Doing things my way

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 Thirsty Bird is a simulation that is included with the modeling curriculum for biology. The way it was presented in the modeling stuff was very confusing and I had to go looking elsewhere for an explanation that worked for me. I found it. I found lots of posts about how much people like this simulation. So I thought, okay, we'll give it a go. After 2 days of doing it, I can honestly say it sucks. Big time. It is a little crazy. It is messy. We struggle with the alleles changing every 'generation'. And I'm honestly not sure that the kids get anything out of this. Also, the data doesn't really show much. Between that and the feeling that I don't know what I'm doing each day, something had to give. I realized that I have got to do things my way. 

Last semester I had developed a form that I used to notate my lessons. It was a calendar type with a whole week on one page and then I list the plans for the day. This worked really well for me because I could just glance at the page and see what I was doing. Things were listed in order so I knew the sequence. Also, I could just look at this page and know what I had to prep (I have a prep column for that). That worked well last semester. Well, I switched over to the notebook lady's unit planner - which I really love - and tried using that. The result is that I spent the last 2 weeks feeling like I had no idea what was going on. I had taken on too many changes, too quickly. Yesterday it hit me. So I sat down and wrote out my plans for yesterday and today on the calendar like form and used it. Worked great. So I have 5 days off so it's back to the old way. 

I also realized that I need to lecture more. I hardly ever lecture and I think that is a mistake. So over this long weekend I'm also going to make some PowerPoints that cover the lectures I want to give and I'm going to use them in class. I need to go back to what works for me and I've let that slip this semester. Thankfully the semester is only 2 weeks in so I can still course correct. Also, having a better  idea of what I'm doing makes life so much easier on me. I don't get as tired during the day and actually have a little energy at night when I get home. 

So I will have a busy 5 days but I think it will be worth it. Okay, my tree grew so it's time to go. 


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