Weeks 7 & 8

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 Last week I didn't get to blog so it's time to catch up here. 

Week 7: 

Chemistry: 

Monday/Tuesday: We whiteboarded worksheet 2 which was all on measuring and reading scales. Then we had a lecture on SI units. I discovered that whiteboarding takes far, far longer than I anticipate. 

Wednesday/Thursday: We had an assessment on reading measurements and estimating the last number. Then we began a lab exploring mass v. volume. This was a little difficult as I had to explain, repeatedly, how to use a caliper. But we struggled through. 

AP Chemistry: 

Tuesday: Lecture on electron configuration, Hund's Rule, Aufbau principle, and Pauli exclusion principle. Went through those in some detail. 

Thursday: We did some worksheets on the above and got ready to start a lab. 


Week 8: 

Chemistry: 

Monday/Tuesday: We completed the mass v. volume lab and they had to graph out the data. We used two things to do this lab, some density cylinders and density blocks. The cylinders worked fantastic the blocks not so much - need to figure those out. I quickly discovered in this lab that I cannot assume that they know anything at all about math. One scholar asked me how to find the radius of a block. 🤦‍♀️

Wednesday/Thursday: This was our first full blown whiteboard meeting. They prepped their whiteboards with the graphs for the cylinders and the blocks, along with the equations of their lines. Then each group had to come to the front of the room and present their boards. I would then ask questions and draw names on who was to answer. They earned points for everything they did in the meeting. Talking during the presentation - points. Answering a question - points. Asking a question - points. I had reached my limit on how lazy some of them are. They don't do homework, they don't look at Google Classroom when they miss a class. They walk out my door and forget everything that happened in that room. No more. I am going to hold them accountable and if I have to give points for behavior, so be it. 

AP Chemistry: 

Tuesday: We started the analysis of alum lab. It was long, drawn out and very complicated. 

Thursday: They finished up the lab and worked on the math and the questions associated with the lab. 


So it was a pretty good 2 weeks, though I need to work on my chemistry class. They are lazy and just won't do things. That means I'm going to start giving them more to do and they will be penalized for not doing it. I know I want to move to standard based grading, but I think at this point it's more important to get them back into the routine of school. These past few years have really hurt them. I thought that last year they had forgotten how to do school, well this year it is really showing. So if I have to give them grades for behavior to get them back into the swing of things, so be it. I will. 

Next week I hand out their first Summative Task - which takes the place of their test. This should be interesting. We will see how that goes. 

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