Posted by mrsaholder on October 25, 2008
what I have learned….
- set up passwords and usernames
- be sure students understand the assignment and the freedom they have to edit and create
- be sure students understand safety issues NO LAST NAMES!!!!
- students catch on quick and really do seem to enjoy working on the projects
I am sure additional thoughts will come to me and I will post these here…visit the wiki raiderphysicalscience.wikispaces.com and see the work the kids have done in their chapters.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by mrsaholder on October 1, 2008
At the risk of sounding as though I am bragging, I wanted to let everyone know that I did receive notification that I was rewarded two NEF grants and a US Department of Education Grant called Enhancing Education through Technology. The first two grants totalled nearly $3,000 to be spent in the 7th and 9th grade science classrooms and the EETT totalled $150,000. It will be used to by Vernier LabQuest handhelds, probes/sensors, and a variety of other technologies for the Math and Science Departments. As you can probably tell from the time of this posting I am still on an adreneline rush and can’t sleep. Well, I should go back to bed and at least try to sleep. Stay tuned for updates on how these grant funds are implemented and how successful the projects are.
Posted in General | No Comments »
Posted by mrsaholder on September 9, 2008
A funny thing happened last week…and a teachable moment. Ahhhhh! I live for those. Those brief periods of time when you have ninth graders so in tune with what you are saying that they don’t even realize they are being taught.
In class the first week of school I had spent much time exposing bias during experimentation. A young man sitting in the front row was staring at the seven beakers of water sitting on the demo table intently. So much so that I asked him what he was looking at. He responded, ” I know there is something in that water and I am going to find it…” It was just plain water to be used in the gummi bear lab, but this student was convinced I was going to pull another fast one on them. My question, “Are you inferring something is in there?” Of course, the question came after I wiped my eyes and quit laughing. Oh the lessons we teach….
Posted in General, The School Day | 1 Comment »
Posted by mrsaholder on August 30, 2008
So, who would have thought that Dogs and Turnips would be such an interesting lesson for all student abilities. The lesson made the point of collaborations and consensus in a fun and unique way. I don’t think the students will forget it.
The remainder of the week was spent reviewing lab equipment, the scientific method, and the properties of matter.
Posted in The School Day | No Comments »
Posted by mrsaholder on August 24, 2008
Posted in General, The School Day | No Comments »
Posted by mrsaholder on August 23, 2008
I did it! I ate those “candles” all day and never burned my mouth. I modified the assembly from an almond/brazil nut to a pine nut that I cut in half with a credit card. The pointy end was easier to light than the flat end. So through trial and error I was able to fool the kids. Mrs. Mary apparently thought that I had lost my mind when I bit into the candle. I have a video that I am trying to edit and upload to a place that I can then access to post here. No success yet but I WILL figure it out.
Posted in General, The School Day | 1 Comment »
Posted by mrsaholder on August 22, 2008
Yes, in an effort to drive home the point of removing bias when doing experimentation, I ate fire….now I just need to determine how to capture a clip from the big video file of the event. And I also need to do some editing because student faces are in the video. Technology is great but rules are not. I really wish we lived in a more ? time.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by mrsaholder on August 21, 2008
How can time fly so quickly? On day one we had orientation with the students throughout the morning, spent a full hour with 4th period, ran a shortened bell schedule so that all students were seen by their teachers, and finally had a pep rally to celebrate the end of day 1. It was a long day but exciting at the same time…I showed my fourth period class some of my entries from the blog and the wiki that I have set up and we watched some YouTube videos that I had previously downloaded. The kids really seemed to enjoy it.
Day 2: All classes all period…I started the kids out this year with a Power Teaching rules lesson and even today (day 4) the students know the rules. Then we did the
apple observation lab and the kids really really loved it. More than one kid commented that he had not ever thought about people in other countries possibly not knowing what an apple is because they might not be grown there or imported.
Day 3: We went over the apple observation lab, and did a Ghost Crystal lab. Now you know yor really score as a teacher when a student tells his or her friends “DUDE! THIS IS WHY I LOVE SCIENCE! This year I was prepared for follow up “what if” experiments. Like one student wanted to know what would happen in a ghost crystal was placed in Kool-Aid. We ended up testing vegetable oil, salt water, and sugar water. It was SO worth the extra effort. I then did a disappearing beaker trick where I poured Wesson Oil into a 1000mL beaker after first 
placing a smaller beaker inside it. The students were asked to record their observations and even after being fooled by the ghost crystals they didn’t observe the beaker so they were fooled twice in one class period and that really stunned them.
Day 4: Today I rested a bit and used a Safety Symbol Search that I “borrowed” from Eboni. While it was a worksheet, because the students had to really stretch their imaginations I think they learned something……..
Well, tomorrow I will be eating candles. So, I will have someone take pictures and I will post those.
Posted in General, Teacher Resources, The School Day | 1 Comment »
Posted by mrsaholder on August 17, 2008
Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com
Posted in General | Tagged: cartoon generator | No Comments »
