So far I don't feel like I have gotten to use a lot of subject matter knowledge when teaching. I was an economics and finance major in college so when I was teaching social studies I taught a little bit about economists as one of the social scientists students will be thinking like in fourth grade but didn't go into too much detail. I felt comfortable teaching social studies because I have an interest in it, but this week I have taken over science and I was surprised to find out I am not as comfortable teaching science. The lessons have been going pretty well for the most part, but I do a lot of prep for them. I really liked the STEM courses, especially the engineering course, so I thought I would be more comfortable with the science material. One reason might just be all of the directions that need to be given and all the materials students have. It is a hard subject to manage with 34 students doing free discovery. I think that makes the subject a little intimidating for me.
I hope next week when I take over math I will be more comfortable with that subject matter!
Science was always the most challenging class for me to teach (in fifth grade), partly because I had to do a lot of learning myself before I taught it (especially in the early years of my career) and because of the preparation. My husband is a high school science teacher, and he insists it's the hardest subject to teach because of lab prep and clean up. (I tell him that English teachers have it tough, too, with all that grading, but he doesn't buy it.) He doesn't have the added challenge that you do of keeping 32 4th graders "contained" when they see all the fun materials, but I mention this so you know you're not alone in thinking that science teaching is a challenge on several levels.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is you have more schema for content and pedagogy than you realize from the STEM classes. And I'm sure you're energized by learning new content and figuring out the best way to present a lesson to students. The material set up, management, and take down will never get easier, but the kids will get better at being scientists when it's lab time, and their energy about hands-on learning will motivate you to keep up the hard work--it's worth it.
Thanks for your honest reflection about subject matter knowledge.