Art Design Contest

I have noticed that many of my students are extremely artistic and I have been trying to find ways to motivate them to show their artistic abilities in the classroom.  Unfortunately, I do not always have that many options available to me in the science classroom.

I had mentioned to my students in the beginning of the year that I would love for them to make me drawings that I could hang around the classroom (science related of course!)

One of my students drew an adorable picture of The Earth when we started "The Dynamic Earth" unit and I told her that I am going to use the drawing as the first page of their exam.  This made her extremely happy! I am testing the students tomorrow with her drawing on the front of it and I think that they are all going to like it!

I have decided to turn this incident into an art contest!  I told each class that students can submit artwork that pertains to the current unit of study that they think would be appropriate for the first page of their next exam.  I will look at all of the submissions and determine a winner for each class.  The winner will receive a few extra bonus points on the next exam.  I think that this will increase their motivation and allow them to showcase their artistic abilities.  I am excited about this new idea!

Ninjawords.com

One of my students recently introduced me to this website, ninjawords.com.  I was introduced to this website during a discussion about vocabulary homework.  I give my students vocabulary homework at the beginning of each unit of study.  I have them define the words, using their textbook or the internet as their main resources, and then the following evening I have them write sentences using the words they defined the night before to show me that they truly understand its meaning.
I noticed that a bunch of my students did not fill in the definition for "urinary system" on their recent homework and when I asked them about it a few of them said that they could not find an exact definition for it.  I was explaining to them that I did not think this was acceptable and they should have been able to find a definition.
One of my students told me about this website ninjawords.com where you can get the definitions of more than one word at the same time.  IN this way I now know that my students will not leave a phrase such as "urinary system" blank again.

You should check out the website!

 Ninja Words

Castle Learning

While I was working as a substitute teacher I remember hearing about various teachers using Castle Learning with their students but I never had a chance to look at the website myself.  I am so glad that I finally did!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, many school districts have accounts set up with Castle Learning.  This is a website that has a TON of resources of regents type review for ALL subject areas.  There are various types of questions available for use: flash cards, multiple choice, and short answer.  Teachers are able to add their classes to the site and make up assignments for the students to take.  Teachers have access to full item/data analysis and score reports and are able to set various restrictions on what their students can/cannot have access to on the site.  I have started using this program to give my students extra credit opportunities.  Since most of the assignments I have made are multiple choice questions, I told my classes that they have to receive a minimum score in order to be eligible for the extra credit points.  This way I know that they will have their notebooks out with them while they are using the site and not just choosing random answers hoping to receive credit.

I wanted to try giving a quiz on Castle Learning.  They do not have the ability for you to set a timer on various assignments (although according to a Customer Service Representative they will soon have this feature) so I told my students to keep a clock or watch near them and make sure that they stop working after twenty minutes.  The quiz was 20 multiple choice questions on the Circulatory system.  I told the students that this was a trial and I wanted their honest feedback about how they felt about taking a quiz online at home instead of in class.  Overall, I got extremely positive results! Most of the students did very well and they all finished in WELL under the allotted twenty minutes.  I plan on giving more quizzes this way and I feel that this will enable me to maximize instruction time in the classroom.

I highly recommend this program to teachers in all subject areas and grade levels.  It truly is a wonderful site.

Notebook Quizzes

I have started giving my students notebook quizzes every week.  After the first month of school I noticed that some of my students have very poor organizational skills and this results in them losing many papers, mislabeling them, or putting them in sections with other subject material.  I think that if a student has an organized binder, they have the ability to better in class.
It is essential for students to have ALL of the notes sheets that have been given out for each unit.

My notebook quizzes are given every Friday and serve as the days "Do Now" assignment.  If the students have all of the notes sheets that have been handed out and they are correctly dated, they will get a 100% every time.

FOr example, my most recent notebook quiz was:
1. What was the mastery objective on 11/15?
2. What was the do now on 11/22?
3. What was the homework assignment on 11/29?
4. What was the second question on the notes sheet from 12/1?
5. Is your binder organized?

I have seen a definite improvement in the binders of most of my students.  I told them that I will continue giving them notebook quizzes every week until every student in the class has received a 100%!

Grading Scale

I have had numerous discussions with colleagues about how to choose a grading system.  There is a ton of research about different types of grading systems (example: 0-4, ZAP (no zeroes allowed), Points system, etc.) and I feel that each of these are useful for different grade levels.
As a middle level teacher, it is my opinion that is is not fair to make Tests and Quizzes account for the large majority of the grade.  This is because middle level students are still learning proper study skills and these are skills that take an extremely long time to develop.
I think that homework is extremely important and I have allotted 20% of the students grade for homework. I think that if students complete their homework assignments they are forced to review their notes every day and it teaches them to be more responsible.
I have allotted 50% total for Tests and Quizzes.  Tests count for 30% and Quizzes for 20%.
I give my students a participation grade each week.  This will count for 10% of each quarter grade.
Lab activities count for the additional 30% of the grade.

I have found that this grading scheme has been very successful for me.  I have several students who participate all of the time, hand in all homework assignments and complete all lab activities but have problems doing well on tests and quizzes.  This grading scheme enables these students to be very successful in my class and work on ways to improve their study skills without fearing that they will do poorly if they do not perform well on every exam.

Beginning of the Year Activities

Since the first week of school only had two days, I thought it would be a good opportunity for myself to get to know my students instead of immediately starting the curriculum.  I felt I accomplished this in a couple of ways:

I created a Student Questionnaire that I had the students fill out on the first day of class.  This questionnaire asked the students for information regarding: name, grade, address, e-mail address (if applicable), parent/guardian name, phone number, profession, and e-mail address.  In addition, I asked the students if they have access to Internet at home.  This made it very easy for myself to find out if I would have any problems with assigning web quests or posting homework assignments online.  

I then created a Student-Teacher Contract for us to read together aloud.  The contract outlined the rules of the classroom, how their grade will be calculated, and my extra help schedule.  I also made sure to include 5-6 blank lines at the bottom of the contract.  I think that it is important for the students to be involved in the rule making process.  I allowed them to come up with a few rules/expectations that they had for me.  

They came up with:  

          a. Make sure all paperwork (handouts) are hole punched.

          b. All quizzes and tests should be returned and graded to the students within 2 days of taking the exam.

          c. No homework every other Friday.

I think that incorporating the students into the rule-making process made the kids happy.  In all five of my classes, they all came up with similar rules.

I also created an "Introductory People Search" for the students to complete for the second day of class.  It is essentially a grid with 25 boxes.  In each of the boxes there are different phrases.  For example, "Speaks more than one Language" "Was born in a different country" "Has more than one pet"  

Each student is given a different colored pencil and they have to go around the room trying to get every other student in the class to sign one of the boxes.  This process took about 15 minutes.  I then had the students sit back down in their seats and we went over the people search as a class.  This enabled me to really get to know the students and it enabled them to get to know each other and myself.  I thought that it was a fabulous activity!

My Goals

I am currently teaching 7-Accelerated Life Science and Physical Science (Science 8) at Oyster Bay High School in Long Island, New York.  As a first year middle school science teacher, I thought that it was a good idea to create a blog where I can post various lesson plans and science-related resources that I have incorporated successfully into my classroom.  The resources that I will post are useful to both teachers and students.