Back to Class

Irresponsibly, I did not fully prepare myself for returning to the classroom during my nine-day vacation. There was some major ad-libbing at work today with varying results. I missed a giant opportunity with the Study Skills class because the kids came in and were stone silent and attentive…but part of my “lesson plan” was to stall them with announcements and housekeeping items because I thought the actual work I had for them was meager. As it turned out, the work was rather difficult for them and very few students finished…partly because I took so much time reminding them about how I grade assignments and partly because that time wasn’t used explaining how to do the work. A major recovery tomorrow would be in order to make sure that the class is with me up until the holiday break.

The science classes were better. A major review for the regular-level students because much of the material learned vanished from their consciousness during the time off. Plus, an opportunity for students who did not get off to a good start (read: did not do their homework) to recover somewhat. And in the Honors class, a debate about the safety and necessity of air bags. Air bags inflate when sodium azide decomposes into elemental sodium and nitrogen gas? I hadn’t known that before. And a ton of nitrogen gas must be produced very, very rapidly. It would be great to reproduce that reaction in class. I wonder where I could get my hands on some sodium azide…

Edit: Actually, after reading about sodium azide, it is probably NOT a reaction I want to reproduce in the classroom.