Category: Teaching

AI This Morning

Quick note: I'm going to use AI synonymoulsy with large-language model applications through this whole post. They're not the same thing and artific... Read more

Decision Making in Problem Solving

We're neck deep in unit conversions in chemistry and we've come to that bridge, yet again, where we have to wrestle with stoichiometry. Converting ... Read more

Starting the Web Programming Class

This year, I started a new web programming course for high school students. We're focusing on the web because it's where my experience is and becau... Read more

The Last Word, 23-24

In the past, I had written notes of encouragement to each student. They'd taken different forms from handwritten to printed slips to small conversa... Read more

Two Weeks Ahead: A Reflection

Back in November, I wrote about steps I was taking to improve my lesson planning habits. Six weeks later, I'm reflecting back on how I improved and... Read more

I Showed a Movie For a Final

Sorry for the clickbait title, but I really did. My environmental science class just finished our unit on human populations and the affects it has ... Read more

Ecological Footprints

We're finishing our human population unit in environmental science this week. This has been a difficult unit to teach because many of the solutions... Read more

Resurrecting my YouTube Channel

I decided to become more active on my YouTube channel again. Students discovered it on their own while doing whatever they do when they look up tea... Read more

A Mini Lesson on Reaction Types with Particle Diagrams

My students struggled to differentiate single vs double replacement reactions on our latest test. We had used particle diagrams in notes and while ... Read more

You Can't Build Skills in a Day

Test days are tough for my students because they need to be able to show skills in practice. This year, we're not giving any rote exams - there are... Read more

Owning My Own Attitudes

Yesterday, I did something dumb: I let my own attitude get in the way of modeling appropraite responses to behaviors. It started with a simple seat... Read more

Ionic Bonding Dice Game

We're in the middle of writing chemical formulas and names right now and this unit is just mind numbingly boring. It's important for fluency and fo... Read more

Two Weeks Ahead

My biggest weakness, by far, is not planning far enough ahead in teaching. I know generally where I want to be on a given day, but I often don't fi... Read more

Staying Organized as a Teacher

I got a suggestion to write about how I stay organized during the teaching day and I thought that was a great idea. My organizational strategies ha... Read more

The Phone Counter

Sometimes, you just need to make a point in class. A small comment or sidebar conversation is a way to do that verbally, but other times, it's more... Read more

A Collection of Teaching Thoughts

This has been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I can't really find enough coherent thought for a single-topic blog post. I thought I had written a c... Read more

Intentionality

My friend Phil has taught me a lot about intentional teaching. He would frequently remind me that curriculum is much more than the content - it is ... Read more

Humanize the LMS with Feedback

I've written about this on the work blog before, but never here. We're doing some course cleanup prepping for the fall and, at the same time, I'm f... Read more

A Manifesto for Online Learning

Online spaces are, by default, open spaces The World Wide Web was created with open spaces in mind. It allowed anyone, anywhere to publish and see ... Read more

Rules and Mercy

I'm re-listening to The Expanse novels on my drive to and from work and a piece of dialogue caught me this morning: "Easy to make rules," Emma said... Read more

Consistency and Variety

I got asked this week about our goals with using Canvas as a learning platform. I didn't know that question was coming and the answer I gave was "c... Read more

Three Problems with Online Teaching

We started our school year today. We have a split group of teachers who are fully online and a group who is hybrid, two days in school and three da... Read more

Supporting Hybrid and Online Learning

My district is entering a phase where students are in one of two situations: fully online or a hybrid with two days in person and three days online... Read more

Considering PD Structures

I'm in the midst of an action research course and my topic is evaluating and reflecting on our systems of PD in the district. This post is the lite... Read more

School Shootings and the Cheerily Gruesome World of DIY Classroom Prep

This is an eye-opening look at the teacher-as-content-creator world of classroom DIY. Two quotes jump out that highlight the broken legislative sys... Read more

Element Interactivity in the Classroom - The Effortful Educator

an element is anything that needs to be learned or processed and the interactivity relates to how reliant one element is on other elements for comp... Read more

Deconstructing Hattie's Effect Sizes

When taking the necessary in-depth look at Visible Learning with the eye of an expert, we find not a mighty castle but a fragile house of cards tha... Read more

If We Don’t Allow A Redo, What Are We Teaching? – The Teacher And The Admins

Whatever the reason, he was afforded the opportunity to learn and apply. It hasn’t come easy, but that’s the point. Giving a chance to redo isn’t a... Read more

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Three Grading Practices to Avoid

Remember, though, that grades should not be used as rewards. Nor should they be used as affirmation, compensation, or validation. Grades should rep... Read more

Lesson Idea: Learning Objectives

Jessica Till asks a good question on Twitter: [embed]https://twitter.com/JessicaTilli1/status/1044423084529389568[/embed] and Graham's response sto... Read more

The Psychology of Classroom Discussions

I've never heard of the Asch Experiment, but this video is worth watching. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA-gbpt7Ts8[/embed] [Kaplinsky's ... Read more

Yes, Relationships Matter

I'm in some grad classes right now and in one, we were assigned to discuss, "Does building relationships with students _really_ matter?" Prior to t... Read more

A Case for Better Course Design

Campus Technology published an article last week about a biomed course that saw mixed results from flipped instruction. The full article is open ac... Read more

Planning a Flipped Unit Part 4

Now it’s down to the What of your unit. Standards have been identified and selected, themes established, and your main mechanism for assessment has... Read more

Rebooting My Coaching

I planned, and ran, a really unsuccessful series of PD for a group of teachers this year. Unfortunately, I wasn’t wise enough to accept the non-suc... Read more

Get in touch

Comments are always open. You can get in touch by sending me an email at brian@ohheybrian.com