14 Jul
I am so thrilled to let you know that Just Call Me Ms Frizzle was just honored as one of the Top 50 Science Teacher Blogs!
Teacher Certification Degrees, the website sponsoring the list has great resources for aspiring teachers. Resources include information regarding teaching degrees, state certification, education related careers, and other helpful tools!
Check out the other 49 recognized blogs as well and enjoy the summer!
5 Mar
Junk Drawer Science is a new science curriculum company started by teachers with great resources for teachers.
Welcome to Junk Drawer Science: a result of years of frustration with the out-of-touch, and often-out-of date resources that have been available to us as teachers. We believe that it is time for a revolution in science education. The textbook should be relegated to its proper place. It should be a resource and no longer the focal point of our science classes!
Our mission is to provide engaging materials that stimulate learning in your students. We believe that science should not be expensive, and that the simplest lessons are often the most profound.
At the moment, they have three products available for purchase: a book full of great activities for middle and high school life science classes, a guide to using interactive notebooks in science class, and the game they created called “The Game of Evolution”.
I happen to teach with the Junk Drawer Science owners and can guarantee that their products are worth every penny. They have worked hard to develop curriculum and lesson tools that are effective in the classroom as well as easy to implement on a low (to non-existent) budget.
I guess that makes this a shameless plug: all in the name of providing the world with great teaching resources!
Unfortunately, they will not be at the NSTA conference in San Francisco, so for now, you will have to check them out online.
21 Dec
I sure will!!
Last year, several grad school colleagues and I presented research on parent-teacher-student communication via this blog and we were selected to present our findings at the National Conference in San Francisco.
Please feel free to come to our session on Saturday, March 13. More details to come and we will be collecting more data from our new schools…until then, feel free to read our data and conclusions from last year.
See you in March!
14 Dec
Today I had my first guest speaker (the cheaper alternative to a field trip!). Officer Michael Lemley of the Las Vegas Police Department came to speak to my physics students about accident reconstruction today. It was great for someone else to be in charge of the class and it was so fun to hear my students asking questions and thinking through this particular application of physics!
Officer Lemley was wonderful. He kept the kids laughing and made clear connections between the content and the real-world. One of my favorite parts of the day was Lemley’s insistence that he wishes he had paid more attention to his classes in high school because he had to relearn it all 20 years later. He told my students he never thought he would use his high school knowledge, but it always comes back.
He closed by talking about the cause of most fatal accidents he works on: distracted drivers. He illustrated several instances of people dying because they were texting or on the phone. He asked students why the United States is not willing to show gruesome commercials about drunk and distracted driving; the kids got into quite a debate over offending people v. being honest about consequences.
Since he was in the building for the whole day, he addressed my 9th grade general science classes for the last 20 minutes – I think it was the first time they had heard about applications of science in the “real world”. In my 5th period, I have a specific young gentleman who has the potential to be a lovely person, but has chosen bad friends and a worse attitude instead. When Officer Lemley began addressing the class, he asked the young man what career he would like to pursue. When my student answered the Army, Lemley told him that his attitude would not allow him to be successful. As the boy began to answer, “What attitude??!”, Lemley made him aware of the fact that he had been observing the class during our lecture time. The kid came up to me after class and whispered very softly, “Miss, I’ll never give you a hard time in class again!”. I then discovered that the kids thought Lemley was my personal friend and I had asked him to come in on account of their behavior – ha!
I am so glad I had Officer Lemley come to class – I am really looking forward to inviting more guest speakers soon!
20 Aug
Wiki-Teacher is a fabulous resource for all teachers, regardless of content area. It was actually started by my district, but has more users from outside of Nevada than not!
One of the great things about Wiki-Teacher is that it has lesson plans and ideas as well as videos to give you some ideas of how to implement certain strategies.
There’s not much else I can say since even just a little time exploring will get you hooked!
16 Aug
I am loving Making Teachers Nerdy’s post on the Top 20 Websites No Teacher Should Start the 2010-2011 Year Without! Below I’ve written a little bit about which websites I’m excited to make use of in the coming weeks.
Picnik – I have no idea what role this might play in my classroom, but it’s so fun that I’m sure it will weasel its way in somehow!
Delicious – I had started using this awhile ago, but have neglected it lately since I was teaching with my personal laptop last year. Since I’ll be using one computer at home and a different one at school, this is going to be super handy.
Dropbox – For the same reasons as above, this is going to be a lifesaver! I can access lesson plans at home and school without worrying about them getting lost in email!
Edmodo – This is a new one for me…I’m exploring all my options for how to have a class blog or website that students can be super involved in as a classroom social media type thing. As an experiment, I started a group “Just Call Me Ms Frizzle” (pass key 9219vq) – feel free to stop by and leave a note, upload a favorite article or lesson plan, or give me feedback on what social media has worked in your classroom. If your school does not have any type of online assignment giving and grading, Edmodo has everything you’ll need – and it doesn’t require students to sign up with an email address, so it’s super easy for them!
Google For Educators – A great resource as to how to use the different Google Applications (calendar, docs, etc) to maximize technology and organization in your classroom.
Live Binders - Live Binders caught my attention when I saw you could make digital binders of websites, videos, files, etc. in order to have students do digital scavenger hunts. So cool!
Webspiration – Online tool for creating mind maps, graphic organizers, etc. Another great website that is very similar is XMind.
Prezi – I LOVE this! At the Channel 13 Celebration of Teaching & Learning, I saw a presentation given with Prezi. It’s Power Point on steroids; I am not a huge Power Point in the classroom fan since it is so predictable and not interactive, so I think this will be exactly what I use to give notes and lectures through my projector.
Troovi – This is another one that gets me really excited! Since I want to incorporate pictures all over the classroom of sciencey things my students and I experience, this would be a great way for them to send me pictures without having to pay to have them printed!
VoiceThread – This is a great option for teachers who want to have online conversations with students or an option for keeping home-bound students in the loop. The website has many different options for membership (free and paid) as well as an entire article based on how to maximize VoiceThread use in the classroom.
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I hope these suggestions might inspire some new way to include technology in your classroom this year. For more great teaching websites, see the full article at Making Teachers Nerdy.
5 Aug
Kohls is giving away money to the schools who get the most votes, so head over to this link to vote for Sunrise Mountain High School!
Sunrise Mountain High School is entering into its 2nd school year. While it is in a new building, it serves a student body who are considered “under-privilaged” and come from families who are not involved in their children’s education. I am excited to join the Sunrise Mountain faculty this year buy teaching 4 Physics courses as well as supporting 12th grade students who have not passed the state science exam yet. I know that a grant like this will give students the opportunities they deserve to explore the world through the lens of science!
Check out the pictures of my classroom to help me with ideas for getting my first classroom set up and decorated!
8 Jan
It’s snowing today and I can’t help but think of all the marvelous Physics lessons I see all around me:
Driving In Snow
I was out driving today and the roads were barely snow-covered, but it made me think about occasions when I wasn’t so lucky. Most New England drivers have experienced their car fishtailing; some are even lucky enough to spin out and maintain control of the vehicle. I think it’s safe to say that most people aren’t calculating the equations involved in their sloshy adventure, but a little Physics might help them get home safer. Snow and rain are a great opportunity to talk to students about safe driving techniques and discussing the mechanisms built into vehicles to prevent accidents. As I always warn my husband when driving in slick conditions, “Be careful, your coefficient of friction is constantly changing.”
Now that I think about it, there could be a pretty cool lab activity simulating conditions on slippery roads – anyone have anything already?
Seeing Your Breath In The Cold
When I am visiting my parents and in-laws I like to listen to the local Country radio station. This morning, the announcers were discussing shoveling snow. One of them said he liked shoveling because it’s out in the cold with all the snow where you can see the “smoke” coming out of your mouth. If I have learned anything throughout my two years in grad school, it’s been that teaching science within the context of students’ misconceptions is a great way to ensure student understanding. That why I got upset when I heard the radio announcer call their condensed breath “smoke”. It makes it so hard for teachers to teach correct and accurate information when public figures only perpetuate misconceptions? How can teachers correct psuedoscience in the classroom when nothing changes outside the classroom?
I worked with a few colleagues to develop at least an introductory unit on Heat based on correcting student misconceptions. The links to the concept map and lessons are found at the link above.
Skiing
In the December 2009 edition of Physics Today, there was a great article titled, “The Surprising Science of Ski Moguls” by David B. Bahr, W. Tad Pfeffer, and Raymond C. Browning. All AAPT members get free access to this publication, but if you are not a member, I believe this article is free online anyways. I can’t wait to find an opportunity to share this with my class!
What kinds of science do you think of when it snows?
10 Nov
12 Oct
Happy Earth Science Week 2009!!!
For all sorts of cool resources, check out Teach Science and Math’s Resources Post.
