New Adventures

On Tuesday, I had a running adventure with a colleague. Right after school, we drove to a park nearby (but in the safe, suburban nearby). I took my new running shoes and had a lovely time. I ran 2 miles up a gorgeous hill, and 2 miles back down. At the top, I had a beautiful view of Newark and Manhattan. I plan to do the same next Tuesday.

The rest of the week was stressful due to the start of the 4th round of IAs. I had some pretty rigorous review lessons planned, and had a surprisingly good time doing them. Wednesday's lesson was a review of graphing, with a focus on comparing distance vs. time and speed vs. time graphs. Students are good at looking at one aspect of one type of graph, but once different types of questions were asked about both graphs at the same time, the students got very confused. The lesson was geared towards looking at the axes and breaking down the given information. This worked very well for about 75% of the kids. What was interesting, though, was that breaking it down did NOT work well for the top students. I had a few of my smartest students having a really frustrating time trying to break down ideas that they already understood at a higher level. On the other hand, I had students understanding some concepts for the first time. In the future, I will do this type of lesson much earlier, probably along with the first introduction to the two types of graphs.  I don't think I got close to 100% mastery, but in 55 minutes, I brought about 30% to 50%. It's a start. Definitely an opportunity to improve for next year.


Thursday's lesson was focused on multiple choice questions. In order to keep the high kids challenged, and the low kids engaged in more review, I introduced the students to some trick questions. I taught them the phrase, "You're being silly. You can't determine that from the given information." I gave them multiple choice questions with two answers, and had them argue it out, until that one bright kid's face lights up, hand shoots up, and I get the answer I was looking for: "You're both right. The answer is both B and C because..."


I hope I'm teaching the students to think critically and to not take anything for face value. This is really my ultimate goal as a science teacher, and I'm proud that I finally figured out a 7th grade way to do so.


That afternoon, I had to cancel my run because the hilly-new-shoes run from Tuesday left me with an excruciatingly sore calf. Fortunately, I felt good enough for the weekend.