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.