Day 17:
Today was the first time I got to set up and instruct a lab. This lab was to help the students connect all the ideas they just learned with macromolecules and apply them. They had various solutions of starch, glucose, protein, and sucrose. After they had their solutions, they added different reagents that would test positive for different ingredients. I gave really good explanations at the beginning of lab and then let them run loose. It was a little crazy but everyone was safe and they got done in a reasonable amount of time. After the students got done with this lab, we had some time left so we did a mini lab where they got to make silly putty. No matter what age you are, it is fun to make silly putty. Pretty much every student was excited to make their own silly putty. They all had fun but oh man was it messy. There was pieces of silly putty everywhere. You make silly putty with Elmer's glue, water, and a borax solution. The last class was the messiest with this mini lab. Jen even got her shirt and pants glued together on accident. This evening I made my first test that I will give the kids. I had made a test before hand but I also made a lot of changes to my lectures so I had to re-write it. Even with all the craziness of today, it seemed to be quite a success.
I love wearing flannels so I decided to pull one out for today. It has been so hot here in Laramie recently that I wore some flats to help stay cooler. My pants are black skinny jeans. While making the silly putty, I gave some of the kids corn starch to help make it less sticky. This of course showed up all over my pants. On the floor in my picture, you can see my wonderful unit plan.

Day 16:

Oh what another great Monday!! We ended the notes on macromolecules in Chem today with lipids. Lipids is just a fancy word for fats. These notes were a little shorter than the other notes but this gave them more time to work on the worksheet I handed out. At the beginning of one of my classes today, the students were being super chatty. I made one louder statement about their talking and their wasn't anymore chatting for the rest of lecture. Not quite sure if I just scared them or if they truly respect me but I'm going to go with the fact that I'm very intimidating :) To help make them get a visual of saturated and unsaturated I made a square out of tape on the floor. I had as many students stand in this square as would fit. Not many students were wanting to participate, so I volun-told people to participate. After they fit into the square standing straight, I instructed them to get "kinky". They basically just made funky shapes with their arms and legs, and tried to fit in the square again. This activity was good to get them moving on a Monday. After school today I had to go to a meeting with the other student teachers in the district. We mainly just talked about what we were doing in our classrooms, and we also talked about our personal teaching philosophies.

I wore one of my golf sweaters for class today. This was not the best choice today because Laramie decided to be extremely hot and I was dying of heat. Thankfully, I didn't create any pit stains!

To accompany my black skinny pants, I wore my brown riding boots. With the high temperatures that we had today, I'm debating on wear sandals and a sundress tomorrow :)

 

 

Day 15:
Sorry this wasn't posted on Friday.  In Chem, I lectured on carbohydrates in the same format as I did the proteins. I made a flow chart for them to follow and we went through some great real world like cellulose, starch, and chitin. In case you don't know what chitin (pronounced kitten) is, it is the exoskeleton of lobsters and crabs. In the middle of them taking notes, they made glucose molecules with molecular sets. Some students really liked building the structure with their own hands, while others weren't too keen on this activity. An activity that I forgot to do during this lecture was where the students convert starch to glucose. The kids chew up a saltine cracker and have to keep it in their mouth with saliva. After about a minute of the cracker reacting with the saliva in their mouth, the flavor in their mouth turns sweet.
After this whole week was over, I was so happy with the lessons that I did with the students. Jen thought they went really good as well and I hope she will use my ideas next year as well.
Since it was Friday, I decided to wear some nice jeans and a long sweater. I really love this sweater! It is so soft and just flows very nice. My jeans are some new MissMe jeans and my shoes are just some leather heels. I wore my 45 auto necklace again and a couple boys noticed it today. They thought I was super cool because I wore ammo jewelry.

 

Day 13/14:
I didn't post yesterday because I just observed and my outfit was the same as a previous day.
Today however was an amazing day. Jen and I team taught again and the lesson was over proteins. The students filled out a flowchart of notes that I went over on the board with them. As they were taking notes, they made proteins with pipe cleaners and beads to go along with. This activity made the proteins more meaningful since they were actually making a model with their own hands.The note design that I came up with worked super well and I hope I get to use it again.  At the beginning of this lesson, I demonstrated an experiment with proteins. In this demo, I mixed red bull and milk together. Red Bull has an acid in called 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid but most people know it as Taurine. Long, long time ago, Taurine was obtained by extracting it from bull bile. This process is now done synthetically. The protein found in milk is casein and this protein has a negative charge to it. When the acid is added to milk, the casein becomes neutral and this creates a clumping action. The students seemed to really like this demonstration and the mixture was absolutely disgusting. Hopefully, I helped them decide to not drink red bull.
I went with my argyle golf sweater today and some black skinny pants. This outfit was just a simple comfy one and made me really anxious for golf season.  

 After my first teaching experience, I went to my second one for the day...teaching ballet. I let my dance girls pick out the song they like best. They chose 'Master of Tides' by Lindsey Stirling.

Day 12:
Today was the beginning of the new semester. Jen and I made some changes to how the class periods will go and all of the students were very open to these changes. We discussed what goals we have for school but also for life in general. Jen taught a few things today and then I taught some stuff too. I'm not sure if the students are afraid of me or intimidated but no one talked while I was lecturing. I was glad that they were all listening and engaged though. The students looked at food label and started thinking more into the foods that they eat. This activity is great for anyone one to do because what is in your food can really impact your life. Overall, the lesson that I taught today was pretty successful and I hope to development my teaching skills more and more every day.
It took me forever and a day to figure out my outfit this morning. I wore a flowy gray cardigan with a black under shirt. The necklace I have on is not symmetrical and I think it makes it more interesting. The pants I wore were my black jeans and then I wore my knee high Ariat boots. The cardigan was super important today because I still get a little nervous when I talk in front of people and that means I get a little sweaty.

I also teach ballet classes twice a week in the evening. After I got done teaching my class, the teacher for the next class didn't show up so I ended up teaching that class as well. This class was a beginning ballet class aka very young. It's been a while since I've taught little ones so it was a little struggle for me. However, the little girls were super cute and I had lots of fun. 

Day 11:

The start of week three was great. Since it was Martin Luther King Day, no students were at school but teachers had professional development. We started with a team building exercise and then broke into different sessions. The first session I attended was about classes that are taught at the junior high for 9th graders and the high school. This was mainly just to make sure that these classes were matching up. After lunch all teachers had to do a curriculum analysis to make sure they had good flow and were meeting diverse needs. Even though I'm not an actual teacher in this school, all the things we talked about were great topics that I will eventually have to discuss one day. After all of the professional development, Jen and I went over what we are doing with the students for the rest of the week and got it all lined out. I'm really REALLY excited about teaching this week since it is the material that I have had planned since last semester.

The attire that I am sporting in the picture is a new dress that I bought last semester and this was the first time that I have worn it. I got many compliments on it. You can't really tell in the picture but I wore black tights with this dress and my little black fashion boots. 

 I have previously only been talking about my school experiences and my fashion. I've decided to also share when I do neat things in the kitchen to give a little diversity. I baked some artesian bread on Sunday and it turned out quite nice.  I used mostly white flour but with a little bit of the wheat flour that I ground myself. This was super easy to make and I hope I can make my own bread more often.

 Day 8 9 10:
Sorry these weren't all separate days but since it was finals week all the days were the same. On Wednesday, I taught my first whole lesson to the class. I was a little nervous on the inside but Jen told me that I seemed very calm and collect on the outside. It is hard for me to talk slow in front of people so I of course got through this lesson very quickly. We got through all of the materials but they didn't have as much time to discuss their options as they did when Jen taught the lesson. There were no classroom management issues which was a relief and all the students were very respectful. I wore the plaid button up shirt for my first teaching day. This is the shirt I wear when I want to look a little bit older and more mature.

I wore my comfy riding boots today so that I didn't have to think about my feet at all. Jen gave me some notes after my lesson and I worked on those for when I would teach this lesson on Friday.



 I didn't take a picture of my outfit on Thursday and I'm sorry about that. I got so wrapped up in rushing off to teach ballet after school that I forgot. During this day, Jen and I planned out what we would be doing in Chem the next week. This coming material is what I have planned out for the students so we are just revamping the ideas that I have created to match with the students. In the Bio 2 class that Jen also teaches, she gave a group exam for that classes' final. All these students are very intelligent and it was so neat to listen to them collaborate on answers and ideas. After the test, I asked all the groups how they liked this exam style. Every single one said they loved it and some even said it was super fun. This makes me want to try giving group exams when I have my own classroom.

I taught my introduction lesson about food chemistry for the final time on Friday. As the students were coming in, I mentioned that I was teaching the lesson that day. The students were verbally excited about this which made me feel really good. All the students were very engaged with the questions and gave me great feedback. I did get a little frustrated when two girls strolled in half way through the class with fru-fru Starbucks coffee and began chatting as soon as they sat down. Maybe frustrated is the wrong word. These girls just didn't care enough about the class to be here on time. I will have to work on making it more interesting for these girls so that they want to be in class more. But overall, my first teaching experience with these classes have been great and I will be teaching again next week. My weekend plans include grading all the lab reports that Chem just turned in and planning the rest of my lessons for next week.
My attire for Friday was a red flowy cardigan with a black cami. It's hard to see my necklace but it is my lucky elephant one. I wore my skinny khakis and my black riding boots.



Second week down....14 more to go!!

 Day 7:
First day of finals weeks!! I watched Jen teach the first hour Chem class the lesson that I will teach the other two sections later this week. This lesson has the students think about why they eat food and where their food comes from. They get to watch some awesome videos on re-purposing food and how to make food out of crickets. I personally can't fathom the idea of eating a cricket and don't think I could ever eat an insect. The Bio 1 class worked on a group test for the whole period. I mainly just walked around and helped students with questions they were really struggling with. Since biology and I aren't the best of friends, I told a student the wrong answer. I had to google the answer and had to admit that I told her wrong. At least from this point on I will see all the notes that the students are writing so I will know the material as well. Tomorrow I teach the chemistry lesson to the second hour and I'm really excited to get in front of the class for the first time.
I wore a loose pink sweater with a black tank top underneath. The necklace I chose was the Winchester 45 casing.

I wore my tall cowboy boots with black skinny pants. These pants are technically jeans (which I'm not allowed to wear) but it is hard to tell that they are jeans so I think I can get away with it. 

 Day 6:
Today was definitely a great way to start the week. We had all of our classes today and for the rest of the week there will only be two classes in the morning with the afternoons off. In Chem, they "finished" typing up their lab reports but if they didn't finish they would have to complete it at home and turn it in during their finals time slot. I helped many students create graphs for their reports. They were all super appreciative and were getting good at making them after I showed them one. This made me think about how I would teach my students to use Microsoft suite programs to make scientific writing. At my high school, we had computer classes and they took place in labs that were designed for instruction. When I have my own classroom, I would like to spend about a week in a computer, instruction classroom to show my students how perform data analysis, make graphs, and other useful tools for science. I added a picture of my classroom so that you could get a better feel about the environment that I'm in.

I've had this sweater for a while but it is one of my favorites. The neck line of this shirt is at an awkward level so it looks weird if I wear a necklace with it. I wore some mint jeans with this outfit because who doesn't like mint pants :) 

 I call these shoes my fashion cowboy boots. They are pretty comfy but not the best to walk long distances in.

Day 5:

One week down...15 more to go. I'm extremely happy with how my first week went. I got a good feel for how Jen runs her classroom and how I might incorporate my own teaching strategies too. Today was very similar to yesterday in what the student were doing. The Chem class was in the computer lab again typing up their lab report. Bio 1 completed the lab that they were working on and Bio 2 studied independently for their finals next week. The school schedule next week is quite amazing. Monday is a full day with all classes and then the rest of the week has just two classes in the morning with the afternoons off. This gives me as a teacher ample amounts of time to plan for the next week when I will be in front of the classes. I have been helping Jen plan a lesson for next week. We will be introducing food chemistry and how to properly make/follow a flowchart. I created two example flowcharts for them to do next week, one is about different sports and the other is for a few chemical elements. I chuckled at a student today who asked me about my "party life" in college. I couldn't help but laugh because I have no party life. I told this student that partying was lame and all I ever did was dance :)  For my evening activities, I went to Cheyenne for a Mary-Kay thing-a-ma-jig. They demonstrated tricks on how to do make-up and I won a couple prizes so a pretty successful night.

 

I took my outfit pictures in the classroom today on my lunch break. This is a new sweater dress that I got over break from my lovely parents. It was the perfect warmth for the day since it has little holes in it for ventilation. I couldn't find a necklace to complement my outfit so I went without today. And my thumbs-up is for making it through the first week with no blood or tears :)

 I wore black leggings today and felt super comfortable. The sweater dress came far enough down that it was appropriate to wear at school. And these black boots make an appearance again. Black just goes with so many outfits that these shoes will probably be wore very frequently.

 Day 4:
Today was the best day yet. I saw more of my fellow student teachers around the school and all the kids were great. The schedule was back to having all the classes. In Chem, we went to the computer lab to start typing up lab reports. I was really surprised at how little computer knowledge the students have. I'm not sure how well computers are taught in elementary and junior high but I really think that this needs to be improved. As usual, some students worked hard on their paper and got quite a bit done, where as others struggled to be motivated. However, all the students were super appreciative of the advice that I gave them with regarding papers. I have written so many lab reports in my life that it feels more natural to write scientific writing than it does to write a regular paper. During lunch, I sat in on a department meeting with all the other science teachers. This was great to hear thoughts from all the different science teachers in the high school. The Bio 1 class continued with respiration and performed a lab to determine how much CO2 they produce "at rest" and "after working out". I'm starting to help plan my first lesson with Jen. It will be an introduction to the "food chemistry" unit that I will be teaching the majority of. Jen decided that she would teach the first block this lesson and then I will teach the other two. This will be my first full lesson with my classes. I'm pretty excited and for some reason not frightened......yet. Now for fashion! :) I went with an older outfit of mine today. This cardigan always reminds me of the lettermans from around the fifties (like the one Danny wore in Grease).

On the bottom half of my attire, I have some khaki skinny pants with a basic, brown belt. I rocked some brown, riding boots with the outfit as well.   

Day 3:

Guess what day it is....HUMP DAY!!! Today was much more mellow than the last couple. Still a block schedule day but all I had was my two Biology classes. In the Bio 1 class, they did a fermentation lab to see how much CO2 would form with different concentrations of sucrose water. They will get to see how well their results turned out tomorrow in class. Both Jen (my mentor teacher) and I did a similar lab like this in microbiology where we made wine.

 

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that during the work time for one of the classes, one of the boys was humming Russians from Nutcracker. I asked him if he knew what he was humming and he could tell me exactly what it was. This was a random moment of the day.

 

The Bio 2 class that I observed today was all about cell division. This is one of those topic in biology that I have learned so many times and still couldn't tell you what happens during metaphase II. There were many good questions asked in this class. I'm not sure if I could have answered them as well as Jen did but I was just glad they were asking so many intelligent questions.

 

If I can say this without sounding conceded, I felt cute today. I had on a long gray sweater that had black fringe on the bottom. The neckline is swoopy and I wore a long necklace that is made from a Winchester 45 auto casing.

 

 

I wore some red skinny pants to give the outfit a little bit of color. These pants are super comfy but their one down fall is that there are no front pockets; just the illusion of pockets. I wore my black knee high boots again, and my statement still stands....these shoes are comfortable to wear all day. 

Day 2:

Let me start by making sure that everyone knows that I'm not an English teacher so sometimes my grammar won't be phenomenal. But my second day at the school was pretty peachy as well. I only had my Chem classes today because the school has a modified block system. The students had to complete the rest of their inquiry lab and then begin writing their lab report. There were a couple times that I felt like I was pulling teeth with those kids. It's hard to find the right way to motivate students when each one needs a different method of motivation. I interacted with the students more today since they were working through equations and their write up. All of the students were "nice" to me and for the most part respectful.

 

I wore a blue sweater that kind of pulls across in opposite directions. My necklace is from the Teton Art Gallery in Jackson, WY. It's hard to see in the picture but it is an outline of the Tetons. I wore a brown belt to match my boots.

 



 These are also new boots that I received for Christmas from my loving parents. They are Ariat knee high boots that I am absolutely in love with. These boots were also very comfy to wear all day.

Day 1:

 

Today I started my student teaching residency at Laramie High School. I have three Applications of Chemistry classes. This class gives the students just a basic introduction into the idea of chemistry. Each of these classes have different vibes about them but all in a good way. I also have one section of a Biology 1 class. This would be like the biology class that most of us took in high school. We just started talking about cellular respiration so I will have to brush up on my materials for this subject. Finally, I have one section of Biology 2 that is comparable to an AP Biology class. These students are definitely "smarty pants". Some of the questions that they were asking during class were questions that I maybe talked about in college. These students will definitely challenge me, that's for sure.

 

All of my colleague are very friendly. I will be team teaching with the son of a teacher I had in high school (little ironic). My principle came to meet me after the second period and she is super friendly.

 

All I did today was mostly observe how my mentor teacher structures her classes and the flow of things. I helped a little bit during the Chem class since they were doing a lab. This lab was to determine how well different brands of antacids work.  Everything seemed to have a steady flow to it and not rushed. But now on to the fashion side of things...

 

I wore a maroon sweater with a swoop neck line. It has been extremely cold here lately so I wanted to make sure I was nice and toasty. I wanted to look a little more professional for my first day so I wore some black, skinny pants. These pants are about three inches too long so I still need to hem them but you can't tell since I wore tall boots.

 

These boot are just knee high black leather boots. This was the first day I have worn them and they were very comfortable to wear all day.