A good start...

This year started off very smoothly. No outstanding problems. Things fell together really well.

The only problem has been the changing registration of students every day. I think I saw different students in every class everyday. I mean schedules are not set until mid to late October so I'm expecting more changes on my roster. I'll probably end up with full classes the entire year.

Students are pretty responsive so far. I think they get comfortable when they know you for a year and they see familiar faces. Some of the newbies are a bit anxious but they're so easy to amuse so far. I think I've offered a very laid back science class. I'm not as anal about how much content we cover, it's very superficial science.

I think I'll start the year the same in future years. I decided to do a little myth-busting since many students have misconceptions about what's living and what's non-living.

So I spent a day talking about logic and reasoning. All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore, Socrates is a mortal... I was skeptical how students would react but they took it well. The day after I asked students to list traits of what makes their assigned item a living or a non-living thing. Many believe that the sun, rain, and tornadoes are considered living things. But using the logic and reasoning I taught them earlier, I was able to shift their reasoning (if it has DNA, it doesn't mean it's alive, but if it's alive, you know it has DNA).

It's been a good week. Staggering the schedules has received mixed blessings from teachers but it's been good so far since there have been fewer students roaming the halls at any given time.

Anyway, I'm actually enjoying my weekend and not stressing out as much anymore which is good. If only the weather was more agreeable...