by Emily Starr | Jul 14, 2024 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
School’s out for summer!! Let’s pile on the professional development! What? You need a break? You need some time to decompress and aren’t looking for a bunch of homework? I feel you. For me, those first few weeks of summer need to be for rest and recouperation. But,...
by Emily Starr | Mar 26, 2024 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
Eclipse preparations are in full swing in my house! My family will be viewing the rare event from a boat in the middle of a lake in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas – a 12 hour drive from our home in Iowa. (Please cooperate, weather!!) So what makes this eclipse worth...
by Emily Starr | Jun 26, 2023 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
This summer, I’ve been planning a little bit of time each day to help my boys practice “thinking scientifically.” I’ve shared some of the activities we’ve been doing on StarrMatica’s Facebook page, and I’ll continue to share ideas with you throughout the summer. I...
by Emily Starr | Mar 2, 2023 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
Questioning is one of the weakest areas of science instruction for a majority of teachers. Even when a lesson is otherwise well-designed (ie: high quality curriculum) fewer than one in five lessons incorporate questioning that is likely to move student understanding...
by Emily Starr | Oct 6, 2022 | Featured Post, New Text Discovery
The leaves are changing colors here in Iowa and pumpkin-spiced everything has exploded in town – seriously, in my house we even have pumpkin scented hand soap. If you are anything like me as a teacher, I flipped the calendar to October and began looking for...
