A New Year!

I get philosophical about life twice a year, around January 1st and September 1st, as these are the starts of the new year for teachers and students.  This year I have been thinking a lot about my goals for the school year, as I hope you have done as well.  As a teacher, I don't have to worry about grades like you guys, I worry about learning and having fun doing it.  In our classes we are really fortunate to be able to work with graduate students from Virginia Institute of Marine Science in the NSF funded GK-12 program.  At our recent summer institute, I got to see all of the students graduate research in Marine Science and it got me so inspired and excited to DO science!  So, my goal for this school year is to spend a lot of time DOING and being scientific.  We are going to be observing, hypothesizing, measuring, analyzing, and drawing conclusions about all kinds of questions every chance we get.  Science should be the class where you get excited to come to school, should be where you get to be creative and free, and that is my goal for my classroom this year.  I hope you guys will join me in this mission and we will have a great, fulfilling year!