Get organized with a planner

I always feel like I have a million things going on and I have trouble focusing on what needs to get done and what is just fun to do.  I now have two planners: one I use for personal stuff that I carry around with me and another I use for school related stuff that stays on my desk at school.  I have recently started decorating my personal planner with some functional stickers that help me organize my thoughts.  I was contacted by the great people at Oh Hello Co about doing a blog post about how I could use their stickers in a school planner.  I love their stickers and use them in my personal planner so I decided that they would be great in my school planner as well.  Below is a quick video on how I plan a week in my school planner.  If you are interested in checking out these stickers, click on this affiliate link that will take you to their shop.  As a thank you, you will get $5 off your first order.

What do you do to stay organized? 

Disclaimer: Links used in this post are afflilate links. 

Earth's Motion Stations

When I teach Earth's motion to my 8th grade students, they think they understand it, but often get confused.  Rotation and revolution confuses them and I have to battle their misconceptions on the reason that we have seasons.  I have put together 10 different activities for my students and created a rotation for them to move through them.  Not all students will do all ten stations as it depends on their level.  My high achieving students will get to all ten of the stations, but my lower achieving students will only get to six.  This allows me to challenge the students who can grasp the material quickly and still give other students who need it, the extra time they'll need.

My ten stations include several worksheets, a mini lab and notes on Earth's Motion and the Seasons that I record videos of so students can watch at their own pace and rewind when needed.

One resource I came across after I taught these lessons was a common core aligned reading followed with comprehension questions about seasons.  You can find it here.   Some of the items I made myself and have posted them online.  I find that the kids really like Reasons for the Seasons station as they get get to talk to other teachers as part of it. 

A STEM Giveaway - science and math products to win!

I have teamed up some other Science and Math teachers to do a fun giveaway.  There are several choices of prizes and you can choose to enter to win one or more of the prizes.  I hope that you are the winner!  This giveaway ends on March 28th.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicasaurusrex/5586764199 

A Twist on the typical Cell Project

Each year I do a cell project with my middle school students during our unit on cells.  Students, in groups, are charged with creating a 3D model of a cell.  The twist is that the organelles can't be represented as they actually look, but must be represented as their function.  For example, the mitochondrion might be represented as a power plant because the mitochondrion converts energy stored in food into ATP for cells.

You can get a copy of this project for free on TPT and TES.