The Joy of Biochemistry Mini (Edible) Labs!

Biochemistry is a hard unit for so many students. I previously wrote about this last year around this time. We just finished our unit, and I am waiting on the edge of my seat to see their test results.

I took a different approach to teaching it this year. I found students really struggled the most with macromolecules. There is so much information and it is easy to get it all jumbled together in their brain. For that section, I decided to give each macromolecule its own day and to really focus on understanding that one thing all day. Hopefully I will see the benefits of this in their scores!

I taught the macromolecules in order based on the elements they are made of: CHO, CHO (1:2:1), CHONS, and CHONP. This probably makes no sense to some of you, but the main idea is that I tried to find the most logical progression through these four macromolecules and started with the simplest: Lipids, Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids.

Each day was roughly structured like this:
1. Notes (Super short -- maybe five sentences)
2. Label Diagram and Color Code
3. Mini-Lab
4. Vocabulary Work

My favorite part of this whole system was the mini-labs! We did them together as a class -- no formal write up or questions for them to answer. We orally reviewed the ideas constantly as they were working on the lab. It made the material hands-on, memorable, and in some cases -- edible!

I think my students favorite mini lab we did was probably the mini enzyme lab. We set this up the day before we actually talked about enzymes. I presented them with a cute little story about messed up jello in the cafeteria -- was it caused by the canned pineapple or fresh pineapple? The students could each choose which type of jello they wanted to test in their cup. They wrote their name on their cup, along with what type they chose, and we put them in the fridge over night.

Fresh vs. Canned

Labeled Cups in the Fridge

The next day, they were so excited and anxious to see their jello. I passed out their cups, and some of them were shocked and disgusted that their beloved fresh pineapple didn't allow the jello to set and they had a runny watery mess.

It set up a memorable experience for them to recall how an enzyme becomes denatured (in this case, the heat in the canning process). The enzyme in fresh pineapple, bromelin, breaks down the collagen in jello and doesn't allow it to set into a firm matrix, but the canned pineapple has been heated, and the enzymes denatured, so it is able to set without issue.

The lab maybe took 15 minutes of class time, yet was something we could reference and talk about everytime we talked about enzymes and allowed students with a reference point for all of the concepts. I declare it a success.

For my favorite blog readers, I will give you a quick run down of all six mini-labs I did for the Biochemistry unit for FREE! Just click the link to view! The mini-labs are also included in my Biochemistry Unit Pack on my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

... Teach on.

Today is proving to be a difficult one. I find teaching extremely exhausting when I am not feeling my best. Today, I am tired and would love to have even just one more hour of sleep, but instead I'm waking up at my normal early hour and wearily driving into work to teach all day. I would love a day off, but I rarely take sick days. This isn't to say that I don't take time to care for myself, but I find missing school to be more hassle than help when I am feeling exhausted, and today, I am exhausted and I must teach on.


I feel like an acting class should be part of teacher education programs. Part of what makes content exciting for students is seeing their teacher excited about the content. I am an actor some days, acting as though I'm excited when in reality I'm exhausted. My acting chops get a work out.
So on days like today, when I am just not feeling it, I must put on my acting hat, take a deep breath, and teach on. On days when I am teaching material I myself find dull, but necessary, I teach on. When I want to lose my temper in class, I take a deep breath and teach on.
I am not my most enthusiastic or charming or understanding version of myself today, but my students are here. They showed up to learn, understand, and grow and in return I must show up to teach, communicate, and guide. 

On days like today when I'm feeling under the weather, I will inevitably have students who immediately notice and ask me if I'm sick or if I'm getting a sub (some ask excitedly, others concerned), and I do my best to smile and say that I just have a bit of a cold or allergies. It continues to surprise me how observant they are, and reminds me that I have to keep acting and keep teaching. 

For those of you that are wearing out your acting chops today, I want to remind you... 

You have a student who looks forward to you class every day. 

You have a student who will try their very best to make you proud today. 

You have a student who appreciates everything you do, even if they don't say it. 

You are allowed to be run down, to take a day off, and to be exhausted, but don't get discouraged. For those students, you must teach on. 

... I Have Struggled!

There are some topics that I sometimes feel like I will never enjoy teaching... biochemistry is one of them. 

This probably sounds odd since I teach both Biology and Chemistry -- Biochemistry should be the perfect happy marriage of the two! My problem isn't the content, but rather the delivery and reception of the audience.

Chemistry is taught in 10th grade, Biology in 9th. Biochemistry in the Biology course falls right after Ecology. The transition is difficult for my students. They have to transition from the "easy" content in Ecology that is a lot of review, to Biochemistry, which is in my opinion one of the most difficult units of the whole course. There is almost no prior knowledge of the content and it is so hard for the 9th grade mind to make the transition.

In previous years, I had "chunked" the unit into a few sections -- Atoms, Water, Macromolecules, and Enzymes. Within each of those chunks, I would give them all the information at once along with labs. It was overwhelming for them and for me! It was a lot of information for them to absorb in a short period of time.

This year, I had a different plan. We had a "transition day" where we reviewed the levels of organization again -- a topic we had previously covered at the beginning of Ecology -- and used that as a stepping stone into the levels of organization in Biochemistry. We made a foldable, gave examples, and looked at some sample molecules. It gave students a day to adjust and it gave them a preview to what we were talking about.

The other major difference I did this year was how I taught macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids). Previously, I taught them all at once and did lots of activities involving all four macromolecules over several days. This year, I decided to spend one full day on each one. Each day has a few components -- notes/information, mini-lab, color coding and diagram labeling, and vocabulary work. This approach gave me a full day to immerse students in the vocabulary (there is a lot of it!). Although its more work for me -- setting up four different labs in four days! -- but it is totally worth it if students are able to learn and understand the material better.

I am not a teacher who can sit back and do the same thing every year for every unit. Some things I was happy with and will keep relatively the same, but I am always looking for better ways to teach hard concepts. I have high hopes that Biochemistry will be more successful for my students this year, and going forward I'm going to try to plan more lessons that are student focused.

What topics do you struggle with? What are your strategies for redesigning those units?

Some of my biochemistry resources are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Check them out!

Teaching with QR Codes

My husband insists that one of the reasons he loves me is because when I find a good idea, I become a bit obsessed with it. I see it as a fault, but that's not the point...

My newest "obsession" is utilizing QR codes in class. QR Codes Look like this and can be scanned with an app on any smartphone. Each QR code is specific to a link and will automatically bring up the linked webpage. There are many websites that will generate a free QR code for a link you provide.

I love them because it makes it so much easier for a student to find the exact article/website/video I want them to find. They don't have to type in a long website (and inevitably misspell some of the nonsense words) and they don't have to go to Google, search for XYZ, click link 47 on page 112... You get the idea. I find them to be faster than having them go to my classroom website for a link. They are easy and instant -- perfect for using in class!

Tonight, I was working on a CER writing assignment for my Biology class on Interactions in Communities. Part of the process is gathering evidence, so I started searching for articles, websites, or videos they could use to gather the evidence. Then I started thinking about how slim my chances of booking a computer lab for class on short notice would be... Then I thought about how lame the articles are without the stunning photos... Then I thought about the whining and groaning when I give them the articles that don't have pictures...

There has to be a better way!

Dramatics aside, this is the situation I've been in often so far this year. With a school of 3,000 students, computer use for an entire class is at a premium. I sometimes come up with ideas last minute and don't have the ability to get a computer lab last minute. Why not use the technology students already have in their pockets?

For the CER writing assignment, I decided to provide students with both the written form of the articles and the links to the online versions. I even included a few codes to videos on the topic. Since they are sharing a set of articles as a group, every person will have something to do, regardless of whether they have a smartphone. Those that do have a phone can easily share with their partner.

Utilizing smart phone technology has opened up so many possibilities in my classroom without the hassle of having to book technology.

My favorite ways to use QR codes in class: 

1. Self-Paced Videos: 

Lots of teachers (myself included) like to use a variety of videos to supplement instruction, many times providing a list of questions to answer while watching the video. We all know that students work at different paces. Why not give them a QR code to the video, have them use their headphones, and work through the video at their own pace!

2. Tutorials: 

For math-heavy chemistry units, I make tutorials on my SmartBoard for explanations on how to solve some of the trickier problems. Put a QR code next to tricky concepts on a study guide to provide easy access to remediation and help -- whether its linked to your own tutorial or another you find online.

3. Stations Labs: 

It can be tricky to incorporate variety in labs during the macrobiology units like Ecology. Try creating stations where students gather information from a variety of sources -- articles, websites, videos, text books -- and have them answer questions, create an illustration or graphic organizer at the end. You can use the QR code to provide links to any (or all) of the resources. I usually have some of them printed out, and others only online.

4. Provide Visuals: 

There are so many articles online that include stunning photography. I typically cut these out of my copies for class to save paper and because the pictures don't look that great being photo copied! At the bottom of the articles, I provide a QR code to the online version with a blurb saying "For the full article and awesome pictures, follow the link!"

These are my very basic ways of incorporating QR codes into my classroom. There are lots of teachers out there who go way above and beyond what I have just started to discover. I do not use them on everything -- although I probably could! -- but I think they provide a great way to bring technology into the classroom, give students some control over their learning and pacing, and to differentiate and "spice up" what would typically be less engaging.

Do you use QR codes? I would love to get some more ideas!

Tips and Tricks for Your Class Website!

If your school is anything like mine, then each teacher has a webpage for each of their courses. Perhaps you have your own, or share one between subjects, but regardless of how its set up, its important that your website is functional for both you and your students.

Determining the best method for providing information to students can be cumbersome, especially if you are still learning the basics of how the technology works. Because each school has their own website design and system, I can't give much specific help there. I can, however, give you a list of things to consider for your website and examples of what I use on my websites.

Our school uses D2L (Desire 2 Learn) as our website platform. In the past, I have used Moodle. It took me a while to transition from one to the other, but some of the basic design elements exist in all of them. I have two sites that I share with students -- one for Biology and one for Chemistry. These pages are only visible to me and my students. I also have a page that is shared among all the Chemistry teachers and another with the Biology teachers. It allows us to easily share resources with each other. I also have several other sites I share with other faculty groups. I spend the bulk of my time creating resources on my course pages for my students.

The landing page for my courses looks like this:

Each year I pick a new banner and color scheme (for my own personal excitement, in all truthfulness). I have the same color scheme on both pages, but the top banners are different. It helps me remember which page I'm working on, while still allowing me to share resources between them without them "clashing." 

So, here we go. 

Top 5 Tips for Class Websites

#1: Stick to a Theme

Much like your classroom, it's much more pleasant to look at a page that has a clear theme and color scheme. Use the same theme throughout -- including colors, fonts, and styling. Of course, some things cannot be changed (such as the colors on the Google calendar in the above picture), but if you can change it to match, do it. This will make your website clean and inviting. Students have a higher chance of looking through your website if its neatly laid out and organized than if it looks like a page of random things you found online and thought were cute. 

I tend to like things a bit more muted and calm, but if you like them bright and colorful then go for it, just make sure its still easy on the eyes and organized. 

#2: Stick to a Layout

Once you find a layout you like, stick to it. Changing things up to much will make it confusing for students to find what they need. After all, the website is for the student to use. If its confusing or changes weekly, its going to be frustrating for them -- especially students who are not so good with website navigation (those students still exist these days!). 

My website is built using widgets that can be moved around and reorganized. I play with the placement at the beginning of the year, before students are using it regularly, and look for a layout that neatly fits all necessary things -- calendar, content browser, and news box. Most other things I would want to add can be adjusted once those are in place. 

#3: Organize Your Files

Like #2, if a student cannot find what they need, it will be confusing for them. I organize my files by unit. 

Why is there only one unit folder so far? It's only the second week of school so we are still in unit 1. Although I have files on my page that are for later units, I don't make them visible or accessible to students until we are in that unit. Again, my goal is to minimize frustration. If a student sees ten folders of units they haven't heard of, they will get frustrated and not know where to look. If I limit it to only folders they have heard of, it makes it easier for them to recognize where to go and what to do. 

Typically, I keep past unit folders still visible for students after we are finished with the unit. When it comes to midterms or finals, students have access to go back and look at the previous units and I don't have to worry about hiding them and un-hiding them. 

Within each unit folder, I organize the information based on topic. I used to create a list of every single resource for that unit, but the list was huge and even though I could find that one video we watched last Tuesday in class, I knew students would not have as easy of a time. This year, I am making topic pages. When you open up the unit folder, you now see a list of topics instead of a list of resources. 

The top page says "From Class..." and is where I post a weekly synopsis with links to PowerPoints and Videos from class. I wanted this to be the go-to spot for students when they miss class or needed to review something specific from class. 

The topic pages typically have a short video on the top that highlights the topic. Some of them are videos we have watched in class, some of them are funny songs. The page needed something engaging for students, but still educational. 

Below the video is a short summary of the content. Sometimes it will have key vocabulary or an important equation. It's not a wall of text, but more like a short blurb. You don't want to overwhelm a student who is struggling with huge paragraphs of text. 

I then listed several helpful websites. Usually, these are websites that have interactive help that we don't use in class. Sometimes they are tutorial videos, other times they are educational online games. I like to link things they haven't seen before and could be both fun and helpful. 

Keep in mind that students could access the webpage from home or school, so be sure that the websites are accessible from school. YouTube videos are blocked at our school, so I provide a safeshare link for them to be able to watch them at school. 

For each topic, my goal was to create a one-stop-shop for everything that will help them learn, practice, and master it. 

#4: Multiple Links to Helpful Pages

If you notice, I have a unit 1 folder and also a "References" folder in my content browser. The references folder is full of reference pages for reoccuring topics in class such as metric conversions, graphing, CER Writing, and lab equipment. I even made a Homework Tips page. 

Of course, I hope that students will look at these pages whenever they are struggling, but I know that isn't the case. In order for them to get to the resource, I need to link to it from where I think it would be helpful for them. In my topic pages, I add links that go back to references pages and back to my "From Class..." page. 

If a student is struggling with graphing, they can click the graphing page and watch a helpful video. If they need more help, they can click the reference page. If they want to see the practice from class, they can click the classroom page. As long as a struggling student can remember which unit we are in and identify which topic they are struggling with, I try to make all the applicable resources available from that point. 

#5: Discuss it In Class

Although most students are wizards at navigating iPhone apps, text messages, and video games, not all students are wizards at navigating websites. The best way around this is to discuss the website in class. Show them what it looks like. Give them a tour at the end of class. Before a test, show them where resources are to study from. Show them the website often so they are familiar with it and learn the layout. 

The first week of school, I give my students a tour of the website. I let them know what's available online and I ask them to login and look at it for their homework (world's easiest homework?). Before a test, I remind them of what the website looks like and where to find the resources. 

Periodically I will put an online quiz or project on my website that students are required to submit for a grade. I typically give them a window of opportunity to turn it in, and at the end of class each day during the window, we review where to go to turn it in and how to do it. 

If you want students to use the website, you need to teach them how to do it. 

Class websites can be a great resource for students to supplement their classroom learning. Remember your goal is to make it easy for students to use. 

What do your class websites look like? What tips and tricks do you have?

First Week of School Recap, Tips, and Tricks

First week of school is officially over! I feel like I'm starting to get my teaching groove back. It usually takes a couple of weeks for me to feel the rhythm again. I'm feeling awesome about the first week right now though!

First, I will say that my students have been absolutely stellar so far! I know, it's a honeymoon phase, it will pass... but the amount of thought and participation and effort they put in this week really makes me excited for the rest of the year!

I wanted to give you all a quick recap of what I did this week and some tips and tricks for the first week back!

The first day is always the most challenging for me. You want to get started with content right away, but you also want them to learn the procedures and expectations for your class. You want to keep them engaged, but you have information from administration/department that you have to share.

My plan is to think of our 55 minute classes in a few chunks. 15 minutes for business, 35 minutes for science, 5 minutes for review.

15 minutes of business: On the first day, the students get a syllabus (school required) and I briefly highlight a few key things (late work, class website, required supplies). I also introduce myself and give a few interesting facts about myself and give the students a chance to ask questions about me. I absolutely hated icebreakers when I was in school, so I don't do any of those, but I do give them a chance to learn a little about me. I feel like it really helps them create a connection quickly. During the first 15 minutes, I also have them fill out their homework log information (I'll post about this later!).

35 minutes of science: For all subjects, I start with a bell ringer each day. At the beginning of this portion I explain how the bell ringers will work, what they papers will look like, and what they are expected to do. The first day bell ringer is really simple -- "What are you most nervous for in _____?" Sharing the answers really creates some great discussion and helps calm some nerves. On day two I usually ask what they are most excited for to keep them excited for the year.

The rest of this portion of the class period looks different depending on the subject. For biology, I start with any activity that gets them thinking like scientists -- making observations, asking questions, creating hypotheses. You can learn so much from them by having an open discussion and brainstorming. I love using the Amazon Fly story on the first day. Students can take the discussion in so many directions!

For chemistry, I do a fun demo. My favorites are the traffic light demo and dehydration of sugar by sulfuric acid. Both of them have results that are baffling to them at first and help to get them excited about the impending doom of chemistry. This year, I used the demo to set up and start talking about CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) writing. We did a quick example together, then they did one on their own related to the demo. I helped facilitate some ideas and get them on the right track.

5 minutes for review: The last five minutes, I review some basic procedures like what to do when they get into the classroom, what supplies they need, and the procedure for late work. I repeat this throughout the week as a call-and-response.

After the first day, things get easier since you have more time for content and less "business" to talk about. Sometime during the week I am sure to cover my classroom expectations. I made this fun presentation of classroom expectations using memes! It got at least a few giggles (high schoolers are a tough crowd...). I also start every class period reminding them of procedures. After the bell rings I will ask "What should you be doing right now?" to which they will hopefully respond "Answering the question on my yellow sheet!" (in other words, their bell ringer...).

Tips for a Smooth Transition Back to School

#1: Don't ignore your content! 

Find a way to include something content related into every day. Make sure its something engaging and interactive so they are able to use their social skills and brains a little!

#2: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. 

If you want students to follow your procedures, repeat them over the first several days, weeks, and months of school! They need reminders and it will hold you accountable to sticking to your plan! I find simple call and response works great for this and you can easily fit it in at the beginning or end of class.

#3: Have a plan for everything. 

Before school starts, have a plan for everything -- late work, make-up tests, group work, bell-ringers. Remind students of what they need to do in these situations. It will help you keep your sanity later.

#4: Introduce Year-Long Themes

Are you going to be doing notebooking throughout the year? Introduce it the first week. Plan on utilizing CER writing? Introduce it the first week. Have an organizational system you want them to follow? Introduce it the first week. Have a specific note taking method? Introduce it the first week. 

Students need time to learn and adjust to the rhythm and procedures of not only your classroom, but in all of their classrooms! Be patient with them, keep class exciting, and you will be sure to have a great start to the year!

... Using Technology to Spice up Boring Topics

Most chemistry classes begin with talking about lab safety and lab equipment. These are necessary, but mundane and boring. In our high school, students are required to pass a safety and equipment quiz as well as return a safety contract before they can do the lab. For teachers, this means at least a week before we can do any labs involving heat, chemicals, or glassware. So how exactly can you keep students engaged and excited to come to class every day when you are going over boring safety rules and equipment?

I find that anything that allows students to talk to each other, create something, and use technology does a pretty good job of keeping their attention. For lab safety and equipment, I decided to assign them a video project. The groups of 2 were assigned three pieces of lab equipment and two safety rules. Their task was to explain what the equipment is used for and describe the safety rules and why its important. I gave them [almost] two full class periods to work on it -- day one for planning and day two for filming. Since this was during our first week of school, many students don't know each other yet so I didn't want them to have to worry about finding time outside of school to work together.

The videos were short -- some less than 30 seconds! -- but I told them that as long as they included all the information and were thorough, the length wouldn't matter. Some students decided to put their shining faces on camera, while others chose to use paper to create signs with pictures and descriptions. They had options about how they would like to create the video, so each student could cater to their strengths and feel comfortable. This was during the first week of school, so some anxieties were already high! Some groups were more artistic and theatrical, and others were more informative.

Students recorded the videos with their phones and uploaded them to our class page. I looked through them and compiled some of them to watch on Friday after they take their safety and equipment quiz. Here's an example of one of the videos:

And yes, I do tell them the rule is "no shenanigans." It seems to help them remember, and it gave me a cool catchphrase to use during labs. 

I think overall the students did really well with this assignment! They were working hard both days (at least most of them) and became familiar with some of the common equipment we will be using. It was a great break from the typical back to school stuff. 

What do you guys think? Do you have any tricks to spicing up boring topics?

... My Classroom is Finally Ready!

I can't believe our pre-planning week is over already! I seriously could use another day or two -- a meeting free day or two would be even better. In terms of planning, I feel really good! There are a few things I would still like to do in my classroom, but I will work on that over the next few weeks. I couldn't keep it to myself anymore though and wanted to share my classroom with everyone! I have a couple of new things I'm extremely excited about! 

I teach both Biology and Chemistry, so my classroom has lots of lab drawers and cabinets. I have three rows of desks in the center and I have stools at four of the lab benches. My classes are around 30 students or larger, so most of my open space is occupied with desks for them. 

As students walk into the door, this is the corner they see. On the brick wall are two [currently] blank posters I use to write reminders to the students like "Test tomorrow!" or "Lab Day -- Dress for Safety!" It's one of the last things they see as they leave, so hopefully it will be a good reminder wall for them. The tiny bulletin board above them will eventually say "Don't Forget..." but alas, I didn't have time for that this week. On the side of the fume hood I have my bell ringer folders that I like to call "Rate Your Week!" My students are going to turn in all their bell ringers for the week on one half sheet of paper on Fridays. They will sort them into whichever folder they feel best describes their level of understanding for the week. I have big plans for these bell ringers, not just boring review questions, so stay tuned for those details! 

On the other side of the fume hood is my Goggle cabinet, student supply center, and bulletin board. On the right side of the bulletin board are my binder lists (I will get letters above these at some point too, I promise...). Whenever a student gets a handout, it gets assigned a number and put into their binder. I keep track of the most recent papers they received. I'll talk about this more in my homework post that is coming soon! The left side of my bulletin board looks barren right now, but will have grade postings once those are available. 

My student supply center has the bin to turn in their homework, scratch paper, extra pens/pencils, and miscellaneous supplies like tissues and hand sanitizer. The bright yellow slips are the Late Homework forms students have to fill out before turning in late work. They fill it out, staple it to the late work, and when they get the work back, the parent must sign the slip. This is my first year trying this system, so I will let you know how it turns out! My "I Didn't Do My Homework..." binder will also be back here. Each student has a page in the binder. When they don't have their homework, they find their page and fill out an entry with the assignment name and why they don't have it. I'm going to talk more about my homework system in a later post too! 

I have to show off my gigantic stock room (not shared, this is just mine!). I have some extra student desks in there. Sometimes my team teacher will use it as a small group space, other times I pull the desks out if we need them, but they are out of the way in there. 

Most exciting part of the stock room -- new Acid cabinet! My old one has a door that is rusted shut, so this was much needed and appreciated! 

The front of my room has my teacher storage, student desktop, my desk, and demo station. The blue crate holds my copies for the week sorted into hanging file folders. I have them sorted by day and subject to help keep me organized. I also have a copycat binder to the ones my students keep for easy reference.

Front and center is my "Wall of Awesome!" Whenever a student gets an 80% or higher on a test, they write their name on a post-it and tape it to the wall. I love that its front and center in the room, sort of like a constant reminder to the students. 

My large metal cabinet has my reference books, extra copy paper, binders, and other things I don't need frequently. My bookcase holds my frequently used items. The blue baskets are for student supplies. I will pull these out and put them on the back student table when they need them that day. The top magazine boxes are an easy way to stay organized when I have piles and piles of papers. I also love the little frame with the quote! 

My desk is my happy place. The top corner has a cute flower pot, my Teacher of the Year award, and one of my favorite quotes! Yoda is so wise and knowledgeable. I try my best to keep this area clean, but this is about as clean as it will be all year! 

As I said, there are still some small things I would like to do, but I already love how my classroom looks! It is so much more interesting than it was last year, and I think the new supply table in back will help the students (and myself) be a little more organized. 

School starts on Monday! I think I'm planned and ready to go! Let's get this school year started!

... THIS is the why!

I love my job, I really do, but there are days you forget why you sit in hours of meetings or dig through piles of data or stay at school late putting together a lab.

Then there are days that you are reminded of why...

A student came into my biology classroom last year at the beginning of second semester. He was coming from another class, and was moving down a level by coming to my class. I met with his parents very early on to talk about why he moved levels, why he switched teachers, what struggles he was having... I talked to the parents about procedures and rules in my classroom, sort of an overview of what a day in class is like. Together we worked on a plan to get him back on track. By the end of the year, he was doing great in my class! Not only was he doing great on tests and quizzes, but he was being social with other students, and was very helpful with some of the struggling students during lab. He came out of his shell, and he was excelling! It was fantastic!

Sadly, I have to say goodbye to most of my freshmen Biology students at the end of the year. Very few will end up on my roster again for Chemistry because there are so many Chemistry teachers and I teach very few sections. It's a happy surprise to see a few familiar names on the Chemistry roster, but I never expect it.

This week started pre-planning for this school year. I received an email from the mom of my previously mentioned Biology student. She asked who to contact or what she could do to get him into my class again for Chemistry. You could tell she was going to do everything to get him in my class, not because the parents wanted him there, but the student wanted to be there. This is not a normal procedure. With a huge school, the master schedule is complicated and those types of requests just can not be considered regularly.

Well... the least I could do was ask.

I went down to the right office, talked to the right people, and out of pure luck, his schedule was able to be easily changed to be in my class.

Again, out of pure luck, his dad stopped by school today. He subs regularly and lives nearby, so he stops in from time to time. He came to my room and I was able to tell him in person that I was able to get the schedule change made. Instantly, I could see the tears in his eyes. He was so grateful. He told me about how reluctant the student was to even go to school first semester, but by second semester he was excited and focused, and he loved my class. My class was the reason he was able to get back on track and get motivated to do well in school. My class was the reason that student went from failing science to loving science, went from hating school to loving school. My class made an impact on that student's freshman year. My class did that.

As much as I'd love to think I've left a lasting impression on every single student, being able to get confirmation that I actually DID do that for a student is simply priceless. It reminds me that there is a reason behind all the hours of meetings, planning, and prepping. You never know which students are going to come to your class excited because it's their favorite part of the day. There is going to be a student in the bunch that is inspired and grateful for you. 

That is the why....

... It's Back To School Time!

It's that time of year again... I officially start school on MONDAY! I can't believe it's August. I know a lot of other states start school much later -- even after Labor Day -- but we start early in the south and are out of school by Memorial Day! I love not having school in June!

I have been itching to get back to work all week. I know, I should be relaxing by a pool, enjoying my final hours of relaxation... but I just have so many ideas on my mind that I just want to get started! I actually did a lot of "fun" stuff this week to get ready for school! During the school year, I don't normally have a lot of time to play with new webtools and try out new things. I've had all summer to let a few ideas percolate, so I was more than ready to put them on paper and get them ready for school.

I know a lot of teachers that start every class with a bell-ringer or warm-up problem. I have started class with practice problems when we are working on math concepts, but I'm not very good at making it a part of the daily routine in class. I feel like this is a missed opportunity, but could never find a system that I felt was meaningful for both me and the students.

I saw this pin on Pinterest, and started thinking. I loved the way that system has students evaluate their learning on their way out the door. But did I really want to look through them every day? Would I have time to do that? I know that if it was every day I wouldn't stick with it... but maybe I could do once a week... That seems much more reasonable. My plan was to give students a half-sheet of paper and hold them responsible for having it all week (and have a way for them to make it up if they miss class or lose it...) and on Friday, when they finish their warm-up, they can turn it in to whichever folder represents how they feel about that weeks content. This idea is still a work in progress! I will post an update when I have it all figured out!

The Creative Classroom had a similar idea, but with bins. I love the wording of these!

Some teachers have a clear way to write their lesson plans. Some teachers buy the same lesson plan book each year or print off their own. Personally, I have never found a system that really worked for me. I've tried printing them off and keeping them in a binder, but the binder I had was too bulky and I didn't like carrying it home or to meetings. I'm trying a new system this year, and I'm pretty excited about it! It's called Planboard. It's a free online lesson planner.

Favorite things:
1. Set your schedule/classes and there are many, many schedule variations for the schools with A/B days or different Thursdays...
2. Keeps plans from previous years
3. Day/Week/Monthly Views

This is what the Day View looks like:

I love how clean it is. It has a "notepad" area for notes for that day. For each lesson, you can attach files to easily find them (I probably won't use this feature) and you can attach standards! You can attach a set of standards to each course and it will track your standard progress throughout the year. I love this feature! This is something that is so time consuming for me to do on paper, but when it's online it should be much easier!

This system is all about sticking to it, so I'm going to try use it diligently and I will let you know my thoughts once the school year gets rolling.

To celebrate the start of school, I'm throwing a sale in my TpT Store AND there is a site-wide TpT sale going on too! Such a great time to find those new resources for school!

How are other teachers feeling about going back to school?

... I Discovered Piktochart!

I love going to PD sessions, especially in the summer. This summer, I was part of a resource development team. Luckily, all of the team members got along extremely well. When the time came for our last meeting of the summer, we really did have so much fun. The best part of the team is that we all had extremely different talents and perspectives which allowed us to come up with some very creative lessons and activities.

The best part about that last PD session was the technology focus. For me, I was the technology guru in the group. I love finding new websites to play with, new online project ideas for students, and new ways to make existing lessons more engaging. During the PD, we were shown a resource to A MILLION (okay, not a million... but a lot!) of online resources targeted at different teaching strategies, such as assessment, classroom management, or vocabulary. We had time in the meeting to play around with a few. I was able to go through the lists pretty quickly, since many of them I had used before or at least heard of and had an idea of what they did. I took my time to explore new ones that I had never seen. There were a couple of really good ones that I have added to our class Symbaloo for future projects and assignments. And then there was one that I became obsessed with and spent the night playing with...

Piktochart. 

It is advertised as being a website to create your own infographics. That was cool enough for me to at least check it out. I find infographics eye catching and interesting, even if they are about something as mundane as the composition of dust, or the statisitics of doing laundry. They are just pretty, and have cool layouts, and all these fun facts... 

If I could somehow combine that engagement I feel when looking at them with something in class, it must be a win... but I'm not a graphic designer. I was not born with that artistic gene, so perhaps I was getting into something that I really didn't know anything about... oh well, worth a shot.. 

I sign up for free, and see that there are templates I can try out either as an infographic (which is a long continuous page, not ideal for printing out), a report (which prints well on A4, which I found out is printer paper... DING DING!), a banner, or a presentation. Honestly I ignored the last two when I looked at report. I picked a pretty template... then realized I'd likely want to print them out in black and white, so a colored background was not condusive... and chose a different template with a light background instead. 

The editing layout online is pretty straight forward. You can delete or edit everything from the template. I chose a few details, but deleted almost everything else. You can delete the extra pages too if you don't need them. There is a toolbar on the side with options for graphics, text, background, tools... Seems like everything you need is there. 

It was surprisingly easy to work with. They provide lots of guide-lines to help you line everything up in a pretty way. There is a shockingly nice array of fonts to pick from. There are photoframes and textframes you can customize to really personalize things. I had so much fun playing around with the layout, font combinations, and paging through the icons (there is actually a huge variety here -- many of which you can change the colors of, which is a plus). 

So why even bother playing with all this? What in the world could that be useful for? 

My original thought was to use them as handouts or reference pages. There are a lot of topics that come up at the beginning of the year that students need to remember all year long. I started with those topics -- CER Writing, Metric Conversions, Graphing, Significant Figures... 

I started working on my class period websites today, and realized that they would be perfect for making a reference section on the website. After creating them, you can download them as .png or .jpeg files, which make them super easy to embed online. This also meant that future pages could be done with more color if I'm going to post them only online. I'm thinking of making a class rules/procedures one to post online. I could even email it to parents then too, which would be great I think. 

All of the ones I have made so far can be found on my TpT store as FREE items! What teacher doesn't love freebies?

I need fuel for my current obsession. What other topics would this be great for? 

.. We are Loving Skyforge!

We are often looking for new games to play -- specifically MMO's (massively multiplayer online games). Occasionally there is a new game that comes out that we play for a few weeks, maybe get to level cap, and then inevitably go back to World of Warcraft. In reality, World of Warcraft gets pretty boring after a while and turns into a huge time sink when you're waiting for queues.

Luckily, the husband reads lots of things on the newest games being released and heard about Skyforge several months ago when it went into Closed Beta for testing. We looked into it and decided to buy early access passes for Open Beta and were able to start playing a week earlier than the general public -- woot!

So far we love this game! Five Reasons Why:
1. Completely FREE to play
2. One Character, No Alts!
3. Immersive Combat
4. Endless Things to Do
5. Complex Talent, Ability, and Class Systems

The story of the game revolves around an immortal on the path to becoming a god in a sci-fi feeling world. Setting feels like Star Wars, which is awesome. The game has depth and complexities to it, unlike a lot of MMOs that are getting more and more simplistic in terms of stats. and talents. My favorite part? No Alts! Every single class can be unlocked on ONE character. You can change class anytime you are out of combat -- no special NPC requried.

Character at 4k Prestige

The combat feels like Tera -- Real-time, aiming system, active dodging. The abilities are complex and involve many different buffs and debuffs, modifiers, and dots. Talents offer a variety of different build possibilities. Abilities and talents are earned through the atlas system over time. More on that later.

The game is a combination of open-world and instanced adventures. The main storyline quest leads you to these different options. The open-world zones are very large and offer lots of quest chains for various rewards. The instanced adventures can be done with 1-3 players, making this game versatile and great for duo-ing, like my husband and I prefer. There are also 5-player dungeons, free-for-all PVP battles, and 3v3, 6v6, and 10v10 PVP battles to choose from. A lot of variety available.

The adventures, regions, and pvp offer a variety of awards, mainly Sparks, Supplies, Gear, and Credits. Credits are the in-game currency used to do things like upgrade gear slots and buy bag space. Gear slots consist of main hand and off hand weapon, four amulets, and four rings.

Unlike most MMOs, you do not earn levels from these adventures, but rather prestige. Every single piece of gear, talent node, ability node increases your prestige. Every single thing you do in the game is to increase your prestige. There is no prestige cap, although the real end-game begins at 30,000 prestige. I hit 4k prestige in about a week, to give that a little perspective.

The Ascension Atlas

Sparks of Insight and Class Sparks are used to enhance stats and  unlock classes. The tree is overwhelming at first and similar to games like Path of Exile. You can spend your Sparks of Insight at different nodes along the path to unlock stats and talents to enhance all of your classes, and eventually unlock additional classes. In the picture above, the golden line is the path I have already completed and the dotted blue line is my chosen path. The large white node is the Slayer class that I had almost unlocked at that point. You can unlock as many or as few classes as you choose. There is no way to "mess up" your atlas since every node offers benefit to whichever class you end up playing. It's a fantastic system. May be overwhelming at first, but simply reading the nodes when its unlocked will help you understand it much better.

Kinetic Atlas

In addition to the Ascension Atlas that has all of the classes, each class also has their own specific atlas. Class Sparks are spent here to earn talents and abilities for that class. The more you play a certain class, the more sparks you can earn for that class, and the more abilities and talents you will have.

In addition to all of the above, there is also an Order system (similar to followers in Star Wars: The Old Republic or garrisons in World of Warcraft) and Pantheons (like guilds, with GvG like Aion) that further provide things to do and progress. I will write more on these later.

I will be writing more about this game as time goes on, since I have mentioned it has depth and complexities. The game is FREE, less than 10gigs, and completely worth trying out if you enjoy MMOs.

... I Do Homework Too!

I don't know about you, but I don't give tons of homework! Perhaps I'm crazy, perhaps this is brilliant -- I have no idea.

I've posted about homework before, but in case you haven't read that past post (though you should!) if I assign homework, I typically portion out part of the following day to go over the homework together especially if it is a math intensive homework like many of the chemistry ones are. 

When this is the case, I get to do homework too! Hooray! 

Practicing Stoichiometry

I'm not sure if this is because I'm a newbie teacher still, but when I assign several problems, I work through them, showing my work, just like I would expect my students to do. Why?

1. Easy Reference

I can easily see how to work through the problem so when I go to write it on the board, I can make sure its easy-to-read and organized. 

2. Pinpoint Trouble Problems

There always seems to be a tricky problem hidden within an otherwise straight forward assignment. The only way to remember and spot them is to do them yourself. If I'm spot checking homework, or looking for practice problems, I choose these problems first to see if students were able to handle them. 

3. Answer Keys for Students

During certain units, I will give students multiple sheets of practice problems to work on in class at their own pace, with a partner, or in groups. Since they can start and work on whichever problems they wish, I like to have an answer key available for them to check their work. I always show my work the way I expect students to show their work. When they check their answer and have the incorrect answer, they know to go back and find what they did wrong. I feel like this is silently reinforcing the reason for why they have to show their work (even though I mention it continuously). 

4. Extra Practice!

Some concepts get rusty when you wait an entire year between teaching them (gas laws anyone?). Doing the homework helps to remind my brain of how to work out the problems. I will be the first to admit that I have  made many mistakes while working through practice problems in front of class, but doing the homework ahead of time at least minimizes some of them. It's always good to brush up on skills! 

Do my other fellow teachers also do homework? How to you brush up on your skills and target tricky problems?

...I Love Cooking!

Up to this point, this blog has mostly focused on teaching and sharing resources -- things like that. Believe it or not, I do enjoy doing other things (hopefully this isn't shocking to most of you...). I figured, why not share that realm of my life on here with you all?

Currently, I have a stay-at-home hubby and I teach during the week. He does a good job of staying on top of things at home like the dishes and running errands. There are two things he will not (cannot?) do: laundry and cooking.

Chicken and Spinach Gnocchi Soup

I do think anyone really likes to do laundry, so I put up with it on the weekends. I do however love cooking. He doesn't understand and feels bad about me cooking dinner after a day of work, but for me, it is relaxing and a creative outlet. I love tending a pot on the stove trying to perfectly season a pasta dish or exploring my spice cupboard to figure out a new variation of baked chicken. I won't say that everything I create is delicious, but I do a pretty good job most of the time.

There was one incident in which I accidentally double salted my chicken -- once in the marinade and once in the breading. It was disastrous. The husband looked at me horrified when he tasted it. I think that is the only thing I've made that he couldn't take more than one bite of...

Almond Pound Cake with Orange Glaze

I also love baking, a talent I share with both my coworkers and my students from time to time. Occasionally I will reward students who get A's on particularly hard tests with a homemade cookie. Their personal favorites seem to be cookies-n-cream cookies and double chocolate peppermint cookies. I leave a few at home for the husband and I and give the rest to my coworkers, who rarely seem to turn me down. They are pretty delicious.

I would love to share some recipes and cooking tips with you all! Any special requests?

... How I Met My Husband

My husband and I met in a slightly unconventional way and some people are shocked to hear the story.

I met my husband online, through World of Warcraft. 

Let's start at the very beginning... 

I started playing World of Warcraft when I first moved away to college. One of my high school friends convinced me to play with him as a way for us to "hang out" even though we were hours apart from each other. For those of you who don't know, World of Warcraft is an online game with thousands (millions?) of players who each play a character and can interact with each other within the world. I could take my character, meet my friends character, and run off and kill monsters with each other. We can chat with each other, or use a voice chat program like Skype, Ventrilo, or Mumble to talk to each other while playing. It was an awesome way to spend my weekends in college when my roommate went home to visit her friends and family and I was in my dorm alone. Helped with some of the homesickness for sure!

Raid Group; My Warrior (Loralae)

I played the game all the way through college, and by the time I was a junior I was getting pretty competitive in the game and played with a 25 person group at scheduled times several times a week. Because you play with the same people a lot, you really get to know each other and often times we would talk to each other and play outside of those scheduled times too. One of the people I played with invited me to get into voice chat with him and some of his friends to "hang out" in the game. My future husband happened to be in the voice chat too!

We hit it off immediately and began chatting on a regular basis. We exchanged phone numbers so we could text each other during the day. Eventually we were talking on Skype all night long, even as I was studying or working on homework. I made plans to visit him during fall break my senior year. We spent that Christmas together, he came to my college graduation... and the rest is history! 

This is quite a confession for me. Most of the time when people ask how we met, I just say we met online. Some people probably think its crazy to meet in a computer game, but its actually pretty common. The best part about it is that we automatically had something in common -- we both loved to play World of Warcraft. 

We have been together for five years now, and we both still play, although not as much as we used to because of other responsibilities. We have always set our computers up right next to each other so we can play together. Sometimes we will watch a movie or watch T.V. as we play, or one of us will be playing while the other is working on something else. We are able to talk to each other and discuss happenings in the game -- believe it or not there is a lot of drama sometimes! -- and are able to connect with each other even though we are playing in a virtual world. Those who don't play will likely not believe or understand it, but it works for us. 

We have expanded our horizons a bit since we first met. We no longer play just World of Warcraft, but also other Blizzard games (Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone), other mmo's (Aion, Rift, Wildstar), and other computer games (League of Legends, Flyff). We have had several video game consoles, but never played on them much. 

We are forunate enough to have several "couple" friends to play games with also! We play World of Warcraft with them, but we also get together for game night periodically and play a variety of strategy board games. This is a whole different type of gaming, but involves a lot of the same tactics that we are used to playing. We play board games that involve thought, planning, and strategy -- more than what is required in your average Monopoly or Scrabble game. Some of our favorites are Nuns on the Run, Smallworld, Lords of Waterdeep, and Smash Up. 

Shadows over Camelot; Settlers of Catan; Lords of Waterdeep

What types of games do you guys play? Does anyone love relaxing with an mmo like we do?

... Teachers Don't All Get the Summer Off!

I officially have less than one month until I have to go back to school and this summer has flown by! Luckily, I was able to spend a couple of weeks traveling and visiting family, but the majority of my summer was actually spent working really hard on things for next year. Just because I don't have students sitting in my classroom, doesn't mean that I'm just loafing on the beach for three months! 

I'm sure most other teachers you talk to are in the exact same boat. I am not complaining by any means, since I have been able to schedule around the work I need to do and do some things at my own pace, but I have been busy! Here are a few things that have taken up a lot of my summer time: 

Staff Development: We are fortunate enough to have some summer planning and staff development within our content areas. Over the course of two weeks, I spent six work days at school with my fellow teachers of Biology and Chemistry planning out things for next year. We wrote some tests, planned some labs, made some improvements to our online classrooms, and were able to brainstorm, collaborate, and plan for next year. I really think this work will pay off when we see each other again in the fall. It also gave me a short to-do list of things to accomplish before heading back in August. These are things I can do on my own time when the bright ideas happen to strike me (anyone else have this? 10 pm lesson planning because you had an amazing idea?).

Intervention Courses: I taught a science intervention course for one week at another high school in the district. This is different from summer school -- the content is very narrow and specific and only students who have no other options for graduation were in the class. The classes are small and taught with another teacher, but the class met for 4 hours every day for a week with a long test on the final day. It is very intense -- both for me and for the students -- but the students are very well behaved and try very hard since they know it is their very last shot at graduating. I love teaching this -- so rewarding! 

Resource Development: The district I teach in is extremely large and every summer teachers from the major content areas meet and develop some common resources to provide for district teachers for the school year. This year I was chosen to develop Chemistry resource with two other chemistry teachers from other schools. We had a huge list of tasks to complete by our July deadline -- everything from writing essential questions and reviewing the standards to creating writing prompts and assessments. The three of us divided up the work and met several times to make sure we were all on the same page. This was by far the largest undertaking for the summer, but after tonight I only have one more of my assigned tasks to finish! 

The last major thing I want to accomplish is to fill up my Teachers Pay Teachers store for the next school year! I have resources to update and new units, labs, and activities to upload. Make sure to check my store for new products to be posted and an upcoming start-of-school sale! 

Ideas for products you would love to see? Leave a comment below to let me know! 

Although I have been busy, I have enjoyed working on everything. I feel like the information and ideas will already be flowing when school starts in August. That is a great feeling for me! 

... Lab Day Today!

My chemistry students did a lab today that is one of the most intense labs they have done all year. The first semester of chemistry is mostly just the basics of matter and mixtures, but we don't talk too much about chemical reactions until second semester. This is the first lab we have done that involved a chemical reaction.

The lab we did involved a single displacement reaction of iron with copper (II) sulfate to produce copper and iron (II) sulfate. Students really seemed to like it since the copper (II) sulfate is a bright blue solution. Bright colors seem to catch their attention :) 

Typically, in order to do the lab students have to complete a pre-lab assignment that has questions about key prior knowledge and specific lab procedures. Instead of students doing the pre-lab on their own, we did it together in class. I also walked through the lab with them and explained techniques like decanting that were foreign to them. I do not normally take class time to go into that much detail, but this lab required it. It is a stoichiometry lab, so precision is absolutely necessary. I emphasized this to them as much as possible. 

Students walked in for lab day, I gave them a few last minute pointers and instructions, and they began working on the lab. It was quickly evident who was paying attention and who was not -- but we made it work. 

For the lab, students had to carefully measure out copper (II) sulfate, add distilled water, and heat it on a hot plate until it was fully dissolved. The reaction works best when the solid is completely dissolved and the solution doesn't boil. 

  

While the solution was still warm, they added iron filings and let the reaction sit for five minutes. Pretty quickly it was evident there was a chemical change -- strong odor, color change, solid forming. The originally bright blue solution turned a more brown-green color as the reaction occurred and copper solid formed. The solution is decanted into a waste container and the copper solid is washed and dried. 

The analysis portion of the lab asks students to compare the theoretical mole ratio (we did this together in class yesterday) with their experimental mole ratio. They have to perform several stoichiometry problems, calculate their percent yield and their percent error. 

To assess the chemistry labs, I give them an online quiz on our eClass platform and will also collect their lab to grade. The quiz is an easy way for students to see how well they understood the lab, since they are graded automatically and because it usually takes me a while to grade labs. I used this lab after we had spent several days practicing stoichiometry problems. This was their first chance at seeing why and how those calculations are actually used. 

This was my first year doing this lab, and I must say that I am impressed! For groups that followed directions correctly, their percent yield was pretty high -- although many of them lost some due to the decanting. This lab is available on my Teachers Pay Teachers website and includes teacher notes with supplies, safety precautions, and recommendations. 

I am hoping all the teachers out their had a great end to their week. I know I am personally ready for a weekend! What great things happened in your classes this week?