I cannot believe I survived a full school year of Chemistry. At the beginning of the year I was absolutely TERRIFIED of what type of work was in store for me this year. Science has always been a subject that was either a hit or miss for me. I either understood the material, or I didn't. I assumed this year would be no different. I was proved wrong multiple times over the course of the year.
There were many techniques that worked well for me this year; one of them being the blog assignments. To be honest, I was quite skeptical when I first heard about them. My first thoughts were "Seriously, we have to write an essay every week? What are we possibly going to learn?" As soon as I started doing the first assignment my thoughts changed. I loved doing them! They made doing homework entertaining and fun to do. It helped me recall the information we had learned in class and reflect on it. We actually learned something from the blog assignments. The blogs also helped me improve my writing skills immensely.
Another technique that worked for me was how we reviewed for tests. The class before a test would be devoted to the material we would be tested on. During these review sessions, everything I had trouble with would be re-explained. This made me feel more confident with the material, and less nervous to take the test.
There was really only one thing that did not work well for me. That would be the Pogil Packets. I could not stand them! I found them boring and useless only for the fact that when kids worked together, they weren't actually working together. They would copy answers from each other. They weren't actually learning. A lot of times in groups, it would be one person learning the material and then giving answers to the other kids. I found it incredibly annoying. Half the time the Pogils didn't help either because the Pogils rarely told you how to do something. It would just give you vocabulary you had already learned and formulas you would not need. They made you teach yourself. I think a way to make this better would be to teach the material presented in the Pogil packet during class, and then have students do the Pogil for homework.
I honestly could not have asked for a better Chemistry teacher. Mr. Meyers made class fun. He taught the information in a way that made you remember it, whether it was through an awesome song, or a cool demo. The notes we took in class ( which were what he wrote on the Smart Board) were incredibly helpful especially now that we are headed into finals. Everyday I hear various students say how boring their chemistry class is, and it makes me appreciate how Mr. Meyers teaches his students.
