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Virtual Glossary and Science Word Wall in the Digital Learning Classroom

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Sometimes as a high school teacher I find myself looking for ideas to use in the classroom that are commonplace in an elementary classroom. One great idea I stole from the lower grades is a word wall.   I have also jazzed it up a bit for Distance Learning by adding a Virtual Glossary and Interactive Notes online. If you have never heard of a word wall then let me explain this to you and show you how I made it interactive in the Digital Classroom.  According to Readingrockets.com:  A word wall is a collection of words which are displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display surface in a classroom. The word wall is designed to be an interactive tool for students and contains an array of words that can be used during writing and reading. Here are some pictures of word walls in classrooms:     I liked that the word wall is available for students to use at all times in the classroom and is a decorative addition to the classroom. Ov
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Air Fryer Donuts on a Sunday morning

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 I don’t know about you but Sundays are a tough day for teachers. It’s a day that we look back at Saturday and notice all of the things we meant to do but didn’t get to. Sunday is tough to enjoy because teachers realize that now they have a mountain of obligations and prep that must be done for the 5 days ahead.  To make the day a little better I usually try to get up and make a breakfast for my family because it’s one of the rare days we aren’t driving kids around to practices.  Today I tried a new recipe and I have to share it with you.  I got the recipe from here:  https://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.com/air-fryer-donuts/ Let me know if you make them. 
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Why 5 Questions at a time will do

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In my high school classes I have found that when I go over too many practice questions with my students they easily lose interest. For the past couple years I have been giving my students only 5 questions at a time. We call these "Fast 5's." Over the years I have changed the way I use these.  I used to assign them as homework but I found it was too easy for the students to share the answers with one another. I would sometimes use them as an exit ticket out the door but then I had to remember to check them, hand them back, and then go over them the next day. This didn't always happen as much as I wanted. It's funny how sometimes in teaching we keep doing what we've always done even though we know it isn't as effective as it could be but we just don't know how to tweak it to make it better. Often the change that needs to be made is a tiny change but it makes a HUGE difference.  I've had a teaching revolution this year due to the pandemic. This school
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Location: Williamsville, NY 14221, USA
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 Thank you for coming to my blog. I started this blog years ago as an online portfolio of my teaching and anything else in my life that uplifts and motivates me. I wish I had more time to blog but I hope what I have put on here is useful to you and helps generate some excellent ideas of your own. Please comment on my posts to let me know what stuck with you.
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Location: Williamsville, NY 14221, USA
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#teacherhack split screen

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  Those who know me in real life know that I LOVE a good lifehack. I am obsessed with not only finding a great lifehack but I am also obsessed with telling everybody I know about something cool I just learned. I'm almost an evangelist.  Although this school year is very different than the way some have taught in the past I'm finding that it is full of #teacherhacks (lifehacks that apply to the teaching and learning world). I am going to try my best during this super crazy school year to focus on the positive and share some of these hacks I have found. Please follow me as I prepare to share a couple gems a week.
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#teacherhack

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 Those who know me in real life know that I LOVE a good lifehack. I am obsessed with not only finding a great lifehack but I am also obsessed with telling everybody I know about something cool I just learned. I'm almost an evangelist.  Although this school year is very different than the way some have taught in the past I'm finding that it is full of #teacherhacks (lifehacks that apply to the teaching and learning world). I am going to try my best during this super crazy school year to focus on the positive and share some of these hacks I have found. Please follow me as I prepare to share a couple gems a week. Here's one I didn't know until today: Credit goes to Yinka Boudreaux on twitter https://twitter.com/LangIsLit
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Warm Ups in the Science Classroom

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Do you use bell-ringers or warm-ups in your high school science class?  Some teachers may call these “bell work” or “ticket out the door” I actually use them as both depending on the situation. I have found that students may understand a concept in class but when the concept is in a diagram, a graph, or a chart they get confused and have a tough time applying that knowledge.   I like to use them to review what the students have learned and have them apply it. We do this activity for no more than 1-2 minutes and because they are small they don't require a lot of paper. These are a nice way to get my students engaged in their learning from the second they walk in the door. They pick it up at the door and get started right away. When completed we then go over the questions.   By creating a “folder” in their Interactive notebooks they do not need to waste time cutting or glueing them in; it simply goes into the folder in that unit and minimal class time is used.
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Partner Games

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I want to start off by saying that Partner Games have changed my classroom for the better! Partner games are perfect for practicing science skills. Because there are only two students working together, both students are working, and none are left out. There is also instant accountability as the partners (when chosen appropriately) hold each other accountable. The partner games I use (and the ones I am sharing with you) are very consistent. This allows me to teach my students the directions and expectations for the five types of games at the beginning of the year. Then, I can use those same partner games all year long with different math content and skills, and my students immediately know what to do. Let’s take a look at my partner games. Roll and Calculate To play this game the students take turns rolling the 3 dice and calculating the gradient. Since each pair of students has different numbers they cannot copy from their neighbors. Each student double checks
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Growth Mindset Posters

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To start the school year I like to have my students work as a team to color in a poster. Each student receives a piece of the puzzle and colors it as directed. Some pages have more areas to color than others and can be used to differentiate the activity for students with different abilities. Once colored, the students work together to assemble the poster to hang on the wall.  There are approximately 24-30 pages per poster and there are 6 different posters in this set. This activity requires you to print the pages and supply crayons or markers in 6 different colors. That's it! To purchase this activity click here To see the rest of my creations click here
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Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
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Distance Learning and Teaching Earth Science

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For the past ten years I have been teaching my students face to face in class and creating videos so they can access important material anywhere and anytime. This is commonly known as blended learning. Now that many school buildings are closed this has become even more important than it has ever been. student watching a lesson video and taking notes on a paper handout student notes on paper online classroom that I used to use in an online learning platform known as Moodle These notes, handouts, and videos have been created by me over the summer break. I know that a lot of people think that teachers have "summers off" but if you have a teacher in your family you know that couldn't be farther from the truth. Any teacher I know has a non-stop feeling that they have to always do more to help their students. I personally struggle with it daily and doubt it will ever go away. I am much more productive early in the morning and over the summer I start off
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