AACT Member Spotlight: Kristina McDonald



Every month AACT spotlights a passionate member who is dedicated to enhancing chemistry inside and outside the classroom. This month, we spotlight Kristina McDonald. She teaches Chemistry and General Science at St. Anne's Catholic Secondary School, in Clinton, Ontario, Canada. 

Tell us about yourself.
I am a chemistry teacher in Clinton, Ontario, Canada and have been teaching for almost 25 years. I have university degrees in Biochemistry and Food Science and I even worked in the food industry for several years before going into teaching. I love to cook/bake, garden, travel and read. I enjoy learning new things and take great pride in my vegetable garden (thank goodness for having the summer off!).

Why did you become a teacher? Did you always want to teach?

I had an amazing Chemistry teacher in high school named Mrs. Freitag. She was no nonsense and quite traditional but we loved that class and many of us enjoyed the challenge of the content and rising up to meet it. I thought I might be a pharmacist but then found my way into Food Science. I loved all of the 'chemistry' applications of what I was learning in school and in my food industry jobs and then at the age of 28, I decided to go back to teacher's college and become a chemistry teacher. I wanted to share my love of learning chemistry with others and hopefully ignite some level of interest and wonderment.

What fuels your passion for science and teaching?

The students. I go to work each day and spend lots of hours working at home for them. I am constantly trying to think of ways that I can engage more of them or make the content more interesting. I love to find new labs and assignments that will be applicable and interesting to them. My biggest hope is that they will see the benefit of hard work and a strong work ethic to not just learning chemistry, but succeeding in all areas of life.

In order to refuel my passion for teaching, I cannot stress how important chemistry conferences, workshops, social media and groups like AACT are to teachers. This type of professional development is crucial for us to refill our own cups and get ideas and suggestions on how to teach chemistry in new and different ways. Many chemistry teachers do not have a big group of support within their schools so we must be active and find it where we can.

What topic do you find hardest for students? How do you teach it?

I find this changes each semester. Typically I can rely on the fact that certain areas will be tougher such as intermolecular forces, equilibrium and organic reactions. But sometimes, students will struggle with ideas like concentrations of solutions or chemical reactions. When this happens, I look at myself first to see how I taught it. Sometimes, we can assume students know subtle details because WE know them and have been doing this for so long.

To gauge how students are doing with the content, I love doing daily review for the first 10 minutes of class. I will review concepts from the previous lesson or two using mini whiteboards. I will ask students simple questions (like definitions or a quick calculation) based on the content and have them hold up the whiteboard with their answer while I circulate. I can then help out students right away that might struggling or the students will help each other while trying to get the right answer. It is quick and effective. I also find exit tickets or mastery checks very valuable for students to test their knowledge about concepts.

Why did you become involved with AACT? What are the benefits of being involved?

I learned about AACT at a ChemEd conference over 15 years ago. I was blown away that there was an organization developed for us! AACT is my go-to resource hub and I access all of it - from the lesson plans, assignments, articles, webinars, ChemClub, etc. It has provided valuable and meaningful additions to my teaching and in turn, benefits my students. I love the resources in particular as they provide teacher notes, tips and answers. I can count on the fact that these resources are good if fellow chemistry teachers are suggesting them.

Share some words of wisdom to other chemists.

Don't think you know it all - you do not. The best part of this job is that it does not get boring and if you let it become boring, you are not doing enough as a teacher. The only constant in life is change, so change with education as well. Learn new strategies, new technologies and new ways to connect with your students. Constantly strive to make things better (not perfect - that is just too hard).