Wednesday, November 3, 2010

PHYSICS INTUITION

Today was better.  Quite a lot better.  Certainly, I didn't have ANY time for reading and blogging East of Eden (I don't have a clue when I'm going to get to that today), and I didn't have any time to work on my NaNoWriMo, which, of course, is utterly expendable, even if I don't want it to be.

The teacher I'm covering, I was convinced, hadn't done a thing to help me out before my taking over.  I'm still not 100% convinced, but I uncovered a folder full of material for my 8th grade science classes.  Big help.  I actually had something to teach today (more on that in a minute).  For 7th grade, I thankfully have a wonderful neighbor who supplies me with plans, and we're mostly on track.  (The 8th grade is a month behind their target, which target is reached and maintained by EVERY OTHER 8th GRADE SCIENCE CLASS IN THE SCHOOL.)

During "Flex" time today (a 30-min block in which students can pretty much party if they've got good grades or get remediation if they don't) I was with the band, fixing the percussionists in prep for the concert tonight in which I will be actively filling in the blanks.

So the great part:  PHYSICS, the basics of which are the core of 8th grade science, apparently.  How cool is (are?) physics?  It is a subject entirely--at least at this level--intuitive.  I am not a science teacher.  Correction: I was not a science teacher; I am now a science teacher, and it was cool.  The kids were INTO it, we got a lot done, and it was fun.  Of course, I can barely talk now--my voice box hasn't built up the callous it usually gains by this point in a school year....  I had fun.  I knew what I was talking about.  The kids had fun.  We all learned stuff.

Unfortunately, the 7th graders are studying chemistry....

5 comments:

  1. "flex time?" that sounds like crap.

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  2. Yep. It's not quite the crap it likely sounds like (it's probably some cheesy acronym for something made up--like "EMT" tests kids take here once every other week to make sure they're on track in class). The good kids get a reward. The slow kids--or lazy kids--get the help they need. I get an extra thirty minutes of "prep." I don't mind. It's thirty more minutes that I don't have to prepare lessons where the teacher whose class this is didn't.

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  3. My best friend here at MSU, his name is Amir and he's an astro-physics major, the things he says about the classes, the people, all of it are so bizarre. He's convinced that physics major are hands down the most insane people he'll ever meet in his life, and he's met quite an interesting group of people. Right now he's applying for grad school but jeeze, it's just all so nuts. According to him, physics majors are all just secret alcoholics because they study their minds out before each test and then to celebrate they go out and get completely obliterated.

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  4. maybe I need one of these blogs, I feel creepy without a picture...

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  5. Well get a blog and get a picture! (I think you can get a picture via your google account.) Did you ever watch the show NUMB3RS? It was about some math genius who helps FBI brother solve crimes with math. Anyway, one of the math guy's best friends is a physics professor, and he is entirely nuts. From what I've seen, chem majors are the smart sober one, phys majors are the wacko hammered ones.

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