Welcome to Chemistry! My name is Mrs. Ruane and I am the Chemistry teacher for your student. I am excited to get started and wanted to introduce myself and provide information about my expectations for the upcoming school year.
I Received my BS in Chemistry at Illinois State University. For the next several decades I worked as a solvent and urethane chemists, technical service representative and sales representative for the adhesives and water treatment industry. I took off several years to raise three wonderful boys and went back to work as a urethane adhesives consultant. In addition, I went back to school to receive my teaching license from Purdue University Calumet.
I feel students retain information when learning in a variety of different ways. I hope to make this semester a fun interactive way to learn chemistry. I will be teaching concepts such as the atom, bonding, nomenclature, stoichiometry, gas laws and various types of reactions and their uses. Additionally, I hope to have the students learn through interactive models, group discussions and laboratory experiments. Due to the social nature of this type of teaching, I will expect the students to respect each other while actively participating in all activities and discussions. I will also expect them to be on time with all the required materials for the class.
Most of my students will find the laboratory experiments to be very interesting and entertaining. Through these experiments they will learn about the scientific thought and the scientific process, hypothesizing and analyzing data. Although very exciting and fun, the experiments are to be taken very seriously. On occasion we will be using an open flame and potentially hazardous chemicals. A safety contract was signed at the beginning of the year. If any of the rules on the contract are not followed during the experiment the student will be immediately asked to leave the room and will receive a zero for the experiment. This is for the safety of all the students. I take these safety rules very seriously.
Late homework will be accepted for the duration of the unit. If I have not yet returned homework, it is 10% off. After the homework is handed back, students can only receive a maximum of 50% credit. I will also allow students to earn a retake of one test (excluding final exams) and a retake of one quiz. These retakes will cover the same material, but with different questions. Students must come in and work with me to earn the retake. I believe if students can learn from the mistakes of the first test and achieve a higher grade on the second test, then they have learned the material more thoroughly and deserve the higher grade.
If a student needs additional help with the material, I will be available Monday, and Wednesday after school every week. If this does not work, anyone can schedule a time for extra help that works for both of us. If you have any questions I can be reached by email at [email protected] . I am looking forward to a successful semester!
Best Regards,
Mrs. Ruane
I Received my BS in Chemistry at Illinois State University. For the next several decades I worked as a solvent and urethane chemists, technical service representative and sales representative for the adhesives and water treatment industry. I took off several years to raise three wonderful boys and went back to work as a urethane adhesives consultant. In addition, I went back to school to receive my teaching license from Purdue University Calumet.
I feel students retain information when learning in a variety of different ways. I hope to make this semester a fun interactive way to learn chemistry. I will be teaching concepts such as the atom, bonding, nomenclature, stoichiometry, gas laws and various types of reactions and their uses. Additionally, I hope to have the students learn through interactive models, group discussions and laboratory experiments. Due to the social nature of this type of teaching, I will expect the students to respect each other while actively participating in all activities and discussions. I will also expect them to be on time with all the required materials for the class.
Most of my students will find the laboratory experiments to be very interesting and entertaining. Through these experiments they will learn about the scientific thought and the scientific process, hypothesizing and analyzing data. Although very exciting and fun, the experiments are to be taken very seriously. On occasion we will be using an open flame and potentially hazardous chemicals. A safety contract was signed at the beginning of the year. If any of the rules on the contract are not followed during the experiment the student will be immediately asked to leave the room and will receive a zero for the experiment. This is for the safety of all the students. I take these safety rules very seriously.
Late homework will be accepted for the duration of the unit. If I have not yet returned homework, it is 10% off. After the homework is handed back, students can only receive a maximum of 50% credit. I will also allow students to earn a retake of one test (excluding final exams) and a retake of one quiz. These retakes will cover the same material, but with different questions. Students must come in and work with me to earn the retake. I believe if students can learn from the mistakes of the first test and achieve a higher grade on the second test, then they have learned the material more thoroughly and deserve the higher grade.
If a student needs additional help with the material, I will be available Monday, and Wednesday after school every week. If this does not work, anyone can schedule a time for extra help that works for both of us. If you have any questions I can be reached by email at [email protected] . I am looking forward to a successful semester!
Best Regards,
Mrs. Ruane