What to do when there is nothing else to do?

One would think that this face is the worst face a student can give you when taking a test. It’s not. It really isn’t.

This is the worst face I can get from my students in the moments before collecting the papers after a test.

A little context.

For the last few weeks, I have been teaching the periodic table and periodicity. Not hard really, it’s a lot of recall and a few trends. Easy peasy. NOT

Why not? Because human beings do not generally absorb information simply by just being told. I know this, I can even relate. So knowing this and understanding that for the 22 people I have to teach this to, this whole education thing is a bore and thus not priority number one. I set out to make one of the most boring sections of my syllabus fun.

With skits and demonstrations, minimal lecturing, handouts, and practice exercises. By celebrating when the one kid in the class who hates me, the classroom, the content, the school compound, the lab and the world outside of football in general, interact with me and the class and is even leading the charge when it comes to answering the questions.

I’ve linked the lesson sections to that song that was soo successful in the previous section. Singing it in tandem with the lesson, having them relate relevant lines and explain why these lines are relevant. I’ve had them demonstrate physically the trends and reflect on the demonstrations. I’ve reviewed and felt completely justified in assessing.

I’ve even managed to get a few peeps out of the reclusive students who usually don’t answer and grabbed the attention of the new kid, who literally just joined the class last week (best believe there’s gonna be a rant about that).

So when I got that confident face at the end of the test, despite years of experience telling me to go hide under my bed and not mark anything, I still strutted confidently to the staffroom to mark.

 

 Literally me after marking. Because despite using varying methods, having them orally review the definition for electronegativity, discuss how and why it increases up the group, having a small mountain of written evidence that they should know, that electron shells are gained down the group and that valence electrons remain the same down the group. Despite having them correctly demonstrate the ease of ionization going down the group and relating it to the trend in ionization energy. In spite of seeing them correctly demonstrate and explain the shielding effect and how it affects ionization.  The vast majority of my students have told me, through their scores, that there was not enough information transfer for them to effectively navigate 20 multiple choice questions.

So now the question is, what to do next?

For now, the answer lies in an hour of sleep and a few episodes of Umbrella Academy. If anyone out there has any other ideas, please HELP.

 

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Photo-Fiction #104

I really am back and kinda cooking with gas. Here is our first post-MIA Photo-fiction challenge and the first of 2019. In the spirit of jumping right back in. Here we go.

Photo Credit Flickr

Can you tell a story in 300 words? Here’s the challenge.
Write a fictional piece of no more than 300 words based on this picture. You pick your poison, poetry or story. Please don’t forget to, mention this post in yours, and link back here i.e. include a link to this post in your post on your blog so we can check out your work. Happy writing guys, have fun, I look forward to reading what you all come up with.
Don’t have a blog but still want to submit a story? Do you have an interesting picture you would like to see our participants write on?

Contact me at randomauthormich@gmail.com, or click the Drop me a line tab in the menu bar and submit. I look forward to hearing from you.
Stories or pieces submitted in the way much contain the Authors Name and a short bio in the body of the email

Looks Like I’m Back

So after an extended break and lots of roadblocks and excuses. I’m diving right back into blogging. While I don’t want to detail the epic mess that has been life since I was forced to take a sabbatical, I do feel inclined to say I missed the hell out of this space and all of you.

One of the reasons I’ve been gone so long is just an overwhelming sense of fraudulence. “What makes you think you can do this?” “Who would ever want to read anything you have to say?” My mind screams, even as I write this and kick myself, for thinking it, all the while being totally mortified that I’ll be screaming into the wind. Or worse, laughed or shamed off the internet as I know it.

I think my main motivation is that life has been kicking me in the ovaries, with much intensity for the last year or so, and this space and my readers have played a huge role in helping me feel human in the past. I’m hoping for that sense of community again if the community will have me.

In an attempt to make space for everything, I’ve also tried to make a few changes. SO what do you have to look forward to?

• The photo-fiction challenge is making a comeback, starting this Thursday, the 14th March 2018. Though it will be a fortnightly offering instead of a weekly one.
• My Antigua. I’ll be publishing a series of monthly articles about my Antiguan experience and what being Antiguan means to me. This isn’t some sneaky way of getting y’all to come visit me, though that would be kinda cool. No. It actually came out of a conversation with a friend of mine about our dying culture, and how we perceive it.
• And last but not least, I’m making my teaching journal public. Just rantings, or success stories or pedagogical theories that I usually would do but never have the heart to share. This is me trying to make all parts of me cohesive. Who knows maybe other teachers in my sphere will do the same and we can explore all the conversations that we all grumble about but never really talk about. Or better yet, teachers from other spheres will take pity on me and offer a little advice.

So all in all…

 

Photo-Fiction #103

So life returns slowly to normal, and I would like to say Thank you for all the well wishes and concerned comments that came my way. It means a whole lot to me and mine as we look towards aiding friends and relatives in the other islands who were not as fortunate.

This one is another home grown photo. Submitted by one of my students, Chad Keeling.

Can you tell a story in 300 words? Here’s the challenge.
Write a fictional piece of no more than 300 words based on this picture. You pick your poison, poetry or story. Please don’t forget to, mention this post in yours, and link back here i.e. include a link to this post in your post on your blog so we can check out your work. Happy writing guys, have fun, I look forward to reading what you all come up with.
Don’t have a blog but still want to submit a story? Do you have an interesting picture you would like to see our participants write on?

Contact me at randomauthormich@gmail.com, or click the Drop me a line tab in the menu bar and submit. I look forward to hearing from you.
Stories or pieces submitted in the way much contain the Authors Name and a short bio in the body of the email

After Irma Update

Hi guys,

Hurricane Irma passed over Antigua and Barbuda late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. My family and I are safe and for the most part so are most of the people on my island, Antigua. We had a bit of flooding, some downed posts, and power lines, and damage to some structures but for the most part, those of us on Antigua got off pretty light all things considered. The Public Utilities Authority has been working literally day and night to get us back to a workable state and we are all grateful for that. As of now, some areas are still without service and some services are still spotty.

On the other hand, and a far darker and more tragic note, our sister island is wrecked. Completely devastated by the passage of Irma. No home, school, public building, or natural landmark has been left untouched, and with Jose threatening to hit, people had to evacuate to Antigua. It is a wonder and a blessing that there wasn’t much loss of life, and we all mourn as a nation for the life lost to Irma.

In light of this, we’ve been occupied on Antigua with the evacuation and relief of Barbuda’s community with Hurrican Jose threatening the islands. The Red Cross and other agencies, as well as private citizens, have been working to get supplies, emergency housing, and anything else imaginable for our people.

The #HelpBarbuda efforts have been going since hours after Irma passed,  The gentlemen of the Ticketing app have taken up the cause to foster and track donations from home as well as friends and family abroad. You can click the hash tag above or click the link following directly:

https://ticketingevents.co/helpbarbuda/

to see how far they have gotten, or to lend any aid you can.

We are still under a Tropical storm watch for Hurricane Jose, but in all hopes, it will continue to shift northwards into the ocean so that no more damage is done to the rest of the Islands in the chain, or anywhere else for that matter.

That’s all from me now guys. Thank you to those of you who reached out upon hearing Irma was heading my way. It means so much to me and my family to have so many people out there thinking about us and sending those positive thoughts. Thank you again, and I hope you are all safe and well. See you again when I can.