Divining Science

I am a retired middle school science teacher of 25 years. I retired from the Glendale Unified School District in Southern California in June, 2021. It seemed like a good idea at the time (we still weren't sure in Los Angeles that we would be returning full-time to the classroom in the fall.) I moved back to Colorado in July, 2021 and immediately applied for my substitute teaching license and was awarded one 6 months later. (Ah, Covid times!) However, after 3.5 years subbing here in Colorado in which I taught 2 long-term science sub positions and several shorter stints, I decided to return full-time to the classroom in the fall of 2025. I thoroughly enjoyed making fabulous relationships with my students and fellow teachers, but was forced to retire again due to health reasons. I continue to support the students and teachers at my Colorado middle school, while nurturing my own health, as well as sharing my health and science resources. I am delighted to be helping teachers across the nation to lower their stress levels and offer new curricular activities for their students. During my tenure with GUSD, I served on several curriculum committees and was an active member of the Cal State Northridge CSC, in which science teachers from across the Los Angeles area worked together to improve science curriculum, particularly in the uses of computer-intensive activities and labs. I was also a member of the UCLA Math and Science Curriculum Committee, in which lessons were designed to include more math in science and more science in math. I designed and developed the forensic science class at Rosemont Middle School and was a member of the Huntington Library team to write science lessons for teachers to use when their students visited the Library. As such, I developed a forensic lesson in which students had to use the exhibits in the Astronomy and Vision displays to catch the dastardly thief of a rare book from the Library. I love helping other teachers to engage their students and save them the time and stress involved in developing lessons, so that they can spend that time and energy teaching those students.