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.