Oh how I love days off!

   Hello, hope everyone is having a good week so far and a great Halloween weekend. Today, I had the day off from my internship because it was voting day and Troy was holding a Professional Development day which turns out to be review of information I learned in my Wednesday evening seminar class. It was nice to wake up a little later, get work done and then head into my work study job before class.
   Let's see where I left off last. This past Friday, I had probably one of my best days in my internship so far. I was teaching new information which the students seem to get and I felt I explained it really well and students who don't usually, asked questions and answered questions. My favorite part of Friday was I did a lab demonstration for my students, since it was the Friday before Halloween and my mentor did not want us to start the lab before the weekend. I did a lab demo of an egg. This was something I did in my Methods class over the summer and my fellow classmates really liked, so I was excited to see what my students thought. I set everything up ahead of time. I first soaked 4 eggs in vinegar overnight to remove the egg shell. Once this was done, the next day I put one egg in water, another egg in corn syrup and one egg in water with orange food coloring (in honor of Halloween) overnight. The last egg I kept separate so that I could show the students what the egg looked like without the shell. The reason for doing this activity, is to start getting them to think about permeability and diffusion, prior to the NYS lab on diffusion that they have to do. I created a worksheet so they could follow along and I asked  them a bunch of questions to get them thinking about what might happen and to start to build some suspense. I must say the students were engaged and the most focused and enthused I have seem them in class. It was so great to have their attention, have them guessing what might happen and to have them excited, it truly was an rewarding experience. So Friday, was a great day all around for myself and I hope too for my students.
   Monday on the other hand, was a tough day. The students were coming off of a weekend, it had just been Halloween, they knew they had Tuesday off and the end of the 1st quarter is approaching. Suffice to say, the students were not nearly as attentive and were a little more unruly than usual. They have a test tomorrow so I created a review activity of Jeopardy to make it fun as well as provide them the opportunity to review two units. Due to the fact they were broken into two teams, one team took the lead really early on, which meant the other team gave up, which made for interesting classroom management. Thus, I ended the game early and just did straight review, but ended the class a little frustrated. So I am hoping the rest of the week will go a little better than the beginning.
   This past weekend, on a fun note, was my friend's birthday so we went to the Parting Glass to hear Hair of the Dog in downtown Saratoga. They are a local Irish group, that are absolutely phenomenal and so much fun to listen to. So great food, great company and great music, was a nice way to wrap up the week.
   Things are coming up quickly.... I cannot believe the term is over in two weeks. I will be wrapping up classes and starting my middle school experience, with Thanksgiving in between followed by Christmas. Our second Urban Roundtable Series is next week, in which we have a teacher from Schenectady High School and I am very excited to hear what she has to say. I will also be taking my next teaching exam in December (have to remember to sign up for that this week), which I am not looking forward to, but I am trying to space them out and give myself time to retake one, in case the unthinkable happens.
  Well that is more than enough for now. Please feel free to post a comment, ask a question, or anything, I would be happy to help and hear from those that are taking the time to follow my journey with me.

 I will try and post pictures of my egg demo later this week, so you can see what I was talking about!

 Have a great week!!!