Faced with 125 new faces spread across five class periods, I had a standard first day homework: each student wrote a “bio-poem”. It was an old assignment gleaned from a pre-service teaching course. Since then, I’ve seen the idea in many places, including other content areas (1). Students wrote a poem about themselves following an 10-line template. It included their name, traits, things they feel, things they fear, etc. After they handed the poems in, I was the only one to read them. For students who let themselves get into the project, the poems were a small window I could peer into, to get a feel for that person. As a new teacher on the block, it helped me learn about them, and I shared my own poem with them on that first day. Then, after a school year with these students filled with ups and downs, I pulled the poems out of the file cabinet and handed them back. There were some laughs, but I think it was a time for reflection as well.

Despite having worked for JCE in various roles for the past eight years, I feel like I’m back on the first day again. It’s a new time for me as editor of the Secondary School Chemistry section. Naturally, the main goals of the section continue: to make the Journal an even better resource for our high school audience and to increase the number of high school teacher subscribers and contributors. I will investigate new ways of getting the word out about what a great value JCE is for both new and veteran teachers. Sure, JCE staff chat with educators about it a couple times a year at major conferences, but what can we do to assist and encourage you to share the Journal, either with colleagues or at your own local conferences and workshops? We will continue to develop great products for your classroom. For instance there’s a compilation that’s already in the works that offers the first 50 JCE Classroom Activities on a convenient CD. (Don’t know how great the Activity series is? Check out Activity #86 in this issue.) I will increase my follow-up communication with the potential authors I meet at conferences. Plan on my politely twisting your arm a little more often. How can we help you overcome the activation energy it takes to get your teaching ideas down on paper, to share them with others? Tell us!

A look back would not be complete without paying homage to Diana Mason and her past five years of service to the Secondary School Chemistry section. Her big-hearted Texan charm and warmth have been a welcome part of the section. I wish her well over her next few years, as she has a lot on her plate hosting ChemEd 2007 and BCCE 2010. Please make your way to Denton to share these events with her “and a couple thousand of her closest friends”, as she says. Not sure where Denton is yet? Be sure to ask Diana about the “Golden Triangle”.

I also look forward to serving my term as editor with Laura Slocum, a vibrant teacher from Indiana. She is already involved in important work such as the CHED Examinations Institute, and she was a key part of orchestrating the great high school program during BCCE 2006 at Purdue last summer. I know she will be a great asset to the Secondary School section and this column. Laura’s spent the last couple months learning more about the inner workings of JCE than she ever thought there was to know! The best of luck to both Laura and Diana in their new endeavors.

I need to borrow Laura’s first word from her column to describe my reaction to Ramette’s “Exocharmic Reactions Up Close”. WOW!!! Don’t miss this gorgeous array of photo­graphs taken through a stereomicroscope. Even a simple process such as the dissolution and recrystallization of NaCl crystals is fascinating. The article describes how students can share this same experience live in your classroom. After reading Bruce’s review of the book “Kitchen Chemistry”, which includes a discussion of salt substitutes, I wondered what different salts from the grocery store would reveal under the stereomicroscope. Bruce describes other experiments you’ll find in the book to try in your kitchen. This month’s Classroom Activity shares even more chemistry to cook up in your kitchen (or classroom). It uses natural products to dye cloth, with surprising results.

Literature Cited

1. Bio Poem Assignment. http://www.studyguide.org/bio_poem.htm (accessed Oct 2006)