The numbers are in. 90% of my students completed a Science Fair project! I'm really proud of them and me. Next year, I hope to have 90% completion with less class time lost.
In class, I'm back to routine. It's wonderful. I've laid down the expectations, and kids are (mostly) following them. One of my classes decided to be super difficult, but I have a new weapon: lunch detention. Tomorrow, I will have 7 students during lunch. If they don't show up, they get in-school suspension.
I taught well today. I had all sorts of students volunteering answers, it was great. Today, we learned how to determine whether work is being performed on an object. Tomorrow, we learn to calculate work and what mitosis is.
This morning, one of my students walked up to my desk, and said sheepishly, "Miss, I have sticky fingers." And he handed me a small Gumby figurine that used to sit on my desk. At least the kids aren't all bad.
I have started tutoring again, now that I'm not completely overwhelmed (and could use a few more dollars). I found a high school junior who needs help in math. I met her last night. She understands the work, but needs reminding on some concepts before the midterm tomorrow. It's really fun working with students one-on-one again.
Yeah, I pretty much love my job, even when the kids are being difficult.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
SCIENCE FAIR!!!
Science Fair will be over in one hour. And some time tomorrow for kids to finish up presenting. And some awards awarded on Monday.
I'm proud. The science chairperson is proud. My colleagues are proud. It's awesome.
Today was a whirlwind of scheduling challenges. I was told to request a sub, so we could have an extra adult around to help with the fair. I thought it was a great idea. I was planning to take my classes down to the library to view the boards and do some of their presentations during class time.
Unfortunately, the plans were different. The sub arrived during homeroom, and I was told my job was to stay at the fair all day. I could take four or five kids with me at a time, to help show classes and community members through. Cool! I can spend the whole day overseeing my best students teaching younger classes.
That wasn't exactly how it worked. First of all, it meant that other than a few kids, the 7th and 8th graders never got to walk through the fair and see all of the boards. The principal didn't want me taking my classes down so it wouldn't be too crowded if any parents or community members showed up. Unfortunately, there were classes scheduled for the library at several points during the day, so it was marginally chaotic anyway, and I couldn't do the small group presentations. Also, the younger classes were never given a schedule of when they should come down, so other than the time that the entire 2nd grade (2 classes) was called down over the loudspeaker, and that time a fifth grade class decided to show up, I never saw any other classes.
A few teachers stopped by on their own, including my mentor and my favorite science teacher in the school upstairs. The science chairperson even visited, and had wonderful things to say. I'm a pretty big fan of her. She is really supportive.
I spent the day generally being exhausted and getting a bunch of paperwork done. Overall, the day was a pleasant surprise, and I'm really freaking grateful that this thing is over. Until next year. [Cue scary music.]
I'm proud. The science chairperson is proud. My colleagues are proud. It's awesome.
Today was a whirlwind of scheduling challenges. I was told to request a sub, so we could have an extra adult around to help with the fair. I thought it was a great idea. I was planning to take my classes down to the library to view the boards and do some of their presentations during class time.
Unfortunately, the plans were different. The sub arrived during homeroom, and I was told my job was to stay at the fair all day. I could take four or five kids with me at a time, to help show classes and community members through. Cool! I can spend the whole day overseeing my best students teaching younger classes.
That wasn't exactly how it worked. First of all, it meant that other than a few kids, the 7th and 8th graders never got to walk through the fair and see all of the boards. The principal didn't want me taking my classes down so it wouldn't be too crowded if any parents or community members showed up. Unfortunately, there were classes scheduled for the library at several points during the day, so it was marginally chaotic anyway, and I couldn't do the small group presentations. Also, the younger classes were never given a schedule of when they should come down, so other than the time that the entire 2nd grade (2 classes) was called down over the loudspeaker, and that time a fifth grade class decided to show up, I never saw any other classes.
A few teachers stopped by on their own, including my mentor and my favorite science teacher in the school upstairs. The science chairperson even visited, and had wonderful things to say. I'm a pretty big fan of her. She is really supportive.
I spent the day generally being exhausted and getting a bunch of paperwork done. Overall, the day was a pleasant surprise, and I'm really freaking grateful that this thing is over. Until next year. [Cue scary music.]
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Pre-Meds
Today I am tired in a way that can only be described as "The Day Before Science Fair". Although, as my grandmother pointed out, it seems like so recently that it was September and that Science Fair was ages away. Today I spent a lot of time setting up the library for the event. It'll go well, I think. I'll try to take lots of pictures.
This weekend, I had lunch with a college friend. We ate delicious, cheap Venezuelan food and complained about pre-meds.
Pre-meds. Pre-medical students. A rare breed of student that I interacted with A LOT as a biology major at Brown. See, at Brown, if you want to study biology, they assume you want to go into medicine. My course requirements were almost identical to any medical school entry requirements.
I don't want to go into medicine. There is too much politics involved, and not the kind I can handle. I don't want to spend the next 8 years training for a job. (Yeah, I know, I'm always learning, but this is different.) I don't want to sacrifice time spent interacting with patients so I can pay my high malpractice insurance. Most importantly, I don't want to spend any more time with pre-meds.
Brown offered an interesting program called the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). PLME students had applied right out of high school for an 8 year program, which is pretty much just undergraduate stacked under medical school consecutively. The advantage is that it allowed students to skip the whole medical school application process, which is the worst application process I've seen. This meant that of my peers, a certain number of them could fly through science courses with no concern over grades or competition.
The PLME program was created so students could explore other areas, and become more well-rounded. Unfortunately, that is not what happens. Students either keep the hyper-competitive, impossible-to-be-around attitude of other pre-meds, or they take the opposite route and spend four expensive years drinking cheap liquor.
My pre-med friend is one of the only PLMEs I know who took the third route. She joined EMS to get some patient care experience (although she was already an EMT at home). She double-majored in biology and Spanish. She spent her summers working as an ER tech/translator in a hospital. She took the opportunity she had to not worry about MCAT scores and GPAs, and made the world a better place. (She also was part of my other two favorite campus groups, the best ever co-ed literary fraternity and the coolest Jewish a cappella group.) I wish all pre-meds were like her.
I wanted to share that thought. In the mean time, I'm still keeping up with exercise and healthy(-ish) eating. Also, bar trivia. Tonight is bar trivia.
This weekend, I had lunch with a college friend. We ate delicious, cheap Venezuelan food and complained about pre-meds.
Pre-meds. Pre-medical students. A rare breed of student that I interacted with A LOT as a biology major at Brown. See, at Brown, if you want to study biology, they assume you want to go into medicine. My course requirements were almost identical to any medical school entry requirements.
I don't want to go into medicine. There is too much politics involved, and not the kind I can handle. I don't want to spend the next 8 years training for a job. (Yeah, I know, I'm always learning, but this is different.) I don't want to sacrifice time spent interacting with patients so I can pay my high malpractice insurance. Most importantly, I don't want to spend any more time with pre-meds.
Brown offered an interesting program called the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). PLME students had applied right out of high school for an 8 year program, which is pretty much just undergraduate stacked under medical school consecutively. The advantage is that it allowed students to skip the whole medical school application process, which is the worst application process I've seen. This meant that of my peers, a certain number of them could fly through science courses with no concern over grades or competition.
The PLME program was created so students could explore other areas, and become more well-rounded. Unfortunately, that is not what happens. Students either keep the hyper-competitive, impossible-to-be-around attitude of other pre-meds, or they take the opposite route and spend four expensive years drinking cheap liquor.
My pre-med friend is one of the only PLMEs I know who took the third route. She joined EMS to get some patient care experience (although she was already an EMT at home). She double-majored in biology and Spanish. She spent her summers working as an ER tech/translator in a hospital. She took the opportunity she had to not worry about MCAT scores and GPAs, and made the world a better place. (She also was part of my other two favorite campus groups, the best ever co-ed literary fraternity and the coolest Jewish a cappella group.) I wish all pre-meds were like her.
I wanted to share that thought. In the mean time, I'm still keeping up with exercise and healthy(-ish) eating. Also, bar trivia. Tonight is bar trivia.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Presentations
After a nice, long weekend, today was the first day of Science Fair presentations. I was pretty nervous about keeping my kids in line.
There was some yelling, mostly getting the kids settled in the first place after a long weekend and coming within an inch of a delayed opening. After that, though, they were great. For the most part, they were really respectful of each other. My best class today was one of my most difficult, Blue. They were quiet for each other. When a particularly timid student stood up to speak, the entire class was SILENT. Not only that, but when the speakers had finished, they had very thoughtful and (mostly) respectful questions to ask.
There were a few jabs, such as "It looks like X did more work than Y, is that true?", but there was a lot more of, "Why did you try dissolving it in soda, rather than water?" or "Did it also work in this scenario?"
I am proud of myself for running through my expectations in my head while getting ready this morning, and then repeating them as excitedly as the first time for every class. It worked.
After school, I had the privilege of watching my blind student get through a couple of levels on a Super Mario Bros. emulator. Wow. That is pretty much the coolest thing I've seen here.
I'm still on track with exercise, believe it or not. The healthy eating is a little more challenging, what with weekends happening, but I'm working on it. This weekend I had some delicious food (and I discovered a new yummy, not-too-expensive Italian place at Mohegan).
In other news, some of my good friends in Boston are suddenly without an apartment. Fire is so much less cool when it happens to someone I know. Fortunately, everyone is okay and so is most of their stuff. Reminder to everyone: get renter's insurance. It's worth it.
I think I might register for my first SCSU Master's course today, for the summer. Their website made me come up with a new password because the old one "expired", lowercase letter, uppercase letter, number, symbol, and all. It reminds me of this comic.
Let's hope tomorrow's Science Fair presentations go as well as today.
There was some yelling, mostly getting the kids settled in the first place after a long weekend and coming within an inch of a delayed opening. After that, though, they were great. For the most part, they were really respectful of each other. My best class today was one of my most difficult, Blue. They were quiet for each other. When a particularly timid student stood up to speak, the entire class was SILENT. Not only that, but when the speakers had finished, they had very thoughtful and (mostly) respectful questions to ask.
There were a few jabs, such as "It looks like X did more work than Y, is that true?", but there was a lot more of, "Why did you try dissolving it in soda, rather than water?" or "Did it also work in this scenario?"
I am proud of myself for running through my expectations in my head while getting ready this morning, and then repeating them as excitedly as the first time for every class. It worked.
After school, I had the privilege of watching my blind student get through a couple of levels on a Super Mario Bros. emulator. Wow. That is pretty much the coolest thing I've seen here.
I'm still on track with exercise, believe it or not. The healthy eating is a little more challenging, what with weekends happening, but I'm working on it. This weekend I had some delicious food (and I discovered a new yummy, not-too-expensive Italian place at Mohegan).
In other news, some of my good friends in Boston are suddenly without an apartment. Fire is so much less cool when it happens to someone I know. Fortunately, everyone is okay and so is most of their stuff. Reminder to everyone: get renter's insurance. It's worth it.
I think I might register for my first SCSU Master's course today, for the summer. Their website made me come up with a new password because the old one "expired", lowercase letter, uppercase letter, number, symbol, and all. It reminds me of this comic.
Let's hope tomorrow's Science Fair presentations go as well as today.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Happy Birthday, MLK
First world problem of the day: I forgot to take my pedometer to the gym, so all the steps I took during my workout didn't "count".
As much as I never thought I'd say it, I'm really getting to love this Science Fair adventure. It's awful, and my feet hurt, and I don't have time to go to the bathroom during the day, but they kids are really getting into it. I just have to find a way to convince them to do their work when it wasn't due 2 days ago and they'll absolutely fail if they don't do it.
It's so much fun seeing them enthusiasm.
It's even more fun enjoying the weekend. I'm so far behind in my paperwork (although I did get a lot done), but I don't care. I'm enjoying myself this weekend. There will be lots of television, some jogging, some puzzle-doing, and some iPad games. Also, some drinking.
As much as I never thought I'd say it, I'm really getting to love this Science Fair adventure. It's awful, and my feet hurt, and I don't have time to go to the bathroom during the day, but they kids are really getting into it. I just have to find a way to convince them to do their work when it wasn't due 2 days ago and they'll absolutely fail if they don't do it.
It's so much fun seeing them enthusiasm.
It's even more fun enjoying the weekend. I'm so far behind in my paperwork (although I did get a lot done), but I don't care. I'm enjoying myself this weekend. There will be lots of television, some jogging, some puzzle-doing, and some iPad games. Also, some drinking.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Acting 101
Today, we had a visit by some members of the new Bridgeport administration. So, although we were told to "do what you usually do", we all put on a show. I was worried, because I had to continue with the SF work time. Fortunately, the visitors showed up to my room during my prep, when I had about 6 kids working on their projects.
The students played along really well. One student explained her project (Coke + Mentos), and I showed them a Youtube demonstration. Needless to say, I had all the head honchos engaged. They had a lot of questions to ask about the curriculum, textbooks, and Science Fair. They don't have a lot of education experience (Bridgeport is trying something new - administraters with a financial background), so I was able to confidently explain things. I totally pretended I knew what I was doing. I even pointed them to the Bridgeport website to answer their specific questions about science curriculum pacing guides.
I was proud.
My day was generally good. I spent my two preps and an hour after school helping small groups of kids with their projects. Although I didn't get to sit down or relax all day, I really love the kids in small groups. They all really need personal attention, and they are a ton of fun when they get it. I'm not sure how much of that is because they are from less-than-ideal homes, or because they're twelve.
Fortunately and unfortunately, I realized today (after nearly 5 months of teaching) that I can refill my water bottle with the sink in my room. I can't believe it never occurred to me. I felt silly when I finally realized it. Now, when I teach three periods in a row, I won't run out of water. Unfortunately, my day without breaks led me to a really uncomfortable moment after school, when I sent two of my students to walk down the hallway and find a teacher who could watch my students for a couple of minutes. I'll plan better next time.
It was a good day in a thoroughly exhausting sort of way, but I even got to the gym for a good workout. I was worried that I lost my New Years' kick, after Monday's skipped workout (I gave blood!) and Tuesday's lame workout (stupid kids). But, I got my workout in today, a short but fast run on the treadmill.
I might actually feel confident enough to register for the race my friends are doing - a St. Patrick's Day 4-miler.
The students played along really well. One student explained her project (Coke + Mentos), and I showed them a Youtube demonstration. Needless to say, I had all the head honchos engaged. They had a lot of questions to ask about the curriculum, textbooks, and Science Fair. They don't have a lot of education experience (Bridgeport is trying something new - administraters with a financial background), so I was able to confidently explain things. I totally pretended I knew what I was doing. I even pointed them to the Bridgeport website to answer their specific questions about science curriculum pacing guides.
I was proud.
My day was generally good. I spent my two preps and an hour after school helping small groups of kids with their projects. Although I didn't get to sit down or relax all day, I really love the kids in small groups. They all really need personal attention, and they are a ton of fun when they get it. I'm not sure how much of that is because they are from less-than-ideal homes, or because they're twelve.
Fortunately and unfortunately, I realized today (after nearly 5 months of teaching) that I can refill my water bottle with the sink in my room. I can't believe it never occurred to me. I felt silly when I finally realized it. Now, when I teach three periods in a row, I won't run out of water. Unfortunately, my day without breaks led me to a really uncomfortable moment after school, when I sent two of my students to walk down the hallway and find a teacher who could watch my students for a couple of minutes. I'll plan better next time.
It was a good day in a thoroughly exhausting sort of way, but I even got to the gym for a good workout. I was worried that I lost my New Years' kick, after Monday's skipped workout (I gave blood!) and Tuesday's lame workout (stupid kids). But, I got my workout in today, a short but fast run on the treadmill.
I might actually feel confident enough to register for the race my friends are doing - a St. Patrick's Day 4-miler.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
New Day
We care about out kids. Today, the seventh and eighth grade teachers met to figure out the numbers relating to the state tests, which are 28 school days away. Fortunately, I can't stress about them yet, because science fair is on my mind. But we talked for two hours about how we could push our kids a little harder. There was some teasing, and some comments about the new superintendent, and plenty of complaining, but it really shows that we love those kids.
Today, I saw so much enthusiasm about science fair. At times, I had 80% of the class working, with some even helping others! There was some other crap that went on, and I'm missing a few glue sticks, but they are taking pride in their projects.
I don't have a lot to write today. I'm tired and could really use a weekend. But, only one week until science fair, and it's shaping up really well.
Today, I saw so much enthusiasm about science fair. At times, I had 80% of the class working, with some even helping others! There was some other crap that went on, and I'm missing a few glue sticks, but they are taking pride in their projects.
I don't have a lot to write today. I'm tired and could really use a weekend. But, only one week until science fair, and it's shaping up really well.
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