I don’t know about you, but I LOVE clean sheets. That laundry powder smell, crisp smooth feeling, snuggly pillow cases. HMMMMMMMmmmmmm. Sadly, I am not a domestic goodness, nor do I know what the publicly acceptable sheet changing ratio is, but for me clean sheets in a Sunday night ritual. Fresh starts and all that.
As so often happens (despite my best efforts) in the last 2 days I ended up starting new topics/standards with 3 of my classes. Which means there is a pile of marking on my table I am ignoring, and a pile of messy flow charts, websites and other clutter as I plan what we will do for the next few lessons. I am not one for extended unit plans per se, but I am one for not really thinking too hard about a unit before I have asked the kids what they already know, and trying to tweak it from there.
So I have had a great 2 days at school figuring out what kids already know. It turns out, they know heaps 🙂 Bucket loads in fact. And when you get your questions right (for me, maybe about 30% of the time….) you can trick them into remembering what they thought they had forgotten. The best thing about this is I was in a very happy teacher place because we actually just talked Chemistry – not aqueous systems, not chemical reactions, not thermochemistry, but Chemistry. Especially in my mixed class – My Yr 12’s schooled up my Yr 13’s (they and I both love it when they can do that…) and we talked Chemistry.
I have also had some exchange students rock up into a class. They are still a little shy, but it also reminds me to go back to the big picture ideas rather than getting too snowed under with the content. I am doing genetics with this class and it has been good for everyone to hear some different cultural perspectives.
I am a teensy bit sad that I have school exams in 2 weeks. I am already sick of myself saying – exams blah blah blah blah study blah blah blah the end of the world is nigh if you don’t pass blah blah blah blah. So it has been extra refreshing to be starting new topics (that won’t be finished for exams…..) and having a fresh start to remember just how awesome my learners are
ibpossum takes on tech 