It all started off fine, discussing Monday's banana practice questions, on to mitosis. I had prepared a drawing yesterday that I was pretty pleased with. On to meiosis, for which I too had a drawing prepared. Yesterday I already felt there was something I had to take into account, but I couldn't really pinpoint what that should be.. I just left it at that. In class when I had started drawing all of a sudden it dawned on me, the mistake in my drawing. This was the moment at which I lost my lesson flow. I had to stop for a minute, think about how to solve it, but I did not really have a minute. I stepped right into the trap of wanting to finish everything I had planned (it was, after all, my last lesson with this class) and finishing everything in this case was not really humanly possible. After rushing through my less well prepared meiosis, I went on to inheritance, stuffing some terminology down the student's throats and was happy to have 15 minutes left for them to work on the worksheet. Which, of course, they did not really get because I did not took the time to go over it with them or prepare them for it. In the last minute I thanked them for having me as a teacher, I had taken some Dutch salty liquorice to class to hand out which apparently Swedes love (they actually also sell their own salt liquorice variety in stores here). The lesson was fine for the first half hour, for the second half, let's just say there's room for improvement :-).
Fifteen minutes later my lesson with Lena's class started. Here, I wrapped up last weeks hormones topic by drawing a table on the board that they had to fill out themselves first, then we filled out the one I had drawn on the board together. This actually worked really well, it summed up all important info, and made sure they got their info straight. After this, we went on discussing sex determining hormones. This was a bit tricky as they had not discussed reproduction nor inheritance yet. But we managed. Last part was naming the male and female reproductive organs (worksheets) and figuring out all different functions. We only had time to discuss the female reproductive system. How nice to end my teaching career in Sweden discussing the vulva ("ooooooooh! Is that the part that looks like a flower!?!"). Here too, Dutch liquorice, and at 11.35 it had ended. This lesson went very good, Lena thought the students respected me as their teacher, and that the interaction between me and my students was very good. Having good interaction with the students was Cecilia's comment as well, nice to have as a basis.
In the afternoon I observed another class Environmental Systems & Societies, very interesting course, will keep it in mind might it ever cross my path. Then, I had one more interview for the research (#14, rather proud), and around 16.30 I left the building. Tomorrow there'll be a study day, with an IB session that I will attend between 10 and 12. Rest of the day I will pack up and make sure that I'll be able to leave Friday morning. I want to visit that sea water aquarium across the airport in Copenhagen!
Today's weather describes my mood very well. Mostly sunny, some very dark clouds with heavy rain. On one end I can't wait to be home, together with Martin again in our own environment. But on the other end I have had a great time here that I do not really want to end. It was an amazing experience and as they say.. time flies when you're having fun, and sometimes also in biology.
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