Bond with James: November 2016

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Ecology Unit Activities 2

You can check out the other ecology unit activities that I shared by clicking here.

Collaborative Posters: Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles
Students worked in groups of 3-4 to complete a collaborative poster over the carbon or nitrogen cycle.  I allowed them to choose one after they had completed a small group reading together over each cycle.  
Students had to work together to create a visual representation based off of what they read; as I had not specifically taught the concept yet and wanted to see what they could learn/pull from the reading.  If you're not familiar with collaborative posters, you can check out a post I wrote back in 2013, here.

Ecological Succession Story and Illustration
Students participated in a small group collaborative reading and then had to use information from what they read to illustrate the stages of succession. 

Ecology Task Cards
I ended the unit with the use of ecology task cards as a cumulative activity to help students connect concepts and to review what they had learned about during the past few days. 




Left-side Interactive Notebook Activities: 
Ecology Acrostic and 1 page narrative
Students utilized their interactive notebooks throughout the unit.  Two ways that I had students demonstrate their understanding were through the use of an acrostic and a 1-page narrative from the perspective an another organism (e.g. animal, plant, bacteria, etc.)

The example above does contain mistakes (spelling/grammar); however, the student appropriately completed the acrostic based on the rubric that was provided. 

 "I have...Who has..." Review 
I actually had the students play "I have...Who has..." right before they took the exam as it reviewed the academic vocabulary and various concepts.


I hope you enjoyed reading and viewing the pictures about a few of the things I used during my ecology unit.  

Share your ideas for how you engage and motivate students when teaching ecology in the comment section below! 


Monday, November 7, 2016

Ecology Unit Activities 1

I just ended a unit over ecology and wanted to share a few of the activities and stations that I had my students complete as they were learning about the concept.  There is a link to additional activities at the end of this post. 

Levels of Organization Gallery Walk
This station had 17 cards covering the levels of organization (LOO).  While I was covering ecological LOO, I had also covered LOO in organisms and wanted to review previous terms.  Therefore, there cards contained images covering the following terms:

  • atoms, molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, organ, organ systems, organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere. 


Each card had a term that briefly described to students what they were observing.  Students carried a stations sheet where they identified the LOO and whether each card depicted biotic factors and/or abiotic factors. 

Symbiosis Scenarios
This particular station contained 12 different symbiotic relationship scenarios.  Students only had to complete four cards, however, they had to pick one example of each type of symbiotic relationship.


Biome Energy Flow (Food Chain & Food Web) 
This station had 6 different versions, as I had incorporated various biomes (e.g. deserts, forests, etc.) and allowed students to choose one energy flow station. 

Students had to create 3 food chains and 1 food web using a specific number of cards. Out of all the stations, this was the most popular station among the students.  This particular activity may be found by clicking here.

I hope you enjoyed reading and viewing the pictures about a few of the things I used during my ecology unit. You can check out the other ecology unit activities that I shared by clicking here.

Share your ideas for how you engage and motivate students when teaching ecology in the comment section below! 


Saturday, November 5, 2016

Classroom Management: Restroom Strategy for Secondary Students

Hi everyone! After my first year of teaching, I reflected on the things that went well and all the things that needed to change in order to help me survive in the wonderful, yet challenging, life of being a teacher.  



One of the things that I felt I could change and manage was how I allowed students to leave my classroom.  In the video, I share my hall ticket strategy that helps me control the number of students that leave my classroom during a grading cycle.

I failed to mention two things in the video. The first is that I do not allow students to loan passes to their peers.  The second thing is that I provide opportunities for students to earn additional tickets. Students may earn these through peer assistance (i.e., not just telling answers but actually tutoring), consistent on-task behavior, or during in-class assessment reviews.

Remember: Be consistent.  

Free, editable templates are provided if you're interested in trying this strategy now or in the future. Feel free to comment on this post or in the video comment section on YouTube if you have a question or a comment and I'll do my best to get back to you!