Blog

As crazy as it sounds, one of my favorite things to do when summer break arrives is to reflect on the year. Although I have been using NGSS standards to drive my classroom for years, Colorado only officially adopted the standards this past year. With this adoption, our school district revamped all ...

As a teacher I am always looking for ways to increase student engagement. With Nearpod you can have 100% of your students engaged. And often this can feel impossible, as we know not every kid is actually interested in what we are teaching. I am sure almost every teacher has that moment when they ...

Zoom has become a hot topic in education due to the unfortunate pandemic of the Coronavirus, along with other video conferencing tools. With this increase in the use of Zoom, they took many steps to ensure educators could feel safe with their students with added security and settings. So when ...

With remote learning, many teachers and schools have been thinking about how to end their school year in a fun and engaging way. And if you are teaching a grade level where students are moving on to another school next year, you really want to make that last week fun, engaging and memorable for ...

Did you start remote learning this past week like I did or are you getting ready to soon? I am writing this post to share how my first week went, what I learned, things  I would do differently  and unexpected successes. I am sure all of you will have your own story to tell too.  ...

No one could have predicted what countries would face with the pandemic of the CoronaVirus (Covid-19). As a result many school systems have been chosen to close for weeks and have been trying to prevent learning loss through remote teaching and learning. Here in Colorado, we are one of the many ...

Be successful after winter break by planning with these simple ways during your first days back. Have a chatty class and just need to refresh your structures and routines. Here are some simple ways to help your class start the new year strong. ...

What does it mean to teach with inquiry. And why don’t we see more science teachers using inquiry as a central teaching practice. The simple answer is that it seems very hard and when done without guidance, students struggle. And we want to rescue them naturally. I decided to write this blog post ...

This year I decided to completely redesign my classroom! After setting it all up and knowing I will continuously be tweaking it, I decided it is time to reveal the new look.  Every year I am always thinking about how I can improve from the previous year. Although it is a lot of extra work… ...

Over the years, I have revamped my syllabus and safety contract multiple times. And most of what I put on it came from my own experience as a student. It was so jammed pack to cover everything possible for many years. However, eventually I realized that my students and parents didn’t read it, even ...