OLD School

Next Tuesday, EJHS will be completing its first OLD school day.  OLD stands for Online Learning Day.  This was just approved by the school board and some teachers are scrambling to get plans together.

Basically, all EJHS juniors are taking the ACT on Tuesday.  To cut down on distraction noise, all other students get to stay home.  The catch is, though, that they will still have online assignments to complete for their classes.  If they complete the assignments, they are marked present.  If not, it is an unexcused absence.  Teachers will still be at EJHS.  We will have training in the morning and then be available in the afternoon for students to call or e-mail with questions regarding their assignments.

Depending on how this day goes, EJHS may petition to have this type of school day once every two weeks next year.  What do you all think?

I feel like students have the potential to be bogged down by busy work, which is not fair to them.  It is difficult to come up with independent assignments in every subject.  In addition, the teacher may have to re-teach everything anyway, since they cannot see how students are doing as they move along with the lesson.  I'll admit that I am not initially a huge fan of OLD school, but I am curious to see how it turns out!

Biology EOC

There has been a lot of talk at EJHS about the EOC at the end of the year for Biology.  Although I am not in a biology classroom, we are still looking at ways to prepare our kids for what they will eventually have to take.  The whole science department is having to look at the order of courses and decide where to teach background material.  Basically, they've decided that EOC prep needs to start the student's freshman year and progress until they take biology junior year.  There are a lot of chemistry concepts that students need to know (functional groups, hydrogen bonding, isotopes, etc) that are present on the test.  Its beginning to seem overwhelming to me to see what all these students will have to know well to be successful at the test.  I think it will be interesting to see the results at the end of the year.  In addition, I think that adding more EOC exams in the science classes, such as chemistry or physics, would be too much for students.  I do have high expectations for students and believe they can all learn the material, but I think that we are not helping students by overwhelming them with information that is nearly two semesters of content at a college level class.  I'm hoping that EJHS, and really all high schools, can learn to help students the best way possible with these new tests.

New Legislature?

So I was wondering, is there a way to get some kind of accountability for the reading level of students at an earlier age? By the time they get to high school, if they are reading at a low level, it becomes very difficult to teach them these abstract concepts. And, if they are expected to perform well on these standardized tests, which for a big part test their reading abilities, then how do we help them become better readers? There is so much emphasis placed on getting all of our content across that teaching reading is virtually out of the question. I believe the real area of improvement is somewhere between 1st and 3rd grade... That is where major hiccups occur in children getting stuck on certain reading levels and not being able to improve. So can there be some requirements placed on them based on reading at this level? Currently, teachers can recommend a student be held back, but if the parent isn't on board, it doesn't happen. What about making that mandatory, or at least some kind of enrollment in a reading program of sorts to get all students to a certain level before passing them along. I think this is the only way that anyone can honestly expect for high school teachers to get students to the level that the now mandated tests are asking them to be at.
Just some thoughts :)

Peace and Quiet at Last

On Friday, I laid down the law. In the ESL Bio class I'm teaching, the hispanic kids have been giving me some issues. So, at the beginning of class, I told them that we had a lot to get done, and that I expected all of them to stay in their assigned seats and be quiet while we were discussing class materials. This worked very well and the students were better behaved than I ever have seen them. As a result, we were able to get quite a bit done and they seemed to have a decent understanding of what we had covered that day.

Genetics

We started the genetics unit with the biology classes this past week, and I must say that I think things are going well with it. This is going to be a long unit, and very involved, but many of the concepts are some that the students have had in some capacity in the past. Judging by the first couple of classes, it seems as though most are recalling information well, and so I'm thankful to know that some kids are able to retain information acquired at a prior time. So now, in our instruction, we will be building on that and not starting from scratch. I think this is a blessing.

support group

Hey, I know this isn't what our "blog" is supposed to be.  But I just had the worst week ever.  I have really begun to doubt if this is what I want to do, or what I should be doing, or if it is going to do any good anyway.  Wednesday just absolutely tore me up to the point that I was ready to quit.  The "science teachers" are shutting me out, I don't feel like I will ever get a chance to teach.  But maybe I am not capable of it anyway.  The classes I did Monday and Tuesday were fine, but superficial.  The hardest part was on Wednesday when I had to "turn in" a suicidal child.  I felt that she wanted to talk to me because she trusted me but then I had to ( and I know it was the right thing to do) but I had to "betray" her trust and put her in the hot seat with the principal, and parents.  It broke my heart.  Right now I don't have it in me to care about lesson plans or websited or even praxis tests.  I just want to this girl out to play some basketball and let her talk about being sad and tell her that it is alright to feel that way.  That it will get better and she doesn't have to pretend to anyone that she feels alright if she doesn't.

Wow!

Today, the class I have been teaching took their unit test. The class did much better than they have been doing! I was very excited to see these results. Although the scores still aren't very high, it is definitely an improvement. Along with this, many of the students have shown more interest in their grades (possibly because the grades are going home this coming week). Because of this, I feel like I can actually reach those kids since they have some sort of buy in to what is happening. I hope we can keep this momentum up for the next unit; genetics is a long one and can get complicated!

Content

It is really humbling to be in this position of teaching. In my experience, I have had some gaps in my content knowledge, but the more I prepare to teach these subjects, the greater my understanding. I definitely am thankful I have waited for my Praxis. I think I will do much better because of this!

Intense

As some of you may have had to do already, this week I had all of the classes again. (Dr. V was gone to an EOC training at Dunbar Monday-Wednesday) This was really good for me and I got lots of good experience. The hardest part was taking on all these classes at once that I wasn't teaching regularly. The students weren't used to having me up in front of them, so it was more difficult to get them to stay on task. The class that I have been teaching was much more compliant, though. It wasn't as much of a "sub" day as it was for the others.

Lock-Down

Probably the biggest incident I've had while student teaching: a school-wide lock down.  An inmate who had escaped from Jessamine County jail was suspected to be around EJHS this afternoon, causing the school to go on lock-down.  Students were not allowed to leave the classrooms for around 2 hours.  My students were taking a quiz for part of this time, and after the bell rang to change classes and they were still in our room, they had free time.

The biggest problem with the lock-down, for our class anyway, was that it was occurring during a quiz.  Students were constantly interrupted with announcements, making it difficult for them to focus.  I know that there really was nothing different that could have been done and that school officials were handling the situation appropriately, but it really made me think about how important it is to eliminate the distractions that we have control over while students are completing an assessment.  I'm hoping that they only appeared to be distracted and that they still do well on their quiz!

The Mole Survivor

In my general chemistry class today we played a challenge review game based upon the TV show Survivor.  Students were put into tribes yesterday, complete with colors for their teams and a team name.  They were able to choose a team name from a list of group names from the periodic table: The Alkali Metals, The Alkaline Earth Metals, The Carbon Family, The Halogens, or The Noble Gases.  They made headbands to show their team spirit as well.
For today's part, each group was given a set of white boards where each white board required a certain step of a molar conversion.  They calculated an answer, and when it was correct, they got an element card and a new question.  Once they had 5 questions right and all of their element cards, the teams put their element cards in order of increasing atomic radius (a review from a past unit).  The Carbon Family ended up winning, and teams got small prizes for first place and most team spirit.
They seemed somewhat skeptical at first yesterday, but I was so excited about it that I think they decided to play along.  In the end, I think they enjoyed the review, especially since it was a break from simply working problems!

So Much Information!

Today, my Pre-AP students finished Ch. 10: The Mole.  They are taking a large quiz over it tomorrow, but they will not have a test until they finish the stoichiometry chapter.  They have been doing well so far, but these topics tend to have a ton of material, and I think that students are beginning to feel overwhelmed.  Many of their skills will be used throughout the next unit, but I am still worried about them losing Ch. 10 content before their test.  I'm going to have to brainstorm some ideas to keep them up to speed with the new material while not forgetting the old!

The Importance of Exit Slips

My supervising teacher does not typically do exit slips for her students. We have been having several quizzes during the Stoichiometry unit instead. After last Thursday, I learned the importance of exit slips. These can offer quicker feedback, so that the next lesson can be altered based on how well the students are or are not grasping new concepts. I will definitely be implementing this into my lessons!

Monday's Staff Meeting

Evaluations and conferences are fast approaching so the teachers go over each student.  The student's advisor writes up the final evaluation and has the parent/student conference.  So they take turns reviewing students- for example the Humanities teacher asks how "Tommy" is doing in Science.  The conversation is equally about accomplishments, attitudes, and behavior.  A lot of attention is given to student interactions.  For example, Jason behaves very well when he is around Claire, but when he sits near Lucie they quickly get off task.  It's fascinating actually.

Do you remember the shadowing assignment when we were to compare the student's behavior from one class to another?  It isn't just about the student interaction with the teacher, the subject, or the classroom management style.  It might just be about who the student is sitting near.

Reflection on this week

I had my students present as a milestone for their projects this week. I couldn't believe how well they did and how interested all the other students were in each others projects. This seems to be a great way to keep the students engaged and to make them learn by teaching. I have really enjoyed project-based learning even though it can be difficult to manage time and give up some control over the class. I am two weeks into the unit with another two to go and I am excited to see how much the students will be able to understand and apply by the end of the unit.

E=USE2

I did the E=USE2 at Morton middle on Monday. I was surprised at how well the 6th graders understood and could apply the information that they learned. I thought it went really great and the whole class was engaged throughout the lesson. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed teaching the 6th graders! They were a fun group to work with. I really like the E=USE2 program and am excited to teach it at a few other schools!

Minor disruption

This was a very odd week at MMSK.  The floor that waas being resurfaced was not complete so all the classes were moved around.  The students who met in the common room were clearly more distracted than usual.  The lessons were still very productive overall.  Transitions took longer, between discussions and between classes.  Given an excuse these kids will goof off a bit and be silly, but they are never openly defiant or unwilling.  They are interested in learning but sometimes they would rather socialize.  Montessori accepts that becoming socially aware is an important part of this stage in their lives.

Science Fair

Today, I got to serve as a judge for Fayette county's district science fair. It was a very rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to meet science teachers and other members of the science community. I got to judge 4th Grade Chemistry projects. I was very impressed with some of the projects that the students did. It was nice to see students involved in the science process. It would have been great to have seen more of the student science projects, but there were over 700 of them! I can't wait to judge the science fair next year! 

Leestown Middle

Today I did my last E=USE2 presentation at Leestown Middle School. This was a great school to go to as they have a brand new building! Their energy savings were off the chart, so they were all excited about this. I was amazed at how engaged this group of 24 7th graders was. Tresine and I were there for about an hour with them, and they were into it the whole time! However, this was a class of pre-engineering students so, at least in my experience, students who are in advanced classes already have a tendency to be more involved in their own education than those who aren't.

Cats!

This week, we started cat dissections in anatomy. This is my first time dissecting a cat. Actually, the only other thing I have dissected was a fetal pig about 3 years ago. So really, this is a great learning experience for me. I don't know all of the muscles that they are looking for or even what they should look like, but I'm excited to keep helping with this so I'll be more prepared in the future to do this with a class of my own.

Bad Idea

A terrible thing to do as a teacher is to get the flu! I had to miss a day this week, and I felt like I had to work so much harder to get back into the swing of things. I have finally got caught up, but it took a while. I would prefer to avoid all sicknesses altogether :)

ABC's of Testing

I just got out of a faculty meeting this morning and wanted to share before I forgot about it this afternoon.  The focus of today's meeting was to discuss logistics of the ACT testing day for juniors that is coming up in March.  Teachers have various duties that day, including signing students in, proctoring the test, and even serving breakfast to students.  The principal could not stress enough the importance of this test.  Along with helping students, the ACT also affects the rating of the school based on college and career readiness.  Obviously, I have heard about the ACT.  From my own experience, I have also heard about the PLAN (pre-ACT) and PSAT (pre-SAT.)  I was surprised to hear about the ASVAB, Compass, and Coyote tests.  So, together, we have the ACT, PLAN, PSAT, ASVAB, Compass, Coyote, EOC, etc.  Once I got past the overwhelming number of letters thrown at me, I began thinking about how much students are tested.  Add this to the in class exams, homework, and quizzes, and I'm sure students are overwhelmed as well.  Its made me begin to think about ways to incorporate test prep into my class in ways that don't overwhelm students and seem applicable to them given the unit we are in.

Chemistry CSI

We did an activity in class today that I thought was creative, so I wanted to share!  A past teacher had found it, and it was tucked away in a folder in my classroom.  To continue with unit on moles, dimensional analysis, and stoichiometry, today's lesson was on empirical formulas (the lowest ratio of elements in a compound).  After teaching students how to calculate empirical formulas, they were put in groups to solve a mystery.  In short, Mole Airlines flight 1023 (get it??) crashed recently.  At the scene, passengers couldn't be identified, but first responders were able to collect samples and find compounds on a series of people.  My students were to use the percent compositions of the compounds to determine the empirical formula.  They had a list of corresponding compounds and passengers (i.e. the body who had aspartame in the blood belonged to a teacher who was addicted to diet soda.)  Students identified passengers.  Before the plane crashed, one passenger mas murdered by another.  Students also found formulas of poison to determine the victim and the killer.  It was not a good day for Flight 1023.  Students seemed to really enjoy this activity, especially being able to work in teams to solve a puzzle.  It was a cool forensics tie-in to break up the monotony of solving math problems!

Getting it!

Today, I gave a formative assessment on stoichiometry. I was extremely pleased with the students scores. The students really seem to be getting the concepts. I'm so proud of them!

General Chemistry Adaptations

I am student teaching in three Pre-AP Chemistry classes and one General Chemistry class.  So far, I have two of the Pre-AP classes, so I have had just one prep.  The general classes cover about the same material as the Pre-AP ones do, but they do not go as in-depth.  It had seemed that the same lesson was used for both until today.  General chemistry started learning about the mole today.  I really noticed how my CT adapted the lesson and slowed the pace down to meet the needs of the class.  They only discussed representative particles and conversion factors today, when for Pre-AP, we talked about both of these and Avogadro's number in half of a class period.  I'm going to have to keep these adaptations in mind when I eventually pick up the general chemistry prep.

Unit Plan

I think I am going to bring in a spinning wheel as a hands-on lesson when we begin the next 3-Period unit.  The Unit is Simple Machines/Work/Force etc.  The two I have are in rough shape and I haven't regularly spun in 10 years, but I think it would be worth the effort even if it is only a brief demonstration.  MMSk expects that the students will develop and implement their own projects in the third period so perhaps a student or two will want to work with the wheels.

Job Description

At MMSK the teachers are Guides.  Not just in name, but in function as well.  The role of a Guide at Montessori is becoming more familiar to me.  It is different than what I observed at Woodford County and Bryan Station.  In fact it is fairly different than everything I have been learning at UK.  At the Montessori school the guide functions as a resource for the students.  Rather than bringing the material, or even the process, to the students, a Guide at Montessori helps students when they ask for help.  This is easy to understand by observing the classroom when the class is working on their Lab Reports.  If Johnny is struggling with adding labels to his bar graph in Excel, he will ask the teacher for help.  If Suzy is confused about what the conclusion should say, she will ask for help.  Very often the teacher will ask another student to help.  The students rotate through the computers so a student may be called in to help another briefly.  But the Guide is the initial resource that the student's turn to.  There is a range among the students for the level at which they ask for help. 

The Guide also reminds students to behave appropriately and stay on task.  This is done with respect and kindness. 

The General Class...

So I've taken over the general level bio class. I started with this past unit, photosynthesis, and we culminated that with a test on Friday. When I looked at their test scores, I did not get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside... It was more of an "Oh no! What happened?!?!" This class is made up of mostly students who do not know English very well. So it seems like even when they are quiet and "listening" to me, they don't really understand what is going on. I don't know how to reach them if they can't understand me and vice-versa. On top of this, most of those students don't seem to care about trying to learn; they are just there because they have to be. So I am giving them a different seating chart this coming week, but at this point, I'm concerned if that will only make discipline issues easier to handle but do nothing for their learning...

Success!

After spending a few days this past week tutoring a group of students after school, they had their test on Friday. In looking at their results, every one of them saw an improvement over last test. Some of them had a drastic improvement. This was awesome for me to see, and I was so excited to know that I had a hand in helping them achieve a higher level of success. This sort of thing is what makes me happy to be a teacher! :)

E=USE2

Yesterday I got to participate in my first E=USE2 lesson. It was awesome! I had a group of honors IS1 students. They actually got to use netbooks to enter the data, so they had the opportunity to manipulate the data on their own. Many of the students came to great conclusions about the data. There was some excellent classroom discussion. Overall it was an excellent lesson and great experience.

quick question

Quick Note.

Anyone having issues, concerns, etc. about teacher attitudes, procedures, methods? 
I've encountered a few surprising siuations.  Primarily the difficulty has been with teacher-teacher interactions. 

I'll blog more later...

Sub-Driving Questions

I wanted to brag on my Physics students a bit because they have done such an awesome job with their projects so far. Some of the sub driving questions that I have received for the project are:

"How much momentum is transferred when a bullet hits a baseball?" (They are going to do this and film it in their free time)

"Are the impacts seen in Hollywood films possible or deadly?" (They are examining the Jet-Extraction scene from 'The Dark Knight')

"When a rock climber falls (with a rope attached safely), how high does the person belaying them go in the air and what is the force on each person?" (They are examining a YouTube video of a clip of people climbing at the Red River Gorge and creating their own experiment)

I am lucky that these are such great students and I think their projects are going to be great!!

My First Discipline Issue

I had to write a student up yesterday. It really had me flustered because the student was in trouble before school had technically even started. I've taught four days in there and this was the third day that the student has cussed at me for politely asking him to sit where he is supposed to and not by his friend. I talked with my teacher and the assistant principal and it seems that a lot of students are like this where they like to push their limits with new teachers and see how they react...just a heads up to the rest of you. As a solution I am trying to be a positive influence for the kid now and make friends with him. Hopefully it works out!

Better late than never!

I'm finally blogging!!

I started my unit on momentum last Friday in my Physics class. I am incorporating a pretty much full-on project-based learning teaching style. The instructor gave me 20 days to do the unit and there is not a ton of material so it really lent itself to PBL. The driving question is "How can we analyze forces and velocities associated with collisions?" The class that I am teaching is the best and brightest students at Woodford and I can't believe how fast they understand the material and how creative they can be! I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress and how well they understand the material...

Tates Creek Fellowship

Yesterday, I got to attend the Tates Creek Fellowship meeting. (previously known as fellowship of Christian athletes) I really have to say that I'm constantly impressed with the students at TCHS. This club meets once a month at 7:45am before school starts. It is a place for students to discuss school, life, family, and God. The topics these students discuss are amazing! The leader of the club recited a poem he had written, so far I've only heard two of his poems. I was almost brought to tears it was so good! I feel blessed to be in this school community, and am loving every day of it!

Solo Day

Yesterday, I arrived at school at my normal time to receive a phone call that my CT was staying home with a sick grandchild.  While a sub would be in the classroom, she asked me to run all of the classes.  We have two preps, and I have been making lesson plans for one of them.  The prep that I haven't been planning was reviewing for a test today, so the plan for their class was not anything complex.

Still, though, I was surprised by how frantic I became to get everything together for 1st block (the prep that I don't have).  I had to balance making copies, finding the presentation document, getting all of the papers I needed, and reviewing the lesson plan for this 1st block, all while not leaving the room since I didn't have keys to lock the chemistry room up.  I quickly realized how crucial it is to be completely prepared each day.  I know that in a normal situation, that wasn't a spur of the moment thing, I will know what's coming and I would be prepared anyway.  Having yesterday morning, though, definitely reinforced this!

At the end of the day, I was exhausted, but I did enjoy having the classes!

Venting.

OK folks, I apologize.  I have no reason to complain.  The school I get to go to everyday is awesome, the teachers AND kids are motivated and interesting.  But... I have a lot to learn....about eighth grade curricullum, about Montessori Methods, about previous work done this year, about future plans for the year, about indiviual students and about community expectations.  Last night I gathered material to take to class today.  My binder of biology Core Curricullum to give to the teachers as examples. Various KTIP Lesson Plans (they have never seen them.) Examples of Physical Science lessons from Woodford County (where I observed last year).  My binder of UK expectations and requirements so the CT can see what she's getting into. And a MASSIVE binder of previous lessons etc, from Montessori Middle School that I really need to learn!  (And money for Peanut Butter Pie that was made in Microeconomy.)

Every morning we have a "staff" meeting.  It's a quick 15 minute check in.  But ANY problems with individuals are discussed. (For example, "Yes Roan did his math problems after class and I checked them but he is still really struggling with completion and neatness.")  Every Monday there is a 2 hour meeting after school going over the "bigger picture." 

I am starting slowly, but I am going to be involved in every facet of the school.  I have cleaning rotation responsibilities, I will participate in student-teacher conferences next month and I gathered 7 eggs yesterday.  There is just a lot of entirely new experiences for me.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it.  But it is a bit overwhelming at times.  My brain hurts.  And it is 6:30 in the morning!