I want to be a scientist!

Enjoy....Outreach: xkcd

Some Final Thoughts

I hadn't kept a blog in many years, and the last one was just for personal purposes. I had fallen out of the habit. But I have enjoyed writing this one, and haven't minded making the posts. I have used this as a place to be a bit more "free" in my expression, certainly less formal than my traditional classwork that accompanied the course for which I originally set this up.

I believe I'm going to keep this going. I'll have to see how it goes over time. My district and my school are going through a time of serious upheaval. I've been at this school for nearly eight years now, and I am beginning to wonder if it's time to make a change.

Being a teacher is never an easy job. Being a teacher in an urban district that constantly finds itself under fire is even more difficult, I believe. We encounter disrespect from our students, to a level that would make your hair curl. We have little parental support, and the general public uses us as a scapegoat for all that is wrong in society, heaven knows why.

I entered the Masters in Education program at Walden University knowing that it was going to be extremely difficult to keep up with the demands of home, work, and school especially at this time of my life (I will be turning 53 in April). But I felt that it was important to do something to better myself as a teacher, and I specifically sought a program that matched up with what it is I do, teach middle school science.

It's strange, going to an on-line university. It takes a measure of self discipline that I would never have thought I had in myself. You can't sit in a classroom and discuss, not in any traditional sense, and there have been many times were I've wondered if I was only one in the class who was not understanding what in the world was going on.

But somehow, you begin to develop that sense of community. Many of the names are the same, course after course. I begin to recognize people's styles. And my classmates make a contribution to me, in ways that I don't get to thank them for.

So I will here.

Speaking of names remaining the same. Mine is not going to, for much longer. Just because I've managed somehow to adjust to the workload of Walden, plus teaching 100 feisty teenagers, I decided it was time to add a new challenge to my plate. I'm getting married in June, on the first day of my summer vacation (so it had BETTER not snow this winter!). It's the summer solstice, which somehow is appropriate for a science teacher, I feel.

See you all in the next course, and I'm looking forward to more adventures in science teaching, and in life!

Eileen (soon to be Montgomery!)

A low tech experiment adventure.

Here are some photos taken on Friday of one of my eighth grade classes performing an experiment on physical and chemical changes. They were totally engrossed in the work, which was very gratifying for me as a teacher. I had expected this to take a single one hour class period, but it didn't, I ended up "stealing" this class back for an hour and a half at the end of the day, so total time on task ended up being more like 2 to 2.25 hours. Seems like a lot for a simple experiment, but it has been a while since we've done a hands on inquiry, so they are out of practice, to say the least.

Picture three is of special interest for me, it's an anomaly picture. The students had mixed cornstarch and vinegar in that "cell", which should have produced a clear solution, but as you see, there is a light purple tinge to the solution. I sat with the group as they discussed their results. One of the students noted that their rinse water had become contaminated with iodine (one of the three liquids they were testing against the four powders: baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, and powdered sugar), and that perhaps the purple was coming from that since the cornstarch with iodine had turned dark purple. 

This was based off an experiment that is part of the district mandated curriculum. We don't get to vary from what's required, but sometimes, by selecting carefully from the options that are there, we can come up with a winner. This was one. The students were all able to articulate the difference between a physical and chemical change, and they understood what "reactivity" meant. Not all of them were able to write about it, but they could all explain verbally.

And  now technology has completely failed me, my internet connection has crashed, so I'm going to copy this post so I don't lose it. Something to be said for the good old fashioned low tech, after all!