Welcome to Term 2! We are only 4 days in and it feels like we the holidays were months ago... but that's the joy of teaching isn't it? When you're on, you're on... 

This week I have started new topics with all of my stage 4 and 5 classes. Year 7 have just started 'Cells & Classification', Year 8 'Elements & Compounds', Year 9 'Being Connected' and in Year 10 we are doing 'Genes & Evolution'. In order to try to boost engagement and interest in these topics, this week I have introduced a few new ideas in order to try to 'catch' them.

With my Year 8s, we started off the topic by looking at the structure of the atom and the history behind our current understanding of the different parts and where they are located. In order to try to make this history part a little bit more exciting, I created an Instagram template using Google Drawings that the students then used to create a post as if they were one of the scientists involved in the development of the atomic structure. They had to find an image that was appropriate as well as write a caption and add some clever hashtags. They submitted them today and the results were great!! 

​Here are a few examples of them... 

Here is the link to the Google Drawing template if you would like to use it with your classes: Instagram template

I am really keen to give some PBL a try this year, so I decided to try to it out with my Year 10s this term. They are a pretty good class with some very strong students but the best part is that a good chunk of them have a real interest in Science. This is also the first time I've taught boys in a while, so I wanted something that was going to appeal to them as some of them aren't as 'into it' as the girls. So... enter our superheroes project.  

Here is the project introduction that I created for them...

To say that they were excited was an understatement... even the girls were excited about creating their superhero. They spent their first lesson researching a male and female superhero to find out a range of different traits. As we move through the unit they will use the traits of their original superheroes to carry out Punnett squares to see what traits their offspring will have. They will then create a model of their superhero's DNA and mutate it to represent the factor that causes most superhero's super powers! At the end of the project they will present their superhero in anyway that they wish - some ideas I have floated with them include a 'toy box', a set of trading cards or a trailer for a movie that their superhero may star in. 

I'm really excited to see how this project unfolds and will definitely be sharing more about it as we progress.

I'm still working on jazzing up 7 and 9 as we need to meet some outcomes that are on the next assessment task fairly quickly, but I have a few ideas that I'd like to try - I just need to tweak them a little. 

Lastly... Year 11... they completed their first formal assessment task in the last week of Term 1, so our first lesson this term involved us going through it. I also asked them to complete a reflection on their preparation, how they feel about their performance and what we could do in the future to improve. Most students took the reflection seriously, however, not all of them which was a bit disappointing. Since that lesson though, I have seen a huge increase in their involvement in class discussions and the effort they are putting in to their work. It is early days, but hopefully it continues!!

It was also nice to read an answer to the question 'How can I help prepare you for the next assessment task' from one student that said 'The way you prepared us for the task was great. I just didn't use it to my advantage and realise this now.' It's always nice to see that the students value the work that you put in and can see that it's a two-way street!

The biggest thing that we noticed about the task was that the students are struggling with meeting the Board of Studies verbs. In order to try to combat this I have created some memes that I'll be printing and displaying in our room to try to get them thinking about them differently. I love creating memes and it really can sometimes be difficult to get the wording right to make sure that the meme you create still follows the same line as the many millions of other memes that are similar online!

So here they are... I used www.memegenerator.net to create these and it is SUPER easy!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this term goes :) and I will definitely be updating and sharing the process via this blog! 

When I first thought of this idea as a blog post, my initial answer to this question was - it doesn't - it just turns me into a raving lunatic... but when I think about it, being a Wests Tigers supporter really has taught me a lot of traits that help in the classroom!

Firstly - commitment! It's hard to keep following a team that suffers the slightest of losses week in and week out without some kind of commitment. This relates to my classroom as sometimes you just have those kids who no matter how hard you think you try with them, they don't seem to do as well on the assessment task as you thought they would. But you don't just leave them to their own devices, you work with them, find other ways and continue to offer them support with the hopes that one day it will click and the wins will come!!

​Another thing I've learnt to deal with is flexibility. Being a joint venture, the Wests Tigers play their home games out of three different venues - Leichhardt Oval, Campbelltown Stadium and ANZ Stadium. Each home game we need to decide a) whether we are going (as we only have an LO & ANZ membership), b) how we are going to get there c) where to park... the usual! Each ground has their own pros and cons. When we play at Leichhardt we have amazing seats, but if it rains - we get soaked... like we did last week!

This is exactly how it is in teaching. Every week, day, heck, even every lesson can be totally different from the one before and we need to be able to 'go with the flow' and be adaptable. I like to think that this is one thing that I've grown to be able to do quite well in my years of teaching. Changing to a new school has been hard for me in this regard as I used to know my old programs inside out and back to front - but I'm getting there. 

This year I am playing 'SuperCoach' with my husband and a bunch of his mates. This has brought my interest in rugby league to a whole new level. In the past I have enjoyed looking up the statistics of the game - which player made the most runs, which team was penalised the most (usually us!) and how our players are progressing each week. I like to 'analyse' players growth, as this is the most important part of SuperCoach. You need to pick a team of players who are the best in each of their respective positions across all clubs in the competition.

I feel that data is an important part of our job, if it is used in the right way. It is important to be able to track your students growth across a variety of areas to ensure that you are meeting their needs and that they are progressing well. As a teacher of the HSC, we spend quite some time analysing the students from the previous year's HSC results in order to see if there are any patterns and work on strategies that we could implement to ensure that the future students grow. We also spend quite some time analysing NAPLAN results to look at the student's progress in literacy and numeracy. These are all important to ensure that teaching programs are created with enough rigour for the top students as well as providing opportunities for those who struggle to achieve.

I guess the biggest thing I take away from my Wests Tiger's love is PASSION... I have an orange car, my dog's name is Farah, we have a signed Wests Tigers jersey in our lounge room (and no photos from our wedding day!) and most of my wardrobe is orange (see my photo!). My husband - who thankfully is also a Tigers supporter - and I attend at least 15 games a season and watch every other game on the TV... so yes... the passion is there!

It was exciting when I read Dave Burgess' book, 'Teach Like a Pirate' when he spoke about using your personal passion in your classroom to engage your students. I was so releived when he went on to say that there's nothing wrong with sharing your passions with your students! I am not backwards in announcing my 'obsession' with my students at the beginning of the year and it's amazing how it helps to break down the walls between some students (boys and girls alike!). A lot of Monday mornings involve celebrating or more recently commiserating with students who also go for the Tigers!! When it comes to getting behind anything, I do it 110% - including my teaching - and I love being able to share that with my students and other teachers.

I would like to say that my love of the Wests Tigers has lead me to be able to have a diplomatic conversation with a supporter of the team we have just been beaten but, but sometimes that crazy lunatic just comes out and I get a little carried away. I do, however, try to make sure that I develop a well-researched response without losing my cool. I know that we can't take the crazy road in education when we don't agree with anything... so being able to take the time to think about what I'm saying and ensure that my points are valid and reliable is important to me.

In closing, I really hope that the boys can get out of their slump this week and bring home a win against the Canberra Raiders. My coordinator goes for them, so if for anything a win would mean that I wouldn't have to deal with him laughing at me on Monday morning!!

Yesterday was the last day of term for NSW schools. I was lucky enough to have a 6 period day, so it meant that I got to see all of my classes before the end of term as well as spend a period with my Homeroom while cleaning up and then our closing assembly.

Being the end of term, the students get into that 'slump' where they don't want to do anything overly constructive because they're tired. We are also tired, so school just seems like most people are going through the motions, waiting for the bell to go to signal holidays!!

Year 11 are currently completing their first examinations, so they were in and out of classes or studying. On Wednesday, one of them asked me to come up with something fun to do in our last lesson - so I did. As it turns out, she had an exam on Friday morning, so she missed it... actually, I only had 4 students present in class that day as everyone else was either in an exam or had an exam later that day and requested the time to revise. 

I created a small revision type challenge that involved a series of one-word Biology related questions. When they worked out the answers, they used the letters to complete a tinyurl.com address and it took them to part 2 of the challenge. Part 2 included 7 number-based questions that they had to answer and then use the numbers in order to find out the combination to the lock at the front of the room. In the box was individually packaged STEM activities were students had to create a hand using straws, string and sticky tape that would pick up a piece of paper.

Only one student managed to find out the combination - I'm not sure the other three were actively trying :( - but she was very proud of herself and even asked if she could take her package home to work on the Challenge over the holidays!

So - all in all, the time I'd spent creating the Biology Challenge sort of felt a bit wasted as there wasn't the buzz and excitement I'd hoped! Thankfully - I had decided to do a similar activity for Year 7 and they were up straight after, so there was no time to dwell!!

Year 7 came in with their usual excitement and found their Case File folders on their desks with this lesson's Case File. Each lesson, they were given an outline of the outcomes of the lesson in the form of a case file - like the FBI as I had named this unit 'RBI' and they were trying to find out who committed a particular crime! Today's Case File didn't have many instructions, just to find a partner, complete the find-a-word and then use the 5 left over letters on the top row to finish the tinyurl.com address!!

The find-a-word had terminology that related to the branches of Science, a concept we had looked at at the beginning of the topic. The students got in to finding the words straight away and eventually I saw students opening their laptops to move on to the next part of the Challenge. It was easy to tell who was reading instructions and who wasn't!!! I told the students that there would be no input from me and that if they needed help they had to rely on other pairs to help out - but it was also a competition to see who could finish first, so it was in other groups best interest to help, but not too well!!

The address for the second part of the Challenge ended up being (for those who want to play along at home!) - tinyurl.com/CHALLENGEMIVTT

This lead them to another instructions page for Part 2 of the Challenge. This told them to click on a link and complete the matching activity before putting the first letter of each answer in alphabetical order and omitting any multiple letters and again, using this to complete the tinyurl.com address!! Again, students were working really well together and ensuring that they read all instructions again and again to work out the clue.

The address that lead them to Part 3 was - tinyurl.com/CHALLENGECDEF

Part 3 was a series of scales that the students had to read including thermometers, measuring cylinders and rulers. This was again another skill we had done, so it really helped to show me who could read the scales accurately as they then had to add all the numbers together and then round it to the closest whole number. This gave them a 3 digit number that unlocked the combination!

The first group to do it was a pair of girls who were a bit slow off the mark, but eventually found their groove. Another pair of girls was close, but was lining up the numbers down the side of the lock rather than along the line!! Eventually, all the girl groups had unlocked the lock with the boys coming, trying and failing. This really showed me that the boys were most likely rushing and not reading the scales /adding the numbers together/or not rounding off properly. 

When the box was unlocked, the students were given a different STEM challenge to the Biology students. They found sets of cups, string and a rubber band and needed to create a pyramid with only the equipment they had - NO HANDS!! The students managed to work it out pretty quickly, so as each pair completed the challenge I paired them up with the next couple and they created bigger and bigger pyramids until all the girls were finished and I had teams of 6 girls creating pyramids with 15 cups!! (Some of the boys were still trying to work through the individual parts of the Challenge at this point)

If I was to do this activity again, I'd probably pair up the boys with a girl. It was good to see that there was such a vast difference in the speed at which the students completed the tasks based on gender, but I would like to try to make sure that the boys have an opportunity to complete the task as well. I guess in another sense, this might show the boys that by working together better, reading instructions properly and working through things thoroughly - they might be able to beat the girls!!

After Year 7, I had Year 8. In today's lesson I introduced the students to buncee.com. We have been assigned a class of students in New Jersey to be 'pen pals' with for Earth Day through an initiative called 'Buncee Buddies'. The students loved creating exciting and interactive presentations about bushfires and exploring how the program worked.

We also explored our 'mini ecosystems for the last time before disposing of them. The students created these using 1.2-2L soft drink bottles, soil, seeds and insects that they found around the school.  One group were VERY excited about the fact that they had a fairly large centipede living in their ecosystem... even after 5 weeks of being trapped in a closed plastic bottle! It was great to show them how the bottle modeled the water cycle and how plants were producing enough oxygen to keep the centipede alive!

A large number of my Year 10 class were involved in Commerce Market Day, so that class was pretty thin as well. We have recently finished the topic 'Chemistry' - so this lesson was an opportunity for them to ask questions and for me to have some informal chats to make sure that they were feeling confident with the content. 

My last 'official' class for the term was my Year 9s. This class is quite challenging with a few boys who really dominate the space and disrupt the environment. Most of the time I have them engaged or doing something active, but Friday afternoons are always a bit harder. They asked for a Kahoot! quiz, so I had spent a solid chunk of time creating a quiz that had 43 questions based on the topic we had just finished. The Internet decided to go on holidays early - so we didn't get to finish the game and all hell ALMOST broke loose!! 

Being frustrated and tired, I was ready to just give up - but we ended up playing 'Heads Up' for a bit and had a few laughs and got some of the quiet ones to somehow manage to get a word in over the boys!!!

Period 6 was clean up, but also a good chance to sit and chat to my homeroom kids about what they are doing over the holidays. They are finally coming around and being a little more responsive, so that time was great. We also played 'Heads Up' again and my boy who is on the spectrum and has difficulties in social situations was talking to Year 12 students like it was no big deal!!! 

So all in all - even with the dramas/missing kids/dying Internet - it really was a great way to end the term!!!