WEBVTT

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My name is William Frey.

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I am a high school science teacher and the Science Department Chair here

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and I am also an instructional coach.

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I think across the board, and when I talk to other teachers

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and share with them how my instruction has been impacted,

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the things that most improve instruction are having an objective, a real clear objective.

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I think that's good for the students, that's good for the teacher to know exactly

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where they are going, what the plan is.

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And it's different from an agenda, it's not an itemized "Here's what we're going to do today."

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It's "Here is the task we're going to accomplish today,

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here's what you're going to be able to do by the end of today's lesson,"

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and having that firm objective gives the students the realization

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at the end that, "Yeah, I learned this."

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Or maybe sometimes, "Yeah, I didn't learn this yet, but I need to."

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And it gives the teacher the sense of satisfaction like "Okay,

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this is what I wanted to teach today and yes, I got it done" and some real-a clear goal

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and a clear way to measure whether or not you reach that goal.

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And the other thing, I think the second most important thing,

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the thing I could not teach without, is checking for understanding, strategies to do that.

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How do you check constantly on how your students are doing?

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How do you keep them engaged and accountable?

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How do you-using whiteboards to have them respond to you?

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Very useful.

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In a lot of classes, all kinds of subject matters, but especially in chemistry and biology,

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I find them very useful and I know they are used well in math and physics,

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as well, and in history and English.

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So, whiteboards are useful.

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The popsicle sticks, calling on non-volunteers,

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gave me so much more insight into where my students were.

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And it's okay, and that's the thing that students realize, too.

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It's okay if they don't know the answer to a question.

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I will come back to them, but it keeps them more accountable.

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They know if I call on them, it's not because I am picking on them.

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It's because I want them to know the answer and if they don't know, I will come back to them.

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And that shows them that I care about them learning the stuff.

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They feel like they are valuable, that they are not being left off to the side and so,

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that's huge right there: non-volunteers and whiteboards

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and different methods for checking for understanding.

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Frey interacting to class: Okay, very good, okay, on the count of three,

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hold up your whiteboards, please. One. Two. And three.

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Okay. Very good.

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We're about 75, maybe 80 percent;

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couple people didn't quite get it right, but have the main part right.

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By the way, this is way harder than anything on the final, so you're good.

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Okay, I'm going to call on some people.

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Walk me through the steps, please.

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First step, [reaches into cup for a labeled popsicle stick with a student's name on it] Jose,

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will you walk us through the first step?

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Jose: Count the main chain.

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Frey: Okay, count the main chain.

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How many do we have?

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Jose: Seven.

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Frey: Seven in the main chain.

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So, that gives us what prefix?

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Jose: Hept-.

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Frey: Hept-.

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Very good.

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Now, what's the ending?

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What's the ending of this one?

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Is it -ane, -ene, or -ine?

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[pulls new popsicle stick.] Tyler, what's the ending of this one?

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Tyler: [Not understandable.] Frey: Say it really loudly.

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Tyler: -ene.

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Frey: -ene is right.

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Why is it -ene?

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Tyler: It's got double bonds?

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Frey: Because it's got double bonds, that's right.

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Okay, now, we have to describe where those double bonds are.

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Where are those double bonds located?...

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Students definitely have-I think, in general, in the large population, are not as responsive

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or as engaged in lessons as they could be or need to be.

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I think that's something that may have always been the case, actually.

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We all have a tendency to daydream and do whatever during class.

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But the fact, at first, they are like "Wow, what is this, they are calling on me."

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And some students, of course, the first couple of weeks,

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they are going to see if this is really going to happen,

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are you really going to go back to them?

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So, they will do all kinds of strategies, work-avoidance strategies,

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where they are going to pretend they don't know the answer and say, "I don't know,"

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But then you come back to them, and it doesn't become cool to say "I don't know" three

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or four times in front of your peers.

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And they figure out that if you're legitimate and you're sincere about wanting them

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to know the answer and be able to rearticulate that answer, that they can't get off the hook.

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And that's the key; it's just really coming back to them and coming back to them again.

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So it was a learning process, and teachers had to learn as well

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that here's what the students are going to do.

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And I've heard sad stories of teachers who tried out the whiteboards,

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who tried out the popsicle sticks only for a week or two, and they gave up on it after that.

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So I said stick with it, keep those strategies going.

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Keep trying them because they will work eventually, especially if you are consistent with it.

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Frey interacting with class: How are you going to remember-on the test,

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on the final-how are you going to remember the difference

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between an ester and a carboxylic acid?

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So, go ahead, come up with a, think of a way to remember the difference between,

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because those are the ones that you'll get confused, I would imagine.

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How are you going to remember the difference between an ester and a carboxylic acid?

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You don't have to write it down.

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Just think of your answer.

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I'm going to popsicle stick you in a second.

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How are you going to know the difference between an ester and a carboxylic acid?

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Okay, here we go.

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Quiet down now.

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How are you going to know the difference between an ester and a carboxylic acid?

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[Pulls popsicle stick out of a cup.] Mr. Vela?

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Vela: One has an extra O?

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Frey: One as an extra O, okay.

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I think they have the same number of Os, but that's all right, I'll come back to you.

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Maybe someone else will have a good idea for it, okay.

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Let's go to Courtney, how are you going to remember?

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Courtney: Carboxylic has OH and ester has OR.

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Frey: Okay, good job.

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So carboxylic has the OH group off of it and ester has the OR, okay?

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What does meaningful collaboration mean?

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That students can talk to each other.

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We noticed that in classrooms, students were becoming productive.

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They were really holding up the whiteboards,

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but they weren't interacting with their peers a lot.

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And so, working on different strategies to have students talking to each other,

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sharing the information, knowing that students who teach something to a peer,

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remember 90 percent of what they have learned versus 20 percent in an ordinary circumstance.

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Next year, we are thinking about doing higher-order questions,

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how we are going to bring higher-order thought and processes and higher-order questions

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and tasks to the students, because we can't keep everything low level.

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We want to have some syntheses and some evaluations,

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some application going on in our classrooms.

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And so, that's the next thing.

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So, definitely, talking to Mr. Davis.

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He has an open-door policy, so we are all in there all the time talking about instruction,

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which used to be this like sacred thing that you didn't talk about.

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You definitely wouldn't talk as a teacher to your principal about it, which is kind of ironic.

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But that was something that never really happened in any other of the schools I have worked at.

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But here, it's something that is shared quite readily.

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We share ideas and it's great.