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How to Survive the End of the Year: A Science Teacher’s Guide
You survived the onslaught of spring standardized tests. Barely, after losing a few brain cells literally staring at struggling or bored students for hours on end. (I swear proctoring is worse than actually taking an exam.) If you teach seniors, you survived the getting-into-college weeks and even the College Decision Deadline. Spring break is […]
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Differentiation in the Science Classroom #3: Alternate Assessments
In my last Differentiation in the Science Classroom post, I wrote about lab reports. And now I’m going to write a post about NOT writing lab reports. (Crazy, I know, but bear with me…) Having students write a full lab report every time I did a lab would have pretty much burned me and my […]
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Differentiation in the Science Classroom #2: Lab Report Writing
Helping all students with writing in the science classroom can be really difficult. A lot of science teachers give up trying to teach writing, because they feel the pressure to get all of the science content crammed into the year. Lab reports take an eternity to grade. And bad lab reports take longer than an […]
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Differentiation in the Science Classroom #1: In the Lab
Helping all students, including students with special needs and English language learners, in high school science classroom is a challenge. In this blog series, I will focus on a few different techniques that teachers can use to help each and every student in their class succeed. Some of these techniques can also help other students […]
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New Teacher Tip #6: Call Parents with Good News!
Calling parents is something that gives every new teacher the jitters. Ok, more than jitters. Nightmares. Often times when we have to call home, it’s not with good news. The student who gets a phone call home is usually in trouble. So I made it a policy as a new teacher to make a phone […]
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New Teacher Tip #5: Get Organized from the Start!
Under construction
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New Teacher Tip #4: Bring something ALIVE on the first day of school
One year, I brought roly-polies (or pill bugs). The next year, I caught a tiny fish in a local pond and brought it in. Another year, I brought C. elegans into class. And one of my favorite things to bring in: Termites!! Each time, I tied something interesting about each organism to experiment design and […]
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New Teacher Tip #3: You’ll get sick a LOT! Make Emergency Sub Plans NOW!
Something they never tell you about being a high school teacher is that you will get sick a lot your first year or so. All of the viruses circulating around your high school will be on the papers you grade, the door knobs, the lab equipment, the desks… and I didn’t even mention the bathroom. […]
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New Teacher Tip #2: Give a Quiz on Friday!
This is Part 2 of my New Teacher Tip Series. Click here for Tip #1. Here is an inside look at a teenager’s brain on different days of the week: Monday: zzzzzz… OMG I haven’t seen my friends since Friday and now they’re back!!! Yay-z! <Hugs>… What? We learned something last week? I don’t remember… […]
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New Teacher Tip #1: The Power of “Good Morning”
Seven years ago, I was agonizing over my fast approaching first day of school. As a brand new teacher, with only college teaching experience and a master’s degree in science (not education), I probably read every single new teacher teaching tip I could get my hands on. On this blog, I will write about several […]
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Best classroom management tip ever!
I learned this tip from my alternate route night school teacher, Captain David Wick. He is a real captain who sails boats on the weekends. And I cannot tell you how much it has helped my classroom function. It truly has helped more than anything else I learned in night school when I was going […]