Jennifer Selinger

View from the Kleinlehrer Family Science Building

We have a new member of the Science faculty at the moment, filling in for a teacher on leave. Spending time with someone unfamiliar with our methods has reinforced for me how complicated and how different our way of working is in the teaching of Science at Emanuel.

Firstly, she has had to learn to navigate the technology which we use to support our teaching – Reshet, as a means of providing instructions, links and information, and Education Perfect as our ‘textbook’. Both of these are also used as a means of assessing our students’ understanding – more difficult than marking an exercise book, although also providing more access at any time the teacher has available. Having been part of the gradual implementation of these things as ‘normal’ in our teaching, I am sharply reminded of how unusual our strong use of technology is by her surprise and the questions she asks.

She has had to deal with the expectations from our students that their learning will involve many different aspects. Our students gain understanding from reading written texts, listening to the teacher explain, watching videos, doing experiments and using simulations. They have access to the internet at all times and are likely to follow up interesting ideas at the drop of a hat, sometimes to the detriment of the work they are ‘supposed’ to be doing. This seems normal to them. They are expected to demonstrate their understanding using answers to worksheets, the production of diagrams, infographics, graphs, paragraphs of text and occasionally movies and speeches. They are supposed to take part in discussions both formal and informal (and preferably stay on-topic whilst doing this). Their learning environment is rich, vibrant, immediate and versatile … and also distracting, confusing and open ended.  These are all things that a recent addition to the Emanuel teaching staff is going to have to grapple with … with no time for easing herself in!

In fact, even those of us who have had time to come to terms with these new ways of learning occasionally look back with nostalgia on the days when work was copied from the board and questions answered purely on paper – when one of the instructions given at the start of a lesson might be how wide the margin should be or that the heading should be underlined and the tasks dated. Some things were much easier – including the amount of time needed to design the lesson and find the resources – generally this involved locating and photocopying the sheet from the previous year. Now websites disappear, better resources appear and syllabi include many more complicated ideas and thus our activities are always being changed and updated.

So is our new teacher surviving? Well, she still has a smile on her face and greets me with good cheer and excitement in the morning, so I assume she has made the transition to the madness that is the Emanuel Science Department – she certainly appears to fit right in!