100. Your Questions Answered: Grading, Challenging Behaviors, Leave, Favorite Labs, Supporting ELs and MORE!

10/16/23 • 66 min

I’m doing a happy dance because it’s my 100th episode! Y’all, I can’t believe I’ve been supporting and sharing my thoughts, ideas, and resources with you for almost two years. Just like when I celebrated 50 episodes, I’m doing another special “Ask me anything” episode.
I constantly get questions ranging from work, personal, curriculum, management, and more. And since I love connecting and supporting teachers, I knew answering all your questions was how I wanted to celebrate! I answer all your questions about maternity leave prep, group work, supporting ELs, absences, curriculum writing, and more. So take a listen to a fun episode that celebrates 100 episodes!
Want to continue the celebration? I’m incredibly thankful to you, my listeners of Secondary Science Simplified, and would love to have you leave a rating or review of this podcast! Your review and support means so much to me.

Resources Mentioned:

Show Notes: https://itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/episode100

Resources Mentioned:

Show Notes: https://itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/episode100

Previous Episode

99. How to Teach the Nervous and Endocrine Systems in Your Anatomy Class

We are starting week two of our difficult topics to teach with the different science disciplines. Last week’s episode, Episode 98, focused on biology and biochemical reactions. But this week, I’m focusing on anatomy! Since there’s a lot of content to cover in this subject and each teacher differs in what they choose to teach, that makes it difficult to decide what the most difficult topic to teach is. With the help of my listeners, I’m focusing on five tips on how to teach the nervous and endocrine systems in your anatomy class.
As I mentioned, there’s a lot of diversity in how a teacher approaches teaching anatomy in their classroom, but just like with teaching biology, I encourage you to focus on the big picture. Each of the five tips that I share assists in that overarching idea and showcases how both the nervous and endocrine systems work together.
Both of these systems also spark curiosity among students, which leads to them asking a lot of questions. Although this is a great thing and piques their interest, it can be overwhelming for you. Therefore, some of my tips focus on providing students with the opportunity to be responsible for their own research. This idea creates a space where they can answer their own questions while you highlight the main topics.
The nervous and endocrine systems can be overwhelming to teach, but I hope that my tips and ideas help motivate and excite you about approaching these topics in your anatomy class. In two weeks, I’ll come back to this series with the last two science disciplines, but next week will be a special episode. It’s my 100th episode, so be sure to tune in for an episode where you get to ask me anything!
Resources Mentioned:

Show Notes: https://itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/episode99

Next Episode

101. 6 Tips for Teaching Stoichiometry in Your Chemistry Class

When I decided to do this series, I knew exactly what I was going to discuss when it came to the difficulties of teaching chemistry. Students get overwhelmed by all the math and more intense content that comes with this science discipline, particularly teaching stoichiometry. However, there are several things you can do to ease their stress and make this unit fun for your students. So, in today’s episode, I’m sharing 6 tips for teaching stoichiometry in your chemistry class.
There are a lot of concepts in chemistry that are difficult for students to grasp and understand, which is why it’s important to bring these up early or before you teach the content. Not only does this provide multiple opportunities to practice, but when it’s mentioned in the content, they already have seen it before. Additionally, teaching chemistry is more than just content. It’s teaching students problem-solving and critical thinking skills. And one of the best ways to achieve this is by incorporating real-world scenarios, labs, and activities in order for them to see the connection.
Even though your students may be apprehensive about the chemistry content, there are still things you can do to help alleviate and diminish their stress. By implementing these 6 tips and other pieces of advice, I hope to encourage you that teaching stoichiometry to your students will be fun and academic at the same time. Tune in next week for the last episode in the series about the difficult topics teaching physics.
Resources Mentioned:

Show Notes: https://itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/episode101

Secondary Science Simplified™ - 100. Your Questions Answered: Grading, Challenging Behaviors, Leave, Favorite Labs, Supporting ELs and MORE!

Transcript

Rebecca 0:00
You're listening to episode number 100 of the secondary science simplified podcast. That's right y'all episode 100. I cannot believe that in less than two years I'm recording our 100th podcast episode ever right now. And so just like we did to celebrate 50 episodes, I thought it would be fun to do sort of like an Ask Me Anything episode with questions that you all submitted. And there were so many different ones ranging so many topics. So in this episode, I'm going to answer q