Week 1

Oh my Glob!

School began a whole 4 days ago. We are already almost done with the first week of school! Time is passing with a quickness I had not anticipated. I can't say that's a bad thing though.

Both my new 7th graders and I are still getting into the swing of things. Each day goes a little better than the last, which is excellent.

To sum up the week so far:

Monday- I had students fill out their About Me pennants while I told them about myself. We went over some of the classroom expectations and procedures. I broke the kids into 6 groups and sent them to their lab stations, where they were to study a sheet about one of the major procedures in our class (make-up work, rewards, consequences, class library, NOISE letters and Exit Tickets). They then had to present that procedure to the class. We finished up with a few more basic things like the No Name board, how to enter and leave, and how to get my attention when they needed help (more on that later). We finished up with a video from John Green: http://youtu.be/x78PnPd-V-A

Tuesday- We started Lab Safety. I passed out the Science Is A Blast sheet (from C-scope) and had the kids work in pairs to identify all of the lab rules being broken. They circled each one and numbered them. Then they wrote on the back which rule was being broken. we went over it as a class, and I collected this as their first Daily Grade!

Wednesday- We watched a Video by Hank Green, found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRWRmIEHr3A (also available on Schooltube).
We then used a set of matching cards to match a scenario to a lab rule. They had 10 rules and 10 scenarios in a plastic baggie, and worked in groups (each set of tables was a 'group,' from 4-6 kids). We finished up by talking about our Unit Project: Lab Safety Brochure. I gave the kids a rubric and explained how it worked. We folded our brochure and went over exactly what needed to be in the brochure.

Here are the instructions I gave the kids for setting up the brochure:

Fold a sheet of paper (we used neon color paper) into thirds. I had them hold it so it was landscape, then bend the left side over a little more than half-way, bend the right side over on top, even the edges out, then Smush!

The front is the title page. They need to have a title about lab safety, and it needs to be easy to read and big enough that I can see it from a few feet away.

I had them flip over onto the back and write their name down at the bottom. On this same side, I had them write the number 5 at the top (in either corner).

Once they opened up to the middle, I had them number the left column 1, the middle 2, and the right 3. Then they folded that right panel in, and gave it a 4.

They're going to finish their brochures Thursday. They'll be due Friday before they take their Lab Safety Quiz.

Until later,

~Ms. Kat

Exit Ticket and No-Name Update

The new school year is just around the corner, and if your school is anything like mine, you're knee-deep in professional development. We've got 9 straight days of it, and I'm awash in a sea of activity, but I wanted to take a moment to share a few things.

First, an update to my No-Name board. I finally figured out how I was going to physically use the letters. I used double sided sticky pads to attach the letters to a poster board, and glued clothes pins along the bottom.

My school colors are actually Orange and White but I made the letters a few months ago before I got this job. There's no washing the PN-G Pride out of us life-long Indians!

Second, I wanted some type of Exit Ticket system. This is what I came up with.

I have little baskets set on each pair of desks (since my desks seat 2). I plan on putting an exit ticket for each student in these baskets. When the kids are walking out the door, they slip their exit ticket into a folder. Got it means they completely understood. Kinda means they are in the process of mastery, but need more work. What means 'jeeze Ms. Lynch I have no idea what any of that means!'

This is a very quick way to see if/how many your students understand the content, and how comfortable they are with their understanding. The exit tickets don't have names or numbers, so it's entirely anonymous.

Alright, back to constructing/planning/organizing for the coming year.  2 weeks til we begin!

~Ms. Kat

Compost bottles Prep

Happy August, Internet!

I've been up to my neck in busy since landing my job. I had the entire first 6 weeks of school rigorously planned out, powerpoints made, labs planned, activities designed....

And then my principal called and asked me to teach 7th grade instead of 8th!

Honestly, I don't mind. I actually prefer 7th grade as it's mostly Life Science (and I majored in Biology). Plus, I had about 6 weeks of lessons already planned for when I was trying to get a job at my Student Teaching school, so it's not nearly the hassle it might have been.

I'm writing today to share my summer prep on a lab we'll be doing mid-September. In the middle of our "flow of Energy" unit, we cover the following...
TEKS 7.5 (B)...demonstrate and explain the cycling of matter within living systems such as in the decay of biomass in a compost bin

I recall my mentor teacher's neighbor taught a class of 7th grade, and they did compost bottles early in the year. I decided it would be an excellent activity for my kiddos. I'll publish the powerpoint and journal pages later when we actually get to the lesson, but there's a little pre-planning and work that I need to take care of first. If you're planning on doing compost bottles, you might want to follow my lead on this.

Composting takes time. Like, weeks of time. I didn't want the kids to go through all the work of making these compost bottles only to move on to another unit before they could see in any results. So I decided to make a few compost bottles today, allow them to do their thing for 5-6 weeks, and bring them up to school during the "lets check our bottles" day I have budgeted (about a week after the kids do their bottles). This way, the kids could see what will eventually happen to their bottles without the hazards of time travel = )

There's tons of resources out there on how to do compost soda bottles but here's my take.

I pulled the labels off of 2-liter coke bottles and used an x-acto knife to cut the top off...at about the first ring...where the bottle curve turns into being straight sides.

I then rounded up my ingredients.

I found the following in the bottom of my fruit/veggie drawer in the fridge:

 Two immensely rotten (and fungus-y) cucumbers and some half-rotten radishes.  BLEGH. I have a traditionally strong stomach, but even that made me queasy. Had to clean out the whole drawer, and promise myself to be far more vigilant with respect to that drawer in the future.

Since I don't believe in coincidence, I took this as a sign that I was supposed to be making compost bottles today (tomorrow is trash day and they would have gotten thrown out).

I was also fortunate in that my mother pulled weeds from the fence-line and garden a few days ago.

I also had a half a bag of potting soil from our spring gardening at my disposal.

I wish we still got the newspaper, because I would have loved to use that. And if I'd thought about it, I'd have used our coffee grounds from this morning. Things to remember in a few weeks!

At any rate, I layered soil, rotting veggies, watermelon rind (from lunch!), grass, and mists of water until the bottle filled up.

Once full, I shoved the cut off tops into the bottles. I used my x-acto knife to poke small holes along the sides so we could get some air in there. I plan on shaking them once a week to aerate.



If all goes well, the kids will have three 5-week old compost samples to compare theirs to. Here's hoping!

I also found this cool game, and I plan on letting the kids play after we finish up the lab. http://compost4fun.recyclenow.com/


I'm not sure if we'll have computers at every desk like I'm used to, but even if we don't, I can run the game and they can tell me what to grab. They'll enjoy it regardless.

Hope August is treating you all well!
Ms. Kat