Summr to do list...

I have a huge summer to do list for work, not to mention the fact that I am doing full time research and have a ton of house projects that I would like to get done as well. With so much on my plate I am hoping that sharing my goals will give me incentive to keep up with making progress on them.

So here is the list....

For my biology classes:

• Reorganize and touch up all unit calendars - some progress has been made
• Add unit project lists for remaining units that didn't get them this year
• Restructure/reorganize/improve the stream study plan so that it is a more meaningful research experience for students.
• Better plan for using and assessing journals and portfolios. I found some great resources on using interactive science notebooks that I think will really help me improve how I use this in my classroom!

For my chemistry classes:

• Reorganize and touch up all unit calendars
• Look at the chemical supply inventory and figure out where to add in more labs utilizing the new materials purchased for next year.
• Look into the forensics chemistry book and figure out how much of that I can implement

For my physics classes (2nd semester):

• More problem sets and reorganize notes

For my student research class (2nd semester):

• Make a plan....this will be the first time I am teaching this class. the intention is that during the first few weeks I will guide students through several experiences with the goal of teaching them how to design experiements and get their creative juices flowing. Then for as much of the time as possible they will be designing experiments and I will be more of a guide and resource for this. I need to come up with effective goals and assessment tools for this type of class. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Overal classroom needs:

• I am downloaded a ton of resources from TpT to do this cool owl theme for my classroom decoration. I also found some great resources for teacher binder organization - I love organizational tools despite how my desk looks most of the time. I so want to be that teacher that everyone is disguisted by how organized she is. I have a lot of work to do to get there!
• It wasn't on my original list but I have made a new homework log form!

And I am sure I will add more to these lists as I get going. It sounds like alot but the good news is that for many of the tasks it is more of a matter of improving what I already have not reinventing the wheel!

Last Day of School Huzzah!

I am breathing a huge sigh of relief tonight, the school year has officially come to a close. It has been a race to the finish line for the past few weeks. Between projects, lab reports, school plays, Key Club events, etc. I haven't had time to breath much less blog. I plan on taking the next week or so off and then will be spending alot of this summer of professional type things. I am participating in a RET program at Keene State College this summer in the biology department. I will be working as part of a team researching the impact of PAH's on Xenopus development, Xenopus are a species of frog commonly used as a model organism for biological research. I am really excited and can't wait to blog about the experience. I am also hoping over the summer to reorganize and revamp and many of my classroom materials specifically for biology and chemistry. Hopefully some of these things will be worthy of posting to my TpT store as I get them touched up. Ending my 4th year teaching I am finally starting to feel like I know what I am doing and that I can fine tune many of my lessons and activities. I always do an end of the year survey to get feedback from students and I got some comments and ideas that I def. plan to use next year in some way.


So long school year, hello summer!