Back in the Classroom

SNOW!!?? I have only seen snow less than a handful of times in my time here in China. Two weeks ago though it snowed twice in the same week and once the week after. Now, I'm all about learning but when it snows I feel that it is absolutely important for the kids to go outside and enjoy the snow - so that's what we did. Unfortunately, I think my students did not set such a good example for the elementary students and going outside was later banned for middle and high school. Oh, well. I still think it was worth it - I think every kid needs to learn how to make a snowball, a snow angel and play in the snow. :)
The snow was actually a result of the government seeding the clouds. China is in the midst of a massive drought - it's quite serious. We know the government often seeds the clouds in the summer but hadn't experienced "fake snow" so to speak before. It was fun - snow definitely still brings out the "little kid" in me. :)

Things have been quite busy here in the classroom. In Chemistry we are in the midst of predicting reactions and in Biology we just finished DNA with Genetics being next. I'm having a lot of fun teaching Biology this year but it is a lot of work since it is my first year in this class. This past week we did some Gel Electrophoresis (the process used in DNA fingerprinting). The kids really enjoyed it and it actually turned out pretty well. Here's a couple of pictures.