Affective Dimensions Reading

I wasn't much of a reader, and am still not much of one. I am working on it though, and am getting better. It does help when it is actually something that you want to read. When it is something that I have to read for school, I usually don't enjoy it. I'm not a very fast reader, and usually you have to get all of the reading done in a certain time period. Its frustrating, and most of the time I don't get it done, or don't get it done well.

When I read things because I want to and don't have a time constraint or an assignment to go with it, I usually enjoy it. I remember more about what I have read too. If only I could transfer those wanting to read skills to the have to read for school skills. I decided that it would probably help if I just read more books that I liked. But when would I have time to do that with school, work, family, doing theater, and other things. I found a time! During my lunch break at work (if I get one) I read while I'm eating lunch. I only get a few pages read, but at least I'm getting some reading in that I enjoy almost every day. I've been doing this for a few years, and have found that it has helped a lot. I still don't like reading things for school, but doing it has become a little easier.

I don't know how I'm going to get my students to want to read stuff about science.  Some of them I'm sure will be excited about it, some will do it just because they have to, and some (like me) won't want to do it.  I suppose I could share my story about reading with them (though I don't know how much good that will do).  Hopefully I can find some more kid friendly texts to share with them.  Really the challenge is to get them self-motivated.  If you're doing it because you want to, that makes all the difference.  Hopefully I can make science something that can be enjoyable, and that they will want to do on their own, not just because they have to. 

Afective Dimensions of Writing

I don't know if I would consider myself a writer, but I do like to do it occasionally.  I really got the bug in 5th grade.  My teacher would give us story starters, which was a piece of paper with a picture on it, and a whole lot of blank lines.  Then you were supposed to write a story with that picture.  I loved it!  I even started writing stories of my own.  To this day my teacher still asks me if I'm still writing.  She apparently enjoyed reading them, because that’s what she remembers about me from her class.  Or she’s just being really nice.  I do feel a little guilty telling her that I don’t do much writing anymore.

Usually if it is something that I have to write, I don’t enjoy doing it.  Especially in school.  There have been a few teachers that I did actually enjoy writing for them.  One was in my second semester of modern physics.  For our final we had to write, perform, or do something that showed the teacher that we had learned something in his class.  I decided to write a parody of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  I wrote a Quark Mass Carol.  It was about a Strange quark who didn’t like other quarks, and was visited by The Cosmic Microwave Background (Christmas Past), A Charm Quark (Christmas Present), and Dark Matter (Christmas Yet to Come).  Eventually the Strange quark joined up with another quark, and made some bigger particle, and life was wonderful.  I enjoyed writing it, and I learned a lot by writing it too.  I had to research, and make sure everything I was putting in there was correct.  I passed the class, so I guess I did alright.

I hope that I can give my students opportunities to write, that they will enjoy.  I think I will try out the, write, perform, or do something that proves you’ve learned something in the class, just to see how it goes.  I hope that I can find other ways as well.  I know every student is different, and they’ll all enjoy different things.  I don’t want writing to be a painful thing.  It can be very fun.  Finding fun (and meaningful) ways to do it will have to be one of my goals.

Connecting School and Home Experinces

There were lots of things that I did when I was a kid that had to do with physics and chemistry.  I remember rubbing balloons on my head and sticking them to the wall.  I remember rubbing my feet on the carpet, and trying to shock members of my family.  The first cake I ever made used vinegar and baking soda to make it rise.  On trips to Yellowstone I always wondered how the geysers worked.  I remember my dad telling me that the different colors in the hot springs were caused by the different kinds of bacteria in the water.

I've always liked trying to figure things out.  I liked taking things apart to see how they worked, and try to fix them if they didn't.  I had lots of failures and successes.  In my own little way, I was doing science without knowing it.  Many of the students I'll teach will probably have their own ways of doing science as well.  I hope that in my teaching I can get the students to realize that they are probably doing science without even realizing it all the time, that its helpful, and that it can be fun too.  I hope that I can also use examples from their lives to help teach concepts as well.  When the kids can relate their own experiences to what is going on in class, they are more likely to learn and probably even enjoy class more.