Some of my students have a tough time understanding concepts if it isn't right in front of them. So to make the concept of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood clearer to them, I had them help me make 2 models for our classroom. These models lasted over a week before getting gross (then I flushed them) and saved the mason jars for next school year. The canning jars were filled with water (to represent the plasma), cheerios (to represent the red blood cells because rbc's don't have a nucleus which made the cheerios a good shape), food coloring (red and blue), and marshmallows. The idea came from Pinterest.com Some of you have requested that I put links on my blog where you can buy the items I use so I am going to try to do that for you. Especially those of you who live in a different country than I do...this will help you!  You can buy canning jars here: You only need a small amount of cheerios...I purchased a couple of these Cheerios in a cu...

Charlotte Danielson's 2007 Framework for Teaching  and Index of posts from BallinwithBalling.blogspot.com Domain 1 - Planning and Preparation 1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy (Knowledge of content and the structure of the discipline, Knowledge of prerequisite relationship, Knowledge of content-related pedagogy) BallinwithBiology posts:      Oneonta Biology Listserve 1b: Demonstrating Knowledge of Students (Knowledge of child and adolescent development, Knowledge of the learning process, Knowledge of students’ skills, knowledge, and language proficiency, Knowledge of students’ interests and cultural heritage, Knowledge of students’ special needs) BallinwithBalling posts:       Blood Model       Protein Model made with a baby toy 1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes (Value, sequence, and alignment, Clarity, Balance, Suitability for diverse learners) BallinwithBalling posts:       Kinesthe...

Many of you may know that I am a Biology teacher and in today's society it is a very stressful and demanding job. Constantly (even during vacations and weekends) I am working to improve the entire school experience for my students and to streamline the entire grading, learning, and evaluation part of my job. Very soon I will be evaluated as a teacher with the use of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching (2007).  The framework places an emphasis on four different domains of teaching... http://www.roe13.k12.il.us/Services/KeriKorn/HND12/Trover/FrameworkTeaching.pdf Even if you are a great teacher, most of the stuff you do isn't always visible in a 40 minute observation especially if you are teaching online or using technology in the classroom. In these blog postings I hope to document all of the different techniques and tricks that I use as a teacher and to help give others ideas that can be implemented in their own classrooms.  We are much better te...