Monday Mornings for a "Stay at Home Teacher"

I left the window open by accident last night, which is OK because there is nothing more refreshing than waking up at day break to the sounds of singing birds and a cool breeze on my face. My alarm didn't wake me up, however; it was the two hungry mini-leopards poking at me with their paws, hoping that I'll get up soon so they can enjoy another meal of delicious chicken. I try to take a moment to lay still and enjoy the act of slowly coming out of a deep sleep, but they are relentless, and I have to give in as one pounces on my stomach. I'm not annoyed though, who could get upset at two fuzzy cats who just want to fill up their tummies, then come back to cuddle next to you for their early morning nap?

Mini Leopards Deep in Sleep

We feed our bengals a raw diet, which is easier on their digestion since this breed is closely related to the Asian Leopard cat. Their favorite food is rabbit. Cats are carnivores, after all.

Once I set out their food, I brew myself a cup of coffee and pour in into my favorite mug: a hand crafted piece of pottery made by a talented art teacher coworker of mine who drew my name for the Secret Santa gift exchange last year. I sit down, open my laptop, and begin to grade the cell division quizzes my biology students had to take over the weekend. Google Classroom has become my best friend as of late.

I get through my quizzes, enter their scores into our grade book, and begin to post today's classwork. I have two sections of 10th grade biology, and one section of Earth science. This Earth science class is a whole new challenge for me, not because I haven't taught Earth science before, but because this class started up Quarter 4, meaning I have not met most of these students in person since we are all stuck at home. I have to applaud these kids though, they really stepped up to the plate and dove right into our virtual classroom with ease. I'm so impressed, because if I think about my time in high school, I don't know if I would've been capable of such flexibility like these kids. Kudos to our students!

I consider myself fortunate as a young teacher right now. I am pretty familiar with technology, so my transition to being a stay at home teacher has been relatively smooth. I uploaded my word document notes into my Google Drive, and recorded my lectures to students could watch and re-watch anything they needed to for assignments and studying. I've also found a few great resources that I want to share, in case any other "stay at home" teachers are reading this.

Testing: I love the website www.Edulastic.com, especially for science tests. This website not only has a big question bank of really well-written questions, but students can also write out chemical equations, which is hard to do on a Google Forms quiz. I can link this to my Google Classroom, and it gives great feedback to me. There is a bit of a learning curve when writing test questions, but once I got the hang of it, it has been very smooth.

Learning Resources: I stumble upon PBS's teacher resources for the Earth science class, and found that they have quite a few resources and activities that can be easily done remotely by all ages of students. www.pbslearningmedia.org/

My cup of coffee is empty, so it's time to make another one since it is Monday after all. I've found that even though this way of teaching is so drastically different from what I (and most teachers) are used to, it hasn't deterred my love of teaching. I can't help but sit here and feel grateful for my students, who send messages asking how I am and emailing me to share cool science things (like a giant moth on one of their front steps or a solar eclipse photo they took). I continue to be amazed at how great these young people are, which truly gives me hope for our future. Happy Monday everyone.

-Carley <3

Coffee First

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