Tales from the science classroom

 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...