Best Practices

Here are a few things I have discovered over the years that have made my life in the classroom a lot easier.

Plastic-Covered Seating Charts

I keep copies of my seating charts inside plastic sheet protectors. During class I record things like homework checks, absences/tardies, etc., directly onto the seating chart with water soluble transparency pens. At the end of the day, I transfer the info into my grade books, wash the transparency ink off with water, and I'm ready for the next day. Recording homework checks onto the seating chart means I can walk up & down rows without having to find names in my grade book.

Mole Points

Extra credit points are printed like dollar bills. Anything that's worth any amount of extra credit is paid in mole points, which the students write their names on and turn in. This means I can reward students in class on the spot. It also means all of the extra credit is together, in one place, easy to find, and uses the same scale. I grade on a point system, with approximately 300-400 points in a quarterly grading period. This means each mole point is worth about ¼ of point on the student's quarter grade.

Class Archivist

Each of my classes has a one-week rotating job of class archivist. The archivist's responsibilities are:

1. Maintain the class archive (a 3-ring binder) by adding copies of handouts and filling out a form each day, describing what we did in class.
2. Make packets of handouts & lists of homework assignments for each student who is absent.
3. Distribute packets from the archive to students who were absent the previous day.

The archivist receives two "mole points" of extra credit (see above) for successful completion of a week's duty as the archivist.

Re-Tests

I allow students to take re-tests for up to 90% of the original credit. Late work is generally worth 70%. This means students always have incentive to keep trying, and to do their homework, even if it's after the fact. This policy is particularly helpful in conversations with parents. If a student fails a test, once the parent knows that the student can re-take it for up to 90%, I'm the "good guy" and the onus is on the student to see me and arrange a re-take. Similarly if a student owes me homework and can still get late credit, I'm once again the "good guy" and the onus is on the student to actually do it and turn it in.

Inquiry-Based Lab Experiments

Before the lab, I teach students the scientific concepts and the lab techniques they'll need. I give them an experimental objective and demonstrate what I think their procedure will look like. The next day in lab, they work out the details of the lab procedure in their lab groups and write exactly what they did into their lab notebooks. This avoids the problem of the students burying themselves in the procedure and not paying attention to the science that's happening in front of them! Since I started doing this, I've stopped having the problem of asking the students what we did in lab the day before, and getting "I don't know." for an answer. A detailed manual showing how I convert existing labs to inquiry-based format is available on this site.