Although I think my students liked their former teacher personally, most of them have expressed a lot of criticism of her teaching. I am glad that I am doing some things that are useful for them, but I feel bad. Some have been very vocal in their relief that she is not coming back this [...]
Archive for January 10th, 2008
A little difficulty
Posted in difficulties on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My students, part 1
Posted in students, tagged interests, public speaking, students, suggestion box on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I have about 22 students in each of my three sections. They are mostly sophomores, with a few juniors. I would say most of them are in Geometry or Honors Geometry, with few in Algebra 2, and a few in pre-calc.
Apparently the two main differences between Honors and Regular chemistry are the math skills of [...]
My school, part 1: the Stats
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged school characteristics on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I am trying to maintain a certain level of anonymity, so I am purposely not giving the website of my school, or my exact location.
I am teaching at an inner city school in a small city. The city is in a rough period, is very segregated, and has some neighborhoods that rival much, much, bigger [...]
Bell Jar Vacuums
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Boyle's Law, collaboration, hands-on, vacuum on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Bell jar vacuums are useful. We do not have a big one, sadly, so I cannot do a demonstration like this one. I really like the marshmallows made to look like eyes. However, we do have a classroom set of mini ones, like these. I was having trouble getting them to work, but after a [...]
I’m working on it…
Posted in Uncategorized on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I have had a request for descriptions of my school and students, and I am working on it. I need to get a little farther ahead in planning. I will also post thoughts on my teacher preparation and graduate program.
Semester Goals
Posted in purpose, tagged goals on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My goals for the semester, as stated on my course syllabus, are to have the students be able to describe phenomena molecularly and mathematically.
Phenomena are the things we observe. Obviously these will be chemistry focused. I hoped that phrasing it that way will help me remember to connect our material to real life.
Otherwise, I am [...]
Gas Laws
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged drawing, gas laws, misconceptions, prior knowledge on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A little note on what I am teaching right now, and my general method. We are beginning the semester with the Gas Laws. The teacher I am replacing said she likes to start with them because they are fun. The are fun. I hadn’t realized quite how fun they are.
I started with an overview of [...]
The Third Day
Posted in Uncategorized on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So, one of my worries is that it is hard to keep the classes together. The first period class is especially sleepy. I know their poor, teenage, brains are still secreting melatonin, but I can’t change the schedule and I still need them to learn chemistry. We might need to do some calisthenics. We already [...]
