Off topic- Meals

Have you ever noticed that meal preparation is essential to humanity? The past two years have been dynamic in many ways for those who are influential in my life.
My best friend moved to Africa to join the Peace Corps, I went through a professional crisis, and my Denver family has been dealing with the death of my Grandmother- the matriarch of the family.
Throughout all of these ordeals, food preparation gave a sense of routine, a task that can be completed, a simple accomplishment that provides a sense of purpose.
When families go through a rough time, feeders want to show their love by providing a meal to the grievers. I am a feeder, I totally get this. However. As part of the family going through the grieving, I have noticed how vital those meal preparation times are. My Dad feels helpless for his mom. What he CAN do, is provide meals. He's a decent cook and I can see his relief when lunch or dinner rolls around. So,  I have put together a list of things you can do for families that are going through tough times that support the small roles they can play.

• Send giftcards to local restaurants. Even fast food places that are close by. Being able to just get out of the house for a few minutes is huge when you are giving round the clock care. 
• COFFEE. Whether gift cards to places close-by or bulk, ground coffee, it flows during hard times. 
• Grocery gift cards. Usually there are more people than normal hanging around and a little help in the grocery department could go a long way. 
• Now, my family are not exactly people-persons, but offering to go for a walk, run, or even a yoga class could be really soothing as well. Any sort of physical activity is good when you are not doing much more than sitting around all day. 

End of Day

As I am sure the general teaching population is well-aware, the end of the school day can be rough. For elementary teachers their students are overloaded and ready to go home. For high school teachers their students are ready to have their time back. For all teachers, the day is almost over and there are still 10 things on the never-ending TO-DO list that HAVE to be done today. I have found for me personally and for the students I have worked with as a sub that the end of the day can be incredibly painful. 

One trick I have up my sleeve is the "reset button." Having the whole class take a beat and regroup. I've also seen elementary teachers use yoga videos or exercise videos to re-engage kids, but that isn't really conducive to high school... or is it? Would more learning happen if students were given the opportunity to re-energize?

What else can be done? What are some tips and tricks that other teachers have found useful to combat the end of the day slump?

#Sublife

So I've been consistently subbing for 4 weeks now. I've really enjoyed almost every minute of it. Over the next few days/weeks I will be posting my observations of different schools and different ideas I've picked up from various classrooms. To kick off, I want to talk for a second about the life of a sub.

Subbing at the high school level is incredibly boring. Teachers (myself included when I ran my own high school classroom) leave a worksheet for students to complete independently or a movie they can watch. High schoolers also have this thing where they want to show their independence whenever they can.... having a sub in their class is ripe with opportunities for high-schoolers to show they don't need someone to tell them what to do.

Thank God for the elementary classroom. You walk into the room and most students have instant respect for you simply because I'm over a foot taller than most of them and therefore an adult (#kidlogic). Not only is there a level of respect from the students, but the teachers as well. Teachers at the elementary level leave actual lesson plans for subs. Granted, they may be watered down, but you actually get to do some teaching! My mom and I were talking and she made a good point. She mentioned that fifth-graders do a LOT of learning. Teachers reach them because they are still in elementary school but they are also starting to build the foundation for the rest of their education career... including college. Something to think about.

And then there is middle school. I haven't spent a ton of time in middle school classrooms, but so far I have really enjoyed the awkwardness that is middle school. They still respect adults, they are learning some cool things, and the work is close-ish to high school level.

I've worked in four different districts and two different counties and so thankful for this opportunity to test drive each grade.

Teaching Note-taking

So far, my two main goals of teaching have remained the same. 1) Expose students to a variety of topics in an effort to lead them to what they are passionate about. 2) Give students study tips and life lessons to make post-high-school life easier.

A great tool to give students is note-taking skills.  The following is how I could teach note-taking.

This video. Is awesome.

http://collegeinfogeek.com/lecture-notetaking-systems/

show at the beginning of the year and explain that we will be taking all the different types of notes throughout the year. Plus, it gives students a way to see that I'm cool- I love Streetfighter, especially Blanka!

Use different lessons to outline the strengths of each style of note-taking. At the end of a lesson using  a different style of note taking, have students write an exit ticket on how they would compare the style of notes to other ones they have used before.

Also, a quick note on Cornell notes, the same idea (exit ticket points) could be given for having students complete the Cue and Summary sections of the Cornell notes before leaving class.

Ted Talks

With the population I was serving, most of these did not go over as well as I would have hoped. However, for the most part I think these Talks can be really informative and paint a nice picture to suplement learning in most science classrooms. Here is a list of tried and true ones that I have used.

https://www.ted.com/talks/talithia_williams_own_your_body_s_data

great for a statistics or health class

https://www.ted.com/talks/greg_gage_how_to_control_someone_else_s_arm_with_your_brain

I like this one for innovation and when teaching about nerves.

https://www.ted.com/talks/regina_dugan_from_mach_20_glider_to_humming_bird_drone?language=en

Teaching about innovation, inspiration.

https://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see?language=en

I like this one for senses and for something fun to break up learning.

https://www.ted.com/talks/rose_george_let_s_talk_crap_seriously?language=en

Great for viruses!

P.S. Ted has no idea who I am and this post was NOT sponsored.

Misconceptions

I love it when an article captures my attention right off the bat.

"Misconceptions in Biology Education and Conceptual Change Strategies." Education Sciences: Theory and Practice. Bahar, M. May 2003. 55-64.

I read this article and found in very similar to what I found as a Learning Assistant in the Physics Department of SPU, even though this article was written in Turkey. A few good ideas and further areas of research.

A: Picky Teacher?

A few days ago, I asked the following question to the masses.

How did you get your teaching job? Did you wait for the position you wanted or did you jump into what was available? What was the outcome? And, have you ever had a teaching job that didn’t work out for you?

I did not get the response I was hoping for (other teachers who are trying hard not to be jaded by the education world) but instead was reminded that I am at the _beginning_ of my journey, not at the end or even in the middle. I would have responded to this question by saying that I got my teaching job because it was the first one I was offered. I thought it was the position I wanted so I jumped into it whole-heartedly. I was sorely disappointed. It didn't work out for me because I found that the population I was teaching (an all-male correctional facility for 14-25 year olds) was not what I expected  it to be. I I was thrown into situations that I was _not_ equipped for and had to make the best of bad situation after bad situation for a year. Now, it was not all bad. I enjoyed exposing students to new ideas and interesting concepts, helping students strengthen their writing and watch them achieve grades they never had before. I wouldn't trade my experience, but I'm also glad I'm not still in it.

TRIP TO AFRICA!

I am going to Africa in April. How that is even possible, I'm still not sure. So far, I have $302 saved for it. That is NOT enough. I need to get my act together.

What we have so far:
-Dad and I will fly to Africa and spend time there with shelby and do a safari
-Shelby, myself and her friend Alex will travel and meet Sabrina somewhere malaria free
-We want to do Morocco, Spain and end in London
-fly home from London


Connections:
-We have a place to stay with Jennie in London
-Isabella lives in Prague

Travel:
-cheap flights around Europe?
-Purchase tickets in January
-how do we get from Morocco to Spain?


Food:
simple, cheap, public places

Sleep:
airbnb
couchsurfer.org
connections

What to bring:

Q: Picky Teacher?

Hey there teaching world.

So here is my question. How did you get your teaching job? Did you wait for the position you wanted or did you jump into what was available? What was the outcome? And, have you ever had a teaching job that didn't work out for you?

Please respond in the comments section below, on Facebook, twitter, tumblr, or shoot me an e-mail at lessonsloved@gmail.com

If I ever have to teach math again...

The following was written on 1/1/15, after a break from teaching math and before I began teaching science again. 

"oofta. Math is not my thing. I learned a lot, though. Here are some things:

1. must teach what you believe in.

2. getting bogged down in the details does NOT allow me to keep the bigger picture in mind.

3. my resolve crumbles in the moment.

4. having clear expectations on grading is VITALLY important.

5. signing off on work works.

6. removing distractions works.

7. there must be a way for small groups to run."

Science in an alternative classroom

The second term I taught Science,  I framed the class around lab experience. My intention was to hone and strengthen lab writing skills. For unforeseen reasons, that didn't exactly happen. The first part of the term we did two different labs: a virtual lab (an activity I came up with in college and really liked using in practice) and then a chromatography lab. Here was what I wrote about the chromatography lab:

"Did not go well. They hated it, even though they got to do the lab themselves. I think they liked the idea of doing the lab portion, but some of them didn't even like that. I would only do this lab again if I had a group of kids that was really into hands on stuff."

I think this sums up what science looks like in an alternative science classroom MOST of the time for MOST students.

First Year of Teaching

Sucked.

Well, actually, it didn't all suck. I took a job that I thought would let me change the world and I was sorely disappointed. I learned SO MUCH. There are a few blog posts I wrote in the moment in a different blog that I will reshare over here to consolidate all the lessons I've learned about teaching. I wanted to preface those posts by recapping the past year. I taught at South Jetty High School for one year where I covered General Science, General Math, Statistics and oversaw many different independent studiers. I worked with a VERY small team and had no built-in science collaboration. I met some awesome people and learned about myself and the world of gangs, drugs and hard lives.