Professional Development is back!
After a year in Mexico with no professional development, I was looking forward to my first opportunity at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG), which shares a campus with my school, the American School of Guatemala.
I signed up for a course regarding K-12 Science teaching techniques given by Dr. Helen Quinn, a world-renowned Particle Physicist from Stanford University. It was a three-day course and, as you can imagine, it was a bit above the level of fifth grade students. Although Dr. Quinn has worked extensively with the K-12 science curriculum for the State of California, she's still a university physics professor and I'm sure she finds it difficult to "talk down" to elementary school teachers.
As is typically the case, I managed to gain quite a bit from the three day course. It was interesting to have flashbacks to high school physics - my only memories included the teacher falling off his chair and Erin and me getting kicked out of class and leaving campus without permission - such rebels we were. Now I know that when you drop a ball, it's attempting to lower its stored energy and the Earth actually bounces back! Fascinating stuff.
Dr. Quinn was quite impressive and because of her modesty I was surprised to find she is pretty famous in the science world. You may be asking what she was doing in Guatemala City teaching a bunch of int'l teachers about science. Her son is married to a Guatemalan and opened a school on the side of a volcano near Antigua, about 30 minutes out of the city. Dr. Quinn and her husband, a nice guy who is very bright, as well, were in Guate visiting and must have been talked into giving a course at the university.
The highlight was on day 2 when my co-worker Michael turned to me and said, "Do you realize we just argued with a Standford Physicist?!" Those who know me won't be surprised ;)
I signed up for a course regarding K-12 Science teaching techniques given by Dr. Helen Quinn, a world-renowned Particle Physicist from Stanford University. It was a three-day course and, as you can imagine, it was a bit above the level of fifth grade students. Although Dr. Quinn has worked extensively with the K-12 science curriculum for the State of California, she's still a university physics professor and I'm sure she finds it difficult to "talk down" to elementary school teachers.
As is typically the case, I managed to gain quite a bit from the three day course. It was interesting to have flashbacks to high school physics - my only memories included the teacher falling off his chair and Erin and me getting kicked out of class and leaving campus without permission - such rebels we were. Now I know that when you drop a ball, it's attempting to lower its stored energy and the Earth actually bounces back! Fascinating stuff.
Dr. Quinn was quite impressive and because of her modesty I was surprised to find she is pretty famous in the science world. You may be asking what she was doing in Guatemala City teaching a bunch of int'l teachers about science. Her son is married to a Guatemalan and opened a school on the side of a volcano near Antigua, about 30 minutes out of the city. Dr. Quinn and her husband, a nice guy who is very bright, as well, were in Guate visiting and must have been talked into giving a course at the university.
The highlight was on day 2 when my co-worker Michael turned to me and said, "Do you realize we just argued with a Standford Physicist?!" Those who know me won't be surprised ;)