Just a note to address the gap in posts. For the last nine weeks, I’ve been doing a long-term substitute gig at the middle school where I taught for six years, and which my kids attended. It was fun being back in the middle school classroom again for a while! I taught about weathering and…
I spent the last week learning a lot about how successful blogs work, and especially how teachers who create content online can market what they create. There’s a lot to learn, and I feel like I’m behind! The good news is that I have time, and it’s pretty fun to learn new things. And there’s…
What does every first-time middle school science teacher need? Courage, a sense of humor, patience, energy, and a few specific items: Updated Periodic Table In late 2016, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) updated the periodic table with names for four recently synthesized elements, nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts), and oganesson (Og).…
When I teach professional development sessions about engineering for elementary classrooms, we always talk about the student who might really hate engineering projects. It’s usually a high-achieving kid, usually a girl, who is not used to this kind of learning. She wants to learn from the teacher, practice the skill, and then demonstrate her knowledge.…
