Friday, September 7, 2007

Teaching Science Is SOOOOO Much Fun

So the first week of school has come to an end. I am teaching 6th grade science and boy is it a good time. I am starting to think that the 6th grade is the perfect age to teach. My students are so excited about science that they hang on my every word. I am sure it helps that I am so much fun in the classroom but still.
[Dangerous chemicals I prepared for Tuesday's lab]

Not only do I have great students but I get to teach such a cool subject. In what other class do you get to play with dangerous chemicals like baking soda, phenol red, and calcium chloride? In what other class do you get to figure out how to turn two circles into a square? And, in what other class do you get the excitement of burning things? Ok, so we haven't had any fires yet but we have done the other two. Oh, and did I mention that we don't even have a text book. Can a class get any better. Later in the year we will be learning about killer lakes and after that we are going to build our own batteries and battery powered cars and race them down the hallway.

After reading all that can you really say you don't want to be taking my science class??? I think not.

But, why am I excited? I am the teacher. I have already done all this stuff. I have to be at school at 6:45am and on days like today (a Friday I might add) I stay until after 5pm. While it doesn't sound all that glorious I have yet to find another job where I can talk about all the nerdy science stuff I want and where I get to come up with awesome ways to share my knowledge and understanding with others. For example, on Wednesday I will be eating a flaming candle. Why? Because scientists should not jump to conclusions and they should be very careful when describing things. So, what will I really be eating? A peice of string cheese with a sliver of almond that I will have lit with a match. But do my students know that? No...because to them it looks just like a candle.

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