Today, Tuesday September 22, 2009 is the autumnal equinox. The equinox is the half way point between the summer and winter solstice and marks the first day of fall. The equinox is a great excuse to get outside with your students and take advantage of the sun before the weather gets too cold for outdoor [...]
Starting your lesson with a Do Now is good practice. It sets the tone for the class, gets students settled in (because they have to do it now), and ideally makes them think. A Do Now is a question or quote that either reviews or introduces a topic to students. But what constitutes a good [...]
Having an organized and easy place to keep all of your grades and attendance has never been easier. Gradekeeper is a easy and inexpensive way to keep your class information digitally. No more papers to lose or grades to calculate. In the following tutorial I will show you how to set up and use Gradekeeper. [...]
Meeting a new class can be both intimidating and exciting. Icebreakers are a good way to get students active and participating early. Here are 5 ways you can start your classes off on the right foot. Two Truths and a Lie For this icebreaker you will pass out 3×5 cards to everyone and ask them [...]
Group activities that truly engage students are hard to come by. This lesson is one of those activities. Space ship takes a look at rebuilding human civilization. What if the world was coming to an end? Who should we choose to continue the human race? Students are taken on a thought provoking journey to a [...]
Thank you everyone who attended the Dynamic Earth Professional Development. Below you will find the PowerPoint presentations that I used. If you have any questions about the presentations, feel free to leave a comment. Day 1 – Weather Instruments
From the time you are a baby, you explore the world by touching, tasting, rubbing and smelling. The first thing a baby does when it is presented a new object is to pop it in it’s mouth and bang it around. We are naturally inclined to explore by putting our hands on the world around [...]
Many of the science courses that students are required to take culminate in a standardized exam. The content that is tested on the exam ultimately determines much of the information that is covered throughout the course. Unfortunately, most of these exams test rather arbitrary pieces of knowledge and leave little time for teaching lessons that [...]
As teachers, we have an endless number of tasks and duties that must be completed on a regular basis. We have lesson plans to create, papers to grade, meetings to attend, and discipline issues to deal with. Unfortunately, communication with the families of our students often gets pushed to the back burner because there just [...]
We’ve all been there. You spend half of Saturday planning a lesson that is interactive and relevant to your curriculum, and you expect it to be a home run. Unfortunately, when you implement the lesson, it falls somewhere between a walk and a strike out. There are a wide variety of problems that may have [...]
