Hello all,
After a prolonged absence marked mostly by a stretch of time where I taught 6 days per week, and then a wonderful summer, I find myself finally having the time and energy to blog about my wonderful kiddos again!
And with that, I begin my first post about my third year of teaching.
In major news, I have a new classroom with (gasp) enough seats for all my kiddos and 6 sinks! A great success in a world where any success is celebrated. Also, I am teaching a new class this year - Advanced Chemistry - for my students who took Chem last year and were going to take physics this year. The physics teacher left, and we instead hired Earth Science, who is great, but with a flip-flop in the schedule, I now have the same kids for the 3rd year in a row. I love it! I already know them all, and we've built up a good relationship, so it has been an excellent start to the school year.
This past week, I started off the year by spending some time doing an inquiry/critical-thinking activity called The Walters Box of Wonder. This year, I hung a carved out cube-ish item in a larger box and stuck a flashlight at the back. The students could only figure out what was inside the box based on the shadows it cast on the wall. They were using so many great observations and making great connections, it makes me happy! I hate feeling that they get so little practice in genuine critical thinking because of the need to teach to the Regents exams, so I LOVE incorporating these activities into my lessons.
With the start of another school year, comes the start of another round of grading. On this lovely Saturday morning, I must tackle the lab-notebook mountain.
Cheers!
