Tales from the science classroom

I have actually used the time to rest and relax. It has been awesome. But there are some things I want to prep for the new semester, so yesterday I started working on school work. Well, I should say I worked for a bit then got back to resting :)  Yesterday I prepped my next chemistry unit and today I prepped my next AP Biology unit. I am happy with that. I just need to prep my next AP Chemistry unit and I will be ready to start the new year. I'm trying something a little bit different this unit (again, smh....).  I have laid out a timeline of the order I want to do things in. I'm going to print everything out and get it all copied before school starts. Then I will have the whole unit ready to go and I don't have to stop because I didn't copy something. Also, I'm sticking to what I planned. I am not going to change anything. There are a couple of things I will need to supplement, like quizzes I need to write, but the big assignments are all set and ready to go. I w

Yesterday was the last day of classes and grades are due by 5 pm today. Yay!!!!  So glad for the break. A few topics have been rolling around my brain and I thought I'd write about them as the break begins. First is the topic of grades. The first 2 schools I worked at, both in Hawaii, would not require grades until the end of the break. So we would finish finals like today, and grades would not be due until January 5th. Do you know how bad that is???  There were breaks where I would not do the grading until literally the day the grades were due. Then I would have 150 tests to grade with no memory of how I planned to score them (I wasn't good at documenting then) and it was miserable. I much prefer this way. They give is a little over 24 hours to finish up the grades. That is so much better. I structured my week so that the written part of the tests were given on Monday and Tuesday and I graded them immediately that day. Then Wednesday and Thursday tests were all multiple ch

I'm starting with a clean slate in January. I'm going to change some things over the break and I'm starting fresh. One of the things that I really want are some goals for the spring semester. I had some goals for this semester, to get organized, and that helped me a lot. It kept me focused and working toward organization all semester - and it was a struggle at times. So I would like to have some concrete goals that are SMART for the spring semester. I have a place to write them where I will see them all the time so they stay in focus. I want to continue my pursuit of organization, I'm doing really well with that and I'm really close to a system that works for me. I want to keep that going, but I want to add something else. Even though I never articulated my organization goals, it definitely qualified as a SMART goal. Specific - I wanted to be able to find things when I need them and to have them available for next year. Measurable - Finding things when I need t

that's what is happening right now. I should be grading AP Bio tests, instead, I'm blogging.  Not a productive use of time. Following yesterday's post, I sat down and set up my bullet journal for the remaining 2 weeks of school. Here is what I came up with: This is my teacher dashboard. I will use this to keep track of things I need to do for each class. I also have a post-it for grading that needs to be done (something I need to keep on top of) and a couple of post-its for other things that may come up. I like this because I can see all the classes at once. Since I have more than 1 class a day, this can be important. Then I have a weekly spread. I have a place for notes for each day (notice the dog training and dentist appointment) as well as a to-do list and a place to make notes. On this spread, I put a habit tracker but I'm still on the fence about that. We'll see how it goes. Then I have my daily spreads. This is Monday and Tuesday. I like th

I find it hard to believe that we are closing in on the end of the semester and I still have not been able to find an organizational system that works for me. I guess I should be happy that I'm still struggling and haven't thrown my hands up and said 'whateva'...... At least I'm still working on finding one. In my last post, I had these grand ideas of having all my lessons/materials in my electronic planbook, making notes every single day on how the day went, adjusting curriculum on the fly, cleaning every day/week so things stay organized.  Yeah, that didn't happen. I have come to a couple of realizations though. My main problem is that I make all these notes or set up all these systems and then I don't look at them. I have a planner at school that I write things in...and then leave at school. I have a planner at home that I hardly use....because I leave it at home. I have things that I need to buy for labs, etc. which I forget because I don't re