The perks of being a science teacher
I teach many subjects, English, maths, technology, chemistry, physics and biology (science).
The first two subjects I teach to pupils aged 12-16 years old and the latter I teach to 12-14 yo. I would say that English is the subject that I am most qualified to teach, being a bilingual writer and all, maths is the easiest subject to teach but science can sometimes be very fun.
Today I was going to teach the 7th graders about the bone structure and I brought the school's skeleton, renamed by the pupils from Benjamin to Ben Arfa. The girls took some pictures off themselves with Ben Arfa's bony arm around them, and one of them actually gave him a kiss (not that he had any lips). Another girl commented this by "What!...did you waste your first kiss on a skeleton?".
I was happy to see the kids having fun for a short moment before more serious studies about bone marrow and such. One of the girls asked if I could bring some bone marrow to school...for them (who are brave enough) to taste, and I thought it was a great idea but I am not sure about the health regulations when it comes to that.
Whe it comes to the sixth graders I wanted to work with the following quote from the curriculum:
"Olika kulturers beskrivningar och förklaringar av naturen i skönlitteratur, myter och konst och äldre tiders naturvetenskap"
...not an easy task, but what I came up with was that I could for example talk about wise old ladies (kloka gummor) and witches and their connection with nature medicine and I would also talk about alchemy and the story about King Midas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas. To introduce the subject I had brought some props. I started with one of my pink capsules that contains my arthritis medicine and asked them if they could make a hypothesis (a good,smart, logic guess) about what it was. They guessed "a pill", "a tablet" and "medicine". I said that yes that indeed they had made logical hypothesis and if they would have said "an elephant" that would not have been very logical.
I asked them what people did before they had medicine and some knew that we had ofc consumed healing herbs, then I asked why the plants prevented illnesses and that was more difficult so I explained that it was by chemical subtances which had a good effect on the human body. I showed some internet pictures of healing plants and warned them not go picking and eating since:
A. plants can have chemical substances with a bad effect on the human body (i.e. poison)
B. It is easy to overdose.
I talked about the connection to wise old ladies/witches, and some of the children thought it was really strange (bless them) that people burned someone (a witch) a the stake that really just was a healer that helped people with illnesses.
Then I had brought some dried St. John's wort (Johannesört) to the classroom which I let stew in water for a while, I added some sugar and Bob's your uncle...we had a healing tea (depression and anxiety). Since I know that it is safe I asked the kids if they wanted to taste the tea, and they ALL wanted to :) They got a disposable teaspoon and took a teaspoon as I went around the classroom wit the tea. One of the boys made a big deal about being sooo depressed by going in school and homework so he _really_ needed the tea. Another boy asked if this was holistic healing (good vocabulary there). When I talked about king Midas they were all very quiet and found it odd that he could not eat without his food turning to gold.
Lessons like these, where I make a little more of the subject and where the children listen in a more interested way, put me in a very good mood. If the pupils have fun or look happy I become very happy as well.
Good energy, good Karma. These are the perks of being a science teacher.
The perks of living in the 21st century is:
A. Internet
B. My medicine (below) that really is helping me a lot.
The first two subjects I teach to pupils aged 12-16 years old and the latter I teach to 12-14 yo. I would say that English is the subject that I am most qualified to teach, being a bilingual writer and all, maths is the easiest subject to teach but science can sometimes be very fun.
Today I was going to teach the 7th graders about the bone structure and I brought the school's skeleton, renamed by the pupils from Benjamin to Ben Arfa. The girls took some pictures off themselves with Ben Arfa's bony arm around them, and one of them actually gave him a kiss (not that he had any lips). Another girl commented this by "What!...did you waste your first kiss on a skeleton?".
I was happy to see the kids having fun for a short moment before more serious studies about bone marrow and such. One of the girls asked if I could bring some bone marrow to school...for them (who are brave enough) to taste, and I thought it was a great idea but I am not sure about the health regulations when it comes to that.
Whe it comes to the sixth graders I wanted to work with the following quote from the curriculum:
"Olika kulturers beskrivningar och förklaringar av naturen i skönlitteratur, myter och konst och äldre tiders naturvetenskap"
...not an easy task, but what I came up with was that I could for example talk about wise old ladies (kloka gummor) and witches and their connection with nature medicine and I would also talk about alchemy and the story about King Midas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas. To introduce the subject I had brought some props. I started with one of my pink capsules that contains my arthritis medicine and asked them if they could make a hypothesis (a good,smart, logic guess) about what it was. They guessed "a pill", "a tablet" and "medicine". I said that yes that indeed they had made logical hypothesis and if they would have said "an elephant" that would not have been very logical.
I asked them what people did before they had medicine and some knew that we had ofc consumed healing herbs, then I asked why the plants prevented illnesses and that was more difficult so I explained that it was by chemical subtances which had a good effect on the human body. I showed some internet pictures of healing plants and warned them not go picking and eating since:
A. plants can have chemical substances with a bad effect on the human body (i.e. poison)
B. It is easy to overdose.
I talked about the connection to wise old ladies/witches, and some of the children thought it was really strange (bless them) that people burned someone (a witch) a the stake that really just was a healer that helped people with illnesses.
Then I had brought some dried St. John's wort (Johannesört) to the classroom which I let stew in water for a while, I added some sugar and Bob's your uncle...we had a healing tea (depression and anxiety). Since I know that it is safe I asked the kids if they wanted to taste the tea, and they ALL wanted to :) They got a disposable teaspoon and took a teaspoon as I went around the classroom wit the tea. One of the boys made a big deal about being sooo depressed by going in school and homework so he _really_ needed the tea. Another boy asked if this was holistic healing (good vocabulary there). When I talked about king Midas they were all very quiet and found it odd that he could not eat without his food turning to gold.
Lessons like these, where I make a little more of the subject and where the children listen in a more interested way, put me in a very good mood. If the pupils have fun or look happy I become very happy as well.
Good energy, good Karma. These are the perks of being a science teacher.
The perks of living in the 21st century is:
A. Internet
B. My medicine (below) that really is helping me a lot.
