Article by Amanda Hugnkiss
Albuquerque Public Schools made national headlines this week when the National Teacher of the Year was announced as Madison Middle School's own Sarah Askey. Mrs. Askey has been a science teacher at Madison for only 3 years but has already made a big impression in the hearts of her students.
I recently spoke with Mrs. Askey and asked her how she came to be a nationally recognized educator, she said "I am so overwhelmed by the support I have received from my students, their parents and APS. However, I would never have been able to achieve this award without the excellent training I received from CNM's Alternative Teaching License program. It was there that I began to think outside the box"
Think outside the box she did, sometimes ruffling feathers along the way. Jennifer Garcia principal of Madison has this to say "When Mrs. Askey started here at Madison, she had big ideas. She wanted a hands on approach to science that we have never really done here before. She and I had a few conflicts at the beginning but after her class received excellent scores on the standardized tests, I began to think her methods might have some merit."
What were those unorthodox methods? We turn to Whitney Hull a social studies teacher at Madison Middle School. "Sarah is very enthusiastic about science and her students. She takes the time to really understand where they are coming from, their background to say. She uses that to tweak her lesson plans so that they are fun, exciting and relevant to her class. I often peak in to see what she is up to." said Hull.
The parents are pleased with her teaching methods as well. "I never thought my son had an aptitude for science, it just wasn't something he cared about. Mrs. Askey changed that. She took the time to find out he was interested in skateboarding and focused a whole physics lesson around a skateboard. She made it relevant to his interests. He is now thinking of becoming a middle school science teacher. Mrs. Askey was always very up front with us parents, she explained the grading criteria and kept in touch with updates on Will's progress." said Abigail Smith.
Will Smith had this to say about his nationally recognized teacher, "Mrs. Askey rocks!!!! She always had a fun interactive experiment for us to do or watch, they usually use fire or explosions. Once she filled a tub with cornstarch and water so we could run across the non-Newtonian fluid it made, it was awesome! She makes me look forward to coming to school, and that says a lot."
Here is a video of the class enjoying the non-Newtonian fluid experiment in Spain:
Ruffling feathers, caring for the kids thinking out of the box, making things happen for the kids.
ReplyDeleteThe video was great and the structure and layout of the article was good.
Good job.
Reminds me of walking into my AP Physics class in 12th grade and finding Mr. Miller hammering with all his might the bottom of a Baloney bottle. We just sat there for 5 minutes in awe. He brought out a larger hammer and it just wouldn't break. Then asked two or three students to try to break it- nothing. Finally he took it out of the vice and noticed a small pebble on the desk, grunted and said- at least it'll be useful for something, dropped the pebble (and I am talking small pebble) into the bottle and it shattered everywhere. Upon which we started to enter into the concept of force, Newtons Laws and several other related topics. That's you- good job.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that non-Newtonian fluid experiment looks like so much fun. They should have a tub like that at some museum in town so we can all just go run across it. Maybe they do at Explora sometimes. Anyway looks like you really deserve teacher of the year. I particularly like how you base your lessons off of the students interests to get the students involved and excited about science. I like how in 2017 there are no printed newspapers so videos are naturally apart of articles.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI think that you will make science so fun and interesting for your students! I like the example you used of the student who really liked to skateboard and how you focused the lesson around physics and skating. I think that relating science and math to the real/physical world is very useful and facilitates learning the material. I also think that keeping the parents involved or at least updated, is great too. This shows students and their parents that you care about their education, and it helps you understand what type of support the student has at home and how this affects their participation in school. I think that your dedication, creativity and enthusiasm will be evident in your teaching!
Funny. I made non-Newtonian fluid (or gak as we called it) once with my Girl Scout troop. We put it in plastic baggies, but now I'm wishing we had filled the bathtub with it. How fun!
ReplyDelete