flu. It has been suggested that Flu-Mist may offer some level of protection against the novel H1N1 as well. Kids will still need to visit their doctor or the health clinic for the H1N1 vaccination, but the FluMist program is a wonderful public health intervention.

Our ICORE teachers heard Dr. Morris speak a bit about the vaccination program while at the ICORE summer institute. If flu can be minimized in children, it can be dramatically reduced in the community.

The FluMist campaign dates back a few years to UF's beloved Dr. Parker Small. He was the instigator of this project and has made it a major priority even in his retired years. He has even advocated for a similar program in Cape Cod where he now spends part of his time.

We have wonderful people at the University of Florida; combining research and community awareness can go a long way.

Stay healthy!

Best practices website

Over the many years of CPET programs, from TRUE to ICORE, we have amassed an enormous collection of teaching ideas submitted by our participants. Taking them from paper copies to electronic version was an undertaking in and of itself.

This past semester, all of the submissions were categorized according to the New Generation State Science Standards and arranged by body of knowledge and big ideas/standard. Please check them out and if you see some that should be included in multiple categories, let us know. If you would like to add to the collection, send in your goodies to cpet@cpet.ufl.edu. We will be more than happy to post them. http://www.cpet.ufl.edu/BestPractices/default.html

Mini Medical School

It is that time of year again...Mini Medical School! Registration is open for this year's Mini Medical School: Exploring Immunity. Join us for an informative day at the University of Florida and take a peak at what it is like to be a student in the College of Medicine on Tuesday, November 3, 8:30am-3:30pm. Registration information is available at http://www.cpet.ufl.edu/MMS/2009/MMS2009.html

Erika...still plugging away!

Our sea turtle is still plugging away. Her page isn't up yet, but I have been in contact with the vet to check on her. Keep up the positive thoughts!

August 22, 2009
Erika is about the same as upon her
arrival. She has a large tear in her lung. We have aspirated large volumes of
air off her coelom but she fill back up relatively quickly. We are now
aspirating about every 2 weeks to see if there has been any healing. The air in
the body cavity may allow the tear to heal so we are aspirating less frequently.
She has not been interested in food since her arrival. She is very difficult to
tube feed and was regurgitating most of the gruel back up. We now have technique
to tube feed her and she is holding the gruel down. We basically have to get her
totally vertical and stretch her neck out as far as possible. I am hopeful that
with time Erika will heal, otherwise we will have to resort to other more
invasive strategies to deal with the lung tear. Thanks for your interest in
Erika and the GSTC. Any support you can provide towards her care will be greatly
appreciated. Terry Norton, DVM (Director and Veterinarian)

Welcome Fall!

With an ever so slight nip in the air this morning, UF welcomed the fall semester. Many of our Florida schools also opened their doors to the start of the 2009/10 school year.

We have great things happening at CPET as well. Keep an eye on our website and this blog for new program announcements and current events.

Drop us a note with updates on what is going on in your classroom and learning community, and let us know how we can help you in your educational endeavors!

Erika -- our sea turtle

What a network we have! Since the post yesterday, some additional information has come in via email from our caring teachers. Please read on for more information about Erika.

This message was passed along to Heidi:
"She has a tear in her lung which is causing air to escape in the coelomic cavity. So far we have done numerous aspirations and she seems to be refilling almost immediately so it must be a fairly large tear. Yesterday (July 24) for the first time, after removing about 12,000 ml of air, she seemed to be less bouyant in the water. She is not eating so we are tube feeding her and giving her fluids intracoelomically. She is still in fairly good body condition and her blood work is still in the normal range. Thank you for helping Erika and your continued support. Terry Norton, DVM"

Lisa passed along this great news:
"I have seen her. She looks good. The center is about 30 mins. from my home. She probably will be released with a tracker. Watch the website as she will come up for adoption soon. The more people who adopt her the better her chances of getting the tracking system. Since she was transported so far from her nesting site, she will return there. I have spoken to the center about our classes being able to track her on the web. I think it would be a great learning experience to watch her progress back to where she came from."

Update on the sea turtle

During the last day of our Summer Science Institute, Aquatic Systems, the teachers were exploring the coastal water system of Cedar Key. They had the opportunity to venture out aboard one of UF's research vessels. Off the shore of Seahorse Key, they spotted a sea turtle who was unable to submerge. After the proper calls were made, the teachers and a UF biologist brought the sea turtle to UF. She was then transported to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center after her brief stop at UF.

This was the message from Dr. Foley from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission:
“The turtle arrived safely at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center at 7:30 and still seemed to be doing well.
This turtle should soon appear on the current patient list on the GSTC website –
http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/our-patients/sea-turtle-patients/current-patients/”

She has been named Erica, weighing in at 202lbs. They believe she has an infection and are treating her with antibiotics and lots of good care. Her page isn’t up yet, but we’ll keep an eye out!