Categories
Teaching

What is it with kids these days?

“Kids these days!” I imagine that since earliest human history, there has been a tendency for older generations to see the younger generations as their unworthy heirs. You can almost hear the complaints from just outside the cave – “Kids these days are spoiled, lazy and act as if mammoth steak grows on trees. If […]

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Teaching

Are You (really) An AP Chemistry Student?

Each year when registration time rolls around for the following year’s classes, I get students asking me questions about AP Chemistry. Some students want to take the class because they see a future in sciences. Others enjoyed General Chemistry and think AP Chemistry might be “fun”. Some students are trying to pack in as many […]

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Teaching

Einstein Never Said That, Either

I recently posted about a quote that has mistakenly been  attributed to Einstein. While researching that mistaken attribution, I came across another that I felt compelled to address. This one has been shared in staff development at my school, and was also mistakenly attributed to Albert Einstein. This one has always rubbed me the wrong way, and […]

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Teaching

Einstein Never Said That

Well, it is the start of the school year. If I weren’t certain of that fact, today’s “Convocation” cleared up any doubt. Now that the recession is over, the district can once again afford to motivate us by bringing in someone to give us a kick start. Today’s speaker was very good. Set aside that […]

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Teaching

Safety First

I recently stumbled across a Google+ feed from a law firm handling a lawsuit for a young man injured in an accident in a New York classroom. A teacher was demonstrating the visible colors produced when various metal cations are excited by heating. In the case cited, the teacher was using methanol ignited in Petri […]

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Teaching

Next Generation Science Standards

Background For some fifteen years, California has had a science framework built around reasonably well-defined sets of standards. In the case of chemistry, these standards were quite well defined. For many science teachers, it has been a genuine pleasure to teach to these standards. During these past fifteen years I have adopted a number of […]

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Teaching

Philosophy of Teaching

Twelve years ago, when I had been in this profession for sixteen years, I was asked to write a statement of my philosophy of teaching for a local teaching award program. I don’t think that I had looked at that document more than once in the time since then. Because this is the start of […]

Categories
Gratitude

Vicki Winterton

“Unthankfulness is theft” – Martin Luther I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the debt that I owe to others in my life. Since I prefer to limit my blogging to my teaching career and the profession of teaching, it occurs to me that, even if no one else reads this, I need to thank […]

Categories
Teaching

Spectral Workbench

I recently had the good fortune to discover for myself Public Laboratory (www.publiclaboratory.org) and one of their magnificent projects, Spectral Workbench (www.spectralworkbench.org). I was on a spin bike at the gym and read an article in the science column of Popular Mechanics in which the writer touted the resources and the do-it-yourself plans for building […]

Categories
Gratitude

Ben Marafino

“Unthankfulness is theft” – Martin Luther I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the debt that I owe to others in my life. Since I prefer to limit my blogging to my teaching career and the profession of teaching, it occurs to me that, even if no one else reads this, I need to thank […]