Her memory lives in her students…

2010
02.07

East Rochester School District has just lost a fantastic science teacher. She lost her battle with cancer on Friday night. Out of respect for her I would like to commemorate the most memorable teaching experiences she produced from the eyes of one of her students, me.

Mrs. VanGelder taught 8th grade science in our small school district. The 8th grade team was a very tightly knit community with the teachers of all of the disciplines (there is only one of each) collaborating together to ensure a tight knit community among the 8th grade students and to ensure that the students received a lot of support and great learning experiences during a year of their life that is very challenging for many students.

Memories:

-St. Patrick’s day: the room was decorated… as was she (a very tall leprechaun) as students entered the room she welcomed them in an Irish accent and sprinkled their heads with gold glitter (a little Irish magic and good luck)

-Student’s designed and conducted their own investigations, on anything they wanted (at least once). I used the classroom pet rat for mine and studied animal behavior.

-A rat and a giant millipede shared the classroom with us.

-Students made their own “contraptions” that had to include a certain number of concepts we had covered, ie. pulleys, levers, etc, and they had to connect with other students in the class so in the end we had one really long contraption that would move a marble from one side of the room to the other. (Mouse trap style – if you remember the game)

-Students had to write a paper on the physics of _______. We could pick anything of interest to us. I wrote mine on horseback riding. It is still one of my most favorite papers that I ever wrote.

-Bake sales! Our homeroom was the king of the 8th grade bake sales for the 8th grade class trip! Competition may be detrimental to some, but 8th grade is all about competing for a common goal – raising money for the 8th grade class trip! Homerooms competed to raise money and win the “Golden T.” This created a very strong, but friendly, rivalry between Mrs. VG’s homeroom and Mr. Hendy’s (SS) homeroom. The teachers were definitely driving forces in this rivalry/competition and really made the community present in that 8th grade hallway.

-AGRICULTURAL AWARENESS DAY! Mrs. VG lived in “cow country” out in Geneseo and she was struck with the lack of knowledge of “cow country” even the students in our small suburbian village had. She then took it upon her self to disrupt the entire 8th grade curriculum for one day and create a day long Agricultural Awareness Day! Every year she would bring in a cow, seriously. She would have friends of hers bring in one of their small cows to stand in the hallway for the kids to see and to touch. The farmers answered questions from the kids. A Dairy Princess would come and talk to the kids about milking cows, how butter and cream is made, and about life on a farm. One year she filled Mr. Hendy’s classroom with Hay and put roosters in there (Other times she would bring those types of things into the courtyard near by. Some times she had high school students and high school grads come back to help her run the show or perform as cowboys, cowgirls, country singers for the kids. I came back a couple times to help out. What a great learning experience for the kids!

-Above all else she was a very supportive person who was always there for you to talk to, to help you through your 8th grade drama and support you in any endeavor you chose to pursue.

There are many other things I could write about. She was an amazing woman. I observed her teaching on the first or second day of school in East Rochester, which was a week or so after the first day of school in the city. She was introducing laboratory rules to the kids. She dressed up with everything that was NOT safe laboratory attire. Chewing gum, long blonde wig on that reached down to her belt, a lab coat un-buttoned, long sleeves, sandles, a pop can in her hand, long jewlery, etc. She threw in a southern accent for fun (not sure if that is a lab safety issue…careful Sabrina! haha!).  Then the kids had to pick out what was un-safe and these rules were written down. All I could think was “what a fabulous way to discuss a rather boring, yet essential, topic!”).

I wish I had had a chance to gather more resources from her before the cancer came back. Much has been lost. However, a lot of her still lives on through her students.

I hope I can do her memory justice and carry some of her inspiring teaching practices through to my teaching. She really was an inspiration to me. When I decided to become a teacher, I wanted to be like her.

I love you Mrs. VanGelder! Enjoy your early retirement! It feels unjust to us, but you deserve to be in a better place and I believe that is where you are. You will be missed.


Take-aways

2010
02.01

value is not always a justification for implementation

actions speak louder than words, students stop listening when you words lack the actions that support them

the first thing a teacher should do when something is not working for their students is look at themselves

putting your students first should not mean neglecting yourself to the point that your students suffer

When your plate is already full, stacking more food on top does not increase the size of your stomach.

practice does not make perfect if the student does not know what perfect is

If  students honor deadlines, feedback should follow in a timely manner so that the students can assess their own learning and not embrace misconceptions and misunderstandings

If breathing was voluntary there would be no one to pay tuition.

You can only push so far before you yourself fall on your face.

You can only give it your all until you have nothing left to give.

When my sister donated her body to science…

2010
01.27

So without ever meeting my youngest sister (who is now a freshman in college) my students in my last placement became very acquainted with her. My task was to teach about homeostasis in the human body, including the immune response and a variety of different diseases as failures to maintain homeostasis. I first started with four common types of pathogens and had the students do some mini research on them and provide each other with notes. Then I did a lesson on what our body does to prevent these pathogens from even getting inside of us in the first place. (I will admit that the ideas for this lesson came primarily from Jay).

I decided to have them read about and make posters about some of our body’s “first line of defense:” eyelashes, mucus, ear wax, skin, tears, and saliva. Jay’s idea was to have something for them to look at, samples of some sort. I was crunched for time and busy cutting out antibodies and other things for the following lesson so I recruited my sister who was home on break from college to try to come up with samples or “samples” of these items. We found a mucus recipe online so she went to work making that and I had bought some “artificial tears” that we used for tears. Then she had to come up with the rest. She actually cleaned her own ears, used her own spit (with food particles in it), collected eyelashes (or eyebrow hairs since they look the same) AND took clippings of her FOOT CALLOUS for my skin sample!

As the students worked on their posters I quietly went around and placed a sample at each of their tables. Needless to say their reactions were VERY FUNNY, especially after they found how that they were real and from my sister.  haha, it was so gross. I think I may have enjoyed it more that some of the kids, but if nothing else it changed the atomosphere in the room for a few minutes. It was fun to shake things up a bit.

I actually owe a lot of my last placement’s success to my family. Without them spending the time to cut things out, run to the store, donate body samples and test run activities I would have lost a lot more sleep than I did.

Immune Response Bulletin Board!

2010
01.17

Just thought I would post these :) The students made the bright pink antibodies for my pathogens :)

Nothing like a road trip…

2009
12.10

Just wanted to write this down.

I just spent three hours trying to get to class. Unfortunately, class started an hour after I left and ended an hour early. Fortunately when I arrived on campus promptly thirty minutes after class ended I had a lovely friend (Megan) buy me dinner and hang out with me until rush hour was over and I was able to complete my road trip with a half hour drive home.  Mind you, both to and from class should have each taken me at max 20 minutes on any dry Rochester, NY day.  I planned on running late so I had left an hour before class started just to be sure I made it on time. …Apparently that was not enough.

Happy Upstate/Central New York Winter everybody!

Need a smartboard?

2009
12.10

If anyone who does NOT have a SmartBoard would like to build one here is a way to do so using an LED light, a Wii remote, and a projector. Very cool idea!

http://blog.ted.com/2008/04/wii_remote_hack.php – video and talk by the originator

http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/ – directions

STARS WEEK 10!

2009
12.03

It’s so hard to say goodbye! We had 4 girls show up this week from East (the most we’ve had in the last month or so). We celebrated birthdays and they designed their poster for Saturday. We did a couple more quick interviews for sound clips for the movie and we practiced the interactive station. The girls are excited about the glow sticks (which work!) and i think I prepared them well for the station. When they left they all gave us hugs and I’m sure Saturday will be amazing. I just hope the girls can get there! Of course we have a lot to do until then! I actually cut out, I dont know how many, door hangers in my literacy class (multitasking!), we have to finish the poster and the movie and get everything together for Saturday. I’m so exhausted I hardly have any mental capacity left. I love the girls, but this semester was rough…

STARS week 9!!

2009
11.12

wow, already week 9!

Today we finished and analyzed our graphs. We only had two girls, but they were great and really surprised us! The two girls are typically the ones who are not as quick to pick up on concepts and contribute significantly to our discussions. However with only the two of them there they were forced to, but it didn’t seem forced. Both could accurately tell us what was happening in the graphs and what they told us while applying the concepts of light and heat absorption. They critiqued their procedures and set up in terms of why our data came out so bizarre (cause it did!) and made suggestions for how it could be better. We didnt come to concrete conclusions because our data was relatively inconclusive. We may be able to come up with some from week 2’s graph and data but it is nearly opposite of what our half team got so… idk. It’s so weird. Anyway, I’m not sure how they will do with the interviews. We haven’t practiced. but if we only have two girls again we should have time next week to practice a little.  Maybe the teachers will interview eachother as examples. next week we also have to address the community aspect more. The other girls can do that while one is being interviewed.

Origin’s 150th!

2009
11.10

Yes, I am posting this early, but I thought you might want time to prepare!

November 24, 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of the “Origin of Species.” After celebrating, (intensily and enthusiastically), Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday anniversary on February 12, 2009 I think it is also important to celebrate the anniversary of his publication without which we would probably not even know who Darwin was.

Why are we celebrating? This is an excerpt from an article I found online.

“So how influential are Darwin’s ideas today?

Their importance in science is inescapable: the whole field of evolutionary biology is founded on his work. More generally, his influence can be felt in how the Christian orthodoxy that underpinned most science has fallen away, and even in our understanding of human interactions, summed up by the phrase “social Darwinism”.

Even the church recently recanted its initial opposition to The Origin of Species, issuing a public apology in September. It read: “Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still.” Still, many people remain sceptical. The continued influence of creationism and intelligent design in the US is well-documented, and here, a 2006 poll said that only 48 per cent of the general public accepted the theory of evolution.

What is being done to change that?

Many organisations devoted to the public understanding of science have seized on the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth as a chance to make people more aware of why his work is important, and celebrate him as a great British figure. The Natural History Museum hosts the biggest ever Darwin exhibition until April 2009; moves are afoot to have his home and living laboratory of forty years, Downe, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco; celebrations will take place across the country on 12 February, his birthday, or “Darwin Day”. Even Hollywood has taken note of the romance of his marriage and tragedy of the death of three of his children, and a movie starring Paul Bettany will appear later this year.

So is Darwin the most important scientist of modern times?

Possibly. But any complacency about his place in history should be tempered by an awareness that his significance could easily be forgotten. In 2006, a public poll conducted by the BBC judged him the fourth greatest Briton of all time – one place behind Diana, Princess of Wales.

Is it important to celebrate Charles Darwin today?

Yes

*No advance has so upended our worldview since the realisation that the world was not flat

*Darwin’s legacy is threatened by proponents of creationism. By commemorating him we defend it

*He’s a genuine titan in the history of world thought, and he’s British. If that’s not worth celebrating, what is?

No

*Darwin wasn’t the only proponent of natural selection – others were working in similar areas at the time

*His insights can’t seriously be threatened when they are now so culturally ingrained for all of us

*Harping on the work of a long-dead scientist is a sad indictment of the lack of achievements to herald today

a.bland@independent.co.uk “


To learn about Charles Darwin listen to this audio clip: The Life of Charles Darwin

Learn about others who influenced Charles Darwin by searching for these people: (in no significant order)

Emma Darwin – Charles’ wife

Asa Gray – botonist and personal friend and colleague of Darwin

Joseph Dalton Hooker -Botonist, founder of  geographical botany and friend of Darwin’s

Charles Lyell – geologist and influenced  Darwin’s theory production

Alfred Russel Wallace -came up with the same theory using evidence from different parts of the world

Other Resources:

Darwin Online UK: This site has an extensive collection of the works of Darwin in various editions and languages. There are his complete publications, letters, manuscripts, etc etc.  Seriously check it out, they are all online, and all free. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Amazon: Buy the book! “The Origin of Species” in the new 150 anniversary edition

Mike’s Post: This is on the Creationist Museum/Movement

Halloween Math Video!

2009
11.10

Ok, I sent this out the week of Halloween via blackboard. However, I’m posting it here as well. I think its a great example of how technology can be used to make a class more interesting. There isn’t really much content taught in this lesson, but I think the skills could be used to teach content in all subjects.