Abstract:The Decision:Back to School:The First Year:Abstract:Throughout my first year as a physics teacher, I went through a series of emotional/mental peaks and valleys. Some of these I was prepared for and for some I asked myself, “What in the world am I going to do?” Thankfully when I got to a valley, I had guidance and support to help me figure out, “What in the world to do.” When the peaks came, they were some of the most substantial moments in my professional life. I had never felt such appreciation or intrinsic satisfaction in my career before. This hooked me and from then on I knew I had made the correct choice in changing careers. Discovering that my love for science, curiosity and enlightenment could be challenged, expanded upon and shared, changed my view of what work is. In this paper, I will discuss my experiences as a new teacher coming from the Alt Cert Physics Program at Buffalo State College and how these experience have changed and shaped my life.The Decision:I received a BS in Physics in 2002 from SUNY College at Fredonia. While searching for a local job in physics, I went to work as an environmental consultant. The work was easy and the pay was enough to get by but I wasn’t getting anywhere. With little need in Western New York for an employee who has a BS in physics, I spent the next couple of years as a consultant moving laterally through a business with little room for growth. The day I found out I was going to be a father, I knew I had to change what I was doing. There was now a need to get out of the redundancy I had found myself in. This is when I began researching graduate programs. While debating what field to move into, I had a conversation with a close relative who was a retired teacher. He reminded me of how good it feels to share ones passion with others and how rewarding it can be to work with kids. I had been a TA for a couple of physics labs while working on my BS, and remembered how good it felt to motivate and captivate people with physics. After that conversation, I narrowed my research to education. This is where things began to get a bit easier. I reviewed the physics education/education programs from all the local Western New York institutes and Buffalo State College shadowed all others in comparison. Aftermy first contact with someone (Dan MacIsaac) from the Physics Ed. program there, I knew exactly where I would be going to graduate school.Back to School:The jump back to college wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated. My first semester at Buffalo State College I took three classes and worked full time. This left little time for much else. I did find that I was more than capable of doing this and discovered that I had matured immensely in the year since my days at Fredonia State. Those years were filled with little responsibility and a lot of fun. I believe that was a partial contributor to my lack of physics knowledge that was evident after my first day of PHY 620: Powerful Ideas & Quantitative Modeling: Force, Motion and Energy. PHY 620 is one of three (100+ hrs) intensive courses that make up the backbone of the Alt. Cert. program at Buffalo State. I had always considered mechanics to be the strongest area of my understanding of physics. This was challenged immediately. By confronting mypreconceptions and learning about modeling I began to understand how knowledge of physics is built upon and constructed. This was new and exciting to me. I finally seemed to gain an understanding of physical phenomena and now could do more than crunch numbers that I was never sure what they actually meant. From then on, I knew how physics should be taught and experienced. This enlightenment continued throughout my physics education courses at Buffalo State College. Through the use of PER(Physics Education Research) the faculty at Buffalo State College was able to create a program that not only helped to address the need for physics teachers but also produce instructors that have the ability to build student understanding of physical phenomena. After attending Buffalo State College for three full time semesters and twointense summers I jumped out into the world of public education and put my new understanding and knowledge to the test.The First Year:I began teaching regents physics with the accompanying lab, physical chemistry and general science in September of 2005. Having no experience as a high school teacher I was nervous and excited at the same time. I could not wait to put all my new knowledge to the test and begin shaping the engineers of tomorrow. A couple of weeks before the first day of school, I began going to my new classroom to do inventory and check out any curriculum maps that might be available. To my horror, instead of curriculum maps, I found vague descriptions of what topics were covered each month and not much else. That moment was the first major valley in my high school teaching career. How was I, with little to no experience, suppose to make sure I have a full years worth of materials for students? How was I going to make sure I cover all the topics that will be tested for in the NYS Physics Regents Exam? How was I to make sure I spent the appropriate amount of time on each topic? I was overwhelmed with the question of, “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?”. At that moment, I realized how much work I had ahead of me. That night I called my grandfather who happens to be a retired science teacher and he gave me some good advice that I still utilize today.He told me to, “Always take pride in your work, embrace the valley and use it to challenge yourself.” My grandfather commented in this manner because he knows I am a competitive person who will respond to physical and mental challenges. I did just as my grandfather said andbegan looking at this as a personal challenge. Preparing for physics was by far the easiest of these three curriculums for me to come to grips with. The program at BSC readily distributes the modeling curriculum to all it’s pre-service teachers. I knew having that saved my first year of teaching. Without it I would have spent countless hours searching for materials and I know that most of the materials I found certainly would not have been even close to the caliber of the materials from the modeling curriculum. I used the modeling curriculum along with Rooks paper and a few supplemental materials I found to get through mechanics.I used a mixture of CASTLE,
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