Second semester blues...

Oye... second semester really hits you hard, doesn't it?

I apologize that I have been absent for so long. This school year has been particularly rough. But, now we are on spring break (woo!) and I have some time to post!

I have a lot of news coming next week. For now, I will just update you on my TpT store. New products include:

The Amazing Dissolving Lollipops -- A lab activity on factors that affect dissolving

Phase Changes of Water lab -- Students learn what really happens when water goes from solid, to liquid, to gas

Bacteria in Yogurt lab -- Always a crowd pleaser! Students use plain yogurt and methylene blue to view bacteria cells with a microscope.

Transcription and Translation practice -- This worksheet contains 5 different DNA strands for students to decode. Students must first write the mRNA strand, and then the amino acid strand. There are 10 codons each, for a total of 50 practice problems!


If you need a specific handout or lab activity, feel free to message me and I'll see what I can find!


Cheers!
- S :)

Of Students and Testing

My school had their end of semester state exams last week. Yes, because my school does semester classes instead of whole year classes, we get to enjoy the fun of testing twice each year! Can you feel that sarcasm?

Here is how testing goes in my school, at least from what I have noticed:

• Teachers end their curriculum five to ten days early so that they can review.
• Students get inundated with worksheets and review games.
• This test counts for 25% of their final grade, so students are stressed out.
• Teachers are stressed out.
• The whole school stops for testing. Teachers don't get planning or breaks. Students get a small break before they must go back for more tests.
• Then, following the test, is a long week of anticipation and stress as we wait for the almighty state powers that be to send us back the scores.
• And teachers lose another week of work trying to discuss test scores with students, parents, guardians, and any other generally outraged member of society.

This testing thing is supposed to help, right? Then why is it such a negative experience for everyone?

The government is so worried about testing and accountability. Do they realize what they are doing? In whose mind is it okay to lose ten or more days to test review? Those days could be used for student learning, or student mastery of concepts. Instead they are full of stress and confusion. 

Why is it okay for one test to equal 25% or more of a grade? I know of several students who received A's in their classes. These students are amazingly hard workers. Their parents do everything they can to help their children. The students worked and worked to achieve that grade. Then, testing happens. If the student gets a low grade, that student's final grade is a C. How is that fair? One test knocks them back two grade levels? Do you think that shows learning?

Well, politicians would say that means that the teacher is bad. The teacher obviously let that kid slide, and now we can tell when we see the exam scores.

Do you even understand how infuriating that is? 

Imagine working for months to achieve a good grade at something. Then, one test, designed by people who don't know you or your school, takes away all of that hard work. It is demeaning. Why work hard, if everyone wants you to fail?

This fight is about teachers, yes, but it is also about so much more than that. It is about our children.

Do you want to know why some children don't like school?

It is because of all powerful adults who try to prescribe learning to them. When the child fails, and gets labeled as a failure, the child stops learning. Even more importantly, the child stops ENJOYING learning. Why would you enjoy going to a place that leads you to failure?

What of those students who want to go to college? Some colleges want pristine transcripts from high school. Let's say our child above, the one that got the C because of testing, wants to get into a college like this. Now that child's dreams of college may be gone. Scholarship donors don't care why the child got a C. All that they see is a child with a C, or a child with a low GPA. Never mind that this child can work hard and achieve A's. According to the government, hard work doesn't matter. Testing matters.

I want to find these politicians who are so worried. I want to tell them how sorry I am that their education was terrible. Clearly school must have been such a burden on them that they now want to punish the whole system and all who will belong to it.

I can't think of any other reason why this madness continues. We all need to open our eyes. They are killing learning. 

Instead of complaining about how bad education is in America, why not fix it, instead of making it worse? 

I guess that is too simple.

New semester, new ideas

Well, I procrastinated all weekend, trying to make this last longer, but it is here....

TEST WEEK.

Since my school does semesters, we have our end of course state tests this week. For teachers, this means that our planning time goes out the window because they need all hands on deck to administer or proctor tests.

May the odds be ever in our favor.

After that, we have some teacher work days, and then.... SECOND SEMESTER. Ugh. Not ready. I get a whole new group starting on the Thursday after MLK day.

One thing I do to keep myself from getting bored or losing my marbles is try out new ideas. I always have a whole bunch of ideas saved on Pinterest and other places. Last week, in preparation for the new semester, I was searching for ideas and found this:

http://www.teachingthecore.com/article-of-the-week-assignment/

This is a blog about one teacher's use of Kelly Gallagher's "article a week" idea. I really like this idea, especially for science. Students have a lot of exposure to literature and historical texts (at least, I assume they do) but very few science teachers have their students read informational science texts.

I can't say that I blame those teachers. After all, it is incredibly difficult to find good science literature that is on the reading level of our students. Everything seems to be elementary or university. There is no "10th grader" reading set for science. If there is, I haven't found it yet.

My plan is to try regular articles online. There are many websites that offer articles for current science topics:

• http://www.livescience.com/
• https://www.sciencenews.org/
• https://student.societyforscience.org/sciencenews-students

And those are just on the first page of Google!

Here is my plan to implement this into my classes. I am looking for a way to "jazz up" my bell ringers. Right now they are just bland questions and students have no engagement in them. I will do "article of the week" Friday. The student's homework on Thursday will be to read the article and respond according to Gallagher's form. (See the first link for an example of that.) Then on Friday, we will discuss the article at the beginning of the class. 

I will keep you updated on how it goes!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

... Why does winter break always end so quickly?! I feel like I just cleaned up the classroom and ate my last workroom cookie.

Now, to be fair, technically I don't start again until January 5th. I have August syndrome. You know in August, when you feel the excitement/dread of the school year starting to sink in? That's what I have right now, but in December. I feel like I need at least another month of sleeping time. Don't even remind me of prep time.

My school does semester classes instead of full year classes. This means that I have two weeks left with my fall classes, then we start a new semester with new classes after MLK day. I will have two new preps.

I am trying to approach this like I would approach a new school year. In a way, that is what is happening. New classes, new students. (Technically I've had most of these students before, but you know what I mean.) But I always feel like I am worse in the spring semester. I think it's because I am tired and not as peppy as I am in August. I am more likely to adopt the "good enough" mentality.

This spring, I am going to try to turn that around. I am going to do my best to approach this semester as if it is a new school year, at least mentally. New lessons, new classes, new decorations, new seating arrangements, etc. Maybe that will get me out of my funk!

I hope you all had a great break! Good luck with the remainder of your school year!


Cheers!
- S