The Chemistry Particle

New clock for the front of my classroom! I love it already :)

Got it on Amazon :)

Happy EARLY Valentine's Day!

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It's all fun and games until you have to cut out all of the cards....

My kids have been really struggling to take notes with PowerPoint lately. Last week I projected the PDF of our notes and wrote directly on the whiteboard. It was like magic.

Why? Who knows, but it's working for now. They are focused and engaged.

If you are struggling with lecture engagement, try this.

Next step when this novelty wears off? I'm going to try to find an old overhead projector and transparencies 😄

Are you on the right track? Are your students?

This year has been a doozy for me already. I feel constantly behind. But I have a plan. I'm on the right track.

🌈Did I need to spend time color-coding my unit binders today?

No.

Is my teacher heart happy?

Yes ❤️

Just another day talking about atoms!

I don't use anchor charts... but I draw the same references on my board from year-to-year. Maybe it's time to invest some effort in creating anchor charts 🙃

Happy new school year to you!

So many of us have already started (my first day back was August 2) while others are a week or so away. Regardless, 2023-2024 has come!

📅I always make plans for the first quarter before school starts because I know I'll be too busy to think too far ahead those first few weeks of school.

🔧I do have to stay flexible- you never know what will unexpectedly pop up and throw a wrench in everything.

😒And it seems like every year I reorganize my materials, hoping that next year I won't have to... But my PLC has made so many changes over the past few years. From chapter tests to weekly quizzes and now back tests. We used to teach conversion factors in our first unit, then we took it out, now it's back in...

📑The structure of our weeks changes and I find I need my materials filed in different ways to help my brain from day-to-day.

😎But there is always a starting plan and I always learn a little something along the way.

❓What are you most excited about this year? New plans? New labs? Nothing new so the year's ready to go?

🧪Chemists have ALL the solutions!

What's your favorite solutions lab?

I like all the food chemistry labs, but my current school doesn't allow them ☹️

🤔I'm curious though...
🥤Do you do serial dilutions with Kool-Aid?
🍧Are you allowed to teach colligative properties by making ice cream in a bag?

Check out my newest blog post for everything I teach in my Chemical Solutions Unit!
https://thechemistryparticle.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-to-teach-chemical-solutions/

🙋🏽Raise your hand if you've ever stopped yourself from making a change because you feared it was a mistake.

Yeah... me too. 🙋🏻‍♀️

🥶Fear of mistakes can leave you frozen in the same old routine. It keeps us from really going for it! Whatever "it" is.

⭐But what are mistakes? We teach our students that they are learning opportunities. They should be the same for us.

📃That new lesson we tried, what a failure - now we know. Let's go ahead and tweak it for next time. Or start from scratch... or scrap it. You are a professional. You can use the data you gathered to make the best decision for you and your students.

🎲Jumping headfirst into an afterschool activity is taking up too much of your time and energy? Tell the students and admin, and be honest about how you feel. Ask them to help you find someone who could either co-sponsor with you or take over completely. This was not a "mistake" but a lesson in your limits.

🙏Please don't misunderstand me. Don't say "yes" to everything. But there's something you've wanted to try... so TRY IT!

🌠I hope 2023 brings you many learning opportunities.

My Dual Credit Chemistry students begged me for more guided notes on the first day of Semester 2. The teacher I took over for only posted the ppt to Schoology. No discussion. They were on their own.

I get that this is supposed to be a college-level course BUT most of my students are 14 years old. Making the jump from middle school to college-level is a big transition.

I'm using the almost blank versions of my notes with them right now. They still have access to the "official" dual credit notes. I have gotten such positive feedback in just 2-weeks with this little addition.

Do what works best for your kiddos! Advanced doesn't mean you have to remove all support!

🧪My students have always responded well to learning about reaction rates.

I start off with the factors that affect reaction rates (weird... the same ones also affect the rate of solution formation😉) and then we move on to graphing and calculating reaction rates. The whole "mini-unit" takes 4-5 days.

Interested? Check out my blog post where I outline my plan for you!

https://thechemistryparticle.com/how-to-incorporate-reaction-rates-into-your-high-school-chemistry-lesson-plans/

"Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science"
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

What have you been wondering lately? I've been wondering (for a while) when it is that our students lose their sense of wonder about the world around them.

They start off so curious but by the time they get to me in high school, a lot of that wonder is lost. When does this happen? Do middle school hormones take over their wonder centers? Are they jaded from too many standardized tests?

And, how do we get that wonder back?

So many things come to mind when i think about teaching chemical bonding:
Ionic vs Covalent
Polar vs Nonpolar
Network solids
Metallic alloys
Salts
Hydrocarbons
Organic?

Indiana just implemented their new standards (eerily similar to the NGSS). I'm revamping my chemical bonding unit and I think I've got a pretty good plan.

Check out my latest blog post all about it:
https://thechemistryparticle.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-to-teach-bonding/

How do you teach bonding?

✋Raise your hand if your lab area is usually messy...

There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to clean EVERYTHING that needs cleaning. 🧼

🧹Yes, you can train your students to clean up but there are always things that you need to do as the teacher. Putting away chemicals, removing temporary labels, wiping down lab benches, etc...

I also regularly have to clear off my desk surface. 📄Papers pile up. Hall passes pile up. Everything piles up. I try to clear it throughout the day, especially before I leave for the day but sometimes... I just leave.

❓What about you? Do you keep an immaculate classroom/lab space or do you struggle like me?

The periodic table is probably the most iconic item in your chemistry classroom.

Your students have definitely seen it. They have, hopefully, even used it a time or two.

Does that mean they know how it's organized by periodicity? Probably not.

Here's your opportunity to expand their understanding to include atomic radius, electronegativity, ionization energy, and more!

https://thechemistryparticle.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-to-teach-the-periodic-table/

What do you discuss when you teach the periodic table?

How do you organize your computers?

Our school labels them with a long code. I can decipher it, but my kiddos act like it's a foreign language.

So, today, I relabeled and color-coded all of the laptops on the cart I had checked out from the library. This is not *my* cart. Hopefully, IT will get the hint...maybe?

If you're wondering, I just used those skinny post-it notes, a sharpie, and clear tape.

I know it's Friday, but

Check out my lesson plan series! I share my day-to-day plans along with links to any and all resources!

https://thechemistryparticle.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-to-teach-electrons/

Everything You Need to Know About How to Teach Electrons and Light - The Chemistry Particle Charge up your electrons unit by incorporating Flame Tests and Spectral Tubes! Check out this unit outline complete with links to resources.

Do you need to decorate for secondary students? I think you do, but not floor-to-ceiling.

Check out my tips for practical decorations that you'll reference all year!

https://thechemistryparticle.com/do-you-need-to-decorate-your-high-school-science-classroom/

Do You Need to Decorate Your High School Science Classroom? - The Chemistry Particle I share some great ideas for decorated a secondary science classroom. Complete with images and links to help you get your room together fast!

🦥I'm slowly wrapping my brain around the idea of returning to work for the new school year.

I am floored every year by the number of sophomores I have that absolutely hate math. 🤯Like, y'all, math is cool!

🤔I try to ensure that my students always understand the "why" of the math we do in science. We don't "solve for x" just because that's the skill we're working on.

We're finding the density of iron. We are discovering the pressure required to pop popcorn🍿. We're calculating how much heat your body needs to produce to evaporate all that sweat from 🥵gym class.

🥰I love math. I love patterns. And, obviously, I love science. I hope my love for these things rubs off on my students.

❓So, what are you pondering now that our start dates are even closer?

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🍏What will you learn in this course? I'm going to teach you the why, when, and how of using particle diagrams in the chemistry classroom! It's not all just about how to draw some circles 😉

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Here are my 10 tips for teachers after finishing up my 10th year of teaching!

If you want to dive further into my advice, check out my Instagram or check out my blog post at thechemistryparticle.com

Welp, I've just survived my 10th year of teaching! Don't mind me sweating over there. This year was rough, but we made it!

🎉To celebrate, in the month of June, I'm going to be sharing with you the 10 most important things I've learned over my 10 years of teaching.

https://thechemistryparticle.com/the-10-most-important-things-ive-learned-during-my-10-years-of-teaching/

The 10 Most Important Things I've Learned During My 10 Years of Teaching - The Chemistry Particle Starting your first or second year of teaching? Here are my top10 pieces of advice based on my last 10 years of classroom teaching!

Who wants $10 to spend during this TPT Sale? 🙋‍♀️

I'm giving away $10 in TPT credit for Teacher Appreciation! Entries start now through Tuesday (5/3/2022) at 3 PM EST.

To enter:

♥️Like and comment on this post on Instagram ()

😎Want another entry? Tag a friend! You may tag more than one friend for more than one entry 😉

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Mercury and aluminum? I never knew. Chemistry is so cool!

Watch this reel by chemistryteacher_uae on Instagram chemistryteacher_uae • Original Audio

One week old soap!

My students had varying results with consistency, but the pH is around 9-10!

We're letting them cure a little bit longer, trying to get the soap to solidify a little bit more before they take it home :)

I love this lab so much! It covers so many different concepts and they get to take it home- we don't get to do that often in the chemistry lab.

What's one of your favorite labs?

Only 3 hours left!

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