Week Two

Here I am at the beginning of week number two at the company. Today, I had to report to safety training in the morning. Safety is a big priority in the chemical industry and this should be strongly stressed in the school environment also. In the afternoon, I had to collect possible sources for the project that I have been assigned.
One thing that I will take back to the classroom, is to help students develop their responsibility to complete given task. Many students do poorly when they have been given an assignment to do where they have to take the initiative to complete several aspects of the assignment. A lot of times in the business world the project will require the employee to take the initiative to organize and have the responsiblilty to finish the project with little supervision. Students need to have the organizational skills and responsibility to manage projects and complete them even when there is little supervision.
Well, my day is done here at the company and I look forward to coming back tomorrow.

First Week is in the Books

Well, I have just finished my first week at the company. It was nice to get my feet wet during the first week and become comfortable here. It has only been one week here but I already have a number a different ideas and concepts that I can bring to the classroom for my students. This is going to be a really great experience for me to grow as a professional and it will really allow me to bring some new and exciting teaching practice to the table next year. So much has happened during the first week and I can tell with all the work that I have to get done that I will have many more experiences I can use to enhance my teaching skills.

Training Day

I spent a good deal of my time today being trained for certain laboratory procedures that I will have to use as part of my project. The company is very particular about the way procedures are carried out in the lab. Everything needs to be exact in order to make sure that they are seeing the correct results. Also, they need to be able to reproduce their results, so accuracy and precision is a must in the lab. I am looking forward to getting my hands wet in the lab and tomorrow may be the first day that I get the opportunity to do just that. Another day in the books and I am looking forward to coming back tomorrow.

Making Progress on the Project

Today, I made good progress working on my assigned project. One way that the company functions is to patent means of producing a specified chemical so that they can sell it to other companies. The project that I have been assigned to has a patent pending on the method so I am unable to disclose specific information about the project. The overall goals of the project is extract a specified chemical from the best source possible. The company already has a very good canidate but it is part of my project to indentify and test potential sources for the specified chemical. This will be my first objective this summer. The second objective will be to further test the specified chemical to better the production of this chemical.
As I was working on this project, I started marking down 21st century skills my work would align well with. Also, I started writing down specific ideas for learning activities that could be used in my classroom. For example, the company puts out a newsletter that gives an update on what they have accomplished. I could set up a mini science business in my classroom and the students would have to occasionally write newsletters to their parents to give an update on what they are doing in the classroom.
Well, my day is done here at the company. Another very exciting day is in the books!

First Two Days

I have finished my first two days at the company. The ideas are beginning to fly in my head on how I can incoporate 21st centuty skills into my teachings. I feel very fortunate to get the opportunity to learn about what is taking place in the job field. I feel very confindent that I will have a large number of valuable experience that I can share with my students. Also, I will be able to add these experiences to my skill sets as a teacher and this will make my teachings more real world applicable.