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.

14 Ways to Use Task Cards in High School Biology

Instruction?

Reinforcement?

Retention?

No Problem!!

Task cards have quickly earned a prominent spot in my high school science classes.  I was slow to the party, thinking that task cards were a tool used by elementary teachers.  They couldn't possibly be of any use in my high school classes, right?  I could not be more wrong!

I think the thing I love best about task cards is that my students never complain about them, and in fact, even ask for them.  Teenagers will do anything to avoid school work, but my students have fully accepted the fact that the task cards have helped them study for tests and have improved their grades.

For those who might be unfamiliar with task cards, here is a quick description.  A task card is usually 1/4th the size of a sheet of paper, and usually printed on thicker paper.  I laminate them so that I can use them year after year.  Each card contains only one task or question.  For students who are easily overwhelmed by too much material or difficult concepts, task cards are a wonderful solution.  The student has a card in their hand with only one task or question.  They must complete the one task before moving on to the next.  It allows the student to focus and concentrate on only one thing at a time, rather than being presented with a long worksheet jam-packed with questions or problems.

So without further ado, here are 14 ways you can use task cards in your high school science classes to improve instruction, reinforce concepts and increase retention of the material you are teaching:

1.  Lab Stations:  This is my personal favorite.  Students of all ages get tired of sitting in a desk all day.  My students really enjoy being out of their seats and moving about the room.  I place 2 to 3 task cards at each lab station and have the students rotate through the stations.  This saves paper and printing since only one set of task cards is needed for the class.

2.  Competitive Game Formats:  Use the cards in a game format.  Divide the class into teams.  Place the task cards face down in a basket.  A team selects a card at random and must complete the task for a point.  It is a fun way to review for unit tests and high schoolers love the competitive format.

3.  Use task cards during instruction:  When teaching difficult concepts, stop periodically and check for understanding.    Ask the students to "pull out cards 16 - 20" and complete the tasks to see if they understand the material you have been teaching.  It gives the students a chance to relax just a bit and it provides an additional opportunity for them to absorb the mountain of details in a science class.

4.  Warm Ups and Bell Ringers:   

I use this one a lot!    As students enter the room, have them complete 4-5 task cards on concepts covered the previous day.  I have them write their answers on a sheet of notebook paper and collect them for a quick daily grade.  This strategy gets them to work the minute they enter your classroom, and helps them to get focused on the learning for the day.

5.  Exit Slips:  This strategy requires students to  write responses to questions you ask at the end of the class period.  It allows the students to reflect on what they have learned during the lesson and allows you to check for mastery of concepts.

 6.    Use task cards as part of your lab activities:  As students are carrying out and completing lab work, place a task card or two at their lab station and require that they include the answers to the task cards as part of their lab report.

7.  Homework Assignments:  At the end of your lesson, have students copy a few task card questions into their lecture notes to be completed for homework.  Checking student answers is a great way to start class the next day.

8.  Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate!!  How often do we teachers hear those words?  Well, task cards are the easiest way I have found to help learners of different ability levels.  By making customized sets of cards, you can give a student exactly what they need to be successful. Students can complete the cards you have given them and never know that other students have different sets of cards.

9.  Task cards are perfect for early finishers:  Task cards are not just for review and reinforcement.  They are perfect for enrichment!  When students finish their regular work early, you can give them enrichment task cards to deepen their understanding of the concepts being taught.

10.  Small group review sessions:   My students will often come in before school, after school or during a study hall period to use the task cards to review for an upcoming unit test.

11.  End of course testing:  Does your state require that students pass an end of course test at the end of the school year?  Mine does!   When reviewing for my end of course tests, I place different sets of task cards in plastic boxes and arrange them about the room,  Students select a set of cards and review through them in small groups.  When finished with one set, they select another .

12.  Tutoring:  My school offers peer tutoring and teacher tutoring after school.  Teachers and students alike will borrow my sets of task cards to use during after school tutoring.

13.  Hallway Extra Credit Display:  Post a few task cards on the wall outside of your classroom door.  Completion of the task cards can earn the student a few extra credit points.

14.  Bingo! Make a Bingo board out of task cards.  Students must complete 5 tasks in a row, column or diagonal to win.

Because task cards can be used in so many ways, they have earned a permanent place in my teaching arsenal.  They are fun and engaging, and provide excellent opportunities for students of all ability levels to master the subject matter.



Here are just a few of the task card sets available in my TpT store:

•  Cellular Respiration Task Cards
•  Photosynthesis Task Cards
•  Lab Clean Up Task Cards
•  Classification and Taxonomy Task Cards
•  Matter and Change Task Cards
•  Metric System Task Cards
•  Let's Read Science! Common Core Science Task Cards
•  Microscope Task Cards
•  Scientific Method Task Cards
•  Population Ecology Task Cards
•  Introduction to Ecology Task Cards
•  Viruses and Bacteria Task Cards


Or you can just click this link to view all of them!

Back to School Biology Scavenger Hunt

What will you be doing on the first day of biology class?

First impressions count. They make a difference. Whether it is a job interview, or meeting potential in-laws for the first time.... first impressions are important.

When students walk into your class on the first day of school, what first impression will you make? There are alphabetized seating charts to be made, textbooks to be issued, supply lists to go over, grading policies to be discussed, and syllabi to be passed out. There is just so much "business" that must be taken care of!!!

But....  Is this the impression you want to make on the first day of school?

Why not get the kids out of their seats and do something fun on the first day of school?  If you make a great impression on the first day, then students don't mind so much when you go over the "rules" on the second day.  The first day message to the students should be, "My class is exciting.  My class is different.  My class will be demanding, but I want to make learning fun."

My new idea this year for a first day activity is a "Back to School Biology Scavenger Hunt."  I teach in a large public school.  It is not unusual for students to walk into my class only to discover that they do not know anyone in the room.  And, as quickly as possible, I would like to know the skill level of the students I'll be teaching.  This activity covers both.  The scavenger hunt will allow the students to get to know one another, and it will help me determine how much they already know about biology.

Click on image to download this resource.

So how does the scavenger hunt work?  Take the students outside.  This can be done in an outdoor classroom, the playground, or just any area of the school yard.  I am fortunate enough to have a pond and a wooded area that border our school.

Students will work in groups of two to find examples of the items I have included on their 2-page handout.  Examples include:

• Find and name three heterotrophs.
• Find 2 biotic and 2 abiotic factors.
• Find an organism with an exoskeleton.

Students record their answers on the handout.  In addition to answering the biology questions, the students must write down the name of their partner and a "fun-fact" about their partner.  After answering 6 questions, students must change partners and work with a different student on the next 6 questions.  

I hope you and your students enjoy the activity, and I hope you have a GREAT first day of school.

Have a great year!

Biology Warm Ups and Bell Ringers: Great Classroom Management Tool

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

Classroom management is one of my greatest strengths as a high school biology teacher. I walk into every class with a clear plan. Every single minute of instruction is accounted for before the bell rings. Over the years, I’ve learned that effective classroom management is just as essential as subject mastery, especially when teaching complex topics in biology. I strive to teach “bell to bell,” with pacing tailored to meet the needs and learning styles of my students.

But even seasoned teachers get thrown a curveball now and then.

A few years ago, I found myself with a particularly energetic group of 9th and 10th grade biology students. They were great kids—friendly, funny, and genuinely good-hearted—but they came to class every day bouncing off the walls. They weren’t disruptive in a disrespectful way, but their energy made it tough to settle in and start class on time. If you’ve ever taught high school science, you know how those first few minutes can feel: students chatting, catching up on missed work, asking about grades, turning in homework—it’s organized chaos at best.

That’s when I remembered an old favorite classroom tool I hadn’t used in a while: biology bell ringers.

Could a simple daily warm-up activity help refocus my students and establish a calmer, more productive start to class? And better yet, could I get them to keep a bell ringer notebook to track their progress?

The answer was a resounding YES! It worked.

Implementing daily biology warm-ups not only transformed the tone of my class, but it also helped reinforce key concepts and boosted student engagement from the moment they walked through the door.

What are the benefits?

You can turn this chaotic time 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 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 5-7 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.

It took a bit of time, but I now have sets of bell ringers for every chapter of a traditional high school biology class. Since most biology or life science textbooks are generally divided into ten units, I organized my warm up activities in the same fashion:

• Unit 1:  Introduction to Science (Scientific Method, Graphing, Chemistry, Biochemistry)
• Unit 2:  Cells
• Unit 3:  Ecology
• Unit 4:  Genetics
• Unit 5:  Evolution
• Unit 6:  Microorganisms and Fungi
• Unit 7:  Plants
• Unit 8:  Invertebrates
• Unit 9:  Chordates
• Unit 10:  The Human Body

All units have been added to my TPT store and can be viewed at this link.

The pages are printed landscape style. The pages look best if printed in color, but also look great if printed in black/white. Each activity is one-half page in size. Two identical warm-ups are printed per page in order to conserve paper. In this time saving classroom management strategy, all you have to do is print the pages and cut them in half.

The warm-ups/bell ringers require and measure a wide variety of skills: 

Compare and contrast
Identify and label
Define terms
Graphing and Tabling
Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
 Computation
Short Answer
Listing
Research
Cause and Effect
 Drawing
Analyzing
Interpreting
Predicting
Fill in the Blank
Writing/Explaining

These half-page activities can be collected and quickly graded, or you might want to have your students keep a daily warm-up notebook. These warm-ups will make excellent additions to your interactive notebooks. An added benefit ... The completed warm-up notebook makes an excellent review for the semester exam!

I now have 41 sets of bell ringers in my TPT store. You can view them all at this link. 

They can be purchased individually, and they are arranged into four large unit bundles:

• Cells, Ecology, DNA, Genetics, and Evolution Bundle
• Viruses, Bacteria, Fungi, and Protists Bundle
• Animal Kingdom Bell Ringer Bundle
• Human Body Bundle

I hope these work as well for you as they did for me.

Have fun teaching!

Another FREEBIE! Cellular Respiration Word Game Review

Great review with a secret message!

This is a FREE download!  Click red text below to receive your free copy of this worksheet:

Cellular Respiration Word Game Review

Currently, our Biology I classes are covering cellular respiration. This may seem odd to many of you.  Who waits until the end of February to teach cellular respiration?  The answer to this question:  Those of us who teach on a trimester system! Teaching on a trimester system is the topic of a whole different blog article!! We are currently teaching cell respiration to students who began their biology course at the beginning of the second trimester.

Cellular respiration is one of the hardest topics a biology teacher has to teach during their course.  Its very abstract nature makes it particularly hard for many students to comprehend.  In my experience, the best approach is to provide as many opportunities as possible for the students to review and work with the information.  To give my students some extra review on the vocabulary words used in this unit,  I wrote this short review worksheet.

The printable lesson is perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the paperless, digital Google Apps version is perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms. 

On the left side of the worksheet, a definition is given.  The student must write the correct term in the spaces to the right.  There are 28 vocabulary words used on this review worksheet.  The vocab words are:  pyruvic acid, protons, glucose, aerobic, matrix, adenosine triphosphate, ATP synthase, water, adenine, respiration, oxygen, lactic acid, Kreb's cycle, alcoholic, phosphate, glycolysis, citric acid, NADH, electron transport chain, cristae, mitochondria, carbon dioxide, fermentation, cytoplasm, thirty eight, anaerobic, ribose, and acetate.

The boxed in letters will spell out a secret message.  The students record these letters in the blanks at the end of the worksheet to reveal the hidden message.   WARNING:  Make sure you read the hidden message before you pass out this worksheet.  It involves the giving of extra credit points on the test!  This is such a hard concept for so many students that I am happy to offer them some extra credit points if they complete this review worksheet.

This is just one of several types of review I do for this topic.  I am happy to share this vocabulary worksheet with you.  I hope you find it useful.

Happy Teaching!!