This blog is about things I try in the classroom  and how they go. And maybe how to fix them, so I don’t forget 🙂

Well, it was supposed to be about that, but has ended up being my blog about things I think about. I write it everyday while I am away from home in the summer working for Girls Who Code. Last year (2016) I was in Chicago. This year, I am in New York.

I am an 8th (now 10th! I’ve really got to update this page more often) year high school chemistry teacher in East Hampton, Connecticut.  I am very interested in figuring out ways to get the students to do the learning, rather than me to do the “teaching”. I have a doctorate in chemistry from Wesleyan.

My kids call me “Doc Och” (that rhymes), but only after September. They need to be able to pronounce “Ochterski ” in case they ever need to grovel 🙂   One of my students came up with the nick name my first year. I like it.

This just in (9/20/13): The student who nick named me is student teaching as a chemistry teacher. My first chemistry baby!

7/8/17 Now I just have to figure out how to get a link to this page to show up on my home page. That should be easy, right? Maybe like a default. Right?