Lesson Learned: Kids say the darndest things. Sometimes, it's the right thing at the right time.

Well, I'm still feeling pretty stressed. I went to bed not knowing what I was going to do today. Oh, sure, I had planned out this week, but on Sunday I changed my mind. So, I had to figure out what it was I wanted to do today and for the unit. On the one hand, I only have so much time. On the other, there is a lot I want my kids to know and experience. Now that they know what pressure is (OK-at least they have a fairly good idea), we can move on to more fun things, like the Universal Gas Law. I'm going to talk about it on Thursday and then use Thursday and Friday to construct models of the respiratory system in order to understand how a change in volume causes a change in pressure, and how that lets us breathe. (I hinted at it today by saying that without the universal gas law [aka-Ideal Gas Law], we would die. For some reason, that always gets their attention.) BTW-we ended up working out of their workbooks today. Was all right. It gave them a chance to work with the material.

What really made my day took place after school. When the last bell rang, one boy stayed after to tell me that he had forgotten my Valentine's Day present. I smiled and said how sweet that he got me a present. He said not to tell anyone because I was the only teacher he got a present for because he feels that I am the best one! *gush* How do you respond to that? Of course, I said thank you. He is a good kid. It meant a lot to hear that, especially since he is in my worst class, so he mainly sees my ogre side.