Science Classroom Visit

On Friday, March 9th I was able to visit Mrs. Hepner who is one of the chemistry teachers at the high school.  During this lesson, students were learning about Lewis Dot Diagrams and Periodic Trends.  I had so much fun watching her teach and would like to talk about some of the rock star moments I noticed.

1. There's a joke for everything!- She is so energetic and fun in her classroom!  Everyday she has a joke of the day and students are to come to class with a clean, school appropriate joke to start the class off with.  This is an idea I am SO stealing.  It is just a really fun way to start the class and it allows for each student to show their personality by bringing a joke they find funny.  Not only is there a joke of the day, but she makes so many jokes through out class and it just gives the room this fun and laid back environment.  For example, they were talking about different elements on the period table that day and she said why don't we take a moment to look at the element gold and as she was writing the symbol for gold on the board, she's like Ah!, You stole my gold (gold's symbol is Au)  It was funny and a great way for students to remember gold.

2.  Teamwork makes the Dream work!- I know cheesy line but it is true!  In Mrs. Hepner's class, everyone must take their turn and have the opportunity to show what they know.  An easy was to do this, is have students volunteer (sometimes volun-told) to go to the board and answer practice/homework questions.  You also can simply have them pick the next element we are going to look at.  That way everyone is able to have their voice heard.

3. Posters are our friend! - I had never seen so many posters on the walls in my educational career but it was such a good thing!  She was able to reference these posters so many times during the lesson and they were ones that she has made herself with simple rules of chemistry and rules of her classroom.

4. Think smarter, not harder! - Chemistry is a subject that students can really struggle with and Mrs. Hepner helps students not only understand the content but several times within the short time I was in her room, I saw many students have "Ah-ha" moments and then ask probing questions to dig deeper into the content.  She definitely does not just give away the answer to her students and promotes inquiry based learning and critical thinking skills.  If a student does not understand, she helps the student take a step back and look at the content in bite size chunks and then help them put it all together.  It's like portion control but NOT spoon feeding!!!

Mrs. Hepner does a great job of incorporating enthusiasm, clarity, variability and business-like-behavior into her lesson.  If I was a student, I would love to go to her class everyday and learn chemistry (and I hate chemistry).  She was able to keep my attention and delivered clear content all while have so much fun.  I think that a new teacher or student teacher would be lucky to have her as a mentor to look up to no matter what content area they teach!