Secrets to Success for Science Teachers

"This book isn′t just for new teachers! Even after years as a science teacher, this book gave me suggestions to use right away in my classroom."
—Regina Brinker, Science Teacher
Christensen Middle School, Livermore, CA

Create a science classroom that fosters a creative learning community and leads to success!

From successfully setting up a classroom to achieving meaningful instruction, science teachers face a variety of challenges unique to their practice every day. This easy-to-read guide provides new and seasoned teachers with practical ideas, strategies, and insights to help address essential topics in effective science teaching, including emphasizing inquiry, building literacy, implementing technology, using a wide variety of science resources, and maintaining student safety.

Aligned with current science standards, this guide helps teachers streamline their efforts, organize their work, and set the stage for outstanding instruction and enthusiastic student participation. Other features include:

• Practical examples, snapshots of moments in the history of science, and Web references
• A compilation of professional development activities
• Checklists to rate curricula and textbooks
• Guidance on networking with colleagues and establishing relationships with families

By leveraging this book′s rich resources, science teachers will discover how to turn their classrooms into thriving environments for learning.

Ellen Kottler, Ed.S., has been a teacher for over 30 years in public and private schools, alternative schools, adult education programs, and universities. She has worked in inner-city schools as well as in suburban and rural set­tings. She was a curriculum specialist in charge of secondary social studies and law-related education for one of the country’s largest school districts. Ellen is the author or coauthor of several books for educators, including Secrets for Secondary School Teachers: How to Succeed in Your First Year, On Being a Teacher, Secrets for Beginning Elementary School Teachers, Counseling Skills for Teachers, English Language Learners in Your Classroom: Strategies That Work, Secrets to Success for Science Teachers, and Students Who Drive You Crazy: Succeeding with Resistant, Unmotivated, and Otherwise Difficult Young People. She teaches secondary education and supervises intern teachers at California State University, Fullerton. Victoria Costa has taught chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and education at the secondary, community college, and university levels. She is the director of science education at California State University, Fullerton. Her research focuses on recruitment, development, and support of secondary science teachers and the preparation of all teachers to support 21st-century learning in technology-rich environments. She has been the principal investigator for two million dollars of grants to support math and science education, including the Professional Development Resources Online for Mathematics (PD-ROM) and the Math and Science Teachers Project (MAST). She has published in highly respected journals, including Journal of Curriculum Studies, Journal of College Science Teaching, Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, and Journal of Research in Science Teaching.