My Classes
Virtual Classrooms:
The year began completely virtually, all 3 courses that I eventually took over began with me teaching completely through google meets and classroom. The classes included:
Period 3/4 - honors physics - grades 10/11
Period 5/6 - college physics - grades 10/11 - with SPS/ELL
Period 13/14 - college physics - grades 10/11 - with SPS/ELL
Unfortunately with strictly virtual learning it is difficult to gauge the environment of the classroom. I was blessed to work in both college level classrooms with Melenith Rivera (the CA for SPS/ELL students). Her energy and willingness to assist me with literally everything excited me even more to enter the world of teaching. Often, SPS/ELL students would be placed in a breakout room with Melenith, she always communicated their progress with me and asked clarifying questions. I really appreciated her presence in the virtual classroom!
Hybrid Learning:
Period 3/4 - honors physics - grades 10/11
My honors physics class, when in hybrid learning, gave me some great insight to what teaching could be like. Half of the students attended class in person and the other half attended virtually. I would teach at the front of the classroom with my computer in front of me and communicate both virtually and in-person. The environment in this class was inquisitive, students and I had a ton of interaction when walking around the classroom after the lecture section of the lesson, a strategy that my mentor teacher Jackie recommended.
Period 5/6 - college physics - grades 10/11 - with SPS/ELL
Period 13/14 - college physics - grades 10/11 - with SPS/ELL
The transition from virtual to hybrid was one in which I was patiently awaiting, I was so excited to see the students in person! Melenith, our CA, was a fantastic help with both in-person and especially virtual SPS/ELL students. She often alleviated a-lot of the virtual stress which allowed me to interact more with the students in person. I notice that the College level physics students seemed to ask more questions and relate the concepts to real life more often. I think the stress of being an “honors student” really stifles the learning ability of students, they are “supposed to be better” so they sometimes feel stupid for asking questions.
Figure 5 - A homemade guitar created by a college level physics student. This project required students to make an instrument that could play at least 2 different frequencies.