This guy is tired!

That pretty much sums up the week...it was a busy one! There was a lot of action in the science lab this week. The 7th graders were working on a lab in which they were experimenting with how music affects concentration. They ran a control test by having classmates complete a short task (maze or crossword puzzle) with no music. They followed up the control test by having the test subjects listen to a genre of music they chose while doing a similar test and then repeating it with a different genre. It was an interesting lab to do, but it needed some extra behavior management. This was tricky because there were a couple of students who needed some special attention when it came to behaviors. Another thing that threw a wrench into the system is that a few students REALLY (I MEAN REALLY) struggled with the word searches. So...I already know that when I repeat this lab next year I am going to have the scientists giving the word search set a time limit and check to see how many words the test subjects can find during the time period.
The 8th graders had a busy week as well, but luckily there were fewer behavioral issues :-) The students are coming to a close on our first unit, which deals with lab procedures, by setting up and running their own experiments. They had to choose what the experiment would be, get resources (beyond the basics that I can provide in the room), organize test subjects, and complete the lab report. The main struggle was when students didn't bring in their needed supplies, but they still had the opportunity to stay active by completing all the parts of the lab report that weren't dependent on the actual testing. It was really nice to see the students so engaged with their labs. There were a couple of labs that didn't quite work out as they originally planned and needed some restructuring, but all in all they were pretty good. Now comes the fun part of grading all the reports...
Here's a picture from one group's lab. They wanted to test the effects of adding different amounts of dry ice to a bowl of water. They created different blocks of dry ice to be (almost) proportional in size. Then they measured the results by creating a bubble at the top of the bowl and measuring how high the bubble grew. Their result will show whether or not the bubble grew at a proportional rate to the dry ice.

After this week, the different grade levels will be getting into their next units, and that's what will really test my time management skills. But I've been working on dividing out my time between immediate classroom needs, grading, and future planning. We'll see how that works and what needs to be adapted!

Mindfulness thought for the week: Don't dwell on the time not spent on the task--focus on the time to come and ACT!