Secondary Science Simplified™

We’ve all had someone who isn’t trained in our subject area be a substitute in our class before, but only for just a day or two, and we survived. But when it’s for an extended period of time, that’s when planning can get challenging. This episode is more than for those going on maternity leave. Most of us don’t anticipate when we need to go on extended leave, but it’s critical to think about and p...

No matter what subject or grade you teach or how long you’ve been teaching, you have been behind schedule at least at one point in your career. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it is stressful! Especially if you have an end-of-year test that you’re preparing for. But instead of feeling overwhelmed, in today’s episode, I’m sharing ways to assess why you’re behind schedule and providing practical ways...

If you’re a beginning teacher or teaching a new prep for the first time, everyone’s advice is always to fake it till you make it ! We’re conditioned to believe that you need to project confidence to show your students that you’re qualified to be their teacher. But is that narrative what’s best for your students? I’ve had many conversations with teachers about how to act confident when you don’t fe...

Have you ever made a mistake in your classroom? Or handled a situation differently that caused more problems or regretted how you handled it? I am raising my hand high in the air! Even though it feels like you’re the only teacher something like this has ever happened to, in reality, you’re not alone. I received an email a few months back that resonated with me, and I knew it would resonate with y’...

If you are anything like I was in the classroom, this time of year is when I often felt the most drained, with little energy. The excitement of break seems so far away; it’s dark, and the days seem never-ending. And while I can’t change any of those things for you, I can give you some encouragement to make it through. Similar to last week’s episode, where I shared five systems for the home, in tod...

With the demands of teaching, we often come home with no energy but are faced with the demands of our home life as well. And just like we have routines put in place to make things easier at school, we can do the same when we’re at home. So, in today’s episode, I’m sharing my best systems for the home that will help you maximize your energy from the day. Each of the systems for the home that I shar...

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you were able to unplug over this winter break and recharge so you can tackle the last semester of the school year. Since the start of a new year is the perfect time to hit the reset button, I really wanted to start the year off by assessing where you are in life, what your priorities are, and the types of boundaries you should have. During today’s episode, I want...

It’s officially the last week of 2023, so I wanted to end the year with the most listened to episode from the year. It was no surprise to me that my interview with Casey was the top episode because of his approach to teaching, his philosophies, and his outlook on how to interact and connect with his students. Adapting to teach in a post-pandemic world, Casey shares his approach to classroom manage...

As I mentioned last week, I’m taking the last weeks of December to replay my top three episodes of the year based on your listens and downloads. I was shocked that this original episode was number two, but so excited because it’s something I’m passionate about, which is curriculum design, specifically strategizing your sequence. This was the first episode in our curriculum design series, which is...

Happy December, y’all! The one word that describes my life right now, which might describe yours as well, is frantic. So, I thought for the rest of the month, we’d revisit episodes from this past year that can either be good reminders for you during this last month of school or ideas you need to think about or reinforce when you return from break in January. In today’s episode, we’re listening to...

You all know that I want to bring you as much information and perspectives on a topic as possible. With last week’s episode on standards-based grading being a new idea and way of grading for some of you, I wanted to bring on another teacher who has years of experience implementing this in her classroom. Boni Hamilton, a friend and experienced teacher, is sharing how to integrate NGSS and standards...

I love talking about science content, curriculum, engaging activities, and practical strategies you can implement in your own classroom. But when my audience inquires about topics I’m not so sure about, I bring in experts who can share their knowledge. That’s exactly what I did when it came to discussing standards-based grading. My guest on today’s episode, Jennica Harrison, shares her perspective...

As science teachers, or teachers in general, we tend to have the mindset of doing things in our classroom the way we were taught, the way our department runs things, or what our colleague down the hall does. But if you really think about the reason behind what you’re doing, what you normally do might change. That’s exactly what happened with formal lab reports in my classroom. In this episode, I’m...

After we teach a unit, what typically comes immediately after are summative assessments, and there are a lot of different types. Last week, I talked about authentic assessments, which still assess student learning but in a non-traditional way. And even though I value that type of assessment, I still believe in taking traditional tests. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how to use your unit test to p...

If you ask any student what they didn’t like about school, I bet assessments would be toward the top of their list. But what if you could create assessments that students actually enjoyed and liked? Okay, well, maybe that’s going too far, but you can definitely create assessments that are the best representation of their knowledge. I call those authentic assessments. In today’s episode, I’m going...

All month long, I’ve been diving into the most difficult topics to teach in each of the science disciplines, and we have finally made it to the last discipline - physics. I love all things science, but physics is not a discipline I have a lot of experience in. So instead, I decided to bring on a listener of the podcast who is knowledgeable and has experience teaching physics. Laura Preiser is my g...

When I decided to do this series, I knew exactly what I was going to discuss when it came to the difficulties of teaching chemistry. Students get overwhelmed by all the math and more intense content that comes with this science discipline, particularly teaching stoichiometry. However, there are several things you can do to ease their stress and make this unit fun for your students. So, in today’s...

I’m doing a happy dance because it’s my 100th episode! Y’all, I can’t believe I’ve been supporting and sharing my thoughts, ideas, and resources with you for almost two years. Just like when I celebrated 50 episodes, I’m doing another special “Ask me anything” episode.  I constantly get questions ranging from work, personal, curriculum, management, and more. And since I love connecting and support...

We are starting week two of our difficult topics to teach with the different science disciplines. Last week’s episode, Episode 98, focused on biology and biochemical reactions. But this week, I’m focusing on anatomy! Since there’s a lot of content to cover in this subject and each teacher differs in what they choose to teach, that makes it difficult to decide what the most difficult topic to teach...

Welcome to fall, y’all! We just wrapped up our Summer of Podcast PD , where we tackled curriculum design, classroom management, grading strategies, and so much more. But with a new season comes a new series. With so many of our recent topics involving general classroom tips, I decided it was time to focus on more content-specific topics for each science discipline. So, biology teachers, this one’s...

Over this past month, I’ve been sharing my thoughts, practices, and strategies surrounding the topic of grading. You’ve probably realized how passionate I am about this topic because it’s something that I believe will give you more balance in your life between school and your personal life. And who doesn’t want that?! To wrap up this series, I’m sharing my own personal grading strategy and tips to...

Remember the days when you were in school and thought, When I’m a teacher, I’m NEVER going to do this! But then you become a teacher and do exactly what you said you weren’t going to do. Don’t worry, I’m guilty of this too. As soon as I became a teacher, I followed suit with the cycle of assigning homework in my class. However, I had a mindset shift to where now I’m a huge advocate for not assigni...

As teachers, we know that our time is valuable and we try to create that perfect work-life balance. However, time dedicated to instruction, engaging activities, and other teaching-related tasks can consume our time in and outside the classroom. But you can decrease the amount of time you spend on one task that will save you more time and energy, which is grading! Now, I know that grading is a mand...

To wrap up our Summer of Podcast PD, we’re ending with a series on grading practices. And one of the hot topics that’s particularly relevant in secondary classrooms is the act of cheating. This is a topic that I feel very passionate about, so I’ve invested in my own research to find the best strategies and solutions. In today’s episode, I’m sharing what you can do to best prevent it, how to respon...

I loved talking all about classroom management this month, and we have finally made it to the last episode of the series! The biggest takeaway I wanted to convey was the importance of being proactive rather than reactive, and a way to do that is through simple strategies implemented in your classroom. In this last episode, I’m sharing my final five strategies for effective classroom management thi...