Ah, teachers. The most magical time of the year: those few weeks before school starts when we are still filled with dreams and aspirations about how absolutely phenomenal our science classes are going to be this year. So naturally, here is what I have spent the last couple of weeks designing: A SCIENCE TALK RUBRIC! Please read that with an unreasonable amount of enthusiasm. Over the last few years, I have become increasingly enamored with the Ambitious Science Teaching framework. I love the...

It’s the first day of school, and—as usual—I am feeling wildly ambitious. I want students to know that they are walking into a classroom where we are going to build a community. We are going to think. We are going to solve problems. We are going to move around, interact, ask questions, and figure things out together. That is a lot to accomplish in 51 minutes. So, how do I begin building that kind of classroom culture without spending the entire period reading rules from a slideshow? I start...

Picture it: It's the first day of school. You've got a room full of brand-new middle school or high school students. Nobody knows each other yet. Everyone is pretending not to be nervous while secretly feeling a little nervous. So you try an icebreaker. Cue the awkward silence. A few students participate. Most stare at the floor. Everyone is waiting for it to be over. That's why I love this simple Left-Right-Left Icebreaker I've played versions of this game at baby showers and bachelorette...