My name is Siddharth, Students call me Mr. Sid. I look like this. I teach DP AA Math and Physics (Both Levels) and MYP Science Grade 10 along with Mr Duncan and Mr Theo.
The first week for teachers ( and students to some aspect) is like the first punch in a boxing match. All the preparation you do is put to the test. A couple of weeks of planning was tested in this week where the students and myself got adjusted to each others teaching and learning methods.
Grade 11
For the first two classes we went through a lot of decision making. The students and me got together and decided what would be the Course Outline, How many papers would they have, classroom expectations, grade boundaries, Weightage, Summatives and Formatives, what resources are available, set up google classrooms, invited guardians and started practicing basic concepts that would be required for the times ahead. Math AA went through significant figures and Straight Lines, HL students started thinking about basic principles of counting and explored the factorial notation.
Whereas Physics went through units and Scalars and Vectors. Physics HL cannot be explored at the moment since there are some foundations that need to be covered before HL begins. We also went through a Formative that was an exit ticket for the topic of Resolution of Vectors.
A sample discussion from the physics class were ” What happens when you are traveling at 100 km/hr and throw a ball at 20km/hr outside from the car? What is the speed of the ball as measured by someone outside the car? ” The answer is 120.
“Now what happens if you throw it backwards?”
“Mr Sid, the Speed would be 80”
“Aha! Now tell me what would happen if you throw it exactly at 100km/hr?”
“It would drop vertically down!”
“Can someone take a video trying to achieve this?”
We have three risk-taking students who did this.
The inspiration of this was from this
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZH7GpYJoptU
Grade 12
In Physics we started exploring Galilean Relativity and have started to come towards Einsteins Idea while passing through Lorentz. A few questions in class that were discussed as shown on Managebac and practiced in Kognity were ” What happens when you chase and eventually catch a beam of light?”
Discussions around Time dilations and Length Contractions are generally hard to digest as they oppose the usual idea of Physics. If you have seen Interstellar, then you know what I am talking about.
Finally, it has been a cracker of a week. I have enjoyed getting to know each of the students, understanding their expectations from the classroom and challenging them. I hope they liked it too. I am always available over email incase anyone needs to touch base and I look forward to meeting you next week.
Have a super fantastic weekend!