Hands On FUN!

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers regarding the situation in the post below. It was a hard start to our morning, but we worked through it. My class LOVED Science today! They were given these materials (not my photo, I found it online but it's the same materials!)...
and they had to make the lightbulb light! Tomorrow we will do it with only ONE wire, which several already figured out today!

How to deal with student loss

For the first time in my teaching career, I am faced with a new challenge this week. Without saying too much for privacy purposes, I will only share the basic facts. A student of mine lost a parent this weekend in a car accident and the other parent is in critical condition.
Please say a prayer for this student as he/she will be going through extreme emotions and a difficult time ahead. I pray for peace, comfort, and support for this student. I also pray that I have the right words to say to my class tomorrow and to my student when he/she comes back to school.

Hands On Science

One thing I love about our district is that we get these wonderful science kits 3-4 times a year that gives us the materials to do science hands-on to teach or standards. So, we have started our Magnetism & Electricity unit. My challenge today was for students to determine how the force between two magnets is related to the distance between the magnets. We got all set up with each group having the set up below. One cup has a magnet on a post beneath it and a magnet inside the cup attracting to the other magnet. The students took washers and put in the other cup and determine how many washers it took to break the force. Then, they put 1 spacer between the magnets and repeated the steps. Then they did the same with 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 spacers. They recorded their information and then made graphs in their science notebooks showing their results. Math + Science = success.


Yesterday we created permanent magnets and discussed induced magnetism.


I had a new student tell me today she always had a hard time understanding things her precious teacher taught (from another school) and how much better she understands now that she is in my room and how much better she's doing. I told her it was just what I needed to hear. I'm glad this week is shaping up to be better.

Stuck in a Rut

I have to admit, I am disappointed at what an awful blogger I've been lately here at For The Love of Teaching. Honestly I've just been busy with life. Sometimes I've felt like this:



Maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but let's get real for a minute. I've had a rough couple days at school (nothing major) and then hearing things are wonderful (ha) state department of education is thinking of doing as part of future teacher evaluations honestly made me leave school and ask myself (and my mom!), "Why am I doing this again?" What an awful feeling! I think sometimes it's easy to read blogs and think how perfect their classroom must be, how wonderful and supportive the parents are, etc, but it's just not always like that! Teachers get frustrated just like everyone else! I hate to be a debbie downer, but I think sometimes you just gotta embrace those moments, learn from them, and move on! My goal in my personal life this year is to get more organized. I think I am a pretty organized person by nature, but much could be improved. I've worked on organizing things at home like part of my garage, all of my son's clothes birth to 18 months, and a few other small projects. It feels good to get organized.



Now with my first Masters class starting tomorrow, I am feeling quite overwhelmed. On top of being wife, mommy, and teacher I am going back to student. Let me tell you...after reading what I have to do in Week 1, I am in panic mode. It's a LOT of work. So with this getting organized kick, I am making it my goal to get organized with my time as well and prepare better with my time. Wish me luck. Hopefully this week will be a much better week at school. Hey, it always is when you start your Monday planning period with a meeting, right? Well, I guess it's all part of it. Have a good week!

Back At It

I'm back after a wonderful two week break! I'll be the first to say...it was so nice being off, focusing on my family, and sleeping later (I hesitate to say "late" because my little one woke up between 7:00-7:30 am, but hey, I'll take that over 5:00 am anyway)! Nothing fancy, schmancy to share on our first day back. I did get one new student, though!


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