My Practicum

Courses Taught

During my student teaching I taught three chemistry courses, for a semester long. Impacting a total of about 70 students. The three classes I taught were: one honors, and two college levels. Together with teaching I also observed all the chemistry teachers in the science department deliver their lessons, including their AP chemistry class. This provided me a sense of perspective and allowed me to incorporate into my practice some of their teaching strategies.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)

Implementation of CRT and asset based learning is crucial in my pedagogy. Ladson-Billings framework includes these three components for culturally relevant pedagogy: Student Learning, Cultural Competence, and Critical Consciousness. I believe that chemistry can help students in many ways and I always bring  real world connections to incorporate CRT into the classroom so that they can see the value of what we are learning and be more engaged in the subject as a whole. Some of the real world examples we have talked about already are:

The assignments, projects, and assessments I use empower and prepare students to solve problems in their lives, in their communities, and the world;  by providing them the experience to do hands-on learning and lab experiments gives them a sense of agency and allows them to feel prepared to take on the problems of the real world. In addition, by allowing them to have a voice and choice.  For example, the other day we did a marshmallow activity where they built molecular geometry structures and after they were done building these I asked them to choose one and presented it to the class either from up on the board or from their seats if that made them feel more comfortable. By allowing students space to present their projects it fosters a sense of community where what they are doing matters, and is being heard. By incorporating real world issues or real world implications and careers where the content that I am teaching can be applied, I connect to the students' daily lives the most. I think that with chemistry the most applicable connection is environmental justice and I have been using this to connect with racism and injustice; because due to the environmental injustice that currently exist the minorities get affected disproportionately. An example of a lesson where I utilized CRT can be found here!


My lesson was centered more on the student learning and the critical consciousness. The students were able to connect the subject to careers and students are able to use their funds of knowledge to answer how the concept applies to their lives as they do now and closing activity that involves more research to have critical thinking. Additionally, students can feel free to share ideas and trial an error (room to learn from mistakes and the power of yet), students are also able to choose the molecule they want to present, and they can talk either from their seats or the front (so that they feel like they have a voice and don’t shy away). Allowing the students to participate/present in the class lets them have a voice and empowers them, also a safe environment was fostered by letting them choose their own groups. The students were very excited to present, in the honors class the students decided to present from their chair but in the college classes the students came up to the front and presented their molecule. Also, in the conversations about how this concept applies to their lives most of them knew different careers that related to it and it created a more engaging environment. Throughout my student teaching I saw a big change in the students' participation, students that were usually on their phones now are intrinsically motivated and always want to come up to the board to participate.