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...

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 u...

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 addi...