Burning $$$

Today, my cooperating teacher set $36 on fire!

Discrepant events are a great way to get students engaged in a lesson or unit. She introduced stoichiometry today, and for you chemistry folks out there (Claire...lol) lots of kids hate this! In the demo, Propanol is mixed with water, the money is soaked in the solution, and then lit on fire. The alcohol burned giving off CO2 and leaving the dollar saturated with water. This demonstration definitely motivated students to participate in class, since we used the actual reaction to do example problems on stoichiometry. Having something concrete can increase the value of a lesson for students tremendously.

I get to teach this lesson tomorrow, and am really looking forward to it!

Tutoring

Today, I started tutoring a girl after school. It was good to get the one-on-one connection, but she was still very uninterested in the material. I did the best I could in engaging her and getting her into the learning, however she still came away saying it was boring and too much to remember. This is difficult to counteract because much of this is simply memorizing and I can't give her the in-depth understand of the material like she wants. I need to come up with some way to get that across to her clearly. I am happy to see her willingness to stay after school though and to try learning more.

E=USE2

Not directly related to student teaching, but I did my first E=USE2 lesson today at Southern Middle.  The program is carried out through a club at Southern Middle, and normally 6-7 students attend the after school meetings.  Today, though, one student showed up.  It was more of a E=USE2 one-on-one workshop.  I felt bad for the student, as he was a quiet student and did not necessarily benefit from the discussion that went with the lesson.  I tried to engage him and ask questions to get him talking, but it was extremely difficult to do so.  We talked about all of the graphs and looked at the sustainability website.  Hopefully the student and the teacher will be able to convey the data and graphs to the other members of the club.

Week One

This week at MMSK has been spent observing and I look forward to begining to contribute more in the classroom.  The students seem quite comfortable and open to my participation in the instruction.  The overall approach of cross-content and inclusivity means that I interact with all the students throughout the day.  It is undoubtably a "community" that I am joining, not just a class. 

I hope the units and lessons I teach will not set me apart - like a guest speaker - but rather offer a new personality but not an entirely different perspective.

Inquiry

We did a guided inquiry lab for the bio class. This was to see if light was required for photosynthesis. They were given a few materials and told to design an experiment to determine if light was necessary. Most of them came up with a set-up very quickly. I believe all of them actually came up with the same design (which isn't really surprising since they all had the same equipment). The experiments are all still running and the results will come next week! I think this was a way cool thing to do, and I hope to do more things like that in the future.

Practice, Practice, Practice

This past Friday, my Pre-AP students started dimensional analysis with molar mass, mole, particle, mass, and other conversion problems.  I'd like to say that it was a high energy class, but it became what I picture a math class as: show a type of problem, work a problem, students do a problem.  In talking with my cooperating teacher, she said that this was probably the best way to work on "Math-istry," (the math side of chemistry).  The students were fairly engaged, and I was surprised, given the nature of the lesson.  I'm wanting to create a more creative way to teach these lessons over the next couple of weeks, if only to keep students engaged with what they are doing.

Last night I went to my first basketball game at TCHS. The girls team played at 6:00pm, and the boys at 8:00pm. There were very few people to watch the girls play in the beginning, but after half time, more students, parents, and teachers showed up to offer their support. I was excited to see my students play, cheer, and dance- they did a great job, even though both teams eventually lost to Lexington Catholic. I was also pleased to see that many of my students were there to support their school and friends. Sports and social events are an important part of High School life, and its important that teachers also support their students in any way possible!

Blah Blah Blah....!

Kids like to talk! Today I was teaching an ESL Biology class and some of the students were congregating together and talking quite a bit. A couple of times, this did get disruptive; I had to calm them down and get them refocused. One thing that I want to try is giving them assigned seats. If I can split up the groups so that I don't have small pockets of people speaking their native languages while not paying attention to anything else, that would be great. I talked to my cooperating teacher and he thought it would be a good thing to do as well. But, we are going to wait until the next unit starts so the students may be able to see this as a way to learn in a more effective way and not just a random punishment.

Hi!

Hi Guys,

Just checking to make sure I am able to post to this blog.

Attendance

Student attendance is extremely important for student success. A few students were absent during I.B. Chemistry today. The students were learning about hybridization, bond length, bond angle, and bond order. The students and the teacher will have to make some time before or after school to discuss these new concepts. The students really needed to learn these new concepts as the teacher was out the two days prior due to sickness. Students as well as teachers need to be at school as often as possible so that the students have each and every opportunity to learn.

Early Release Day

Today was an Early Release day at EJHS.  This means that we only had three of five classes for the day.  My first block is the only section of General Chemistry, so the progress of the class was not disrupted.  2nd, 3rd, and 4th blocks are all Pre-AP Chemistry, so they have the same lesson each day.  With the early release, I had 2nd and 3rd, but not 4th, which created a problem regarding what class should be about today.  Fortunately, tomorrow they are all taking a test, so today acted as a review for 2nd and 3rd, while 4th did not miss any new concepts.  I can see how these Early Release days can cause problems, though, when they disrupt consistency in the classes.  I know there is always review, but I think it is a challenge to make the reviews on these days actually seem worthwhile to the students.

Testing...

I am attempting to post to our blog.  Please let me know if this works. 

So, today at MMSK I helped collect eggs then watched the students leave for their monthly Service Activities.  Fourth Wednesday every month the students all participate in Community Service activities.  There are about seven different groups that utilize the students.  Examples are Habitat for Humanity, Faith in Action, and God's Pantry.
Did I mention that the "bell" is rung by hand?  It's a beautiful sound.