Seven Tips for the Teacher in All of Us

Successfully navigating a school year isn’t easy! As another school year ends, and before a new one begins, take a moment to ponder these words of wisdom. http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/ten-secrets-to-surviving-as-a-teacher/

1. Be like a tree: Trees are survivors. For you to do the same, you’ll have to know when to stand strong, and when to bend in the wind.

2. Learn to weather the storm: Things change in education constantly. District pushes, higher education policy, content shifts, technological trends, etc., all come and go. The more flexible you are, the better you’ll be able to sustain the frequent and often challenging storms that blow through your classroom.

3. Be weird: Be yourself, not “a teacher.” Stand out. Have a brand. Be memorable, but more importantly make your lessons and content memorable. Make trying new things a habit. Step out of your comfort zone early and often. Experiment with new assessments, new technologies, new seating arrangements. Don’t be afraid to fail. If you’re like every teacher you ever had, and every other teacher in the school, your class–and your content–will be as forgettable as yesterday’s school lunch.

4. Know when to shut up and smile: This is a lesson many potentially great teachers could have used many times over. Enough said.

5. Know who to go to for what: In any large organization, you have to know who to go to for what. (Hint: Whoever answers the phone at your school is likely the best resource in the building. Second best? The custodians.)

6. Love your content as much as your students: This one might be a bit controversial, because, after all, it’s not about Robert Frost, Harriet Tubman, or Copernicus, it’s about all the students! Only it’s not. Whether you view your job as taskmaster, inspirer of lifelong learning, or somewhere in between, your job is to bring learners to content that is accessible, incredible, digestible, and unforgettable. The formula for learning is, crudely, equal parts content and learner. Take your eye off either and things get unbalanced quickly.

7. Never, ever lose sight of your purpose: And in the incredible crush of “stuff” you have to do, this can be easy to do. Hang a picture on your wall—or a poster, a quote—something that symbolizes why you got involved in teaching. And whenever things get confusing, revisit it.

We hope you have a great summer break!

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You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

What’s summer without ice cream? Celebrate with the Quirkles Kitchen Chemistry Kal this delicious treat, and particularly during the month of July, as it is National Ice Cream Month. President Ronald Reagan declared it so in 1984.

Want to make it even better? Use this yummy concoction to teach a science lesson about states of matter. It’s easy to do! All it takes is some milk, sugar, vanilla, zip-lock type bags, salt, and ice. (Get the Kitchen Chemistry Kal’s Ice Cream experiment here).

Kitchen Chemistry Kal isn’t the only one crazy for this treat. The U.S. ice cream industry sells more than a billion gallons of ice cream each year. In fact, eight percent of all the milk produced in the United States ends up in a frozen dairy product.

Although ice cream can be easy to make at home, it is actually a very complex substance. Not just any frozen treat can be called ice cream. In the U.S. it has to contain at least 10 percent milk fat and a minimum of six percent non-fat milk solids. A gallon has to weigh at least 4.5 pounds.

In terms of specific ingredients, the recipe for ice cream is simple. But in scientific terms, it's complicated stuff. Ice cream is a colloid, a type of emulsion. An emulsion is a combination of two substances that don't normally mix together. Instead, one of the substances is dispersed throughout the other. In ice cream, molecules of fat are suspended in a water-sugar-ice structure along with air bubbles. The presence of air means that ice cream is also technically a foam.

So whether you like vanilla (favorite flavor by a big margin in the U.S.) mung bean flavor in China, or octopus flavor in Japan, take time this summer to enjoy some ice cream!

Do You Know Your Ice Cream Trivia?

-Which country's military delivered pints of ice cream right to soldiers in the foxholes during WW II? The US Army

-Which country's Prime Minister, before entering politics, helped create soft-serve ice cream?
The U.K - Margaret Thatcher was part of a team of chemists who invented the soft-serve ice cream making process and made it commercially viable.

-Which country comes in first as the world's biggest per capita consumer of ice cream? New Zealand

-The first ad for ice cream appeared in the US in what year? 1777. George Washington loved ice cream!

-How did the ice cream sundae get its name? Ice cream sundaes were invented when religious conservatives claimed ice cream sodas were too sinfully good to have on Sundays. Undaunted, ice cream shop owners held back on the soda water, thus creating the ice cream sundae.

-Of the vanilla beans used in the ice cream industry, 80% are grown in which country? Madagascar

-Which US state once had a law that banned serving ice cream on cherry pie? Kansas

-How many licks, on average, does it take to eat up a single-scoop serving of ice cream on a cone? Fifty – but why not hold a contest and see for yourself?

-More ice cream is sold on this day of the week than any other. Which day is it? Sunday