Show Notes: - On our panel shows, we start with a goofy question, and as we are recording this just before halloween, did you dress up for halloween this year? If not, do you remember the last time you did? Lee Ferguson: I did not...but I think the last time I did dress up for Halloween, I dressed as a hockey puck. Somewhere in my house there is photographic evidence of this! Kelly Kluthe: My students always say I remind them of Ms. Frizzle, so I think I’ll lean into that this year and bust out my best biology dress. Sedate Kohler: The last time I did dress up at school for Halloween I was “outer space” and had galaxy print leggings and hot glue gunned glow in the dark stars to a dress :) Aaron Mathieu: This year, I am embracing my beard and will dress as Alan from the Hangover. - Let’s start with some baseline, what are you teaching this year? What are the populations of students you have in each class? Kelly: 2 sections of Health (9th & 10th), 3 sections of 10th Bio, 1 section of Dual-Enrollment Bio (11th & 12th) Sedate: 4 sections of Biology (Freshmen, plus a few sophomores and juniors), 2 sections of AP Biology (Juniors & Seniors) Lee: 4 sections of AP Bio (sophomores, juniors, and seniors), 1 section of IB Bio HL1 (all juniors) Aaron: I teach 2 sections of honors biology (grades 9 & 10 mixed) and 2 sections of AP Biology (Juniors & Seniors). - Do you have to meet any specific state or national standards with this group? Do you have autonomy to set your schedule & pacing? Sedate: Loosely Wisconsin State Science Standards for Biology, and the CED for AP Biology Lee: No state standards, but there’s the CED to contend with in my AP course, and the IB curriculum for my IB course. This group of students will sit their exam next spring, and it’ll be the first group of kids I’ve taught in 3 years that will have taken an IB exam since my last group to take an exam was in 2019--exams were cancelled in 2020, and our school opted not to give exams in 2021 because we didn’t feel it could be done safely. Kelly: We align to the NGSS but have a lot of autonomy about pacing and what it looks like. My department has been using the OpenSciEd and iHub storylines for Physical Science, Biology, and Chemistry. I basically modify the AP Bio curriculum for my Dual-Enrollment course. Aaron: We have an MCAS test for our first year honors students that is in June based on some NGSS like standards and the AP is based on AP CED. We have general unit flow that the biology teachers developed for our honors curriculum, but have a lot of autonomy on schedule, but we do have common unit assessments. For AP, the AP teachers cooperatively plan our units. - Do you need to coordinate with any other teachers in any or all of your classes? Lee: Absolutely--I am one of a team of 3 AP teachers, so we plan and design assessments together. All three of us teach IB as well but each of us teaches a different level so we don’t so much plan together as we do support one another. Kelly: I’m the only life science teacher at my school, so no, no requirements. I have to look to my professional organizations for collaboration. NABT and KABT help me tremendously. Sedate: This year I am one of 4 Biology teachers. 3 of us are pretty collaborative. Aaron: I am 1 of 5 Honors teachers and 1 of 2 AP teachers. We are expected to collaborate and we do… I could do a whole show on this dynamic. Credits: Please subscribe to Life of the school on your podcast player of choice! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LOTS Music by: https://exmagicians.bandcamp.com/ Show Notes at Lifeoftheschool.org You can follow on twitter @MrMathieuTweets or @lifeoftheschool