The One With Preparation

I have 100 followers.  I never could have dreamed there would be that many people who cared about what I do in my classroom.  I'm humbled and honored beyond words.  I started this blog as a way to reflect for myself.  I thought it would be a great place to record what was going on in my classroom where I could go back and look to see what worked or didn't work.  I'm glad some of you have found something you like and can enjoy with your students.

Tomorrow is my first back to school workshop.  Though I knew it would, I can't believe how quickly this summer has gone by.  I feel like it has been a good one.  I've relaxed and had plenty of down time, but at the same time I've accomplished quite a bit for my classroom.

The past couple of days I have been preparing lab activities for Science.  It's pretty easy since we are doing the same set up as we did last year with students switching classes between my co-teacher and myself.  It seemed to work really well.  We doubled our test scores.  You can read more about what we did here.

Preparing is as simple as going back and deciding which lab activities I want to keep and which ones I want to toss.  I'm trying some new activities this year that I'm really excited about.  When it comes to searching for lab activities, there are two sites that are my go-to sites.  I don't know what I would do without them.  I'm sure you've known about them for years, but maybe you are new to the world of teaching science and you are lost the way I was several years ago.

The first site is www.science-class.net. and the second one is sciencespot.net.  They both have tons of lab activities and are organized by subject.  If you haven't already I encourage you to check them out.  You won't be sorry.