Oral Language

Physics is a really hard subject to have full discussions. In fact, most of my classes have mostly been lecture-based. I have had a few really good teachers who manage to ask good, thoughtful questions that allow for some dialogue. I am not very good at remembering specific lectures or concepts that really drew me in, however I remember a teacher that I have had that consistently involved more student interaction. Her name was Professor Davis and she taught physics at BYU. The class was so fun. I could have listened to her for hours. She asked a lot of questions and was dynamic. She did demos and asked for volunteers. 

Her discussions weren't the same as a regular conversation, where one person bounces off the other. But she asked a lot of questions that sparked a lot of questions. She created a good "questions source" as the article would say. The best questions come from the students and that is where the real learning happens. We all became interested because she asked good questions. She asked "authentic questions" herself. She wasn't looking for a particular answer. Most of the time she asked us for predictions of what was going to happen and why. She would also ask clicker questions, then have us turn to our neighbor and explain why we chose our answer. Then we would re-pole our answers.This was good "uptake". When we would answer the second time, if there were still questions she would continue to cover the subject instead of moving on. She would change her lesson plan according to the needs of our class. 

She implemented the 5 elements of effective discussions, but she did especially well on those three. She was inspiring to me to be a teacher because of how well she involved and intrigued the class. Physics was so fun because she made it fun. She implanted desire in our hearts by asking great questions. She was a great example to me.