MsRazz ChemClass - Teaching resources for Chemistry | Chemistry Lessons

"Happy New Year!"

Today's blog post is about these three little words. To most, these words are used at the stroke of midnight on January 1st. Heck, even my own students look at the title on their bellwork the first few days of school and question, "Happy new year?" As if to say I got the date wrong or something. For myself and my colleagues of course, it means the start of a new school year.

I really think these two times of year have so much in common. Think about it. There is such a sense of renewal for me when I meet my new little chemists each September. I'm simply a ball of excitement and nerves as I walk into my classroom and anticipate the upcoming year. Not only that, but my resolutions are always the same: "Eat lunch every day," "go to the bathroom during your prep," and "exercise at least three times a week." And of course, you can't forget about the science teacher related resolutions: "I will do at least one guided inquiry activity per week," "incorporate more engineering activities," oh, and the good old: "I'll never take longer than a week to grade lab reports." Like the resolutions I make in January, it's not so easy sticking to these but I do the best I can. Depending on what is going on in my personal/professional life at the time can really dictate how well I hold up my end of the bargain.

I really loved this article that Edutopia published: Excellent Habits of an Excellent Educator. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend reading it now. In short, the article asks you to examine your habits and reflect on things that you can improve upon both in and out of the classroom.

It is my hope that as you begin your new school year, you are filled with much of the same excitement, anticipation, and dedication to not only your students, but to yourself.

Happy new year!

Ms. Razz is an enthusiastic chemistry teacher in New Jersey. She often counts herself to sleep at night using molecules or by reciting Avogadro's number. (For real.) She believes that every student has the power to learn anything, even chemistry. After all, she remembers this hustle didn't always come easy to her. She's also a Teachers Pay Teachers seller and you can view and purchase her lessons here.

It's that time again...

...the Teachers Pay Teachers back to school sale is here! I have been hard at work all summer adding even more creative, professionally done, and engaging lessons to my store. So while you fill your days with sun and fun, I've been hard at work posting many of those products I've had a few requests for.

Take at look at the newest addition to my store: Nuclear Chemistry Lesson Plan Bundle (Click on the picture for more details!)

I've organized the lessons into 45-minute intervals for easier teacher-prep and student understanding. Bellwork, power points, student note sheets, exit tickets, a quiz, and test are ALL included. Help your students differentiate between nuclear and chemical reactions, balance nuclear reactions, study transmutations, and relate the uses of radiation to every day life with this AWESOME lesson plan bundle!

Or how about some help implementing the NGSS? Try my Design Your Own Experiment Lab using Magic Capsules! (Click on the picture for more details!)

Students will pick from three variables to study. The activities is highly organized with sections for students to record their hypothesis, experimental variables, data tables, procedures, and conclusion. You'll love it because it's a cinch to grade! Perfect for reviewing experimental design in high school or reinforcing experimental variables in middle school. My students had a blast with this experiment last year and I know yours will too!

Maybe you don't teach chemistry, but need some help with classroom management? My First Days of School BUNDLE is sure to please! (Click on the picture for more details!)

Perfect for anyone who is looking to tidy up their transitions in between activities, ideas for rules, policies, and procedures, or any new teacher who really has no idea where to start with their classroom management plan. Many of my policies are adopted from Wong's book, The First Days of School. If you haven't read it yet, I HIGHLY recommend you pick it up asap and read through the sections on classroom management. But hey, if you really don't have time to read the book, this bundle will at least summarize how to start you school year off on the right foot!

No matter what you're looking for, I firmly believe my store has something for everyone. Best wishes on a wonderful back to school season and sale!

Happy Teaching!

Teachers Pay Teachers Milestone Achievement!

Hello all!

2014 was an exciting year for me: I got married, bought my first home, moved to a new school, and reached a TpT Milestone! You can see my milestone intro here.

I knew that I was approaching my milestone mark, but was unsure if I would make it in 2014. To celebrate, I am offering 20% off my entire stock of TpT lessons from January 4th-7th. So if that lesson plan bundle is still in your cart or on your wishlist, now is great time to purchase!

I wish you all the best for a happy, healthy, and wonderfully educational New Year.

New adventures with Wordle...

Hi followers,

Just spent some time playing with Wordle and wanted to share the Wordle that was made using this blog:

Trying to think how I can incorporate this into my classes this year. Anyone have some ideas to share?

Guess what?!

It's that time again! The Teachers Pay Teachers back to school sale is on! Amazing how it seems July has just flown by, and here we are prepping for the infamous TpT sale. I am excited, and I know you are too!

This is the perfect time to stock up on all those must-haves to kick off your school year with ease. I'm offering 20% all of my items! Over the last year I have added so many more lessons including my newly designed Advanced Placement Chemistry Course resources. As a matter of fact, I just posted a HUGE bundle of Power Points (19 to be exact!) that include all the content that you need to teach your course according to the College Board guidelines.

Since I've had my TpT store up and running, this has been my most popular item: The First Days of School - Start your year off right! Which doesn't come as much of a surprise because it's applicable to all areas of science. It's an amazing bundle of resources that helps you to establish quality routines, procedures, and expectations for your students with ease. But I can't take all the credit, Harry Wong, was a huge inspiration for this bundle. In fact, many of the procedures I adopted were taken from his book: The First Days of School. If there's one book that you read this summer - it has to be that one. I plan on reading through it in the next few weeks as I prepare to meet me new little chemists.

What things do you do to prepare for a new and exciting school year? (Besides making hundreds of trips to the copy machine!)

Thanks for reading,

Fake it until you make it...

... or at least don't let your nerves get the best of you.

Finally, summer vacation has arrived! And I cannot think of another year of teaching that this time of rest and relaxation is more needed. As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, I spent most of my free time (everyone in the educational world knows "free time" for a teacher really just means time not spent with their students) slaving away prepping materials for my new Advanced Placement Chemistry course. I have spent innumerable hours planning, developing, and creating course materials to use over this past year. I truly do not know how I did it, nor how my students can insist that I did it WELL for that matter. As I reflect on this past year as a new AP chemistry teacher here are some things I learned:

It's always easier to get easier. When teaching an advanced placement curriculum, it seems like many teachers go into their classrooms like gangbusters and drive the rigor up to such a high, almost unattainable level. "I mean it is Advanced Placement after all!" True, and it should be rigorous - AP courses are elective courses. Your students are there to learn valuable course material where their understanding will be assessed by the College Board at the end of the course. So, why not turn up the heat a little bit, then back off as the year progresses? It takes time to become adjusted to this type of course work, and students need to know your expectations right out of the gate.
It's OK if you don't know the answer. You may take it pretty hard the first time a student asks you a question that you aren't sure of the answer. This is not a sign of weakness - it's a sign that you are human. Often I find myself guessing at the answer, but then telling the students we can "google it" if we have enough time at the end of the lesson, or tell them that I will get back to them tomorrow about it. Students often associate teachers being the "all knowing." And this is of course not true. It is not possible to know everything. In fact chemists in particular, spend years studying one tiny intricate part of their content area. It is unrealistic to expect perfection. Plus, I think your students will appreciate your honesty and will often interpret it as being more approachable in the long run.
AP students are self-sufficient. Don't have enough time to cover all necessary material in a chapter? Make it known from the beginning of your course that your textbook is meant to be read, studied, and outlined. That way if you don't have quite enough time to cover the material in class the students can pick up where you left off. Further, I spend at least two days in class where the students work on problems in the chapter. This is prime time for students to read over the material you didn't cover, and ask questions about what they don't understand. Remember, these are AP students, they're in your class for a reason. It's expected they have good work ethic and will make it known if they need assistance.

Of course there are others, but I'll save that for a future blog post. I very much wish you a restful and relaxing summer vacation. You deserve it, teach!

Too Many Snow Days, Too Little Time!

I don't know about you, but I haven't had a full week of school since our winter break in December! Amazing, I know. But no matter how many days we have off - the AP Chemistry Exam will still be on May 5, 2014. What's a AP chemistry teacher to do?

As a first year AP chem teacher, the days off have aided me in getting some much needed work done - after all, I click through approximately 25-30 power point slides in a 40-minute class period. That's enough work to make even the strongest of the strong break out in hives. Ahhh, AP chemistry, not only do you scare students and teachers alike, but you can make a teacher break out in a sweat before her class starts and skip lunch on a daily basis. Good times.

I look forward to next year when most of my time will be spent learning how to teach the content instead of being one day ahead of my students.

So what topic are you covering now? Right now we're on Acid-Base Equilibria. I just finished my power points that I'll be using for this unit. Amazing what a snow day off from school can help a teacher accomplish!

I hope you are staying warm, slip and slide-free, and keep pushing through the AP content even despite this horrible weather we're having in the north east.

One semester down, 1 more to go....

Hi all.

Thanks so much for reading. Here I am again, another snow storm has reared its ugly head, and I'm finally able to have some downtime. I've spent the last semester teaching three sections of honors chemistry, one section of academic chemistry, and one AP chemistry. Oh, and yeah, during all that, I got married. So I would think that one could understand why I haven't updated my blog more recently than September. I've barely had any time to post any of my newest creations on my Teachers Pay Teachers site. Thankfully though, I'm still posting. In fact I've posted a bunch of my newest creations for advanced placement chemistry.

PPT: Introduction to Chemistry - AP
PPT: History of Atomic Structure, Naming and Formula Writing - AP
PPT: Review of Stoichiometry - AP
PPT: Solution Stoichiometry and Chemical Reactions - AP
PPT: Atomic Structure and Chemical Periodicity - AP
PPT: Gases - AP
PPT: Themochemistry - AP

It seems right now that I am the Power Point Queen in that class. I'm still working on branching out of my comfort zone, but it can be tough, since this is the first time I've ever taught as this level and the timing is of concern with me. I always feel pressed for time, and a strong drive to assess my students often due to this time constraint. Even though the college board has taken out some topics due to their revised curriculum, I still find the curriculum very overwhelming and I can only imagine how my students must feel. The other AP chem teacher assures me it's normal to feel like this, but I don't care so much about me - it's more about my students and if they're really able to get the most out the content in the time constraints we are given. I guess we'll know in May when they take their exam. Fingers crossed that I did something right this year.

So, how are your classes going? Any words of encouragement as I set off to teach some of the hardest topics in all of chemistry: acid-base equilibria? Let me know!

Back to School

Hi all! As the weeks of my summer vacation are winding down I wanted to take a moment to update you on all the great Teachers Pay Teachers products I have uploaded since June.

It has been a very busy summer especially since I have been prepping for my new course this fall: AP Chemistry. But if there's anything you all know about me by now I believe that the earlier I can get stuff done, the better. So here's a few AP items to get excited about:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/AP-Power-Point-History-of-the-Atomic-Structure-Naming-and-Formula-Writing-814046

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Introduction-to-Chemistry-AP-Power-Point-Notes-795608

How about guided inquiry?

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Inquiry-Lesson-Isotopes-748852

Are you sitting down for this one? My entire college prep chemistry course:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ENTIRE-COLLEGE-PREP-CHEMISTRY-COURSE-ENOUGH-MATERIAL-FOR-ONE-YEAR-834368

AND BEST OF ALL... It's on sale! Come join me at the Teachers Pay Teachers back to school sale - Today and tomorrow! Enter BTS13 and save 28% on every single one of my products! Start this school year off as painless as possible!

It's already August... do you know where your chemistry textbook is?

This summer has been anything but relaxing! Between buying and moving into a new home, to preparing a new set of materials for a new course I am teaching, oh and planning a wedding - I have been busy. Really, really busy! But, I'm not complaining - getting a jump on the materials I will be using for next year's classes definitely makes me feel more at ease going back in September. Plus - it's an extra bonus for you if you need well planned AP chemistry lessons since I'm working hard to put them all on my Teachers Pay Teachers site.

So what has been keeping you busy this summer? Hopefully you've been relaxing and enjoying some fun in the sun!

Thanks for reading. To check out my new AP chemistry Power Points please head to:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Msrazz-Chemclass

It's been 3 long years...

...But I finally have earned my masters degree. So for all of you who may be wondering why I haven't blogged in so long it's mostly because my masters degree has seemed to be eating up any of the extra time I have had to do anything besides grad school and teaching.

So, I've earned my Masters of Science in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Scranton. I took my cumulative exam and passed with flying colors. The program was rigorous, but manageable enough to do while teaching. For any teachers out there who are thinking about enrolling in a graduate program, I highly recommend this one.

With that said, I am happy to be back. A couple of weeks ago TeachersPayTeachers had a very special Teacher Appreciation Week Sale. It was fantastic to see all the new customers come out and make this sale such a success! Much thanks to all.

As the school year begins to wind down, I wish all of you a wonderful end to the school year and a very restful summer. You deserve it. In the meantime, my plan is to post more lesson plans on my TpT site, including more guided inquiry lessons! So stay tuned. It's going to be a busy summer for me - with hopes of bringing you the very best to your classroom in September.

Relax, rejuvenate, and reflect.

Science with m&ms!

This week's lab in my honors and academic (college-prep) chemistry classes I separated the dyes on m&m candies using paper chromatography. I love this lab - especially because the equipment and chemicals are all non-hazardous. Enough to make a high school chemistry teacher have piece of mind while this lab is taking place in their classroom - and now a days, that's HUGE!

The students love it because they get to see the colors migrate up the paper and it's applicable to their everyday life. Some teachers who have done this lab before recommend using coffee filters, but I find that because they are usually so thin it can be hard to see the color separation. That's why I use filter paper. I cut the edges of the circles to leave a rectangle, and it works like a charm. Here are some pictures of my students completing the lab - I'm always amazed how well the NaCl solution separates out the dyes!

The students really did a nice job. And clean up is a snap - no messy chemicals or glassware to clean. The post-lab questions make assessing your student understanding easy. This product is available on my TeachersPayTeachers site - and great for younger students all the way up to high school. It even includes a helpful teacher prep guide that tells you everything you need to carry out this lab with ease. Instruction for setup and making the solution are provided as well. Try it - your students will really enjoy this activity as mine have!

Teaching Students, Helping Teachers

The title of my post says it all - while I absolutely love teaching students, I love helping my fellow teachers. This past week I had a great week of feedback from my TeachersPayTeachers site. One of my very loyal customers was thrilled with my Net Ionic Equations lesson plan. Not only did she comment about how much better the lesson went this time around, but she also commented on my work.

"Just saw your new update. Thanks for posting. Look forward to trying out the lessons! Did you ever get the molarity lesson together? I am teaching solutions and then Gas laws. Thanks again! You are my favorite! The students enjoyed your net ionic equations lesson. It was a a breeze to teach versus last year!" -WchsChemTeach

As teachers we wait all year to hear "thank-you" and "you've made a difference." Fortunately I didn't have to wait till June to hear it this time around. When my customers buy my products on TpT, they recognize teaching is such a personal and meaningful thing to me, and each lesson plan I write is solely for the purpose of enriching my students lives. My gift to my students it to consistently provide an organized and efficient classroom environment.

While I so much appreciate the feedback, I am even happier that my "act of love" is finding its way into your classroom. In the end, I'm sure your students will thank you for it.

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