-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Mr. Bigler on How Did Teaching Get So Hard?
- Janet Lake on How Did Teaching Get So Hard?
- Paul F. Scott on How Did Teaching Get So Hard?
- Carolyn Edwards on Wise Fools
- Angela Kessler on PEMDAS is Not a Conspiracy
Archives
Categories
Categories
Meta
Subscribe via email
Category Archives: Anecdotes
PEMDAS is Not a Conspiracy
Today in one of my physics classes, I was explaining how to determine the voltage across and the current through resistors in a mixed series & parallel circuit: +10
Posted in Anecdotes, Challenges & Frustrations
Tagged anecdotes, challenges & frustrations
3 Comments
Building a Bottle Raft
I needed an after-the-exam project for my AP Physics 2 class, and we settled on a buoyancy project (Fluids is one of the topics.) of building a raft and using empty 2 L soda bottles as floats. +3-1
Would you please light me on fire?
In kindergarten and elementary school, birthdays are a big deal. However, sometime between elementary school and high school, birthday celebrations become relegated to families and friends outside the classroom. +50
Raison d’Être
One of my now former students graduated on Friday. Just before graduation, she handed one of the nicest letters I’ve ever received. I am reproducing parts of her letter here, with some identifying information removed. +6-3
The First AP Physics 1 Exam
This is a self-centered post, for which I ask my readers’ indulgence. This has been my first year teaching AP Physics, and the first year of the new AP Physics 1 exam. (For those not familiar with the change, effective last … Continue reading
Your Wish is My Command
Every year, on the first day of school, I subject my classes to a ruse in which I eat a “candle”. I get out a candle holder and put a candle inside it. I lead a class discussion in which … Continue reading
Saving Grandpa’s Life: The Value of Science Education
My father, the wonderful and caring person whom my students can blame for much of my sense of humor, is in the hospital. (He’s doing well and should be released in a few days.) While my fourteen-year-old daughter Margaret didn’t … Continue reading
Senior Prank 2014
This morning, Lynn English’s Class of 2014 pulled their senior prank, which was a brief, raucous party in the third-floor corridor of the school. Students had various types of party noisemakers. They filled the hallways with confetti as they sang, … Continue reading
Childhood Regained
Three years ago, I taught a one-year stint in a “no excuses” charter school. (It was the least satisfying year of my teaching career.) The biology teacher and I started a science team. Problem solving and building things with power … Continue reading