How Should I Decorate My Chemistry Classroom?

We all know that teaching is tough, specially when y'all're beginning starting out. The grind of planning new lessons every twenty-four hour period, while also keeping up with grading, can be exhausting. As an added challenge, chemical science teachers have to prepare labs, manage student behavior, and deal with chemical clean-up, all of which can be daunting tasks.

As a instructor in my fifth year, I nevertheless experience this overwhelming exhaustion from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, but I can say with certainty that teaching does become easier. Ranging from full general organizational ideas to advice for planning labs with students who aren't intrinsically motivated, here are seven tips that accept helped preserve my sanity and accelerate my teaching practice.

Eliminate redundancies in the planning process. My beginning year, I wrote my agendas and homework assignments in a newspaper planbook provided by my district. Then, per district policy, I'd write the same information on the board to brandish at the beginning of each grade, and, every bit a personal preference, I'd likewise put it on my website.

Figure one. Google Calendar with daily agendas.

While it was nice to exist sure of my plans, copying the aforementioned information three times was a logistical nightmare; if I changed one thing, I had to update information technology in three locations or else risk getting confused. Eventually, I discovered the wonder of Google Agenda, which was a game-changer.
At present I have a Google calendar for each of my classes. Each day the grade meets, I make a calendar event that includes the calendar, homework, and links to handouts. This is my planbook, which is automatically published on my website; I besides project an enlarged version on the board at the get-go of class. Amongst its advantages are that I tin can look back at past years to bank check pacing and notice former handouts, students and parents can easily admission daily agendas, and, if I update a programme, I just take to make the modify in one spot instead of three. Ane and done!

Commencement the twelvemonth with an index carte du jour for each student. At the beginning of the year, I transfer each of my students' names to an alphabetize card, and set them out at their assigned seats before the first grade. While this may seem like an unnecessary utilize of fourth dimension at the loftier school level, these alphabetize cards serve many purposes. From the commencement time students enter the classroom, this method gently sets in place a classroom standard for the yr: seats volition be assigned. The first assignment of the twelvemonth is for each student to write a bit about themselves on the index card, including nickname, extracurriculars/hobbies, parent/guardian data, etc. Later on form, I review the cards to acquire a bit about each student. Each time I alter the seating arrangements, all I have to do is set out the cards and students know to detect their new seats. During lessons, I shuffle the cards and use them to randomly call on students.

Figure 2. Lab rubber items and equipment numbered for scavenger hunt.

Gear up students for lab prophylactic. In the get-go week of the schoolhouse year, I have students consummate a lab equipment scavenger hunt. I label items effectually the classroom, including the fume hood, the fire extinguisher, the rubber shower, and frequently used lab supplies, such as beakers, graduated cylinders, and stirring rods. The students have to locate each numbered item, try to remember its proper noun, draw a sketch, and hash out the item's purpose. As nosotros review the answers, I briefly discuss rubber rules for each detail, including the rules for broken glassware, the rubber shower, etc. In the adjacent course, while the safety discussion is fresh on their minds, I have students complete a simple lab, such as Observing a Chemical Reaction from the AACT library. This helps reinforce the rules and procedures for labs introduced at the outset of the year.

Assign student roles during labs. In my commencement year as a instructor, labs were a nightmare. Students weren't naturally inclined to piece of work as a squad, they often skipped steps in the procedure, and by and large in that location was at least i student in every grouping who had no idea what was going on. Somewhen, I learned that students have to be taught to function equally a group.
Pupil Lab Roles

Spokesperson: leads the group, directs questions to instructor

Facilitator: reads lab procedures out loud to grouping

Materials Manager: collects and returns lab supplies
At present, I utilize a lab role for each pupil, and during the kickoff lab of the year, I explain the roles. The spokesperson leads the grouping and directs questions to the teacher; however, they are only immune to ask a question in one case they've discussed it as a group. The facilitator is responsible for reading each step of the process out loud, while the team listens. The materials managing director is the only person out of his or her seat to collect and render lab supplies. Earlier we start each lab, we review the roles, students divvy up the tasks, they write their assignment on their paper, and so I requite them the okay to begin working. Not only does this strategy lift the big burden of lab direction off my shoulders, but with most classes, assigning and following roles becomes an ingrained habit by the year's midpoint. I don't typically use the roles for my AP Chemical science courses, except when I have a really disorganized group.

Sometimes, labs are nonetheless chaotic; when this happens, finish the class and reset. Possibly the students are having an 'off' solar day, or possibly the instructions weren't articulate enough, but somewhen there will come a time when the lab just isn't working.
If I find myself doing more classroom management than lab guidance, I've learned to call everything to a halt and take students render to their seats. If students have to migrate away from their lab stations to do this, I instruct them to turn off any hot plates or Bunsen burners that might take been in apply, and likewise secure any precariously-seated glassware before leaving their stations. One time everyone has settled and all eyes are on me, we address the issue. I'll usually ask the class why the lab isn't working, or why they're off-task. Sometimes I larn that the solution is a uncomplicated matter of spreading the supplies out so students aren't clustering in one area. Other times, I realize I need to clarify directions. If students are unsure why they're non operating according to our normal lab standards, we review the lab roles and expectations, then start again. Setting the tone before things get totally out of control can assistance students get refocused and have a successful feel.

Effigy 3. Particle diagrams used to illustrate a precipitation reaction.

Use particle diagrams, so utilize them some more than. My first few years in the classroom, I tried teaching chemistry without particle diagrams. Students had a hard time understanding some of the most seemingly simple topics, like chemic reactions. When I started using color-coded particle diagrams to evidence how atoms rearrange in a chemical reaction, I starting seeing agreement among students. Stoichiometry? Use particle diagrams to testify how i reactant tin be left in backlog, after another reactant has been depleted. Thermodynamics? Employ particle diagrams to show that pulling autonomously atoms requires energy, or that particles must collide in the correct orientation to react. Solids dissolving? Use particle diagrams to show how solvent molecules surround and solvate a solute. This is a simple and powerful mode to aid student understanding.

Don't be agape to exercise labs, simply program for prophylactic and chemical disposal. In my beginning couple of years, I was hesitant to do whatsoever labs with chemicals that yous wouldn't notice in a regular kitchen. I was nervous near the kids' beliefs around potentially hazardous chemicals, unconfident about how to handle chemicals after the lab, and idea that information technology all seemed like a lot of risk. However, once I started getting the classroom management aspect of labs under control (see Tip #5), I began to realize that virtually students can be trusted to be responsible. Once I felt confident that no one was going to goof off, I began to explore more involved labs.
At present, using Flinn's online SDS resources, I start by looking up the safety data (flash point, health risks, etc.) regarding the chemicals used in a lab. Then, I relieve the SDS links in an online spreadsheet, which gives me easy access for reviewing them each twelvemonth. I also frequently use the Flinn Disposal Methods website. Requiring a free account to admission its materials, the site contains several articles with helpful tips for minimizing waste product, and virtually importantly, specific and quick procedures for disposing of a broad range of chemicals.
Once I understand how to deal with the clean-upwards for a specific lab, I go students involved in the process. For instance, I teach them how to add together universal indicators and neutralize solutions before pouring down them the drain, and they honey watching for the appropriate color modify. I besides prove them how to precipitate and filter out ions that aren't drain-safe. Non just does this help me feel more confident about labs, but getting kids involved in the make clean-up saves a lot of fourth dimension.

These tips and tricks have positively impacted both my teaching practice and educatee engagement in my classroom. These are the strategies that I build into my classroom each yr to improve my efficiency as a teacher and a classroom managing director. What strategies have y'all found near constructive as a new teacher? Share your ideas on the AACT Discussion Board!

Photo credit:
(article cover) Maridav/Bigstockphotos.com

Source: https://teachchemistry.org/periodical/issues/september-2019/tips-for-surviving-and-thriving-in-your-first-years-as-a-chemistry-teacher

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