Teaching AP Biology, Exam Review, FRQ Prep, and MORE With Tiffany of AP Bio Penguins [Episode 176]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
Spring is here, at least where I live. And with springtime comes standardized testing season. Particularly for all of you AP Bio teachers out there, Cinco De Bio, which my guest today introduced me to that term based on the AP bio exam day, and I can’t stop laughing about it. Cinco de bio, though, it will be here before we all know it. So I just think it makes the release of today’s interview even better. I am thrilled to introduce you all to today’s guest on the secondary science simplified podcast. But honestly, she probably doesn’t need much of an introduction for many of you because so many of you have requested for me to interview her and get her on the podcast. And that’s Tiffany of AP Bio Penguins.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:48]:
Tiffany has taught high school science and math for thirteen years. Throughout that time, she’s taught AP biology, magnet biology, anatomy and physiology, precalculus support, micro bio, research, and high school support. Her passion is teaching AP biology, and she’s taught it for thirteen years. During her specialist degree, she investigated technology applications for education and created an independent AP review account, which is her AP Bio Penguins on Instagram. And that is where she shares reels and resources. She posts quick quiz games and periodically holds Instagram live review sessions. Tiffany has a BS in chemistry, a BS in biology, an MAT in secondary education, and an EDS in instructional technology. She enjoys spending her free time going on adventures with her two boys, affectionately known as Baby Bear and Peanut.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:43]:
Of course, in this episode, we talk all about her AP Bio review account that is free for students and teachers alike to utilize, but we also cover so much more. Tivity shares all of the ways that she freely supports AP bio teachers with resources and her email list, and she answers honestly, I probably asked her a hundred questions, all about labs, FRQs, review, exam prep, grading, and so much more for her AP bio classes. Y’all, I took notes while she was talking multiple times because she just had that much value to share. And like always, I found, even when I do these niche interviews for specific content areas or classes, you know, you may not teach, people always come back later and say, like, I don’t even teach that and I learned so much. So I really wanna encourage you whether or not you teach AP Bio, give this episode a listen. There are so many things she shares that I think would serve a variety of teachers. I cannot wait to get this conversation into your speakers or your headphones. So without further ado, I’m gonna stop talking and get to my conversation for you with Tiffany of AP Bio Penguins.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:54]:
This is secondary science simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only forty hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. Hi, Tiffany. How are you?

Tiffany [00:03:33]:
Good. How are you doing?

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:34]:
I’m great. I’m so excited you’re here. You have been very highly requested for my audience to be on the podcast.

Tiffany [00:03:40]:
That’s kind of nervous.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:42]:
You don’t even nervous. We’re so excited to have you. For maybe people who don’t know you, you’re most known for being Tiffany of AP Bio Penguins, a review resource account on Instagram. So I would just love to know, just to start off the bat, like, when you started that, did you just do it for your students? What did you predict it being? What was, like, your initial vision? How did that all come to be?

Tiffany [00:04:04]:
So I don’t know what year it was, but I had Instagram for my class. Like and I still have the same Instagram for my classroom. And Instagram had started out this new thing with stories that you could put little poll questions and all these things. And it was set up, I think, originally just to ask funky questions. But I was like, wait a minute. I can use this educationally. So I started just posting questions each weekend to get my kids ready for their upcoming quizzes. And then they said, well, can you do this before the APA exam? So I would pull, like, random topics from the year out, and then I would do it.

Tiffany [00:04:35]:
And after about two or three years of this, I was like, wait a minute. I can help other kids of the world. Like, they probably could use these questions too. So I posted it on the National AP Bio Facebook page, and these other teachers was like, oh, and there was this uproar of a ton of kids to my page. And then I thought, wait. Why am I having all these kids come to my school account when I can just create something different? And that’s when AP Bio Pain was really got started. And I think that was either 2018 or 2019 when I created the second account.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:05]:
Okay. That’s awesome. I love that you do it for free. I know that’s been an intentional choice. And so do you wanna share more about why you’ve done that?

Tiffany [00:05:13]:
I think it’s all about access. So the students that I’m working with, they’re students. Most students don’t have jobs. And if they do, they really shouldn’t be needing to spend that money on educational stuff. Like so it really becomes a bear of the families. And if your family can’t afford to buy resources, why should that be the barrier for you to be successful on an exam? So I feel like it’s all about equity of access, and I found that the free resources that are out there, they’re sometimes not that good. So I wanted to make sure that there was something out there that I was giving to my students. And since it was no extra work to put it to the masses, might as well just make it available for anyone.

Tiffany [00:05:55]:
So it started out being low impact for others, like, low energy for them. But now I’ve kinda put in a lot more energy trying to, like, you know, make sure that I’m making something new for the kids every year. And I asked them, hey. What do you want this year? And so this year, I’m making AP Bio math minutes. And so each day, I’m posting, like, a math question about AP Bio. And so yesterday, I did, like, the surface area of a sphere. Like and so each day, I post the math video because that’s important, and our kids sometimes struggle with math.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:25]:
Heard that. It is so important and it is also very hard. So we did you do you start doing this from the very beginning of the year? Do you wait till spring? Like, what does that look like for the AP Bio teacher listening that’s like, wait a minute. I haven’t been utilizing this free resource.

Tiffany [00:06:40]:
So I have everything available on my website, apbiopangways.weebly.com. Honestly, if you just Google AP Bio Penguins, you probably will flop up as the first hit. I have quizzes, games that I have open all year long. I’ve got review videos. I’ve got my 396 page review guide open all year long. I don’t usually start the review stuff until I try to do February 1 with the exam being so early this year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:07]:
Right.

Tiffany [00:07:08]:
May 5, you know, Cinco de Mayo. I had to start it at, like, January 26 this year, but it’s just like my me posting every day trying to help the kids. So, usually, it’s just random TikTok videos throughout the year saying, hey. Come be an AP Bio penguin and access these resources because sometimes the teachers don’t know. I think that about 50% of the the new followers, they find me on their own, and then they tell their teacher, and then their teacher then can tell students. So if you’re trying to use it all year long, it’s just kinda accessing the website and using the things that are openly available all year. You don’t really need to use the Instagram all year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:44]:
Yeah. That’s great. Well, we’re gonna link all that in the show notes too so everyone can find the enormous review guide. How long did it take you to make that review guide? Or it just was, like, over years that you put it together?

Tiffany [00:07:55]:
The first time I built it, it was only, like, 250 pages, and that took me the whole school year. I was just building it throughout the school year. And it was designed for the self study student, like, the student that needed, you know, some assistance getting through all the topics. Since then, it’s just been, you know, maybe three or four hours, like, right before the review starts where I just add in the new thing. So at this point, I just add in, like, the new FR two questions because it’s designed that it’s broken up by the units. So there are I can statements, there’s topic questions, and then at the end, there are the release multiple choice questions and release responses. So they’re all, like, organized together in these little unit packets.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:35]:
I love it. It’s beautiful.

Tiffany [00:08:37]:
I was

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:37]:
like, you turn my this is amazing organization. I’m obsessed. Okay. Tell us more about your for context for the listeners, like, your situation at your school. Like, how many sections of AP bi are you teaching? How many other preps? How many students are you seeing? How much time do you get with your students? Because I just think it’s insane how much this varies among schools,

Tiffany [00:08:57]:
and I am blessed. So first thing I need to say is that my students never took regular bio. So my class is a concurrent class. So I have regular biology and AP biology at the same time. So we set up as a double block. And I’m on block scheduling, so I have ninety minutes. That means I have ninety minutes every single day for the entire school year. Wow.

Tiffany [00:09:18]:
My school starts in July almost. Like, so it’s the July. First week of August is usually when my school year starts. So I more or less have I did the math. So if you go to school for a hundred and eighty days, ninety minutes a day, I have 16,200 with my students, which is two hundred and seventy hours. So, like, I know that some of the stuff I’m able to do, you know, is more than some other teachers can. So, like, I know how we can kind of mold that in to allow for those that don’t have as much time. You flip your lessons.

Tiffany [00:09:50]:
You can do more of the in class stuff, kind of hands on stuff, and then you have the kids kind of watching different people’s videos.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:56]:
If they’ve never taken biology, are they freshmen, or what is the age range of your students?

Tiffany [00:10:01]:
So we’ve gone through a couple different things. When I first started at my school, they were always sophomores that had never had chemistry either. So I was teaching chemistry, biology, and AP all at once. Wow. Then a couple years later, we switched it to a mixed grade where there was tenth graders and eleventh graders. Now we’re all eleventh grade, but next year, we’re going back to split grades. So when it’s split grades, they won’t have had chemistry, so I’ve gotta teach that too. Right.

Tiffany [00:10:25]:
It does take up a little bit of that time, and I do topics that are just for the state testing, but other topics are AP. So it’s kind of a whole mix of everything all at once.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:36]:
That’s all. And so, like, to say you have double time, it’s not like you’re spoiled. You have double the stuff too if you’re having to do this whole foundation. So they’re getting credit for, like, biology one and AP bio when they take yours.

Tiffany [00:10:48]:
Correct. When I

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:49]:
was in high school, our AP chemistry was like that except it was chem two plus AP chem, and that’s how we got our double block, which is so nice.

Tiffany [00:10:57]:
What’s up also for the kids is that they have so much testing at the end of the year. As juniors, they’re taking, you know, their English state test. They’re taking their social state test. They’re taking the biology state test. They’re taking their AP exam. So I really don’t wanna see my kids for those, like, two weeks at the end of the year because they’re in so much testing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:14]:
Also weird that you’re, like, prepping them for AP Bio, and then probably they’re taking, like, the Bio EOC, like, later, which is obviously way easier for them. But

Tiffany [00:11:22]:
It’s the day after. Like, usually, it’s a week before. This year with the exam being so early, it’s the next day. So on the fifth, we take our AP exam, and then the sixth, we take the next exam. So oh my god.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:34]:
That’s nuts. Okay. So but how many students do you have that are technically AP bio?

Tiffany [00:11:39]:
I have well, they’re all AP. Okay. 15 to 20. Like, all the kids that are in my room are all AP. Okay. So because of the double blocking and just concurrent, it’s the same group of kids each day. Although this year, we did this crisscross schedule due to we have another campus that the kids can go to as our career academy. And because so many students go there for dual enrollment, we had to make my first block on one day, my second block on the next, and the second block first block.

Tiffany [00:12:02]:
Like, it’s a crisscross schedule.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:04]:
Yeah. You’re like, this feels overly complicated. Yes. Okay. So are you saying are you teaching honors and regular biology separately too, or is this all you’re teaching are these double blocks?

Tiffany [00:12:14]:
It depends on the year. This year, I do have honors biology as well, and that one isn’t every day. That one’s every other day, and we do an AB system. So Mondays and Wednesdays are the same, and Tuesday and Thursday are the same, but Friday alternates awkwardly.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:29]:
Yeah. Got it. Let’s make it super complicated, it sounds like. Okay. I love who comes up with these schedules. People will email me all the time. They’ll be like, I don’t feel like I have enough time to do this. And I’m like, well, tell me how much you’re seeing your students.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:39]:
They’re like, well, on Tuesdays, we see them for thirty seven minutes. On Wednesday, I’m like, what is this? This is crazy. It’s just funny. So you do get extra time, but you’re covering extra stuff. So how are you balancing that? I think one of the biggest questions all AP teachers have is how do I get through all this content without just feeling like I’m just lecture, lecture, lecturing.

Tiffany [00:12:59]:
So because I have ninety minutes, I chunk up my block. I keep them always moving. So we’ll do something at the beginning that takes about thirty minutes, then we’ll do something else that’s thirty minutes and then the other thirty minutes. And I have my schedule, like, I don’t want my kids ever wondering what’s coming next. So every Monday we take a quiz. It’s always like clockwork. We take a quiz. Wednesday, same thing.

Tiffany [00:13:19]:
We do a free response every single Wednesday. So they come in kind of knowing what the system’s gonna be. Fridays are usually my lab days. I have ninety minutes so I can do the whole, like, ninety minute lab. So, like, the goal is really to keep them moving. I start out with a lecture, and then we do some type of hands on activity that immediately applies it. If you are short on time and you don’t have the ninety minutes, then you could flip your lesson. You could have, like, a short little video for them to look at the information in advance, maybe have them reading their textbook, listening to a podcast, something of that nature.

Tiffany [00:13:50]:
So you could have them doing something of like that to introduce the information, and then they could come in and do, like, a pogel, or they could do a mini lab or something hands on that allows them to immediately apply the information they learned the previous night. So there’s a lot of different modifications that can be made to allow for not overly lecturing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:08]:
Right. How many years do you feel like it took you till you started feeling more comfortable teaching it? Because I think for the new teacher, the first year, you’re like, this is so much. It’s so hard, but you’ve got such a good system. Like, how long do you feel like it took you to start having a system?

Tiffany [00:14:22]:
I’m blessed because my first year teaching ever was AP. Mhmm. So, like, I’ve never really known anything else. So it probably took me, I’d say three or four years before things started like flowing better. And I wasn’t overwhelmed because I was really overwhelmed at the beginning. Cause I was teaching myself this information. Cause like I have a biology degree and a chemistry degree, But something about going back to the AP book and getting it to a level that the students understood and making sure I had everything, I would write notes for hours on end the night before, prepping my lectures, doing all this stuff, and I didn’t have a support system. So these new teachers really need to find their support system.

Tiffany [00:15:04]:
Somebody at their school that has either taught the course or somebody in a neighboring school in your county. There are so many resources out there. And if you have nobody at your school, nobody in your county, us on Facebook, we’ll help you. The National AP Bio Facebook group so good. Is phenomenal. And then I write a newsletter. I don’t really, you know, trust the masses aren’t gonna, like you know, student isn’t gonna somehow find this. So once you’re in the AP Bio Facebook group, if you just search newsletter, you’ll find my newsletter.

Tiffany [00:15:31]:
I write a newsletter every month, and it’s designed for first year teachers. I tell you what I’m doing in my classroom. I tell you, hey. These are the FRQs that I like. These are the activities that I like. I give you the handouts for everything. I give you the links directly to them. So it’s almost like a here.

Tiffany [00:15:48]:
Here you go. This will help get you through. And once you find the activities you like, then, you know, take, leave, whatever, but you now have something to build off of.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:58]:
That’s such a gift that you provide that. So speaking of activities and labs, I mean, I’ll never forget sitting at AP Institute and going through the lab manual. We went through, like, probably 10 of the labs, like, over the course of the week, but just being so overwhelmed. And then my teacher being like, well, you don’t have to do them all just like it is here. You could do alternatives. I just think that the decision fatigue and the overwhelm of, like, how do I know which labs do in the manual versus which do alternatives? Like, how do you balance that? Which do you think are the best ROI, like, what’s worth doing in its entirety, do you kinda do your own version of everything? Like, if I’m gonna put all this time and energy into prepping or, like, even I feel like the labs in the lab manual, they’re all, like, a solid week. Like, you’re block if you’re gonna truly do it how it’s written out and really make an inquiry and all of that, it’s really a long time. So it’s like, if I’m gonna invest and block out this much time, it needs to be worth it.

Tiffany [00:16:50]:
I agree. It’s honestly a trial and error. You find a lab. You try it out, see if it works or how it works. And so after many years, I have found the ones that I like, which is why that newsletter is helpful.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:01]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:17:01]:
Because in there, I’m telling them, hey. This is what was helpful. This is how to fix the drama that’s going to ensue. So it kinda gives you tips and tricks. But I don’t do all the the labs from the manual because, like, they’re no longer required. You’re just required to have a certain percentage of your class be labs. Right. And so, like, I just do mini labs or an activity and all these different things that as long as they’re doing hands on science, they’re doing some claim evidence reasonings, they’re going to be able to, you know, be okay for the exam.

Tiffany [00:17:30]:
The AP exam is not going to be on a specific lab. It’s going to give you the background information, and then you apply your science to that. Do you want me to tell you the ones that I like?

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:39]:
Yeah. Let me know just and it doesn’t even have to be AP labs, like, from the manual, but just what are some of your favorite labs that you’re doing?

Tiffany [00:17:45]:
I love the osmosis lab. So it gives the kids a visible, like, what is happening with diffusion because you use these little agar pieces, and then you can watch the color changing as it’s an acid or a base, whichever way you set it up, diffusing through the agar to change the color. And they can visibly see that a smaller cell is going to have more diffusion than a larger cell. And then I like they they use little baggies, and they figure out the change in weight. But then I just let them do vegetables. So we see, like, what is the concentration of a carrot? What’s the concentration of celery? And, like, we can figure out different vegetables out there. I do apples. I do all kinds of things.

Tiffany [00:18:21]:
And they can they see a real world connection. Like, okay. I have five different apples. Let’s taste test them. Which one do you think is the sweetest? Oh, wow. And that one has the highest concentration of solutes. And so it’s a direct connection. I like that one.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:34]:
That’s awesome. I love that. Okay. What are you having students turn in for labs? Because that’s also a question. Like, I think the old school method that a lot of us did in high school is, like, you had this really formal lab notebook that you were keeping up with and you’re doing formal reports, but not everyone does that. So I just like to always hear what what are you having them turn in?

Tiffany [00:18:51]:
Usually, there’s a lab packet that goes with it. It’s where they have the directions. And there’s a couple years ago, another teacher, she posted a bunch of labs and she had it, like, broken up in this little chart. And so there was all the, like, questions as you went through the lab. And so she, you know, I I modeled it after her, and I’ve made those little packets. And then they turn that in. That’s a completion check. Like, did you do the lab? Did you answer these questions? Because things that are achievable, I’m less likely to put a lot of weight on and a lot of my energy grading.

Tiffany [00:19:20]:
Same. So they do a lab presentation. So I’ll put like, break up the lab. So, like, for example, the diffusion lab. I’ll have one group that does the Agar cube. I’ll do another group that’s doing the dialysis tubes and another group that does the potato, the apple, the whatever. K? And they will present their findings to the group. I can do, like, lab posters.

Tiffany [00:19:39]:
We can do kind of a,

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:41]:
like a gallery walk, like a round robin. Yeah.

Tiffany [00:19:44]:
We can have them do a gallery walk or round robin, and they could, like, present independently to each other. So I kind of mix it up each time so that we’re doing something different. Love that. Also, it requires that they actually know what they did in the lab, not what AI or their friend or someone else did. Now the labs that are very mathematical based, that each group is gonna have different data

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:07]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:20:07]:
I do check their calculation because I wanna make sure that they know how to do that math if that math shows up on the exam. And that’s when I this whole podcast is about simplified stuff. Right? Yeah. So the way that I simplify grading labs is I use Excel. If there’s a calculation they’re gonna have to do, I set it up in Excel with that calculation. I type in their data chart, and it calculates everything for me. I check that their math is right, and I move on. Like, it that way, it doesn’t take me a long time to check their math because it’s important to me that they know how to do the math, but it’s also not important to spend hours grading their maths.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:42]:
That’s so true. And I I love your perspective. I just I always am so grateful to have full time teachers on the podcast because I just think and hearing what you’re doing, it’s so good for people just to hear, like, you don’t have to do it the way it was when you were in high school.

Tiffany [00:20:56]:
Like, I think

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:56]:
some of us are still stuck in this, like, it’s a science class that there has to be a typed lab report for every single thing. And it’s like, no. What matters most? Like, I’m kinda like you where it’s like, I felt like mine were all always getting their panties in a while and wanting to get the lab right that they weren’t actually learning. And I’m like, no. Like, the whole this is all experiential. Like, I’m gonna check that you’re doing stuff for completion, but I care that you can, like, have skills like graph and calculation, like what you’re saying. I want you to be more invested and not be worrying about getting things written down. Like, be here in the lab.

Tiffany [00:21:27]:
And labs in high school don’t usually work out correctly. So it’s interesting to be like, okay. What did you do? Like, what went wrong and why did it go wrong? So we can learn from these experiences because you’re having these high school lab experiences and you’re gonna go off to college and you’re gonna apply that information, that knowledge, that experience to other labs. And depending on what you wanna do in your future life, then you’re going to need to use those tools.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:53]:
That’s so true. I always say, I’m like, error analysis is the most important thing we can learn from a lab. Like, I think to be a successful teacher, you need a certain dose of humility to be okay up front that, like, if the lab doesn’t go well, it’s not necessarily your fault. Like, who cares? Let’s just learn together why it didn’t go well. Exactly. Okay. So I love that for what you turn it. I like how you kinda switch it up.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:13]:
Let’s continue on that conversation of grading. Just in general, of all the things they’re doing in your class, what are you actually collecting and grading for accuracy? How do you motivate them just to do stuff if you’re not grading? I feel like a lot of people have a problem with that.

Tiffany [00:22:26]:
So I look at everything. So I’m one of those teachers that if I’m gonna ask you to do something, I’m gonna look at it. When I was in my student teaching, there was a teacher that I worked with, and she had this check, check plus, check minus system. It’s a progressive grade. It’s a, you know, do you understand the information? On those things, I’m checking them for accuracy. I’m assisting them with their issues and their errors, but I’m not putting a hard grade on it. The lowest grade you’ll make is an 85%, which is a check minus. That means you are clueless, but it at least gets them to try.

Tiffany [00:22:58]:
Like, I’m not asking you to, you know, have all the bells and the whistles. I need you to just at least put your foot forward and try something. And that’s kind of one of my my take ins is that I can get them to at least try the map, try to do the work, and then we can readjust and realign. For responses, I definitely grade for accuracy, but I have a scaling that I use with the national averages. So to motivate the students on that, I don’t think I’ve mentioned my FRQ notebook. I think later on, we’ll talk about those.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:24]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:23:24]:
I’ll have this FRQ notebook. And if they beat the national average, they get a coupon to get themselves a water bottle sticker. And the goal is that they then put that water bottle sticker on their notebook so it becomes like this whole, like, oh, look at all the times I beat the national average, which is kind of an incentive whenever you do yourself. Plus, when you get an FRQ back and you made a four on it, but you found out that the nation got a three, you’re like, woah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:48]:
It’s

Tiffany [00:23:48]:
better than the nation. And it kinda gives a little morale boost, and it also helps them to realize they don’t have to be perfect. I think as students, like, especially our AP students, they’re perfectionists. They think they have to be the best at all times. And the best is just that you did your best, that you tried, you put everything you had for it. You can’t be better than your best. And I think that seeing that, okay, I did my best, I tried, and I beat the nation. I’m doing good.

Tiffany [00:24:16]:
Right. So I think that’s helpful.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:18]:
I think it’s so smart to use the scaling like that because like you said, the test is scaled. I will never forget taking my AP chem test in high school and then, like, coming back and crying because I, like, left two FRQs. I didn’t answer all of them all the way, all this stuff. And then I end up with a four. And I was like, what the heck? I’m like, people must have left so much blank because I left stuff blank. I still got a four. And so I think that’s so wise to encourage students, like, who are so used to it. It has to be, like, a hundred.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:43]:
And it’s like, no. It doesn’t. You just, like, use I I literally typed that. As you said, the best is just that you did your best. Put that on a sticker. I love that.

Tiffany [00:24:52]:
When we get close to the AP exam, that’s really what my, like, tell pushing to the kids is, like, all that everyone anyone ever can ask you to do is your best. And so I try to, like, motivate that with my students, like, and, you know, the goal is little bits of pieces and small growth. So I never tell my students how they did on their test. Like, I give them the cut score. I give them the breakdown, but I don’t give them their raw score. And so when the students are struggling, I then say, okay. I don’t wanna show you the raw score, but let me show this to you. Okay.

Tiffany [00:25:18]:
First test, you made a 10% in your multiple choice. Second test, you got a 30%. Do you see that as a 20% increase? What did you do different? And we can really time into, okay, how did we grow? Now let’s grow some more. Because you don’t need to get it all done in one day. Like, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Let’s do it piece by piece. Let’s kind of take what’s helpful and grow from that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:25:41]:
Totally. So how do you keep because I’m, like, obsessed. Like, when I taught AB Bio, I only used released FRQ questions and stuff. Like, I’m, like, I’m not writing FRQs. Like, I want you to use these. But now I mean, that was pre AI days and stuff. So how are you preventing students from this perfection pressure to cheat on anything that you’re doing, knowing that they can look up the FRQs and stuff. How are you getting them to do it, like, authentically?

Tiffany [00:26:06]:
Well, I kind of accidentally give them the resources in advance to know it. So on my website, I actually have all the FRQs laid out. Now I don’t tell them to go to my website. But some of them, as they’re preparing, they go there, they find the FRQ videos, and they practice them. But watching someone else do it, seeing the scoring guideline is different than you writing it yourself Yeah. Because AP doesn’t require you to just state the rubric back to them. Right. Those are scoring guidelines, so you have to show me the bulk and the understanding.

Tiffany [00:26:37]:
So even if a kid does see their question in advance, they usually don’t, like, you know, score super high flying. And then, like, those in class ones are very Yeah. They’re low stakes. Like, it’s only a 20 grade in the grade book. Like, if you’re gonna cheat on these, like, it’s not gonna change your grade that much, but this 200 test that’s gonna go in where 50% of it is your FRQs that you’ve never seen before that are not open access, that are secure from AP classroom, you’re probably not gonna be able to get those questions unless you’ve done the work in the front end. And that’s just my theory. And I we can’t stop cheating. Like, we can prevent it.

Tiffany [00:27:17]:
We can do things to assist with it. Like, if you teach multiple classes of AP, then do a different FRQ question in each class for your in class ones or for your tests. I did it more for the test ones than I did for the, in class ones, but that inhibits them going, oh, the FRQ is this and then, like, stating some keywords that someone can then go Google because it’s a different question by the next class.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:41]:
Right. That’s great.

Tiffany [00:27:42]:
The way that I do my grading of my test takes into account the national averages on those FRQs, so I’m able to have a different grade in each class but still be comparable.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:53]:
So are you you’re doing a point system in your Gradebook. You’re putting everything in a different point values. You’re not putting in percents.

Tiffany [00:27:59]:
Correct. Everything’s in different points. So quizzes are 20 points, peer responses are 20 points, and the exams are 200 and all the corrections are 10 points each.

Rebecca Joyner [00:28:08]:
I love a point system, and I feel like it’s so underrated. But I’m like, it’s so it just makes so much sense because then you’re like, this is five points. And so then it takes the pressure off. Like, a bell ringer is five points. It’s not a big deal. Whereas this is, you know, however many more. I love that.

Tiffany [00:28:23]:
Our computer system, like, at our school, like, it requires us to do a certain percentage, like, progressive and a certain percentage being summative. So when I do that, I make it so that a certain percent of their grade is the test, a certain percentage of the quizzes and whatnot. But I do kind of try to balance it, but I use the point system. Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:28:40]:
Yeah. I love that. Okay. Let’s talk more about FRQs. You mentioned FRQ notebook. You mentioned doing you’re doing FRQs on Wednesdays. Like, what’s your kind of approach with FRQs and helping students really rock them?

Tiffany [00:28:52]:
So the first week of school, like, you know, it could be the second day of school. It really doesn’t matter to me. I give them their first few responses. So anybody that’s teaching AP Bio that’s following twenty seventeen number one is the question I will use every single year. It is about these bees and about them ingesting caffeine, and then that helps their memory. But the question does not require any type of biology knowledge. Like, it’s graphing questions. So can you graph? Do you know how to do error bars? And then it’s about bees and pollen and neck.

Tiffany [00:29:23]:
Like, I’m sorry. Like the kids know about beats. Like they’ve known about them for years. So with a really easy question to kind of get them started with it. And then, so as you said, I do this free response notebook. And so what they do is they’ll glue the question in, they’ll write their answer, and then they glue a scoring guide in. And so first semester, they score themselves. So they’ll go through that scoring guideline, and they’ll check their own answers.

Tiffany [00:29:44]:
And they highlight in the question where they got the point and then on the rubric where they got that point so that I can see, okay. This is what you think you got. This is where you think you have it. So I can assist them like, you didn’t go as in-depth as you needed to hear or your word choice isn’t as preferable as it needed to be. I don’t think AP would take that, and it allows me to realign them. And then for their corrections on it, they just rewrite the exemplar. So on AP Central, they have all these exemplars of, like, the person who made the perfect score, and they’ll just rewrite that. And so it lets them see in kids speak what would get them points.

Tiffany [00:30:20]:
Like, how do I best write these free responses to get the most amount of points out of them? And that’s, of course, in their FRQ notebook. And so, like, they by the time they get to the AP exam, they’ve got these all aligned. I grade their FRQs. So for accuracy and when they grade themselves, there’s, like, a accuracy score and, like, how close are you to me? So it makes them be honest with themselves. Like, you know, I really didn’t say this like I needed to. Like, I was on the right track, but I didn’t say it. So it helps them to get that understanding of how they need to write FRQs. And then second semester, they flip papers and they score each other.

Tiffany [00:30:53]:
So can you get someone who is not your teacher and not you to understand what you’re saying? Because come a, someone else is grading them. It’s going to be some college professors, some other AP bio teacher. Can they read your handwriting? Can they understand what you’re saying? Like, it’s about making sure that they are clear in their writings.

Rebecca Joyner [00:31:13]:
So in that first semester, are they grading themselves first and then you’re looking to see the it and their own grade or so they go first?

Tiffany [00:31:21]:
They go first. So as soon as they are done with the FRQ, I give them twenty minutes in class. So if they finish before the timer goes off, they get up and grab their scoring guideline and start grading. If not, then the timer goes off and they grade it. And then they glue everything, they turn it in, and then I am you know, I don’t like to have things hanging over my head to grade, so I do grade them at night. If you’re wondering how I’m able to grade FRQ so fast, it’s because I’m an AP reader. So every year we’re trained to how we can efficiently, appropriately grade FRQs. And so I’m able to kinda get them done in a relative short amount of time.

Tiffany [00:31:55]:
Some teachers, they are unable to balance the grading of them. And if you have a short time period, then having them grade each other is still helpful tool.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:03]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:32:03]:
And having them grade themselves is still helpful. So, you know, maybe pick one a month that you’re gonna take home and grade or, like, kind of balance it that way because you you don’t have to grade every single one, but it is helpful to help your students realign.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:17]:
And I love that you do it so early in the year because I think one of the huge things, like, when I taught it was convincing my students to not be distracted by like, I can just think of one student in particular who’s I I use that question being like, I don’t know anything about bees. And it’s like, no one’s expecting you to know anything about bees to, like, answer this question. It’s like getting them over that hump of, like, they’re giving you all the information you need. It’s like, can you analyze it and discern it and then utilize it to, you know, answer these questions? So I love that you’re doing that early on. I think that’s great. Okay. So and is the FRQ notebook like a composition notebook?

Tiffany [00:32:53]:
Yeah. It’s a composition notebook because I don’t want them to be able to tear papers out of it. If you’ve ever looked at a a composition book, you know that it’s, like, sewed in the middle. Yeah. So if you tear a page from the front, it falls out from the back. Yeah. So I don’t want them to remove anything. I want this to be them being able to see the growth of their writing style.

Tiffany [00:33:09]:
I want it to be a compilation of FRQs with feedback on them so they can use that to study. So, yeah, it’s a composition book, and I I’ve bought, like, when Walmart has them for, like, 25¢, I’ll go and buy a bunch. So if there’s a student who, you know, they can’t afford to buy a notebook or whatever happened on my first one, I can easily take it out of the cabinet and hand them a notebook, and then nobody’s without their resources that they need.

Rebecca Joyner [00:33:35]:
Yeah. That’s great. Okay. So let’s talk more about exam review because as this is airing, it’s in, like, high exam review season. So what are you doing in your class versus, like, what are you expecting students to do at home?

Tiffany [00:33:48]:
So I give them a notebook. There’s a review notebook. I assigned it in February, and so they have more or less two and a half months to complete this notebook. It’s a compilation of Barron’s review because my school has the Barron’s books. You could probably use any of those books. Then there’s the AP classroom progress performance checks and then these topic questions. And then there’s a compilation of just other resources that, you know, are easily out there. And I believe I have this linked in the show notes as well if you’re wanting to see what my notebook looks like.

Tiffany [00:34:19]:
And so that’s just like a what we’re working on. And so when we get closer to the exam, like, I’m done with content about three weeks before the exam, and I’ll just let them work on that in class. But then I also will do, like, how many missed questions from practice exams, or we’ll go over we’ll do, for response, round robin, these FRQs where they can go to a table, start writing the FRQ, and then somebody else comes in, and they can modify the FRQ. And it’s, like, kind of just, like, moving around the room at some of these questions that they haven’t seen before to practice. In February, I start something called race to the slopes. If you haven’t figured out, my students are also penguins. So they’re, like, running to the top of, like, a hill to slide down, like, you know, things like the slide.

Rebecca Joyner [00:35:01]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:35:01]:
So I call them race to the slopes. There’s 20 quizzes. They’re each nine questions, and they’re based off of the twenty twenty practice exams. And they have twelve minutes to do them, and so it’s just a random grouping of those questions. So that kind of helps them to review and prepare because they just get a quick quiz every once in a while, and then we’ll go over those poly missed ones before the AP exam. And so it’s just a I don’t know. I just do my best.

Rebecca Joyner [00:35:25]:
Of course. I love it. So you’re really expecting them to do that packet though at home. You’re You’re giving them a little bit of time in class, but the review pack is mostly at

Tiffany [00:35:33]:
home. Yes. And I paced them out. So I believe that when you’re preparing for a a high stakes test, SAT, ACT, AP exam, GRE, whatever these high stakes test you have in your life, It’s not a, I’m gonna study the weekend before. I’m not gonna study a week before. It needs to be a little bit every day to build that knowledge and that capacity for it. Like, on Mondays, they’ll do, like, some quick little activities off from National Bio. On Tuesday, they’ll watch some videos.

Tiffany [00:36:00]:
On Wednesday, they’ll do some practice question in the AP classroom. And so it’s a little bit each day. So by the time they get to the AP exam, they have reviewed it all. It’s not a laborious, overwhelming project.

Rebecca Joyner [00:36:13]:
Yeah. That’s great. And do you give them a grade for it? Like, for doing all that

Tiffany [00:36:16]:
work? Yeah. It’s 250 points. So as you as I said before, a test is 200 points. It is more than a test grade, and so it’s meant to kinda help to cushion their grade. As long as you do the things that are in the notebook, you will automatically get the grade. Right. So it’s a way that you can get a 250 out of 250 in your summative category to help bring up that category and make sure it’s a, you know, better grade.

Rebecca Joyner [00:36:39]:
Totally. Or do you do any sort of, like, full timed length of the test in advance? Like, I know a lot of teachers will be like, well, come in on a Saturday, and I’ll give them a full practice exam. Do you do that?

Tiffany [00:36:50]:
Yeah. So this year, I’m doing, I think, on April 19 on that Saturday, and I’m gonna model it like the hybrid exam. So, anybody who’s not who’s listening and hasn’t heard yet, AP Bio is going to be a hybrid exam, so their multiple choice will be online. So I’m gonna give it to them through AP classroom. They’ll take their multiple choice online. I’ll give them their response through AP classroom, and then they’re gonna hand write those FRQs, and then I’ll get those scored for them, which will help me to data analyze to tell them their strengths and their weaknesses for their multi choice. And then they also get to see some FRQs, and they’d see what it’s like to sit through a three hour exam.

Rebecca Joyner [00:37:25]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:37:26]:
Because some of them don’t know that anguish. I also will give one in my class. So on I think it’s a week or two weeks before the AP exam, I’m going to have them do multiple choice one day, and then for response the following day, because I have ninety minutes, so I can give them the whole section. There are some teachers I know that will do, like, an in school field trip. So they their students are able to go to a certain location in that building, and they will take a practice exam during school. So there are ways to get around it if you don’t have ninety minutes in your own classrooms to do this so that you’re able to still give them practice without it being a Saturday because some of us are unable to go to school on a Saturday. Right.

Rebecca Joyner [00:38:04]:
So what is your advice then? I don’t know if you struggle with this, but there’s always those AP students that are in, like, four APs at the same time. And so they’re having a hard time doing all of the extra stuff because they’re doing it for their classes. So do you have any advice for the teacher who has those students? It’s kind of exasperating.

Tiffany [00:38:20]:
That’s my students. My students are in many, many AP classes. So it’s all about helping them find their balance and finding their schedule. So early in the year, I tell students, hey. If you need help with your balance, let me know. And they’ll give me a list of all the classes they’re taking on what days, and then I build them a schedule. And then they modify the schedule as they need, and it does kinda help them to figure out, okay. I do have more time in the day.

Tiffany [00:38:44]:
If I don’t play with my cell phone and I don’t do video games for four hours a day, I can get all my work done. Yeah. So it does help them with that. Sometimes they see kind of overlaps in the information or they see overlaps with, like, their friend groups. So I have some that are do extracurriculars or do sports, and there’s other people from their classes in that sport or that club with them. And as they’re doing their warm up throws, they make sure they warm up with the same kid, and they quiz each other as they go back and forth. So it’s kind of about using your time wisely. When you sit on a bus instead of listening to your music, you could be listening to a podcast about your subject or watching a video over the information so that you’re, you know, not wasting your time.

Tiffany [00:39:27]:
But I don’t think that your life should be full of school. So there’s a balance. It’s tricky.

Rebecca Joyner [00:39:31]:
Yeah. No. It’s tricky. So that’s why I always like to ask. I think that’s great that it’d be like, let’s just look at your schedule together and, like, come up with a plan. I think that’s really kind of you to do that. Okay. So with where when this is airing, it’s gonna be contract season.

Rebecca Joyner [00:39:44]:
So some teachers are gonna be finding out, like, in the next few weeks that they’re gonna teach AP Bio for the first time next school year. And so what would be your best advice for them? Because they might be feeling excited, maybe a little anxious and overwhelmed. What would be your advice for them?

Tiffany [00:39:57]:
First thing, go ahead and join the National AP Bio Facebook group. In there, there’s tons of tools and resources that will help support you. Number two, download the CED. So the curriculum and exam description from AP Central, and the exam and the the stuff is changing slightly for next year, so make sure you pull next year’s information and map it out. K? Say, okay. The exam is going to be roughly this date. How long do I want for exam review? How long do I need to spend in each unit? You don’t have to tell exactly what you’re doing every day, but reverse engineer it, figure out when you wanna be by what time of the school year. And then, you know, things come up.

Tiffany [00:40:33]:
We are gonna have random pep rallies and other stuff that cokes in. And then once you get that built, figure out how you wanna run your class. Like, so I said that I do FRQs every Wednesday. Do you wanna do an FRQ each week? Go ahead and just build that in and just kind of figure out the big picture of the topics you wanna cover by when. And then as you work through it, you can figure out specific labs and activities. I would probably stick with the AP labs and making sure that I do, like, at least one per unit while you’re trying to map. Just look at the ones that are available and pick one of those. You do not have to do everything.

Tiffany [00:41:09]:
So just find something that works with what you have in your building because we all have different tools in our building. And then, of course, if there is somebody at your school who is currently teaching AP Bio, go ahead and talk to them and say, hey. You know, what did you feel were the best labs, or what did you feel were the most important components for me to do in my classroom? Get whatever you can from those previous people. And I’ll be honest with you. Like, I got many things from people before I started teaching, and I probably have never opened half of those things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:41:36]:
Yeah.

Tiffany [00:41:37]:
But it’s good to have that toolbox. If you’re in a bind, you’re like, I really need an activity on, I don’t know, evolution. You can quickly go and grab that evolution activity, look over and say, okay. Yes. This is perfect. I’m gonna use this versus, you know, the aimless searching through the Internet. Like, sometimes the Internet doesn’t give us the best things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:41:55]:
Right. And that’s where I have a love hate relationship with that AP Bio group because it’s amazing. Like, you should 1000% join, but then you’re overwhelmed because you’re seeing people who have taught it for fifteen, twenty years. So they’re really doing a lot of extra stuff because they can, because they have the capacity. So you have to kind of protect yourself in there, but it is so valuable. I’ll link that in the show notes too.

Tiffany [00:42:16]:
When you’re you’re talking about, like, your first year, it’s important to just remember that you’re doing your best. All you can ever ask the kids is to do their best, and all they can ask of you is for you to do your best. So do not worry about trying to, like, be the bells and whistles and do everything because there’s no way to do everything. If you look at my website, you’ll see, like, oh my gosh. She’s amazing. But that is a multiple, multiple years of curation. That is not anything I do in one year. My master’s professor said to me, pick one thing you’re gonna do right each year.

Tiffany [00:42:47]:
And after a couple years, now you’re going to have multiple tools in your toolbox. So first year, second year, whatever year it is you’re on, pick one thing that you’re gonna do right. So your first year, you’re just gonna survive that year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:42:59]:
Literally.

Tiffany [00:42:59]:
You’re just going to prepare the kids the best way you can and just get through it. And then once you figure out what things you liked and didn’t like, you know how to modify for future years. Don’t worry about being the the perfect teacher. You’re gonna do your best, and that’s all anyone could ever ask of you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:16]:
Yeah. I had all my AP students I’d already had for biology at some point, and I write all my biology resources from scratch because it’s, like, my passion and I love it. So then when I had them for AP, they’re like, what is this trash? Because I was just, like, pulling anything I could find. Like, it was not nicely formatted. It was not pretty. It was not my aesthetic. Like but I just was like, guys, I’m pulling stuff the night before. Like, I’m learning this with you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:38]:
And I was just honest with them. Like, we’re gonna be figuring it out. This is not gonna be my normal effort because it’s not gonna be, like, the tenth time I’ve taught this like it was when I had you in honors bio, which speaking of honors bio, I know yours is unique because you have the block, the double block, and you’re they’ve never taken bio one. But for I feel like most places, people take biology first and then take AP bio later. What do you think those bio one teachers listening should be focusing on to help prepare those students well if they are gonna take AP one

Tiffany [00:44:08]:
day. Graphing, making sure that the students are actually looking at graphs and can they make a graph, can they read a graph? Because AP tends to be very analytical. So if they’ve never seen a graph or haven’t seen a graph for years, it does help them to kind of have that little, bump in. Also doing, like, CERs. If you could just do, like, one CER a week, you’re at least helping them to make connection between the content that you’re teaching and then the the why, if you may. So I I think that definitely putting those kind of things in. You have to prepare for your own class, but if you’re able to kind of help them understand the importance of reading, understand the importance of, you know, looking at diagrams and being analytical, then it will help them in AP.

Rebecca Joyner [00:44:49]:
Yeah. That’s great. Okay. Student apathy. Everyone wants to know, how are we managing? Because it it’s hard out there. So how are you motivating unmotivated students that you may have?

Tiffany [00:45:00]:
So this is totally the the answer that everyone gives, and I’m so sorry, but it’s about relationships. So if your kids have a relationship with you, if you get to them at their level, then it really does help. So I I have a student who’s currently struggling, and I pulled her aside. I was like, hey. You know, what’s going on? And she, you know, opened up. She told me what was going on at home. And I was like, you know what? I get it. I’ve been through that.

Tiffany [00:45:21]:
I know what she’s talking about. And then we work together to try to get to a level of, okay. I need you to do this much work, and I understand you’re going through that, but this is the level that we need to be at. And kind of she works with me, and I work with her, and we get to a a good ground. I also have students who they see how far how hard I work. And your kids know if you’re being honest with them. They know if you’re being, you know, real. So be real with your kids.

Tiffany [00:45:46]:
Don’t try to be, like, this amazing person on a stage like, oh, I went to AP Bio, and I was perfect, so you should be no. Like, we’re real people. They are real people. Let’s actually be real. They see how hard I work, and sometimes they they don’t care about biology. They hate biology, but they’re willing to do the work because they like me and because I’m gonna come into class, I’m gonna give my best, and they wanna give their best for me. Like, I’ve had kids, like, come after the AP exam, like, Michelle, I’m so sorry. Like, I I did my best, but it’s I just didn’t know this stuff.

Tiffany [00:46:23]:
And I say, that’s okay. I’m I’m proud of you. I’m so excited that you did your best. Like, that is all anyone could ever ask of you. And just kind of helping them to understand and realize that you’re there for them at their high points, and you’re there for them at their low points. That’s really what it comes up to is just being with your kids.

Rebecca Joyner [00:46:41]:
No. It’s such an important reminder because you’re right. That is, like, the foundation of all things. Like, I always say I feel like classroom management issues, like, on a class level are often handled procedurally, whereas on an individual level, it’s all relationally. Like, you’re having conflict with this one student or this small group, like, you gotta get in there with just them and you guys have that connection. I think that’s so important. Switching gears before we close-up, is there a concept you feel like you teach really well or, like, maybe in a unique way that you would love? I would like to give you a chance. I know you’re not gonna want to to humble brag, but just, like, let us know.

Rebecca Joyner [00:47:15]:
I always think it’s encouraging to be like, if you have something you’re like, I’m excited about how I teach this.

Tiffany [00:47:20]:
The activities that allow them to really interact a lot kind of help me or I feel like are really good. So we model what the swim potassium pump looks like with a neuron. So they get to use little pompoms and they throw those at each other. So I do that really well like modeling. We also do electron transport chain, and I have them standing on the table. One kid’s sitting on the table, then and we basically make the electron transport chain, and they pump the protons across the membrane. So it allows them to visibly see the movement of the protons, and then they understand, okay. That’s why there’s a lower pH, a higher concentration.

Tiffany [00:47:54]:
That’s how we’re able to, you know, synthesize ATP, and it allows them to actually touch the information. We use Kymfoglia’s transcription translation activity. We use the three d molecular design stuff. Anytime that they’re able to really have hands on stuff, I feel like is when they do the best in understanding and less of me on the stage because I could tell you something until I’m blue in the face, but until you actually have to do it yourself, that’s when you really learn.

Rebecca Joyner [00:48:22]:
So true. They love anything like physical. It’s super helpful. So helpful tools and resources, things like AP Classroom, AI. There’s so many websites nowadays. What are those things are really helping you right now, and how are you using them?

Tiffany [00:48:35]:
I love HHMI. So if they have not used HHMI Biointeractive, there is a massive resource, and they’re all free. They give you the the teacher handout. They give you a student handout. They oftentimes, there’s manipulatives. You can print those manipulatives out. They’ve got videos that collaborate with them, so I love their HHMI stuff. Learn genetics is a lot of fun.

Tiffany [00:48:56]:
It’s very, like, niche. Like, there’s only, like, the stuff about genetics up in there, but I do, like, the the mouse party with them so they can look at neurotransmitters and they can see the connection of, you know, cell communication. Because I feel like that sometimes we get so, like, honed in on what’s in the AP bio textbook that we forget that biology is life and, like, you can use other examples. And the AP exam isn’t going to use directly stuff from our textbook. They’re going to give them some other example that they’ve gotta apply. So let them do some fun stuff, like learn genetics as the mouse party. I love, miniPCR. They’ve started this new online digital, like, lab thing, and so they’re able to walk through.

Tiffany [00:49:39]:
So if you don’t have the miniPCR software at your school, then you can easily use the online. You can ask as a guest, and you can access everything through those labs. And I did that when we were virtual for snow day recently, and the kids loved it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:49:54]:
That’s awesome. Are you using AI at all?

Tiffany [00:49:57]:
I hate AI. AI is is not my friend. So I’ve been to many trainings, and in those trainings, they talk about that you can use AI to formulate lab data. And so I I find that that’s a a good way that we can maybe create our own FRQs. You mentioned that you didn’t like writing them when you taught the class. So this is a way that you can take some premade FRQ, but then change the data so that they have to analyze it differently. They’ve got to graph something different. So it allows us to open that up.

Tiffany [00:50:27]:
I think that AI could be good in terms of helping students write better, but I still haven’t jumped completely on board with the use of AI.

Rebecca Joyner [00:50:36]:
Yeah. I’m still super hesitant. I feel like the more I force myself, the more cool things I find, but it is such a learning curve.

Tiffany [00:50:43]:
It is. How can you appropriately type the stuff in there to get it which you want? Like, I sit there for hours. Like, I’m gonna do this. No. No. I don’t want that. I want this. Like and you just keep trying to get it to understand you and it’s It’s

Rebecca Joyner [00:50:55]:
a lot. But I love that idea about the FRQ and changing out the data. That’s a great simple idea. I love that.

Tiffany [00:51:02]:
Just be careful because AI is not logical sometimes. So some of the data does not make sense. They, I think the example that the person used at that training was they did different plants, and they had come up with some plants that just didn’t exist. Yeah. So just be careful when you’re looking at those things that you actually ensure that you’ve got real things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:51:21]:
I know. I always say AI sucks at science. It’s very smart. I’m good at science. So okay. Last question I ask every guest because this is the secondary science simplified podcast. What is one way you simplified your life recently? It could be in or out of the classroom.

Tiffany [00:51:36]:
Can it be three things?

Rebecca Joyner [00:51:38]:
Of course. Why not?

Tiffany [00:51:40]:
So one thing is, there’s a book I read by Robin Jackson. It’s called Never Work Harder Than Your Students. I’ve looked at this book like, really? I have to read this book. Like, come on. And as you’re going through the book, it had a really good resonating topic. And that was, if your students know what to do when they don’t know, then they can do it before they don’t know. I know that sounds weird. But so, like, if you give your students remediation based on their quizzes or their tests or whatnot, and they have to do x y z, if you already make x y z available before they take that assessment, they can do that in advance.

Tiffany [00:52:15]:
And so it’s kind of like they will do better on the assessment because they had all those resources that you were gonna remediate them with. So that was kind of one thing I took from that book. I also use Mail Merge, like, all the time. So I give my quizzes on paper, but then I put them into Excel. And so Excel allows me to then send out a personalized email to all the students with how they did on their quiz with, like, breakdown of, okay, in this section, this is how you did. This section is how you did. I also have personalized feedback for each individual answer, like, okay. And you got number one wrong.

Tiffany [00:52:50]:
Here kind of helps walk you through, like, how to better understand that information. So it resists the students from needing to cheat because, like, you’ve now explained to them that question. You’ve helped them to better understand it, and I mail merge that way. Parent communication, same way, mail merge. So, you know, you’ve got a hundred kids in your class. You have to send an email to every parent telling them how their student is doing in class. Put it like a generic email, put their specific grade into the Excel file. It will automatically slot that in with each kid and send a personalized email to each parent.

Tiffany [00:53:21]:
The parents think you’ve taken all this time to write their kids individually, but in actuality, it took you maybe thirty minutes to write the email, maybe ten minutes to put the data in Excel. You press send, and now you’ve got a hundred emails gone out personalized to the parents with their students’ information, which is great. And then as I said, the lab report grading with Excel as well. So I guess it was only two.

Rebecca Joyner [00:53:43]:
How’d you learn all that with Excel? You just self taught?

Tiffany [00:53:46]:
Another teacher said they did it, and I rolled my eyes at them for about five years. And then one day, I, you know, saw them do it, and I was like, this is perfection. I can put them in groups. I can randomize practice worksheets. So, like, if I wanna do, I don’t know, genetics problems, I can switch out the numbers on the problems, and they each get a different worksheet which can inhibit cheating. So there’s a lot of tools for it. It just makes it so that I can automate quickly.

Rebecca Joyner [00:54:15]:
I love that. Excels like your original AI. You know? You’ve been doing it for AI was even cool.

Tiffany [00:54:20]:
Mail merge isn’t even new tech. Yeah. I think it’s probably been around since, like, the seventies or eighties. Like, it is not new tech.

Rebecca Joyner [00:54:26]:
I know. I’ve been printing Christmas card labels with mail merge for decades.

Tiffany [00:54:30]:
So Yes. Yes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:54:31]:
Hey. Thank you so much for coming. How can our listeners find you? What’s the best way? Your Instagram, your website, what would be the best way to connect with you?

Tiffany [00:54:39]:
To connect with me is honestly on Instagram, a p bio penguins. If you’re wanting resources, it’s the website, So APBioPenguins.Weebly.com. I have a ton of resources that I share out on my Instagram, and that’s when I tell the students about new things. But everything is housed on the website. So if there’s a resource you’re looking for, that’s really how you’ll get to everything. It’s all a databank there.

Rebecca Joyner [00:55:02]:
That’s awesome. Seriously, thank you so much, Tiffany. I really appreciate you coming.

Tiffany [00:55:06]:
Just remember, eight pound of pain was just as this. Bye, y’all.

Rebecca Joyner [00:55:09]:
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode and my interview with Tiffany. Thank you for your grace. If you hear my spring allergy stuffiness in my nose, or if you could hear the construction that’s been happening in the background of the recording of this. Hopefully, you could still hear the epic content that Tiffany had to share. And there are so many links, like I have to get to you. Never have the show notes ever been more important than this episode. So many things she referenced, so many things I want you to be able to get your hands on. So be sure to go to its.

Rebecca Joyner [00:55:40]:
Rocketscienceclassroom.com/ episode 176. That’s episode one seventy six, and you’ll find every single thing we talked about. And if you’re listening to the podcast and you’ve never left a review and you teach biology or an AP course of any kind, today is your turn. Leave a review for the podcast. Alright, teacher friends. That wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/challenge to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free.

Rebecca Joyner [00:56:17]:
Thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher friend.