I place myself squarely in the first category. Having taught science for several years, I am confident about some of the strategies that I've used in the past to help students learn basic science facts for classroom and state tests. However, I also realize that the NGSS demands much more than content coverage and the recall of facts. NGSS demands that students experience science as scientists and that they develop their own conceptual understandings about big ideas in science. These conceptual understandings take time to develop, but they last longer in students' minds than a unit or the school year. The NGSS also demands instruction that integrates the three dimensions (disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts). This kind of instruction is difficult to achieve on a daily basis. So, I spend a lot of time planning and collaborating. Then, I watch as things don't go quite the way I planned for them to. My colleague and I spend time debriefing lessons and figuring out what worked and what didn't work. In doing this, we make adjustments for next year as well as fine tuning our instructional practice for future units.
On a regular basis, we take risks. And you can often hear us say between classes, "well, that didn't go the way we hoped." As we embrace the growth mindset, we can fail forward. Using each success and failure as a building block for our NGSS instruction.
Our other choice would be pretending we know everything, risking nothing, and robbing our students of higher-quality science instruction.
There's no better time that now to admit that you don't know everything--the standards are new so no one knows everything. Together we are smarter and stronger. Use this year to start a blog and share your classroom successes and failures. We can all move forward together, ensuring that our students received an ever-improving science education. To share your blog posts with more people, please promote them on Twitter with the hashtag #NGSSblogs.