Etch 'n Sketch Reflections

...just like that, one month down! And if there is one thing I can say, it has been a great month! My first unit of the year for both 7th and 8th, which focuses on lab procedures, will be coming to a close in the next week or so, and then we will be getting into the academic standards. I'm a mixture of excited and nervous because this means the coursework in the two grades will veer off in two different directions, and that will require quite a bit more time management when it comes to my planning. Due to this, I have been slowly finding opportunities to steer the classwork and activities the two grades are doing apart so that I can adjust for the change. This week, I had my 7th grade students completing a paper towel lab, in which they needed to study the absorbency powers of 3 brands of paper towels (Bounty, Ultra Strong, and Sparkle) and write up a lab report. In case you're interested, Bounty produced the best results in every group's testing process :-)  The 8th grader...

I think that is a way to describe what we had this week. At the end of last week and on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, the 8th grade science classes had an open-ended inquiry lab--the Egg Drop Challenge! I was really excited about this one when my 8th grade colleague told me that he does it with the students because I can remember doing an egg drop challenge when I was in school! The students were given the challenge to help an egg survive the 20 drop that we have in school from the second floor to the first floor while traveling in a shoebox. One of the catches was that they couldn't put anything inside the shoebox with the egg. The end of last week was a planning time for the students to identify the challenges they would face and brainstorm possible solutions. In addition to bringing a shoebox from home, the students could also bring in whatever supplies they felt would help them with the challenge. Monday was our first drop day, in which the students collected ...

Things are starting to take root. I'm getting used to remembering to take attendance on a more regular basis. At the elementary school it was just once in the morning and once in the afternoon...now it's every time a new group of students walks in. The bell schedule has gotten a little easier, although I cheat a little bit and set timers on my phone for when I have about 5 minutes left in class as a way to wrap things up, and that leftover time is about how much my students need for their reflections and getting cleaned up to go. I'm also getting much more used to the level of technology capabilities I can use with middle schoolers. I had experience using Canvas, our learning management system, with my 3rd graders as more of a class website format. I experimented with a few of the other features with them, such as trying out class discussions and posting short-term website links as announcements. Now, however, I've learned how to incorporate Canvas into a daily-use too...

I'm a middle school teacher! It seems kind of funny to me, but every time I've met someone new over the last few weeks and explained how I moved from 3rd grade to 7th/8th, their main response has been something along the lines of, "Wow, that's quite the change!" And, to be honest, it has been a change...a good change...a change that I think I needed. Not that it was easy though. It wasn't easy knowing that I wouldn't be around the friends that I've made over the last 12 years at the elementary school. So much so that I spent a lot of my inservice days sitting with them to catch up on the summer news and have a few more days with them. Another colleague, who noticed this, asked me if everything was okay with my transition to the middle school--it was nice to know she cared, and I let her know I just wanted to spend a little more time with my old friends :-) It also wasn't easy knowing that I wouldn't have all my regular routines to fall back on...