Nora Walsh

FJ Reitz High School

ChemEd X Contributor, Author, Reviewer, Associate_Editor

ChemEd X Member since: February 2017

Nora Walsh teaches on-level, honors and AP Chemistry at FJ Reitz High School in Evansville, IN. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from Emory University and a master's degree in secondary science education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She began teaching in Chattanooga, TN in 2004 and moved to Evansville in 2006 where she continues teaching at Reitz. She has been an AP Reader for the past 2 years, and has presented webinars for the American Association of Chemistry Teachers in the past. She is active on the AP Chemistry Teacher and National Chemistry Teacher Facebook groups, and enjoys sharing resources that other teachers find helpful. (You may be familiar with her document Write This, Not That on the AP Chemistry Exam). She also has a TikTok account that she uses for bite-size chemistry review (follow her @reitzchemistry).

Posts

Using AI to Source Phenomena

// Friday, November 3, 2023 • Nora Walsh

This year I’ve been working extra hard as my state, Indiana, has made a big switch: we adopted NGSS. I’m really excited about the change in how we are teaching chemistry, but adopting a whole new, very different style of standards has come with a lot of work to update and replace older activities.

Using Phenomena in Testing

// Wednesday, October 25, 2023 • Nora Walsh

One of the main tenets of NGSS is the use of phenomena to have students discover the content. I’m new to NGSS, as Indiana just adopted the standards this year, but I’m very excited about the integration of phenomena. I’m all-in on attempting to ground as much of my instruction as possible in phenomena.

Five For the First

// Sunday, August 6, 2023 • Nora Walsh

It’s back to school season! We’ve all begun to reflect on how we want to establish procedures for the year and what tweaks or new ideas need to be included to set up our classes for success. Part of this process is how we begin in the first week.

Nuclear Interactive Notebook

// Friday, May 26, 2023 • Nora Walsh

Well, we’ve reached the end of the line – this is my last interactive notebook unit to share. I hope that you’ve found them helpful. Don’t worry – I’m not done sharing about my interactive notebooking journey because for me, it truly is a journey.

Acids & Bases Interactive Notebook

// Monday, May 15, 2023 • Nora Walsh

We’re coming close to the end of our Interactive Notebooking journey – this is my second to last unit – Acids and Bases. As a continuing theme from earlier, I am moving to focus more on particle view diagrams in combination with symbolic representations and macroscopic observations.