Teacher's Diary

In Honor of Super Bowl Sunday...

2012-02-05T16:10:45-05:00

I am a huge football fan and am excited that my team is going to be playing later tonight. However, I wanted to take an opportunity to share an article that was forwarded to me and is entirely relevant to the topic of Super Bowl Sunday. In "More Super Bowl School", Deanna Burney discusses what educators can learn from professional sports, specifically football. She talks about how football players all study a playbook and therefore have a common vocabulary with which to communicate with each other. They go through the plays in practice and work together on the field to...

Xtranormal - Make Your Own Teaching Movies

2012-01-21T17:08:25-05:00

Hypothesis by: otandon Here's a cool new tool I recently discovered: Xtranormal, a website that allows you to create your own animated movie. The program is a little buggy and it crashed my browser once in the making of this movie. It's also very slow to load. That said, the results are pretty cool and I'm interested in classroom applications. Perhaps I create a short video like this one that poses a question and students must create their own animated response? The difficulties arise from the fact that some of my students don't have reliable computer and/or internet access at...

Remembering to Enjoy Science

2012-01-19T21:20:55-05:00

Looking on the bright side has been helping me focus on positivity instead of negativity. My outlook on teaching is still good - by keeping the positive in mind, I know that I still enjoy teaching and especially hands-on science. That is what the learning is all about. While I'm still getting annoyed with my students for not being respectful or caring about my carefully planned lessons, I'm also trying to remind myself to enjoy the ride, so to speak. I became a science teacher because I love science. Through the first half of this year, I seem to have...

Guest Posting: The Dangers of Technology in Schools

2012-01-10T10:44:00-05:00

Since I have been so lax in writing lately, others have sent me articles of their own. Here is one that is in response to a post I wrote last year about using technology in the classroom. The author, Lindsey Wright, is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She is a content writer for online college classes, where she writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education. Here's what she has to say: Cell phones, email and the advent of the Internet...

Welcome to 2012

2012-01-08T16:42:45-05:00

As my regular readers have no doubt noticed, my posting has been extremely sparse lately. Time to come clean. I had a very rough first semester. It was far harder than I thought it would be adjusting to a new school environment where the administration and other teachers didn't recognize my talents. The school is larger than my previous school, so I feel that I haven't stood out or gotten the attention of the administration in any way and that has been frustrating. But mostly, my bad first semester was a result of my negative attitude. When I switched schools,...

Photo of the Week - Greenhouse Projects

2011-12-04T15:26:16-05:00

On Friday, my students mostly completed building mini-greenhouses, which we are using as a way of studying Earth's atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. I'm a big fan of project-based learning, and even though my new school doesn't require it, I'm trying to do as many hands-on labs and projects as possible. This upcoming week, my students will place their greenhouses outside with tomato and lettuce plants inside and see how they do throughout the winter. One of my students also suggested the idea of placing thermometers both inside and outside the greenhouses so we can monitor whether or not they...

A Visit

2011-11-28T21:28:04-05:00

Since today my charter school was still on Thanksgiving break while the public school children and teachers were back at work, I decided to pay a visit to the school I left behind. A lot has changed since I left (only a few months ago). For one thing, the school has expanded - as a school entering its 4th year, it has finally reached capacity. Now, instead of being huddled on one side of a vast hallway, the school encompasses the entire floor. Classrooms have been moved around and there were many new faces, both among students and among the...

Photo of the Week - Far Side of the Moon Image

2011-11-20T19:57:45-05:00

I just finished up my astronomy unit and have asked my students to complete their moon phase observations over Thanksgiving break. However, this is a view of the moon they will never observe. This is an image of the side of the moon that faces away from the Earth. It is also colored based on topography, with white being the highest elevation and purple being the lowest. It's a great image that I will be showing not only in my Earth Science class, but also to my Science Olympiad team for practice with remote sensing techniques. It is a good...

Staying Afloat

2011-11-19T19:38:39-05:00

Any reader of this blog will have noticed the distinct absence of posts for the past couple of months. That's because your resident teacher now works at a charter school and - much as you might imagine - she is being worked to the bone. Sometimes in a good way and other times not. However, it's time to break the silence and let you all know what it has been like starting my new job as a charter school teacher. As you may remember, I was unhappy with the lack of strong leadership and positive work environment at my previous...

The First Week and a Half

2011-08-24T22:41:04-04:00

The lack of posts lately is testament to the fact that work has officially begun for me. Yes, charter schools start incredibly early. We don't have any kids yet, but rather there is extensive professional development and orientation for teachers prior to the actual start of the term. This is very good for me because I am going to be teaching a class that is brand new to me - Living Environment (Biology for non-New Yorkers) - in addition to one Earth Science class. At first I was bummed to be teaching bio rather than more Earth Science, but my...