My short career as a Bio teacher

Every moment that I am in our biology class serves as a reminder as to why I majored in Public Policy (well, at least anything but bio).  I can vividly recall my exact seat location in my high school bio class; I remember thinking, "When on earth am I EVER going to need to know this stuff?!"  Other than for the unit exams I took as a 14-year-old in my freshman bio classes, I have never -- until last week -- used any of this information.  And now it is a challenge for me to tell my students exactly why they should care and why this information is relevant to their daily lives when I don't really think they have to know it.

Sure, I can come up with some analogies and sets in which my students see that relationships in the animal world are parallel to those in their own lives (oh boy do I LOVE symbiotic relationships!).  We can talk about how the majority of the earth (aka cells, people and oceans) is water; we study the water cycle because the water we need for survival is constantly recycled since humans use a mere one percent of the total water on earth.  I understand that we should be elated to be able to connect the very study of life to our students' lives, but I just cannot foresee any of my students ever using this information.  To be perfectly honest, I find myself more excited when my students can recall the Latin and Greek roots that are the base of so many of the biological terms than when they memorize "Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order..."  The roots that the students are exposed to may actually help them build their vocabularies, study foreign languages and identify new words on standardized tests (MS state tests, ACT, GED, GRE...  and regardless of how one feels about high-stakes testing, these tests exist and they are chalked full of good vocabulary words).

But enough with the negative!  I am really excited to be working with the ACT prep "club" after school!  Oh boy is this needed!  If we can help the kids to at least entertain the idea of going to college, and if we can supplement in their test-taking strategy toolbox, this is a wonderful place to start.  Also, even though I am counting the hours I have left in my career as a biology teacher, I did teach a really neat "lab" activity in class today!  I think the students really enjoyed it.  Photographic evidence of the project's (and my students') success is below:)  Now all I need is a written document that clearly delineates which classes I am teaching in August and which sport(s) I am coaching in September and I will be batting 1.000!  Gotta celebrate those small successes!

(PS if anyone knows how to rotate these photos I would greatly appreciate any didactic advice you could pass along!  THANKS!)

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