Spring has sprung my friends! The weather here in Arizona has been so nice, I’ve tried to take advantage of it before it gets to 110F. When the weather is nice, I like to find ways to take my students outside. There are almost endless possibilities for an outdoor classroom,
Are you taking grading home with you regularly? Do you feel overwhelmed just looking at the student turn-in basket? It’s time to streamline your grading, and I’m going to help you save hours of time! When I was a new teacher, I felt like I had to grade everything students
What are station activities? I love love love using stations in my classroom. They are essentially student-led activities that are placed around the room. Students have a few minutes per station and rotate around the room to complete tasks. While they could be used as an introductory activity, I prefer
The past two years of teaching have been TOUGH. We are all extremely tired and need a break. I see posts all over social media saying “use your sick days!” and “don’t feel guilting for taking a mental health day!” But here’s the thing- many of those posts are from
As if teaching mid-pandemic wasn’t already hard enough, this past year my district moved to block schedule. I went from over a dozen years of teaching 50 minute classes to being thrown into 93 minute classes. Over an hour and a half! It turned my world upside down. Here’s the
It doesn’t matter if you’re a headstrong toddler, adult, or somewhere in between…. we all like to do things our own way. Our own opinions matter! Sometimes we forget the importance of providing students opportunities to have choice in how they learn or how they want to be assessed. Some
As a new teacher, pacing was one of the HARDEST things for me to get right. Some classes would finish right on time, others would finish early, and with others I would run out of time to get through everything. Some kids just work faster than others and will complete
Know that feeling of DREAD when you wake up sick and school starts in a couple hours? Or are you so mentally drained you need a day off? (Been there!) Coming up with sub plans can be more of a hassle than just showing up and pushing through. BUT, you
When I moved to my current school the department chair made it clear that we should “teach bell to bell.” I understand the logic in this, and sometimes class does last exactly 50 minutes. But if EVERY teacher taught bell to bell EVERY period, students would never have time to
Looking for low stress and low prep ideas as we navigate distance learning? Here are 5 ideas you can use with your secondary science students: 1. CLICK HERE to check out virtual field trips your students can explore! 2. CLICK HERE to see a full list of science related movies,
If you haven’t used small student whiteboards in your classroom, I promise you, you are missing out. As soon as the whiteboards come out, I have automatic buy-in from students. Students love writing on them, and as a teacher I love them because they are great for visual learners, and
It can be frustrating when students are absent on lab days. You spend a lot of time setting up and often spend money out of your own pocket for supplies. If you are doing labs often or teach multiple preps, dealing with student absences just gets harder to juggle. By
