8-8-14 Welcome to the 2014-15 School Year

8/8/14 Welcome to the 2014-15 School Year:

My name is Mr. Dolnik and I would like to say welcome to my Blog. As Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”, so I created this blog so that we can reflect together. This is an opportunity for students to show me they are engaged in my class in multiple ways. Feel free to reply to any of my blog posts with any appropriate questions or comments you may have.

Let’s review the different ways you can be an active participant in my Biology Class:

Aeries: This is the most important site! Your (up to the minute) grades for all your classes, as well as handouts, and PowerPoints will be posted via Aeries.

Twitter: For Test and Quiz reminders as well as Twitter Tuesdays (weekly opportunities to get extra credit) Please follow me (the button is on the left side of my blog) for extra credit (I will not follow you back per teacher- student online etiquette).

* Use #echsbio for class- related tweets

Blogger: Summarize and reflect on activities in our Class, our Campus, and in our Community.  

Class Website: This is a method of keeping up with class materials if you cannot get on to Aeries.

4/2/12 Disease List:
I just wanted to show off the diseases my students wrote about:

Schistosomiasis
Celiac Disease
Gonorrhea
Malaria
Yellow Fever
Capillariasis
Vibrio Cholerae
Gout
Conjunctivitis
Pubic Lice
Bronchitis
Amebiosis
Common Cold
Rabies
HIV
Sleeping Sickness
Scabies
Japaneses Encephalitis
Epilepsy
Salmonella
Rat Bite Fever
MRSA
Antibiotic resistance Gonorrhea
Yersinia Entercolistica
Genital Warts
Meingitis
Asthma
Rotavirus
Leukemia
Genital Herpes
TB
Aspergers
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
Necrotizing Facitis
Elephantitis
ALS
Psoriasis
Skin Cancer
The Plague
Diabetes

3/4/12 Brightstorm
          Today, while studying for the Chemistry CSET, I stumbled upon http://brightstorm.com/ . This is a free tutoring website that features free Math, Science, and English tutorials. At first, I thought "cool resource, I'll use it when I need to". Later in the day, I realized that I should capitalize on this opportunity. Knowing that I am an auditory learning, I decided to watch about four straight hours of chemistry tutorials. I know this sounds excessive, but I am trying to refresh upon two years of college chemistry. Great stuff and I highly recommend it to anyone!

2/2/12 Re-energize Education Conference
          What a way to kick off the semester! I attended one of my first educational conferences aboard the U.S.S. Midway. The conference featured many educational booths regarding Math and Science education. I grabbed as many handouts as possible so I may sift through them later. The keynote speaker of the night was Steve Farber, who is an "extreme leadership" specialist. He is primarily known in professional world, but many people in the teaching profession sought him out and told him how many of his ideas were transferable to education. The topic of the night was how to re-energize education through the radical LEAP:
Love- We must cultivate love and love what we do
Energy- Through generating energy, we are catalyzing many events
Audacity- Inspire audacity in others
Proof- Provide proof of your actions
          My favorite part of the conference was when they were described the term "Oh S**T moment (OS!M). This is what one feels when they just jump out of a plane (to go skydiving) or start to catch the biggest wave they've ever ridden. This is the watershed moment where we acknowledge the potential risk of a situation (usually when we leave our comfort zone) and proceed with the action. This is the most definitive moment in the LEAP process. It was fun listening to a panel of teacher and administrators share their favorite OS!Ms. 
          Overall, a great conference to celebrate LEAP year (intentional pun on their part) and to inspire action

1/25/12 "American Teacher" viewing
          I decided to go to UCSD for a free viewing of a new documentary entitled "American Teacher". This film followed about 4 different teachers; one from New York, San Francisco, rural Texas, and D.C. and how they struggled with the money that the teaching profession provides.
          The San Francisco teacher loved the job and was popular, but quit to go into the family real estate business. The last scene he was in involved him talking while driving and I noticed the "Mercedes Benz" logo on the steering wheel. That just made me think "the choices we make".  The Texas teacher taught full time and worked about 25 hours on the side to provide sufficient funds for his family. His wife ended up leaving him, and he still works about 25 hours extra on the side in a warehouse. The D.C. teacher was a great teacher and ended up getting into to a cutting- edge charter school that pays up to $120K / year. She seemed very intelligent, but very stressed.  The New York teacher was pregnant with her second kid and she seemed to be the happiest of the four. It seemed like she had much going on, but she had the support of her father and husband and that's what is most important to her.  
          I am always very skeptical of documentaries. I view them just as any other piece of film. Who directed this? What agenda is being pushed? In this case, they were clearly saying that teachers were underpaid. I'm all for this, but I felt that some of the teachers they used in this documentary were extreme examples of what is out there. I'm primarily thinking of the Texas teacher. I have worked with people who hold down two full time jobs working 80 hours a week (seriously). These people have a different set of priorities. They decide that 80 hour work weeks are needed to provided them with the kind of lifestyle they are accustomed to. This is their choice! 
          In conclusion, this was an interesting film, but definitely not the best film to start off my optimistic last semester of my credential program. I think I'll pop in "Stand and Deliver" or "Mr. Holland's Opus" before I go to bed tonight.