Cuban Book Crisis

Recently for a genius hour, I discussed communism and the Cuban Missile Crisis with all of my seventh graders. Some of their eyes glazed over, but many of them seemed truly engaged with what I was saying. I did my best to weave the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis into something that would keep...

Reintroductions

As part of my literature class that I am teaching this summer, I am requiring my students to blog. I have recently really struggled with finding the motivation and time to blog and I thought to myself that if I am going to require it of someone else, I had better be able to require...

A Few Introductions

Hello world! It's been awhile. I've been a little bogged down with a cat crisis, where my lovely Joplin ran off and has yet to come back and it's been so long, I doubt he will, and a sister visit to Laramie, where I got to see my little sister making a go of it...

So Much Science!

This year has been off to an incredibly hectic start and with that, the Nothing as Awesome as Science - Absolutely NASA program is back up and running. We have excellent mentors this year and a really cool website, but we are struggling to recruit new pre-service elementary school teachers into the program. We have...

Sink or Swim

Do you know what one of the most rewarding things in the entire world is? It's hearing someone tell you about their blog and how someone they didn't know commented on it. This happened to Miss Adams this week. She came into class on Wednesday and began telling me how this woman who taught high...

Slowly Slumping

Recently, I've been slacking in my blogging and in the effort I put into just about everything. I've been burned out for awhile now and it's catching up with me. I can't keep continuing to care and things are getting more and more demanding, asking that would I please reconsider and dedicate more of myself...

Don’t Suck on the Bones

Rule Number on of David's Fossil Lab: Don't Suck on the Bones.This Monday, we began a new unit of fossils and evolutionary biology with a little bit of geology sprinkled in. Our supervisor was out and we mentors had free reign.... which produced some interesting results. We spent more time learning through playing and the...

Eating Science

This week has flown by. I had all of these illustrious plans for blogging more, reading more, doing more homework, and sleeping more. Of course, this didn't come to fruition. I have begun my "bloat 'em, float 'em, explode 'em" project though and it is off to a wonderful start. Who knew chicken skin broke...

Paralyzing, Exciting Change

Occasionally, we come to points in our lives where we have to make really big, really scary decisions. We can see our lives going one way or another and thinking about the different directions makes our heart pump a little faster and our excitement rises and we are terrified. I have been thinking, for over...

Making Waves

This is my first ever blog round up day and I hope that you are all just as excited as I am. The NASA blog project for my NASA mentorship is off to a great start, even though there was a little trepidation from several parties at the beginning. There are five blogs so far,...