I am 2 class periods away from being a teacher for three full weeks (plus some change.) WHOA!!! I am not sure it is exactly what i expected, but i SWEAR i wasn't like most of these kids in high school. Of course, I do teach 6 classes of regular chemistry not the preAP or AP kids which i think would more closely represent my own experience. I have a few classes that i really like and of course i have a few that i have major problems with. I won't go into the bad details...
Today we are doing a lab with dry ice and it has been a bit crazy. During first period we couldn't get the experiment to work (put dry ice in a pipette and clamp the opening shut, as the ice sublimes the pressure increases and we get to the triple point and then POW, if you don't let go the pipette bursts.) then for second period i shanghaied some huge pipettes from the AP teacher...that worked of course, but they blew up all my pipettes even when i told them to release the pressure before it popped. well, the last two periods we seemed to have managed to get it to work with the small ones. It is kind of neat to see the kids get excited when they see the liquid CO2 and then POW-water flies in their face and they are soaking wet. So, that has been fun. If it weren't for the kids who always goof around i think we would do a lab every week.
In my second period class i have this boy who hits on me everyday. "Ms Haines, will you go to homecoming with me?" "You're hot! do you have a boyfriend? oh, well you will change your mind when you hear me play the guitar." Well, today we had a little extra time at the end of class so i let him play his guitar. He sang to me as he played, "Ms Haines.......Chemistry.....She is so beautiful...." It is so hard not to laugh my face off when he does things like that.
The first few weeks were hard, because i really had to be strict with the kids to get them to behave, but i think they are getting into the routine and we are starting to have a little fun...it is definitely getting better and less stressful.
ps i also have a colleague admirer too...he brought me cookies the other day. Don't worry though, J-Fizz is still my man:)
