Tales from the science classroom

 I started break a week ago with intentions of getting the first units of both classes set up. I'm almost there. In the process, I came across some highly recommended books. I got said books and I proceeded to try and speed read them. I wanted to incorporate every idea from all the books in January. Thankfully, I came to my senses. The book on the right, Ambitious Science Teaching, is an awesome book but has tons and tons of information and I'm never going to get through it before school starts. So that book is now being placed on the top of my summer reading list. I will delve deep into that over the summer and incorporate it into my curriculum.  The next book in the stack, Science Formative Assessment, is really  a list of formative assessment strategies to use in the classroom. They have 75. I'm going to go through that and choose maybe 3 or 4 to use this coming semester. Again, over the summer I will have more time to work on incorporating more.  The 3rd book, Un...

 On thing that I never learned in my teacher education program is how to do lesson plans. We had to do them, but weren't given any real guidance just told to do them. Hmmmm..... For 13 years I've struggled with this and I have finally come to the conclusion that I might be overthinking things. The chemistry and biology curriculum that I use comes with a teacher guide and I think I just need to use that as the basis for my units. I do that, but I need to be more organized about it. The notebook folks have included a unit planner and I think I'm gonna use that but just put in the general idea. So for example, when we return to school we will start a unit on substances; mixtures, pure substances, elements, and compounds. I think in the unit planner I will just put the general idea of what I want to do and then use the teacher guide for the details. That seems to make more sense since I default to the teacher guide all the time anyway. So I'm going to use the unit planner a...

 I have a goal to have the first unit for each class complete and ready to go before this break is over. I'd really like to start on the next unit also, but once I get the first unit down, I think that the others will come quicker, once I know what I'm doing. I'm excited to have everything planned out so I know exactly what I'm doing each day. One thing that I really need to do is focus on putting things in the Google Classroom. Yesterday I started new Google Classrooms for all my classes and I organized the topics by weeks. That way if a scholar is absent, they just have to look for the  day they are absent and find what's in there. Plus, I really only have to post 2 times a week. My classes overlap A days and B days, and I try to keep things the same for both days so they don't get out of whack. So maybe on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, I take 10 minutes, make a short video on what we did in class and post it. That should work as long as I am consistent. I ...

 and I got a couple of emails last night inquiring how to bring up grades. 🤦‍♀️I honestly don't remember high school, but I can guess that I didn't care about my grades in high school. Considering I hardly went to class and got asked to leave, I'm pretty sure grades weren't on my radar.  And granted, when I went to college I was considerably older. I guess living on the edge is something high schoolers are trying at this point. Now, from my vast age and experience, I know that living on the edge is a dangerous place to be. But I guess when you are 16-17 it seems okay. All I know is that I am done.  Now I get to switch my focus to next semester. I have a lot of plans for next semester and I just need to set them up so I'm ready to go. The first decision is do I update the syllabus or not? I think that we need a little refresher course in the syllabus and also what is and is not acceptable in class. So I'm thinking that may go in the beginning of the notebook for...

 of this semester. Tomorrow and Thursday I'm taking off as my dog is having surgery. Major surgery and I want to be around for it, just in case.  Yesterday and today I'm giving part 1 of my finals - the written part - and then tomorrow and Thursday the sub will just give the multiple choice part. That way I'll be home grading the written part and the multiple choice part will be super easy to grade. Grades are due by Friday.  I've started working on my plans for next semester, what else is there to do while they are testing?  And I'm really like how it is turning out. I'm diving in, all in, with the Weibert notebooks, and so I'm working on my unit plans to make those work. The unit plans require some time to make sure you have it all in place before starting the units. Also, the modeling curriculum relies sort of heavily on worksheets and I'm going to be adjusting them to work in the notebooks. I'm excited about this. I am also reading that book I po...

 Last night was open house and that is always a long day. I'm truly grateful they hold it on Thursday so we have Friday off, but wow. Last night was also the first time we had it in the Fall semester. We have a lot of housing development in the area and we are trying to fill up our enrollment slots. Let's hope it was worth it.  I did get my finals all copied while I had to stay and wait for the open house. Since I live 30 minutes away, it just didn't seem reasonable to drive home and then drive back. Of course now that I look at it I think next time I will do that. School ends at 3:30 and open house is at 7. That's a large chunk of time. I could drive home and be home by 4:30 (because I can't leave right at 3:30) and leave to come back around 6ish. That's not horrible. And it kind of beats sitting around school for 3.5 hours. Of course, if I come home there is a very real possibility that I won't go back, so that's something to consider.  I did use my ti...

 Yesterday was the dreaded 4A class. I didn't have a lot for them since it was review day. I thought we could review and then watch a video. Well believe it or not they wanted to play Blooket - a review game. And they wanted to play it twice. Unreal. Also, it was the most fun class I've had with them all year. There were a number of people absent and that helped. But some students that I didn't expect actually did their work and were able to participate it class. It was amazing. So I like to say I bring my own weather, well in this case it's really true.  So today is Thursday. One more day of review and then it's all finals. I'm only in Monday and Tuesday. Bella is having surgery on Wednesday so I'm taking Wednesday and Thursday off to be home with her. Plus, Monday and Tuesday are the essay parts of the final, so that will give me two days to get them graded and ready to  enter. Wednesday and Thursday they will have a sub and take the multiple choice part o...

 It is the penultimate week of school. I sent out an email on Saturday that I would no longer be accepting work and if it was turned in there was no guarantee it would be graded. So I have received a boatload of late work. Yesterday I had 5 soccer players in my room wanting me to go ahead and let them play even though they are failing the class. I refused and they were pissed and I don't really care. I hate to see kids so disappointed and I know they really want to play, but they should have considered their grades months ago, not just now because they want to play. One kid literally said he had a game in 20 minutes. Give me a break. Anyway, I'm sticking to my guns and I'm not grading any late work. It says in my syllabus that late work will not be accepted. I'm going to have to be a lot tougher on this next semester. In fact, I'm thinking of doing a syllabus update in January and I may highlight that. I'm not sure yet. But I'm really, really tired of late w...

 Notebooks are something I have struggled with since I started teaching. During my student teaching, my mentor teacher went to a training for interactive notebooks - they were rather new at the time. When she came back we looked at them and discussed them and I fell in love. Even though I hadn't spent much time in a classroom at that point, I could immediately see the benefits to the students. I started doing some research and planned on instituting them as soon as I had my own classroom. Well, I got my own classroom, started with the notebooks and fell flat with them. They just didn't work the way I had envisioned them. That's okay. The following year I started with cut-outs and foldables. That went well for a while and that fell flat too. Every year that I tried to do them, they just didn't work out. I would forget them. Or we would be doing things that weren't in there. Many, many things happened. Eventually I just gave up on them. I always told my students they ...

 I always think there is something better and I try to find it. Sounds strange, but let me explain.  We are nearing the end of the semester. We have 2 weeks left. The last week is given over to finals, so next week will be review. So basically, in my mind at least, I am done. I am already looking towards next semester and how I can make things better. I have ordered the notebooks that I want and they arrive today. I've been working on my planner/tracking journal to come up with a plan that works for next semester. In my mind I've moved on. I can't let that happen. I have lots to do to wrap up this semester. I need to write the final exams for both classes. I need to make study guides for those exams. I need to make review games. I have a lot to do and only 3 days to do it. I also have to get caught up on the grading so that is not hanging over my head. So I can't focus on next semester yet. I need to stay focused and finish this semester strong.  On another note, my lit...

 So yesterday I didn't even use my planner as planned. I ended up filling it out at the end of the day. That is not my intention, but I guess it's better than nothing. I did make some good notes in there that will prove helpful in the future. I think what I'm going to do is make my plans and then note how it went in my planner. Then, after the fact, transfer that information to my online planner so that I have the reference for next year. That is my goal, to have an ongoing record of what was done and how I did it so that I can reference it from year to year. So while it didn't go as planned, I think I got the end result I wanted.  As for "that" class. It actually went well yesterday. I had things planned and I think I showed them that I was serious and done with the goofing around. Everyone worked and things got done. I just need to keep doing this through the end of the year and I'll be all good. Next semester everything changes. We are going deep into ...

 We are back to our regularly scheduled blogging. We are also back to school today after a 5 day break for Thanksgiving. I'm going back with a much better attitude than I had the week before and that is good.  I have set my week up like I explained in the last post and I'm going to try that out and see how it works.. I think it will be good at least for my classes. I can't use it as a regular planner/journal because there are no future dates or way to write reminders. But I think if I use it just for my classes, the plans I have and notes on grading and such, I should be really good. I will use my planner for keeping track of things like appointments, meetings, etc. I think that will work well.  I also kind of planned out the last few weeks of my classes, there are only 3 weeks left and the last week is finals week so there are really only 2 weeks left. Yay!!! I will have to rewrite the biology final exam, actually I have to rewrite the chemistry too because it's going ...

 After I wrote yesterday's post, I did a little pen and paper brainstorming in my planner and think I've come up with an idea. I use a smaller, A5 I think, bullet journal for school and I've been struggling with exactly how to use it so that it completely works for me. I came up with the idea of dividing a two page spread into 4 boxes - much like I have the students do for their big ideas page - and having one box for each period. That will be one page per day. I set up Monday and I think this will work. The real key is to make sure I fill it out every single day, every single period.  I used my handy dandy little printer to print out the stuff on the pages. I really like it and think it will work well, as I said though, the key is me writing in it every single day/class. I need to work that into my routine. Since I have a prep first period I just have a to-do list there. That way I will know what I need to get done. Then for every period I have a place where I can write ou...

 On Monday I did a hard reset with my 4A class. Actually, I did a hard reset with all my biology classes. I was initially going to wait until we returned from break, but I decided not to and to just jump in. On Monday I wrote 3 log entries, more than I've written all year, and I'm going to keep the pace up. I'm not dealing with it or letting it derail me, I'm just writing log entries.  On Monday and Tuesday, I had some of the best biology classes I've had all year. They did what we needed to do and we talked about it so everyone got the same information and they left with a homework assignment that should be easy for them to pull off. It was good.  I kind of realized that I have been trying to teach in a way that doesn't completely work for me. I've been trying to let them discover things on their own, but then because they took so much time doing that, we never got to debrief and discuss. So that will change going forward. I have 3 weeks of school left afte...

 So much on my mind this weekend. My 4A is definitely the most challenging thing I am dealing with right now  and that is taking up a whole lot of brain space. But there are other things. I see each class only once this week and need to figure out what to do with them. Also, Tuesday, 4th period I'm having my formal evaluation. The last period of the last day before Thanksgiving break. Yeah, that should be a fun class. I do have a video and worksheet that I would like to use for the last 20 minutes or so. We'll see how it goes.  This weekend I've been working on grading. You know, this is the absolute bane of my existence. I have the worst time keeping up on the grading. I am always behind. Always. Anyway, doing the grading yesterday and I found 2 students who had almost word for word answers on two assignments. Great. This means I have to deal with that now. Perfect.  Today is Sunday and football. Therefore I'm going to spend the day grading and prepping for the week...

 So I sat down yesterday morning and talked with my principal about that class. She knows about it, we've had discussions before about it, so it's not new to her either. But I admitted defeat. I just didn't  know what to do anymore or where to go from here. So we had a good talk and she gave me some really good ideas about how to handle this. So I have some ideas and will start working on them on Monday. One of my initial thoughts was that why fight it now? We have 3 weeks left in the semester, that's 6 classes I have to see them, I can just power through. But I decided not to. I can't spend 6 days of the next 3 weeks frustrated and miserable. So Monday things change. I may not do a whole lot with this class on Monday as we work it out. Which means I need something for the other classes to do. I had the brilliant idea of doing an escape room with them. We have covered some topics earlier in the year that they could stand a review on, so why not have some fun with it...

 I let that 4th period get to me. I can't do that. I can't. I'm the adult in the room but I sure don't feel like it. So as I was meditating today I came to a realization. What I'm doing is not working with them, therefore I have to change what I'm doing. So I'm going to have to run this class different then I run the other two biology classes. I just have to. There is no way around it. So, at the end of the day today I'm switching the desks into rows again - that's just for this class. Then I'm creating new seating charts for all classes and they will be so that when they turn around they will be in their groups. I can do that. Starting on the Monday after Thanksgiving, I'm going to be spoon feeding them information rather than letting them figure it out. So I will be telling them how to do the lab. I will give them cookbook information rather then giving them the freedom to figure things out. I will have set ways they need to keep things in ...

 In the past, I've been the kind of teacher that thought about school constantly. I would work endlessly on the weekends to get things ready for the week. That didn't really work though as I struggled through most weeks and didn't have a good system for keeping things organized. Also, I think that constant working was no good for my brain because I really couldn't remember anything that went into it.  One of my huge take-aways from last year was the need to disconnect completely from school. Working from home, I learned that I needed to step away from the school work and not spend mental time on it 24/7. That's a good thing to learn. But I think I've taken it a little too far recently. The last few weekends I've brought some work home and then completely ignored it all weekend. I'm lucky enough to have 3 day weekends every week (this was a 4-day weekend because of Veteran's Day) so there really is no reason that I can't do work one day. I'm g...

 We are rapidly closing in on the end of the year and the end of the semester in school. Next Monday my Dual Enrollment supervisor will be by for a visit. The week after the school will be doing the formal observations. So many observations. I don't mind them though. I generally do things the same whether someone is there or not so I don't really care about observations.  Yesterday I met with the CEO to review the science department. That is always interesting. He wants to know how things are going, what the 'vision' is for the department, things like that. I mean we're a school, what the heck do you think our vision is????  Anyway, we did talk about some issues we had and that is good. Unfortunately I feel like we will lose a science teacher because of some of these issues. So we'll see how that goes.  Classes have been going well. I haven't been letting anyone get to me and so things have been good.  Otherwise I got nothing. Today is the last day of the we...

 After the fiasco last week, I was determined to not let them get to me anymore and I didn't. The rest of the week went very well and I was happy regardless of them. However, there was an incident.  On Wednesday I gave a test in chemistry and a quiz in biology. I have one student who does nothing. Nothing at all in class. So I gave them all the quiz and then at the end of class they were packing up, I saw him packing up but I didn't remember him turning the test in. So I do what I usually do. I count the students in the room and I count the number of tests returned. As I suspected, I was one short. So I made an announcement that no one leaves until I find the missing quiz. I did have one more class the next day and I didn't want the quiz to get out so it was a legitimate concern. No one came forward with the missing quiz, so I had all the students move to one side of the room and as I called their name out they moved to the other side of the room. Everyone moved over includ...

 So after my post yesterday, I was determined to have a good day. Determined. In the morning I went around saying, "it's going to be a good day or someone is going to have to explain why." It's a silly thing but these things really work. I had a good attitude all day, in every class, even my challenging class, and it was a good day. Last night as I was reading some Facebook posts, some lady said that she was focusing more on the students who wouldn't do the work and less on the students who would and it was making her miserable. I realized that I was doing the exact same thing. I was letting a few students who would not do what was asked of them dictate the entire class and my attitude. Well, no more. I am usually that teacher who does not want to hear from the same people over and over. I like to hear different voices and different opinions. Well, not anymore. The only people that answer in that class are the same people over and over again. So I let them. I did...

 So I've always loved the beginning of a new week, the beginning of a new month, the beginning of a new year. I just love new beginnings. I try not to wait for them anymore but they do spark something in me that I like.  So it is November 1st. Last week was a train wreck of a week. I'm going to use this new month to change my attitude and make a new start. I'm not really changing anything in the classroom, at least that the students will see. The change will be in me. In my head. In my attitude. And in the way I approach things. It is time for a change.  This year has been such a hot mess so far, it's hard not to just throw my hands up and say screw it all. Go back to the old way of teaching where I just pour information into them and they regurgitate it. But I'm not going to to do that. It will make me miserable and it will not serve the students and ultimately that's what we are here to do.  So instead I'm going to change my attitude. Get back to my bouncy...

 Yesterday we had our quarterly staff meeting. I really can't complain about the fact that we go in on a Friday for 4 hours once a quarter. In all my other schools, it was Wednesday afternoon once a week. Granted the meetings were shorter, only an hour or so, but they were every freaking week. Ugh!!!!  So it is hard to complain about this. But 4 hours is a long time to sit anywhere. And yesterday we were in a teacher's classroom that had only desks. Ugh!! I brought my office chair down and pulled a desk in front of me. I'm too old and large to sit in one of those for 4 hours. Ugh!!! Anyway, that really isn't the topic of this post, though I wanted to comment on it. This post is about me having lost my mojo for teaching. I'm not sure if it's permanent or temporary or what, but it is real. It could just be that this past week was brutal because of the lack of planning on my part (see previous post). I'm definitely feeling better having a real plan for next wee...

 I realized that a large part of my problem this week was that I didn't prepare fully enough. I need to know exactly what is happening each day in class and be ready for it and I wasn't. That is why I felt the way I did all week. It is absolutely worth it to spend time on the weekends prepping lesson plans for the coming week. I have time on Monday morning to physically prep everything, but I need to spend some time getting the lessons down on paper in some way so that I know what I'm doing. Worse thing ever is to not know what I'm doing.  Toward that end, I need a good system for keeping lesson plans. I was never really taught how to make lesson plans or a good way to keep them so I am organized. Over the summer I put together a Google doc with my lesson plans, but that doesn't seem to work really well. I need something, on paper, that I can quickly refer to during class (because I forget what the next thing is) and that I can make notes on and keep for the coming ...

 Yesterday. My 4A class. I let get to me before they even walked in the door. Yesterday was a day when I just wasn't feeling it. I was incredibly low energy. I wasn't hot on the lesson. And I just did not feel like battling them to participate. So I didn't. I gave in and showed a movie. I had a worksheet for them to fill out as we watched and offered a little bit of extra credit for the worksheet. It ended up working out well. There was one student though, who spent the entire movie on his phone and then tried to take another student's worksheet home to copy. Ummmm.....no. I told them I was only accepting the worksheets right now. After they leave the room there would be no credit for the worksheet. Ugh!!!  It actually worked out pretty okay though. It was an interesting video on bats and I even learned a few things. But for 45 minutes, I didn't have to really deal with them and that was a win. But I can't do this every class.  Over the weekend, I need to spend ...

 So now that I've had the weekend to cool down over that class, I don't feel quite as strongly as I did on Friday about them. I am going to make some changes but I don't think I'll be quite as brutal as I was planning on.  I am changing the seating chart some. I don't like where some of them are sitting and I need to move things around.  I will be collecting every single thing that they do and I'm going to give a 0/1/2 grade on it immediately. So if they finish it 2 points, if they don't finish it 1 points, and if they don't do it 0 points. Every single paper they get.  I also need to explain to them that while they did get a lot of papers for the last activity, they will see this information again and keeping them is in their best interest.  I am also going to institute and absolute zero tolerance for phones. I'm over the phones.  And finally, the clipboard idea is awesome, I like it a lot. Going to walk around with a clipboard with their names at t...

 I have one class that is just driving me crazy and I need to vent and get it off my chest. They are mostly freshmen and having basically not been in school for the last 2 years act more like middle schoolers. Also, there are 30 of them in the room. There are a couple of large personalities that, for lack of a better word, are just annoying. One student must shout out stupid answers to every question. There are a couple that just talk all the time. And quite honestly there are some I just don't like. This makes this class extremely challenging for me. I even went so far as to ask admin to come in and observe to see if my feelings were coloring my reactions towards this class. I was afraid that they had pissed me off before and that was hanging over and making me not like them when, in fact, they may be just fine.  So I started this post with the intention of just trying to purge my feelings before the weekend begins. But as I typed that first paragraph, I had a bit of an epiph...

 In the middle of our second week back from fall break and things are going well. One thing that I find is working for me is focusing solely on one task at a time. Sounds simple, but for so long multitasking has been the big buzz word. And honestly I think multitasking was something people came up with because they couldn't control their brains and focus on one thing. Anyway, my meditation practice has helped me to learn to focus and that has helped me immensely in so many ways. But I digress. I've taken to keeping a bullet journal for school. I kept trying to keep a planner with some structure, but nothing every really fit what I needed it to do. So I keep a bullet journal for my personal stuff. That has a little structure to it though, one page per day. And if I don't fill the page with things from the day, I post pictures which I just love. So I decided to keep a true bullet journal for school and I think I like it. At the beginning of the day I write the date at the top...

  We just finished the first week back from fall break and I did jump into the storylines. We started the Africa unit and got through the first couple of lessons. Wow!!! Did the students struggle. It was not a hard activity, but they really, really struggled. It was interesting. But I think they got it. Next week we do a slightly harder activity so I'll see how that goes.  Otherwise, I liked it. Last week I also found a site for notebooks and I love it. I'm introducing some of the concepts, but this summer I'm going to structure the entire course to utilize the notebooks. I can't wait on that.  We survived the first week and I don't have a whole lot to say about it. We'll see how the rest goes. 

 And I could not be happier. Last week I didn't do much in my classes. We worked on projects and watched videos. I know, great teacher. But I was just completely drained and had nothing left in the tank. Nothing.  In a previous post I talked about finding the storylines curriculum for biology. Well, I found another, similar curriculum, Inquiry Hub, for both biology and chemistry. I've been looking them over and I really like them and am considering switching. I'm on the fence about the chemistry one because I do like the modeling curriculum and am not sure I really want to switch that up. But biology, definitely needs a kickstart and this just may be it. I plan to go through both the storylines and the Inquiry Hub curriculum for bio and see which one I like better.  Also a consideration is which one I can fit in the remainder of the year. I think I stick with the modeling for chem but will consider switching next year.  As for everything else, it's fine. I'm looking...

 One of the things that I do with school planning that absolutely drives me crazy is switch things up. I will be going along, things will be going okay, and suddenly I will find something and boom, I'll switch my whole curriculum up. I hate that because I want to find one thing and stick with it so that I can get good at delivering it. The greatest teachers have a curriculum that they follow and they just switch little things to keep things new.  Having said that, I started using the modeling curriculum for biology because I do really like the chemistry curriculum. The problem is that I haven't taken the biology course and I'm having trouble making it cohesive for the students. I'm not a fan of the way things are done, the activities included or the order things are done in. For example, we are in the 2nd unit and have touched on things that haven't been explained yet. So they are having to take things on face value rather than understanding them. Not how I think th...

 The start of this school year has actually gone pretty well. There were some bumps in the road but things are smoothing out.  1st bump:  I have not taught freshmen in 3 or 4 years. They are different. They are far more like middle schoolers than they are like upper classmen. It took me a few weeks to figure that out but I think I've got it now and things are getting better.  2nd bump: Covid. We had a lot of students out in the first few weeks for quarantine or waiting on tests or whatever and it had developed into a huge problem on how to handle assignments for them. I have worked it out, it's not perfect, but it's working.  3rd bump and the reason for this post: My teacher planner is not working. I bought a bullet journal over the summer because I don't like most of the teacher planner layouts. I'm on a block schedule and they just don't really work for me. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted in a planner and I thought I had a pretty good design...

 Heading back to school in an hour or so. First day of teacher in-service. My favorite part of the year (🤦‍♀️).  Hours and hours of sitting in boring meetings, listening to the same things over and over again, and teachers asking ridiculous questions. Yeah, that's my idea of a good time.  I am looking forward to getting back to school though. As I've said before, the last 18 months of school was such a giant cluster f*ck, it will be nice to get some semblance of normality.  I'm looking forward to revamping some procedures and generally staring all over. Kind of like the first time.  So I'll be out of the house all day for the first time in months. I'll have to interact with people all day for the first time in months. I'll need to be nice all day for the first time in months. I'll need to stay awake all day for the first time in months.  

  Last time I posted I had 19 days until I had to return. Today I have 1 day. I still have much of the to-do list that I posted last time to complete. I have done a few things. I've kind of been enjoying my last few days of freedom. I know that these things will get done when they get done. I also know that I'm the only one who needs them done, the students will roll with it.  I do want to set a goal of keeping this blog up this year. I do so much during the year that I then forget about, I would really like to keep track of this stuff. So I'm thinking of making a goal of blogging on Fridays. That will be the day I do my grading and it's a good time to sit and review the week as I plan for the next week. I'm even going to put that in my planner so that I remember to do it each week.  Other than that, I'm as ready as I will ever be to get started. I'm excited for the new year. In the summer of 2019 I took the modeling classes at ASU. In the fall of 2019 I sta...

  That's how I've been feeling this week. We return to school in 19 days and I don't feel ready. I still have so much I want to accomplish before I have to return. Thankfully I have 28 days until I actually have to teach anything, but still I'm not ready.  So I need to prioritize things and have a solid plan for action for these next couple of weeks. I just don't know what that should be. Let's look at what I need to do.  Get my orders ready so that I can get the things before school starts  Finish setting up my Google site  Make the video introduction for my Google site Get my Google Classrooms set up Finish my lessons for both classes Okay, now that I list it out, I realize that I don't have all that much to do. My units for both classes are all laid out, I just need to tweak the individual lessons. I should practice making videos anyway, so I could do that with my introduction video. My orders will take the longest since I have to go through each subject ...

 I'm really excited about the new school year. After the last year and a half, I'm really looking forward to the return to some sort of normal. I get to teach 2 classes that I'm passionate about, chemistry and biology, and it's just looking to be a great year. I was telling a fellow teacher the other day, it feels like my first year teaching but this time I know what I'm doing.  Having said all that, I can't help but think that I'm trying to do too much at one time. In fact, as I type this I realize that I am and that I need to just slow my role. Let's examine it a little bit. I am working on flipping my classes. Now this sounds like a rather daunting task but in honesty, when looking through the modeling curriculum I will be using for both of my classes, there is not a whole lot of lecturing that goes on so there really isn't that many videos that I will need to make. So it's really not a daunting as it first sounded. I am taking an online cours...

 Read an article last night about professional journaling for teachers. They highly recommend it. Seems I'm always a little bit ahead of the curve. Hmmm... Since my last post I have not really had a chance to work on my planning. I did start a Google Doc as planned and I got a day or so in there, but that's about it. I got sidetracked making a slide deck for the first day or two and so not a lot of planning got done. What I realized after is that I need to get the planning part done and then fill it in with the things I need, such as a slide deck. I like the idea of making slide decks because I'm going to record my lessons for those that are absent or just if anyone needs it to review. I'm working on flipping my classroom but that will take time.  So today it is back to it. Hubby is heading back to work and I will have a free morning to work. Yay!!!! So I'm going to work on my chemistry and getting it all laid out. Once that is laid out I'm going to work on biol...

 I've begun working on my year plan for my classes and I'm struggling with the best way to set this up. Literally as I was typing this I had an idea on how to do it. One of the AP teachers that I borrowed heavily from last year, has a great set up. She lays out the whole year in a Google Doc and then fills in the details on what is to be done. I've been trying to do this same thing on Chalk and maybe I just need to use a Google doc. Maybe I've been overthinking it and making it more complicated than it needs to be. This other teacher makes a huge document with the year outlined on the first few pages and then links to the individual units and lessons. It ends up being a very large document but all the information is there in one place. I'm trying to put it in Chalk and it's one day at a time and so I'm flipping back and forth between days to see what I did when. I think I may have just solved my own problem. A Google Doc for planning. I'm off. 

 It's been a little over a week since school ended and I've got a few things done but not much. My goal for this summer is to have both classes planned out so that I don't really have to think much when school starts. Not that I won't be thinking much, but I won't have to devote much brain power to lessons. My goal for this year is to stick to the plan I develop this summer. Every year I've planned things over the summer and then forgot about them once school started. I then would try to come up with each lesson right before the class started. This led to a lot of issues. First, I would be stressed out about what I was going to be teaching in 10 minutes (god, I hate that).  Second, I would forget what I did from one class to the next. I would do something spur of the moment, but because I had nothing written down or laid out, I would forget the next class and have to ask the students. Third, I felt like things had no flow. It would feel very choppy and disconnec...

 I got Unit 1 laid out yesterday for chemistry. Nice. The problem I'm having is how much time to spend on the basics? I want them to use their brains and really think in this class, so how long will that take?  For example, I have a couple of things I want them to be able to do in this class.  Keep track of the things they actually do so they can go back and understand what they did at the time. Like in a lab. They can't just write down the results, they need to write down what was done and anything they saw.  Be able to think of reasons for things. I don't know is not acceptable at all in my class.  Work together collaboratively to develop ideas and understandings.  I think those are the broad things, now what is the best way to accomplish this? I know that I should spend a few days on it, but how long and what activities work best?  A couple of activities that I have in mind:  Build a boat. This is a group activity that requires them to work tog...

  The school year ended last Thursday May 20th with graduation that night. I was in charge of the program and we were having it in our very own gym. Plus, it was the first real graduation in 2 years, thank you Covid. It was nice. Really. Nice. I was so glad when it was over though because that meant that I was finally done. We didn't get out of there until 9:30pm, but everything was cleaned up and put away so there was nothing to do the next day. Yay!!!!! So now I've begun planning for next year. I must say, I haven't done a whole lot of planning. I've been hanging at the pool, visiting with friends, reading, etc. But a little bit of planning is getting done. We are leaving on a 10-day RV trip in about 2 weeks and I'm excited/nervous about that. Never having done it before, it is a little nervous making. But I'm excited to actually get away on a vacation for the first time in about 10+ years. The last time we went on vacation together was when we came to the mai...