PD day

I've had a few 4-day weeks lately, there is one next week as well. Too bad it's not on Monday, but 4 day weeks are relaxing. I have been wanting to get through this week more than my students wanted to only because of an exciting weekend lies ahead of me. The teaching itself is finally getting better. I think one of my classes (that I count as a class) has no one failing, a couple borderliners, but they know how to get their act in gear. A few in the other classes that have issues with their grades really dont care they are failing. As long as I've done some outside notification personally then I have done everything that I can. It is now up to them. Monday I better make some phone calls, I would do them today, but the students were not in school today, and the vision of answering the phone when it is your teacher on the other line is very shocking. So I wont risk that. It happened to me once, I almost dropped the phone. There are a couple weeks left before they can get their grade up at the end of the quarter. They can try. I had a professional development seminar today. A free tool for grading, composing lessons, contacts, etc all in one, online, and did I mention Free was what the workshop was about. It's not too bad when describing how user-friendly it is. HotChalk is the name. I might transfer my scheme of things on it starting the 4th quarter so that everything is fresh and new, nothing old. Anyways, I finally locked in on my chem students with what to teach. All along for the first few weeks I was here, I was trying to teach them some general chem that they didn't know. I would ask them at the end of class if they knew about a certain topic, if no was the answer, that was going to be what I was going to teach them for the next time I saw them. Finally I put it all together. "If the only tool you have is a hammer, treat everything as if it were a nail." - Anonymous. I am a Science teacher with a Physics background. I started teaching my chem students and have been able to stick with the same content with the last few weeks because I was teaching Nuclear Reactions with them. The lessons were easier for me and I was finding something to engage them with. It all makes sense. Next I want to teach electrochemistry, and then go over some organic chem since it touches close with the hot topics of saving the enviornment and what not. I am off to enjoy the weekend.

Relaxing Limbo

So I have it in the back of my mind to make things as easy as possible for me.  Well, I think I have that on auto-pilot.  I am planning on making this an easy week for me.  Started the week on a tuesday with a test, perhaps tomorrow will go over corrections, so that only leaves two days of new content.  Awesome!  more later.

JC

At ease

There has got to be something going wrong, because I do not feel that stressed out about anything.  I need to be observed and critiqued on how I am doing in the classroom.  The last couple weeks have been just slightly over-bearing for the students which should be where I want them.  I want to get closer to that point where it is just barely beyond their capabilities until I step in to assist them.  Overall I have great and talented students that can make it in the class if they just learned how to focus.  I am afraid they get easily lost in day-dream world or feel that they dont have to use their talents in the classroom.

Last week was mostly on Lab experiments about Newton's Laws.  Too much time was spent on Newton's 2nd Law with motion sensors, calculators, and borrowed lab equipment (almost 4 days!).  What I re-learned from this experience is to answer all questions at the end of giving instructions.  That way, I know I covered how to perform the lab in one sweep, not in multiple stages.  It could have been worse, I did spend a lot of time getting the lab room (which is still a disaster area) prepared for this, so now everyone has a spot in the physics lab, but for a tech-savvy generation, I thought they would be able to navigate through a calculator even with the directions on the board.  I still scratch my head on that one.  Newton's 3rd was a success.  There was not a lot of technology to use, and they were outside the class for the period getting physics in action.