Monday Markdown and addicted to reading.

I have totally enjoyed teaching my Interactions in the Ecosystem Unit to my new Grade 7's  Although they claim to love all of the work we do their favorite part is learning about Mount St. Helens.  I LOVE using Mount St. Helens as a backdrop for learning about Ecosystems.  Not only does it touch on every topic we need to cover, offer a great look at succession and recovery, provide a great segway to our next unit which is the Dynamic Earth - it also is a platform for talking about Creationism.  As a Christian teacher I think that having that spiritual "tie in" is a great place for my students to see that God is not only present in Bible class - His handiwork can be see all around us!

We just got to the Producer, Consumer, and Decomposer portion of the unit at the end of last week.
We looked at some job descriptions as a warm up activity and then we wrote one of our own for the janitor. {Forgive the messy writing the marker I was using was terrible)

 When we were done and talked about expectations they wrote job descriptions for one of the three types of organisms.  Some of them I got were great. 

I am proud of how much inferencing many of the students were able to do.  This week we will be looking at Micro-organisms.  So far the mould lab is one of the activities that my previous classes got right into.

That being said my Interactions in Ecosystems unit is on sale right now for half price.  It is regularly $9.99.  If you grab it up today it is only $5.00.  You can check it out HERE --> http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactions-in-Ecosystem-Full-Unit-1403059 .

I spent some of my weekend rereading the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.  It is a very well written series.  I will openly admit that many of my favorite reads fall into the YA novel category.  I say that without any shame.  They rock.

I am pretty sure I am addicted to reading and buying books in a way that might be unhealthy.  I now have no room left for books on any of my shelves.  They are double rowed.  The top of my fireplace is stacked 15 books high in 8 columns.  I may need a another house for my books soon.  Lord help me!!