The Best Sources of Literature to Read in Science Class

Encouraging students to read is such an important piece of education, at all grade levels and ages, and across all subject areas. Even as a science teacher, and although I am obviously a huge proponent of hands-on engaging science activities, I still consider reading so important.  In fact, I have an entire section of literacy posts on my blog. 

As we face a school year where things are quite different than usual, and where we are changing our teaching methods in many ways. Part of that change, or many of us, maybe an increased need for relationship-building activities with our students. At the same time, we are feeling pressure to make sure that we cover the curriculum.

I would like to suggest that you add in reading some books, or sections of books with your students. Reading can be a great way to engage students, to build community, to build literacy skills, and to engage them, particularly at a time when many hands-on activities may be off-limits. 

There are many fantastic science books that can be used in any of the following ways (and more):

• Used in an English class to supplement your science lessons

• Used as an enrichment activity

• Used as a more engaging resource than a textbook

• Used as an engagement hook at the start

• Used as a way to see applications and wrap up a topic

• Used as a tool to build vocabulary

You do not have to use the entire book or a long book. It is easy to use a chapter or a short story.  This can ensure that students start out on the same page, with a common experience. At this time when we are more divided than ever, it is important to create a place for students to connect. It’s even better if we can connect to our classroom and our lessons. 

These books will allow us a chance to do both. Did you know that every year since 1973, the National Science Teacher's Association has published a list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for students grades K-12 (Prior to 2002 the lists are only grades K-8).   Some years they even linked suggested activities. 

I hope you find this useful and fun.  I think your students will really enjoy this addition to the class. If you do use any of these resources, I would love to for you comment below with what resource you used, and how you used it.

 

The Lifestyle Changes You Can Make After Lockdown

When it comes to our lifestyle there is no denying that lockdown may have had us question some of our processes and the habits we have. As teachers, we are taking on new roles in the classroom, and approaching our jobs in ways that many of us never have before. However, we may also want to re-evaluate and approach some things differently in our personal life, or in our work-life balance.

With time to think things through, did you decide to make some changes? The truth is, we may have come out of lockdown wanting to make some positive changes, but where to start? Here are some of the lifestyle changes that you could make apart from eating well and exercising. 

Image source - pixabay - cco license 

Take better care of yourself

One of the first things that you could do would be to take better care of yourself. This means booking those dental appointments, regular check-ups at doctors for blood pressure and tests, and even the eye appointment you have likely been putting off. If you need glasses there are some great frames online and they can help you in different ways of your life such as reading or long distance. Taking good care of yourself means that you will be at optimum health in all areas of your life. Leaving you time to focus on the other changes you want to make.  This is not the time to skip these things. If anything we should realize that our health is top priority!

Get more sleep

There is no hiding from the fact that so many of us would like a little more sleep in our lives. Of course, you can do the obvious thing that would mean going to bed a little earlier, but is it really going to be the right thing for you? Instead, why not focus on getting a better quality of sleep. That means developing a bedtime routine just for you. Shutting off the technology at least an hour before bed. Relaxing in a warm bath and drinking a warm drink instead of something alcoholic or caffeinated. Getting better sleep can drastically change your mood and energy levels, which ultimately could have a positive effect on other aspects of your life. 

Say yes more

Could you say yes more? Are you one of those people who are afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone or taking that leap of faith? If this sounds like you then maybe a good approach to the year would be to say yes more. Yes to that night out. Yes to that night in. Yes to a holiday, or yes to more responsibility at work. Yes, yes, yes. Of course, Don’t do things that feel forced. But if it is a situation that you think you may regret it if you don’t say yes have the courage to just do it. 

Know when to say no

Finally, on the opposite end of the scale, you have people who just can’t say no. They say yes if it means inconveniencing them and they don’t want to do it. They say yes when they don’t want to do something. So a good lifestyle change for you would be to decide whether you should in some cases be saying no. Think about yourself and your family instead of others. It could really change the way you approach life. 

Let’s hope that some of these options have you considering other ways to take on the year ahead. 

What changes are you thinking of making, particularly as we head back into the school year?

How to Download Google Drive Files in Multiple Formats

We all have probably heard a lot about Google Drive by now, but what if you are a Microsoft school?  Or what if you want to use a resource with less technology, or in a different format?  Are all these Google Drive resources useless to you?  NO!! In this post, I hope to detail how you can still use many of these resources.  

Google Forms

First of all, Google Forms are basically exclusive to Google.  You cannot directly use Google Forms in another format.  HOWEVER, they still work well on mobile devices, embedded, or with a simple link, as a way to quickly collect responses.  So don’t let that stop you or deter you from using Google Forms. They work well on almost any device. 

Google Docs or Slides

Most resources that you encounter will be in Google Docs or Slides format.   You can generally convert these to MS Word or PowerPoint in seconds.  You can also print to PDF, with one caveat. Obviously, if you have interactive features they will likely need some modification to work well on paper, but that may not be a big problem. It’s easy to add directions such as “draw arrows” or physically cut out the pieces.  

To make this change, use the steps in the following diagram: 

What are the various file formats? 

The two that will probably be the most useful and immediately recognizable are Microsoft Word and PDF.  However, there may be others in here that are useful to you as well.  I have found often people don’t know this menu is available. 

If you have further questions, additional comments, or examples of how you have used this, I would love to hear it!  Please leave a comment below, email me, or post in our Facebook group. 

I hope this makes some of the many Google Resources that are available even more useful and accessible to you and your students. 

Popular Q & A For Teaching Static Electricity

One of my most popular FREE resources is designed to teach about static electricity.  It is written for middle school but would be appropriate for upper elementary, or perhaps 9th grade.  

This middle school static lab is a lot of fun, and memorable for students. It includes an explanation, with diagrams, of static electricity, and then five stations of activities for students to explore static electricity. It also has summary questions for them to answer to process and assess their knowledge.

It used very basic household materials, so it would also be an activity that you students could do at home, if needed, or to show their families what they have been learning.  The materials needed (to do all five stations) are: soda cans, inflated balloons, packing peanuts in a plastic bag, small pieces of wool cloth, puffed wheat cereal, black plastic strips 

Here are some common questions and answers that I often receive.  

• Can you explain more about the materials?  What if I don’t have some of the materials? What can I use instead? 

Material	Possible Substitutions
Inflated balloons	Bubble wrap/bubble packing materials
Packing peanuts	Cut or break apart small pieces of a styrofoam cup or plate
Small pieces of wool cloth	Another cloth can be substituted.  Some types of cloth that work well would be something ‘furry’ or fuzzy, nylon, or even leather.
Puffed wheat cereal	Could use another similar cereal that is not too sweet and is in discrete pieces, such as cheerios.  Something puffed may work better simply because it is so light.  Puffed rice cereal would also be great. You can also use black pepper here as well.
Black plastic strips	You could also use a comb, small ruler, or another plastic strip.  If needed, you can substitute the balloon here as well.

What classroom management tips do you have for doing this lab with middle school students? 

I have done this lab as stations, but it is easily adapted.  I wrote a more lengthy post about how to run stations that may be helpful. 

Further Inspiration and direction

In case you are looking for more inspiration or an engagement video to get your students started, it can be very engaging to do something very simple, that ties it back to real life.  Static electricity causes lightning, so it would be eye-catching to have a picture of lightning up on the board and ask students for their ideas about what causes lightning at the start of class.  

There are also many readily available pictures of children with their hair standing on end, etc.  Again, this could easily be used to capture student attention and engage them before starting the activity.

In either of these cases, it would be ideal to return to that picture after the lesson and see if students could further explain the cause of that phenomenon. 

Extensions

If you are looking to extend this further, this is the perfect lab to practice experimental design. Students can choose one variable to test (such as the type of fabric, or the type of cereal) and determine how it affects the results that they see.  This could even be a chance to graph some data if you can collect quantitative data.   

If you want to try this activity in your class, with complete written directions and summary questions, check it out here.

How Teachers Can Support Students Studying At Home

(Pixabay CC0)

At the time of writing, many children are studying at home due to school closures instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many teachers are having to find new ways to support their students, and also their student's parents who have been encouraged to provide learning opportunities at home.

Of course, going beyond the pandemic situation, you might still find cause to support those pupils who have to study at home. There are instances when some children can't make it into school, for a variety of reasons, and there are reasons why schools might be closed too. We are thinking of the weather, for example, which can cause disruption for many.

When offering support then, you might want to consider the following suggestions.

Provide activities in a range of formats
You already know that children have a range of different learning styles, so try to vary the activities you send to them. Some children will benefit from recorded lessons that can be accessed online, whereas others might need to experience hands-on learning when under the tuition of their parents.

It's important to remember that children from low-income families might not have access to computers and smart devices, so paper-based activities should be provided when digital learning isn't possible. You will already have printables that can be used at home but click here for some literacy examples.

Thinking about your students then, consider their individual needs, and then try to match them when preparing activities for them to do at home.

Offer parents practical support
In a lot of cases, older children will need little support from their parents, other than the encouragement to actually buckle down and work. Younger children will need more support, so their parents will need to have some understanding of how to teach their youngsters effectively.

So, give parents clear guidance on what they need to do to support the needs of your students. Share activity ideas, give them instructions on how to deliver a lesson, and offer tips on time management. Remember that most parents won't have your expertise, so stay clear of jargon, simplify your instructions and share tips that can easily be adopted.

Be reachable too. While you don't want to inundated by calls from parents, you might still offer your services online. If your school has a Facebook group, make yourself available at certain times of the day, as you will then have the opportunity to support any parents who have questions or concerns about the lessons they are being asked to deliver.

Go live!
Skype and Zoom both offer group chat functions, so you will have the opportunity to connect with small groups of pupils at a time. Use these platforms to talk to your students, offer them encouragement and reassurance, and when its practical to do so, provide some level of teaching from behind your computer screen. This is also your opportunity to connect with parents, so encourage them too, and guide them if they need advice on any aspect of their children's learning.

Thanks for reading!

How to know if you are successful as a teacher

How to know if you are successful as a teacher

One of the down sides of teaching is that you may never feel like you have done enough. It can be overwhelming. Particularly now, when we are doing distance learning and transitioning to new methods of teaching, in many cases while taking on responsibilities at home with our own children, it may not feel like you are “doing a good job” or “being successful.”

First of all, there are answers, and no hard rules right now for what you should be doing. All bets are off. You are doing enough. You are doing your best to help your students and take care of yourself. You are doing it right.

So how do you measure success? Many of our common measures of teaching success are not fair to teachers (as well know), or only tell part of the story. For example, test scores. We all know about that. Many of these ‘measures’ are out of our control and influenced by so many other factors, that they are really not measuring teachers’ success at all. 

So how do you measure and evaluate your own success?

This question came up in our Facebook Group a while ago, and I would like to share some of those responses here, as well as add a few others that are specific to some of the more recent events.

From the Facebook Group

• From member Louette McInnes: New teachers take note. When I started teaching, an experienced teacher told me that if I had 'one really great lesson a day', that was success. He also said it would take me a year to get one course set up so I knew it would be really successful and do what I wanted it to do. He was right.
• Don’t compare yourself to others - look at your own progress, look at the interactions and progress that you can see with individual kids
• Are kids respectful (for the most part), are they engaged? Are they learning?
• Are they thinking?
• What do they know that they weren’t able to do when they came to you?
• And more in this post

In addition, right now, some things are more important than academics.

• Are you building or maintaining relationships with your students (and their families)?
• Are you working to meet your students needs (both academic and otherwise), while taking care of yourself?
• Are you helping students to make some progress, within their other constraints?
• Are you doing the best you can? Not giving up? Trying some creative ideas, even if they don’t all work? Taking some risks with the hope of improving?

Then you are successful as a teacher!

Keep building relationships, keep thinking, being creative, and building relationships with your students and the rest will come. Teaching is not a place for instant gratification. You won’t start your teaching career, or your school year, and have it all be successful. It’s a slower process. You will make gradual gains, and have ups and downs. But over the long haul, as you look back, you will absolutely see signs that you have been successful!!

Integrating Math and Science in the Classroom

It’s easy to focus on teaching just our curriculum. But often, in science class, we are expecting students to be able to use certain math skills but in actuality, their math skills may be a big source of struggle.

As teachers, there is always a balance between teaching students our content area, and following the curriculum, but also teaching students other core skills that they will need for our class or for others. I am often asked about how to integrate more math into science class. Here are five strategies that I have found to be helpful.

Five Strategies to Integrate Math into Science Class

1. Talk to your math teachers; find common ground on how you are teaching the content. It is confusing to students if we are teaching the same or very similar concepts but using different language, or slightly different instructions. Pull out key math concepts that you need the kids to know and talk to your math teachers. Find out if they cover those topics. At what grade level, how do they already teach it? This might include things like graphing, solving a proportion, converting units, or basic algebraic equations. Kids have a hard enough time transferring skills between classes, or retaining what they learn and applying it outside of class. Any time we can put in working with the math teachers to come up with a common language and skill set will absolutely benefit both of us.
2. Utilize opportunities to talk about number sense and practice if the answers make sense. Kids are often so stuck on doing the steps, and getting an answer, often using a calculator, that they don’t stop to think about their answer and consider if it makes sense. I like to put a stop to this, if possible, by starting the concept or math lesson with very easy numbers, and not letting them use a calculator. Keep the numbers SUPER easy so they build up some confidence and focus on the topic.
3. When it gets too complicated, it’s ok to use a calculator. After they’ve gotten the idea, I think it’s ok to use a calculator. Many times, kids get frustrated and overwhelmed by the numbers. If, in fact, they will be able to use a calculator going forward, then I think it’s ok for them to use a calculator moving forward in the class, and they have an understanding, then allow them to focus on the concept.
4. If there is a good climate for collaboration, take it one step further. Work with your math colleagues to use some of your data from science class for math. This can be done in many parts of math class, practicing graphing, data analysis, and more. Here is a great example Successful Math and Science Teacher Collaboration: The Administrator's Role
5. Last, but absolutely not least, build up students’ math confidence. Many students can do the calculations, but they struggle to feel confident and to be comfortable applying their knowledge, particularly in a new situation. I cannot overstate how important it is for kids to feel comfortable. They will more willing to practice and take risks if they feel more comfortable.

I would love to hear if any of these tips help you, or what other suggestions you have to integrate math and science in your classroom. Feel free to comment below!