Week 5 done and a 5 day weekend ahead

-

 Yes!!! So the year is off and running. We are already nearing the end of our first unit and I  need to start thinking of the summative task. I believe I have something in mind, I just need to flesh it out. I also need to get the Big Ideas in order and ready to do. So that's what I'm going to work on over the 5 day weekend. I want the entire rest of the first unit laid out and the summative task complete so that I can just deliver the content. Okay, let's get to this week: 

Chemistry Monday/Tuesday: 

We took our first minor assessment. It was a review of the mass & change lab. I still have to grade it, so I will see how they did this weekend. 

After the assessment, we did the cm3 vs mL lab. What a freaking mess. And honestly, I don't think they understood what was going on. They are sometimes so clueless and will just go through the motions rather than try to figure out what is really happening. 

Chemistry Wednesday/Thursday: 

Today we reviewed the lab from Mon/Tues and I showed them what they should have found. I then showed them my data and a graph of my data and we discussed that cm3 = mL and that was what they should have found. We then did the Glug measuring activity. That was interesting. So many of them wanted to measure the glug and then use it to measure things. They were trying to relate it to something they knew. We then had a short lecture about measuring and significant figures. After which they did worksheet on reading scales and determining significant figures. 

AP Chemistry Tuesday/Thursday: 

Tuesday we really just went over problems. We did some empirical/molecular formula problems. Then we did one free response question which had multiple parts. 

Thursday I gave them the Unit 1 test. It was 10 multiple choice questions and 5 short free response. They worked on it the majority of the period and most didn't finish. It was really easy. Really. Easy. But it is their first test and getting used to AP questions can be a struggle. That is just something we will have to work on along with the content. 

That was it. Not a very exciting week, but that happens. Lessons went fairly well. I do need to do something about the measurement/significant figures lesson. It is rather boring and I need to find a way to beef it up somehow. 

I have some work to do over the weekend, but the good news is I have 5 days to do it!! Woot woot!!!!!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going in too many directions????

-
Image
I'm having trouble organizing my lessons. There are a number of technology things that go with my lessons. I am trying to use Planbookplus to create my lesson plans: Which is great but has its limitations. So I thought I would keep all of my files in One Note so I could have access anywhere. That will be good but it is almost like creating lesson plans all over again. Then I have a class blog where things need to be uploaded and offered to the kids. As a result of trying all three of these things, I have completed nothing. All of them are half done and we have just completed the 2nd full week of school. I tried an external hard drive and thought that would be a good way to do it. It has proven to be more of a nightmare than a help. Ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! What to do???? How do I organize all the electronic information I have???? How do I keep track of things and not make myself crazy??????? So that is my struggle this weekend. I am going to complete one or tw...
Read more

And so it begins.........

-
Image
We teachers returned to school on July 24th and the students returned on August 2nd. That means we had the kids 2 days last week, Wednesday and Thursday. And it went well. This year I had to revamp my classroom management system and I think I have something that will work for me. Let me explain; My first 7 years of teaching was at private schools. Even though these private schools were at the lower financial end of the spectrum and most of our students were on financial aid, they were nevertheless private school students. Classroom management was not a huge priority as these students did their work and listened and were respectful and all that stuff. So my classroom management was a little lax because it didn't need to be really strict and tough. Well, now I'm at a public school. And in spite of the fact that this is a charter school and parents have to go out of their way to send their students here, it is still a public school. Last year I handled my classroom management l...
Read more

A stroke of genius?????

-
Image
The ongoing theme of this blog has been organization. I've been teaching for 9 years, but I haven't found a way to organize my stuff that works really, really well for me. Every single year, I struggle finding things I know I have or recreating the wheel because I've forgotten I have something. So I've been working really, really hard to get organized once and for all with a system that works for me. I know that I need to have things written/printed and at my fingertips in order to make good use of them. If I have to go online and look it up it won't happen. I've played around with binders and didn't really use them after I set them up. The last 2 years I did find great success with planners. I would divide the day up into my classes - 4 each day - and jot notes on what was to happen that day. That worked great!! As long as I planned ahead. Too many days I would get to school and the planner was blank. That left me scrambling to figure out what I'm t...
Read more