Welcome to Professor Janowacky’s Dangerous Site

Greetings and felicitations!
Welcome to this site. I hope you use it and find it dangerous.

NO…You’re not going to find anything here about how to blow stuff up! If you hang around here a little while, however, you might accidentally learn something or even learn how to apply something you have learned.

Now, THAT, my friends, is a thoroughly dangerous notion!

Herein you should find aid and assistantance for my Biology classes at Delphi Community High School, plus some other stuff that may educate and entertain. So, take a peek at the links, read my witty words of wacky wisdom, and poke about the place. Feel free to contact me through the blog comments. You can also reach me at my school e-mail address. Let me know if you find something interesting that I should put up here for others to see.

Janowacky Blog Turning Down to Low or Simmer

I will be essentially shutting this blog down while I am in Washington DC for the coming school year.

Once the fellowship ends, I will re-start posting here with lessons, class notes and such so we can all get back into the fun and games.

I will be putting up a blog that will record or journalize my adventure in DC next year. When it is up and running, I will post a note here and to several other places so you can read my rants, taves, reviews, and other works of literary brilliance.

Until then…

Stay cool for the summer!

Weekly Reader Assignments

AP Biology & Environmental Science are required to to an independent reading assignment every other week – the so-named, (every other) Weekly Reader. You can find a copy of the original assignment under the Files for Courses tab. The Assignment is due on the FIRST GOLD DAY of the 1st and 3rd Week of each month – unless specifically cancelled by Mr. Janowiak. I will see if I can post a calendar of due dates by the time next semester starts. Every now and then, I may give you an article or paper to read and have you use that for this assignment. I will be specific about when I am doing that. So mark your calendars now…

The assignment requires that you find and read a science article that is related to what we are currently covering in class. I have included a long list of news sites that you can check out in the Science News and the Helpful Links section of this Blog. After reading, you are to write three paragraphs:

1. Summarize the article

2. Explain the importance of the article or the reason why we should care about the tiopic it covers. So what? Who cares? How does this fit into class?

3. Write your reaction or response to the article. What did you learn? Do you agree/disagree? (Explain this, of course!) Did anything surprise, upset, or connect with you in a more personal way? How did you feel after reading the article?

Make sure you site the source (title, author, source and publishing date) of the article and tell me the due date of the assignment as well as ther obvious student name and period.

Check and mark your calendars! These are due on the 1st and 3rd week of each month on the first day we meet for that week’s block.

I’ll post next semester due dates at a later time.

Remember that the assignments are due at the BEGINNING of class. I will no longer tolerate this “working on it during class while we are supposed to be doing something else” behavior, nor will I give the nod to “can I hand it in after study hall next period?” I will NO LONGER Accept LATE submissions.

Electronic submissions are encouraged. Electronic submissions should follow all of the same formatting rules as stated in the original instructions. Electronic submissions may be in .doc, .rtf, .txt,  .odt,  .pdf, or even Apple’s .pages format. If you do not know what the file formats mean, ask! I prefer .doc, so if you are using a Vista-equipped PC with the latest version of Microsoft Office, you should get in the habit of using the <Save As…> command from he Menu options; then save as the file to be compatible with older (faster and less bloated) versions of Word (like Word 2000). People that have older systems will bless you for your consideration!

In addition, name your file so I know to whom it belongs and can refer to a date. use the month, a dash, the due day, and your last name. Here is a sample file name:  01-12janowiak.doc   This is a Microsoft Word document (pre-Vista) that was submitted by “Janowiak” for the assignment due on January 12.

If you hand in a hard copy, you must at least use dark ink. Typed submissions are nice. No pencil will be accepted. I will simply hand it back or not grade it. No fringies or jagged edges! If you submit a hard copy (typed or in ink), also include a hard copy of the article. If you submit electronically, include a PDF of the article or a working URL to the original article.

(Did You) Study for Final Exams?

Why didn’t you?!  Of course that sounds a little cynical from my end, but the fact remains that few students will study for Final Exams and fewer will visit my web sites for help. Makes a teacher wonder why THEY (the teacher) puts so much time and effort into their lessons and in creating fair and valid tests. I could be surfing the net, playing my guitars, teaching my parrot new tricks, binding up wounds from parrot bites received during training, or any number of other activities. Final Exams are a fact of life. They happen at the end of a semester or year in most American High Schools. They happen in jobs when you are expected to be able to perform on your own after receiving some expensive training. They happen when your kid is leaving home after 18+ years and you wonder if you taught them well.Preparing BEFORE the test is smart, responsible, and necessary – that is, if one hopes to achieve a measure of success. Don’t cripple yourself on purpose.Get to it! If you need some help or even pointers, see me before or after school or come to see me during SRT on Monday or Tuesday.

Be…

I haven’t added to this site for a while. Things have been very busy. I am taking an online class through Purdue and have been trying to get students to write for our wiki. The coming week (Feb 6-8) I will be at the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers, Inc. annual conference in Indy. I will be acting as  HASTI Board representative a member of the IABT and also picking up some useful tips and tricks for improving my classes and my teaching.While I am away, oh thou hearty students, there are some things I expect you to be:Be PreparedBe Patient and TolerantBe EngagedBe Excellent!I’ll be checking up on you and then I’ll be seeing you next week! 

Why Do I Have To Learn This?

I hear whining like this all the time.  Considering that Biology is the study of  how YOUR body works, about how YOU get and use energy, about how YOUR genes get transfered from this generation to the next, about how YOU grew in your mother’s womb and continue to develop, and about how YOU fit into the scheme of life on earth, you would  think most students would pick up on the relevancy without having to be directly told…but…I supposed I expect too much.]]] sigh! [[[Here's how Steven Dutchs professor up in Greenbay said it: 

This Course Wasn't Relevant         

"If something as vast as mathematics or science or history can pass through your brain without even scraping the sides on the way through, that's a pretty big hole. Are you sure it's the course that doesn't relate to anything? Our other customers in the community want people who have a good general stock of knowledge they can call on for unexpected needs. Being able to cope with unexpected needs means learning things that may not be immediately needed. You need to stop worrying about whether you need it now and begin worrying about whether your boss might need it later. A ten year old girl in Thailand saved hundreds of lives on December 26, 2004. She had just learned about tsunamis in school, recognized the warning signs, and convinced her parents to warn the resort management. As a result there were almost no casualties at her resort. In all likelihood none of her classmates will ever have need to know about tsunamis. A number of indigenous groups in the region escaped the tsunami with almost no casualties. They recognized the warning signs, which had been passed along through generations with no tsunamis, until finally that "irrelevant" knowledge became relevant." 

from: http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/nosymp.htm     [_Not an official UW-Green Bay site_]