Today was another wonderful day at Lauder school. I only taught two chemistry Sophomore classes, the same I saw yesterday afternoon, and we continued to talk about carbohydrates and did another lab on testing glucose in drinks from Hungary and snacks from US. We put the analysis of the lab results on hold until tomorrow because in 45-min class 23 students can only do so much.
Few things that made me smile and realize how much teachers and students across the world are alike.
1) Some students were a bit more talkative today and little distracted and, of course, I collected their iphones and assigned new seats.
2) One student tried to hand in a late assignment to their teacher and asked to be graded. Of course, the teacher said no.
3) Once we started the lab all students were curious, captivated and bewildered! You immerse yourselves in meaningful conversations and then when your lab is almost done you start giggling a little too much and too loud. Why do we have to remind you to stay on task all the time? and why do we want you to engage 100% when you do a lab?!…
4) It took us, two science teachers, 2 hours to prepare two 45-min labs and another 30 minutes to clean up. By the time I left Fanni still had a lot of cleaning to do so she ate her lunch while continued to prepare the room for her next class.
5) When we rush to get to the point we might make mistakes and you always politely correct us! It is gratifying to know that you actually pay attention to us! – the fructose molecule was missing a carbon! Good point, Balazs!
I could go on and on but I need to prepare for tomorrow and reflect a little on the wonderful places we visited this afternoon. Budapest is an exquisite city, a sort of little Paris. Perhaps the Romantic architecture and Danube river give the city old glamour and charm!
