Learning about ideas for your classroom and teaching can be a bit like getting a sip of water from a fire hose. They’re in various journals, blogs, magazines, conferences, social media, and colleagues’ classrooms. It’s a huge, constant flow of information.
From that flow, I am especially drawn to certain types of articles. Bring up a hands-on experiment that you can do using only locally sourced consumer materials, and I’m in. Tell me about an easy way to link a chemistry concept that I’m going to cover with a real world example, and I’m all ears. Games or puzzles that would fit into a small class break or to help review? I’ll take a peek.
That said, even in those particular categories of items, it doesn’t all fit into a curriculum. My digital file folders and memory banks are packed and getting added to every time I read a new monthly issue or a blog post. The flow of information then leads to a choice—to use or not to use? My answer can change depending on the situation of the classroom at that time. Your answer may be different from mine, based on variables like students, subjects, curriculums, schools, interests, materials… the list goes on. The most recent issue of Chem13 News has an article that even relates the choice to the interesting thought: “We need to think like economists.”
My two personal sips from this month’s flow of new ideas in the November 2018 issue of JCE (both available to subscribers) are:
- Stress and Mental Health in Graduate School: How Student Empowerment Creates Lasting Change. I’m interested in mental health in other areas related to teaching and wanted to think about how ideas used in graduate school might translate to different situations.
- Applying a Quiz-Show Style Game To Facilitate Effective Chemistry Lexical Communication. My teen kids had fun with this style of game that used a smartphone to provide prompts when we were at a get-together with friends. Although I wouldn’t use it for the specific content described by the authors (glassware and other equipment), it could find use related to chemistry concepts or specific unit vocabulary.
These Especially JCE columns have been a part of the ChemEd XChange conversation for three years and will continue into 2019. They serve “to highlight JCE articles of interest to readers” and can be more of an immediate collaboration with readers. Did the same article catch your eye? Have you used something like it before? Do you plan to use it? What else did you appreciate in the issue? The comment section is wide open for your sharing and ideas. Or, pen a post of your own for the XChange (see directions with links at the end of this post).
More from the November 2018 Issue
Mary Saecker’s monthly roundup of the issue not only gives a good overview of the content, but also helps you to hone in on a specific area, as she calls attention to the different themes of the issue. See this month’s at JCE 95.11 November 2018 Issue Highlights.
How have Journal resources been a part of your personal flow of ideas and learning? Share! Start by submitting a contribution form, explaining you’d like to contribute to the Especially JCE column. Then, put your thoughts together in a blog post. Questions? Contact us using the ChemEd X contact form.