I have never used a Van de Graff generator before. What fun demos can I do? What safety precautions are there? I have one student with a pace maker.

Hello folks,

Second year physics/ESS teacher here. Im currently at home on a Saturday night stressed out about work on Thursday not having everything finished for that day (we have until new years off). I feel like even now after teaching a full first year I get extremely overwhelmed about the prospect of a full week.

Most of my classes are so easy discipline-wise compared to last year (excluding one class...) but I still wake up in sweats freaking out about lesson planning. Ifeel like it's never fully ready.

As a physics teacher i don't have any common planning with anyone, all of the course is completely made by me, for better or for worse. I'm happy of the product I've made last year, but it really needs some TLC in the pacing department. How long should a teacher like me spend on an hour of instruction? I feel like I spend many times 1.5 hours for every one hour of unique instruction which seems impossible to keep up with. Is this normal?

This is my first year teaching science- I have taught other subjects just this is new and I do not have a science background. So far it has been fine as I just make sure I stay ahead of the kids as I put lessons and projects together so I can fully explain them.

For whatever reason, high and low pressure and just not clicking with me for weather. Could someone help me figure out what is wrong with my thinking so I can fix it?

The lessons prior to high and low pressure are all about hot air rises and cool air sinks and their density. That was fine. Now here is where I am losing my understanding. I keep flipping what they are in my thinking.

High pressure = happy weather but it's a result of the air cooling and sinking. In my mind this means it should be raining but its the opposite. Why is there not rain if the air is sinking?

Low pressure- lousy weather the air is heating and rising- So my thinking is oh it's not raining yet, it is building up the rain. For whatever reason my brain wants this to be the nice weather because it is warm air rising preparing to rain.

Could someone please explain this in better terms. I am not sure why I want them to be flipped in what they mean and do.