Busy-ness, thy name is Ryan

Yes, I am still crazy busy. I graded tests all last weekend, have had piles of late work all week, which I finished grading today, and then I was able to get the lesson plans done for my pedagogy assessment this Thursday, which is great as well. Now all I have to do is the flyer/form for the Veteren's Day stuff, and I'll be set (well, until tomorrow, that is).

Then this week, though I hopefully don't have alot of grading to do, I am getting ready for Camp Casey. This is a good thing, and also a stressful thing. I'm trying to coordinate getting up there early and trying to take a few students, but space is at a premium, so I'm back to balancing ministry w/ function/purpose. I often side w/the function/purpose side, but I really want to include the people side. I've got to trust God w/ it, and need to understand that no matter what happens, it won't be the end of the world.

There's other stuff I'm thinking thru right now too, but I don't actually have that much time to really THINK about it, and some of the people I need to talk to about certian aspects are just as busy as I am, so that ends up not happening. Oh well, that's life, right?

Oh BTW: I'm starting to think about a job once student teaching is done. I'll need one for December thru March, until I can start substitute teaching. If anyone has any ideas (that aren't retail), please send them my way. I have a few in my head, but have to wait to hear on some of them. I can always go back to Eddie Bauer, but I REALLY don't want to.

7 Van hours and a Bite of Science

Ok, so I haven't updated in about 2 weeks...sorry, that's how it goes. Last weekend I spent about 7 hours making a 2.5 hour trip from Bellevue to Gig Harbor for a JH Retreat, JumpStart. W/o broing you w/ the details there was a suicide attempt and then a 3 car (2 car + 1 bus) collision that closed the Tacoma Narrows bridge for a really long time. We did finally get to camp about 12:20am, and then Saturday was acutally really good (Friday was good too, lots of good conversation in the vans).

This week has gone alright as far as teaching goes. I've had my share of less than optimal events, but that's normal and I've come to expect that. I really feel like I'm into the swing of it all, and I think the students are too. My 7th period, which has the hardest time being quiet and focusing, is actually doing much better than they were; not really any worse than any other class (for now at least!)

I gave a test today on the Energy Units, so this weekend consists of grading, grading, grading. My goal is to have them done by Monday, but we'll see. I also have planing to do for the next unit on Waves. I'm really excited about it, but it's proving to be a difficult unit to plan. I had stuff laid out today, and then decided to rearange it all so I have to re-think how I'm doing everything. Oh well, that's how it goes.

Tomorrow I get to hang out w/ my super cool teacher friends, their significant others, and one of my fellow staffers from church. Should be a great time to relax and actually pretend like I have a social life. : )

Last thing to let you all know about: Ben and I have started (I should say Ben started it and I just get to contribute to) a blog devoted to science. I know, how cool is that?! We discovered that we send eachother links releated to science stuff often enough that we should just post it online. The site is called SciBite, short for Science Bite - small "bites" of science info (yes, it's a play on words, deal w/ it). Should have some cool stuff, so check it out! I've also added a link to it over there ----->

Weekly Update

So I'm thinking that my goal should be a post a week. So far that seems reasonable and doable. And this last week has been an interresting one.

Monday brought with it my first parents upset with me (though they talked to the administration, not me about it). I suppose this means I've arrived as a teacher. : ) The Administration at Skyview backed me up and was totally supportive, so that helped. Then on Tuesday I had my first observation from my university supervisor. It went well in that she came to my harddest class and then helped me brainstorm ideas how to better manage them. She spent lots of extra time helping me and was late to another meeting because of it...she's amazing, great, understanding and HELPFUL! (not something I always run into at the U).

As far as curriculum goes, I've been learning alot about what NOT to do, especially when teaching the math side of science. I never realized how unqualified I am to teach math. Sure I've always been good at it, but I'm not used to thinking about what the students need to be taught as far as basic math skills, I just jumped into using them. That won't happen again. Needless to say, the last unit was very difficult and many of the students struggled. That led me to feeling down and question if I really can be a good teacher like I've thought and wanted. A nice chat w/ Ingrid helped reaffirm where I'm at and that I just need to keep at it. Once we started moving into our new unit the math went away and I gave a deliberatly simple assignment to hopefully boost student confidence. Hopefully the combination of the two will get them back on board w/ the topic.

The last two days (Thursday and Friday) my CT was home and not at school. The first day her son was sick, and then Friday she was sick. So it was me and the sub both days, which ment it was basically just me. No offence to my CT, but I think that's what I needed and it was actually nice to have her out of the room. I was just up to me and I was forced to make descisions and students couldn't bypass me (not that they would try, of course. : P ).

I had alot of fun yesterday. As a part of teaching Conduction and Radiation I had student volunteers come up front and demonstrate some REALLY simple concepts. I totally hammed it up, making it clear that it was really simple, but pretending it was complex. It went off really well w/ the students. I don't know for sure if it really helped them understand it, but I can hope.

Last night consisted of a small Dr. Seuss art show at BellSquare. Not as cool as the one I went to last year, but neat never the less. This weekend I have no plans or responsibilities except church for the first time in a long time. I do have papers to grade, but since they all came in late, I don't really have a deadline to get them done. : )

Ok, off to do the weekend stuff, like laundry, vacuuming and such. Hope this update is enough for now, 'cause you probably won't get another one for a week or so!

A tale of two feelings...

So far student teaching is going like the opening lines to Charles Dickens' famous book The Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I've had days that I've felt went really well, and I've had days where I was almost dreading going into school because I felt like I was doing so horribly.

Now before anyone tries to encourage me, be forwarned: saying that you know I'll be a great teacher really doesn't mean anything to me if you've never seen me teach (and I think that applies to most of you). It's one thing to have a fun personality, it's another thing to actually be able to translate that into teaching. I often feel like so much of me and my personality is lost when I teach. Partially because I have to be so hard-nosed just to keep the classes in line. Granted, it's still the first week and a half of my teaching, but I feel like the students are still trying to push me, and I have to push back or else it'll be a disaster; the students will walk all over me.

But right now I'm feeling alright about it (as long as I don't think about how much work I have to do and how little time there ends up being this weekend), so I want to tell you about one cool thing I got to do this week. I got to do a demo w/ Sodium and water. : ) Those of you who haven't done (or don't remember) chemistry, that doesn't sound all that interresting, but some of you may know that it can be really cool.

First off, I had to get all dudded up in saftey ware (the head of school science safety for the district and the impotis for science safety for the state teaches in the room next door). Here's me looking really fasionable.

For those of you who haven't seen a demo like this before, the gist of it is that 1st period elements (the first column on the periodic table) react with water. Sodium (Na) actually splits water to form NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and releases hydrogen gas. The heat released from the reaction ignites the hydrogen, which is what causes the flame you see. Pretty Cool.

I don't know if this will work or not, but here's a video of one of the reactions too...