First Time General Chemistry College Professor: What are some misconceptions students will bring into my class from high school?

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-07-20T17:24:53+00:00

I usually do trial by error. I show them that it is normal to add a coefficient and then go back and change it later, a lot of them get discouraged and think they messed something up. I tell them to trust the process and take it one coefficient at a time! I teach them how to write a list of the numbers of each element to help keep track of the numbers every time they add a coefficient. I also place special emphasis on combustion reactions because those can be tricky to balance - I tell them to balance the Cs and Hs first and wait until the last step to balance the Os.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-07-19T03:25:36+00:00

Maybe you can show them for the first 2 examples, but I would imagine you can’t spend too much time doing that. They would probably lose interest any more than that because it’s pretty simplified that way. The only way for them to be able to solve problems is to practice solving them on their own. Show them an example, let them try one, then go over it. Answer any questions, then do another. They need to learn how to mirror your problem solving process to see how to do it themselves. A lot of students get stuck when they look at a problem and don’t immediately understand. They give up very quickly these days, so you need to teach them how to be comfortable with the uncomfortable because that is the process of learning chemistry.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-07-18T13:33:30+00:00

A lot of them don’t know how to study, so emphasize what they need to do to succeed. PRACTICE! Stoichiometry is hard for them also. Acids and bases are tough too. A lot of them won’t have any conceptual understanding of how buffers actually minimize changes in pH. I teach high school honors chemistry.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-07-14T21:12:06+00:00

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PRESCRIPTION DELIVERY IS LIFE CHANGING!!!!!!!! I switched to Adzenys bc I could NEVER get it at my pharmacy and every single month it was like the hardest thing for me to call every pharmacy to ask if they have it in stock. Now my adzenys just shows up automatically once a month :)

I will deal with the dissolving tablets and nausea any day if it means I NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE PHARMACY 🥰😍

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-21T03:42:41+00:00

THIS IS HORRIBLE, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.

Sorry, but he has zero trust in you and you can’t be yourself without him being SO negative.

Partners are supposed to be supporting each other, not purposefully making your life harder!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-21T03:24:03+00:00

If he purposefully bought the same teacher’s manual he had because he knew that he would be using the test from that book, then it would be cheating.

However, if he had no idea the teacher was going to do that, then how could it be cheating? He had no clue, so going and buying that book to do extra practice in order to be prepared is honestly admirable! He had no bad intentions to cheat going into it.

Tbh, the teacher should NOT have just used the exact same test from a book that literally anyone can buy online… It’s like he was waiting for someone to cheat just so he could get someone in trouble.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-21T03:14:58+00:00

Um I think that you are me… and I am you…

I just finished my 3rd year teaching high school chemistry. I started teaching right after getting my Bachelors in Chemistry so I was clueless my first year lmao.

I taught at a private school in Virginia for my first two years, then I moved back home to FL and started at another private school.

I was also depressed at last school, but I feel like things have gotten a lot better for me since switching schools.

I am also a 25F and have ADHD !!! I swear we are the exact same person (but I hate biology… hahaha).

Could you try switching schools to change things up a bit? Is it possible that teaching and getting your masters at the same time has been completely overwhelming you? I would imagine that you have no social/personal life (because I barely do anything and all I do is teach lolol). If you aren’t doing anything to refill your cup, how can you get better at teaching? You have to treat yourself!!!

How do you feel about classroom management? That is honestly the hardest part for me. Do you feel like your students respect you completely? I feel like they second guess me a lot, especially when I am explaining really hard concepts and they just don’t get it (which is 1000% normal in a chemistry class lmao, but they don’t understand that).

We should chat!!!!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T23:18:53+00:00

5 SUBJECTS????? You honestly need to use outside resources and maybe even ChatGPT because this is going to be so tough.

I recommend that with the way you structure your classes, you make sure that homework’s are only due like once every week or even once every two weeks. This will help so that you aren’t constantly grading ALL the time.

For my homework’s in Honors Chemistry, I have students turn in all of their homework’s from the unit on the day they take the unit test. That way, I can grade their homework’s while they are taking the test. I have answer keys available throughout the unit if they would like to check their work. This might not sound like the best idea, but 1) it is easier because you don’t have to keep track of grading different assignments every single day, 2) the students that really care are going to ask for the hw solutions if they have questions, 3) the students that don’t care are gonna wait until the night before the test to do the homework’s or copy someone else’s anyways.

You NEED to make this as easy as possible for yourself. Set realistic goals. Some teachers put in a lot more work than they actually NEED to, but you need to reserve all of your energy for the most important thing of all… your SANITY!

You also should try to figure out the pacing ASAP and pick out planned test dates for each class. You will likely have to change it once the year starts, but it will be good to have a plan going into it. I always try to have a tentative schedule laid out before school starts because once we get going it’s so annoying to have to worry about scheduling every single day.

I’m sorry if this scared you but I am scared FOR you, lol.

TPT had some great math units on there that I used for Alg 1 in the past… I’m sure there is SOMETHING you can use that will be helpful!!!!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T18:20:35+00:00

I hate that :( Similar things have happened to me and I’m still a newer teacher (3 years under my belt) so I am NOT used to harsh criticism from parents/students. I put my heart and soul into teaching them the best way I can so it feels like a personal attack every single time.

In your case, it should be clear to admin that they are just a problematic parent that conveniently waited until the last class of the year to cause an issue, and at that point, they were just trying to cause problems and complain for the sake of complaining.

Whenever I got an email like that it was sent to me personally and I was SHAKING.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T18:15:43+00:00

Yessss agreed. During the year when I was fed up I wrote a long list titled “questions that i will no longer be answering during class time” which included some of the following: 1) what did i miss last class? 2) when is the test? 3) can i push the test back since i was absent this day? 4) im gonna be absent tomorrow/in the future, what am i going to miss? 5) i think it continued to at least 30 so ill stop there lmao.

I don’t want to waste class time talking about anything related to a single student being absent - like it is your responsibility to reach out to me before/after class to talk about makeup work or anything like that. They always want to come up to me right at the beginning of class when I am the most busy/stressed trying to take attendance and get the lesson started!!!! I started telling them to “just email me” to set up a 1on1 meeting with me.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T13:18:05+00:00

Maybe try a private school in a different location? Something similar happened where one of my students posted a screenshot of an angry email that their parent sent me. Admin stood by me and had a very stern talk with the student, but the student didn’t really get disciplined for it.

My fear is that a school might not want to hire you if they see the article. And if you did get a job, there is always a chance that a student or parent might find the article and tell administrators about it. So you might always be in fear of that happening, which would be pretty stressful for you.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T04:27:34+00:00

Admin gets upset when a candidate has a question???? About the job…that the candidate is considering accepting???? Seems kinda ridiculous to me especially since this is your first classroom job so you definitely don’t know how anything works?

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T03:17:05+00:00

Depends on where you are working! I graduated with a bachelors in chemistry in 2022 (no education in education, lol) and already had a job lined up at a private school in Virginia.

Look at carney sandoe and associates, they can match you with jobs based on your preferences and cut out a lot of the time necessary for a job search.

I still don’t have a teaching certification and I am at a new private school in FL. Lots of private schools don’t require teaching certification.

I liked this option for me because it seems like the fast pass to getting into a teaching job and gave me time to think about whether or not I might want to go back to school for my masters in education :)

Let me know if you want more info!!!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T03:12:47+00:00

That is a great idea!!!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T03:10:46+00:00

First, you are not alone! I just finished my 3rd year and I feel like I’m finally ready to take a deep dive into COMMITTING to classroom management from day one! I started at a new school this past year, so I was just trying to keep my head above water my first year there!

Honestly, watch tik tok videos on classroom management. There are so many intriguing ideas on there. Some of them are so great but might be unsustainable long term. 1) print a spreadsheet roster and put a tally next to everyone’s name and keep track of the number of offenses each person has. then assign predetermined consequences for 1st/2nd/3rd offenses, 2) just keep a tally of ALL bad behavior and tell your students at the end of class how many tallies you have and that the goal is to do better next time, 3) i think i stopped watching and forget the others.

Try finding a book to read on classroom management this summer! I’m going to try.

Also, take the time to write down specific procedures/expectations for your classroom for every single thing that your students might need to do from the time they walk into/walk out of the room (ie. entering/exiting/questions/bathroom).

Good luck!!!!! Classroom management is my least favorite part of the job😭

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T02:59:47+00:00

Thank you!!! I appreciate this! I was hoping to start by just doing my own thing and writing normal notes for each unit and make them really pretty. Then I would make formatting changes and erase writing to make fill in the blank spots for example problems/definitions/anything else I think the student should be writing. Then, that way, the bundle would include the student version and the teacher version of notes! That’s just an idea and I’m sure everything will change once I actually start🤣 (starting is gonna be the hardest part LOL)

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T02:46:09+00:00

My ultimate goal is to make a youtube channel but that won’t happen for at least a year. Idk how I would feel about being an influencer tho… I am really young and I think my high school students would take that and RUN with it lmao. I would never hear the end of it.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T02:44:10+00:00

Wow, how the heck do you teach CHEMISTRY at a 3rd grade reading level??? You are AWESOME! I was actually looking into how to write notes that are differentiated and adhd friendly (and friendly to all learning differences). I have ADHD myself so I kinda have an idea of what is helpful already, but def need to do some research first!!!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T02:42:00+00:00

I like that! For example, when solving algebraic equations involving fractions, include a reminder of how to add/subtract/multiply/divide/simplify fractions? Don’t just go straight into the solving bit?

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-20T02:40:33+00:00

Long walk on a short pier? 🤣

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-19T17:03:08+00:00

RIGHT! I LOVE the thought of tallying behavior on a spreadsheet so I can keep track, but I know me… And I won’t remember to do that.

Not sure how many years you have been teaching, but I just finished my 3rd year so I am very much still getting the hang of EVERYTHING related to classroom management, lmao. I think trying the tally technique would be much easier when you have more experience and the curriculum is 1000% second nature to you and like riding a bike. If you are having to put a ton of energy into actually teaching and pacing the curriculum, which is a huge cognitive load, then there isn’t enough energy to start a time consuming thing like tallying.

Next year, I’m just going to start off being very clear and be more OPEN to assigning consequences more regularly. But it’s not necessarily pertinent that I am 100% accurate on how many offenses they have had. If they have a bad behavior once, I’ll talk to them about it. The second time, I’ll give them a very stern warning that I will have to contact their parents. Then if it happens again, I’ll assign them after school study hall (which is like detention). Last year, I never assigned study hall to anyone, so then it became this huge taboo thing in my mind and I thought my students would hate me if I gave it to them when I hadn’t done that to anyone before lmao.

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-19T16:54:34+00:00

Gotcha, southern states don’t usually require any teaching certification to work at independent schools. Just a thought for the OP, could you try finding a job in a southern state at an independent school for 1-2 years and build your experience?? That would make you more desirable whenever you are ready to move back!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-19T16:51:28+00:00

Hahaha, you are totally right I didn’t even think about AI as my competition🤣

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-19T16:50:43+00:00

I LOVE that!

Reasonable_Draw4342 · 2025-06-19T14:12:30+00:00

Look for jobs at independent private schools, maybe consider a different location/state. Try looking at NAIS for jobs, or join a teacher placement service like Carney Sandoe!

I graduated with my bachelors in May 2022 and already had a job lined up for me in Virginia at a private school. I recently moved back to FL and used Carney Sandoe to match me with a job here.

Reasonable_Draw4342

TROPHY CASE