>> Batch 8708: My name is
[inaudible] and I'm a science teacher.
I currently teach ages 8 to 11,
so that's 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade
and I teach half an elementary
school, so I have about 350 students.
It takes a lot of preparation of lessons and
of materials and, you know, it ranges from,
the topics range from physics to biology to
geology and I also incorporate current issues.
So, a week you know can vary each hour
a different class comes into my room,
so I might have 3rd grade
8:30 in the morning and then
at 9:30 I might have a 5th grade class and,
you know, the next hour 4th grade and so forth.
So, right now in 4th grade we're studying food
chains and webs what animals eat which animals
and plants and in 3rd grade, you know,
we might be studying the physics of sound
at the same time and in 5th grade, how
to conduct controlled experiments looking
at constructing model airplanes and model boats
and looking at, you know, different variables
that affect buoyancy for instance.
It's my 3rd year doing it, I'm used to it by
now, you know it was definitely challenging
at first just even in terms of
logistics, getting each class cleaned up,
getting each class to clean up after themselves
because the materials completely swap, you know,
it's a lot of grading to do and a lot
of different individuals to keep track
of like what, which student excels in which
area, what does he or she struggle with,
you know, there's lots of families
to keep in touch with, you know.
I would say the classroom time was only half
of the picture, the outside of the classroom
which preparing lessons, you know, researching
new ideas, communicating with families,
lots of meetings; I'm part of
different committees at the school,
so I'm co-chairing the school leadership
team, so there's a lot of stuff that goes
on outside the classroom, but
those hours have been going
down a little bit since the
first couple of years.