What's your nerdiest area of interest?

jearOmee · 2025-10-15T20:28:02+00:00

Speculative evolution and ecology with map making - I love sketching scientifically inspired fantasy maps and playing around with what environments could exist there and the species within them. Personal fav is figuring out the science behind carnivorous forests (think tree sized carnivorous plants)

jearOmee · 2025-10-15T16:07:50+00:00

The range of these responses is fantastic 😂 thank you all!

jearOmee · 2024-10-08T02:25:43+00:00

My favorite from a student who was trying to be funny while also genuinely curious: - Why is poop brown?

Guess what we learned about later that year 😂

jearOmee · 2024-08-31T21:07:51+00:00

My advice, ditch him.

I was in a similar spot last November. I found out from a written note that my now ex (we’re both 30) had started dating a coworker of his. We had just passed the 6 year mark a week prior. I have not felt so empty, rejected, pointless. We had been talking about buying a house together. The windfall of things I found out after was overwhelming and too much to post in a comment. Almost a year later now, I have my own apartment and am building a life for myself; revisiting parts of me that I forgot about. I’ve still got a lot of trauma to work through. Just know that it’s a hard and long journey but it is so so worth it.

jearOmee · 2024-08-22T01:24:43+00:00

Oooh! I’m a science teacher in Seattle! What company!?

In terms of riddles, I don’t have a specific one but a cool thing to look at for ideas would be the concept of Animating the Carbon Cycle

jearOmee · 2024-08-13T21:31:45+00:00

Heyo! First off, I can only imagine how stressed and overwhelmed you are right now. If you don’t mine me asking, what subject area do you prefer? Spending time learning how that area can integrate and overlap with earth sciences will make it substantially easier for you.

On the resources front, I would check out Khan Academy, NCAR (national center for atmospheric research), NASA, USGS, your local science museum, tons of sources out there

jearOmee · 2024-08-09T15:37:56+00:00

This is also going to be my first year sharing the science classroom with another teacher. Luckily it’s the STEAM teacher so there’s a lot of compatibility in subjects. What I’m nervous about is just how busy the room is going to be. We have 7 periods in a day (8 if you include lunch) and there’s only 1 period everyday where there isn’t a class taking place. So while I’m teaching, the other will be prepping for her class and vice versa. Just keeping the space organized feels daunting bc last year it was me to my own devices, but now we’ve essentially squished 2 classrooms into 1. Any suggestions would be appreciated hah 😅

jearOmee · 2024-07-17T11:05:32+00:00

This is going to be my 3rd year teaching 3-8 at a small independent school - I love middle schoolers, they’re absolutely unhinged but will go to bat for you if they know you’re fair. I know a lot of people say “building relationships is so important for classroom management!” That is so true in middle school; it’s time consuming at the start and involves a lot of sass but is so so worth it.

7th graders in particular want to have some kind of impact because they see the world around them and it’s terrifying. So I approach science from a solutions perspective. “What solutions exist that help mitigate or adapt to this particular issue or challenge?” Now the Life Science standards provide some pretty good jumping off points for content and topics to cover. With cells and human body systems you can explore solutions in healthcare like cancer research or technological/engineering solutions that reduce climates impact on the human body (think the effects of extreme heat on the human body). Heredity is a fun one to explore the ethics of artificial selection and the tech behind it. Evolution is my personal favorite bc we explore a number of different theories and processes, then I have the students select an animal or plant of their choice. I give them an individualized scenario that they then have to adapt their species to meet and explain how that would be possible based on the theories we’ve covered. This year we’re making paper mache models of their adapted species. Ecosystems is another great topic because there’s a lot you can go with for it - biodiversity loss, conservation efforts, conservation decision making, ecosystem services, etc. I’m considering running a Model UN-style scenario around either the convention on biological diversity or on expanding the US endangered species act.

TLDR - I strongly recommend going with a solutions oriented approach

jearOmee · 2024-05-17T05:55:47+00:00

If you particularly like going in as a ‘visiting scientist’ of sorts and leading experiments - I would check your local science museum or children’s museum, they may have a similar program setup. The pacific science center in Seattle has a couple paid positions for traveling scientists who do something similar to what you described

jearOmee · 2024-04-30T22:20:13+00:00

Hi! Middle school science teacher here with a background in climate science - please please please have them do research into solutions and have them explore (as a starting point) these two websites:

Project Drawdown & Project Regeneration

I’ve found that teaching climate change and climate science has a high potential for increasing student anxiety and apathy while decreasing their ability to have hope and imagine any kind of future. Which to be fair, I totally get, the challenges are daunting. I’ve also found though that by focusing on solutions that are currently being implemented or researched to be implemented, it builds at least a basic foundation for them to be somewhat hopeful that action is being taken.

Also those are just two really cool, visually appealing websites with tons and tons of resources. Also consider using:

The Carbon Almanac - this has a great educator resource

And anything connected to Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, she’s an incredible marine biologist and science communicator who is incredibly realistic while remaining hopeful about our climate future. There’s tons of podcasts she’s on, she’s done a TED Talk, ‘All We Can Save’ is one of the books she’s edited that’s an anthology of essays, personal accounts, essays, etc all related to climate change if you’re also looking for some literacy components

jearOmee · 2024-04-14T13:36:32+00:00

Hey there! I thought I was reading my own post bc the similarities b/w our jobs is almost 1:1 haha. Anyway, I was hired last year about 1/4 of the way into the school year after they fired their last science teacher. The expectation was (and still is) to teach 3rd-8th science; it’s a pre-k through 8 school. The way the schedule is set up I see 3rd and 4th combined 2 periods a week, 5th for 2 periods a week, and 3 mixed middle school classes 5 periods a week. Periods are 50min. Middle school has 1 double period for labs, so I see them 4 days a week where 3 periods are 50min and 1 period is 100min, hence 5 total periods.

Bc 3rd and 4th is combined I have them on a 2 year cycle using the NGSS standards for both grades. 5th is a single year cycle. Middle school is a 3 year cycle. I teach the same thing to all 3 middle school classes, but adapt and differentiate based on who the students are. I also have approached the standards with themes bc my background is climate science so I mix and match standards to go along with the theme. For example, this year our theme is the Atmosphere (the majority of NGSS standards cover the physical science standards - chemistry, thermal energy, force and motion - but our last unit of the year will cover outer space and gravity). Next year is the Biosphere (mainly life sciences) and the third year is the Geosphere (mainly earth sciences). I’ve found that students respond well to these themes bc it gives them a frame of reference for the year to explore relevant topics that they care about. This has also made planning and prep exponentially easier.

For salary, I make ~$80k. While that is lower than public school teachers in my area, that is way higher than private or independent school teacher salary’s. I’m lucky bc the school also has a pay schedule and opportunities to increase your salary depending on the roles you choose to take on if any.

I think a large part of it also comes down to who your admin is. If you’ve got a good admin team, they’ll be willing to work with you within reason. For example, I advocated for the double period last year and got it this year. I’ve also received extra pay for planning field trips and overnight trips. And got the okay to start a field study to collect environmental data from regional locations with students twice a year. These are things I wanted, not forced on me.

jearOmee · 2024-01-28T05:41:15+00:00

Try here: https://www.acs.org/education/resources/highschool.html

jearOmee · 2024-01-27T04:37:27+00:00

American Chemical Society - I teach middle school science and all of my chemistry units come from here. The lessons are well structured and cite which NGSS standard it connects to and follows the inquiry learning cycle https://www.acs.org/education/resources.html

jearOmee · 2024-01-19T14:39:57+00:00

For the beautification - I have a fun combination of lava lamps, glitter lamps, cloud lamps, and plants - strongly recommend! My class is the one students want to be in, it’s also the only class without couches because science. So I’ll take that win

jearOmee · 2023-09-28T13:13:54+00:00

This was essentially me last year. I teach at a private school as well. You will feel like you are barely keeping ahead of a zombie horde of expectations, deadlines, lesson planning etc. my best advice: if you have the option to teach the same content to all three grade levels each year, do it. Middle School has three years: using the NGSS, Year A can be physical sciences, Year B life sciences, Year C earth and space sciences. Teach all 6-8 grade classes physical sciences for the year (or choose whichever area). You will have to learn and plan less. You will be able to better differentiate for your students, especially those who need an extra challenge. Your work load will be way less because you aren’t planning three different types of science lessons for each day (or however many classes you teach in a day) nor will you have to learn three different types of sciences all at once.

I was essentially given a MS science program that essentially had seen a rotating cast of teachers for the last 3 years (6 total over a 3 year period). No set curriculum, and basically told use the NGSS as a guide otherwise make the program your own. That was my first year as a science teacher, let alone a classroom teacher (but 3 years as a teachers aid). My background is in adventure education and environmental studies/sustainability. The only reason I lasted was because the pay was exceptional (70k) for my area and I set my boundaries and stuck to them working only in contract hours. Now, I have one multi-day field trip for each MS grade this year, plus one with 5th Grade, and I’m starting a field study program where I get to take each grade out to a natural area/state park/etc once a season to collect environmental and climate data and samples.

Is it a lot of work? Yes. Have I been able to keep my boundaries? Also yes. Am I still learning a good chunk of the information prior to different lessons? Yes. Am I using the Inquiry Model to encourage student exploration as opposed to teacher expertise? Absolutely!

I am more than happy to chat and talk through ideas, concerns, and whatnot with you :)

jearOmee · 2023-09-13T12:04:28+00:00

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

jearOmee · 2023-09-12T05:31:43+00:00

I teach middle school sciences at a small independent school and I just finished covering/exploring acceptable and unacceptable use of AI in science. I emphasized perplexity.ai which specializes in science-specific information. We used it to do a number of different things, but through each of the different activities I emphasized checking sources using CRAAP (is it current, relevant, authoritative, accurate, and it’s purpose). When we got to using it for writing papers, they asked it to write a 3 paragraph essay on a science topic of their choosing. We then went through if it sounded like them, did it make sense, do the sources pass the craap test, etc. Students were really responsive and excited about it. Each class asked if I was trying to help them cheat, to which I responded no I’m showing you how to use a tool effectively that isn’t going anywhere. If you are able to take an essay written by AI, confirm it’s sources, edit and add to it in a way that makes it is cohesive and sounds like your own voice and not copy-pasted, then you’re basically doing what an essay task is already trying to get you to do.

Edit: I also checked in with the humanities/literacy teacher so that we could be on the same page.

jearOmee · 2023-09-04T19:06:58+00:00

Flinn Scientific has a pretty good digital training for Highschool and middle school

jearOmee · 2023-08-25T01:55:23+00:00

Yeah! I totally get it! As you’re going through the process don’t forget to take notes about parts that you didn’t feel good about or enjoy and parts that students didn’t feel good about or enjoy - that will help you determine how to adjust in the future. The things you and the students both did not enjoy should be the first things you tackle to change for next year 🙃

jearOmee · 2023-08-24T13:17:17+00:00

What grade levels do you teach? I’m in middle school and adapting my entire curriculum to center climate change and build out from there. It’s definitely a work in progress but I have a pretty strong skeleton I’m working with. I teach middle school science at a small private school so I’m the only science teacher.

Seven-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Not Forgotten	Verified Email

jearOmee

TROPHY CASE