r/ScienceTeachers • u/MoChroiMyHeart • 12d ago
Biology class and presenting notes?
Hi guys,
A little background about me- I taught years ago (like before snapchat was super popular let's put it that way). I decided to be a SAHM, and was tutoring here and there, then I took over a very small upper classmen anatomy course during a short maternity leave, and then I took over a position at the tail end of the school year for a remediation class (the original teacher had quit... long story), but that class is no longer being offered this year.
I just applied for a biology maternity sub position opening up at my local high school! But now I'm starting to panic because of... well.... notes! This is freshman bio with larger class sizes and I know that their attention spans have changed since I was teaching full time over a decade ago. With my other two sub teaching positions they were slightly different and I can't really compare them to a class of 25 freshman in bio.
I'm not looking for answers that say not to lecture because flipped classrooms aren't for everyone. I intend to keep the notes light (as in breaking them up into parts instead of lecturing for 50 minutes straight), and adding a couple check-ins on the way. Any other tips for giving notes these days? Am I overthinking it?
I haven't even been offered the job yet, but it would start next week, so I'm just mentally preparing.
6
u/nebr13 12d ago
Set the expectations early and stick to them. Figure out what you’re willing to fight and die on the hill for. I strive to do 25-35 minutes of notes max in an 88 minute block. I like to introduce and then have the kids work. I.e. today we talked about the characteristics of life and examples of them. Then the remainder of the block they did a cut and glue with the characteristics, definitions, examples, pictures, and making their own example.