It's Not Magic, It's Science!

I love teaching. Truly the most special part of teaching is the students. So, I thought I would share just a few of the many amazing moments I have had with students. Students like to share food with me. Several years ago, a very young colleague of mine passed away. The school community was devastated. Many of us, including staff and students, attended the funeral. At the funeral I got to talk to several students I rarely had the opportunity to chat with. While I was chatting with one that I had never taught, we somehow got on the subject of figs and how much we loved them. He mentioned that his grandparents had a fig tree and that season they had a lot of figs. He asked if I wanted some and I definitely did! So, the next day he shows up in my classroom with a big container of figs which took me about 2 periods to devour. At lunch he came back to eat a couple. Oops. They had been devoured hours before by this fig loving educator. He didn't have to share his grandparents preciuo...

This is the story of the best project I have ever done! I loved and the kids loved it. And it was the Plan B after I realized that Plan A wasn't going to happen. So, plan A. For the past several years I have taught circuits. I would always do the standard circuit building with circuit kits. Yipee. The kids liked it but I wanted to up the wow factor. So, I had the big idea that we would learn circuits in December and the kids would make light up holiday shirts! Brilliant! And , we would do a fashion show on the day before winter break. Amazing! I told everyone about it and everyone was super excited. Fast forward to November of this year when I started the nitty gritty of the planning...and figuring out what supplies I needed. And all my brilliant plans came to a screeching halt. This was going to be WAY too expensive and it was too late to fundraise. So, my co-teacher and I spent the next week desperately trying to come up with something circuits based that was fun, challenging...

As I work my way through year number 15 of teaching, I feel like I have finally reached a place where I can impart some wisdom to the new teachers that are just trying to tread water until summer and hope they can make it to the next year. So, here it is. My words of wisdom. 1. It gets better. I cried most days my first year teaching. Some times I had someone cover my class so I could go in the hall and cry. On Fridays I taught 6 classes with a double period at the end of the day. Whenever I needed a mental health day, it was always on a Friday. When I didn't take a mental health day on Fridays, I would often take a nap in my car after I got home because I didn't have the stamina to walk to my house after my exhausting day. For several months in my second year I could never turn my back on one of my classes because whenever I did, shenanigans would ensue. I even got hit in the back of the head with a paper airplane (though they swore they weren't aiming for me). This ...