From a young age, I have always been fascinated with dinosaurs. I can remember going to the American Museum of Natural History and climbing the stairs to the fourth floor to see the dinosaur halls. What an absolutely amazing site that was, especially for a young girl from the suburbs in NJ! That memory stayed with me to adulthood.

Now as a science teacher for lower and middle school students, I love bringing my dinosaur passion to my students. Not only do I enjoy teaching about dinosaurs, but I also greatly enjoy continuing the study to focus on extinct mammals.

In my second grade science classes, there is no greater feeling than hearing my students voice excitement whenever I have introduced a new extinct mammal. Using their lab notebooks, I ask my students to jot down the names of their favorite extinct mammals as I showcase each one. Some of my second grade students get so caught up in the excitement of the study that they start jotting down every extinct mammal that I mention. They just can’t decide which one is their favorite. By the time I finish showing my slideshow of extinct mammals, the students have a notebook filled with the names of their favorite animals. Of course, now it becomes a challenge for them to choose one to research and then build using modeling clay and other materials. Sometimes the students will have to compromise when more than one child wants to research the same animal.

Helping second grade students research an extinct mammal can be a challenge. Much of the information available is written at a higher reading level, so I need to adapt the material to make sure the students can comprehend the information and find the facts they need for their report. Nevertheless, the students seem up to the challenge. They truly love learning about a topic that interests them. I provide the students with an outline sheet where they jot down specific information about the animal such as its size, when it lived, where it was found, what it ate, and other special characteristics. The students also make a sketch of the animal. Once that is done, the students use the information they have gathered to write a more detailed report.

The final part of this project involves having the students make a model of their animal using modeling clay and other materials. Of course, this usually turns out to be the students’ favorite part of the assignment. I am always amazed by the students' artistry and imagination when I see their final models. Some students will add wire or pipe cleaners to represent antlers on the animal. Others will use toothpicks for other parts of the animal.

The culminating part of this project is our “Extinct Mammal Museum.” Here we have parents and other classes in the school visit the science lab to see the work the students have accomplished. The children will have an opportunity to explain specific facts about the animal they have constructed, and they can use their written reports to fill in more details. Of course, this is a wonderful way for the students to share their accomplishments with their classmates, parents, and other teachers in the school. It is an event that everyone looks forward to each year.

December 2022

Has the COVID-19 pandemic pushed you to explore virtual laboratory experiences for your students? Are you looking for students to receive additional scaffolded practice of developing science and engineering practices including scientific argumentation? Best of all, would you like the lab to be auto-scored?

Welcome to Inq-ITS! The Inq-ITS platform has a series of labs that include a set of baseline introductory labs and a host of labs in Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth Science that aligns to NGSS middle school and high school science standards. There is also a built-in virtual coach (in the form of a dinosaur), Rex, which provides students with hints if they struggle with the lab. The site allows the teacher to create and customize the lab with pre-assessment and post-assessment questions and multiple variables to explore in a given concept. During the laboratory experience you assign to your students, you can monitor your students to assess what they are having difficulty with. The platform has a Reports function that tracks student progress.

The Inq-ITS lab platform offers their baseline intro labs for free as well as one additional lab before asking you to upgrade the trial. Inq-ITS is Google Classroom friendly and does not require any separate student codes for student registration. While nothing may substitute a hands-on laboratory experience in a classroom, virtual labs like those found on the Inq-ITS site allows my students to hone some of their decision-making and scientific argumentation skills in a supportive way with immediate feedback. Consider exploring their labs and try out an intro lab with your students.

Check out this resource today! I hope you find it as useful as I have!

November 2022

Have you ever wondered what would be a fun but educational activity to use at the beginning of the school year? This simple, but fun chromatography lesson has been used by my sixth grade science students each year, but it can be easily adapted for use with older or younger students. It asks the students to use their knowledge of chromatography to solve a mystery in the science lab. Who ate my lunch? If they can correctly follow the steps in the lab, the students should be able to determine the guilty person.

Let’s begin with some background information. First of all, what is chromatography? Chromatography is the process of separating components of a mixture. To understand this topic further, here are some facts from the article, “What is Chromatography and How Does It Work? Is is by Ask a Scientist Staff (October 17, 2019)

Chromatography gets its name from a technique first used in the late 19th century to separate pigments in a complex mixture. To get the process started, the mixture is dissolved in a substance called the mobile phase, which carries it through a second substance called the stationary phase.

The different components of the mixture travel through the stationary phase at different speeds, causing them to separate from one another. The nature of the specific mobile and stationary phases determines which substances travel more quickly or slowly, and is how they are separated.

If a sheet of paper or cloth contacts a container filled with water or alcohol in which a complex pigment is dissolved, capillary action will carry the mixture up the paper or cloth, but the components of the pigment will not all travel at the same rate.

The largest molecules of the mixture will travel more slowly while the smallest ones race ahead, causing the stationary phase to develop discrete bands of color corresponding to each component of the mixture. This gives the technique the name “chromatography” or “writing color.”

For this investigation, we will be using four different brands of black marker. To get started, let’s look at what is in a marker.

The felt tip marker was invented by Sydney Rosenthal in 1953. This inventor from Richmond Hill, New York, placed a felt tip at the end of a small, stout bottle of permanent ink and discovered that the resulting marks saturated a heavy, absorbent surface, yielding a rich color and permanence.

Ink is a combination of a coloring agent or pigment and a liquid containing oils, resins, and chemical solvents. Initially, ink was fashioned from different juices and plant and animal extracts.

Chromatography is a way to look at complex mixtures by separating them into their components. The separation of a mixture into its components is a physical process because the components of the mixture are not chemically combined. They can be separated by physical means.

Here is a link to photos from my students doing this lab last season. Chromatography Photos

Mystery Note Chromatography

Here are the directions for this lab. At the end, I will be explaining the science behind what occurred. In the meantime, I hope that the students will enjoy solving this mystery.

I ate your lunch and it was delicious.

Today, when I came into my classroom, I found this note by my desk. There were only four people that were in my classroom earlier today and could have eaten my lunch. They are Ms. W, Mr. X, Mrs. Y, and Mr. Z. I think one of them may have left the note. Since the note was written in black marker, I casually asked to borrow a black marker from each of them. My plan is to test each of the markers to see which one was used in writing the message.

Ms. W uses a School Smart marker.

Mr. X uses Mr. Sketch markers.

Mrs. Y prefers Crayola markers.

Mr. Z uses Rose Art markers.

Materials:

Mystery note, Piece of scrap paper, Four different black markers, one from each suspect, Plastic cup filled ¼ inch with tap water, 4 strips of filter paper, Jar or cup, Water

Directions:

a) You have been given four strips of filter paper. The strips should be labeled “W” for Ms. W, ”X” for Mr. X, “Y” for Mrs. Y, and “Z” for Mr. Z.

b) Take the School Smart marker and place some black marks about one inch from the bottom of the “W” strip.

c) Take the Mr. Sketch marker and place some black marks about one inch from the bottom of the “X” strip.

d) Take the Crayola marker and place some black marks about one inch from the bottom of the “Y” strip.

e) Take the Rose Art marker and place some black marks about one inch from the bottom of the “Z” strip.

f) Now put all five strips, including the mystery note and place it into a plastic cup filled with about a ¼ inch of tap water. The mark should not touch the water, but be just above the water line.

g) Let the strips sit for about a minute, or until the water draws up past the mark. h) Pull out all of the filters and compare them.

i) Who wrote the note? How do you know? What evidence do you have to reach this decision?

[5-8 / 5C] Construct a claim and support it with scientific evidence, data, and reasoning while evaluating alternative solutions.

Discussion:

Claim: _________________________wrote the note.

Evidence:

__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

Reasoning:

__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

Your Name:___________________________ Date:___________

October 2022

Besides for the fantastic professional development offerings that STANYS provides members, there is another organization leading the way for teachers in NYC. The Academy for Teachers offers tremendous PD sessions throughout the year for area educators. Their mission is “to honor and support teachers through world-class learning experiences that inspire them to continue changing lives, in the classroom and beyond.” The Academy offers Master Classes in a wide variety of disciplines that bring “together teachers with luminaries, experts, and artists to create a supportive community of inspired educators.” Past master classes were offered by Jane Goodall, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Gloria Steinem, among many other brilliant individuals.

In addition to the master classes, once a teacher becomes a Fellow, they are invited to lectures, performances and social gatherings throughout the year to foster a sense of community. One of the most notable events is the annual Show Teacher the Love which takes place the first week in May as a teacher appreciation and fundraising event for the Academy. This variety show brings together fantastic talent and highlights the work Fellows completed in the previous year.

The Academy was founded by Sam Swope in 2011 as a way to honor and support teachers in order to inspire them to continue the hard work of changing students’ lives. As someone who has been fortunate enough to attend two master classes over my career, I cannot recommend getting involved with this organization enough. So how can you attend a master class? Teachers can either self-nominate or be nominated and complete an application. Teachers are notified of a decision about two weeks after the deadline. There is a cost for schools, but scholarships are available. Read more on their website: https://www.academyforteachers.org/.

June 2022

A decade later, the annual contest has grown to include a wider, ever-expanding reach of elementary-aged to college-level participation in this enjoyable event. Every mid-February to early March, there is an educator sign-up period where supporting materials and lessons plans are shared. There is also a crowd-sourced document for teachers to share how they use the tournament in their classroom. I have had the students focus on a deep-dive into a particular species and then each student shares what they have learned with the rest of the class/grade. In other years, we worked on predicting certain battles and finding some key adaptations that would benefit that particular species. Ultimately, the students were engaged and learned something new about something they had no knowledge of before.

For those of you concerned about class time usage, personally, I only use a portion of a class period introducing the contest, a period or two providing time to allow my students to research (see resources below for a link to K-12 vetted sites that have species research), share their findings, and fill out their bracket. As the tournament results unfold, I will use a few minutes to share the battle outcomes. A Youtuber known as MC Marmot is the host of the “Rodent Roundtable” (see link below) that, while unaffiliated with the founders of the March Mammal Madness tournament, produces a set of student-friendly videos that showcase the results of each battle round.

As an educator, I saw the value in channeling my students' interest in a variety of species and learning about some of their adaptations while empowering my students to determine their champions and elevating their conversations into evidence-based arguments about the adaptations best suited to win their battles. I hope you check out this years’ contest!

Resources:

• Animal Background Information “March Mammal Madness” https://libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalMadness/Resources

• Arizona State University “March Mammal Madness” https://libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalMadness/2022mmm

• Arizona State University “2022MMM Bracket” https://libguides.asu.edu/ld.php?content_id=65653428

• Katie Hinde Blog: http://mammalssuck.blogspot.com/

• “March Mammal Madness Explained” Rodent Roundtable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAtjZGx6mFI&feature=emb_logo

March Mammal Madness 2022 Image taken from http://mammalssuck.blogspot.com/

Mammal Madness Bracket Image taken from https://libguides.asu.edu/ld.php?content_id=65653428

Ever since COVID vaccines were given emergency use authorization and the global remote workforce found itself in the process of deciding whether returning to in-person was even necessary anymore (for those that were not already in the trenches as essential workers from the beginning), I have been thinking about a four-day workweek.

While some employers rushed to open up their business’ doors and make sure customers were met with something more than someone on a screen, others abandoned their office spaces altogether and continue to do business from the comfort of home. Still others opted for a hybrid approach with workers dedicating some days at home to their jobs when they were not making the commute to their place of employment fewer than five times a week. This model, specifically one that calls for a four-day workweek, was not a novelty of the pandemic. Different companies and industries around the world have operated on such a model since the 1990s, generally resulting in employees that self-report as “healthier, happier, and less crunched for time” (Pinsker). Last year, the Japanese government went as far as to recommend such a work schedule in its annual economic policy guidelines; this after Microsoft Japan reported productivity boosts of 40%, alongside a 23% reduction in electrical costs in response to moving to a four-day workweek (Chappell). With the pandemic having driven a deterioration in mental health for so many people, the policy is being and has been experimented in more industries than ever before to help restore psychological well-being and burnout

But what about schools? After all, could there be a group of individuals that were more socioemotionally affected by the pandemic than teenagers? Could there be another group that would benefit more from having one fewer day of having to go to “work”? (I suppose you could say teachers, but I will get to that a bit later) Of course, suggesting that schools should operate four days a week instead of five would only reignite a flame that burned for most of 2021.

From state capitols to kitchen tables, months have been spent debating how much classroom time has already been lost by students and how quickly they could return to school buildings. How should we weigh waiting for vaccine authorization for all children against COVID’s seemingly minor effects on kids? How should lack of socialization factor against elevated stress from being in unsafe, ill-ventilated classrooms when considering student mental health? How would keeping kids home be possible if we also needed the workforce to return and revitalize the economy, despite adequate childcare not being readily available for many families in communities across the country? I will be the first to admit I do not think I ever came up with a good answer to all of these considerations that could satisfy all sides, if such an answer even exists. As a teacher, it has been taxing enough fighting off burnout as I find myself perpetually covering for my colleagues who are out amidst an Omicron surge, a national trend that has forced political leaders to go as far as staff classrooms with National Guard members to ensure school buildings stay open (Shivaram). Solving additional pandemic woes is a per-session I lack the strength to sign up for.

In September, it did not feel like an enormous leap of my imagination, after having lived through this pandemic for over a year and seen what it had done, to have foreseen the current situation. Teachers have been stretched beyond our capacity, and students are as well. In an effort to return everything to the educational system of the “before times,” which assumes the operation of schools was perfect to begin with and therefore something worth striving to get back to, students have been pressed to do assignments and follow material at a pace that they are not equipped to get back to so quickly, especially without supports to transition them back to those “times.” It was a shock for teachers and students alike to transition so suddenly to remote learning, without any tools, resources, a transition period, etc., and the same could be said of our return to in-person instruction. It is as though people at every level of education are not listening to the reality and needs of our students, as described by my own students, who I survey after each unit exam:

“Me and my classmates have already explained to our teacher that we need more time to study, but our teacher decided to give us 2 days to study instead of 1. I don’t understand how that is enough time to study and it’s frustrating that they won’t listen.”

“workload from teachers is getting on my nerves”

“i’ve been so stressed lately. i feel like i never get a break because i’m in school and right after school, i do homework until i fall asleep”

“sometimes you’re just sad and there’s nothing you can about it”

“I have no motivation to work or go to school. I don’t know what’s going on.”

In a world where industries are offering incentives (mostly financial) at every turn to retain employees and keep them happy, where does education fit in? How can we help students feel happier and healthier mentally? How can we help teachers feel less burnout? How do we accomplish these goals while keeping kids in school buildings the traditional five days a week?

As it turns out, the answer to all of the above was in fact the four-day workweek. Since September, with the exception of weeks that had holidays, I have given my students a “mental health day” once a week. On those days, in what looks something like a study hall, I do not teach any new material, and students do not have to work on anything for my class. They are welcome to use the time as office hours to ask me for help, listen to music while studying for another class, do some homework before school ends, or even take a nap if they are not feeling well. I am implementing my own brand of a four-day workweek, including no assignments over the weekend and nothing due past 10 PM to incentivize getting work done and heading to sleep earlier. My only worry had been keeping pace with the Regents Physics curriculum and my colleagues, but I have found myself able to cover as much material as they do in 80% of the time. Modifying the pacing was something the students could feel too, but the break once a week somehow compensated for it, given their anonymous survey responses:

“speed of learning works for me, I like the way material is explained”

“Great pacing in terms of lessons and clear instructions”

“i think i’m up to speed on the course”

“I’m able to learn pretty much everything I need to know within class time and the class isn’t boring.”

I feel the benefits of the four-day workweek as well. I can check in with students that have been struggling or missing assignments with one-on-one conferencing, work on grading assignments in a timelier manner with better feedback for students, and even build rapport with my students by taking their questions about college, jobs, and more while sharing advice. For some educators, pacing is set up in September and/or January such that there is buffer time to review before Regents/AP Exams later in the year. Instead, I suggest spreading out that time throughout the year and giving students a four-day workweek for both their benefit and the benefit of teachers themselves, particularly since teachers can choose the “mental health day” that best suits their working experience, even if it changes from week to week. As detailed in a September 2021 Gallup research study, “workers want more flexibility and that job flexibility is correlated with higher employee engagement. Work flexibility allows employees to boost their overall wellbeing in other areas while still meeting the requirements of their job. It also lowers stress by allowing people to create a schedule that makes sense for their life.” (Harter & Pendell)

That said, the same Gallup study also states that “quality of the work experience has 2.5 to three times the impact of number of days or hours worked,” but improving the quality of work that teachers have in their schools is an issue that administrators are responsible in solving and not this blog (^_^)

References

Chappell, B. (2019, November 4). 4-day workweek boosted workers’ productivity by 40%, Microsoft Japan says. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776163853/microsoft-japan-says-4-day-workweek-boosted-workers-productivity-by-40

Harter, J. & Pendell, R. (2021, September 9). Is the 4 day work week a good idea? Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/354596/4-day-work-week-good-idea.aspx.

Pinsker, J. (2021, June 17). Kill the 5-day workweek. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/four-day-workweek/619222/

Shivaram, D. (2022, January 21). New Mexico is calling on the National Guard to fill in as substitute teachers. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074711399/new-mexico-national-guard-substitute-teachers-shortage.

When I taught AP Environmental Science, one of my favorite field trip experiences each year was our annual participation in “A Day in the Life of Hudson and Harbor” coordinated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). On a specific day each October, students of all ages engage in outdoor activities to help take a “snapshot” of the Hudson River and estuary, helping to collect data on the health of our local ecosystem. Our school partnered with the South Street Seaport Museum and we collected data related to water chemistry from the pier near our school. Our data was included along with other schools and colleges/universities, to provide a “snap shot”, adding to data collected for almost two decades.

During remote and hybrid learning last fall, the program looked very different. On October 22, 2020 educators from the DEC and over 50 environmental education organizations stormed the shores of the Hudson River and estuary with seine nets, water testing kits, and minnow pots to collect data for the 18^th annual “A Day in the Life of Hudson and Harbor”. DEC created interactive videos from footage at three different areas along the Hudson alongside the annual data.

This year’s event will take place on October 14, 2021, registration for this year closed on 9/17/21, but you can learn more about the program here and see how to get your class involved!

September 2021

If you have never heard of Fund for Teachers, you have been missing out. Fund for Teachers is an incredible organization that provides grants for teachers to plan professional development over the summer to travel anywhere in the world. Since the start of Fund for Teachers, 33.5 million dollars have been provided to almost 9,000 teachers who have traveled to 152 countries on all seven continents! The application process for summer 2022 will open on October 1, 2021, so why not start brainstorming your project now? To give you some ideas, check out the database of all past projects. I was lucky enough to be chosen in the summer of 2017 and I have read applications every year since. Read on to learn more about the application process and some tips on how to make your proposal strong.

The application process is elaborate and requires an ample amount of planning and time, but is well worth the effort. To apply, you will submit a proposal online that includes five main components. In the first part of the application, you will explain the purpose of the fellowship. This is an excellent opportunity for you to highlight your school and teaching experience while explaining why this project is meaningful to you and how it will make you a stronger teacher. The second part of the application is a detailed fellowship learning plan. In this section, you will outline specific details about your summer learning plan including where you will travel and what you will do. It is essential that each part of this plan connects to your learning goals. The third section allows you to expand on your how you will learn and grow as an educator through this experience and in the fourth section, you will connect your plan to your students. Finally, the last part of the application includes a research-based budget showing how each day’s expenses relate directly to the needs explained in your purpose. If this feels overwhelming, know that you are not alone and Fund for Teachers has fantastic resources on their website to help you through the application process.

My biggest piece of advice in these early stages is to solidify your fellowship purpose. What are you passionate about and what do you want to explore further as an educator? Strong applications show a thoughtful connection between the teacher’s interest and the benefit for the school and students. Once you have a clearer idea of your purpose, start researching. For my project, I contacted several professors in the areas I hoped to visit in Greece asking advice on what resources to access and who to meet with on my visit. I also did extensive reading on my topic which gave me more avenues to pursue. Because of this effort, I was lucky enough to meet with several conservationists and archeologists throughout my time. The more you can show in your proposal that you have done the legwork to set up meaningful experiences, the more compelling your application will be. Best of luck!

You can read my full report here.

March 2021

For the last year, we’ve heard the phrase “new normal” almost every day. Last week, my seven-year-old asked me what did they mean by “new normal”? I was at a loss for what to say in response. However, it did start my reflection on the changes that I’ve made since I first stepped into a classroom back in September of 2001. This June will mark the end of my twentieth year of teaching, and I can say that I’ve experienced many “new normals.”

When I was student teaching, using PowerPoint was the new game-changer, but it wasn’t always practical with small televisions. The predominant means of imparting knowledge to our students was done with chalk and a chalkboard. I clearly remember my struggle to learn to write large enough for the kids in the back of the room to read my words, writing in a straight line instead of a diagonal, and learning, the hard way, that leaning up against the ledge of the chalkboard would draw attention to a part of my body that I never want attention on. I remember struggling to learn how to move the transparency on the overhead because it wasn’t logical until someone pointed out that it was like adjusting a slide on a microscope stage. I always had chalk on my hands and sometimes my pants. Colored chalk was a commodity when you could find it in your supply room.

My “normal” was to calculate grades with a pencil and a calculator, though I graduated to a spreadsheet after a few years. I dreaded report card time because having to bubble in over ten bubbles for 150 students was torture. Now, the norm is to use a grading program that automatically integrates with STARS. All I need to do is set up rules, and in ten to twenty minutes, my grades are complete. It was necessary to start creating your end of unit exam at least two weeks in advance since it took about a week to cut out all the questions you wanted from the old Regents exams, figure out how to space them out to use the least amount of paper as necessary, and then glue them. Whiteout was a must to number the questions. Once that was completed, you needed to create your copy to use to make copies. Then, computerized test generators were developed, where I was able to select questions and have the computer arrange them. My “normal” was to create A and B versions of an exam to minimize cheating. This year, I have used the computer to administer exams and grade them.

In my basement, I still have my four three-inch binders that hold all my lesson plans, handouts, and review packets from when I taught Regents Chemistry. Now, all my materials are saved on clouds, lesson plans are typed instead of handwritten, and binders are unnecessary.

Chalk started to become faux pas, replaced with whiteboards as projectors became commonplace, and PowerPoint was more practical. Out went the transparencies and overhead projectors. We no longer had to walk around with chalk or ink on our hands. However, just as I got the hang of using projectors, Chromebooks and a whiteboard, smartboards arrived. It is no longer necessary to even have a laptop to project a slideshow. All the required documents are saved on ‘clouds,’ and my flash drives have now joined those rewritable CDs and floppy disks in the drawer where I never look.

It is no longer necessary to have a responsible student hold on to projects when students work in groups because we have Google Drive, which will hold all their work in one spot. Our classrooms have iPads, Chromebooks, or other laptops available. My “normal” pre-pandemic classroom was much different than my 2001 classroom.

And now, we are faced with another “new normal”…the virtual classroom. While I can’t wait for the day when I can return to face-to-face science instruction where my students can conduct investigations and labs instead of watching them demonstrated by my colleagues and I, many of the new methods employed this last year will stay. Who doesn’t like the idea of a paperless (or minimal paper) classroom? Who doesn’t like the idea of clearly reading what the students wrote because we don’t have to decipher their handwriting since penmanship is no longer emphasized?

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is no “normal” in the world of teaching. Our methods, pedagogy, and presentation are continually evolving, as they should be. While we are in the stages of metamorphosis, it is always scary, stressful, and daunting, but somehow, we persevere and master those new skills. We have continued to prove that we are still adaptable. Instead of thinking of this time as our “new normal,” we should embrace the changes that we have made throughout our careers and realize that, in another ten to twenty years, these methods will be antiquated, and we will once again be teaching in a “new normal.”

As I get ready to return to school on February 24^th, I will celebrate all the new apps, programs, and technological skills I have learned and look forward to adapting to whatever life throws my way. Stay safe and healthy.

February 2021