Week 20, Day 5: The busiest time of the year!

ODD BLOCK SCHEDULE: 2nd and last day of the Density lab. Students will determine the density of water, saline, and rubbing alcohol. I demonstrate how to do it by finding the density of cooking oil.
Besides the rigors of being a hands-on science teacher trying to get all the standards covered, this time of the year has some other challenges for me. I am a coach for SCIENCE OLYMPIAD and we have our competition in one month and this is now the beginning of the busy training. I already give up half my lunches each week and 2 days a week after school for an hour. I will increase to about 3-4 lunches a week and more days after school. I love working with the kids but what can drive me crazy is the lack of “down time”. Also I lose some prep and grading time and have to take work home. Taking work home stresses me out and I am notorious for reading books like crazy right now. I have read 6 books since Christmas vacation.

This time of the year goes by fast. Once Science Olympiad is over I feel relief, almost as if the end of the year has arrived.
I hope this helps.
Love to Teach, and Teach with Passion!
It’s not Magic, It’s Science!
RichardKinney@cusd.com
http://qp.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/rey_kinney