UE1 built my confidence.

Episode label (on server): UE2 120626 1021 T7 UE1 builds confidence

(Loose-ish) Transcript:
[00:00:00.00] Tim: Oh well.
Jeff: But did you find that the course helped in your teaching?
Gayle: Yes.  It actually helped mostly in my confidence when I go.  Because when I come to a classroom, I don't know what that lesson plan is going to look like, and it [Energy Theater] wasn't specific to a lesson.  So if they're struggling, it's like, well, try this.  And you know, that whole acting out thing doesn't have to be just science.

[00:00:26.09] Gayle: As a methodology, it was great to employ just to get the wiggles out and to get kids engaged.  Yeah, it was really helpful.  For science, it was really a confidence builder.  For me, my background is in art.  So, well, art and math.  So the middle school science I've been doing this year a lot, and it's pretty entertaining just for me, because I learn along with them.  But also I can do this.  If I can do that, I can do this.

[00:01:01.24] Jeff: Did you find that there's a lot of very good quality science being taught?
Gayle: I think it varies a lot.
Jeff: Does it vary a lot? 
Gayle: Yeah.  It varies a lot.

[00:01:08.08] Jeff: How so?
Gayle: Well, you know, I don't want to be disparaging in a way.  Before the highly-qualified standards were put in place, a lot of people were put in science classrooms in the (?) level that don't have science backgrounds.  And so they're teaching the curriculum and not science.  But I experience both sides in classrooms.  You know, science majors, who are like (gesture).

Commentary: I can't actually find the prompt for the writing activity that the teachers are discussing in the clip, but I think it was something like, "Talk about what you learned last summer and what you hope to learn this summer."  The teachers on camera are Jeff (back left), Gayle (front left), and Tim (front right).  Tim is trying to find a video of a Rube Goldberg machine on his iPad, and Jeff and Gayle are discussing what was helpful to her about UE1.  Gayle is a substitute teacher for Seattle Public Schools; she does not have her own classroom.

What I found significant about this clip is that:

1. Gayle indicates that the most significant contribution of the UE1 course was helping her confidence, and the reason she gives for this is that it's content-independent, and she can pair it with whatever lesson she's given.  I think this (the confidence thing) is significant because one of our goals in the summer courses is to empower teachers.
2. Gayle identifies the wiggles-ness and the engaged-ness of Energy Theater.  This feels relevant to thinking about the affordances of ELAs -- she identifies some, but not all (and maybe not the most important ones).
3. Gayle identifies herself as an art or math teacher AND as a science learner along with her students.  I love this, because it speaks to the kind of generative teaching that we want to see in responsive classrooms.
4. Gayle differentiates science and the curriculum, and associates the former with quality and the latter with lack of quality.  (AND associates the former with science majors and the latter with teachers who have little or no science background.)