Classroom Management and Content Reinforcement!

Warm ups and bell ringers are definitely a "vintage" idea, but used in the right way they become an excellent classroom management tool!

The bell has just rung for your next class. At your classroom door is a jumbled mass of students, some leaving the room, some entering the room. Some of the ones leaving have stopped at your desk to chat or ask questions. Some of the ones entering want to chat, too. The students who were absent the day before want to know what they missed. One student needs to borrow a calculator. One student wants to go to the bathroom. One student wants to know if you finished grading a test. One student asks, "Are we doing anything today?" (As if there was EVER any possibly that we weren't!) Two students in the back of the room are being clowns. The tardy bell is about to ring, and you are ready to get this class started.

Does this chaos sound familiar?

The above scenario doesn't mean there is anything wrong with your classroom management. All teachers experience this everyday! However, you can make an action plan that decreases the chaos and get your class off to a good start everyday.

I have always considered classroom management to be one of my strengths. I am organized and have every single minute of class time planned before my students arrive at the door. I consider classroom management to be one of the most important aspects of teaching, second only to having a deep and thorough knowledge of the subject area. I teach "bell to bell" and gear the pacing of my class to the learning abilities of my students. Frankly, I am good at it ....... Or so I thought.

One year (after having taught for many years) I had a class that was a bit more challenging than the average high school biology class. The class consisted of 25 freshmen and sophomores, all nice kids, not a bad apple in the bunch. They were rarely disrespectful, but always came into the room overly antsy, rowdy, and excitable. It always took too much time to get them to settle and to get class started. All teachers know that the first few minutes of a class period can be somewhat chaotic. There are always administrative tasks to complete in addition to getting the students focused. I am very good at getting things started promptly in my class, but this one particular class was different. It became a struggle every day to get them settled and start my class. I needed to do something different.

I had not used "bell ringers" for quite some time, but I thought this might be a good tool for getting this class under control. I needed a consistent plan of action that my students followed every day and that established a certain mindset in my students. Further, I wondered if I could get this group of high schoolers to keep and maintain a notebook of these warm ups.  In short, could I reduce the chaos and get on with the business of teaching?


The answer is a resounding...    YES!  IT WORKED!


What is the new routine?

On the first day of school, I do a really fun ice-breaker activity called Biology Chat. Students are so excited to be in the lab, and NOT listening to a long list of class rules. After completing the Biology Chat Lab Station Activity, I start gently introducing my classroom management game plan. I let them know what type of notebook to purchase (see below) and I talk about the procedures I expect as students enter the room. When fully implemented, it goes something like this:

• Students walk into classroom, passing the "warm up" table as they enter.
• Students pick up the daily warm up and proceed to their desks.
• Students have 5-10 minutes to complete the daily bell ringers.
• Students may get up to visit the supply table that contains stapler, tape, colored pencils, markers, and rulers.
• Teacher takes roll, passes out papers, answers questions, and assists students who have been absent.
• Students are orderly and teacher can begin teaching with minimum chaos at the beginning of class.

What will you need?

• Students will need to purchase a notebook. I have them place their daily warm ups in this notebook each day. I love the type of notebook that you see here. The binding is tight and pages "stay put" and rarely fall out. Best of all, I love that these notebooks can be purchased during Back-to-School season for only 50 cents. One of these notebooks contains 100 sheets of paper.  When used front and back, this give you room to place 200 warm ups in the notebook. Students will likely need a couple of these notebooks if, like me, you plan to use the bell ringer pages for homework assignments and daily quizzes.  
• You, the teacher, need to set up a table near the entrance of your classroom. Each day, place the warm up(s) on this table, as well as any supplies needed such as tape, markers, or rulers.

What are the benefits?

You can turn the chaotic beginning of your class into a time of meaningful learning. Using bell ringers establishes a daily routine of having your students complete thought provoking and problem solving tasks during the first few minutes of the class. Once the routine is established, students will enter the room and get right to work on the warm-up or bell-ringer activity. These warm-ups are designed to take 5-10 minutes to complete. It settles the students and provides the instructor a few minutes to carry out the tasks required at the beginning of a class.

An added benefit is reinforcement of the current content I am teaching. My warm ups are not of the "write a paragraph about your favorite food" variety. Each and every warm up reinforces the subject matter content that I am currently teaching. Students will be labeling, diagramming, calculating, estimating, problem-solving, analyzing, and predicting on each page. This quick review of previously taught content is the perfect way to launch into the new lesson of the day.

The warm ups in my TpT store are all one-half page in size.  They can be collected and quickly graded, but they are always placed in the student notebook when I return them. In addition to using these pages as bell ringers, I also use them for homework assignments and for short daily quizzes.

After many months of writing and developing, I now have a warm up set for every chapter found in a typical high school biology textbook. And, best of all, I have accomplished what I set out to do:  

• I established a classroom management plan that works for me.
• Students are engaged and working at the beginning of class.
• The daily reinforcement of concepts and subject matter content have led to higher test scores.
• It's a WIN-WIN!

If you are interested, you can Click here to download a FREE sample of my warm ups and bell ringers, or you can   Click here to see all of the bell ringer resources in my TpT store.

Combining Classroom Management With Content Reinforcement in the Science Classroom

Warm ups and bell ringers are definitely a "vintage" idea, but this tried and true classroom management tool is still effective for most classes.

The bell has just rung.  At your classroom door is a jumble of students, some leaving the room, some entering the room.  Some of the ones leaving have stopped at your desk to chat or ask questions.  Some of the ones entering are doing the same.  The students who were absent yesterday want to know what they missed.  A student needs to borrow a pencil.  A student wants to go to the bathroom.  A student wants to know if you finished grading a test.  A student asks, "Are we doing anything today?" (As if there was EVER any possibly that we weren't!)  Two students in the back of the room are being clowns.  The tardy bell is about to ring, and you are ready to get this class started.

Does this chaos sound familiar?

If this is your classroom every day, then you need a plan of action.

Classroom management is one of my strengths.  I am organized and have every single minute of class time planned before my students arrive at the door.  I consider classroom management to be one of the most important aspects of teaching, second only to having a deep knowledge of the subject area being taught.  I teach "bell to bell" and gear the pacing of my class to the learning abilities of my students.  Frankly, I am good at it ....... Or so I thought.

One year (after having taught for many years) I had a class that was a bit more challenging than the average high school biology class.  The class consisted of 25 freshmen and sophomores, all nice kids, not a bad apple in the bunch.  They were rarely disrespectful, but always came into the room overly antsy, rowdy, and excitable.  It took longer than normal to get them settled so class could begin.  All teachers know that the first few minutes of a class period can be somewhat chaotic.  Students are socializing with one another, students who have been absent are asking for missed assignments, attendance must be taken, graded papers must be returned, homework assignments must be collected.  The list goes on and on.  I was very good at getting things started promptly in my class, but this one particular class was different.  It became a struggle every day to get them settled and start my class.  I needed to do something different.

I had not used "bell ringers" for quite some time, but I thought this might be a good tool for getting this class under control.  I needed a consistent plan of action that my students followed every day that established a certain mindset in my students. Further, I wondered if I could get this group of high schoolers to keep and maintain a notebook of these warm ups.  In short, I wanted to reduce the chaos and get on with the business of teaching.


The answer is a resounding...    YES!  IT WORKED!

What is the new routine?

On the first day of school, I do a really fun ice-breaker activity called Science Chat.  Students are so excited to be in the lab, and NOT listening to a long list of class rules.  On about day 3, I start gently introducing my classroom management game plan.  I let them know what type of notebook to purchase (see below) and I talk about the "table" they will pass as they enter my room.  When fully implemented, it goes something like this:
•  Students walk into classroom, passing the "warm up" table as they enter.
•  Students pick up the daily warm up and proceed to their desks.
•  Students have 5-10 minutes to complete the daily bell ringers.
•  Students may get up to visit the supply table that contains stapler, tape, colored pencils, markers, and rulers.
•  Teacher takes roll, passes out papers, answers questions, and assists students who have been absent.
•  Students are orderly and teacher can begin teaching with minimum chaos at the beginning of class.

What will you need?

•  Students will need to purchase a notebook.  They will place their daily warm ups in this notebook each day.  I love the type of notebook that you see here. The binding is tight and pages "stay put" and rarely fall out.  Best of all, I love that these notebooks can be purchased during Back-to-School season for only 50 cents.  One of these notebooks contains 100 sheets of paper.  When used front and back, this give you room to place 200 warm ups in the notebook.  Students will likely need a couple of these notebooks if, like me, you plan to use the bell ringer pages for homework assignments and daily quizzes.  

•  You, the teacher, need to set up a table near the entrance of your classroom.  Each day, place the warm up(s) on this table,  as well as any supplies needed, such as tape, markers, or rulers.

What are the benefits?

You can turn the chaotic beginning of your class into a time of meaningful learning.  It establishes a daily routine of having your students complete thought provoking and problem solving tasks during the first 5 minutes of the class.  Once the routine is established, students will enter the room and get right to work on the warm-up or bell-ringer activity.  These warm-ups are designed to take 5-10 minutes to complete.   It settles the students and provides the instructor a few minutes to carry out the tasks required at the beginning of a class.

An added benefit is reinforcement of the current content I am teaching.  My warm ups are not of the "write a paragraph about what you did this weekend" variety. Each and every warm up reinforces the subject matter content that I am currently teaching.  Students will be labeling, diagramming, calculating, estimating, problem-solving, analyzing, and predicting on each page.  This quick review of yesterday's content is the perfect way to launch into the new lesson of the day.

How can these pages be used?
•  Warm ups and bell ringers
•  Exit slips
•  Additions to your interactive notebooks
•  Homework assignments
•  The completed notebook is the perfect review for your unit tests or end of course exam.

The warm ups in my TpT store are all one-half page in size.   They can be collected and quickly graded, but they are always placed in the student notebook when I return them.  In addition to using these pages as bell ringers, I also use them for homework assignments and for short daily quizzes.



After many months of writing and developing, I now have a warm up set for every chapter found in a typical high school biology textbook. And, best of all, I have accomplished what I set out to do:  
•  I established a classroom management plan that works for me.
•  Students are engaged and working at the beginning of class.
•  The daily reinforcement of concepts and subject matter content have led to higher test scores.
•  It's a WIN-WIN!


If you are interested, you can Click here to download a FREE sample of my warm ups and bell ringers, or you can   Click here to see all of the bell ringer resources in my TpT store.

Invertebrates: How To Get It Covered When You Are Running Out Of Time!

Help!  I am running out of time, and I still have the animal kingdom to cover!

This happens to me EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR!!  I really can't think of any topic in my biology class that I don't enjoy.  I am a biology nerd and I love teaching! But there are certain topics that I REALLY love and I spend too much time on them.  Cell physiology, biochemistry, cell division, photosynthesis, respiration, genetics, DNA, evolution ..... I get so excited about these, and I love the labs that go with these topics, and well, I just spend too much time on them!  Which brings me back to the purpose of this article:  I need to get the invertebrate material covered, and I have very little time to do it.

It's time to flip my classroom.

For most concepts, I prefer a traditional teaching approach. Flipping my classroom means that I am shifting the responsibility for teaching and learning to the student. The idea is that the student must study and learn the material at home, and class time is used to answer questions and clarify any misconceptions students might have about the concepts.  As I said above, I am a traditional teacher, and I prefer to teach most topics "the old-fashioned" way.  But I do believe that certain topics require less instruction from the teacher, and these topics can be covered quickly and efficiently by shifting some or all of the responsibility over to the students.

Like the invertebrates!  I want my biology students to be well versed about the origins of the animal kingdom.  They need a basic understanding of embryology, body form and symmetry, and the unique characteristics that place an animal in a particular phylum.  After a few really good lectures on embryology, I usually shift the rest of the learning over to the students. There is nothing difficult about the characteristics of each phylum, and my students often are relieved and excited for things to be a little different in the classroom.

So how will I cover the invertebrates? You are probably already familiar (hopefully!) with my warm ups and interactive notebook pages.  I use them all year long as warm ups, homework assignments, and for review and reinforcement.

For the invertebrates, I use them as a tool for flipping the learning over to the students.  Students are placed in cooperative learning groups - (groups of my own choosing, and not theirs!) - to complete the interactive pages on all of the invertebrate phyla.  I give them class time to work, but some of the work will have to be completed outside of class.  Each day, I devote time to answering questions the students might have, and focusing their attention to a few concepts that might need a little more traditional instruction.

I have my students prepare a notebook on the invertebrates.  You can get an idea of how this works from the photos below.  Click on any of the images below to view these products in my TpT store.

 

Each set can be purchased individually (click on each image above) or you can save money by purchasing them in a big bundle.  Use this link to view the big bundle.

I hope this gives you a few ideas of ways cover some topics quickly when you are crunched for time. Good luck in your teaching!

Supplement Your Lessons on Plant Structure and Function

What does it take to teach about plants in your biology class?

It takes determination, fortitude, and as many top-notch materials as you can find!  One of my Dad's favorite sayings was, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."    This saying runs through my head each year when I begin to teach my units on plants to my high school biology students. I'm pretty sure that if I asked my students at the end of the year which topic was their least favorite..... they would all say plants! As biology teachers, we have to cover this material.  Our very existence depends upon these lovely living organisms.  I have found that my students love growing plants, and labs involving living specimens, germination of seeds, growing plants under various conditions helps to raise the interest level among my students just a bit.

For those of you who have been waiting, I have just put the final polish on the warm ups and bell ringers that I use with my students.  This set contains 28 student pages and covers everything they need to know about plant structure and function.  Here are some highlights in pictures:

In more detail, these warm up pages will cover the following concepts:

• Introduction to plant anatomy: Main organs of the plant, specialized organs of the plant.
• Types of plant cells: Parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma.
• Tissue systems of a plant:  Dermal tissues, vascular tissues, and ground tissues.
• Vascular tissues:  Xylem, vessel elements, tracheids, phloem, sieve tube elements, companion cells.
• Meristematic tissues, apical meristems, lateral meristems, primary and secondary growth.
• Roots:  Functions of roots, taproot system, fibrous root system, meristematic region, region of elongation, region of maturation, epidermis, cortex, endodermis, pericycle, root hairs, root cap, adventitious roots, differences in monocot and dicot roots.
• Stems:  Functions of stems, nodes, internodes, buds, bud scales, terminal and lateral buds, epidermis, vascular bundles, pith, cortex, differences in monocot and dicot stems, cork, cork cambium, heartwood, sapwood, bark, vascular cambium, tubers, bulbs, corms, and rhizomes.
• Translocation and transpiration.
• Leaves:  Functions of the leaf, petiole, blade, veins, differences in monocot and dicot leaves, epidermis, cuticle, palisade cells, spongy cells, mesophyll, stomata, guard cells, gas exchange in leaves, simple and compound leaves, types of specialized leaves.
• Thinking critically:  One page of critical thinking and problem solving questions about plants.
• 6 pages of review:  Short answer, Modified True False, Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blank, Review the vocabulary, and What’s the relationship?

Use this link to view these materials in my TpT store.  Thanks!

Amp Up Your Unit on Plants!

Ginkgo

It's time for your unit on plants.  Excited or dreading it?

As I sat down to begin the writing of this post, my initial thought was to lead with, "I just love teaching plants!" And then it occurred to me that I begin almost all of my blog posts on biology topics in the same way.  But the truth is.... I am excited to begin teaching almost any topic in biology. I love them all!  I am sure that I have a least favorite unit to teach, but I would have to give that some thought to determine which unit it is. That is probably a topic for another blog post.....

So back to plants.  Having taught school for over 30 years, I have taught thousands of students and have interacted with many, many teachers during this time.  What I know is this:  Students don't like studying about plants (too boring!) and teachers don't like teaching about plants (students don't like it!) As a result, I have noticed that many middle and high school life science and biology teachers will either:

1. Leave plants out of the curriculum entirely, or ...
2. Skip through it too quickly, leaving out the depth that this unit deserves.

I find plants fascinating.  And because I do, I look for ways to make it interesting for my students.  Not the topic of this blog post, but have you ever tried the C-Fern labs from Carolina Biological?  My students literally shout with excitement when they see (using a microscope) the sperm cells swimming to the egg and the frantic mob of sperm that surrounds the egg.

Students love lab work and it definitely helps makes the class more interesting and exciting, but we all know that the "down and dirty" classroom days are needed to teach the information to our students.  I developed this set of 34 warm up / bell ringer / interactive notebook pages to use with my students while teaching about plant evolution and classification.  I am really excited about this set, and I feel that it is one of the best sets that I have written.

• If you complete these pages with your students, I guarantee that your students will come away with a solid foundation and knowledge base about the evolution and classification of plants.

Click image to view product in my TpT store.

• These pages are NO PREP for the teacher!!  I have done all of the prep work for you. You can spend more time concentrating on your teaching.

• Don't use these pages the same way everyday.  Use some as warm ups, and others as homework assignments.  Some will make great quizzes.  I like to add a page or two of these as a lab station while carrying out our plant experiments.  While lecturing, I will break up the lecture time by having my students complete one of the pages for review and reinforcement.

What topics are covered?  These 34 warm up pages cover the topics commonly found in an introductory unit on plants.  Highlights include: Characteristics of plants, the plant life cycle, alternation of generations, the evolution of plants, the transition of plants to land, classification of plants, nonvascular and vascular plants, the bryophytes, the liverwort life cycle, the moss life cycle, the fern life cycle, the seed plants, gymnosperms and angiosperms.

What topics are not covered?  Plant structure and function, plant responses, and plant reproduction are covered in different sets.  Links to these sets are seen below.

Plant Structure and Function

Plant Reproduction

Thanks for stopping by, and have fun teaching!

Human Body: Oh No! The Endocrine System!

Is there anything more FUN than teaching the endocrine system to high school students?

High school students and hormones?  Watch out! The endocrine system is definitely a challenge to teach, but it is a fascinating topic, and one that my students are intrigued by.  Well, perhaps I should say that they are intrigued by "parts" of it.  The class discussion on how hormones work, target cells, receptor sites, amino acid hormones and steroid hormones leaves them a little glassy-eyed! But start talking about endocrine disorders, and the class comes to life.  I do not mean to come across as insensitive, but the endocrine disorders are very interesting.  I think it is safe to say that students in a first year high school biology class are learning details about the endocrine system for the first time.  They are going to be highly interested in the pituitary disorders, acromegaly and goiters.  Then, there is diabetes. Almost every student these days has a family member or friend who suffers from diabetes.

How much detail and depth should we teach to our high school students? Every year and every class is different, but most of my students are novices when it comes to the endocrine system.  I think it is essential to teach what hormones are, how hormones work, and how the endocrine system maintains homeostasis in the body.  Students should be able to list the endocrine glands and have a basic understanding of what each gland does for the human body.  As for all of the hormones and their functions?  For me, it depends on the abilities of my current class.  I give them what they can handle.

Click image to view product.

I continue to use a system of warm ups and bellringers.  This is a topic that will definitely take some review and reinforcement each and every day.  I have my students use the first 5-10 minutes of class time to review the concepts we have previously covered.  The warm up pages that I have developed are also used as homework assignments, daily quizzes, and most importantly, test prep for the final unit exam.

This newest product in my TpT store includes 29 student pages that cover a range of concepts that are likely to be found in a typical high school biology textbook.  I have included a detailed 5-page teacher guide, and of course, a teacher answer key for each student page.

Here are the highlights:

Good luck with your teaching, and have a great school year!

The Nervous System

Click image to view product.

Interactive Notebooks!

Warm-Ups!

Bell Ringers!

Of all the human body systems, I think the nervous system is the hardest to teach.  Start a discussion on resting potentials, action potentials, and sodium potassium pumps and just watch the students get that glazed over look in their eyes.  What is the trick to teaching this tricky body system?  Give out the information in small doses, break up instruction time with short demonstrations and activities, and review, review, review!

If you have visited this blog at any time during the past year, you know I have become a huge fan of warm ups and bell ringers.  This teaching tool has insured that my students get the review and reinforcement they need to be successful in my class.  Daily warm ups require the students to look back into their notes from previous instruction to complete the daily review.

I am particularly excited about this set of nervous system warm ups.  This body system is complicated, and the daily review and reinforcement is vital to student mastery.  This set of warm ups has 37 student pages.  I use them for warm up activities, homework assignments and preparation for the unit test.  I require my students to keep the pages in a warm up notebook.  These pages are also ideal as inserts into interactive notebooks.  I have definitely noticed an increase in test scores since I started requiring my students to keep a warm up notebook.

This Table of Contents will give you a better idea of the topics and concepts that are covered by the 37 student warm up pages.

The last 5 student warm pages are always used to prepare for the unit test. These pages consist of multiple choice, fill in the blank, compare and contrast and true/false questions.  They are first used to prepare for the unit test, but later become perfect for the semester exam review.

I hope you are having a great school year.  Good luck with your teaching!

Teaching About the Immune System

Tough Topic!

(Made Easier with these warm ups and interactive notebook pages.)

I have a love/hate relationship with the immune system.  I love teaching it.  It is interesting, confusing, amazing, and mind-boggling.  Students are interested in this topic, they are more alert on these days, and they ask great questions.  This is where the "hate" part comes in.  I am just a science teacher, with multiple college degrees, but I have NOT been to medical school.  When teaching about the immune system, students LOVE to ask you all sorts of medical questions.  Some I can answer, but many I cannot ... and should not ... even attempt!

So what's a science teacher to do?  Even though I don't know about every medical condition known to man, I still enjoy teaching about the immune system.  I love the lines of body defense, infectious diseases, the Germ Theory, and Koch's Postulates.  Lymphocytes and antibodies are the best!  I can get really excited and animated when talking to students about the specificity of antibodies, how they are made in the body, and why we get sick, but later have immunity.

Keep your students focused on the important information.  Avoid medical issues, and refer the students to their physicians when those sorts of questions arise.  My newest set of warm ups and interactive notebook pages on the immune system is a perfect way to keep the students directed, focused, and on task.

Click image to
view product.

My "modified" version of interactive notebook pages are not "foldables" and they do not require any elaborate cutting, pasting or folding.  They are truly "NO PREP" and perfect for a high school classroom where every valuable minute of our class time must be utilized as efficiently as possible.

The student pages are half-page in size and easily inserted into their student notes.  I like to have my students keep a warm up notebook.  These pages are perfect for the first few minutes of class.  Students begin to work on them immediately as they enter the classroom.  The review and reinforcement nature of the pages provides ample opportunities for students to master the information.  I use these pages as warm ups, homework assignments, and even as short daily quizzes.

The warm up notebook is the best method of test prep I have found, both for the unit tests as well as for the semester exams and end of course exams.

Here is a preview to what is offered in my Immune System Warm Ups.

Best of luck in your teaching!