December!
Already? Would you believe me if I told you that today was the 65th day of school? I happen to know because we put the days in our science journal daily entries. And knowing what point we are at in the school year makes me feel pretty good when I think about my pace in my units. We are one-third of the way through the school year, and in both my 7th and 8th grade classes we have completed two of our 6 units (for those of you who are a little rusty with your calculations, that is also one-third :-) Not too shabby, if I say so myself!
(Knock on wood) It's been another pretty good week (and it didn't feel as long as last week). The 7th grade students have been hard at work applying some of their math skills in the science classroom by graphing and analyzing average and interpreting temperature data for the last 116 years in order to make a claim about global temperature patterns. Additionally, the students continued to work on climate change projects that they started at the end of last week. We had our first round of presentations today, and they were pretty good! I had a few groups who created Google Slideshows, a few more who created websites, one who created created a poster, another who wrote a story, a couple who created some Kahoot! quiz games, and a few who created board games. All in all, the presentations have looked pretty good--now I need to sit down and assess the content! While I'm on the topic of my 7th graders, one thing that has really been nice (and I'm really hoping I don't jinx this) is that one of the students who was regularly providing challenges for me at the beginning of the year has seemed to settle in a bit more. Not to say that everything is perfect, but I think I've had enough interactions with him to identify some of his "triggers" and to help him through some of the things he struggles with. On the flip side of this coin, though, I had to chuckle a bit earlier in the week when another teacher let me know that she overheard this student say to a couple others that he hates me (probably because I asked him to close his Chromebook or do a certain task)...but the teacher also let me know that the other two boys stood up for me and told him that I try to do a lot to help him; it's nice to know that others see this!
The 8th grade students just wrapped up a unit on rocks and fossils (more specifically fossils as of late). We began the week with an activity to help the students see how paleontologists analyze changes within similar fossil groups to make theories on evolution. The students needed to organize fossils within groups and then identify changes in the fossils from different time periods. The students did a really great job with it, and they were able to answer my questions about why certain "mystery" fossils were place in the sequence based on their characteristics. Next unit...space! Not a concept that I really touched on when teaching 3rd grade, but I'm looking forward to it! There are so many current event pieces that we will be able to talk about!
Well, last week I had my first sub of the year so that I could attend a science department meeting and break down some of the science standards, and I'm following that up with a sub tomorrow in the afternoon for some personal time. It probably sounds kind of weird and teacher-geeky, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow's sub because I am going to test out using Screencastify to explain a rubric the students will be using for a project and then have the sub play the video in my absence. We had some professional learning in the district the last couple of Wednesdays, so I sat in on a session about Screencastify, and this seemed like an excellent opportunity to put it to use! Fingers crossed!
Mindfulness thought for the week: Being mindful of your choices will lead to the greatest you! --inspired by Tom J Deters of the ProYou Podcast
(Knock on wood) It's been another pretty good week (and it didn't feel as long as last week). The 7th grade students have been hard at work applying some of their math skills in the science classroom by graphing and analyzing average and interpreting temperature data for the last 116 years in order to make a claim about global temperature patterns. Additionally, the students continued to work on climate change projects that they started at the end of last week. We had our first round of presentations today, and they were pretty good! I had a few groups who created Google Slideshows, a few more who created websites, one who created created a poster, another who wrote a story, a couple who created some Kahoot! quiz games, and a few who created board games. All in all, the presentations have looked pretty good--now I need to sit down and assess the content! While I'm on the topic of my 7th graders, one thing that has really been nice (and I'm really hoping I don't jinx this) is that one of the students who was regularly providing challenges for me at the beginning of the year has seemed to settle in a bit more. Not to say that everything is perfect, but I think I've had enough interactions with him to identify some of his "triggers" and to help him through some of the things he struggles with. On the flip side of this coin, though, I had to chuckle a bit earlier in the week when another teacher let me know that she overheard this student say to a couple others that he hates me (probably because I asked him to close his Chromebook or do a certain task)...but the teacher also let me know that the other two boys stood up for me and told him that I try to do a lot to help him; it's nice to know that others see this!
The 8th grade students just wrapped up a unit on rocks and fossils (more specifically fossils as of late). We began the week with an activity to help the students see how paleontologists analyze changes within similar fossil groups to make theories on evolution. The students needed to organize fossils within groups and then identify changes in the fossils from different time periods. The students did a really great job with it, and they were able to answer my questions about why certain "mystery" fossils were place in the sequence based on their characteristics. Next unit...space! Not a concept that I really touched on when teaching 3rd grade, but I'm looking forward to it! There are so many current event pieces that we will be able to talk about!
Well, last week I had my first sub of the year so that I could attend a science department meeting and break down some of the science standards, and I'm following that up with a sub tomorrow in the afternoon for some personal time. It probably sounds kind of weird and teacher-geeky, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow's sub because I am going to test out using Screencastify to explain a rubric the students will be using for a project and then have the sub play the video in my absence. We had some professional learning in the district the last couple of Wednesdays, so I sat in on a session about Screencastify, and this seemed like an excellent opportunity to put it to use! Fingers crossed!
Mindfulness thought for the week: Being mindful of your choices will lead to the greatest you! --inspired by Tom J Deters of the ProYou Podcast
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