Reflections: 2017-2018
- Add the annotations strategies to the website (Mountie 5 minus the hand).
- Assigned Seating. Don't do anything else. Open seating does not work.
- Revamp the rubric for the hair booklet. Add more details so student gather all the information.
- Revamp Hair Analysis essay to be more specific.
- Beginning of the Forensics class, have students determine the different types of crimes and their consequences. Example: homicide vs murder, theft vs robbery, etc.
- Printable dissections can be found at https://gettingnerdywithmelandgerdy.com.
- Revamp the rubric for the botany presentation, possibly give specific cases and/or choices of cases.
- Possible: 1 point per day that you are on time.
- Have students call parents during class for failure problems.
- Create a sign-up sheet for tutoring. Can be used as documentation of whether students are using it or not.
- https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues.html has articles that relate chemistry to other fields, especially forensics.
- Create a checklist that students can keep track of that will have all the major assignments that they need to turn in. Scores can be written beside it and if it isn't turned in by a certain time, put a zero.
- For topographical maps: http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads
- http://www.faceingmath.com/high-school/ --> use for Earth and Space
- Create a manual for the class with a table of contents so students can quickly see the different areas and what they need to do. -->How to make up assignment? Go to section 1.1.
- Biology: Zombie Apocalypse
- Forensics: Serial Killer?
- Create a template for lesson plans for substitutes.
- Instead of an invasive species plan, student scan do an endangered species plan- information about the species and how they would bring it back from the brink of extinction.
Reflections: 2016-2017
- In the lab tools graphic organizer, give specific information about each item and remove things that do not apply.
- Combine the two hair labs into one longer lab that is broken up into parts. Assign individual parts per day.
- Create a 'welcome' packet for each student when they enter the class. This would include the syllabus, instructions and any other materials they would need for the class (9th grade would do Classcraft).- May have a checklist of things they need to do. Include a map of the classroom. What are the expectations of the student- due dates are set, what needs to be done outside of class
- When doing the palynology presentation, present specific cases as well as general categories.
- On the blood stain exam (and final) do some of the questions that are specific to convergence- where students have to draw the lines of convergence, and other that are for impact angle/height- the lines of convergence are already drawn.
- Due dates need to be set in stone. If a student does not complete the assignment in class, it needs to be done at home. It is the responsibility of the student to make sure that the assignments are done on time.
- Students get a star for each unit in which they have turned in all the work (late work must has a deadline so they cannot turn in work at the end of the semester and still recieve a star). Each star allows them to have one notecard on the final.
- Restart using the IB biology book to start teaching Bio.
- Build the Biology courses based on the Compendium
- When in genetics, using the Touching Triton (http://triton.hudsonalpha.org)-> Bookend Triton, use it at the beginning and end of the unit. hghelix.hudsonalpha.org is the educator tool for classroom implementation.
- Trash as much as possible from the past years and start over- specifically with Biology, everything needs to be done with the new standards
- When redesigning the different modules, design the accommodations: Remember ELL and IEP. decide what homework should be assigned as well--> set up the website to follow this.
- Creat a scavenger hunt the students must complete about the website and the syllabus. Students must complete it or...
- Do rubber duck debugging with students when they are proofreading something. Have them explain every detail to the duck.
- In order for students to go to the bathroom, they will need a pass and trade in their phones. They will receive their phones when they return.
- Create a google classroom and within the classroom, have the google calendar that details what we do and what is due each day.
- Add a challenge question(s) to each test. It is a more difficult question that can be answered. If answered 75% correctly or higher, the student receives a 100 on the test.
- Review the test for errors and bad questions.
- All classes need to have a specific Google calendar that maps everything out, including the assignments.
- When researching Blood Spatter Patterns, choose a set of videos for the students and have them posted, they must choose from that pool of videos.
- Google sheets (or something similar) should be used to create a leaderboard for the class
- Can some type of Google doc be used to create a sign-in sheet to do attendance? Possible Google Forms.
- When students are researching, have them use the rule of three- they must check 3 resources on the same subject to verify it.
- https://www.google.com/intl/ta/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html --> how to research lesson plans.
- Limited number of tickets to use the bathroom/leave the classroom. Can be turned in at the end of the year for notes on the final or bonus points.
- Upper level classes (or any class) can be run like Exploding Kittens. Each event can have a specific type of card, if they have X number of matches, they can turn them in for different benefits. Each different set of matches should give different benefits- Ex. A pair of Thymines gives them the ability to go to the bathroom, etc. Nope cards must be integrated along with other action cards.
- Assign partners and put them online. Do not allow students to pick. This will eliminate when students are not present in class.
- For survival biomes, collect a couple of videos for each biome. Include one that has information about the biome, as well as a Man vs Wild or Survivorman that helps the students to understand survival and therefore the assignment. --> Pick a specific location for the students and then explain it is an example of a particular biome.
- Create a box in which to put all found pencils that students can use without consequence. Once it is empty, it is empty.
- Syllabus needs to have a specific section that is for parents and the expectations of parents--> it must be signed. It should include something about attendance.
- At the introduction of class, describe how to do labs--> instructions to she read first before you grab everything. Only get the materials you know you need, when you are done, return them, etc.
- Identifier in the Drug Bust lab is Phenolphthalein. --> Recreate the lab to make it better. Needs to have one set of evidence for each group, or it will not work. Chromatography test is not a great test. How can it be changed to be made better? This lab should be called 21 Jump Street.
- Post all labs beforehand and have the students read them. Quiz the day of the lab to make sure they read the lab.
- In the syllabus indicate that poker chips are used to limit questions, and explain the reasoning behind this.
- Provide the students with a ways to compare and contrast the different forms of references and the purposes/reasons for each.
- With the entomology project, students need to understand that it needs to deal with the dead bodies and the effect on the dead body and its use in forensics.
- Do the best to do a decay lab where the students can actually see what is going on using a chicken carcass.
- Do not allow students to use powerpoint any longer, they need to pick other venues to present (prezi, canva, https://niftio.com/)
- In syllabus: If papers are not stapled together, only the first page will be graded.
- Create a pointer that is a finger, so you can give everyone "the finger".
- Create a Google Form for credit recovery/RTI
- Extra Information: Miami Police Vlog
- Put a barcode/QR code on pieces of homework or labs that link them to extra information or to instructions on how to solve it.
- Give each student 3 tickets: 1 to exempt/drop a test, one to exempt from an activity and one to turn in an assignment X amount of time late. If not used, they can be turned in for points in the test category, or the assignment category.
- Mount a stapler to the board in the room where the pencil sharpener was.
- Have students identify different organisms and then have them put QR codes on them so people can go by and identify them.
- Science as taught in a loop: State the problem, brainstorm possible solutions, choose a solution, test the solution, if it is good- stop, if not go back to the brainstorming section and repeat.
- Roll the organelles into the units that they are related to. Example: Photosynthesis, talk about the chloroplast, cellular respiration, talk about the mitochondria.
- EdPuzzle allows you edit videos and add quizzes. It also prevents skipping.
- Osmosis and Diffusion: https://www.biologycorner.com/bio1/notes_diffusion.html
- Put out a set of activities for a unit, each one with a certain value based on the difficulty of the activity. Students must complete a certain number of difficulty points before they can move on/by a certain period of time. (Example: 10 activites, each with 1-3 stars, students must complete a total of 5 stars).
- Invasive species: Argentine Tegu
- Add challenge questions to the end of the assignments, questions that are more difficult for more advanced students to complete. Determine the value of the question.
- http://software.nasa.gov