what i wore & what we did

 

The first week of school has come and gone!  Despite the temperature in my room surpassing 90°, it was a fantastic week.  When I look back, the Biology students looked terrified on the first day (goal #1), I had a couple kids drop out of the Honors and go to regular (goal #2), I gave out meaningful homework (goal #3) and I gave an assessment (goal #4).  And of course we had a lot of laughs - which makes going into work so much fun.

Around the middle of the week I decided the heat was too much to bear and the only way I would survive was to have a couple new maxi dresses.  This one I'm wearing is so fabulous - I even got compliments from the girls in my classes.  I'm actually planning on wearing it to a wedding reception this evening (woo hoo!  date night!) or possibly this other plum one.

My seventh graders scored the coolest activity last week - the Raft Rally. 

I had never done it before but it seems to be a pretty common Scientific Method experiment.  Groups are given certain materials and 20 minutes to build a raft, they then test it in water and see how many pennies (we used quarters because we're cool...and rich) the raft can hold before sinking.  It was awesome.  Maybe it was that I put them in amazing lab groups this semester?  Or maybe it was the cool lab tables I now have?  Whatever it was, the kids really learned a lot about how to cooperate with their team members and they also learned a lot about the Scientific Method. 

By the way, this is the first year I've gotten the whole groupwork thing down to a T.  It makes it easy that I know most of my students and can therefore place them in the teams that will suit them best, but I put them on teams of 4.  They had to create a team name and logo, etc.  I keep these teams up on the Smartboard most of class and they can earn team points that can add up over the semester (that can eventually lead to some extra credit).  And yes, the points can be deducted.  So the winning team (whose raft held 49 quarters - unbelievable) got points, as well as any team that got within two quarters of their pre-testing estimate.  Team points - it's the way to go, people.


And how could I not share with you the quotes of the week?


Mrs. Rowland:  What other kinds of cells can you think of?  Come on, how did you get here on Earth?  SEX CELLS.  Sex is the answer to everything!

Male student:  I thought Jesus was the answer to everything?

Mrs. Rowland:  Well this is Biology.


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Mrs. Rowland:  The "Trampoline Booties" for your team name?  What kind of booties? (::envisioning a butt in a neon thong::)

Girl:  Baby booties, see?  (::shows me a picture of a baby sock::)


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Mrs. Rowland:  Alright boys, what team name did you come up with?

Boy:  Can we be "Fifty Shades of Biology?"