End of week 3

Hey Tom,

So I've finished up my third week and I'm really apprehensive about going into the last week...Why? I don't want to go back to McArthur..

I am learning SO MUCH in my placement and have grown pretty attached to the classes I'm teaching. Also, I think I'm finally getting pretty comfortable in the class (where I really feel free to be myself and follow my own teaching style vs. my associates) and want to keep the momentum going.

Yesterday was a pretty significant day - I now teach the 12C physics as well as continuing the 11U. So for the 12Cs I introduced Newton's third law, did a demo, videos and had the kids engaged but lost them when they had time to do some practice problems...ahh well...

BUT! The victory from Friday that I took home with me this weekend was in the 11U class. We are finished with the electricity unit (their test is Tuesday) and so yesterday I decided to use the circuit POE with the voltmeter like you did in class at McArthur. It was awesome! I had the circuit laid out before they had arrived, got them to make the cross PeOE sheet and then had them crowd around with the lights dimmed to do the actual presentation. They were so engaged and intrigued by all the nuances of the voltmeter and the batteries (turning one of three cells in the opposing direction really threw them for a loop!) and when I asked them to make their final predictions for the last question (voltmeter across disconnected lightbulb)...pure SILENCE!

I felt that I had finally accomplished some real teaching.

Anyways - now I have to write up a bunch of lesson plans for my assessment on Tuesday. Paul's coming in to watch me teach the 12c's...they're doing a friction lab, so it should be pretty smooth.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

André