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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Best Teaching Day

My best teaching day happened a while ago because I became a tech guy. We did an analysis of rhetorical devices used in various Apple commercials and it was really neat to see what the kids selected and the kinds of things they noticed. They were analyzing the music, images, sounds, etc. The level of sophistication in their analysis was really impressive, and it was neat to see them independently applying skills we had practiced. Even more cool was that we had never worked with videos, so they were adapting their analysis to fit the new media context.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Zackaria Mohsen Teaching Culture/Learning Culture

I came to America in March of 2011 from Bahrain. I had a few friends whom were teachers at the Rock Springs High School, and they asked me to do participate in some lectures about culture education. I did two lectures a day at two schools a day covering Rock Springs and nearby cities and towns.
My favorite teaching moment from this was when a High School student asked me if he could interview me for the local newspaper. I didn’t think people were really interested in learning about Bahrain. And most questions I got were jokes that I’ve heard plenty. And Bahrain wasn’t even on some of the maps at the schools! But after our little interview got published I had a lot more people asking me reasonable questions,,, generally. And through that I met a lot more students whom were from other countries!
Not only did I end up making some interesting friends; but one of my teacher friends that initiated the culture education lectures was able to evolve it! We recruited over 20 more students into the program whom were mostly from unique countries. This group came to be known as the Tiger 56 Club. The Rock Springs High School still does some of these lectures every year outside of the standard curriculum and the students love it! [=
It’s fun and very cool to know that one kid who dared to ask “Hey, wanna do an interview?” rippled into a club with lots of members and annual events [=

[Manama, capital of Bahrain]

Scott Bradford Water Research on Elk Mountain

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My best teaching day ever - Science students from all my classes worked closely with Teton Science School during a field day at Elk Mountain Ranch.  The purpose of the field research is to gain an understanding of water quality issues and identify the source of HEM drinking water.  The students were divided into several teams to explore Rattlesnake Creek and learned how to conduct individual water quality tests.  These tests included turbidity, flow rates, phosphate and oxygen content, and pH.  




Stream sampling.jpg
1103151035a.jpgIt was great to see students in the field, learning techniques for evaluation, and connecting water issues with real-world and place based principles.  Rattlesnake creek is on a working cattle ranch and is the source of Hanna, Wyoming drinking water.  It also serves agricultural use and natural habitat for dozens of Wyoming mammals, fish, amphibians, birds and insects.  Students connected water quality importance with human and environmental concerns.  



Following the field experience, students returned to the school and in teams put together a presentation of their findings and how their tests could assist in determining appropriate water quality.  These presentations were shared with the entire school.