Update now that I'm back to school....

Well, I'm back into the nitty gritty of school, correcting labs and tests, meeting with parents, helping students so the question is, how has my RET experience impacted my teaching?

I have not had time to do my lesson that was created this summer as we are not at that point in the curriculum. However, I do find that I talk about my experience quite a bit in the classroom as I'm teaching. I also put my you tube address on the board and suggested that they check out what I did this summer.... I have 97 Hits!. My students will come into the room and tell me that they checked out the video -- I then ask them if they understood it, and the reply is always no. I guess that I will have to make another one where the students have more models of what the Raman Microscope does and an example of what has been done with Ranjith's research to help the students understand it better.

I also have implemented science notebooks in a different way than I have in the past. I'm still not there yet - in other words, it's not where I would like my students to use them but we are getting started. Students did not reflect after they did a lab or an assignment before this, now I am requiring that they do after each unit, I think that, to some of them at least, this reflection is making science more meaningful to them.

My next step is the blog -- I will introduce that next , then the lesson. I hope that if I bring up this experience throughout the year, students will understand that things that are learned are built upon and used in many different ways.-- Also, with me getting turning 50 this year, maybe they will see that you are never too old to learn new things.

ttfn.