Week 12 - Day 58

it seems like yesterday that i just started teaching in the classroom and yet at the same time it seems as if it's been a long long time coming. like i stated for yesterday's entry....it's bittersweet; i'm excited that this chapter is over and i'll be able to have my own classroom soon and yet i'm going to miss these students dearly.

due to the opening of hunting season today and a short week next week due to thanksgiving...we're having a root beer lab today. the students are making homemade root beer and they'll be able to drink it in two weeks. unfortunately, i won't be here for the drinking of the root beer. i told them to butter up mrs. s to see if she could bring in some ice cream. the lab was chaotic but productive. it's very expensive to do...but the students liked it and hopefully will appreciate the root beer when they're finally able to drink it.

some of the students kicked me out of study hall during 7th period. they were setting up the room for a little farewell party. i received numerous cards made by the students and one large card signed by the entire seventh grade class. the art teacher stopped me in the morning and wished me well...she stated that i've made an impact on the students, school, and am well respected by the staff. i almost started crying right then and there...i think i've talked to the art teacher maybe five times in passing and for someone i didn't know well at all to stop me and tell me that was very special to me. the students had balloons, ribbons, and other decorations hanging along with cupcakes and cookies. i couldn't believe how much trouble they went to and it truly touched my heart.

i have been floating around in various careers and jobs...and i just found out what i am here for... to be a teacher.

Week 12 - Day 57

i thought i'd do something different today besides a lab. the lesson today was a combo of history and science. the students were studying the salem witch trials and the role of ergot in them. ergot is a fungus that infects rye grains. it's believed that during a wet and humid summer that the rye grains got infected with the fungus. the symptoms included hallucinations, delirium, convulsions, unintelligible speech, etc. we read a background on salem and the trials...discussed...watched short video clips on the trials from the history channel...discussed...and then they worked on questions. the students were very willing to participate and asked a lot of questions. we all agreed that the fungus couldn't explain everything that happened during the trials, but definitely contributed. some of the students even noted that the hallucinations, etc., had stopped after the following summer which was dry and fungus free.

i would definitely keep this lesson, however, i would make it into two days instead of one so that we could watch a few more clips and investigate the fungus a little more with pictures. i would also include live specimens of fungus or pictures and have the students compare and contrast them.

Week 12 - Day 56

yes...another day of yeast. the lab was a full class period today. the students were to study the affects of temperature and yeast. during the aikido seminar i had gone to last weekend...the guest instructor (a principal of a middle school) had announced to save all the water bottles for me and my experiment. so, thankfully i managed to get over 120 plastic bottles all of the same size...yeah for me and my fellow martial artists!

the students were given 3 bottles, 3 balloons, sugar, and yeast. i had pans set up around the lab tables containing ice water, room temperature water, and hot water. they filled the bottles up a quarter of the way and added sugar and yeast...then covered the top of a bottle with a balloon. the next step was placing a bottle in each temperature of water. they had to make a 5, 15, and 30 minute observations. during their observations, they worked on their lab report and discussed the questions. the best and worst part of the experiment was when the balloons inflated and popped up. the students were very excited and lots of "oohhh....that's so cool" and then everyone swarmed around the balloons that were starting to stand up right before their eyes. the next time i'd do this lab...i'd have more pans of water. the problem with this classroom was that there is only 3 lab tables to work on...4 if you count the one that moves and is half the size of the others. the other problem is that there weren't any pans...i had to borrow the ones i used from the kitchen.

Week 12 - day 55

yeast...i think it's a fun word to say...yeast...yeeeeassst...don't mind me. today was the fermentation lab. the students were given a beaker, yeast, warm water, and honey. the students were introduced to fermentation. the lab itself took only 10-15 minutes. they learned how carbon dioxide is released by the yeast "eating" the honey and that the matter left over was alcohol. they got a kick off of the yeast falling and then later rising. i told the students that the yeast were bloated with gas and swam to the surface to fart...releasing carbon dioxide. mrs. s and i taught the lab a little differently...she had the students gently stir the yeast so that it dissolved. the students were able to see the bubbling of the carbon dioxide being released with the stirring method. i had my students leave the yeast alone...letting it float on the surface, gradually falling and rising back again to the surface. i thought the students would be more fascinated watching the yeast...and they were...they thought it was cool watching the cycle and seeing the bubbles.

the classes were a little shorter today because the 8th graders had two more days of testing...the 7th graders only had two days of it. so, the rest of the class period the students spent working on their lab report, finishing the questions, organizing their binders, and turning the report in before leaving for the day. i thought the lab was a great one for short days. i hope i don't ever stop getting a kick off of their faces when something surprises them.

Week 12 - Day 54

well...this is the beginning of the last week of student teaching. i'm looking forward to my teaching coming to an end...but it's very sad at the same time too. i love the middle schoolers...i just want to have a paycheck coming in. all of my cohorts that are student teaching are in the same spot as me...no income, but they are all married and at least they still have money coming in even if it's less than before. i'm on my own and i'm out of money...i need to work.

today we are starting to study the kingdom fungi. i was finally able to check out the video "fatal fungus." a high school teacher was being over protective of it...she was very hesitant to let it out of her classroom and have 7th graders watching it. i guess she plays it for her sophomore class and was worried about students watching it again 3 years later. the students watched the video and we later took notes. i usually have one day a week in which students take notes...so, the video day was the day. the students seemed to be very interested. i wanted them to watch something "scary" about fungus...when asked about kingdom fungi, the students seemed to think only about mushrooms. they caught on pretty quick in figuring out why the boy baby in the crib (his twin sister was on the other end of it) was sicker than her. the vent was closer to him than her...and he breathed in more spores. it was a lively discussion.

Week 11 - Day 53

today was the introduction of kingdom protista. mrs. s stated that one of the nice things of having a student teacher in the classroom was that i bring in different ideas and spins on things. she always had trouble with kingdom protista due to lack of information/ideas for labs. i had a short video on protists that i found on discovery streaming and then had the students work out of their textbooks. the students needed to find an animal-like protist, a plant-like protist, and a fungus-like protist. they then had to draw and label their own models. the last part of the assignment was that they had to list five interesting facts on each one. i would have preferred to do a lesson i did with 7^th graders before and that was to find the speed of a protist. the science room had microscopes...but no slides. i contacted a teacher at the high school and he was willing to let me borrow slides, but after talking to the 7^th grade math teacher...he told me that the students wouldn’t understand how to do speed formulas. the students are farther behind in math than the year prior and he’s just starting word problems involving speed and distance. so, i decided to scrap the lesson and do the one with the models and facts. it went well, but i would’ve preferred to use the microscopes.

Week 11 - Day 52

day two of the testing and day two of the lab. only had two classes today due to the modified schedule. i can’t think of anything that was out of the ordinary or worthy to write about for a journal entry...things went well.

Week 11 - Day 51

the students had state testing in math and language arts today. the schedule is all goofed up for today and tomorrow. the testing started at 7:50 and ended at 11:00 a.m. due to the schedule, i only had to plan one lesson for two days. there was only one class in which i had them for both days...and for that class (6^th period), i had the lab for one day and we read and discussed an article i had found in a grossology book on toilets. the toilet article talked about a lot of funny little interesting tidbits on toilets, different cultures, etc., but the main reason i had the class read it was that it talked about waste treatment plants and the role of bacteria in eliminating waste. the students did enjoy my stories about my experience with toilets in europe and taiwan...i had some funny and gross experiences with them and survived!

the lesson was a lab on testing antiseptics and bacteria. the potato lab dealt with disinfectants...so now we’re trying something else; rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and listerine. our control is water and we’re using cut up apples that have been exposed to the air for 5 minutes. the students are then to put a piece of apple in a petri dish and wait another 5 minutes. the students are to notice that the side sitting in the antiseptic turns white again like right away it was cut. they then had to fill out their lab report. it was a shorter lab for a shortened class periods. the lab went well and the students were all engaged in the activity.

Week 11 - Day 49

today we had a morning program planned for veteran’s day. we left right after homeroom and headed on down to the gymnasium. the 7^th and 8^th grade bands and choir were playing and singing throughout the program. the gym was packed with the entire school, community members and veterans. the program was very nice and the students did a good job being respectful and not goofing around during the program. i was very impressed with two student speakers...who happened to be students in my classes...and i told them so later.

the classes later that afternoon had worksheets to complete during the period. it was too hard to plan lessons when one class is 20 minutes, another is 35 minutes, and the rest were ~40 minutes. i told the students that if they completed them, they’d receive extra credit. the worksheets were on contagious diseases caused by bacteria. i now know that i can stand in front of 12 and 13 year olds and say “penis and vagina” without being embarrassed. we talked about gonorrhea (and other diseases)...which is caused by bacteria and how it can make a person sterile if left untreated. i was surprised i didn’t hear any giggles or outright laughter...just a lot of “ewwwww, that’s disgusting!” i didn’t expect to field questions dealing with std’s. my ct was well aware of the conversations and stated that the conversations were appropriate and informative. i doubt it’ll happen, but i’m comfortable enough that if i had to teach sex education, health, or biology dealing with reproductive organs, etc., i’d be cool about it.

Wk 10 - day 48

we were supposed to have a guest speaker today and moments before the beginning of 1st period, the speaker came to the classroom and told us that his wife had a flair up of a chronic medical condition. we told him that he didn't need to stay...that if he needed to leave we understood. he did leave and we scrambled around to figure out what to do. mrs. s had a quick idea...we had the students make an antibiotic poster. we talked about bad bacteria today and the role of antibiotics. i talked about the cultural difference in how people viewed medicine over in taiwan compared to the united states and how the over use of antibiotics in taiwan had made people immune to certain strands of bacteria...which is why SARS hit so hard. for having about 2 minutes to think of something to do...it went really well between the conversations/discussions and making the poster. the poster had to do with taking antibiotics and bacterial diseases. i'd do this lesson again.

Wk 10 - Day 47

the students worked on two things today...they finished the lab started on tuesday and continued to work on the food/bacteria/culture lab in which they had a report due the next day. the students needed to fill out a worksheet...what liquid was the cloudiest, which cup they thought had the most/least bacteria and why, etc. the rest of the class was continued with research on the computer. it was an easy day...fun...and productive. the students did very well staying on task.

Wk 10 - Day 46

today was all about food, certain preservation techniques, and the role of culture in the making/preserving of the food...AND the role of bacteria. the lesson went well...the students seemed a little interested until i started talking about how sugar was used in the creation of wine and beer. i realize that the students may be a little young, but i didn't think it was an inappropriate conversation. we talked about the history of beer with the early colonists, how certain cultures worship it, that Europe drinks more alcohol than the states, but we have more alcoholics, etc. once i got them hooked with the making of alcohol it spun into different foods and i still had their attention. i don't like the fact that, generally speaking, many adults treat alcohol around teens a taboo subject. perhaps that's why europe has far fewer alcoholics...it's part of everyday life and NOT treated as a taboo subject. we also found out many interesting facts on cheese, soy sauce, dried meats, pickling, sour dough bread and a few more.

after our conversations, i had the students grab a laptop and research of food of their choice that used salt, sugar, or vinegar and the history/culture behind it. i would teach this lesson again as long as i knew i could hook them and capture their interest. prior to bringing up wine and beer... i was a little worried on how interested they would be. in the long run it worked quite well. we found out...students shared what they found with the class and we talked for about 10 minutes... that cheese was accidentally made by an arabic merchant who was crossing the desert with milk in a bladder bag that ended up curdling, beef jerky went as far back as the inca culture, soy sauce has been around since 500 a.d. and is still generally made the same way...and many more.

Wk 10 - Day 45

it's bacteria week this week. the lesson today was about germs invading foods and methods to help prevent bacteria growth. the students were to work in groups and each group received; 4 cups, vegetables, sugar, salt, and vinegar. the lesson was okay. it didn't bomb, i just felt it wasn't as interesting as i hoped it to be. we started out with notes on the kingdom monera this week and the role of bacteria. after the notes and discussion, the students gathered the materials and got everything ready. the lab would finish up in two days. i don't have much to say about today either. the one thing i would've changed is that i would've asked the students to observe their cups and take notes on the appearance right away and the last day instead of just what it looked like the last day. i don't think i'd do this lab again...it was a little boring.

Week 10 - Day 44

there wasn't any school today...for the students. instead, it was another professional development day. not much to say today.