T’was The Week Before Christmas

The kids are “bouncing off the walls” this week, especially the ninth graders. We have a two week long holiday break approaching, and mentally the kids are already enjoying it. Tomorrow will be a “lost day” since visions of sugar plums will be floating in their heads.

I have an advantage in science. I can “entertain” my students and trick them into learning something. We are completing a chemistry unit so I am finishing the unit with chemical reactions and equation balancing. Last week I taught about hydrogen and made some as a demonstration. I used mossy zinc and hydrochloric acid. When I ignited the collected gas, I had everyone’s full attention. Then when I did oxygen production and blinded everybody by putting burning magnesium into the pure oxygen, once again I had their full attention.

Class interruptions over the intercom are a constant annoyance. Anyone who has taught knows what I mean. I even had one interruption by a student with a guitar who wanted to serenade me in the middle of a lesson. I’m not sure which class he was skipping, but he left when I nicely told him to “go find some traffic to play in”.

I made extra use of my chalkboard and white boards this past week. Some students like to write on them while others are too shy. I brought in a container of miniature candy canes and used them to generate greater student involvement.

This week I had several visitors from the Spanish class down the hall. I was given two large Christmas cards written in Spanish and three tree decorations that were hand colored with Spanish sentiments written on the back.

The past two days, my students were actually focused on science more than Christmas. We spent the two days doing a lab where they mixed pairs of chemicals to observe the reactions that took place. Keeping students active makes this week before Christmas break a valuable week. A lot of learning has been taking place. I even threatened a test on Friday but canceled it at the last minute. I told them it was a Christmas present.

I haven’t done a whole of insulting lately. It is funny how the kids seem to enjoy being insulted, as long as it is done in a nonthreatening way as part of a bantering exchange. They even laugh at the oldest wise cracks. Yesterday I had a student called to the office and I told her to “make like a tree and leave”.

I think the students enjoy my class since even the ones who are doing poorly don’t want to move to an easier level of work with another teacher. I have had several of last year’s students visit me and tell me they are planning to take physics next year so I can be their teacher again. Gee, maybe I should be cloned?

The day before vacation I always do something loosely related to science and have friendly dialog with my students. I discourage them from bringing any gifts, but a few still do. I am just happy to be working with them and being able to look forward to the upcoming holiday through their eyes.