Using Coloring Pages in Middle School Science Do you need relaxing, calming activities for your science classroom that still focuses on concepts? Is the noise level climbing in your classroom? Using coloring pages in middle school science may seem a bit unconventional, but it is a powerful tool! Let’s look at how incorporating concept based…
How to Have a Positive Relationship with Parents Keeping a positive relationship with parents of your students is probably the most difficult part of teaching. One upset parent can cause you to have unnecessary anxiety and stress and make it difficult to focus on your class. After teaching for over 35 years, and dealing with…
Use Backwards Lesson Planning to Create Science Labs Do you struggle with balancing time during labs and hands-on activities? Have you tried backwards lesson planning to create your science labs? I have mentioned this method in several of my blog posts, but I thought it would be helpful to focus only on this method to…
Teaching a Unit on Newton’s Laws of Motion Are you teaching a unit on Newton’s Laws of Motion as part of your MS- PS2–1 or MS- PS2–2? Are you struggling to come up with ideas to help students understand how the laws apply to their everyday life? My focus, during my two to three week unit…
12 Ways to Use Sort Cards in the Science Classroom Do you need some ways to use sort cards in the science room to get the students engaged while learning concepts? I used to believe that matching sort game cards were for the younger classes. Once I started using them with my middle school students,…
10 Ways to Assess Students in the Science Classroom It’s not so easy to assess students in the science classroom since it is not as straightforward as other subjects. Students are actively working out of their seats, working on projects and following procedures. I am a strong believer in multiple ways to gather data on…
Teach Biodiversity in Food Webs With a Dice Roll Game Are you looking for an engaging way to teach biodiversity in food webs? Let’s do it with a game! My food web, dice roll biodiversity game helps students understand that man-made or natural events can cause serious consequences in a food web. They will realize…
So How Do You Develop Relationships with Middle School Students? Have you heard that it is crucial that you develop relationships with middle school students, but you don’t know where to start? After teaching middle school science for over 30 years, I feel that developing relationships is definitely the most important tool. Let’s go over…
Review Made Fun: Science Classroom Gamification Can classroom gamification rev up the engagement and attention spans in your science class? “Can we play the review game?” This is the question I have heard for over 25 years of teaching middle school science. Many years ago I got bored reviewing for tests so I created a spelling…
Teaching Students Organizational Skills Teaching students organizational skills is critical and will stay with students long after their time in your classroom. I have often had alumni students come back to tell me how much they appreciated my “forcing them“ to do proper Cornell notes and to keep an organized notebook. They tell me that…
