Etch 'n Sketch Reflections

That's what this has been. It seemed like two weeks in one. I can't even remember Monday! Sometimes you have weeks like that--where everything just seems to be happening all at once from all directions. Nightly prepping for the following day...check. Getting ready for my first middle school conferences...check. Catching up on grading before conferences...almost check (at least I now know from my conferences that I wasn't the only one putting more than a few grades in the online grade book this week). Working through some stuff at home...also almost check. All these things can lead to some hefty stress and make for a long week. Luckily (for the most part), the kids were pretty good. So, based on all that, I've decided to give myself a partial night off from the blog. I still got my weekly post in--it just doesn't have all the details as it usually would, and I'm okay with that for this week. I won't make a habit of it, though. Mindfulness thought for the w...

Slight teacher joke there...the students are working on earth science concepts :-)  Overall it was a pretty good week other than a bump in the road on Tuesday morning due to a student behavior issue, but with some reflecting and a little one-on-one time, we were able to work through it! It was a tiring week, but that may have had something to do with the Packers and Brewers having a few night games... The 7th grade students are learning about changes to the earth's surface, so we have been looking into current events that cause changes to the earth's surface, such as flooding from hurricanes. We then connected those discussions into weathering and erosion and the small and large scale changes that can happen over time. We finished out the week (there is inservice tomorrow, so just a 4-day week!) with the start of a jigsaw activity, where the students are working in teams to take notes on particular results of weathering and erosion, and next week they will present to their cl...

We had a lot of movement in the science lab this week, and I definitely got my daily step allotment in! My seventh grade students were conducting student choice labs, so in order to help the labs run smoothly they were spread out across the area outside of my classroom. There was a lot of movement between the groups since most of the students were conducting labs in which they were having classmates participate in the lab (mostly through taste-testing to see how much sight and smell had an effect on taste). This led me to putting in a lot of steps between groups, checking in on their progress and results (and possibly participating in a few of the labs as well)! The eighth grade classes were moving a lot as well, but that was more due to the lessons I was doing with them. The students have been learning about the rock cycle this week, and we have a quiz tomorrow. One of my lessons was a review of the science notes they have been taking to help them study, so we did a TRIBES activity c...

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...

...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...