Tales from the science classroom

 1. Why did I get into this job?  Because I love teaching and I love helping people learn new things.  2. What is it that I hope my work with students accomplishes this school year?  I hope that I can help them become better thinkers in this crazy more and more nonsensical world we live in.  That was something that I needed to develop for school. We doing a book study on Dave Stuart and we needed to develop our Everest statement. I think I had a much clearer idea of what this was at the beginning of my teaching career. Now it tends to get a little fuzzy as it's tied in with what I have accomplished in the past. So it's a little iffy, but I will work on it some.  I want my students to be able to analyze things and figure out what is right and what is wrong.  I want them to not get taken by nonsense, like so many adults I know have been.  I want them to be able to think critically and not get taken in by nonsense.  I want my students to have a ...

 Okay, I've settled on the iHub curriculum for both chemistry and biology, I'm good with that. But now I need to figure out how to lay out my lessons. No, how to document them so I know what I'm doing each day. I have the lessons, that's not a problem. I need some way to keep them so that I know what I'm doing. I do not like sitting down at the computer to figure out what I'm doing. I like to have everything on paper, in front of me so that I can just look and see what is happening. Now that hasn't worked really well in the past because things change as I go along. Also, I want to start doing some of the Building Thinking Classroom stuff and I need to figure that into my lessons. So how do I do that and keep track of everything?  Presentations - yes, that's what I'm doing on the first day but I don't want to do that every day.  Set things up the day before - that's an option now that I actually have 2 prep periods. I mean seriously, I need 2 ...

 I just spent the morning (the last 3 hours) analyzing all my curriculum options. I listed out the units for each option, what was covered, and the time it would take. I then totaled it all up to see how many days this would take and then compared it to my school year. The results were as follows:  Chemistry:                                                             Biology:  Modeling:  80 Classes                                  Illinois Storylines:       66 Classes iHub:           54 Classes                                ...

 First off, I will be teaching 3 preps this year; Chemistry, AP Biology, and Biology. The problem with this arises in a couple of areas.  1. Which curriculum do I use for chemistry and biology? I kind of want to use the same curriculum; iHub for both or Patterns for both; only because they will follow a similar pattern and I won't have to work to know what's going on. So that is something I need to nail down soon.  2. How far to I want to go with BTC? Everything I'm reading is so great, but I don't want to overwhelm myself with a new curriculum and a completely new way of doing things. Many of the things I'm reading say to start with the first 3 chapters. Get those routines and practices down and then start adding the other practices. I like that and that is probably how I will start the year.  2a. Do I do BTC for both chemistry and biology? I some ways it will be easier to do it in both classes, but it other ways it won't. So, which do I do it in?  These are a ...