Overhead

Well, I got my overhead projector working this afternoon. Let me tell, what a pain it was. Of course, this morning I needed a projector, so I turned my desk into the LCD projector station. My desk, never being neat, was thrown into even more disarray. Well, I managed to clean up my mess during my prep period and the beginning of my study hall.

Speaking of mess, let me tell you that my lab is an absolute nightmare. I have different labs going on each lab bench. Some chemistry students are finishing up their lab (make-up work.) However, ESCI is just in the last stages of finishing their mixtures lab. They are trying to figure out how to measure the mass of salt in salt water. But also today, I started a biology lab where the students use Iodine and Benedict's Solution to determine the type of carboydrate a liquid has. So, each lab bench has a different combination of beakers, test-tubes, liquids, compounds, etc. Just an absolute mess and nightmare. Clean up won't be that much fun either. Although the students will "clean" their respective equipment, I will have to put it away. (Let's not get into the condition of the store room right now.)

Run Down for the day.

ESCI - Homecoming almost a week away. I'm the 9th grade advisor so we spent over half the period today discussing our float, nominating and electing our homecoming Prince and Princess, and then debating the prices we would sell our raffle tickets at for our fundraiser. The last 20 minutes or so the students were finishing up their lab and writing their lab report. Also, I handed out a crossword that is due tomorrow. If it sounds like we spend more time on class activities than on ESCI, that's because right now we are.

Chem - Discussed how to name binary compounds and write chemical formulas. Pretty easy stuff really. The students paying attention already have mastered it (I hope!). They had a small homework assignment to reinforce the concept. Tomorrow they have a quiz over chemical symbols and major oxidation numbers of common elements and polyatomic ions.

LSCI - Well, pretty much the same thing as chemistry actually. Today the students learned the difference between elements and compounds, and the symbols for the important* elements. Had lots of fun discussing these with the kids.

PSCI - Spent 1/2 the period talking about Newton's 3rd Law of Motion. The other half was spent studying for the quiz tomorrow. (O.k., so only 2 or 3 studied, the rest just gossiped.) As the students were supposed to be studying, I was finishing setting up the biology lab. I didn't quite get it all done, but was able to finish the setup during the actual lab.

Bio - Handed back their quizzes (they weren't that good.) Told them they will see the EXACT same quiz next week. Let's see if they do better. Started the Carbohydrate Identificaiton Lab. The kids seemed to enjoyed the lab, and tomorrow they will finish.

Study Hall - Finished cleaning my desk after I made a mess of it earlier today. Lots of kids working on computers, either doing General Business (9th Grade), Computers I (10th grade) or typing/keyboarding (7th grade). Of course, most do their computer homework during this period because they don't have access to the programs/files at home.

Adv. Bio. - Students finished/started yesterday's test. Pretty relaxing. I do enjoy ending the school day like this, however, I haven't really graded a thing today, and the papers are starting to pile up. Hopefully I'll have the energy to grade papers this weekend.

*By important, I mean interesting and ones that will be used through out the year. Personally, my favorite right now is Tungsten (W). Usually that is one of my extra-credit questions on my quizzes.