Dissent in the Ranks

This week is the last of the summer term. Things are getting pretty heated for many of the students in this program, whether it is the amount of assignments that are due this week or because of peoples' opinions about this program. There have been some feelings expressed from some of my classmates that show that they are unhappy with this program and that we are learning somewhat irrelevant things. My advice to those people is to stick it out for one more week and use the month of August to decompress. Come the fall we will have some different flavors to add into the mix and things will be different enough to form a new opinion with. There will always be hoops that need to be jumped through and we need to figure out how to do the jumping in ways that cause us the least amount of stress. It is a skill to be learned.

Almost done!

We have just a little bit left for this summer semester and as I mentioned before, a bunch of assignments due next week. I keep having to force myself off of auto pilot and get this stuff done. I can't wait to get on the plane in a few weeks to Oregon, then get on my bike and go. For one week in August I will be somewhere along the coast of Oregon with my wife and our bikes, that's it. We are going to be carrying everything with us on the bikes. I'm just going to check out for a while and decompress. Hopefully I can get some good video/pics to bring back and hone my editing skills. Maybe I'll even run into a grizzly bear like last time. . . . . .

Recent weeks

We are in the fifth week of the SMAC program now and the end for the summer part is in sight. We have been given a large amount of information for use in our classrooms as well as a large amount of things that are due in the next couple of weeks. I very much look forward to my placement at Romulus High School in the fall and to the start of my student teaching.

As of right now, I'm getting my final things under way for class and getting ready to get married in about three weeks! Its been an interesting five weeks to be sure.

My ideal classroom for teaching biology would be a fairly simple layout. There would be desks that were movable so that students could make their own groups/lab stations, there would be separate lab stations devoted to more elaborate demonstrations and experiments, and there would be the usual black/white board up from so I can draw and write during my lessons. Also in the room would be various books of a level that the students could use to follow up on questions they may have. I would have a computer station also for research purposes. Hopefully my room would have a fair amount of windows so that I could set up some indoor/outdoor components to the class such as bird feeders or special plants. I am also a big fan of class pets and would try to have a few in the class.

Whew!

Well, we're coming up on finishing our second week in this lovely lil' program. Anyone else having a blast?!?