The time for new school supplies and fresh starts is here! When I was in the classroom I always loved the beginning of the school year, even though it marked the end of summer. Now, I’m working with pre-service science teachers and inevitably I’ll…

How often have you heard (or said) “Why doesn’t the District just give us planning time!” In the quest to provide high-quality education, science teachers face the dual challenge of needing time to collaborate and plan with their peers while also…

This article highlights the demands teachers face and emphasizes the California Science Education Conference, happening November 8-10, 2024, as a key opportunity for growth, networking, and inspiration. The conference offers valuable workshops,…

I was a science teacher for thirty-four years. On the first day of school every year, I began every class by asking my students to draw a picture of a scientist doing “something that a scientist does.”

In 2013, my mother handed me an issue of USA Today. In it was an article titled ‘U.S. Students Still Only Average on Tests.’ I had been teaching sixth and seventh grade science for fourteen years at this point, and remember feeling frustrated as I…

It’s Springtime, and the school year is getting to feel a bit long in the tooth. Testing might be zapping the life out of the year, and students and teachers are starting to count days. It’s been a very rough few year(s), and summer is calling…

In this excerpt, our fifth-grade English learners (ELs) are developing a model to explain how the hydrosphere interacts with the geosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere in order to answer the driving question of the unit, “Why does it matter if I drink…

Although I teach at a university, the beginning portion of General Chemistry has much the same content as chemistry at the high school level. During the pandemic, my campus moved to virtual instruction, which intensified worries about cheating. For…

I remember the day I was invited to attend a group meeting with Dr. Deborah Ball to learn more about discretionary spaces and how these small interactions carry such great weight in classrooms. I was so excited to chat more with her about teacher…