Winding Things Down

Memorial Day has come and gone, and the feeling of summer is upon us. While it isn't quite here yet, it's close. If we were at school, the buzz of energy from the students would be through the roof. Virtually learning, however, has definitely put a damper on that. At school, we would be wrapping up units while trying to rein in the students' attention away from their dreams of sleeping in late and other summer plans. This week, units are still being wrapped up, but that struggle of reining in their attention isn't quite there; many of them probably already sleep in late, and summer plans are obviously still up in the air.
Last week was when I officially wrapped up my final science unit, so this week was made up of some enrichment activities related to that final standard. We have been learning about how chemical reactions occur when two substances are mixed and a new substance gets created. This week I gave the students an opportunity to dig in a little deeper to chemical reactions with an introduction to the periodic table. I came across a pretty cool website from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The website allows users to combine different elements and see if they can create a new substance. The site gives information about the individual elements as you interact with them as well as what new substance is created. It also provides a "menu" of items to create, ranging from common household items to materials in electronics and beyond. The site is very user friendly, and having taught chemistry during 8th grade last year, I shared it with my 8th-grade colleague--hopefully he will get some use out of it with his students next year.
Another item on this week's to-do list was to hold individual conferences with the students in order to reflect on how virtually learning went. This was a week with A LOT of Google Meet video chats with students (I only got "stood up" by three students...one of them twice). I'm going to miss these kids, so it was nice to be able to have some one-on-one time with them. I still have 5 more conferences tomorrow, as well as a few students with whom I need to nail down a time. I have one student who has been very difficult to get a hold of, so hopefully I will be able to meet with him.
One more week to go, then some time off--during that time off, I hope things will get back to normal!

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