Challenging times

My September starters took their last exam on Friday, so I've had a little time to think about my other class, the January starters. This class has caused me problems during the current term. They haven't really gelled yet, there are at least 3 distinct groups within the class, their abilities in Physics as well as in English are very wide-ranging and some of the behaviour has been challenging for me.

Don't get me wrong, they are not a bad bunch of students, but quite a few of them find Physics boring and they don't mind letting me know it, by falling asleep in class. Even during practical work or when I've been at my most enthusiastic and manic, leaping around the classroom pretending to be a molecule! They sometimes come into class, put their heads down on the desks and fall asleep before the lesson begins, so maybe it isn't just that they find the Physics boring. Whatever is going on, they won't tell me. I've tried having a discussion about it, they just clam up.

So, I've been trying various tactics, mostly without success, but I'll keep on trying. Today, I suggested to them that they could make a video which we could maybe upload into You Tube or Teacher Tube or at least into our Moodle site. I showed a Teacher Tube video first, actually it consisted of 2 short videos, one showing dispersion (how to make a rainbow using a glass prism) and the other showing refraction (bending of light when it goes into glass).

I asked the students what they thought, which video they preferred and why, then suggested they could do better. I was surprised at their responses, I had thought they'd like the video with music, but they liked the one without as they thought the music was distracting. One student, M, said she thought the one without was more focussed on the Physics and therefore clearer.

I also thought they's balk at the idea of making their own version as they dislike making a class video blog, but they were quite keen instead. It was the students who are usually not interested in Physics who seemed the most enthusiastic, with B stating that it would be "cool" to do and immediately volunteering to be project leader for the task.

I've set homework for this week as planning for the task. B has to organise the class into specific jobs - scripting, acting, camera etc. Plus they have to decide what they are actually going to make the video about, it has to be something that we are studying within the waves topic now, so reflection, refraction, dispersion, diffraction or maybe lenses.

I've no idea if this will be successful or not, but I'm hopeful it will help them to enjoy their Physics lessons a bit more. They seemed to accept that this task may help them to learn and remember what I'm trying to teach them, by taking ownership of it. I'll keep blogging as it progresses (or doesn't) and see what else I can learn from the expereience.