First week update!

It sounds like pretty much everyone has been having a great time, and I am no exception. I have a wonderful group of Grade 7s for AP science (they do the 7 curriculum and part of the 8 curriculum in preparation for finishing science 40S classes at the end of grade 11, from which they progress to the first-year university stuff in 12). Starting Monday I will do a whole unit with them (essentially take over the class until the 17th of December). Even though they only have science 4 days a cycle, I see them at least once a day because they also have math with my CT (with which I have been helping them). Additionally I see 8s and 9s for both AP science and AP math (the 9s do the 20S curriculum in both, having finished grade 9 subjects in grade 8), but have only had an observational role with them so far; it's likely I'll teach them each at least a couple times before the practicum ends to broaden my experience. And today I was asked, out of the blue, to teach a grade 5 science enrichment class (which they have once per cycle). That was slightly more chaotic; I have a theory that chaos in the classroom generally decreases until grade 6 or 7 depending on the group of kids, and then shoots way up for 8, decreasing again until 12.

But the kids are, for the most part, in partial violation of Redekopp's First Law. As I am at a private school teaching the advanced middle-schoolers, I have the most academically-inclined students at a school where they are all pretty much academically-inclined. Furthermore, my CT has created an environment of very high expectations and a great deal of freedom, which only the 8s abuse, and only a few of them (but they probably can't help it at this stage, and are still great, highly-motivated kids). I sometimes forget that my grade 7s are only 12.

Today, in the grade 7s elective period (they have at least 5-6 choices for 3, 3-month blocks), I helped 6 kids race carbon dioxide-powered rocket cars, which they built and painted, down the hallway. This particular elective is in lieu of shop class and seems like a brilliant idea to get them learning basic carpentry skills...in December, a new group will get the CO2-rocket-car challenge, and this group will disperse to performing arts, cooking, debating, art, etc., depending on what they opted for at the beginning of the year. And I ran my first science lab with the AP 7s earlier in the day (their first time ever using bunsen burners...no accidents! YAY!).

So far, I have received a lot of positive feedback and useful comments from my CT; I am having my first assessment visit from the Faculty Advisor on Tuesday, so I am going to spend a little extra time planning that particular lesson...up until today, I have spent only minimal time scripting (although my prep time has been more significant). I'll post again in ~ 1 week; happy teaching everyone!