My goals with every new class are pretty much the same. Create an environment that's fun and dynamic, where students actually collaborate. Make them genuinely enjoy learning biology. Move the needle on their attainment. Everything I do flows from those three things.

The structure I've settled on is a three-week cycle of preparation, application, and assessment, but crucially, it runs concurrently for different topics. The diagram below shows what that looks like in practice: right now we're doing cells in class (Week 2), the homework they're completing is on membrane transport for next week (Week 1), and the test this week is on whatever came before, biomolecules (Week 3). Three topics, three phases, all running at once. I'm flexible with test timing and group things together when it makes sense, but this is the engine underneath.

WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 preparation class time assessment BIOMOLECULES past done done this week's test past IB Qs CELLS current done last week in class now labs, tasks, application next week's test MEMBRANES next homework now cramly cards, reading in class next week in two weeks

The three-week cycle runs concurrently across topics. Three pink boxes show what's active this week: prep, class, and test, each for a different topic.

The forgetting curve is the backbone of how I plan

Ebbinghaus showed that without reinforcement, we forget the vast majority of new information within days. That single idea shapes almost everything about how I structure a unit. The goal is to build in multiple touchpoints, across different formats and different moments, so students encounter the same content several times before a test. Each retrieval strengthens the neural pathway and shifts knowledge from working memory into long-term storage. Spaced practice and retrieval practice are among the most evidence-backed tools we have, and they're the engine behind the cycle.

I hate tests. They're a flawed system, but a hoop we have to jump through, so we have to play the game well. Spaced repetition is the most efficient way to do it: multiple retrievals across different formats and moments, so by exam day retention is high. That means starting before students even walk into the classroom.

TIME (DAYS) MEMORY RETAINED 0 1 2 3 4 5 100% 0% pre-reading class time cramly test review without intervention with spaced retrieval

Each touchpoint bumps memory back to full and the next decay is shallower. By the test, retention is high not because students crammed, but because they have met the content four times.

Week 1: pre-learning means class time can actually be useful

Before students walk into my classroom, I want them to have already met the content. I set a reading from Kognity (or my own presentations) and ask them to produce one page of handwritten notes. The one-page limit is deliberate. It forces students to decide what's important rather than transcribing everything. The handwriting matters too: Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) found that writing by hand significantly improves retention over typing, because students have to process and rephrase rather than just copy.

I also built an app called Cramly, which is pre-populated with the facts students need to know for IB and AP Biology. I assign the relevant cards for the week ahead so that by the time students arrive in class, we're not starting from zero. We can get straight into application. This pre-loading is also what makes it possible to keep pace with the IB and AP curricula, which are, to put it mildly, enormous.

Week 2: class time is for application, not transmission

Active learning consistently outperforms lecture-based instruction, so I try to use class time for exactly that. Labs, group tasks, individual problem-solving. There's still a short teacher-led explanation, but it's a launching pad, not the whole lesson. More on how I structure those sessions in a later post.

A rotating seating plan is one of the smallest changes with the biggest payoff. I don't start it on day one. Where students choose to sit in lesson one tells you which friendships might distract from learning. But from lesson two, seats rotate. Students get to know the whole class rather than just their friends, and it reinforces the idea that we're all on the same journey. Research consistently shows that a sense of classroom community is a meaningful driver of engagement and achievement.

Week 3: assessment and the review loop

I don't grade homework, I grade tests. The homework is for them. What I focus on is the quality of dialogue in class and whether students can actually apply what they've learned.

The biweekly test serves two functions: it's a checkpoint, and it's another retrieval event. The review loop back into preparation (see diagram) means that by the time students sit down to revise before exams, they're actually revising, not encountering the material properly for the first time. That's the whole point.

The structure is half the story. The league, the snacks, the British sarcasm: that's the other half, and it's what makes the loop worth running.