Time to tally, not dilly-dally

The munchkins are performing a home water usage survey, this weekend. Parents, please participate.

Meet Miss Springman
Miss Springman has been filling-in for Mrs. Fry for the last few weeks. I thought it was time for you to meet her.

No School Tomorrow
Teachers are being trained in emergency response. Oh boy, old and crippled-up, I may as well practice being left-behind.

The Tire Just Blew!!

Okay, you're riding down the highway, when all of a sudden one of your car's tires, blows! You pull over and change the tire, right? Well, my geology unit has done the same thing. I am spending more time reviewing work done, than teaching. I've become a bookkeeper. Time to change the tire. I am putting the geology unit on the shelf for a couple of months, or until I can regroup. Today, I started my tried-and-true freshwater unit with a little project called, "Taking Account of Water." (click on the title to view the project.) This is a water conservation awareness project and the kids will recruit family members, this weekend, to participate in a home water useage survey. It'll be fun. The rest of the project pushes data tables, bar graphs, finding percentages, etc. You know, real old-fashioned learning.

New Sun-Gazette online
The Sun-Gazette, this morning, launched their new version of the online newspaper. It's great!! I am so glad the local newspaper has entered the 21st Century. I, in particular, like the blogs. So many new faces in the news room. It's been a long time since I was a reporter, there.

Early Morning Blog
Some of you may have noticed the time I posted this blog. I was sick, last night, and went to bed early, only to toss and turn, all night. It was about 2:30 a.m. I decided to shelf the geology unit and got on my 'puter to see if my freshwater unit needed updating. Well, it did, and I did, and am ready to fly off to school to print off copies for all the students. Therefore, my homework page is being changed.

You Are In Control -- Does That Irritate You?

Wow. Kiddoes, today, did not want to write a precise, detailed, step-by-step direction on their sand comparison lesson. In fact, they were so hasty to complete that writing, that they became irritated when I read the directions and failed to understand what they wanted to do. Some got the idea that if you want to learn how to follow directions, you must learn how to give directions. For some kids, this worked. For others -- panic. Okay, I can relate. I took the opportunity, during lunch, to rewrite that part of the lesson and gave it out as an attachment. It gives more teacher input and requires less student decision-making -- it's safer to take orders than to take them. We've gotta work on this a bit more. Surprisingly, this group has used the FOSS modules at the baby school and seemed quite confused when given the middle school version of the inquiry-based lessons. I will roll with the punches and rewrite, rewrite and rewrite those pesky lessons and ease my students into higher order thinking, slowly.
Have great night.

Cough, Cough -- Rock Dust -- We Made SAND!!

Each group filled a plastic jar with a collection of granite, limestone and sandstone/shale. Then, they shook the jar for 10-minutes. My computer and overhead has a countdown timer. Whew, the noise, the dust, the sweaty kids -- but, it was worth it in the end. We got a nifty array of very fine, fine, course, very course sand. We applied a sample of that sand to our Sand Comparison Lab Notebook. We are in the computer lab tomorrow and Wednesday.
Have a great night.