Pedagogy

If you are consistently using small groups in your high school science classes and are looking for practical support to do it better, I am so glad you found this post! I am sharing 5 tips to make using small groups easier in your secondary science classes.

As teachers, it is always our desire to make sure we reach every learner in our classrooms. Now more than ever, our students are becoming more and more diverse – whether it is their background, home life, previous education, life experiences, abilities, preferences, etc.

If you are looking for a way to create a more collaborative classroom culture and/or to better manage the large group of students on your roster, start using small groups TODAY! This post covers the benefits for you AND your students as well as 4 quick-start tips for using small groups if you don’t normally!

All signs are pointing to the beginning of the school year being upon us once again, teacher friends. The Target dollar spot is filled with school supplies. Lunchables are put out on the seasonal table at the front of Publix. And I am constantly waking up in the middle of

Student-centered pedagogy or learner-centered teaching strategies are not novel ideas. For the better part of the last decade there has been a major emphasis in teacher education programs to emphasize the use of instructional methods that put the focus on the student rather than the teacher. So let’s be real, I am not writing anything revolutionary here!

LOVED science and have especially had a heart for high school students (I volunteered with a ministry called Young Life for over a decade, and also coached a local high school dance team all through college). I knew from my teacher training program that a lot went in to teaching other than JUST teaching. I would have to write lesson plans, grade tests, prep labs, and go to faculty meetings. What I HIGHLY underestimated was how parent communication would be a HUGE part of my job.

If you’ve been around my corner of the internet for a little bit, you know how much I HATE REVIEWING. It doesn’t matter if it is for the AP bio exam or a unit test, I just truly dread review days. One of the BEST ways I’ve found to review for exams or unit tests is by making review stations.

It’s that time of year. The weather starts changing, the days start getting longer, and your students start becoming absolutely stir crazy. Some call it spring fever – I call it senioritis. And regardless of if you teach seniors or not, this “disease” does not discriminate based on student age (although seniors seem to be the MOST affected – if you’ve ever taught seniors, once they receive college acceptance letters, it is borderline game over).

I love labs, model-building, and inquiry-based activities like any good secondary science teacher – but I also still really enjoy lecturing. Lectures don’t have to be boring like the 300+ person lecture hall courses you took in college. You CAN make lectures engaging – and I am here to share with you my 4 best strategies (plus a bonus tip for all of you currently still teaching virtually #blessyou) for doing so.

Teaching students how to take notes is a huge part of being a high school science teacher – whether we want it to be or not. I am excited to share with you how to use Cornell notes, as it has been a method I never set out to be

So the 1st day of school in high school science is approaching and you don’t know what exactly to do with your students. There is so much procedural/background content you want to cover, but you also want the day to be FUN and engaging so your students know what to

The summer before my first year teaching I read everything I could about how to start the year strong. A lot of it was about being really strict at the beginning of the year to prove your authority. Some even mentioned not smiling until after winter break (I could never