Ok, so I’m sure you’ve heard of Grudgeball, right?  It’s only the most amazing review game ever.  If you haven’t heard of it, click here for the full explanation.  In a nutshell, it’s a game where each team starts with 10 points and has the opportunity to remove points from other teams by answering questions correctly and shooting a basket to remove even more points.  It’s fantastic.  It engages even the most apathetic of students, which…. #WINNING!!!

The problem with the original versions of the game include a lack of engagement from all students at once.  If each team gets a question, then what are the other teams doing while one is answering?  So I found a solution…

Today, I played Grudgeball with my high school biology classes.  I put them into 6 teams and projected questions that every team answered on their whiteboards.  Every team had the opportunity to earn one more point by answering the question correctly, but we rotated through the groups to shoot for those negative grudge points.  For example, with question #1, every team got to answer for a point, but only group #1 got to take away points and shoot the ball.  This kept all of my kids engaged…. HIGHLY engaged.

Now… since I’m adding extra points, I had to up the ante a little bit with my Grudge points.  If the “it” team got their question right, they got to take off those automatic 2 points and if they got it into the basket from the first line, they got 4, and from the second, they got 6.

The competition was fierce and their final exam grades were FIERCER!

 

So I am trying to get a handle on this Pinterest thing.  Apparently, anybody who is anybody has a super cool blog (working on it) and super awesome Pinterest boards.  I must be the last teacher in creation who isn’t a pinning master.  I feel SOOOOOO behind the times.  I do cool stuff in my classroom and I want other teachers to see my cool stuff and be able to do some of the same cool stuff in their classrooms. #Goals…. right?

As mentioned in my last post, I freakin’ love my job.  I get to teach a bunch of teenagers stuff about science.  I currently teach high school biology, environmental science, and FORENSICS!  Forensics is probably the most exciting subject I’ve ever had the privilege of teaching.  It’s fun and interesting and there are a ton of cool things I can get my students to put their hands on.  We are currently working on a unit on forensic blood analysis. Here is one of the activities that we will be starting this week.  I’ll post some more pictures once my kids get their hands on some blood!

 

 

How does one start a blog?  I guess I’ll introduce myself.  I’m a teacher.  I currently teach high school science at an urban school outside of Cleveland, Ohio.  My students call me Schilly… or Schil…or Schil-bill…Ms. S… or any number of other variations of my name that I will answer to.  I was once told that if your kids give you a nickname, it’s because you’re “tight.”  I guess we are “tight.”  🙂

I was recently asked by my principal if I had any intention of becoming an administrator.  My immediate answer was, “HELL to the NO!”  I love what I do.  I teach science.   I love science.  I love teaching science.  I love my students and I love watching my students do science!  Why would I want to do anything BESIDES teach science?!?!

He told me that being an administrator doesn’t necessarily mean being a principal or an AP.  He told me that I could be in charge of science curriculum for a school or a district.  He told me that I could reach more kids that way…. if I could teach teachers to do what I do.  Why would I want to teach teachers when I can TEACH KIDS SCIENCE?

I’m the teacher who sits at the back table during an inservice and builds structures out of the candy in the bowl and makes origami out of the Post-Its.  I’ll stare at my paper and doodle while the facilitators are talking at us, but it doesn’t mean I’m not paying attention. They tell US to be more DYNAMIC for our students….but I AM our students!!!  I get them.  Why don’t YOU be more DYNAMIC for me?  I wonder if I could be a dynamic teacher to teachers.  Maybe it’s different… maybe it scares me…maybe I’d be good at it, but I can’t imagine not doing exactly what I do.  Isn’t that what everyone dreams of in a career?