Shame. This bear gets it.

As I watched the Physics 2 students try to dry the tear-smears on their exam this morning, I got to thinking about how the MVGS News and Information Blog really needs some student input (not tears, though, computers don’t like water).  So, for the next four days, I’d like to spotlight some student work on the blog.  Please feel free to send me (via email: aharrington@mvgshome.org) sample submissions (feel free to attach pictures!) about what’s going on with you at MVGS right now, maybe what your PAL groups are doing, or just how you feel about attending MVGS, and I will format and submit them as quickly as possible.  Let’s BARRAGE THE BLOG with posts, children!  And, maybe then, I’ll take over posting on a more regular basis.

P.S. Alumni can also feel free to submit posts to me for consideration and editing.

My name is Anca Schmittou, and I am so excited to begin work at MVGS! I love teaching and I LOVE math, so I’m sure we’re all going to have a great time this year.

This was taken on my summer vacation (more on that in a later post)!

I have been in love with math since high school. I grew up in Europe (Romania, specifically), and during high school I participated in math competitions and contests. That experience led to my undergraduate study of mathematics, followed by a Master’s Degree in Calculus. Thanks to scholarships and high grades, I had the opportunity to continue my graduate education after I received my Calculus degree, and I decided to start another degree. I had always wanted to be a painter, so I went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Art; I received a full scholarship for the entire degree due to my hard work and achievement.

A few years ago I decided to learn more about psychology and the human mind, so I went back to school and got my second Master’s Degree in Organizational Psychology.

I have many years of experience in teaching Mathematics to all levels and in all math areas. I decided to leave Europe because I was curious about teaching in a new country, and I have been teaching in the United States for several years: first in South Carolina and then in Virginia (at Eastern View High School in Culpeper). I have also done some community college teaching and this year, I will be teaching two evening math classes at Germanna Community College, as well.

In addition to my education and work experiences, I have a lot of hobbies! Obviously, I have a keen interest in art, especially painting, and I have a permanent art exhibition at the CoArt Gallery in downtown Staunton, VA where my art is displayed all the time. Three years ago, I had a personal art show at the Touchstone Gallery in Downtown DC, too. If you can’t take the time to drive to Staunton, you can see some of my work on my website: www.ronarart.com.

One of my paintings

I also love to be athletic, and I ski (I especially love black diamond and double diamond slopes), run (I ran a 10K and a half marathon last fall!), bike, and I’m trying to learn to skateboard.

Skiing!

I speak English, French, Romanian, and I know a few words in Latin and Italian.

I have many goals, ideas, and dreams. For example, one of my travel dreams is to see Mount Everest. I like to think I am a very positive, energetic person. I’m excited to meet you all this year and to get started with our Calculus work!

We'll pretend this was the beach.

We did not confine our summertime activities to artificial bodies of water, though. We also frequently visited the Shenandoah River to engage in my children’s favorite past time: throwing rocks into (or at) things.

Keeping little boys from leaping into the water is...challenging.

Of course, it wasn’t all throwing and splashing and destruction. We also took time out to create. I believe artistic endeavor and creative expression are important elements of a child’s upbringing, after all. And, what better way to show your children how highly you prize such things than engaging in creative play WITH them? Behold, my masterpiece!

It's a metaphor.

It wasn’t all play time and play dough at Casa des las Harrington, though. I also spent the summer completing home improvement projects I never get time to work on during the school year (and, no, MOM, I don’t mean “like the laundry”) (My mom doesn’t read the blog very often, I just hear her voice in my head a lot.) (If you don’t know what I mean by that, well, you will in a few years.). So, my house frequently looked like Sherwin Williams and Playksool got together and threw a rave.

This is the only in-process picture I took, and it's easily the most tidy the process ever got.

I even had some alumni come to help me with my painting! That was pretty exciting. Erin Dougherty, Lindsey Bauserman, and Rachel Stocker spent a Thursday painting my living room with me. They were richly rewarded with Melting Pot pizza. And, then, I spent some time getting the Sherwin Williams and Playskool elements to work together in a more harmonious fashion, so now my house looks a little more done and a little less hovel-esque.

I’m excited to get back to work, though, and that’s really the advantage of summer vacation. Every year, teachers get to approach their work with new eyes and fresh vigor. And, after a summer of painting, spackling, sanding, and cleaning, I am pretty excited to get back in touch with Aristotle and Plato!

AAAAARGH!

Argggh, Mateys! What do teachers do with their summers, you ask? We sail the high seas in search for treasure, of course. Mr. Burton took to the seas with his nieces and nephew while on a visit to the southern tip of Texas. The week was spent swimming, bird watching, swimming, checking out sea turtles, swimming, pirating, swimming, playing some Rock Band, and of course, swimming. He also found some time to put his birdhouse-building skills (which were carefully honed over the course of seminars last year) to good use with the younger members of the family in Texas.

Birdhouse Construction Site

Full of manly construction confidence after his birdhouse successes, Mr. Burton then went on to lead a church mission trip to work on houses near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. As you can see, Mr. Burton is an incredibly hard worker who requires a dedicated and skilled support staff to keep him going. He also needs shade, hydration, and a manly tool belt.

That umbrella really makes the 150 degree temperatures seem more reasonable.

While sweating on a roof in Alabama was rewarding and being a pirate fulfilled his need for swashbuckling, Mr. Burton is excited to get back to Virginia to start another exciting year at MVGS.

Mr. Hess's Pizza Pi Cutter

A contingent of the faculty and students trekked to Broadway to witness the official ending of the bachelorhood of our young scholar.  With the exchanging of vows, Mr. Hess’s smile grew bigger than the digits in Euler’s number.  He and the newly dubbed Mrs. Hess are now no longer dependent on Skype to get face time as they spend their first week of married life in the picturesque landscape of Switzerland (hence the Swiss German farewell in the blog title).  All that is left to do is bid farewell to our beloved math teacher in the same manner with which he greeted  us as he walked through the doors two years ago:  Shalom! (or as his students added, Shalom in the home!)

Besides, here it is Monday of the first Teacher’s Work Week, and already I’m starting to look forward, to plan for the things that are to come. Sentimentality is what I did last week, this week is about action and forward motion. Having one’s life focused on a regular and predictable interval of reflection, motion, rest, and renewal can be very reassuring. It’s one of my favorite things about teaching. Each class period is a brief moment of opportunity, each day is different, and each year gives you a chance to start over and try new things. So, onward to the new things…

I’ll have a few posts to write this week about our plans for the coming year. I’ll need to talk about summer field experiences, PAL group plans and proposals, and some plans for other new and exciting things at MVGS. Maybe I’ll even talk about the Summer Reading Books and why they were chosen. The week is a blank canvas of blog posts, just waiting to be written.

Check out our new custom-made vests!

Thanks to MVGS Parent Mrs. Barbara Verhaalen, our students were safely and stylishly able to carry wireless accelerometers and altimeters on most of the rides at King’s Dominion during our visit last Friday.  Students were predicted and then tested their predictions as to which ride in the park would have the greatest magnitude of acceleration as measured by the probes.  This was part of a larger assignment looking briefly at the effects of accelerations on the human body.   After designing their own roller coasters in Physics 1, our students found this a worthwhile use of time in the park.  Besides, who can complain when a class assignment requires you to ride a roller coaster?  Check out the data from The Intimidator taken by one of our riders:

Students are spending class time this week conditioning and analyzing the data as well as looking up some facts regarding acceleration as experienced by astronauts.  Maybe we can unlock the secret behind the tunnel vision reportedly experienced by many riders on The Intimidator?  Who says Physics isn’t Phun?

Your faithful blog editor has frequently been heard to say that Physics isn’t Phun (I gagged a little at the inappropriate spelling, btw), but Mr. Burton assures me I am incorrect.

Mr. Burton readies the microwave

My mom could not get to the microwave fast enough as I stood gazing at the accidental light show before me.  Could this have been the moment that sparked my interest in science? The moment that put me on the path to becoming the teacher that today stands before our “young scholars” (Hess, 2010) attempting to illuminate MVGSers on the joys of physics?  It all started with a cold roast beef sandwich from Arby’s that I threw into the microwave, ignorant of the impact it was likely to have on my future.  Though I wanted to “nuke” it, the electrical sparks I witnessed flying from the foil wrapper of my sandwich were not what I had in mind–they were better.  It was this event that made the phrase, “Now kids, don’t try this at home,” tempt me in ways that could only lead to a career where I am now licensed to try all of those things and am now obligated to pass on the same wise warning to my students.

Yesterday and today were the long awaited Microwave Tricks Days in our Physics 2 classes.   Students have spent the entire year building up a conceptual and mathematical understanding of electromagnetic field theory.  After studying charges and electric fields, students delve into magnets and magnetic fields.  They then work to see how the two phenomena are really interlinked.  The grand finale is when all the fundamental laws are brought together to give us the classical wave model of light.  Hopefully my students will be quick to clarify that “light” is often used as a general term to describe all types of electromagnetic waves, so microwaves are just light waves with wavelengths too long to be detected by the human eye.

After all of that conceptual and mathematical work, we get to spend some time seeing what it’s all good for.  We first made some radio waves and broadcast student iPod tunes across the room.  Today we explored unintended cool things we can do with devices that make these electromagnetic waves–a.k.a. sticking things in the microwave your mom would surely object to.   While most aspects of this demo were too bright to be photo friendly, the spectrum of things put into the microwave was vast:  aluminum foil, CDs, light bulbs flames, eggs, and more.

Ionizing the gas in a light bulb

To see a stunning video of the microwaved candle visit the MVGS Picture Site.  All of the sparks and fiercely glowing plasma made for an exciting end to a wonderful journey together.  In the coming days we will see a few more fun examples of the electromagnetic phenomena such as wireless internet signals, RF IDs, and maybe a glowing pickle,  but the distribution of the Physics 2 text adventure game (which houses the elements of the final exam) surely signals the sad end of our physics phun for the year.  I guess it’s time to start cleaning up the mess.

Time to clean up