Thank You

I appreciate the encouragement so many of you have given me in these past few weeks. Today, some of my wonderful students gave me a homemade card in honor of my impending departure from HCIB. The card came with notes and signatures from even more students. And of course there are all the nice comments several of you have left on this blog, and I've even received several emails from students.

Thank you for all the kind thoughts. It has been a pleasure to be part of your lives. I hope you'll all look back one day and say:

My 9th grade science class really was a great experience. Everything in the world seems a little more amazing after studying so much about nature, and everything in life seems easier after doing all that work.

On the bright side, I can assure you that 10th grade chemistry is actually easier than 9th grade earth science and biology. There are no science fair projects and no independent investigations to conduct and write-up; you will not have to use statistics in your labs; and you will not have literature reviews or research papers. But, I expect you all to remember the scientific processes you learned this year, so when you get to IB science in 11th and 12th grade--whether you choose biology or chemistry--you'll be ready to lead the world. That is what IB is all about.

Goodbye to my students

As much as I love my job teaching at the Haines City IB School, I will not be teaching here during the 2009-2010 year. I was informed a few weeks ago that my teaching contract at this school is not being renewed. I had planned to avoid sharing this information, because my purpose here was never to make my job about me. My goal always has been, and always will be, to help my students. Unfortunately, as the school has needed to make various announcements about next year, such as assigning Extended Essay mentors to 11th grade students, it has been more and more difficult to keep the secret. For that reason, I decided to let you all know what is happening. Don’t worry about me, though; I’ve already interviewed at a couple other schools, and I will be fine.

As I’ve prepared for applying for other teaching jobs, I’ve been putting together a professional portfolio. Now, a standard portfolio contains materials such as a resume, a teaching philosophy and other personal details. But, the focus of my portfolio is not really what I have done. The focus is largely on what you have done. When I want to show school principals what I do as a teacher, I show them your accomplishments.

During this past year, you have done amazing things. You not only completed original science fair projects, but you wrote scientific papers in the same format used by professionals. More recently, you wrote 2,000 word scientific literature reviews. How many of you entered IB even imagining that by the end of this year, you could write 2,000 word papers?

Consider that one of the graduation requirements for the IB Diploma is to write an Extended Essay—a 3,600-4,000 word research paper. And IB students are allowed about six months to write those papers. You wrote your literature reviews in just a few weeks. As 9th graders, you’ve seen how you can accomplish the Extended Essay.

During this year, I’ve encouraged you to use advanced data analysis techniques, such as linear regression, 95% confidence intervals and t-tests. These are techniques that most of the 11th grade IB students are just encountering this year. And most students across this country will not encounter those research methods until well into their college years. Here you are, in 9th grade, doing college-level work.

You should all take pride in your work this year. Many of you struggled in the early part of the year as you adjusted to the IB program. But, you’ve made it through 9th grade and are now well-prepared to continue and succeed in the IB Diploma. Others of you came into IB ready to take on the world. But, I’d still like to think you’ve been challenged in new ways and given unique opportunities to do great things. In the end, no matter where you began, you have reached the end of your first year in IB and have no excuse for not seeing it through.

I wish you all success and hope you will continue to share your successes with me. You have my email address.