Getting ready to do the activity tomorrow. I'm kinda nervous how this one is going to go. I don't always know how to make this stuff exciting. I have the core in my car. I have some forams ready. I went in to Eastlake this morning to finish working on the cores. I think they came out nice when we glued them down instead of stapling. I didn't like the way they were sitting on the cardboard. Some of the students in the forensics class were really into the beads though. They saw them change color and instantly wanted to know what was going on with them. So that was a good sign to me. They were really instantly hooked on wanting to know more. We'll see if the students tomorrow are just as interested. I have an hour to make the intros to everything about the XRF. I need to put videos together still this evening. I don't know if anybody will be observing tomorrow or not. I hope they are, but at the same time, I don't really want the pressure of other people observing. The students were really eager to help put together materials for the demo, so that really helped me save some time and get stuff done. I am really grateful that the student aides have stepped up and helped make a lot of these cores. It gave me a lot more time to put into the lecture instead of focusing on the details. There were a few minor mistakes, but all in all, they did an excellent job.

Anyways, just thought I'd post my fear on here. Because maybe if I post it on here, I'll be less likely to experience it tomorrow. I'm sure after first period, I'll be much more in the zone. I just always feel bad for first period. They're the guinea pigs of the whole group. Even though we piloted the stuff with a club, I just don't think anything will ever prepare you for the specifics of each class. Wish me luck!

Pennies, part 2

Ok, we've moved on to the second part of the penny lab. I always struggle with the less fun part of going through the calculations and making sure they know how to do that. It's easy to teach when it's exciting stuff. It's harder when it's the mundane. I had to figure out a way to make things relevant to the students. Anyways, today we went over all of the calculations. We had the students learning what the difference between and average and a weighted average are.

The sort of fun relevant part was that the students in most of the classes are totally dominated by brunettes. I guessed what the average weight of our brunettes are, and what the average weights of our blonds are, and had the students figure out the weighted average of the students in the class. They had to figure out percents from numbers. In one case there were 27 students in the class, and we had one blond. So they had to figure out that only 4% of the students were blond, write that as a decimal (0.04) and multiply that times what we determined was the average weight for a blond (110lbs). They seemed more awake when we were using actual students, but they still had to do the math. We had already done it a few times, so it worked in the end.

I really don't like it when students look bored or are just watching me talk. But it's hard to describe stuff and then have them do it. It's easier if they do it as I'm doing it. But then I can't check on them. So I don't really know what to do. I like second period the best because they interact more. First period always seems slightly sleepy. And third period seems a little bit scared to answer. They are definitely becoming distinct students. A few of them are certainly the personalities of the groups. Duke got through this lesson with the students in one period when he did it with the other chemistry group. I feel sort of bad for my students because I'm not as good at teaching chemistry. I don't have the cool stories or other stuff I have with Earth Science. But at least it's something I do. But sometimes I feel like what I do isn't that interesting at this level. Ah well, I have a whole year to make an impact. Hopefully I will. This year we have an interesting experiment going on in that he has one other regular chemistry class. So we'll see how this all goes!

Reflections for second week in class

Well, we tested out the project on the after school students. They were really into the beads! I think they wanted more for an after school club setting. I didn't have the core with me, which I definitely need to have for the class. Hopefully I can get a webcam going for that day too. We'll see. It's all happening so fast!

I wasn't in the classroom last week. I'll be getting everything ready for implementation this coming week for the XRF stuff. This week, we went over isotopes. I've finished working with the first two periods already. After each period, Duke has given me some good feedback for what I should add and subtract from the lecture to make it more clear. Particularly this early in the year, I don't really know what the students do and do not know. The students always surprise me with what they do and do not know. They know the chemical formula for water and that sort of thing, but they don't know where the ice caps are. One of them also referred to me as Dr. Alaska. That was kinda fun. Today the students have a review, then a test, then a lab with me. So I'm doing a short lecture then the penny isotope lab. Isotopes are pretty easy to learn, but I want them to know why they are learning them, and what the changes between isotopes actually mean. We'll see how well they get that. I kinda ran low on time on the last period. It's hard following a test too, since I never know exactly how long I'll have for the activity. But the feedback I'm getting on each lecture is good. I like learning little things to add to a lecture or to make it more easily understood. It's harder for me to teach chemistry because I'm not as used to teaching it, so it's more of a stretch for me.

I'll be prepping the material for our stuff next week. We've moved it to Thursday implementation instead of Tuesday, so I'll have a little more time to get the cores ready and make sure everything works for the implementation.

Weekly reflections, week 1

Well, we have to keep a weekly journal of reflections for Socrates, and this seemed like a good use for this blog since I haven't used it in a while.  Week one went pretty well.  I will be working with periods 1-3.  That will be an interesting test of what difference I make since there is another chemistry class that Duke is working with for 6th period that I am not working with.  For anyone not on the socrates group, Duke is the teacher I am working with this year.  I'll be working with high school chemistry, at Eastlake High School.  Ok, back to week one.  I introduced the students to a little bit about my background: who I am, what I do, why I'm there.  Some periods were more questioning than others.  Period two seemed the most awake and asked a lot of questions, mostly about Alaska.  They were pretty funny.  Really I was mostly watching what Duke was doing with the students.  I also watched the classes that I will not be working with and was briefly introduced to them.  We had all six periods on Friday, at about an hour each.  

This week is a little different.  We are now in week two.  My regular day will be Tuesdays.  We are piloting our activity this afternoon with the Preserve Our Planet (POP) students.  They agreed to be our guinea pigs and give it a shot.  We'll have about an hour with them, so it won't be the full demo.  Hopefully everything will work..  We'll see!  Today the students are going over measurements.  I'm helping out checking the students work to see how they do the measurements lab.  Basically we're making sure they know the accuracy of what they measure, and the precision with which they can make certain measurements.  I'm observing Duke.  He starts the lesson with a lecture that involves a lot of student questioning.  Basically, he'll show them once, ask them about a basic scenario, then ask them about a more specific scenario that is a little more difficult to make sure they understand what happened in the simple one.  Right now I'm going to make up the worksheet for students to do this afternoon.  We'll see how this goes.  I'm trying to make up a penny lab for the week after next also, so we can do isotopes with the students.  I won't be around next week, so I may come in twice on the week that I actually do the activity.  

Tree sweater

So I was on cuteoverload.com and I ran across a picture of a knitted apple cozy. This was linked to a picture of a tree sweater. This is the best thing I've run across on the web in a while... I was laughing so hard.

On another note, my half sister is going to visit me this weekend. I can hardly believe it! Crazy! Anyways, just thought I'd show the pic of the tree sweater.

The inflatable shark

Somewhere along the line I was optimistic. Thinking I would write in this blog more often. But, since I haven't, here's a few highlights:

-There is an inflatable shark in my office. He's a pool shark.
-I have moved to a fourth floor office, and now have an ocean view. Hopefully my shark will not leave me for bluer waters...
-My half sister found me on myspace. I am finding out things about my family I never knew. My dad is alive still. Good to know.
-Our post-doc and his wife have a new baby. The baby (Harry) cries louder and louder, until he's practically shreiking, lets out with a loud fart, and becomes peaceful again.
-I have tendonitis in my left wrist. I've been unable to climb since the beginning of August. Bleh.
-I went snorkeling with sharks for the first time. It was only some small ones, but they're really cool. I saw three of them in an hour (apparently there are lots more than that out there at once).
-Went kayaking with Obi around La Jolla Cove. Aggravated my tendonitis, but enjoyed seeing a sea lion swim right under my kayak.

I'm sure I'll think of more later, but it doesn't feel like I've done much in the last month other than school work. And it will continue that way until my quals in a month. Ugh. SOOOO busy. But eventually it will all be over.

My jumbo watermelon has gone astray

Well, wedding season continues for Obi and I. We have decided a few things about weddings. First, something minor always goes wrong.

Matt and Helen's Wedding: Matt held the wrong hand when he tried to give Helen the ring. She switched hands and the last second.

Beck and Amy's Wedding: The hairdresser went AWOL.

Mike and Jen's Wedding: The downside to having a wedding in a beautiful forest is that wasps also like beautiful forests. And the bridesmaid's flowers. Bee:1, Bridesmaid:0.

Next, friends seem to get married in clumps. Obi has four weddings to attend this year. Three down, one to go, unless somebody sneaks one in at the last minute. These weddings do have an upside for us. Not only do people who haven't seen eachother in a long time get to hang out, and people who haven't met get to, but we get to go on trips to places we otherwise wouldn't. And on these trips, fun things happen. For instance, we recently watched Star Trek IV. The one with the whales. And the "nuclear wessels". No, I didn't spell that wrong. Watch the movie if you don't remember. Anyways, said "wessels" are stored in Alameda, in the Bay Area. We passed Alameda on the way to the airport. We were disappointed at the lack of nuclear wessels.

Also on the way to the airport, we saw a giant watermelon slice on the side of the road. It's at least two feet across. We debated for a moment pulling over and picking up said slice, but it probably would not have been overhead bin sized. Perhaps if they were wedge shaped. We also debated the origins of the newly dubbed "advertislice". How does somebody lose a two foot tall watermelon slice? Obi said it was there two weeks ago. Has nobody missed the slice?!? Why is it still on the side of the road? For god sakes people! There's a piece of jumbo watermelon out there all alone! And where is the rest of the melon? Note: it did not appear to be seedless. Perhaps it is a nuclear wessel.

Also of note, mostly to me, but I ran a 5K in 26:47. This is the fastest I have ever run a 5K (I am normally very very slow). Having gone up to just a little bit slow, I'm quite happy (I'm four minutes less slow than last time! Woot!)

Also, the pic was included as an homage to my friend Robb's return from Alaska. Yeah baby.