MYP Science Teacher Billi Jones has been a teacher for over 20 years now and has a passion for teaching her middle school students all about the scientific world. She has experienced teaching in all corners of the world, from China to the US, and now Romania.
What follows is Billi’s story, in Billi’s own words:
When I first started thinking about teaching [as a career], I went and volunteered through my school for a reading recovery program with a young kindergarten group. I enjoyed that, but one of the teachers went up and asked me, ‘You really have so much energy, have you ever thought of [teaching] middle school? My friend teaches and is looking for some volunteer work.’ I went and volunteered, and they [the class] were doing a [mock] weather station, outdoors, they had little microphones with rain jackets and cameras. It was amazing, and I thought, ‘Wow, I could do this, I would enjoy this.’ I volunteered on and off for the rest of the semester. And I still keep in touch with her [the teacher] to this day. She’s retired many years, but she is what got me into [teaching] middle school.
What I look for in a student is someone who is engaged, who takes risks, and enjoys helping others. If I notice a student who can’t focus, always needs to go to the bathroom, needs to fill up their water, or is just messing about, I try to support that student’s growth by asking what I can do to help them. By supporting those students, it’s not about changing them, it’s about trying to give them the environment in which they do their best. I often have conversations outside of class with them, pulling them out in the hall and having little discussions with them. I can’t sit still for 80 minutes; I wouldn’t expect students to do it, but sometimes we have to. I try to find ways to ensure they’re still learning the subject matter, even when they’re coming in with something that inhibits them, that makes it harder for them.
I think the biggest mistake we make as teachers is not making the MYP Command Terms understood. So even if there is a student who is struggling to stay focused in class, doesn’t understand the concept, or can’t keep up with work, still knows what I want for them to do in a question. It’s the understanding of what the teacher wants that should be very transparent.
If I could design a unit and wouldn’t have to worry about summatives or any of that, I would bring in specialists on global warming, and the new technologies that are being invented to try to fix the problem. There is tons of stuff out there already, but people aren’t aware of it. So getting people up here, asking students to come up with plans and ideas. I think that younger people who don’t have a clue whether [their solutions] would work or not will be the ones to come up with unique answers to these problems. If we could do that, that would be amazing.