Day 34:
Jen, Kali, and I went to the Science Summit up in Casper for the day. We were assigned a certain table so that there was a mix of teachers at each today. Each teacher was asked to bring an example of active learning to share with the group. I was a little nervous for this summit since I'm only a pre-service teacher and all don't have as much experience as the others there. Overall, I was very happy with my experience at this convention. It was great to hear the ideas that all the other teachers had and I made a friend with a professor at UW.
I didn't have a chance to take a picture of my outfit but I wore a flannel shirt with khaki pants and my dark brown riding boots.

Day 33:
Bio 1 was presenting their models today on protein synthesis. Many pairs were not ready to present today and this was a little disappointing. They had many days to complete this assignment and tons of class time to work on it as well. However, the groups that did present today were really good. In Chem, I allowed the students work time to get their experiment completely planned out. Today was also the day that the students were to turn in their Sports Snack Project. The students had over a week to complete this lab and I maybe had five students come into to get help. I had about a 5% of my students turn in their project today. This was very disheartening to me because I had offered so much of my help to them and reminded them to get help if they were stuck. I'll have to figure out what to do differently next time.
I was missing golf today so I decided to wear one of my golf pullovers. This one is from Troon North down in Arizona. Today was sort of my Friday so I went with jeans and my khaki flats.

Day 32:
 Today was just a work day in Bio 1 for them to finish their models. I mainly just wondered around answering any questions that they students had. It was great to see the progress that some of the groups have been making. Bio 2 continued on learning about inheritance. I've starting looking over the material that I will be teaching the bio 2 kids on Monday.
I went for fancy today. Well my kind of fancy. My red flowy cardigan and a black undershirt with my light khaki pants. My belt was my mom's back when she was in college. I matched my belt with my Ariat riding boots.

Day 31:
We started talking about enzymes more in depth today. I gave them a note outline so that they could follow along more easily. My student teaching advisor lady come to observe me during my 1st period. She was very pleased with my teaching abilities and had great advice for me. After we got through the notes, the students started to design their own experiment based on an enzyme. I was really proud of all the students working hard at trying to design an experiment on their own. Jen and I still helped them quite a bit with getting their ideas isolated.
I went with my off-white long sleeve shirt today and my mint pants. Now that I'm looking at my outfit, I can see that I wore a brown belt and black boots. This does not match at all. I need to pay more attention.

Day 30:
Today was a half day for the students but a full day for me. We only had 22 minutes with each class so I decided to show a demonstrations about enzymes. The demo that I showed was called Elephant's Toothpaste. I had a graduated cylinder and filled it with about 30mL of hydrogen peroxide. You have to add a little bit of dish soap to the mixture to help contain the bubbles. Next, I added a little bit of potassium iodide. Once this was added, the reaction started and it erupted like a volcano. I recommend all of you look up a video of this on YouTube so that you can get a better picture of what I'm talking about. This is an exothermic reaction so there was heat coming off of the cylinder. In all of the bubbles is concentrated oxygen gas. We then took a wood splint that was red hot with out flame. I would stick the splint in the bubbles and it would light on fire.
After all the students left for the day, we had a staff development were we talked about the freshman transition that would occur at the new high school. I really had no idea what to share at this gathering so I kept to myself for the most part. I did however got to leave early because Jen and I had to go to an IEP meeting. This was my first IEP meeting and I would have to say it went pretty well.
I forgot to take a picture of my outfit for the day so I decided to share a picture from the weekend. My fella came to visit me for Valentine's Day. He gave me the necklace I'm wearing in the picture, which is an emerald pearl from Fiji. 

 Instead of going out to dinner, we decided to make dinner ourselves. We made two fondues, a beer cheese and a garlic beef broth. Our dipping items were marinated steak, artesian bread, pretzel bites, broccoli, asparagus, and apples. This dinner was quite amazing and I would love to do a fondue night again sometime.

Day 28:
Today was another work day for the Chem students. This was for them to work on their sports snack project. I had hoped that they would be able to finish all their tables but I guess this was a little much for me to expect out of them. They all worked really hard so I wasn't disappointed at all. I did give them the whole class period to work on this so I hope their project are high quality when they turn them in.
I have worn this outfit before but I really like how it all goes together so I will probably wear it again. I wore my plaid button up with khaki skinny jeans and my Ariat riding boots.

Day 27:
I didn't teach today since it was a biology day but I remember to take an outfit picture so I'll still share my day. The Bio 1 kids were working on their project for the unit where they had to create a model that represented protein synthesis. There were a lot of different ideas being passed around. One group is writing a song, another is making a cupcake display, and another is making it out of clay. I'm really excited to see their presentations next week. The Bio 2 students are taking their unit test, which is also about protein synthesis. Their information just goes more in depth. I thought I knew this information pretty well and then they asked me questions while taking the test and holy crap it was hard. I have learned biology information so many times and I still struggle with conveying the information.
I wore my loose pink sweater with my bullet necklace. My pants are my black skinny pants with my maroon brown riding boots. I also wore my leather Pandora bracelet.

 

Day 26:
The students started their culminating event for this unit today. I gave them a scenario where they worked for a fitness company and they had to determine which "sports snack" the company should use. This project put together all the lab information that they had obtained from the unit. Many of the students did not like having little instruction with this assignment. It was healthy for them to struggle through this project but I did help them a little bit. This day seemed to go by really slow by then again so did the whole week.
Sorry no outfit picture today. I had little motivation this week.



Day 25:
Today was a work day for the students to finish their calculations from the calorimeter lab. Some of the students struggle with these calculations so it was important for them to get questions answered today. We also calculated how many calories they personally need to consume on a daily basis. This calculation required them to consider how much physical activity they do daily. I would definitely say that they students over estimated their physical activity. As I was walking around the room, I had a student noticed that I painted my nails over the weekend. This student was male and a rancher. It was pretty cute that he noticed my manicure.
I went for casual today and had on a blue cardigan, skinny khaki pants, and flats.

Day 24:

FRIDAY!!! This was a very long week but overall I learned a great deal from the week. In Chem today, we finished the calorimeter lab and then they worked on their calculations. Each class had different motivational levels and I had to work differently with all of them. The last class was of course the most challenging, but luckily the weekend came right after. Jen and I decided that for next Friday we would do a Science Friday dedicated to love for valentine's day. I'm pretty excited for this.

I wore my gray drappy cardigan with a blueish under shirt. My light khaki skinny pants went well with my Ariat riding boots. I also wore my Teton necklace to compliment the whole attire.

 

 

Day 23:

 Today was a total rollercoaster. There were a ton of ups and downs but I just want to focus on the ups. The students did a lab with a calorimeter where they determined the amount of calories in a food sample. This lab seemed to catch the students attention because they had to light things on fire. I went through a short description of the set up and safety, then let the students go wild. With all the food samples being lite on fire, the room did not smell that grand. A few students said they could smell the burnt food all the way down the hallway. I also had my teacher from the university come in during 7th block and observe me. I was glad that she came during the third time I was teaching this class because I had time to practice before her. After class, I chatted with her for a little while and she seemed pretty impressed with my lessons and teaching abilities.

After teaching dance class today, I went over to Cheyenne to have dinner with my brother. He came to this side of the state for an engineering convention. We ate at a restaurant by the train depot and splurged to have crème brulee for desert.

 I know I've worn this outfit before but I really love this sweater. I'm red skinny's are a nice touch of color and the black riding boots are practical when there it is snowy out.

 

Day 22:
I wrote the largest check of my life today. I had to run into campus today to pay for my tuition. Even though it was a lot of money, it is the last one I will have to pay ever. Today in Bio 1, we did a microbiology lab. We isolated a bacteria on a petri dish and each pair streaked their agar plate with the bacteria and then put an aluminum foil cut out on top of it. Once all this was done, they put the dish under a UV lamp for one minute. This process will kill all the bacteria that is not underneath the aluminum foil. All the students seemed to enjoy this lab because it made them feel like they were doing real science. I practiced the lab I'm going to do with my Chem students tomorrow and I think I have all the kinks worked out. Burn yourself once and you find a better way to do something.
I wore my purple pink sweater today. Typically, I wear this sweater with legging because it is kind of longer but that wouldn't have been that appropriate. Instead, I wore my black skinny jeans and my black riding boots.

Day 21:
I had all of my Chem classes today. We made it through four sections of the Food Inc. film. My warm-up question I gave the students was "Have you eaten corn today?". I enjoyed seeing the puzzled look they had when asked this question. The first film section was called "A Cornecopia". It talked about how nearly 80% of the food items in a grocery store are made out of a corn product. The ideas in this film are just ideas that we never think about. We discussed how much we think about the people that pick, process, and transport our food. When you begin to think about all these out lying topics, it broadens your whole horizon. In my last class, there was one students who really disagreed with this video and just completely shut down. I wasn't sure how to help this student get past their mind block, but I did the best I could do. Since we just watch the film all of class, the whole day went by super slow.
I went with my orange sherbet sweater today. My pants are my skinny khaki dress pants and my boots are my older riding boots.

Day 20:
WEEK 5!!! Today I started the second part of my unit on food chemistry. For today and tomorrow, we will watch the movie Food Inc. and discussed the issues brought up in this film. This film is one of the biased films I have seen on the topic of food but all of the ideas brought up are real issues. We only got to watch one section of the film and the rest of the time we discussed these new thoughts that were introduced to the students. There are many students that live on ranches and they had some great input for discussion. This film is hard to watch on a political stand point but I wanted to show it to the students so that they could see the applications to chemistry. I suggest all of you watch the film and to share your thoughts with me :)
Yes, I wore jeans today! They are my nice jeans and I also decided to wear my cowboy boots. I wore a black baggy sweater and my long owl necklace.

 Day 19:
Sorry there is no picture for today. I went home for the weekend and got so excited that I forgot to take a picture. Today the students took the test that I created. This was the first test I have every written so I was really excited to see how well the students liked it. We stayed in the classroom for a few minutes so that they could go over their review a couple more times. I answered any last minute questions and then we headed down to the cafeteria for them to take the test. Jen usually has the students take test here so that they have their own space and not tempted to peek around. The students seemed to be a little bit nervous for the test. I handed out the test and just walked around to answer any questions they might have. After the exam, I had the students rate my test with a thumbs up or down. Pretty much every students had their thumbs up or to the side. I already graded the tests and I was very happy with the results.
For my weekend adventures, I went home to see my family and my fella. We went to a Ducks Unlimited on Sat night which was just fun to get dressed up for and go out. None of use won a darn thing but daddy bid on a live auction item and got that.


Day 18:
Today in Chem was a review day for the kids. After I made the exam, I had it sitting beside me and typed basically every questions plus a little extra. The students haven't quite yet learned how to properly study for tests so I really want them to see greats examples of this. I asked them to stay in their original seats and to work independently. They all listened quite well and they worked very hard on completing this review. I mainly just walked around and answered questions they might of had or questions they couldn't remember. I had a lady from the university come in to observe me. She just sat in the front and jotted down notes. After class, Jen said that she was very impressed with my class set up and that I seemed to have great connection with the students. Overall, I was pleased with the knowledge the students had obtained from this section.
Thought I would share a selfie of my and my science classroom.

This is a new cardigan that I got from Maurice's. I was a little skeptical of this cardigan at first but it is super comfortable and I love the colors. I'm not sure how well it matched my mint jeans but I was just really feeling my mint jeans this morning. My shoes are my older riding boots that are very comfy.

Day 17:

On Wednesdays, I don't see my Chem students but I have two Biology classes. First was Bio 1 and I helped teach this lesson. We talked about technologies that scientists have to process DNA. We did three stations and Jen was at the gel electrophoresis station. This technology involves a gel with embedded well that you can inject DNA into. After all the wells are full, an electric current is directed though the set up to pull bands out. The students really enjoyed being hands on with this station. I was at the PCR station. PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction. This station was not as exciting as other but this machine was donated to the school by a local scientist. This instrument would normally cost around $3,000 so having it donated was amazing.

This was the main excitement of my day and I spent a lot of time planning for the week to come.

I was sad that I hadn't worn any flannels yet, so I decided to drag one out. I just wore my black Levi's and a couple students thought I was another student since I was dressed more similar to them. It was warmer today so I wore my tan flats. They didn't match but that's okay. Also, in the background of my picture you can see my unit plan that I created last semester and am now applying to my classes.