Reflection: Part 3 - MMHS

A Year of Professional Changes - Part 1
Part 2 - SHSE

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As I drove away from SHSE, I felt nothing but relief.

I was now in job-limbo, but I knew that SHSE was not sustainable for my mental health or my teaching career.

Over the several days, I was in constant contact with my new principal and HR, finalizing everything for my new job. Less than a week later, I was back in the classroom.

My new job was a bit different, and I'm sure many teachers would complain if they had the same situation, but for me, it was a oasis after a year in a desert. I was teaching biology and forensic science. I was teaching juniors and seniors for the first time. I was teaching in three different classrooms - rotating throughout the day. I was beginning two weeks into the second semester. I was starting in a new district and learning everything on the fly - new systems, new grade books, new acronyms (we all know every district has their own acronyms for everything). But I was willing to do all of it for this new start.

I was able to teach again. I had coworkers to collaborate with. I had administrators who cared about the students as individuals and as learners.

It was not long until I felt my rhythm coming back. 

I had all of February and half of March with my students and loved getting to know them, and them getting to know me. We had a routine and were having fun, but then we were cut short by COVID.

Distance teaching is a different ball game. Its challenging to keep in touch with students in the same way you do in the classroom. You can't do a quick check-in, you can't gauge their facial expressions.

But, it's made me appreciate MMHS so much more. From the first day, the focus as been on our students' well being. Administrators and teachers have been worried about ensuring our kids are fed, safe, and have access to our counselors and social workers. Those services were worked out first, then we tackled academics, but with a heart for the students who don't have access or are dealing with other circumstances. Our area is being hit hard by the virus, and MMHS is being cognizant and compassionate of this.

For the academics, I am still loving it. For my students engaged with the learning, they have had great feedback for me and have been asking great questions. During live sessions, they have been appreciative. It has pushed me to find creative ways to teach and explain things - always looking for the best way for students to learn a concept.

I have also learned more about my coworkers within the past two months through our collaboration sessions, and they have been able to see my strengths and weaknesses as well. Coming in at the middle of the year, it is easy to become an island, but this strange season of teaching has relied so much on collaboration and provided me a unique opportunity to get to know my coworkers to much faster than I think I would have normally.

I am not thankful for COVID by any means - I would still give anything to be back in a normal classroom and see my students every day - but it did provide me with some unique insight and opportunities that I don't think I would have had otherwise.

I am confident now that moving to MMHS midyear was the right decision for me.

Reflection: Part 2 - SHSE

A Year of Professional Changes - Part 1
Part 3 - MMHS

Reflection: A Year of Professional Changes - Part 1

The past year has been the most challenging, and in many ways, traumatic year of my professional career. It has brought me to two different states and three different districts. COVID-19 craziness aside, I have had to adapt and change in more ways than I have had to in all my 7 other years of teaching.

Since teaching from home, I have had time to reflect on what the last year has been like. It has given me time to focus on the parts of teaching that ignite passion and separate the parts of teaching that, in the words of Marie Kondo, do not bring me joy.

A few days ago, a Facebook Memory popped up that I so badly wanted to share, because it had pictures of colleagues I miss dearly; however, the post showed so much naivety for what my journey had in store, it no longer seemed appropriate.

So I'm writing here. 

I'm going to break this into several parts, since I am using this as a cathartic way to let out all of my thoughts and experience and send them into the void. This post will be a brief overview, and the others will be linked below, expanding on each experience.

Part 2 - More About SHSE
Part 3 - More About MMHS

To keep everything professional, any names I will keep to a capital letter, and schools will only be noted by an anonymous acronym.

Here's my journey. 

A year ago, I was teaching high school science - mainly biology courses, but also some chemistry - at PHS in Georgia. I had some of the best coworkers - a true support system in a state where I had no family aside from my husband. My administrators were truly supportive. Although every staff will find something to complain about, the administrators were truly some of the best I have worked with. I also had the opportunity to work at the district level and meet some amazing teachers from other high schools in the district and instructional coaches who pushed me to be the best science teacher I could be.

So why would I leave? 

We had no family in Georgia. We knew we wanted to be closer to family, to start a family, to have more longevity in our home. Georgia did not provide those things.

Ultimately, we moved to Michigan. The hiring timing is very different in the south, where school starts in early August, and in the north, where school starts after labor day. I was anxious about finding a job, since I was the breadwinner for our family. I networked as fast as I could and took a job at a high school before any large districts had even posted their openings for the next school year.

In hindsight, this was my mistake. I should have waited, but my anxiety took over and I wanted the stability in our move knowing that we would be financially okay. The pay was good and our big move seemed more realistic.

As a teacher at SHSE I felt undervalued, underappreciated, and belittled on a daily basis. My years of experience seemed like they did not matter. The knowledge of my content seemed like it did not matter. I quickly questioned - why pay a seasoned teacher when you could pay a sub less? A huge piece of teacher retention is ensuring teachers feel valued, heard, and appreciated for even the smallest of victories they have in their classrooms. Everyone has room to learn, but when a teacher is coached, it is just as important to boost the positive areas as it is to support the negative areas.

I spent Winter Break thinking whether or not the job was worth it. It hadn't even been a full semester, and it had taken a serious toll on my mental health and I could see myself becoming a worse teacher. I was losing my passion and joy for teaching - a job I loved so much at my previous school.

In January, I applied to an opening at MMHS and was offered the job. I put in my two weeks noticed, but was forced to resign the day I put in my notice. It was the most terrifying week of my life as I waited in-limbo between jobs. I took a pay cut to switch jobs, a financial move I wasn't sure we could totally adjust to, but my husband assured me that my mental health was worth it. I took the job not even knowing exactly what I would be teaching, or what my schedule would be, or what supplies I would have... I was walking into the unknown just hoping for reprieve from SHSE.

And it was. MMHS reminded me so much of PHS in terms of coworkers, administrators, support... Within a week I could feel my love of teaching coming back. Even through the COVID-19 distance teaching, I find myself enjoying teaching again, finally, a year later.

Customizing My Erin Condren Teacher Planner for High School

UPDATE: This blog post outlines the older layout for Erin Condren Teacher Planners! I will be writing a new post soon about their updated version - it includes almost all of the customization described below, so I still highly recommend it! 

If you are interested in purchasing your own Erin Condren Teacher Planner, use this link and get $10 off your first purchase! 

The video below includes an updated walkthrough of the planner and how I use it for secondary science!

This post is a long time coming, so bear with me as I give you all the details! I finally finished customizing my Erin Condren Teacher Planner for the 16-17 school year. I ordered it in May so I knew that I would have time to customize it and use it over the summer. I could not be more thrilled!

I loved this planner as soon as I saw it, but realized that some of the sections were really geared toward elementary teachers or teachers with a small number of students. I began searching for blog posts about customizing the teacher planner and I found TONS of amazing posts about how elementary school teachers customize it for their needs, a few about how middle school teachers use it, but very few about using the planner for High School. Us high school teachers need fun planners too! I consider myself a relatively creative person, so I decided to tackle this challenge: Customizing an Erin Condren Teacher Planner for High School!

So much of the planner is already perfect. Some of the things I did not customize are the monthly layouts and notes sections. There is a tab for each month, a two page monthly spread, and three notes pages for each month. Perfect! I already made use of some of the notes pages at a recent PD session!

The sections I don't find useful for high school are the attendance section, grid paper, checklist section, and Birthday section. Luckily, I have an amazing idea for each of these! The video below has a quick overview of the changes I have made!

All the customization was done with washi tape, stickers (some included with the planner), double sided tape, and regular paper from my printer.

We don't celebrate birthdays in class, or we'd be celebrating all the time, so I decided to change the class birthdays section into a long-term To-Do list and an area to keep track of books to read, items to order, and ideas for the future. It will slowly fill up during the year and will be a great place to look back to in May when we are wrapping up. The stickers on this page are from the back of the teacher planner! I may end up ditching the two-toned look and just put straight washi across. I haven't decided yet.

The attendance section isn't very useful for me, because we take electronic attendance. I use the electronic attendance constantly, so I don't want to make a paper version. I decided to change my attendance section into an Email/Contact Log for parent contact. Although I keep copies of all the emails I send, they get filed away into a folder. Parent emails can be obscure and it gets easy to lose track of the dates you emailed and whether the parent responded. The attendance log already has a column for check marks -- perfect for checking whether a parent responded. There are also columns for name, date, and reason for contact. 

The grid section seems pretty useful for me, especially for seating charts and data tracking. For me, we change seating charts all the time and my classroom is an odd shape due to science benches. It didn't seem feasible for me to use the section that way. I have around 150 students, and about 10 students who enter or leave throughout the year. Our data tracking is already online, so I am going to stick to that. I decided to use the grid section for a Behavior Log and Intervention tracker. As the adage goes, 20% of your kids cause 80% of your problems, so for each class, I usually only have a handful of trouble makers. I plan on using the grid area to track their "bad" days and what we tried to do to fix it. If I end up meeting with the parent or counselor later, I have a quick place to look back and reference what has occurred in our classroom. Luckily, the grid pages are decorated but not labeled, so no customizing needed!

I love the layout of the lesson planning pages -- the days are horizontal and the preps are vertical. I love that each day is a different color and there is plenty of space for me to write without having to miniaturize my handwriting. There is room for seven preps, but most high school teachers don't have that many. I have two and a half preps -- Chemistry, Biology, and an ESOL section of Biology. I call the ESOL section a half prep since we are covering the same material and will be doing some of the same activities, but some of the plans will be modified. I didn't need seven sections for lesson plans, but I wanted to use up all the space that was provided. I thought about what other types of things I normally write in my planner throughout the year -- meetings, conferences, To-Do List, Reminders -- and knew there had to be a way to incorporate all of that. This was my solution!

I used thin solid colored washi tape to create four different sections. Two of the sections are two columns wide. This is where I plan on putting my lessons for Biology and Chemistry, since those are my main preps. The first page has three columns total, so I will use the first column for Biology and the single column for ESOL Biology. The second page has four columns total. The first two are for Chemistry. The last two columns are for To-Do lists and Meetings. I am super excited to start using this section. I love being able to have everything I need for the day in one spot.

The checklist section is basically a gradebook -- which is grade for elementary teachers who only have thirty kids. It doesn't seem big enough to keep track of grades for all 150 students I see for the entire year. I decided to use this section to record assessment data. By the time we take our first tests, most of the schedule changes are complete and my rosters are more stable. At the semester change, I may have a few students switch, but most of them stay the same. I plan on tracking mastery data for standards and assessment scores. I am keeping a row at the bottom to track averages. This is going to be super handy when I am sitting in an IT meeting and trying to remember what student tests looked like. It also allows me to record their raw score and curved score for interims, EOCs, and other curved tests we give.

So far, I could not be more ecstatic about this purchase! I will be using my planner during the summer for summer school, meetings, conferences... but I will keep you all updated if I make any other changes once the school year begins!

Update: Two weeks into the school year - AND I'M IN LOVE! I have kept everything the same minus a few additional stickers and washi scattered around. The best purchase -- Highly recommend high school folks!

If you are interested in purchasing your own Erin Condren Teacher Planner, use this link and get $10 off your first purchase! 

Blog Challenge: Day 15

Name three strengths you have as an educator. 

This is hard. Not because I think I'm the best at everything (I'm not) and not because I think I suck at everything (no professional should feel this way), but because it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what I think I'm good at and what makes me succeed at my job.

#1: I love these kids. 

You can't be a teacher and hate kids. If you do, you need to find another profession. Regardless of age, the students are literally the entire reason you are in the building with the job of teaching them how to grow, learn about life, and one day graduate. It's a pretty darn important job.

Of course, there are tons of kids that drive me crazy. There are kids that exhaust me every single day and that I could complain about for far to long. But for every one of those kids is another kid who adores you, loves your class, and wants to confide in you. Sometimes its really hard to tell what a kid thinks of you, so I try to make sure every kid feels recognized and important in my class. You never know what will turn their day around. At the same time, I never know what a kid is going to do to turn MY day around.

I feel like I am genuinely invested not just in them learning science, but in them growing up and becoming little adults. I think it is one of the things that my students appreciate about me and its one of the things I love most about my job.

#2: I get crazy ideas.

I am the crazy person that will be taking a shower and get an awesome idea for a new lab and I will jump out and quickly write it down so I don't forget (this actually happens, my husband can vouch for it). Unlike most teachers, I love the planning and creating part of my job. I am rarely satisfied with using something from someone else. I always want to make sure that what we are doing in class is easy for my students to understand and meaningful. I completely love coming up with new "lightbulb" moments for my kids in class. Sure, not every single idea is like this and sometimes I get ideas for things that I never even get to use, but I feel like my creativity and planning is one of my best attributes as an educator.

#3: I speak up 

Staff meetings and instructional team meetings can be so frustrating sometimes. Some people want to rush through everything so they can go home and the meeting feels forced and unproductive. Other people want to give a million anecdotes and pull the whole meeting off-topic. It can be frustrating for sure. I'm a pretty laid back person, so I usually sit and quietly take notes, but when there is something I feel really strongly about, I definitely speak up.

This is especially true for areas I feel passionate about, particularly science literacy and writing. I volunteer and provide ideas for classroom literacy as often as I can because I feel its extremely important. In the two short years I have been at my current school, I have been able to create a niche for myself that the administration is definitely noticing. I am becoming the go-to person for questions about science writing and I absolutely love it. It is always nice to feel necessary, especially in a huge school like mine, but it is even more rewarding to feel necessary to something you feel so strongly about. That never would have happened if I had never spoken up and made my thoughts known from the very beginning.

Blog Challenge: Day 12

How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years?

In the next couple of years, my goal is to eventually teach all Biology courses and really specialize and hone my strategies for that course. In this coming year, I am going to be teaching a section of all English Language Learners (ELLs) for Biology and I am hoping to focus on developing strategies I can use not only with that class but with my other courses also. 

This year was the first year I used interactive notebooks and I am hoping to perfect those in the coming years. I think it provides so many opportunities for students to interact with the material and really evaluate and think about their learning. 

I am in a constant battle to become more organized, so hopefully over the next five years I can find organizational ideas that help me keep all of my student supplies and teacher supplies organized. 

In terms of teaching, I hope that over the next five years (and further than that) I can come up with ways to keep students engaged with the material. There are portions of every unit that I find are hard for students to stay focused. I also want to continue to add variety in my classroom, where every day isn't the same. Over the next five years, I want to really work on integrating technology into each unit as well as engaging labs, group work, vocabulary work, and writing. 

This is a huge task, but over the next five years hopefully I'm able to take some baby steps to creating units that use a variety of strategies and create meaningful experiences for students. I feel like right now a few units are great and a few units are not. 

As an educator, I hope to take on more of a leadership role for our Biology instructional team. It's an area I'm very passionate about and I would love to facilitate meaningful collaboration with my other colleagues because I feel like that would really improve my teaching in the classroom. 

Blog Challenge: Day 10

Share Five Random Facts About Yourself

1. I have traveled to four different continents. 
2. I like Twinkies best when they are frozen. 
3. My favorite authors are David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs.
4. Our cats are named after our World of Warcraft characters (Kata and Lora)
5. I find baking and cooking to be relaxing after a long day. 

Share Four Things From Your Bucket List

1. Travel to the other three continents. 
2. See the northern lights.
3. Go skydiving
4. Own a dog

Share Three Things That You Hope For This Year, as a "Person" or an Educator

1. Eat More Veggies
2. Drink More Water
3. Not Be Afraid to Say "No"

Share Two Things That Have Made You Laugh or Cry as an Educator

1. Cry -- One of my students who had a rough home life became pregnant, soon after homeless, and ended up leaving school and running away. I have no idea where she is or how she is doing.
2. Laugh -- While dissecting pigs at the end of the year, one of my mischievous troublemaker students looked at his group extremely seriously and said "I think I found its butthole."

Share One Thing You Wish More People Knew About You

1. I'm introverted, and sometimes when I say no, its just because I've been around people too long and need time to recharge and relax. 

Blog Challenge: Day 9

Write about one of your biggest accomplishments in your teaching that no one knows about (or may not care). 

If you read some of my previous posts, you may know that I worked on curriculum during my first years teaching at an alternative school near Detroit. The curriculum was online based and required a lot of hands-on teaching to get teachers to be able to use the tool efficiently. 

One of our biggest challenges initially was with the online platform, since we had no formal training in it and the department in charge of the platform was not communicative with us as a staff. By the end of the first year, we had identified it as the biggest headache we had dealt with throughout the year. 

I have always been a technology-minded person. I play video games in my free time, I have a husband who builds computers and we talk a lot about technology together. I tasked myself with being the link between the technology department and our school, with hopes of things running more smoothly. I met with the technology department head during the summer, had some crash course training, and was put in charge of editing and transferring our curriculum for the next year. It was a huge undertaking and I was excited to be a part of it. 

I spent hours working on our Biology and Chemistry courses to ensure they would work as a template and model for the next year, a model the other teachers could use for their courses. I transferred every single course in our school to our website for students to have access. I helped my other coworkers with issues they were having in their specific courses and continued to provide support throughout the school year. I worked with our whole staff to help solve some of the big issues from the previous year.

It was a ton of work and it was work I was not necessarily trained to do. Many of the issues were ones I needed to research and resolve on my own, but it was all work I enjoyed doing and I learned so much about not only curriculum design but also about technology integration within classrooms. 

By the end of the year, I was awarded Teacher of the Year for our building -- an award many colleagues did not seem surprised by, but it didn't really explain why. I felt like I had done a great job with my teaching job and with my students, but I knew that a portion of why I was awarded TOTY was because of all my technology work with the staff. 

That was the last year I worked in Michigan, and it was so difficult to say goodbye to the staff after having the feeling that we had traveled through the trenches together. I still have the award on my desk today and I look at it often and remember how well we worked together and how much energy I put into ensuring every educator in the building had the technology support they needed.

Blog Challenge: Day 4

What do you love most about teaching?

It is so hard to lose this focus when it is April and you're anticipating End of Course tests and finals and you are crossing your fingers just hoping -- praying -- that all your hard work pays off and your students do well. You're stressed, your kids are stressed, and you cannot wait for summer to come so you can maybe have one day when you don't have to think about teaching. 

This is how I feel right now. It's the end of spring break and I'm anxiously planning for the week to come and thinking ahead to all of the review strategies I could possibly use as we approach finals. It's stressful, but would I want another job? Absolutely not. 

What I love most about teaching is the kids. The kids are the reason I wake up at 5 am and rush to work, being sure to get there extra early so I have time to plan before they arrive. When they get to school, some come into my room to interrupt my planning with last minute questions before their test or to eat breakfast in my room to get away from the craziness of the hallway. Some come in to finish a test or make-up a quiz. I am surrounded by students before the day even begins, and I absolutely would not change a thing. 

I have worked with a lot of different students who have gone through the struggles of bullying, anxiety, pregnancy, violence, homelessness, abuse... Every student has their own set of circumstances they are dealing with. It can be easy to dismiss some as having it "easier" than others, but in their eyes, they feel like they are struggling. As a teacher, I try to acknowledge and guide them through whatever they are dealing with. Sometimes this is talking to counselors and parents, and other times its just being someone for them to vent to. 

Many people think as a teacher, my job is to teach -- which is true. A lot of my energy goes towards creating resources and planning and replanning lessons. I truly enjoy that part of my job. I love the reward of having created something and seeing it help my students understand content. The other part of my job is about my kids. They need to learn, and in order to learn, they need to be able to focus and feel safe within my classroom. 

I truly believe that every student needs a teacher in the building that they feel like cares for them, as a person, and will be there for them when they are having a bad day. For students who want to come and vent to me, I try to have an open door and make the time for them because I know that if they feel comfortable with me and are able to feel supported by me, they will be able to focus and learn in my classroom. 

What do I love about teaching? The kids. The reason I teach is for the kids. 

Blog Challenge: Day 1

I came across this Reflective Teaching 30 Day Blog Challenge. Originally it was for September 2014, but as this school year starts to wind down, I thought it would also be appropriate to start it now! I will be following the prompts listed at the following site:

Reflective Teaching: A 30 Day Blogging Challenge

Write your goals for the school year. 

I have already started thinking about the next school year (which seems insane to some, I know). I am a person that feels relaxed when I can plan, so reflecting and thinking about the school year when it is fresh in my mind helps me to do that. 

Here are some of my goals for the coming school year. 

Be more attentive to student (freshmen) need for structure. 

I would love to be able to sit and have discussions and conversations about content with students, but he reality is that my 14 year old freshmen are just not at that point yet. They are trying to navigate high school for the first time and trying to figure out the new social atmosphere. I find that my classroom works best with structure and I want to be more attentive and meaningful about providing that structure for my students. 

My plan is to have a more specific routine for the class. This started great last year, but as I made some instructional changes, this fell by the wayside. I also want to be more mindful about giving time limits and deadlines. I find my students do a great job of staying on task when there is a timer on the board and I want to remember to do that more often. I am going to be more attentive to their need for specific instructions and expectations for assignments. 

Be more organized and reduce the paper. 

As much as I love being planned and organized, after a few weeks my desk is buried in papers and a complete mess. I am going to be much more mindful about only keeping what is completely necessary and recycling the rest. 

Plan Thoughtfully for Chemistry Notebooks

This past year I started notebooking with Biology and I absolutely love it. My goal for this coming year is to also notebook with my Chemistry class. I want to focus on planning thoughtful and meaningful activities and instruction for Chemistry since I feel like those were my weakest classes this year. 

What are your goals for the coming school year? 

... 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. 

... 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....

...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! 

... It's Finally Friday!

Some weeks seem impossibly long -- this was one of them! This is the first 5-day week we have had since Christmas break. That one extra day really makes a difference! I am very glad for a weekend!

Since it's Friday, I thought I'd do a little bit of recap and reflection on how I feel my week went teaching wise.

Biology
This was a hard week in Biology. We are in the genetics unit and were working on the more complicated types of inheritance -- incomplete dominance, codominance, sex-linked, genetic disorders. Some of my students really enjoyed it, especially when we were doing "who dun' it" sort of genetic problems. It made for some dramatic realizations.

"She is NOT the mother of that baby! She stole the baby from the hospital!"
"That son was adopted!?"
"These two could be the father, but not these two!"

They really seemed to enjoy and relate to those types of problems (likely due to the type of television they watch).

I feel like I should have done more of the problems together as a class. I was finding myself answering the same questions over and over. Reminder to myself: practice together, in groups, and independently. All three serve a different function.

Chemistry
My chemistry classes had their first test of the semester this week. Grades were not great -- a lot of A's, a lot of F's, and not many in the middle. The unfortunate part is that all of the next few units build on each other, so I'm concerned that the students with F's are setting themselves up for another challenging unit (we are going from moles to stoichiometry).

Because the moles unit is so vital to understanding the rest of the semester, I am giving them a retake opportunity. They have to see me outside of class (before school, during advisement/homeroom, or after school) to look over their test and discuss the retake. In order to retake the test they have to complete two study activities -- online resource (with proof of working through problems or taking notes), practice problems, homework corrections, book reading/questions, or tutoring session (Science National Honors Society provides free tutoring at our high school). Once they complete two, they can schedule a day to retake the test. Hopefully they put some effort into understanding the material the second time and they are able to improve some of their grades.

Since the test, we have started the mole ratios and mole-mole stoichiometry problems. They are not pleased so far, but I have faith that they will get the hang of it. This was the first that they have seen dimensional analysis, and I feel as though I should have introduced it sooner. Some love it and understand it, some do not. I had a conversation about neat and organized work that I should have definitely had at the beginning of the moles unit instead -- could have prevented several headaches.

That was my week in a nutshell. I'm ready for a few days to relax, do some baking, and watch some football!

How was your week? Here's to hoping it was a great one!

... I Have Four Classroom Quirks

I think every teacher is guilty of having at least a few quirks -- certain brand of pens, certain organization system, desks aligned perfectly, papers turned in alphabetically... the list goes on! Some of the quirks I have help to keep me sane when my students are acting younger than their age, and some of them have no other purpose except to give me a little enjoyment. 

In no particular order, these are my quirks. 

1. A Similar Font (Found Here)

Every single assignment that I am able to customize is printed in the same font for all of my classes. I have even been guilty of re-typing something that isn't customizable just so I can print it in my font. 

I started doing this after starting a new job and talking to our department chair. She uses one font for all of her assignments and noted how as soon as a student, teacher, or administrator sees her hand-outs, they know they are hers. I loved this idea, for some reason. It also makes a binder full of materials look connected, as if they all belong to the same book. 

The only time I do not use the same font is when I type up a test. The font I use is pretty casual looking and some things, like decimal points, are hard to read at times. For a test, I use a more "boring" font, but continue to use that same font for all tests. 

I also keep the formatting at the top of the page the same for every assignment -- name blank, period blank, date blank taking up row one; title bolded and underlined for row two. These are simple things that make all the student handouts, labs, quizzes, and activities look similar. 

2. An Organized File Cabinet

I am that crazy person down the hall frantically searching for a right tab file folder because I only have center tab and left tab folders. All of my file cabinets are as neatly organized as possible -- I use alternating tabs labeled with blue ball point pen. I don't try to keep a huge amount of files, since most of them are electronic anyways, but I do file away the extra copies I have. It provides easy access to find something for an absent student, to share with a colleague, or to make extra copies of.

I have four file cabinet drawers currently: Biology, Chemistry, Biology Tests, and Chemistry Tests. I find that keeping separate drawers for tests saves a lot of space. I keep all the "Do Not Write On This Test" copies of tests clipped/rubber banded together for easy access later. The 9th grade academy at the high school has a re-test policy so there is a good chance I will need to access all of those tests at a later date. 

Hopefully sometime soon I will have the chance to go through and further organize my file cabinet. My goal is to color code the folders into categories: Quizzes, Labs, Test Review, and Classwork. 

3. Class Color Codes/File Bins

I teach two preps and have an alternating schedule -- Biology, Chemistry, Biology, Chemistry -- which can make it complicated to keep my head on straight at times.  To help myself out, I assigned Biology the color Green and Chemistry Red. The agenda/essential question for each class is written in this color on the board along with any upcoming lab, test, quiz, or project due dates. 

I keep a file bin of all my copies for the week organized by class and day of the week. I have a "catch all" folder for each subject that holds original copies, scantrons, test answer keys, assignment answer keys, etc. All of this eventually gets filed away somewhere else, but lands in this folder until I have time to sort through it. I have a folder for each day of the week for both subjects. All my biology folders are in the front, all my chemistry folders are in the back. At the very back, I keep extra file folders.

As I make copies for the week, I put them in the folder for that day. I can easily move the copies around if my plans change. On test days, I keep all of the test materials in the folder (periodic table, scantrons, test copies, and after-test activity). I have found that this prevents me from giving Class A a study guide, but forgetting it in Class B. 

I have absolutely loved this system so far. As soon as I make copies, I put them in a folder -- which has cut down on a lot of counter/desk clutter. If a student is absent, I can easily find the missing work from earlier in the week. I typically empty out the folder and file away the extras when I have new materials to put in the folder for the following week. 

4. A Teacher Binder

Not only do I have a teacher binder (as most do) but I have a particular kind of binder, with labs/dividers/inserts in my particular font (see #1). My binder has eight sections: Attendance, Seating Charts, Calendar, Lesson Plans, Grades, Assessments, Biology Standards, Chemistry Standards. Most of these sections are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll explain a few of them. 

I use current seating charts to also number lab groups or project groups. As I change the seating chart or lab groups, I replace it in the binder. I also post a copy on the back bulletin board in my room. 

The lessons plan tab is by far my largest tab. I keep all of my lesson plans and will eventually file them away. I created a template unique for my schedule that has three sections: Biology, Chemistry, and Advisement. There is a box for each of those for every day of the week. I also put a notes section at the end of each class for lab setup notes and other reminders. The boxes are pretty large. I usually divide the biology and chemistry boxes in half and use the upper box for objectives and activities and the bottom box for warm-ups and homework. I always always write in pencil. I change plans often and have to erase things. I'll create a post later with the lesson plan template I use. 

The grades section also has all of the IEP/504 accommodations for my current students. I find this very handy when I have to quickly recall which students get extended time and which do not. Highly recommend! 


I'm sure there are other quirks I have, but these are the ones I experience every single day. What classroom quirks do other teachers out there have? 

... I love it!

Welcome to I Teach Science and...

Before I delve into the inner workings of my teacher brain and show you the many ideas and things I have made for my classes, I wanted to share a bit of myself!

I am a third year teacher currently teaching High School in Georgia. I currently teach Biology (freshmen) and Chemistry (sophomores). I used to think that I only wanted to teach biology and I didn't want to teach chemistry, but I am finding that I almost enjoy chemistry more -- maybe this has something to do with the maturity difference between freshmen and sophomores!

I didn't originally go to school to be a teacher, but that doesn't mean I don't LOVE what I do. I do think that my unconventional path to the classroom has given me some perspective and perhaps some unique ideas and methods. 

Outside of the classroom, I love cooking baking, video games, and The Gilmore Girls (among other shows that my husband refers to as "woman shows"). 

I love my husband, I love our cats, and I love my job. It's all pretty wonderful. 

I decided to start this blog to share some of the resources, ideas, and experiences I have every day in the classroom. As a teacher, I love reading the blogs of other teachers, but I get frustrated when I search and find SO MANY middle school or elementary school blogs (which inevitably I still read to find things that translate to high school), but I have found very few High School Science blogs, for whatever reason. Hopefully, this will not only connect me to other high school science bloggers but also open the gates for some collaboration and brainstorming -- Yay!