Towards the end of the year I start to worry. Firstly that my students won’t be ready for the exams, secondly that they won’t be ready for the exams. And when they do their first practise exam this usually only adds to my worries – there always seems to be a lot they don’t remember from the year. But it is good to remember that these are the same students who have worked hard throughout the year and achieved good results in their SACs. Its just taking a little longer than expected to see all of that good work bring them a return on their investment. It reminds me of the zucchini seeds that I planted in the garden at the beginning of spring. Nothing came up and I began to worry. But eventually the weather warmed up and everything came together to sprout a little zucchini plant. Likewise, with more practice, the seeds of knowledge that they have sown throughout the year will soon begin to sprout.

Helping all students achieve success in Chemistry can appear to be an elusive goal. It is a challenging subject where students need to draw on extensive background knowledge, transform this knowledge and apply it in news way. It is when I am teaching a new class that I again remember that learning to ‘walk’ in this subject will always involve a few miscalculated steps and failures. In fact, the journey from an uncertain ‘walk’ to a confident ‘run’ will certainly not occur unless students accept that failure is part of the learning process. However, many of our students believe that mistakes are bad and perfect work is good. In surveys that I have undertaken across a number of year levels, most students agree with the statement that ‘they like their work to be perfect without any mistakes’. The desire to be perfect drives students to just want the ‘right’ answer now. But checking the worked solutions as soon as they hit the first hurdle robs students of experiencing the elation that comes with having slaved away at a question for many minutes or maybe hours and then suddenly the unknown become known. This same joy of discovery is one of the reasons why Scientists labour for many years trying to unlock the secrets embedded in their research question. The other day I was working with a student who is preparing for the Chemistry Olympiad exam and we struck a problem that we just could not solve. For all of lunch we furiously crunched the numbers but then the bell went and we had to leave the problem – what angst at not having just a little more time. As soon we both had a few moments to spare, we had another go and sure enough within a few minutes the solution was found. What fun! The dead ends, the trials, the errors, all of what you could call failures, only made the victory all the more sweeter. It is failure that highlights the gaps in our understanding and spurs us onto even greater knowing. It is failure that prepares a student for the challenges of the end of year exam. It is failure that teaches students that if they persist they will find a way. So I say “Bring on the difficult exam questions, do your worst. We are ready for the battle with pen in hand and a certain knowledge that with hard work and persistence we will be victorious.”

My first post. And I am certainly starting at the very beginning. I am madly pressing buttons everywhere trying to get things to work. It’s like learning how to drive a manual car all over again. Stalling and grinding gears. Frustration for those in the car and those behind. But as with all these things, there is a persistence to try and make it work because it will mean so much more flexibility. Driving meant freedom to explore the world beyond the bus and train network. Blogging means the freedom to explore the world beyond reading other peoples ideas to creating my own. A daunting task. One I am sure will come with a few flat tires along the way.