Wk 4 - Day 15

today we're starting the radioactivity decay activity. two of ms. b's least favorite labs are both in the same week. i'm still at a loss on how to approach the topic with the lower level students...i think it's going to be hard enough for mrs. s's class to understand the concept. ms. b and i decided that we're going to put the students in groups of three; one recordkeeper, timer, and a cutter. in regards to vocabulary definitions prior to the activity that helped...was that she underlined (in red) what she wanted the students to write down in their notes instead of copying everything word for word. this definitely helped with time since their are many slow writers in her class. the students were to cut out two 10x10 cm pieces of paper. every 30 seconds one of the pieces of paper gets cut in half, etc. the rest of the class period was discussing why...explaining half lives...figuring out age, etc. it was a hard concept to grasp, but the students did ok in the end.

on a bad note...i wussed out today in teaching. both ms. b and mrs. s asked if i'd like to teach a period or two, but i declined. i realize that there will be days where i'm having an off day, sick or whatever...and i'll have to teach no matter what BUT right now...i still can be a little wussy. mind you, in defense of myself...i haven't said no to anything up until today. i just wanted to sit back and absorb like a sponge and listen/watch to the different techniques in teaching. one thing i liked that mrs. s did that ms. b didn't...was that mrs. s modeled what to do with the paper. mind you, it was just ripping a piece of paper in half, waiting, and ripping in half again...but i think that was important for students to visually see what to do.

another tidbit...mrs. s was getting a sub report ready for tomorrow. she made a statement to me how some teachers will leave little notes for the subs to watch out for so and so's behavior. she doesn't like to leave negative notes about any student(s)...she doesn't want the sub to judge the student before meeting them. i liked the fact that she doesn't give the sub any preconceived notions about the student(s) and whether it's for the day, week or longer...that student has a clean slate with the sub if only for a little while.