In the Lou

This past Friday, at the stroke of 3 p.m., every teacher was entitled to run out of the building — the shackles of professional development released.

But this Friday, it was not until nearly 5 p.m. that the eighth grade team finally escaped from the building. Since nearly 2 p.m. we had been toiling over our tedious task of manually making a new schedule for each student. But, as the title hints, this was for a good result.

Each of our students now has a new schedule to accommodate each of us teachers who now has (more…)

This morning, I nearly had a teacher-freak because I had diligently planned a performance event for students. They were to create atomic models of one element. I admit that I did assume that they knew one part, but even when I stripped the assignment back down to the bare minimum, the students were floundering and I was extremely frustrated.

I’m just realizing why most of the students acted as if they hadn’t been prepared by me to do today’s in-class project: they haven’t been at school. (more…)

As a science teacher, I feel it is my duty to promote environmentally friendly initiatives. I think this one is great for two reasons: (1) there is less wasted paper, (2) there is less junk-mail in my mailbox.

A site called Catalog Choice is trying to help you get rid of all those unwanted catalogs. I am willing to promote this as an environmental initiative and not a product because the service is totally free.

Reduce your catalog headache now. Even you, grandma. You probably receive at least 10 catalogs each day!

There is often discourse about the quality of learning that can occur when learning via technology. I’m not necessarily sure I have an informed opinion on the matter. I don’t personally believe, however, that students in St. Louis should be let loose to attend school online.

What brings me to post, though, is that I discovered that UC Berkeley has started posting lectures online via YouTube. This is interesting. Blah blah blah. What I do care about is that I found the one video I watched — of an anatomy professor — extremely fun and interesting.

I’m not sure if it is the professor who is engaging or my natural interests in this subject (I took an anatomy course in college) or some combination of the two. Nonetheless, I think there is something charming about watching this lady on camera.

That writing is to die for! And, oh how she addresses multiple learning styles! Swoon. What a teacher.