Mama Mindy's Week 7 of Classes: Like an Ostrich with its head stuck in the sand

Hi friends!

This week's re-cap:

This semester I am taking 13 credit hours, which doesn't sound like a lot...but I am actually taking 5 courses.

Elementary Music (2 hours). Taught the piggy back song and self-critiqued the video file sent via "Dropbox."  Mine was not perfect, but not terrible.  Always room for improvement...:)

Advanced Instructional Technology (3 hours).  Did not meet this week...website evaluation and grade book critique completed during this week.

Math for Elementary Ed & Middle School Teachers I (3 hours). We learned about prime and composite numbers and the greatest common divisor and least common multiple.  Next week...exam #2.

Homework left as of today:  Two sections of homework (in book and on-line), Common Core Standards, Fill out 3" X 5" notecard for Exam 2, study for Exam 2

Field & Lab Biology (3 hours).  Exam 2 came back and I did receive an A. :)  This week we looked at the Kingdom's Monera, Protista, and Fungi.  In lab, we started a creation of a "fungi farm" involving a paper plate containing a slice of bread, a slice of cheese, a slice of orange, a few sprits of water, and a Ziploc bag.  :)  Next week...and for a few weeks more...we will draw the "fungi" that grows.   Also, created a bacteria petri dish by swabbing common items in the 1500 building (where class is held)...I think I swabbed some stair railings and a water fountain button.  Next week, we will draw the outcome of the bacteria strains we "swabbed." The Water Festival is looming soon (October 15th) and my classmates and I drew names to see who would be in charge of what activity.  I got "Handwashing and Germs"...by this Thursday I need to have filled out an outline of the 20-minutes that I will have with each group of kids coming into my "lab" and also to have a take home activity for the teacher to reinforce the knowledge by which they gained.  Also, had to make a kid friendly graph...it's Halloween...so I did stickers. :)

Homework left as of today: Outline for the Water Festival and Take Home Activity

Elementary Art (2 hours).  This week we met for in-class meeting #2.  We did two art projects and went to an art gallery.  The art project were sugar skulls decorated with frosting in piping bags (fun, fun, fun!!) and a three-minded monster (the first person drew the head, the second the body and arms, and the last the legs) and the first person gets back the drawing.  All of the monsters were unique and fun...based on the book"Where the Wild Things Are." The art show featured two different painters...I appreciated the naturalist painter more, though...she used bones and flowers.  The comment in the heading came from an activity we did in class where we had to describe the last month of classes and how we felt...let's just say if there had been a decapitated chicken...it would have been closer to how I have been feeling. :)

So...next week, I have class M-Th.  The following week will be "Fall Break" for Butler and Emporia classes but I will be "teaching" at the Water Festival on Tuesday of that week and Elementary Math I will still meet...there is no way to cram all that we have to get done in a semester into any other days remaining in the schedule.

Much Love,
Mama Mindy :)