Short weeks are almost worse than regular

 So this week was a 2 day week due to the 5 day weekend. And it was brutal. Getting back into the swing of things after 5 days off takes more than 1 day. But we survived and the week is now over. 

Chemistry this week:

Over the 5 day weekend, I graded the worksheets they did and was so disappointed in the grades. So I decided, since we only had 1 day this week, to revisit those worksheets. I gave them back with all the red  marks on them. Each group was given a part of a problem and they had to do it up on the white board. I circulated and made corrections or clarifications where necessary. Then everyone got to 'copy' the whiteboards onto a new worksheet and submit that for a grade. I also did the first notebook check. It was worth 10 points and while most students did well, I clearly have to remind them of some things. So I am going to start reminding them of some things daily. 

AP Chemistry this week: 

We finished up the test that they started last week. It took them about 1/2 an hour I guess. Then we started in on Unit 2 which is atomic structure and periodicity. I just lectured and pointed out some things to them on the periodic table. It was definitely a low key day. 

Professional development. 

Yesterday we had an all campus meeting and had some professional development with this guy, Dave Stuart. I'm not linking him here because I don't want him to trace it back, though if he has Google alerts set he might see it anyway. Oh, well. He was good, but it really wasn't anything I haven't heard before. Connections with students, knowing your reasons, sermonizing your reasons, etc. Again, nothing really new but it did remind me of somethings that have fallen by the wayside in my teaching. So I may institute some of them back and give it a go. 

One thing he did bring up was Woodenizing something. Apparently there was a really successful basketball coach, Wooden, who teaches his players how to put on shoes and socks the first day of training. It seems simple and basic, but really, do you remember having someone explain how to do it to you? So his idea is to Woodenize somethings in your classroom. Some are little things, like how to write your name on a paper. But some are big things, like how to take notes or set up a notebook. Little things can just be reminders where as big things need to be trained in small steps. I like this idea and I'm going to work on incorporating it into my classes. Instead of expecting them to remember after me telling them just once, I'll repeat it endlessly until it becomes a joke. 

The other thing he introduced was the Pop-Up debate. In this, students are given some sort of prompt and then 2-3 minutes to prepare. Then everyone has to make a comment or statement or take a position or whatever answering the prompt. The can only talk when they are standing up, hence pop-up. I want to try this in citizenship, I just need to figure out how to set it up and where to use it. 

Yes, he also brought up sentence prompts or templates. I have these for chemistry and completely forgot about them. This gives students something to work from if they don't know where to start or how to comment on something. So yes, I got a few things out of it and reminders about others. It was good and worth the time. It did not need to be 4 hours, but it was good.

I'm going to actually spend some time this weekend planning out some things. I have a horrible tendency to leave things until the last minute. I have a general plan on what I want to do, but I tend to leave the details until the last minute and then rush and miss things and ugh!! I need to stop that. Plus I need to update my digital lesson plans. I am working hard this year to keep really, really good notes on my lessons so that next year I will have them all ready to go and know where the pitfalls occur. So I'm going to do that today and be really, really ready for next week.