I teach chemistry.
Ninafundisha somo la kemia
(Explosion)
(Mlipuko)
All right, all right. So more than just explosions, chemistry is everywhere. Have you ever found yourself at a restaurant spacing out just doing this over and over? Some people nodding yes. Recently, I showed this to my students, and I just asked them to try and explain why it happened. The questions and conversations that followed were fascinating. Check out this video that Maddie from my period three class sent me that evening.
Sawa,Sawa. Ni zaidi ya milipuko, Kemia ipo kila mahali. Umeshawahi kuwa katika mgahawa ukiwa unajaribu kufanya hivi? Baadhi ya watu wanaitikia ndio. Hivi karibuni, niliwaonyesha wanafunzi wangu, niliwaambia waelezee kwa nini imetokea. Maswali na mazungumzo yaliyofuata yalikuwa ya kusisimua. angalia video hii ambayo Maddie kutoka darasa langu la tatu aliyonitumia jioni.
(Clang) (Laughs)
(Vicheko)
Now obviously, as Maddie's chemistry teacher, I love that she went home and continued to geek out about this kind of ridiculous demonstration that we did in class. But what fascinated me more is that Maddie's curiosity took her to a new level. If you look inside that beaker, you might see a candle. Maddie's using temperature to extend this phenomenon to a new scenario.
Ni dhahiri,kama mwalimu wa kemia wa Maddie Nilifurahi kwamba alienda nyumbani na kuendelea na zoezi hili la ajabu ambalo tulilifanya darasani. Lakini kilichonisisimua zaidi ilikuwa ni kuwa udadisi wa Maddie ulimpeleka kwenye hatua nyingine. ukiangalia ndani ya kikopo hiki, unaweza ukaona mshumaa. Maddie anatumia joto kuifanya hali hii kuwa tukio jingine jipya.
You know, questions and curiosity like Maddie's are magnets that draw us towards our teachers, and they transcend all technology or buzzwords in education. But if we place these technologies before student inquiry, we can be robbing ourselves of our greatest tool as teachers: our students' questions. For example, flipping a boring lecture from the classroom to the screen of a mobile device might save instructional time, but if it is the focus of our students' experience, it's the same dehumanizing chatter just wrapped up in fancy clothing. But if instead we have the guts to confuse our students, perplex them, and evoke real questions, through those questions, we as teachers have information that we can use to tailor robust and informed methods of blended instruction.
Maswali na udadisi kama wa Maddie ndio sumaku zinazotuvuta kwa walimu wetu, na zinazidi teknolojia zote ubunifu mpya wa elimu. Lakini kama teknolojia kabla ya udadisi wa wanafunzi, tunaweza tukawa tunajinyima wenyewe zana muhimu kama walimu: maswali ya wanafunzi wetu. Kwa mfano,kupitia mhadhaa unaochosha kwa kutumia mtandao unaweza ukaokoa muda wa ufundishaji, lakini kama ni lengo la wanafunzi wetu. ni jambo lile lile la kudhalilisha ambalo limefungwa vizuri. Lakini kama tuna ujasiri wa kuwachanganya wanafunzi wetu, na kuamsha maswali ya kweli, ingawa maswali hayo sisi kama walimu yana taarifa ambazo tunaweza kuzitumia kwa ajili ya kutengeneza mfumo wa taarifa zilizochanganyika
So, 21st-century lingo jargon mumbo jumbo aside, the truth is, I've been teaching for 13 years now, and it took a life-threatening situation to snap me out of 10 years of pseudo-teaching and help me realize that student questions are the seeds of real learning, not some scripted curriculum that gave them tidbits of random information.
ukiondoa maneno ya karne ya 21 kuhusu hali hii, Ukweli ni kuwa nimefundisha sasa kwa miaka 13, na ilibidi kuwe na tukio la kutisha kunitoa katika miaka 10 ya ufundishaji wa mazoea na kunifanya nijue kuwa maswali ya wanafunzi ndio mbegu za kujifunza hasa, na sio mtaala ambao umeshaandaliwa ambao unawapa tu taarifa chache
In May of 2010, at 35 years old, with a two-year-old at home and my second child on the way, I was diagnosed with a large aneurysm at the base of my thoracic aorta. This led to open-heart surgery. This is the actual real email from my doctor right there. Now, when I got this, I was -- press Caps Lock -- absolutely freaked out, okay? But I found surprising moments of comfort in the confidence that my surgeon embodied. Where did this guy get this confidence, the audacity of it?
Mwezi Mei 2010,nikiwa na miaka 35, nikiwa na mtoto wa miaka 2 nyumbani na mtoto wa pili njiani niligundulika kuwa na kuongezeka kwa mishipa ya damu katika eneo la mshipa mkubwa wa damu wa aorta katika moyo ilisababisha nifanyiwe upasuaji wa moyo.Hii ni barua pepe kutoka kwa Daktari,pale. nilipoipata barua hii, nilikuwa nimechanganyikiwa kabisa? lakini nilipata mida ya faraja nikiwa na hakika aliyokuwa nayo daktari wangu. Alipata ujasiri huu?
So when I asked him, he told me three things. He said first, his curiosity drove him to ask hard questions about the procedure, about what worked and what didn't work. Second, he embraced, and didn't fear, the messy process of trial and error, the inevitable process of trial and error. And third, through intense reflection, he gathered the information that he needed to design and revise the procedure, and then, with a steady hand, he saved my life.
Kwa hiyo nilipomuuliza,akaniambia vitu vitatu. akasema kwanza,udadisi wake ulimsukuma kuuliza maswali magumu kuhusu upasuaji, kuhusu uzuri na ubaya wake. Pili,aliikubali,na hakuogopa, mchakato wa kujaribu jaribu, mchakato usiokwepeka wa kujarijaribu. na tatu,kupitia kutafakari sana, alikusanya taarifa alizohitaji kusanifu na kupitia upya mchakato, na kwa mkono wa taratibu,akaokoa maisha yangu.
Now I absorbed a lot from these words of wisdom, and before I went back into the classroom that fall, I wrote down three rules of my own that I bring to my lesson planning still today. Rule number one: Curiosity comes first. Questions can be windows to great instruction, but not the other way around. Rule number two: Embrace the mess. We're all teachers. We know learning is ugly. And just because the scientific method is allocated to page five of section 1.2 of chapter one of the one that we all skip, okay, trial and error can still be an informal part of what we do every single day at Sacred Heart Cathedral in room 206. And rule number three: Practice reflection. What we do is important. It deserves our care, but it also deserves our revision. Can we be the surgeons of our classrooms? As if what we are doing one day will save lives. Our students our worth it. And each case is different.
Nilichukua mengi kutoka maneno haya ya hekima, na kabla ya kwenda darasani majira ya kipupwe niliandika sheria tatu zangu mwenyewe ambazo nazitumia wakati napangillia masomo mpaka leo. Sheria ya kwanza: udadisi kwanza Maswali yanaweza kuwa dirisha la mazungumzo mazuri sana, lakini kinyume chake si sahihi Sheria ya pili: Kubaliana na hali ya fujo Sote ni walimu.Tunajua kujifunza ni vurugu tupu. na kwa sababu tu njia za kisayansi zimetengewa ukurasa wa tano wa kipengele 1.2 ya sura ya kwanza ambazo huwa tunaziruka,sawa, kujari jaribu bado kunaweza kuwa ni sehemu isiyo rasmi kwa vile tuvifanyavyo kila siku Katika kanisa la Moyo Mtakatifu ,chumba 206. Sheria namba tatu: Fanya zoezi la kutafakari. Tukifanyacho ni muhimu.inastahili kuangaliwa nasi, lakini instahili mapitio yetu. Je tunaweza kuwa madaktari wa madarasa yetu? Kama vile tuyafanyayosiku moja yataokoa maisha ya watu. Wanafunzi wetu,wanstahili kabisa. na kila hali ni tofauti.
(Explosion)
(Mlipuko)
All right. Sorry. The chemistry teacher in me just needed to get that out of my system before we move on.
Sawa. Samahani Mwalimu wa Kemia ndani yangu alitaka kuta hicho nje yangu kabla hatujaendelea.
So these are my daughters. On the right we have little Emmalou -- Southern family. And, on the left, Riley. Now Riley's going to be a big girl in a couple weeks here. She's going to be four years old, and anyone who knows a four-year-old knows that they love to ask, "Why?" Yeah. Why. I could teach this kid anything because she is curious about everything. We all were at that age. But the challenge is really for Riley's future teachers, the ones she has yet to meet. How will they grow this curiosity?
Kwa hiyo hawa ni mabinti zangu. Kulia kwangu tuna Emmalou -- Familia ya kusini Na kushoto,Riley. Riley atakuwa binti mkubwa wiki chache zijazo. Atakuwa na miaka minne, na yeyote amjuaye mtoto wa miaka minne anajua kuwa wanapenda kuuliza "kwa nini"? Ndiyo. Kwa nini. Naweza kumfundisha mtoto huyo chochote kwa sababu ni mdadisi wa kila kitu. Sote tulikuwa hivyo katika umri huo. Lakini changamoto kubwa ni kwa walimu wa mbeleni wa Riley ambao bado hajakutana nao. Watawezaje kuukuza udadisi huu?
You see, I would argue that Riley is a metaphor for all kids, and I think dropping out of school comes in many different forms -- to the senior who's checked out before the year's even begun or that empty desk in the back of an urban middle school's classroom. But if we as educators leave behind this simple role as disseminators of content and embrace a new paradigm as cultivators of curiosity and inquiry, we just might bring a little bit more meaning to their school day, and spark their imagination.
Naweza nikasema kuwa Riley ni kama fumbo la watoto wote, Na nadhani kuacha shule kunakuja katika njia mbalimbali Kwa mwanafunzi wa mwaka wa mwisho, anayeacha shule kabla ya mwaka kwisha. au dawati tupu katika shule za sekondari za mijini. lakini,ikiwa sisi kama walimu tunaacha kazi nyepesi ya kusambaza taarifa na kukubaliana na dhana mpya ya wapandaji wa udadisi na uulizaji maswali, tunaweza kusababisha maana zaidi kuwepo kwao shuleni,na kuwasha cheche za tafakari.
Thank you very much.
Asante sana.
(Applause)
(Makofi).