Sista!

My younger sister came up to visit last weekend, and had the opportunity (or rather interesting experience?) of coming to school with me and observing my lessons for the day.

If you don't know me/my family, you should know that my sister and I look almost freakishly alike, except that she is shorter than I. Obviously, this caused my kids to literally scream and laugh and point (it is an art school, so I am generally prepared for their flare for the dramatic).

Most of the comments were along the lines of...whoa, deadass miss, you all look alike, you be looking like twins!

It was pretty awesome to have someone that I am so close with finally get a chance to see what I do every day, and to meet the students with whom I spend most of my time/devote most of my time to their success. The students were pretty impressed with her work as a nursing student, although to quote the masses:

"you both deadass like science? that's weird. that's OD."

All in all, however, in her one day of observing, she got a flash sense for the brilliance that gathers in my room each day. She enjoyed their wit and their smarts and their good questions, and of course, their fake dramatic love triangle fights about who is my "wife" and who each other's wives are.

Now, if only how I could figure out how to get all that brilliance to express itself in more productive ways than singing the tunes of Disney movie songs during a "calculate your mastery" day (aka today's adventure). Their soundtrack of choice: High School Musical.

Best Class In the School

Sometimes it just takes one class and sometimes it just takes one student to remind me why I kill myself week after week for this job.

This has been a really stressful time lately. Our school is being evaluated by the city/state on January 5th (aka 3rd day back from Christmas break), so the pressure is on to have everything ready and perfect by Christmas time. Which officially makes this crunch time. As a result, every teacher and administrator is scrambling to take care of every odd and end to ensure that our school gets the best review possible (oh and ensures our kids are getting the most out of their education).

Part of this process includes the administration formally observing every teacher. The process involves 3 stages.
1. Planning = Submit your lesson plan, a planning guide, and your lesson materials to the administration. Have a pre-lesson meeting with the administrators to discuss your plan and get feedback. Make adjustments as necessary.

2. Lesson = Teacher teaches the lesson while administrators sit in the room and observe, taking minute-by-minute notes of everything that happens in the classroom and then walk around and ask students to explain their answers to the lesson objective (Guiding Question) at the end of class.

3. Reflection = Teacher completes a detailed reflection form about the lesson and then conferences with the administration, who decide if you are a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory teacher.

It's a pretty high-stress situation. My observation was yesterday. Today I had my Reflection conference with my administration. I was given lots of good feedback and lots of things to improve on, but received an overall Satisfactory rating! Yay I can teach children!

The best part: Adminstrator tells me that as she was leaving the classroom, one of my students said "Ms., Chemistry is the best class in the whole school!":)

Cutting Class

Class cutting is a big problem at our school. A big problem. The swing on my attendance between when a class meets 7th period (before lunch) and 9th period (after lunch) averages to around 40%. So, some kids I only see 2 - 3 days per week because they cut all of their after-lunch classes.

Today, a student in my 9th period class did not show up at the start of the period. I walked her to class earlier in the day because she was out flirting with the boys from across the hall instead of going to Math. At the start of 9th period, however, she was nowhere to be seen.

Conveniently enough, her mom was in school for a meeting. Right next door to my classroom. She came out just as 9th period was starting. Mrs. ____, I asked, where is your daughter? She has Anatomy with me 9th period.
The conversation/events went as follows:

Mom: She's not in your class?
Me: No, she did not show up yet. I saw her earlier today, so I know she was here.
Mom: Oh, I know she was here alright.
((Riot breaks out in the hall - fight between the boys next door and our kids))
(( Mom starts plowing through the crowd looking for her daughter))
(( I shut the door to keep the other students out of the riot ))
(( Things settle down, police come up, Mom comes back to the room ))
Mom: Oh, I don't know where she is, but I'm about to find out.
Me: Ok, thanks.
Mom (on cell phone): _______, where the hell are you? You're supposed to be in science class right now! ....... How do I know you're not there? Because I'm standing in the classroom and you're not here!

Vocabulary Part 2.

really awesome things to say. 


wavy = awesome/cool. In reference to my sliding dry erase boards: Miss, those boards are wavy. 


curve (verb); curvin = ignore or intentionally "hurt" feelings using sarcasm: (After ignoring Alexis' 3rd request in a minute to whip my hair back and forth). 
Alexis: Miss, whip yo hair back and forth. 
Me: Ok everyone should have their notebook on their desk, today is Chem #34. 
Alexis: Oh Miss, you just curve me.  


gassed up = hyper, energetic: Miss, you be mad gassed up this morning. 


shut the front door! = shut the f* up. for once, they actually choose to censor their profanity.


OG = Original Gangsta (gangster). No explanation necessary. 
 ---- For the record, according to my Anatomy - 4 class, I am the OG.  

day-to-day struggles

It's a rough time lately. It's hard to still be peppy and crazy and on top of my game when exhaustion is setting in for the kids and as I seem to be growing more tired by the day. 


The little moments when kids give me encouragement, or thanks for holding them to high expectations, are what can keep me going for the next few days. In the meantime, we have to keep on keeping on with our sweet studies...


Also, is anyone reading this???

The Achievement Gap

One of the most emailed articles on the NY Times...
The Achievement Gap

Who's The Boss?

Just announced today: the Department of Education appointed a new Chancellor to the schools. Not sure that I feel very confident in this, since the new Chancellor has no previous experience in education.

Here is the article in the Times....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/nyregion/10klein.html?_r=1&hp

Halloween Candy

I'm not a particularly big fan of Halloween. For a number of reasons. And today, I can add one more to my list. 


Fresh off the Halloween craziness from yesterday, my students came to school today nuts. I mean, really antsy and crazy. The madness continued all day. Their brains were not in school mode but their mouths were in "chatter-singing-jokes-silliness" mode. 
Why? 
A constant flow of candy. The kids were constantly sneaking candy throughout class. The crinkle of wrappers was disruptive and I kept finding wrappers and stray Skittles on the floor. Woof. No matter how hard I tried, I could not seem to put a stop to the peaks and ebbs of my students' blood sugar. And the result was madness. 


Thank goodness Halloween does not come around again until next October.

Mole Day!

Saturday was Mole Day. For your info, a mole is 6.02 x 10^23 atoms, so each year Mole Day is celebrated on October 23 (10/23). 


In celebration of National Chemistry Week and Mole Day, we had a party on Friday after learning all about what a mole is :) 


Check out some pictures of the classroom updated and decorated for Mole Day. 

With some balloons up for our Mole Day party!

Welcome to Mole Day!

Our goal posters :) 

Full Moon

You may think I'm crazy after reading this, but hear me out (or really, read me out)....


On the day of the first full moon of the school year, a riot-fight broke out in the hallway mid-morning. Kids who are normally well-behaved were wild, and the day seemed to have that sort of disorienting feel similar to the feeling of taking too much cold medicine and then not sleeping it off before trying to do something that requires immense physical and mental exertion. 2 floors down on that same day, the principal of the school was bit by a student and had to go to the hospital because the bite broke the skin. 


Today, another full moon. Today, 2 fights broke out in the hallways of our school involving our kids. A third fight broke out on the first floor of the building involving a different school. Some of the kids involved in the fight were on their first day of school for the year. I was in the middle of a totally badass "Mole Day" party/lesson and had to actually block the door with my body to keep my students from leaving the room and joining the fight and to keep the fighting kids out of my classroom. 


I had multiple similar experiences last year. Many of them on days with a full moon. 


Conclusions: 1) The moon cycle actually has an effect on people's moods/behavior/attitude. 
2) My children are werewolves. Or really, werechildren.

Truancy Hypocrisy

The hypocrisy of truancy:

Today one of my students was walking to school late and was picked up outside the building by a truancy officer during 2nd period. When a student is picked up by an officer, the kid then has to spend time filling out paperwork, phone calls are made home, etc. It's a whole long process. Today, this process resulted in the kid missing 3rd period (my class) and 4th period class.

Moral of the story: Get in trouble for cutting school and you will miss more school.

No wonder we have an attendance problem in our building...

Cellular Respiration Song

I have to teach Cellular Respiration this week, and my kids seem to struggle with it. As a potential solution, I have written a song to the tune of Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" about respiration. We do not need to, nor have time to, learn the details of glycolysis, Krebs cycle, etc. so this is just a general overview. In any case, ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK ON THE LYRICS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!! 


To the cell, to the cell
to the cell, to the cell


To the cell, to the cell
The good stuff that you eat goes straight to your cells
In your food yeah that's glucose
Glucose helps your cells take care of stuff


Keep eating those veggies and fruits
Cell respiration is what gets you to move
We all need energy
So we have to make a lot of ATP


Singing in Room 433, smart scientists
Talking about how we're gonna pass the Regents
Make ATP


Cell respiration
Cell respiration
Glucose and oxygen go in
Mitochondria make ATP baby
Cell respiration 
Cell respiration
The cells are making ATP
Don't forget about the water and CO2
Cell respiration


So go ahead and eat some fruit, break it down
with your stomach juice
Move into the small intestine, diffuse through the walls
into the blood yeah


Delivery that glucose straight to the cells, along with O2 
from the lungs
to the mitochondria please. 
Singing in Room 433, smart scientists
talking about how we're gonna pass the Regents
Make ATP


Cell respiration
Cell respiration
Glucose and oxygen go in
Mitochondria make ATP baby
Cell respiration
Cell respiration
The cells are making ATP
And don't forget about the water and CO2
Cell respiration


So since our cells need energy
How about we make ATP, ATP is energy
We'll use our glucose 
and use oxygen
Cause the truth of the matter is 
Respiration is so easy, hey


To the cell, to the cell
to the cell, to the cell


To the cell, to the cell
Good stuff that you eat goes straight to the cell
To the cell, to the cell
Using up glucose and oxygen
Cell respiration

Pants

It seems a little strange that I would be concerned about my students' clothing since my students are in high school. 
However, for the 4th time since I began teaching, I have dealt with an issue involving my high school students and their lack of pants...


Today, one student changed out of her jeans and into sweatpants - all while sitting in her chair. In the middle of class. 


Previous experiences are: 
1. A student asking to go to the bathroom and returning without pants on. 
2. A student coming into class with only long john underwear because his pants were drying in the bathroom after a rainy walk to school. 
3. The same student as incident 1 was making a ruckus in the hall. I looked outside the classroom door to see her laying in the hall, rolling around on the floor, without pants on. 


I could not make this stuff up even if I wanted to. 

Advice

I found this "advice" column in the opinion section of the NY Times. I plan on sharing this piece with my students. So many of my students are very bright and very talented, and yet not so many are truly thinking about college because it seems to be such an overwhelming thought and mystery. I hope to build their curiosity and excitement about the possibility of higher education for those who are interested. 


You might be interested in reading, too :) 


Advice for College Students

What a feeling

My friend Kellie sent me this video because, if you know me, you know of my immense love for dance parties. 


In any case, I feel like this video captures the essence of what I want my classroom to be like. 


Enjoy! 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK7IzfLmyco&feature=player_embedded

Vocabulary Lesson

I realized today that it would not do justice to my day-to-day experience if I did not share the colorful vocabulary that can be heard throughout the halls and classrooms of my school. 


dead ass = seriously. Example: Dead ass, Miss, you gave OD homework. 
OD (as in overdose) = too much. 
What's poppin / What's crackin = What's up? Example: Yo Miss, what's crackin? 
mad crazy (this is mad crazy) = too 
"I feel some type of way" = You're killing me, smalls. 
Wilin' = Getting wild. Example: We was wilin in Ms. Walters' class today. 
*Note this is not a good thing. 
beastin' = working too hard/being too demanding. Example: Miss, you beastin! We can't do all this work. 
shawty = mother. father. brother. sister. friend. son. daughter. boyfriend. girlfriend. lover. 


Typical student phrases: 
Miss, that class was OD whack. You was beastin with that work miss.

Nicknames

I am rarely called "Miss Walters" by my students. Most of my students just call me "Miss", which is very common among students throughout NY. I can't exactly figure out why the last name is dropped...?

A few kids, however, have come up with far more...creative....nicknames for me.
1. Ashley (11th grade) who I had last year and have again this year has decided to call me "Wifey Number 2". I've heard this before, but today she decided that was the only thing she would say to me. The conversation went something like this:
Ashley: Miss, Imma call you Wifey Number 2.
Me: Ok. Can I ask, why number 2?
Ashley: Because Ms. Cronan is Number 1.

The girl has a point. Ms. Cronan is an awesome English teacher. I've decided to take this as a compliment and let it go.

2. Then, Bernice and Simone, two of the seniors that I walked with during the AIDS Walk last spring, came bolting into my classroom...
B & S: SHAWWWTY!!
Me: Hey friends.
B & S: Miss, we gunna call you Shawty, because you our shawty and we go out looking for shawties. (referring to the AIDS Walk when they spent the entire 6.2mile walk searching for boys aka shawties).

On my updated resume, what name shall I put?
Miss Wifey #2 Shawty Walters? It does have a nice ring to it....

The Walters Box of Wonder

As a kickoff into a new school year of scientific investigations, today I introduced the Walters Box of Wonder! I built the box, which is basically magic (and a system of plastic bottles and tubes) that create challenging patterns of water input vs. output. The kids had to collect the data and figure out what was inside the box while competing for the fastest time against the other sections of Chemistry classes.  
I rarely have seen students so excited about something I've done in class - it was inspiring :) As of this evening, no students have solved the puzzle yet, but several are hot on the trail! The prize for the winning class = 10 extra points on the next Unit test (talk about a big money prize). 


Seeing the kids get so excited about something like this makes me pretty upset that we have Regents standards/exams that ignore quality inquiry skills and make it difficult for teachers to do any quality science in the classroom. I am lucky enough to be able to teach a class when my students do not have to take the Regent at the end of this year. 


I will say, for as stressful as teaching is, it was awfully nice to have my students back, hear about their summer, and see how much they grew over the last few months! Year 2, here we go! 

Check out the pics to see my classroom (not entirely finished with posters), etc. 

The famous Walters Box of Wonder!! a total inquiry success. 

Daily plans on the board...

Front of the room - yay science!

Our class goals! We love goal-setting :) 

SFU represent in my classroom.