To say that I am buried in work is an understatement. However its part of my role as a teacher and I wouldn't have it any other way. The new school is looking promising and the kids are great. We have all sorts of clubs and there are many students who are clearly not afraid to go above and beyond the curriculum. As someone dedicated to education this resonates very well with me.
I am closing on completing the Optics section with my Grade 10s. They write their unit ending test this coming week and have a kaleidoscope design project to hand in a few days later. It is important to keep challenging the 10s and encouraging an appreciation of the sciences as their follow through influences the future of our department and ultimately the school. Thankfully we have the support of the parents and the administration on this matter and have no shortage of students wishing to sign up for the myriad of science competitions that are now common place at the senior high school level.
On the physics front (with my Grade 11s) I have just started the Mechanics section having completed the Kinematics Unit. I spent some time on Projectile motion (PM)attacking the subject with computer simulations, discovery/thinking lab work and problems. PM can be a difficult topic for the students to master as they are still trying to come to terms with the idea of resolving a vector into components using the tools of trigonometry. The scaffolding necessary is a bit more intense than other topics and requires constant feedback and multiple assessments.
In short all is well (at least is seems so...I may yet get mugged around the corner). There are still some issues with respect to helping some of the struggling students with the material that I will work on in the next week or so. I also have a student teacher who will be assigned to me come months end. Since I am a great fan of mentoring I am looking forward to helping another teacher develop their pedagogic potential.
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