Tales from the science classroom

Today was interesting. I set out this morning to get my literacy program in place. I wanted to see how many weeks we have and then divide up what I want to do over the weeks. I figured it would be simpler that way. So I was trying to come up with a way to lay it out so that I could see it easily. Then I came across this: This allows me to lay out each quarter by week. Pure genius. So changed the headings to match my classes: AP Chemistry, AP Biology, Chemistry, Keyboarding, and Literacy. I then sketched out what I want to do each week with literacy. That actually turned out to be pretty easy. Since I'm going to use the resources from each class, all I needed to do was put down what skills I wanted them to learn that week. Worked out perfect, but I was done quick - much quicker than I thought it would be. So then I thought to tackle AP Chem. I wasn't sure where I was going to go with that. But I ended up getting a pretty good idea of how I want the semester to go. So the...

The first week of break is almost over and, as I had planned, I spent most of the week not thinking about school. After my last post, I just kind of walked away and didn't give it another thought until yesterday. Then I started thinking about what to do next. It's kind of like waking from a nap and not knowing exactly what day or year it is. Yeah, that's how I felt. I believe I even said more than once, what day is it? So, now I'm apparently fully awake and back in the game. Once I put my mind to it, it really wasn't that hard to start to move forward. I got about 2 weeks of AP Biology done and that is huge. I have an idea of what I want to accomplish, but I'm not sure of the best way to get there. So this post is going to be a bit of a brain dump to try and sort some things out. The first thing up for consideration is literacy. I plan on tackling that this semester and making it so it's part of my regular curriculum in all my classes. That means that ...

I've been on winter break since last Thursday and it has been amazing. I've slept. Read a little. Relaxed. Hung out with friends. Went shopping. And generally just enjoyed myself. Definitely, something that was needed. But tomorrow is Wednesday already and I need to start working on next semester. So here's my problem. I feel like I don't know how to plan. Weird, I know, but true. I was just sitting here thinking I should start thinking about planning and my thoughts went into 100 different directions. In my head I'm saying: I don't remember where we left off I don't know what to cover next I don't know what I should cover at all How can I add literacy to my curriculum How do I do this?  Well, it's kind of not surprising. I've been flying by the seat of my pants for my entire 9 years of teaching and now, trying to get everything in order, is proving to be difficult. I'm changing the way I do things and I'm trying to do it rig...

Please excuse this post. It is a mind dump to try and help me sort things out. I am teaching 9th-grade Conceptual Integrated Science this year. Not my favorite and it's my 4th prep on a subject I'm not really fond of. Of course, I have noticed that before. If it's not something I am super excited about or something that I can find resources for, I tend to devote very little time and energy to it. And that is what I'm finding myself doing now. So this is something I know that I do and something that I have to change. I need o coherent plan on what I'm going to teach for the remainder of this year. I can figure out how to teach it later, right now I just need to get my roadmap in place so I know what the heck I'm doing. So I spent the first quarter stumbling through physics and I've spent the last 2 weeks stumbling through chemistry. That is why I need to do this. I teach chemistry and I love chemistry, but I find myself stumbling through this because I do...

Once every semester we get observed by the administration. I know some teachers get observed more and some less. In my old school, we only got observed for the first 2 years. After that, it was once every 3 years I think. But, whatever. I really don't mind having people observe me. I am a pretty good teacher who makes class interesting. I was going to say fun but that is not always true, but I do strive for interesting. This year I was getting observed by the principal and she would be in for my worst class. I have previously only been observed by the vice principal and he is easy. I debated asking to switch classes for the observation since it really is my worst class, but I decided to just let it go and let her see me really in action. Overall it went really well. They were chatty and didn't follow directions and got off task as soon as there was a lull in the action, but I handled it well and the principal was impressed. Someone had pulled a fire alarm during the transitio...

This week we were back from fall break. Fall break was relaxing and I really enjoyed it. This is the first in a long time. I usually spend the first part of break worrying over all the work I want to do and the second part beating myself up for not doing it. This break was different. I did have things I wanted to accomplish but I did not worry about them. I did accomplish a lot and the things I didn't get done, oh well. I did go into school 2 or 3 times, I don't really remember. And I got things done and school started and all was good. One of the things that has made a huge difference is that I am excited about teaching again. When I first started teaching I was super excited about it. I loved getting in front of the kids and having the kids do stuff. I was excited. That excitement was infectious and the kids picked up on it. Well, that excitement is back and I love it. I love being excited about what I'm doing. I love feeling like I'm really truly helping kids and...

 A road trip up north to the town of Sedona. The town itself was not that great, way too touristy, but the scenery is amazing.  More of the scenery around Sedona. The desert sunset on our way home. It was a long day with a whole lot of driving, but it was fun. As nice as it is to get away, it is always good to come home. In my case, it was home to planning. I've got AP Biology and AP Chemistry sketched out until Christmas. Not bad. I am trying something new. Instead of making elaboate plans with all kinds of details, I'm just doing a bare bones plan. The way I work is very spontaneous anyway. I walk into my class and go, okay, what am I teaching today, then run with the topic. So I'm fleshing out the weeks one at a time instead of planning so far ahead I forget what I'm doing. It sounds like it will work well with the way I work, so I'm willing to give it a go. I have to go in today to do some grading. I have a whole pile of tests from 3 different classe...

So the first thing I need to write about is how quickly break has come this year. Every year before it has seemed like it took forever to get here. This year I feel like we just started the year and now boom, it's break. This has never really happened before. Usually, by late September I'm struggling to hold on until break. Not this year. Time literally just flew by and it was nice. I hope that it keeps going until Christmas.  Part of the reason time is flying is that I'm really enjoying this year. For the 8 previous years, I've felt like an imposter. I have felt like I don't really know what I'm doing and that I was a fake. Turns out, I'm not a fake. I actually do know what I'm doing and I'm pretty damn good at it. For the first time in 9 years, I'm really putting an effort into my teaching. I'm trying to plan ahead. I'm trying to be the best teacher I can be and it's paying off. It's really paying off. I enjoy work and I enj...

I am determined to master this organization thing if it kills me. The system I set up was not working as I had hoped. I was having issues with the file trays on the small table next to my front counter. I wasn't using them the way I envisioned. They proved to be more of a pain than a help. I would forget to put things in the right trays and they would still end up all over my desk. Plus, I had the handouts there and my originals somewhere else along with my answer key and I still couldn't keep track of everything. Also, I found me just throwing things in the top tray that I didn't want to deal with. Not cool. Then over the weekend, I was at Treasures for Teachers and found this beauty: This is awesome. I have 12 slots. 8 for my periods on both days and 4 for the classes where I keep my copies. Oh, I'm in heaven. I can throw things in there for the day and clear it out at the end of the day. It is amazing. My stuff, originals/keys etc. is kept right next to them so...

Last week I was kind of losing my mind over organization in my classroom. I had a system that worked well last year, but I just couldn't seem to get it going this year. So last Friday, when I posted, I spent the day grading and getting all caught up on that. Then I went in on Saturday for a couple of hours and spent the time just organizing. I took a serious look at what I needed/wanted near me and when I needed it. I then looked at what I had to work with and came up with a system that I think will work - at least it worked this week. Here's what I got: As you walk in the door, there is a table to the right where the handouts are put. I started this at the beginning of the year and it generally works out well, not perfect, but well. Also over there, on top of an old desk, is a crate with files for things the students need almost continously. I keep extra periodic tables there as well as bellwork sheets for my 9th grade class. Then there is my front table. On the ...

I'm having planning issues and much of them are of my own making. Let me explain. I feel like I haven't been able to get ahead this year. Since the year started, I feel like I'm constantly playing catch up. I find myself working every prep to prepare for the rest of the day's classes. I hate that. Towards the end of last year, I developed a system where I would go in on the weekends and copy/prep everything for the coming week. I haven't been able to get that going this year and we are almost at fall break. Then, and this really pissed me off, last weekend I sat and planned this whole week out. I had lessons for every class, every day along with handouts and power points. Then, yesterday, I spent my entire prep preparing for Concep. Science only to find I had a plan in my book that I had forgotten about. UGH!!!!! I know it's because I haven't been able to get ahead all quarter. Last week, when I would have worked on Friday to get ready, we had a meeting in...

This is my front counter. This is what my front counter looks like every single day. I straighten it and 1 class later it looks like this. I have a habit of putting papers on it and losing them. When I try to organize I will put papers in books and then forget which books I put what papers in. Then months later I will find the papers in some odd place. I have tried so many things and yet it ends up like this every time. So today I'm going to try something new. When my class leaves I will take some time to straighten it out, again, and have a way to keep it organized. I have an idea, I just hope it works. So I just did it and it seems pretty darn awesome. I have a file tray for each period of the day (not each class) and one on top for misc. stuff. I put these trays on the side table that I have and that leaves my desk nice and clean. I can just throw things in the tray for the period and use it when I need it. If it's for classes the next day or next week, I will put it in ...

I think I have figured out my organizational issues, though they really still are a work in progress. I have the wikispaces set up for all my classes, so that's good. I actually gave up Planbookplus and switched to Chalk.com for my online planning. I gave up on OneNote, for now. I may do that at a later date, but right now I have enough to keep up. I love the Wikispaces and am working hard to keep that up to date - that is just a habit I need to cultivate. I also love Chalk.com. What I do with that is spend a little time on Sundays laying out my general plans for the week. I will put it in Chalk and then attach any files I plan on using. I also make notes in my written planner on what I plan on doing and then I check it off as I go through the day. Then on Thursdays or Fridays, I sit down and update Chalk with what I actually did. I figure this will give me an accurate accounting of what actually happens so I will have it for next year. I love this and it's working out well so ...

I'm having trouble organizing my lessons. There are a number of technology things that go with my lessons. I am trying to use Planbookplus to create my lesson plans: Which is great but has its limitations. So I thought I would keep all of my files in One Note so I could have access anywhere. That will be good but it is almost like creating lesson plans all over again. Then I have a class blog where things need to be uploaded and offered to the kids. As a result of trying all three of these things, I have completed nothing. All of them are half done and we have just completed the 2nd full week of school. I tried an external hard drive and thought that would be a good way to do it. It has proven to be more of a nightmare than a help. Ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! What to do???? How do I organize all the electronic information I have???? How do I keep track of things and not make myself crazy??????? So that is my struggle this weekend. I am going to complete one or tw...

In spite of the fact that I am starting my 9th year of teaching, I have never had to create lesson plans. Weird, I know. This year I also have 4 preps - yikes!!! And, I've been teaching chemistry for all of the 9 years and yet every year I have to figure out how to start, where to go, what to do, etc. So my school is having us create curriculum maps and unit plans and eventually lesson plans. I have jumped the gun and got all my curriculum maps done and my unit plans are pretty well in place. All I need is to get the lesson plans done. So that has been my focus, along with getting school started. I'm using an online planbook - planbookplus - and I'm working on getting things put in there. I figure if I can sit on the weekends when I usually do nothing and get the previous week updated and sketch out the coming week, not only will I be ahead of things when the week starts, but I will be building a base for coming years. In some ways, I feel like I'm starting over, but...

We teachers returned to school on July 24th and the students returned on August 2nd. That means we had the kids 2 days last week, Wednesday and Thursday. And it went well. This year I had to revamp my classroom management system and I think I have something that will work for me. Let me explain; My first 7 years of teaching was at private schools. Even though these private schools were at the lower financial end of the spectrum and most of our students were on financial aid, they were nevertheless private school students. Classroom management was not a huge priority as these students did their work and listened and were respectful and all that stuff. So my classroom management was a little lax because it didn't need to be really strict and tough. Well, now I'm at a public school. And in spite of the fact that this is a charter school and parents have to go out of their way to send their students here, it is still a public school. Last year I handled my classroom management l...

So I've had a number of blogs over the years, some are still active, some are long dead, but I've never thought to keep a blog about teaching. It seems that has escaped me even though I read teacher blogs like crazy. Hmmm...weird... anyway, I've had a bit of an epiphany these last couple of months (yes, I said months) and have decided to give this a try. I think it might be good to document some of this stuff. So let's begin.... I want to include a little background, I'll fill in details in future posts, but for now here are the bare facts. I decided at 48 that I wanted to be a teacher. Actually, we were considering moving from Hawaii to the mainland and I thought a teaching job would be more portable plus I had wanted to teach for a few years. So I went into a masters program. I was lucky enough to get hired for my student teaching at a private school. That in and of itself is whole other story, but I was glad to get hired and have a job. I worked there for 5 year...