Melissa Hemling

“I just wanted to reach out and update you on my life,” the email began. As a high school teacher, I love receiving emails starting with a line like this. It is exciting to learn where my former students are in their life’s journey. Last month I opened an email starting with this line. My mind raced with the possibilities.

Along my teaching journey, I started to incorporate more inquiry and modeling activities into my classroom at the expense of practice problems “drilling” concepts. Based on student survey feedback, I learned my students missed these drilling activities. They were craving practice they needed to master and get comfortable with the content.

Like many others, my students and I are facing weeks of remote learning due to COVID-19. I am brainstorming ways to engage my on-level chemistry students online. Weeks of watching online lectures, taking notes, and completing practice problems will get old. I am nervous my students will quickly disengage.

Particulate diagrams are all the rage in chemical education.

I achieved National Board certification in December 2017. My certification expires in 2022. The year 2022 seems like a long way off, but it is coming up sooner than I would like! I have done a little digging into the renewal process to see what comes next.