Friday of the second to last week of school

This week went by so quickly, but there was so much that happened. Let's go down memory lane and recap the week. After all, this was my last full week of teaching and I want to remember it.

Monday: Full day.
7th grade: I introduced evolution and adaptation in 5 minutes and then did a lab about the adaptation of opposable thumbs. This is actually one of my favorite labs. So my students work in pairs timing each other as they do different activities like tying a shoe, unwrapping candy, cutting a paper in half, writing 2 sentences, and picking up a penny. Sounds easy right? Well, it's easy for one student. The other student does all these activities without their thumbs. I use a lot of packaging tape and tape their thumbs against their palm. It's fun to watch these students struggle thumb-lessly.

8th grade: For the next three days, we have to review for our last periodic assessment. I hate that it is this late in the school year when all my kids already checked out. Nonetheless, I don't know why I never combined these two games before. Again, 5 minutes before class started, a light bulb clicked. I combo-ed old fashion Jeopardy with my brain child "Trashketball." With Jeopardy, the students score money points by answering the questions correctly. After every 5 questions, they get the opportunity to spend their money for trashketball scores (1 pointer - $200, 2 pointers- $300, 3 pointer - $400). With a huge recycling trash can and a basketball size ball made from trash and tape, the students get a kick from shooting the trashketball. Anyways, with this game, we reviewed for the next three days.





Tuesday:
I come to school late and without a lesson. I spent the previous night watching movies because grad classes were canceled. Oops. Anyways, I manage to come up with a project idea for my students. Create an animal with a certain adaptation for various problems that I wrote out. For example: A bird that has a difficult time capturing insects in hard to reach places. 7th graders draw and color for the next 2 days. In retrospect, an awesome lesson! When do we get to draw and color nowadays?

Wednesday: Minimum Day
I don't remember anything in particular during the school day. Hump day I suppose. Oh yea, one of my students, a funny guy, walks into my class and tells me that he started the "Help a brother out Foundation" to fundraise money for his fines and dues from the library. He has $30 in fines. Idiot. At 12:30, the school cleared out quick...everyone went to the park. Josh renegged. A Red Box movie. Happy hour with Katie. Home. Knockout.



Thursday: Full Day
7th grade: They extracted DNA from their cheeks and made DNA necklace. Very fun experiment! See pictures.




During my conference period, I finally go to observe a math teacher that my students have been complaining about the entire year. "He doesn't teach, I don't learn anything, he's horrible" is what I hear from my students. "He can't teach, he has no control over his class, I took pictures of the students and many of them are playing around and sleeping" is what I hear from parents. With this particular math teacher, we share the same exact student set. I enter and it's horrible. My students are crazy animals and have no sense of disrespect for this man. All the things I heard were more than correct. I couldn't actually believe it and it has been frustrating all year to hear this because it is my students that are being affected. Long story short, I had a long chat with him during his class period.

8th grade: This day was big for them. Well first, they took the first part of the periodic assessment. I really hope their did well. Why was this day big? All the 8th graders were getting letters to tell them if they were culminating or not. That means if they were invited to walk on the stage during graduation. Huge. All I heard all day was "Mr. I'm soo nervous!" After school came and I passed out the letters. Students were screaming, cussing, throwing hissy fits, and crying. Anyways, of the 350+ 8th graders on C track, only 40 are guaranteed to cross-stage. Wow...then there are about 30 students that are on the "maybe" list. This is where a lot of my students are at. When comes Monday, I will be in the counseling office fighting for my students and helping them make a case. Bring it...all my students deserve to culminate!

Friday: Minimum Day
Last day of instruction for both grades. Closing out the year.
7th grade: We organize out science notebook and I make my end of the year speech. Very impromptu. I told them my age. I recapped the year. Gave them letters that they wrote at the beginning of the year. I told them I wasn't coming back and that I was moving to NYC. It really hard to be sentimental with middle schooler. As I spoke and had a moment with my classes, some idiot would crack a stupid joke and mess everything up. I don't know but it's frustrating to talk to middle schoolers at times; they're simply too immature.

Also, throughout the week, my mandated "Hang with Trang" requirement to pass my class resulted in a lot of students coming in this week to chat and hang out. Learned a lot about my students and had great conversations. I'm glad this worked out; once you talk to Trang, they always seem to come back for more. Remember; set high expectations and anything can happen.

Anyways, here are some cow eye dissection picture from last week.