Balancing chemical equations In my experience, there are two kinds of students when it comes to balancing chemical equations. Those that love it, and those that hate it. It has been a struggle for me to try to move students from the “hate it” camp into the “love it” camp. One simple change has made the MOST difference in how… View Post
Teach “naming compounds” with a decision tree
Naming compounds was a frustrating topic This is a topic that my Chemistry students always struggled with. There are just so many rules! They were becoming frustrated and giving up. So I did what I always do when my kids are having trouble. I reflected on the lesson and thought of ways to make it more accessible. The first thing… View Post
Create custom bulletin board lettering
Why I like custom lettering Have you ever shopped for bulletin board lettering and just did not find what you wanted? Maybe the colors were not right or the font wasn’t what you wanted. What ever you pick, you are sure to see in other teachers classrooms as well. Not to mention the exorbitant cost of purchasing pre-made bulletin board… View Post
How to make sure students always return classroom supplies
Losing equipment was costing me money How many times has the bell rang and you’ve just realized that you have lost yet another calculator? Or set of markers or colored pencils, etc, etc? This was happening to me at an alarming rate! I always forgot in the chaos of collecting assignments and cleaning up to count my calculators before the… View Post
System for writing bathroom passes guaranteed to save you time!
Save time? Yes, please! Bathroom passes were once a huge time suck in my classroom. It never failed that I’d be away from my desk, in the back, helping another student when someone asked for a bathroom pass. So, I’d walk all the way back to my desk (I had a big room), check my list to see how many… View Post