First week of summer

Hello Summer! Hope everyone is enjoying their time off.

I've had 2 days of class already this week. Monday I learned about integration of handheld technology in the classroom. Some of the websites and apps I learned about were

• Textnow
• Cel.ly
• Google Drive
• Polleverywhere
• Remind101

I used Remind101 last school year and it was awesome. If you are a teacher and haven't signed up yet, you need to!

I also learned about QR codes and am excited to use them this school year. How cool that I can make a QR code and it will take students/parents right to my school webpage. How might I use this you ask? I'm going to put this code on the student syllabus. Also, I plan to put it on stickers and give them out so students can have them on their notebook for easy access. I also plan to use this when I make internet assignments, instead of typing the URLs, they can just scan the codes. So cool! Try it out:

I made this QR code at http://www.qrstuff.com/. If you are an app person you can find one here http://www.qrdroid.com/
My other class was about tapping into the power of iOS mobile devices in the classroom. I have been stubborn and haven't bought any apple products yet. In fact, this class was my first time using an ipod touch. Crazy, I know! It was very informative though, and I caught onto everything super quick. We used QR codes again, and even did a classroom scavengar hunt/research project with them. Very cool idea. It makes me wish I had a classroom set of ipods or ipads for my classroom!!! If you are lucky enough to have them, or just want to learn more, check out the website the class instructors shared with us: http://tinyurl.com/WCSipodpd

I didn't have class today, it was supposed to be a 'fun day' for me. I had plans to go out with a friend to lunch and shopping, but she wasn't feeling well and cancelled. Since I didn't have anything else to do, I decided to work on my webpage. I was running out of space and needed to edit and organize files. After working for about 4 hours I accomplished a lot! Here it is:

 

 

I have another free day tomorrow, not sure what I am going to do yet. Friday is my final technology class, this one is about making a Google Website. I'm excited :) Then Saturday I am volunteering at the zoo, and Sunday I am going to the New Kids on the Block / Boyz II Men / 98 Degrees concert with friends. Should be a fun time!!

It's summer!

Summer is finally here and I couldn't be more excited!

It was sad leaving school this year though, knowing all the changes we have in store for us next year. We have lost a lot of staff to retirement, new jobs, and RIFs. My two best teacher friends at work won't be there next year, and I am super sad about that. It is going to feel very lonely!

I am teaching some new classes next year though. Because they had to cut so many elective classes with the RIFs, the have added electives to the core areas. I am teaching 2 new science electives- forensic science and zoology. I have A LOT of prep work to do over the summer to plan these courses from scratch without materials, but I am feeling up for the challenge. I hope to make the classes really fun and informative for students and hope I do a good job with them! I have requested a free textbook for each so hopefully the company comes through and helps me out!

So besides doing LOTS of lesson plans over the summer I am also...

• taking a few workshops on Educational Technology
• volunteering at the Akron Zoo
• going on vacation with my family in July to the Outer Banks
• and hopefully finding lots of time to sleep in, visit with friends, let out my creativity by painting and making art

Summer is my time to relax and refresh. To all of us teachers, I hope the summer goes slow and is enjoyable! Have a good one!

Teacher of the Year and Dissections

I'm feeling very blessed to have won Building Teacher of the Year for our high school this year. I know I work really hard, but what an honor that my coworkers see it too!

The year has flown by, we only have 7 more days of school until summer! My summer will still be full of school work though, as I am teaching two new classes next year and need to develop the curriculum from scratch. If anyone teaches Forensics or Zoology and would be willing to share materials to get me started, that would be awesome :)

These last few weeks all of my classes have been studying animals and body systems. We've been doing a lot of dissections, with only the fetal pig left to go. Biology classes dissected grasshoppers and perch. AP Biology dissected squid, shark, snake, pigeon, cat, and pregnant rat.

Here are some photos to share, more can be found on my school website at http://demo15.schoolspan.com/myroom/abrams/3P6SXW7Q?catid=4NXH754A

 

 

 

Hope everyone finishes off the year with a bang!

Spring Break Update

It's spring break! You'd never know it from the weather outside. Monday we had 4.5 inches of snow. The schools not on spring break this week all got snow days! Lucky ducks :) Here is the view out my window yesterday morning.

Life has been so hectic lately, and work has been kind of stressful. Our district officially RIFed 13.5 teaching positions for next school year. At the high school, most of our elective classes were cut- no more industrial tech, family consumer science, and 1/2 Ag, 1/2 music, 1/2 art, etc. Because we are now short on electives, they are having us core teachers add elective courses to our schedule. I've always taught Biology and AP Biology, next year I will be teaching those PLUS Forensics and Zoology. They should be interesting courses, but we don't have books for them and obviously don't have money to buy any. I'm a bit stressed at teaching a new course, and no textbook adds even more stress to that. Yesterday I ordered some books and videos off of Amazon to help me plan this summer. I have a feeling I am going to keep buying stuff out of my own pocket so that I feel confident teaching the new classes. I'm also planning to post anything I create to TeachersPayTeachers to help me supplement all of the costs.

With April coming up I have also been preparing for Earth Day. It is the one day of the year where I give my students a break from the normal class structure, and we do crafts, play games, and have fun instead. I went a little overboard buying stuff out of pocket for that too, but I just couldn't resists. Yesterday I even designed and purchased a banner from http://www.shindigz.com/. It is a great website with really great quality banners at a decent price! I got one for 1 penny last year during a 24-hour sale! It was awesome! If you ever want to shop there, please comment with your email. I would love to refer you and get some extra points! Every little bit helps! Anyways, here is the banner I created, I can't wait to hang it up.

Tomorrow my 'fun' spring break continues and I am having surgery. Just a minor procedure, but still not a fun way to spend my spring break. Oh the things I do to prevent myself from having to miss work!

Anyways, I hope all of my fellow teachers have a great spring break and get the rest they need to make it through the last few months of the school year! Take care.

Genetics WebQuest

I have been busy doing school work all day today! I am teaching Genetics right now, one of my favorite units! This morning I created a WebQuest for my students to complete this week, and I uploaded it to TpT to share with all of you! I had a similar lesson I  used in the past, but I figured it was time I revise it and make it worth sharing. Here is it: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Genetics-WebQuest

Half way to summer

Wow, this blog has been the last thing on my mind lately. Work has been crazy.

Our school is currently in fiscal caution and looking to cut corners. Recently the school board asked teachers and support staff to take a 10% pay cut. When we refused, they told a handful of teachers 'not to show up for work on Monday'. Chaos went on all last week as we scrambled to save people's jobs. Our negotiators worked super hard and made a proposal to take a smaller pay cut and the board accepted. I'm nervous about what is going to happen in the next few months though, as plans are to RIF more teachers before next school year. I have been a big ball of stress about it. I love teaching, but going to work this year has just been a level of stress I never imagined.

Hopefully I can get things figured out for myself then start posting on here again, I feel like I have a lot of great teaching and lesson ideas I can share... as soon as I find time! :) Take care, everyone. And best wishes in second semester1

Stressful year

It is turning out to be a stressful school year. Our school levy failed and now they are wanting to RIF a handful of teachers and enforce a 10% pay reduction for all staff, effective in January. It breaks my heart that the levy failed and now the district seems to be falling apart. I am working harder this year than ever. On top of my usual duties as biology teacher, department chair, and building tech coordinator, I have volunteered to be part of our OLWEUS bully prevention team. It is our first year implementing this program and it has been a lot more work than I expected. I put in about 3 hours per week in extra meetings for it, and additional time planning and typing documents. I think it will be great for our school and the students, it is just a lot of extra stress. Anyways, that is my explanation for why I have not been updating my blog here. Hopefully after the holidays when we have a better picture of the future of our jobs, I will have more time and motivation to update here. I've been trying a lot of new ideas in my classroom and they are working out great. My students scored extremely well on last year's end of course exams (my biology students helped me get the highest teacher ranking in our whole school!) and I hope my students this year will follow suit. I feel really great about what I do, I just wish I had more time and support for it all, and time to share it with you all. I have posted a few lessons in my TeachersPayTeachers store, and hopefully we will get a few snow days so I have time to post some more :)

Hope everyone is having a great year! Take care.