This is what I heard when the bell went at the end of my Year 7 class today! It came from one of the girls who was so engaged in what she was doing she had lost track of time and was enjoying the activity she was completing. It wasn't anything overly exciting (well I didn't think it was - but obviously she did), but the lesson had so many changes of pace that I guess it would have been easy for her to lose track of time and get totally immersed in her activity.

Today's lesson started with a 20 question Kahoot! quiz based on cells and their organelles. The students had to complete a table that summarised the organelles found in cells and I wanted to see how much they had retained. They were told on Friday that they were going to be having the quiz, so I was pretty happy overall with the way they all went. 

The only issue I find with doing a Kahoot! quiz is that I always worry I'm going to interrupt the classes next door to me because the kids get so into it! Just like all my classes, the students today were jumping up and down and screaming out when they got their answers correct. 

After playing Kahoot! we then watched a quick video that introduced the levels of organisation in organisms before the students created a 'foldable' to help them to take down the points that they need to know about each level. I really like foldables as they are a creative way for the students to make notes of key terms that they need to know. This particular foldable also helps the students to see the relative size of each of the different levels as the 'cells' section is a lot smaller than the 'organism' one.

For the students to complete the foldable at their own pace and to put as much detail into them as they wish, I created a set of instructions using Google Slides that they could process through when they were ready. You can find the slides here - Levels of Organisation .

So, all in all - a great Year 7 lesson to have on a Monday :) 

Today I had Year 10 in Period 6. I will admit that I have been feeling pretty average lately and had ordered the equipment required for the DNA extraction investigation, but that was about it... so bring in the driving question - 'Can we extract DNA from kiwi fruit using everyday items?'... I simply wrote that on the board, left the equipment at the front of the room and off they went.

The amazing thing was - this was the first time that I had 100% success rate in all groups extracting decent amounts of DNA!!!! Each group found their own method online and carried it out on their own. There were lots of questions asked about why we used certain items and how it all worked, but it was so good to see the WHOLE class engaged in the last period of the day. 

It's really amazing how something like this can turn your pretty average mood around so quickly :) 

Here are some photos from today's lesson.

We are currently looking at Genetics & Evolution with Year 10. This week we have been looking at the process of meiosis and yesterday we explored what happens when it all goes wrong. The students had lots of questions to ask about the process of creating sex cells as well as what happens during fertilisation (not just the sex bit - actually none of that! That's one thing I've noticed between girls schools and co-ed schools... definitely not as open with the questions in that domain with the other gender in the room!!).

Today we created karyotypes using gummy worms to explore how geneticists work to try to determine genetic disorders in individuals. Each group was given a ziplock back that contained a range of 'gummy worm chromosome pairs' that represented the autosomes and a selection of gummy bears that represented the sex chromosomes. They then had to pair them up, arrange them in order of descending size, work out how many pairs of chromosomes the individual has and determine whether they were a normal male/female or if they had a genetic disorder relating to their sex chromosomes. 

All they wanted to do was eat the lollies... so once they had followed all of they were asked to go to the link on their instructions to an interactive karyotyping activity that was basically the same activity, but using technology! 

Overall, the students had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. If I was to do it again I would try to make each group different in terms of some having an autosomal disorder and others having a disorder linked to the sex chromosomes. 

You can find a link to the 'Gummy Worm Karyotypes' instructions by clicking on the link :) 

This is me right now! I have so many ideas flowing around my head, but I never feel like any of them are worthy of publishing for others to read. I have ideas that I've used in my classroom that I feel are awesome, but probably aren't revolutionary. I have techy stuff that I've done that again... I'm probably not the first one to do it!! I feel like I am always second guessing myself and this is really something I need to probably work on...

I used to love putting my name forward to present at TeachMeets, but now I feel like I don't have anything new or exciting to bring to the table. Last year I presented at close to 10 across the year and this year I have only presented at 1. It feels weird. I know I need to just get out there and share what I do because I'm sure someone will benefit from it somewhere.

Anyway... I really don't know what the point of this blog post is. I guess I just needed to get it out there and start to come to terms with it. Hopefully you'll see a more 'acceptable and inspiring' blog from me in the near future!!!!!