My Favorite Holiday Lab

It's the most wonderful time of the year... Borax crystal ornament time!

This is my favorite chemistry holiday lab. It's so easy to prep, and a great lab to help introduce properties of solutions. Watch as I discuss how I modified Flinn's Borax Crystal Ornament lab to incorporate properties of solutions and include a plug for the US Crystal Growing Competition!

Thanks so much for watching!

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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.

4 Ways I Modify Unit Menus for CP and Honors Chemistry

I have to admit, I've been spoiled. This is the second time in five years I've had multiple preps. It can be hard to keep things straight, especially when planning unit menus for different classes. In this week's video, I'll share four major differences in my planning and design for the honors and college prep chemistry covalent bonding unit menus.

Thanks so much for watching!

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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.

Conferences and Five To Thrive

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend with your family and friends. In this video, I'll discuss how my parent conferences went last week (spoiler alert: don't watch my IG story!) and one of the ways I will be engaging in self-care during the crazy holiday season.

Thanks so much for watching!

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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.

Focusing on the Learning Instead of Grades

354.

This number was the inspiration behind this video.  What does it represent?  Well, this is the record for the greatest number of times a student logged into my online gradebook to check their grades in one month.  And if you're doing the math, yes, this student checked their grades, on average, about 12 times a day.  Astonishing isn't it?

Each year I've been chipping away at what seems to be an obsession with grades, to now placing more emphasis on the learning process. In this video I'll share how certain practices encourage my students to focus on the learning process as opposed to the numerical grade in the online gradebook.  My hope is that you too will not only find comfort in knowing that you are not alone in dealing with this obsession, but that you will have tools in your toolbox to further promote the importance of learning and reflection.

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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.

Using Consumer Products in my Bonding Unit

A short video for a very short week!

Due to the NJEA teacher convention and a district-wide day of professional development, I only saw my students two days this week.  It was a weird schedule, but I tried to make the best of it by engaging my college prep chemistry students in a new phenomenon.  In this week's episode I'll share how I incorporated consumer products into a new phenomenon for our unit on bonding.

Thanks so much for watching!

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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.

Halloween FUN 2019!

Happy Halloween!

The week of Halloween has finally arrived!  This year was an extra special Halloween celebration as my students participated in a digital escape room entitled, "The Elements of Halloween."  In this episode I'll explain how I made some new modifications to the digital escape room to make it more engaging.  I'll also share an extra activity I did with my honors chemistry students to celebrate this exciting day.



Thanks so much for watching!

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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.

Starting Our Unit on Periodic Trends

We're back into the swing of things for our first full week of classes in a couple of weeks.  This week we began our unit on periodic trends using, of course, a phenomenon!  In this post, I'll share how I tweaked my modeling lessons to make them more student-friendly and how I incorporate the use of Flipgrid into our phenomenon for this unit.

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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.

My First Observation

What a week!  

Between Week of Respect, my SGO being due, and preparing for my first observation it was quite the busy week.  Despite all that though, I was able to carve out some time to share what I did for my formal observation.  This post is definitely a shorter video and I think you can clearly see my Friday teacher tired, but nonetheless, I thought it was still worth sharing what I did to prepare for my observation and how it went.

Thanks so much for watching!

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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.

What's in my gradebook?

Happy Fall Y'all!

I've been back to school for about a month and a half and I already have 20 assessments in my gradebook!  It certainly was a busy September!  The beginning of the year is a critical time for all teachers in New Jersey because student growth objectives are due by mid-October.  It is imperative to get as much data as possible in order to appropriate place our students into their tier groups, so I didn't waste any time!

In this week's episode, I'll share an overview for how my grading philosophy has changed since changing teaching jobs, and how I incorporate formative assessments into my weekly routines.  I'll also explain the system I use to input grades into my online gradebook, and explain the methods I use to grade formative assessments.

Please leave a comment about your own grading philosophy or any interesting grading policies your school district may have.

Thank you so much for watching!

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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.

Getting the Most Out Of Every PD Experience

Welcome back!  This video was inspired by a conversation I had with a teacher who follows my Facebook page.

The school year is in full swing, and I'm sure many of you are seeking out professional development opportunities.  But how do you select meaningful PD with content that you can just "grab and go" right into your classroom with?  Not all professional development is created equal, and the goal of this video is to not only share advice for selecting professional development, but also how to deal with PD experiences that might not be as applicable to your work.  I'll also share a personal experience with my own PD, and how I incorporated it into my classroom environment.

Thank you so much for watching!  I hope you had a wonderful week with your students!

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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.

How I Flip My Chemistry Classroom

It's a new year, time for some new norms.

I hope your school year is off to a fantastic start!

In this vlog, I'll share how I encourage student buy-in for the flipped classroom and the norms I establish for engaging with video content.  I'll also share a new way I established the importance of interacting with video content.

Thank you so much for watching!

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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.

2019 Back to School Giveaways! | MsRazz ChemClass

It's time for my annual Back To School Giveaway!

I'm giving away 4 prize bundles to 4 lucky science teachers.  Know a science teacher?  Please feel free to share this post.

Are you a science teacher?  Enter my Rafflecopter below.  Want to see what's up for grabs?

Thank you for everything you do for your students!  Have a wonderful start to the school year.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions: Giveaway ends August 18th, 2019 at 11:59 PM EST. Open to Residents of the US only.  Winners will be selected at random and be notified by email. Winners have 48 hours to confirm their email addresses and respond before a new winner is selected. The product offered for the giveaway is free of charge, no purchase necessary. My opinions are my own and were not influenced by any form of compensation.  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram are in no way associated with this giveaway.  By providing your information in this form, you are providing your information to me and me alone.  I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner.

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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.

Top 5 Updates for July!

Long time no see!

I hope this video finds you well rested and truly recharged.  In this post I wanted to check in and share my top 5 updates for the month of July. Hear about the books I'm reading, updates to my TpT bundles, professional development I'm teaching, and more!

Thanks so much for watching!

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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.