New school, same lesson. In Hot Stuff this week, again in a 4th grade class, I tried the "Let's review some bad answers" technique... and fell on my face. It worked well in the already engaged, but not sure where to go next class of last week, and was a struggle to use in the less-engaged, more focused on blurting out answers group of this week. It's a great tool in classrooms where they're ready to answer and willing to raise their hands to be heard, thus providing an opportunity for every student who thinks they have the answer to give it. It's a less effective tool in rooms that are, in the words of their teachers, "squirrely." Their lack of respect for the idea of raising their hands to be heard leads to a lack of understanding that what I'm going for is group responses - a thumb's up to say, "yes! this is a good answer," or a raised hand to add "well, it could work if we change some words."
All in all, it was another example of some things work in some places some times. And the rest of the time, come up with something new.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tried something new...
Tried something new in my 4th grade Inquiry class this week. The lab, Hot Stuff, focuses on heat and energy, asking the basic question, "What can we do to melt the most ice in 2 minutes?" It can be fun during the data collection and hands-on stages. Handing a kid a film canister (oh, and can I mention that half of them didn't know what it was?) full of ice and saying, "Do whatever you want to this except putting it in your mouth or opening it; get it to melt completely melt in the next 4 minutes," tends to get their attention.
But, that writing portion is still a killer. I can't do any of the things I really want to do - a serious hands-on experiment every day, an engineering challenge with every lab (this one would be a great time to build solar ovens or just test different materials for insulation), truly self-directed inquiry - because of the time constraints. I need ways to get every student in the world actually excited about writing. Not exactly easy.
So, I needed something that would get them to, energetically, participate in the steps of how to write up a good question, a good hypothesis, and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - a good plan.
I put up an overhead:
I told them these were answers I had read on another class' papers, and asked them if they were good. They quickly identified (since I didn't make it hard) that C was the right answer on both. The first classroom was VERY enthusiastic about this method. I had hands raised from students who hadn't participated at all in the previous 2 days of class. The 2nd and 3rd classrooms were not as excited about it, but there was greater participation then there would have been if I was just talking. Now, they could see and read the wrong answers themselves. They could discuss what made them right or wrong. It took 5 more minutes, but I think that in the first two rooms, it made hypothesis writing go faster than usual.
So, I tried it with the Plan too. Hoping, desperately, to avoid having students tell me that the plan for their experiment is to, "do their experiment," I gave them three examples:
It worked, in two out of three classes. We still didn't have time to finish our experiments - they'll be melting ice tomorrow too - but it was better. I didn't leave it up on the overhead in the first room - they had the talent to do it on their own. They had been impressing me all week (I had to invent an extra experiment to model on Tuesday, they had finished my regular experiment on Monday), and still managed to get to some of the trials today. The second room didn't work as hard, but they'll start the experiment on time tomorrow. The third room... well, no one told me today was their early release day, so we lost 20 minutes of class. And they work a bit slower still. We'll finish tomorrow, somehow. The teacher has offered extra time after lunch tomorrow.
But, that writing portion is still a killer. I can't do any of the things I really want to do - a serious hands-on experiment every day, an engineering challenge with every lab (this one would be a great time to build solar ovens or just test different materials for insulation), truly self-directed inquiry - because of the time constraints. I need ways to get every student in the world actually excited about writing. Not exactly easy.
So, I needed something that would get them to, energetically, participate in the steps of how to write up a good question, a good hypothesis, and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - a good plan.
I put up an overhead:
I told them these were answers I had read on another class' papers, and asked them if they were good. They quickly identified (since I didn't make it hard) that C was the right answer on both. The first classroom was VERY enthusiastic about this method. I had hands raised from students who hadn't participated at all in the previous 2 days of class. The 2nd and 3rd classrooms were not as excited about it, but there was greater participation then there would have been if I was just talking. Now, they could see and read the wrong answers themselves. They could discuss what made them right or wrong. It took 5 more minutes, but I think that in the first two rooms, it made hypothesis writing go faster than usual.
So, I tried it with the Plan too. Hoping, desperately, to avoid having students tell me that the plan for their experiment is to, "do their experiment," I gave them three examples:
It worked, in two out of three classes. We still didn't have time to finish our experiments - they'll be melting ice tomorrow too - but it was better. I didn't leave it up on the overhead in the first room - they had the talent to do it on their own. They had been impressing me all week (I had to invent an extra experiment to model on Tuesday, they had finished my regular experiment on Monday), and still managed to get to some of the trials today. The second room didn't work as hard, but they'll start the experiment on time tomorrow. The third room... well, no one told me today was their early release day, so we lost 20 minutes of class. And they work a bit slower still. We'll finish tomorrow, somehow. The teacher has offered extra time after lunch tomorrow.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Geography Lessons - Through Games!
Geography was never my strong suit. Plus, it seems like all you ever learned in school was the names of capital cities, or maybe some cultural or climate-related information for various regions or countries. It was never enough to feel like a global perspective was achieved. Has it changed since I was a student? Or do I just not remember it correctly?
Anyway, about a month ago I found (through my brother), a game on Facebook. GeoChallenge has three rounds: in the first, you identify the flag for the country or union. The second round gives you the outline of the country, and slowly fades in the surrounding countries too, and you identify the name. The third round is full map, and you need to 'stick a pin' in the city they give. 60 seconds per round, you earn additional time after getting 10 right.
It's educational, whether you might call it scaffolding, or just building on prior knowledge, it's NOT totally random. The first few times you play, you're looking at a basic selection of flags, always the same ones, very different color combinations so you can start to associate the right patterns or colors with the country. Then, they add in a flag you haven't seen, then another. Only adding new ones when you've made the correct match a few times on the ones you already know. Same with countries and cities.
If I had played this game once a week in school, I'd have had WAY fewer misconceptions about Europe, the Middle East, and southeast Asia. And maybe understood a few more things in the news since then.
Anyway, about a month ago I found (through my brother), a game on Facebook. GeoChallenge has three rounds: in the first, you identify the flag for the country or union. The second round gives you the outline of the country, and slowly fades in the surrounding countries too, and you identify the name. The third round is full map, and you need to 'stick a pin' in the city they give. 60 seconds per round, you earn additional time after getting 10 right.
It's educational, whether you might call it scaffolding, or just building on prior knowledge, it's NOT totally random. The first few times you play, you're looking at a basic selection of flags, always the same ones, very different color combinations so you can start to associate the right patterns or colors with the country. Then, they add in a flag you haven't seen, then another. Only adding new ones when you've made the correct match a few times on the ones you already know. Same with countries and cities.
If I had played this game once a week in school, I'd have had WAY fewer misconceptions about Europe, the Middle East, and southeast Asia. And maybe understood a few more things in the news since then.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Adapting the Animal Adaptations Class
I taught my Animal Adaptations class (bird beaks) a few weeks ago for 4th graders, and last week for 2nd/3rd. I thought it went well. Two or three of the 7 teachers commented on how interactive it was and that the activity was fun and appropriate. Then I got back the evaluations and found out it "wasn't scientific enough," that the "emphasis seemed to be on competition, not scientific methods," and that they don't believe "it would be valuable to repeat next year."
The summary of the lesson plan is pretty simple: take a bunch of household tools, simplified "bird foods" (i.e. seeds, dried beans or peas to stand in for 'bugs,' pieces of rubber bands mixed in with shredded paper to stand in for 'worms,' etc) and have them test the beaks for successful eating. The inquiry question they're basically answering is: if seeds were the only available food, would a bird who's beak is more like a toucan (fruit-eating) or more like a grosbeak (seed-eating) survive? It requires being a bit competitive - put the food in the center of the table, have two students with different tools see who can catch and 'eat' the most in 1 minute. They first, of course, write out their experimental design and then collect the data during the experiment. It seems like inquiry to me - ask a question, plan a method for finding an answer, use data to support your answer.
What went wrong?
Things to improve on the next time I teach it:
Mostly, I'm sad that this class was so poorly received. Yes, I wish I had more money, more supplies, and more time so that they could get more hands-on activities. But I get 5 hours, over 4 days, to show your kids how to "think like a scientist" and I need to keep it interesting, get their work samples done, and do my best to provide the opportunity for them to 'exceed the standards.' You know it's hard - it's why you have me come in. Why do you make it harder?
The summary of the lesson plan is pretty simple: take a bunch of household tools, simplified "bird foods" (i.e. seeds, dried beans or peas to stand in for 'bugs,' pieces of rubber bands mixed in with shredded paper to stand in for 'worms,' etc) and have them test the beaks for successful eating. The inquiry question they're basically answering is: if seeds were the only available food, would a bird who's beak is more like a toucan (fruit-eating) or more like a grosbeak (seed-eating) survive? It requires being a bit competitive - put the food in the center of the table, have two students with different tools see who can catch and 'eat' the most in 1 minute. They first, of course, write out their experimental design and then collect the data during the experiment. It seems like inquiry to me - ask a question, plan a method for finding an answer, use data to support your answer.
What went wrong?
Things to improve on the next time I teach it:
- In general - my description of how to design an experiment (using variables, setting up a control group, etc) has been lacking this year. I just hadn't remembered to incorporate all the details into the general lecture that introduces that section of the class. So, I have to remember to bring that back in to satisfy the "not enough focus on inquiry" people. I had hoped to allow more self-directed discovery of the best methods, not force-feed it. Oh, well.
- I had done two-students-at-a-time to speed up the data collection (and, honestly, to make it more fun - the competition increased their focus for the most part; if your classroom can't behave and gets too competitive, step in and break up the groups that aren't working). I will need to ponder the options for either (1) explaining more fully that the reason for it is to demonstrate adaptation and survival in competition, or (2) removing that aspect and providing two bowls or having them go one-at-a-time.
- Having time before the scheduled class time to set up stations, thus allowing them to experiment with a wider range of foods and in a more inquiry-focused way. I'd like them to have the chance to discover on their own which tool is associated with which food and which bird. And that's how I wrote the class. It just turned out that in practice, when time was a major issue, it was faster to say, "okay, here's a toucan, what do you think he eats?" and then show them the tongs and say, "these are a good tool for picking up big fruits."
- Then, I need to improve the pre- and post- lesson communication with classroom teachers. One of the problems at this school was that the secretary had done all of the scheduling and I had (apparently incorrectly) assumed that she was communicating a lot of information to the classroom teachers. Somewhere, the communication broke down and the teachers seemed unaware (especially the 2nd/3rd grades) of what the program was about.
Mostly, I'm sad that this class was so poorly received. Yes, I wish I had more money, more supplies, and more time so that they could get more hands-on activities. But I get 5 hours, over 4 days, to show your kids how to "think like a scientist" and I need to keep it interesting, get their work samples done, and do my best to provide the opportunity for them to 'exceed the standards.' You know it's hard - it's why you have me come in. Why do you make it harder?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Paperless
I've mentioned this before, but Evernote is making my life so much easier. And way more paperless.
I'm sitting here reading a chapter in my EdPsych text, and the term "implicit memory" came up. And I knew we talked about it in class at some point this semester, but have no idea when. In the old days, that would mean pulling out a notebook and flipping through until I found where I (hopefully) highlighted the term. Now, all my note are typed into Evernote; each day, each class is it's own note. So I searched for "implicit memory" and it came up, highlighted straight to the term I was looking for.
There is no reason to NOT go paperless, people. At least in our personal lives. Yes, we still need students to fill out worksheets, tests, etc. There isn't enough money in our budgets for every student to have a laptop and do all their classwork on it (plus, I think handwriting is an important skill worth learning). But taking notes at a conference? In class? From websites that you might bookmark but never remember to go back to? And then being able to search them. Even the pictures are searchable. Why would you still carry a notebook??
I'm sitting here reading a chapter in my EdPsych text, and the term "implicit memory" came up. And I knew we talked about it in class at some point this semester, but have no idea when. In the old days, that would mean pulling out a notebook and flipping through until I found where I (hopefully) highlighted the term. Now, all my note are typed into Evernote; each day, each class is it's own note. So I searched for "implicit memory" and it came up, highlighted straight to the term I was looking for.
There is no reason to NOT go paperless, people. At least in our personal lives. Yes, we still need students to fill out worksheets, tests, etc. There isn't enough money in our budgets for every student to have a laptop and do all their classwork on it (plus, I think handwriting is an important skill worth learning). But taking notes at a conference? In class? From websites that you might bookmark but never remember to go back to? And then being able to search them. Even the pictures are searchable. Why would you still carry a notebook??
Joys of Outreach
The kitchen table had become a dumping ground of pieces from the classes I've taught this month and it was time to clean it up and get stuff back to the museum so that we could potentially eat Thanksgiving dinner at the kitchen table.
This was the result:
That's my Little Red Science Wagon, with materials from 4 different classes. The little boxes shoved all around the bottom had escaped from the Magnetic Personalities class and been stranded on the kitchen table all alone for a week. Then there was the box from the class I actually taught this week, Animal Adaptations. The two file boxes, the K'Nex box, and the general mess on top were from the after school Crickets class of two weeks ago. And, nestled among it, out of sight, is the bottle of "blood" (water, small pieces of red and white sponges) from the Follow Your Heart class (4 weeks ago).
But the kitchen is finally clean. And Thanksgiving dinner can be enjoyed there (hopefully).
This was the result:
That's my Little Red Science Wagon, with materials from 4 different classes. The little boxes shoved all around the bottom had escaped from the Magnetic Personalities class and been stranded on the kitchen table all alone for a week. Then there was the box from the class I actually taught this week, Animal Adaptations. The two file boxes, the K'Nex box, and the general mess on top were from the after school Crickets class of two weeks ago. And, nestled among it, out of sight, is the bottle of "blood" (water, small pieces of red and white sponges) from the Follow Your Heart class (4 weeks ago). But the kitchen is finally clean. And Thanksgiving dinner can be enjoyed there (hopefully).
Thursday, November 13, 2008
55 is not 30
Last week, I agreed to allow a school to combine their two 5th grades into one group (of 57) for their Inquiry program. Things I did not know when I agreed: they aren't accustomed to working together (the two teachers didn't know the names of students in the other group), there are no tables/chairs in the gym we were using ( 2 days of the program are based on WRITING their 6 page Inquiry Work Sample), and there is no whiteboard or projection screen and overhead (clearly listed in the "materials you need to have ready for the program" they received 2 weeks prior to this).
I spent the week trying to clean up the mess this made. The first day, I muddled through. Couldn't write the steps of Inquiry on anything for them to reference, so I had to repeat and use big arm motions and repeat again until I thought it might sink in. Then we did the animal observations (they had picked my Happening Habitats class) which, fortunately, doesn't require any written notes or graphical representations to understand. Look, it's a pill bug. It's a crustacean. What does it do? It runs around the Petri dish. No, we don't know if it likes it, all we can do is see it doing that.
Day 2, begged for a portable whiteboard. Got 2' x 3' of worn out white board on an unstable easel. Woo hoo. Okay, so I wrote out the steps of inquiry, copied our question, erased, wrote our planned procedure for the experiment, erased, drew a data table for them to copy. Felt useless.
Day 3, continued down this path of uselessness. Finally noticed that there's a giant projection screen (like to show movies to the whole school) hanging behind the basketball hoop. Hit head against floor in frustration.
Day 4, 'borrowed' a projector from husband. Had him Frankenstein an infrared pointer for me and download Wiimote Whiteboard onto my laptop. Set up for class. Wondered where this had been all my life. Okay, so the pointer couldn't write on the board the way I wanted it too. The quick Frankenstein job didn't quite cut it - the power wasn't consistent or something so I'd get disconnected letters. But I got their attention (something which had been lacking for 3 days). I could type things for them to see and copy. I could point and highlight. I could draw data tables and graphs. I could demonstrate how to write a conclusion for their experiment! Hallelujah!
This week:
The school says "oh, one of our classrooms is really a double, there's 55 kids in it, but it's okay, they're always together, there's two teachers, they're used to it" uh, no. Not an option. I may have made it work last week, but it was a disaster. It just doesn't fit my teaching style.
Me? I give instructions, including the "If you get this done..." instructions so no one (should) be bored. Then, I circle the room, and see who really understands, which groups aren't communicating well, which students still don't understand what a hypothesis is, etc. When the majority are ready, I give the next whole-class instruction. In a room of 30 (the supposed maximum for the program), I have, at most, 6 groups to check on. In a room of 55, I have 11. And spend WAY too much time saying "it has gotten too loud, please sit down, and review your work and your group's work - you can't start the experiment until everyone in your group is ready" then getting to groups that are swearing they're done just to find out that one person has no data table, 2 have incomplete plans, and the 4th is distracting someone in another group instead of helping his teammates. Yes, they're 5th graders. No, this isn't too hard for them. But I only get 5 hours. My style works 99% of the time, your classroom is the exception, and you need to help me out here.
Also, I get to this room, and it's really two rooms. In one, big projection screen, white board space, etc. And the risers they sit on. No desks, I don't see any clipboards, and the cues I'm picking up on say that they don't do any writing over here. Okay...
The other side of the room? Desks that are too close together, one cluster set so far back against the door that they have no hope of seeing the tiny white board space on the other end of the room, some groups so close to the board they can't see because of the angle, etc. And today (end of day 3) I pick up on more clues like one of their teachers saying "I know we never work on this side of the room..." Well, WHERE do you work? Help me out here! I need to show these kids suggestions, spelling on the new vocab I'm introducing, how to draw graphs. AND THEY CAN'T SEE IT IN ANY EFFECTIVE WAY!!!
And I can't even just bring in my laptop - THERE IS NO SCREEN or clear wall space on this side of the room - ANYWHERE!
NO MORE GROUPS OF 55. None.
Update:
Got back evaluations from these teachers. Apparently I get to take the fall for all of these problems. Awesome. I'm sticking to the rules from now on: 30 students, maximum! 4 classrooms/teachers a week. And you WILL tell me when you want our "student-free" conference time to discuss scoring the work samples.
I spent the week trying to clean up the mess this made. The first day, I muddled through. Couldn't write the steps of Inquiry on anything for them to reference, so I had to repeat and use big arm motions and repeat again until I thought it might sink in. Then we did the animal observations (they had picked my Happening Habitats class) which, fortunately, doesn't require any written notes or graphical representations to understand. Look, it's a pill bug. It's a crustacean. What does it do? It runs around the Petri dish. No, we don't know if it likes it, all we can do is see it doing that.
Day 2, begged for a portable whiteboard. Got 2' x 3' of worn out white board on an unstable easel. Woo hoo. Okay, so I wrote out the steps of inquiry, copied our question, erased, wrote our planned procedure for the experiment, erased, drew a data table for them to copy. Felt useless.
Day 3, continued down this path of uselessness. Finally noticed that there's a giant projection screen (like to show movies to the whole school) hanging behind the basketball hoop. Hit head against floor in frustration.
Day 4, 'borrowed' a projector from husband. Had him Frankenstein an infrared pointer for me and download Wiimote Whiteboard onto my laptop. Set up for class. Wondered where this had been all my life. Okay, so the pointer couldn't write on the board the way I wanted it too. The quick Frankenstein job didn't quite cut it - the power wasn't consistent or something so I'd get disconnected letters. But I got their attention (something which had been lacking for 3 days). I could type things for them to see and copy. I could point and highlight. I could draw data tables and graphs. I could demonstrate how to write a conclusion for their experiment! Hallelujah!
This week:
The school says "oh, one of our classrooms is really a double, there's 55 kids in it, but it's okay, they're always together, there's two teachers, they're used to it" uh, no. Not an option. I may have made it work last week, but it was a disaster. It just doesn't fit my teaching style.
Me? I give instructions, including the "If you get this done..." instructions so no one (should) be bored. Then, I circle the room, and see who really understands, which groups aren't communicating well, which students still don't understand what a hypothesis is, etc. When the majority are ready, I give the next whole-class instruction. In a room of 30 (the supposed maximum for the program), I have, at most, 6 groups to check on. In a room of 55, I have 11. And spend WAY too much time saying "it has gotten too loud, please sit down, and review your work and your group's work - you can't start the experiment until everyone in your group is ready" then getting to groups that are swearing they're done just to find out that one person has no data table, 2 have incomplete plans, and the 4th is distracting someone in another group instead of helping his teammates. Yes, they're 5th graders. No, this isn't too hard for them. But I only get 5 hours. My style works 99% of the time, your classroom is the exception, and you need to help me out here.
Also, I get to this room, and it's really two rooms. In one, big projection screen, white board space, etc. And the risers they sit on. No desks, I don't see any clipboards, and the cues I'm picking up on say that they don't do any writing over here. Okay...
The other side of the room? Desks that are too close together, one cluster set so far back against the door that they have no hope of seeing the tiny white board space on the other end of the room, some groups so close to the board they can't see because of the angle, etc. And today (end of day 3) I pick up on more clues like one of their teachers saying "I know we never work on this side of the room..." Well, WHERE do you work? Help me out here! I need to show these kids suggestions, spelling on the new vocab I'm introducing, how to draw graphs. AND THEY CAN'T SEE IT IN ANY EFFECTIVE WAY!!!
And I can't even just bring in my laptop - THERE IS NO SCREEN or clear wall space on this side of the room - ANYWHERE!
NO MORE GROUPS OF 55. None.
Update:
Got back evaluations from these teachers. Apparently I get to take the fall for all of these problems. Awesome. I'm sticking to the rules from now on: 30 students, maximum! 4 classrooms/teachers a week. And you WILL tell me when you want our "student-free" conference time to discuss scoring the work samples.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wordle
Here's how I got there..
dy/dan posted about Martin Krzywinski's use of Wordle to analyze the US Presidential/Vice Presidential debates.
So, I went to Wordle and ran an analysis on my latest Blackboard postings for Human Development and Cognitive Learning.
I like how this lets me analyze my homework. What was I really trying to say? I'm glad that "student(s)" were large, I want my posts to be about how I'll implement ideas in my classroom to help students. I'm glad "steps," "lab," and "behavior" were large because this unit was about behavioral learning and the steps we can use to affect students; and since I teach a lab science, it's in that lab that I need to affect their behavior. Yay, I was mostly on task.
I'm not happy about how large "may" is. My post must not have sounded very definite, like I don't really know what I'll do or how it will work or change things. Too vague, uncertain, and undefined. "I may" do this and "students may" react that way. I know I can't know what will happen, but shouldn't I be trying to take things out of the abstract realm and make it real? "I will" do this, and "I think students will respond" like this. I think that's the point the professor has been trying to make for the last 3 class meetings when he's been talking about how our writings aren't sounding like we know how we'll try implementing things in the classroom. He wants us to say what we will do, not what may happen when we try.
dy/dan posted about Martin Krzywinski's use of Wordle to analyze the US Presidential/Vice Presidential debates.
So, I went to Wordle and ran an analysis on my latest Blackboard postings for Human Development and Cognitive Learning.
I like how this lets me analyze my homework. What was I really trying to say? I'm glad that "student(s)" were large, I want my posts to be about how I'll implement ideas in my classroom to help students. I'm glad "steps," "lab," and "behavior" were large because this unit was about behavioral learning and the steps we can use to affect students; and since I teach a lab science, it's in that lab that I need to affect their behavior. Yay, I was mostly on task.I'm not happy about how large "may" is. My post must not have sounded very definite, like I don't really know what I'll do or how it will work or change things. Too vague, uncertain, and undefined. "I may" do this and "students may" react that way. I know I can't know what will happen, but shouldn't I be trying to take things out of the abstract realm and make it real? "I will" do this, and "I think students will respond" like this. I think that's the point the professor has been trying to make for the last 3 class meetings when he's been talking about how our writings aren't sounding like we know how we'll try implementing things in the classroom. He wants us to say what we will do, not what may happen when we try.
Reflecting on observations in the classroom
There was some miscommunication between the teacher who scheduled the Inquiry Outreach program for this week and the teachers participating in the program. So my schedule has me starting my last class of the day at 12:40. The teacher doesn't dismiss her 6th graders (the program is for the 5th graders while the 6th graders go do Social Studies with the other 6th grade teacher) until 12:50. And I always show up 5 minutes early so I can get my supplies organized without wasting any of my precious 75 minutes fumbling through my stuff. Which basically means I get 20 minutes to observe her 5th/6th grade class doing their math assignments.
As long as I'm not bothering her, I'm going to continue for the rest of the week, because here's a chance for me to observe how another teacher handles students, to take time and reflect on the behaviors I'm seeing, etc. When I'm teaching, I get really wrapped up in what I'm doing and my observations of how the students react and what things work/don't work get trapped in my subconscious, and I don't take time to think about how to change what I'm doing until something reaches a critical level. Also, it's hard for me to learn what works/doesn't work when I'm only able to observe my own teaching. What I'm looking for is what other people do, how they handle the same kids I'll be working with later that day. I don't have enough time in my 4 days to get to know the students, the unique needs each one has for assistance in writing, staying focused, or getting involved they have developed solutions for with their teacher. I like getting to observe this room. It also helps that I'm getting a chance to observe 6th grade. Though I plan on teaching high school, SOU's MAT program basically requires being certified for multiple levels, so I need to know how to work with middle school too.
One of the things I observed was the self-management techniques that are in place in the classroom. They're working with the Accelerated Math program, which uses the computer to score and generate assignments and tests for each math objective. I hadn't seen this program in use before, and I like the way it gives them more freedom to move through material at their own pace. The program can even generate extra exercises to work on skills they're consistently missing on the assignments. While students are working on the assignments, the teacher can then pull certain groups up to the front to work on new skills. Lots can get done in a day, hopefully.
Although separating groups for varied-level instruction is a technique mostly found in elementary and middle school, I don't know why it wouldn't work in a high school class as well. It even seems like this is the time to really get into it - it develops a greater sense of community and team work and it gives them a smaller group they may feel more comfortable in for discussion. There's often time when they may be working on some reading, group discussions for assignments, or a lab, when I could pull a group forward either because they're a group that needs some extra help with a section or they're a group that needs an extra challenge. If I set up a class with collaborative learning groups, 2 or 3 lab partner pairs working together in groups of 4-6, then those CLGs and I could meet in smaller groups, set goals closer to their needs, challenges that meet their interests, and check in with each other for more regular formative assessment throughout the year.
I'm glad I saw that in a classroom this week. I hadn't thought so much about using CLGs in my classes before, but I'm now really excited about the idea. I'll need to do more research on it.
As long as I'm not bothering her, I'm going to continue for the rest of the week, because here's a chance for me to observe how another teacher handles students, to take time and reflect on the behaviors I'm seeing, etc. When I'm teaching, I get really wrapped up in what I'm doing and my observations of how the students react and what things work/don't work get trapped in my subconscious, and I don't take time to think about how to change what I'm doing until something reaches a critical level. Also, it's hard for me to learn what works/doesn't work when I'm only able to observe my own teaching. What I'm looking for is what other people do, how they handle the same kids I'll be working with later that day. I don't have enough time in my 4 days to get to know the students, the unique needs each one has for assistance in writing, staying focused, or getting involved they have developed solutions for with their teacher. I like getting to observe this room. It also helps that I'm getting a chance to observe 6th grade. Though I plan on teaching high school, SOU's MAT program basically requires being certified for multiple levels, so I need to know how to work with middle school too.
One of the things I observed was the self-management techniques that are in place in the classroom. They're working with the Accelerated Math program, which uses the computer to score and generate assignments and tests for each math objective. I hadn't seen this program in use before, and I like the way it gives them more freedom to move through material at their own pace. The program can even generate extra exercises to work on skills they're consistently missing on the assignments. While students are working on the assignments, the teacher can then pull certain groups up to the front to work on new skills. Lots can get done in a day, hopefully.
Although separating groups for varied-level instruction is a technique mostly found in elementary and middle school, I don't know why it wouldn't work in a high school class as well. It even seems like this is the time to really get into it - it develops a greater sense of community and team work and it gives them a smaller group they may feel more comfortable in for discussion. There's often time when they may be working on some reading, group discussions for assignments, or a lab, when I could pull a group forward either because they're a group that needs some extra help with a section or they're a group that needs an extra challenge. If I set up a class with collaborative learning groups, 2 or 3 lab partner pairs working together in groups of 4-6, then those CLGs and I could meet in smaller groups, set goals closer to their needs, challenges that meet their interests, and check in with each other for more regular formative assessment throughout the year.
I'm glad I saw that in a classroom this week. I hadn't thought so much about using CLGs in my classes before, but I'm now really excited about the idea. I'll need to do more research on it.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
From class: Diversity in Education
For my Diversity in Education class this semester, we read "Multicultural Education, Social Positionality, and Whiteness" by Christine Sleeter. My source for the article was different from the one in the link, so the page numbers may not line up, but it'll give you the idea.
This isn't a topic I bring up very often on this blog, but as I'm working my way through the MAT program and getting together drafts of my Teaching Philosophy, it seems valuable enough to add some of these topics here as well and examine them on some other levels.
Here's the response I wrote for this article:
Christine Sleeter (2000) addresses the issues of educating preservice teachers in how to be prepared for multicultural education in their classrooms. I felt like this article was a challenge to white preservice students. She's challenging us to critically examine our own understandings of culture, expand it to incorporate the causes and effects of race, gender, and social class, and to make choices that will lead to greater understanding of how to be a true leader in multicultural education. The trouble Sleeter sees is the differences in perspective and attitudes between those who are white and those who are not. For people of color, the concepts and issues of multiculturalism are much more obvious, and are a part of daily life in the systemic discrimination they face, and how they identify themselves, historically and in the present. Teachers of color "grasp [these concepts] much more readily than white prospective teachers because these concepts mesh with their life experiences" (Sleeter, pg 121). For white preservice students, the issues of discrimination, racism, and opportunities for minority groups are altogether different. They "have difficulty going beyond a focus on how 'we' can help 'them,'" (Sleeter, pg 119) and their focus tends more toward choosing to ignore the problems they have not experienced.
I would hope to fully incorporate the true meanings of multiculturalism into my own life and not fall into the trap of 'us' helping 'them.' However, I can see the point that is being made, and believe I have more frequently seen and participated in that behavior than I would like to admit. Having not been the victim of daily, systemic discrimination means that I need to reach beyond myself to try and understand life as a person of color. How can I fully teach my students without bias, and teach them in a fully multicultural way when it takes an effort to do so, and I am still more likely to phrase it in a 'me' versus 'them' way?
Sleeter points out that if we are truly learning from our multicultural studies and using multicultural education to address the issues that need to be faced, then "building on analyses of race, social class, and gender that have been advanced over the past two decades, multicultural education should also direct our attention to concentrations of power and wealth in the hands of a small elite and to manifestations of that concentration in contemporary culture and social institutions" (pg 120). The point Sleeter makes here is very powerful. Here we are: educators who are researching multiculturalism; studying the historical and contemporary roles of race, gender and social class in our society; and supposedly teaching how to evolve a meaningful discourse on how to fix the problems and celebrate the victories; yet, we remain trapped in our old thought and behavior patterns. My first course in college was "Race, Gender, Justice," a discussion of how the historical development of the constructs has created the world in which we live. I felt at that point that I was ready to accept and discuss these issues in ways that will make a difference. Yet, I cannot name any time when I consciously acted in a way that was different than my instincts because of the things I learned in that class. Multicultural education is the perfect avenue for advancing understanding among all members of our society of the historical and current attitudes toward and treatments of various groups. We should be able to have valuable discourse and create social change; but, we see very little of that coming out of our 'multicultural education.'
One of the roadblocks to a real multicultural education is that white racism is mostly left undiscussed and patriarchy and class hierarchy are ignored. We focus "mainly on cultural difference" (Sleeter, pg 120). "That multicultural education often skirts around white racism results from white people's reluctance to address it more so than people of color's disregard for it" (Sleeter, pg 120). White people who consider themselves open minded and non-discriminatory have a tendency to begin that belief with the idea that they are "colorblind." Yet, we continue to make certain negative assumptions about various groups, or carry some prejudice ideas about them. "For teachers, trying to be colorblind... means trying to suppress the application of those negative associations to individual children one is teaching" (Sleeter, pg. 125). Additionally, those who consider themselves colorblind are also denying that there are racial boundaries they see and do not cross, such as when they choose a neighborhood to live in. I too, am guilty of this. I have often been encountered with an individual of color and can stifle my biases and be 'colorblind,' treating the individual as an individual. However, when confronted with a situation where there may be a larger number of people of color, I will not cross the racial boundaries and will stick to the white side.
Sleeter suggests that to begin understanding and incorporating the perspectives of people of color in multicultural education, teachers should engage "in regular dialog and collaborative work with people of color in our own communities, but that dialog and work needs to include regular and continued self-analysis" (pg 131). We need to be aware of where we come from and what influences will be affecting our perspectives as we try to incorporate those understandings into our own. We should also work to make multicultural education more than a study of a different famous person every month or a different country or ethnic group every other week. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the multiple aspects of diversity that extend beyond most definitions of culture. Multicultural education must consider the definition of culture that Sleeter uses, "the totality of a people's experience" (pg 127), and through integration of projects and discussion on the whole spectrum of cultural characteristics, students could understand more than just a small aspect of small sampling of the cultures in our society. I hope that as I continue to develop my teaching philosophy and my identity as a classroom leader I will also be continuing to reflect on my cultural perspectives and how I can best use my background and understandings to effectively teach in a multicultural world.
This isn't a topic I bring up very often on this blog, but as I'm working my way through the MAT program and getting together drafts of my Teaching Philosophy, it seems valuable enough to add some of these topics here as well and examine them on some other levels.
Here's the response I wrote for this article:
Christine Sleeter (2000) addresses the issues of educating preservice teachers in how to be prepared for multicultural education in their classrooms. I felt like this article was a challenge to white preservice students. She's challenging us to critically examine our own understandings of culture, expand it to incorporate the causes and effects of race, gender, and social class, and to make choices that will lead to greater understanding of how to be a true leader in multicultural education. The trouble Sleeter sees is the differences in perspective and attitudes between those who are white and those who are not. For people of color, the concepts and issues of multiculturalism are much more obvious, and are a part of daily life in the systemic discrimination they face, and how they identify themselves, historically and in the present. Teachers of color "grasp [these concepts] much more readily than white prospective teachers because these concepts mesh with their life experiences" (Sleeter, pg 121). For white preservice students, the issues of discrimination, racism, and opportunities for minority groups are altogether different. They "have difficulty going beyond a focus on how 'we' can help 'them,'" (Sleeter, pg 119) and their focus tends more toward choosing to ignore the problems they have not experienced.
I would hope to fully incorporate the true meanings of multiculturalism into my own life and not fall into the trap of 'us' helping 'them.' However, I can see the point that is being made, and believe I have more frequently seen and participated in that behavior than I would like to admit. Having not been the victim of daily, systemic discrimination means that I need to reach beyond myself to try and understand life as a person of color. How can I fully teach my students without bias, and teach them in a fully multicultural way when it takes an effort to do so, and I am still more likely to phrase it in a 'me' versus 'them' way?
Sleeter points out that if we are truly learning from our multicultural studies and using multicultural education to address the issues that need to be faced, then "building on analyses of race, social class, and gender that have been advanced over the past two decades, multicultural education should also direct our attention to concentrations of power and wealth in the hands of a small elite and to manifestations of that concentration in contemporary culture and social institutions" (pg 120). The point Sleeter makes here is very powerful. Here we are: educators who are researching multiculturalism; studying the historical and contemporary roles of race, gender and social class in our society; and supposedly teaching how to evolve a meaningful discourse on how to fix the problems and celebrate the victories; yet, we remain trapped in our old thought and behavior patterns. My first course in college was "Race, Gender, Justice," a discussion of how the historical development of the constructs has created the world in which we live. I felt at that point that I was ready to accept and discuss these issues in ways that will make a difference. Yet, I cannot name any time when I consciously acted in a way that was different than my instincts because of the things I learned in that class. Multicultural education is the perfect avenue for advancing understanding among all members of our society of the historical and current attitudes toward and treatments of various groups. We should be able to have valuable discourse and create social change; but, we see very little of that coming out of our 'multicultural education.'
One of the roadblocks to a real multicultural education is that white racism is mostly left undiscussed and patriarchy and class hierarchy are ignored. We focus "mainly on cultural difference" (Sleeter, pg 120). "That multicultural education often skirts around white racism results from white people's reluctance to address it more so than people of color's disregard for it" (Sleeter, pg 120). White people who consider themselves open minded and non-discriminatory have a tendency to begin that belief with the idea that they are "colorblind." Yet, we continue to make certain negative assumptions about various groups, or carry some prejudice ideas about them. "For teachers, trying to be colorblind... means trying to suppress the application of those negative associations to individual children one is teaching" (Sleeter, pg. 125). Additionally, those who consider themselves colorblind are also denying that there are racial boundaries they see and do not cross, such as when they choose a neighborhood to live in. I too, am guilty of this. I have often been encountered with an individual of color and can stifle my biases and be 'colorblind,' treating the individual as an individual. However, when confronted with a situation where there may be a larger number of people of color, I will not cross the racial boundaries and will stick to the white side.
Sleeter suggests that to begin understanding and incorporating the perspectives of people of color in multicultural education, teachers should engage "in regular dialog and collaborative work with people of color in our own communities, but that dialog and work needs to include regular and continued self-analysis" (pg 131). We need to be aware of where we come from and what influences will be affecting our perspectives as we try to incorporate those understandings into our own. We should also work to make multicultural education more than a study of a different famous person every month or a different country or ethnic group every other week. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the multiple aspects of diversity that extend beyond most definitions of culture. Multicultural education must consider the definition of culture that Sleeter uses, "the totality of a people's experience" (pg 127), and through integration of projects and discussion on the whole spectrum of cultural characteristics, students could understand more than just a small aspect of small sampling of the cultures in our society. I hope that as I continue to develop my teaching philosophy and my identity as a classroom leader I will also be continuing to reflect on my cultural perspectives and how I can best use my background and understandings to effectively teach in a multicultural world.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Somewhere between Old Things in Old Ways and Old Things in New Ways
Found my way to a December 2005 Edutopia article on the evolution of technology in the classroom. Marc Prensky describes the stages of adopting and adapting that must take place if we're going to use technology well and for "educational progress."
My outreach program is definitely stuck in Old Things in Old Ways. In fact, due to budget constraints and trying to "model lessons in simple ways that can be recreated by the classroom teacher" I am mostly stuck in the position of "Dabbling".
Evaluating my current program and goals I'd like to see implemented to improve the educational value:
1) Dabbling
I want to try using video to enhance the presentations. I count this in Dabbling and not New Things because without funding for a projector and time to implement video thoroughly in the program, it doesn't feel like much of a commitment.
I have been trying to work on ways to put our pre-lesson materials on our website so teachers can prep their classes for the program and have access to appropriate additional materials, but am being held back by time and access to our site development.
2) Old Things in Old Ways
Scheduling and confirming programs with schools is done through email, and my calendar is on my Google account. These are useful ways to make the job easier, but could also be done with pencil, paper, and a phone. Not really anything innovative.
Pre-Lesson materials are typed and emailed to teachers. Again, nothing innovative. The one nod to technology that exists is that by sending as a pdf, these materials can have embedded html links to additional resources that are easy to use.
3) Old Things in New Ways
The Resources binder is now a CD of pdfs, allowing teachers more flexibility in their use, and easier access, rather than flipping through a 2" or 3" binder.
4) New Things in New Ways
I would love to get a projector and be able to show really cool videos to enhance the presentations that introduce the classes. "When we begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are giving students new, better ways to get information." (Prensky, 2005). I can stand there and show them a model of the heart, have them draw the flow of blood on the drawing of the heart in front of them, but wouldn't it be better to show them this: "Human Atlas: How the Heart Works" before they do that?
Also, they are required to do a lot of writing for the class that I wish they could do on a computer instead. They need to write their hypothesis, experimental design, data collect, procedure, and data analysis. It's all valuable information, and the practice of writing it is important to the inquiry process. They don't know it, but they're really learning some valuable skills while doing all that writing. However, many of these students struggle so much with the act of writing and spelling that they are unable to focus on the science skills they're learning. There is a value to learning to write, but is this the time and place to practice those skills? If students were able to type their data and procedures, we would spend less time correcting spelling or improperly written numbers, and be able to focus more on the processes they're using for science. They can get their ideas down on the paper more quickly, instead of agonizing over the formation of the letters and words. And editing is easier, as we talk about being sure to get all the steps of the process into the plan and they see they've missed something, we need to decide is it easier to erase everything and start over, or try to squeeze something in and use messy looking arrows to show that this step should have happened before that one? With a computer, they could just insert the necessary information.
I would love to be working in classrooms where students could create their work samples on a computer instead of on paper. And we could save a lot of trees in the process! Some might say this is still an "Old Things in Old Ways", but I see that the educational progress - the students gaining experience, ability to focus on the content and not the writing - brings this out of "Old" and into "New." It creates the 'real world scenario' in their classroom and they get to be part of it.
The debate on learning and using handwriting (printing or cursive) versus teaching students typing earlier and emphasizing it as the medium they're more likely to use outside of school and a skill they will need more often is extensive. Here are just a few places where you can read more about the debate: LiquidLearning.com, eLearning Technology.
Resources:
Prensky, Marc. 2005 "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom" Edutopia.com. Available: http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
From "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom"Where do you fit in?
1) Dabbling
2) Old Things in Old Ways
3) Old Things in New Ways
4) New Things in New Ways
My outreach program is definitely stuck in Old Things in Old Ways. In fact, due to budget constraints and trying to "model lessons in simple ways that can be recreated by the classroom teacher" I am mostly stuck in the position of "Dabbling".
Evaluating my current program and goals I'd like to see implemented to improve the educational value:
1) Dabbling
I want to try using video to enhance the presentations. I count this in Dabbling and not New Things because without funding for a projector and time to implement video thoroughly in the program, it doesn't feel like much of a commitment.
I have been trying to work on ways to put our pre-lesson materials on our website so teachers can prep their classes for the program and have access to appropriate additional materials, but am being held back by time and access to our site development.
2) Old Things in Old Ways
Scheduling and confirming programs with schools is done through email, and my calendar is on my Google account. These are useful ways to make the job easier, but could also be done with pencil, paper, and a phone. Not really anything innovative.
Pre-Lesson materials are typed and emailed to teachers. Again, nothing innovative. The one nod to technology that exists is that by sending as a pdf, these materials can have embedded html links to additional resources that are easy to use.
3) Old Things in New Ways
The Resources binder is now a CD of pdfs, allowing teachers more flexibility in their use, and easier access, rather than flipping through a 2" or 3" binder.
4) New Things in New Ways
I would love to get a projector and be able to show really cool videos to enhance the presentations that introduce the classes. "When we begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are giving students new, better ways to get information." (Prensky, 2005). I can stand there and show them a model of the heart, have them draw the flow of blood on the drawing of the heart in front of them, but wouldn't it be better to show them this: "Human Atlas: How the Heart Works" before they do that?
Also, they are required to do a lot of writing for the class that I wish they could do on a computer instead. They need to write their hypothesis, experimental design, data collect, procedure, and data analysis. It's all valuable information, and the practice of writing it is important to the inquiry process. They don't know it, but they're really learning some valuable skills while doing all that writing. However, many of these students struggle so much with the act of writing and spelling that they are unable to focus on the science skills they're learning. There is a value to learning to write, but is this the time and place to practice those skills? If students were able to type their data and procedures, we would spend less time correcting spelling or improperly written numbers, and be able to focus more on the processes they're using for science. They can get their ideas down on the paper more quickly, instead of agonizing over the formation of the letters and words. And editing is easier, as we talk about being sure to get all the steps of the process into the plan and they see they've missed something, we need to decide is it easier to erase everything and start over, or try to squeeze something in and use messy looking arrows to show that this step should have happened before that one? With a computer, they could just insert the necessary information.
I would love to be working in classrooms where students could create their work samples on a computer instead of on paper. And we could save a lot of trees in the process! Some might say this is still an "Old Things in Old Ways", but I see that the educational progress - the students gaining experience, ability to focus on the content and not the writing - brings this out of "Old" and into "New." It creates the 'real world scenario' in their classroom and they get to be part of it.
The debate on learning and using handwriting (printing or cursive) versus teaching students typing earlier and emphasizing it as the medium they're more likely to use outside of school and a skill they will need more often is extensive. Here are just a few places where you can read more about the debate: LiquidLearning.com, eLearning Technology.
Resources:
Prensky, Marc. 2005 "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom" Edutopia.com. Available: http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
Friday, October 3, 2008
Outreach - After School Crickets
Went to the third site of the after school crickets program today and met with the site director. When I called him 3 or 4 weeks ago and left the message "Hi, I'm the new outreach coordinator and I'd like to the talk with you about the after school Cricket program that was planned 3 years ago but never executed," I got the impression that maybe he didn't remember much about it. Specifically, he didn't remember why he should spend any of his time working with me to get 8 measly hours of after school programs into his building.
After meeting with him today, he's talking about how to get more grants that could bring more of this and similar projects into his club. That tends to be the general reaction. People see this program and get very excited about the possibilities.
Oh, and did I mention the great idea I came up with for my longer classes? I wanted to give them a fun build-it-animate-it challenge but didn't want it to be the roller coasters again (too specific). I found an old idea on the Playful Invention and Exploration website: building a chain reaction based on a nursery rhyme, poem, or story.
I think this will be a great challenge. I immediately started searching for nursery rhymes and came up with about a dozen ideas of animated story scenes I could build. And it could be anything... they could animate a scene from Harry Potter if they want. The only requirement - use the Crickets to take a simple scene and animate it.
After meeting with him today, he's talking about how to get more grants that could bring more of this and similar projects into his club. That tends to be the general reaction. People see this program and get very excited about the possibilities.
Oh, and did I mention the great idea I came up with for my longer classes? I wanted to give them a fun build-it-animate-it challenge but didn't want it to be the roller coasters again (too specific). I found an old idea on the Playful Invention and Exploration website: building a chain reaction based on a nursery rhyme, poem, or story.
I think this will be a great challenge. I immediately started searching for nursery rhymes and came up with about a dozen ideas of animated story scenes I could build. And it could be anything... they could animate a scene from Harry Potter if they want. The only requirement - use the Crickets to take a simple scene and animate it.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
There's more to Formative Assessment then meets the eye
To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention. I don't know what lead to the question in class, but I heard the professor say "Who knows the difference between formative and summative assessment?" No one responds.
This is a topic that I tend to think about a lot. I want to know if I'm getting through to my students before I have to grade them on it. I'm always hoping to do a better a job with formative assessments in my classrooms, so that I can feel like I've done every thing I can (in the 5 hours I'll see these students) to help them succeed on their work samples. So, I'm pretty familiar with the topic.
I raise my hand, and give a response: "Formative assessment is on-going. Its when you check in with your students during class and try to get a feel for what they're understanding or what you need to clarify. Summative assessments are at the end; the tests and papers that are graded to see what they retained." My definition wasn't complete enough for him, but he said it got an "A". That was his own formative assessment - he was telling me, you have the idea, but there's more to learn - pay attention.
So how else can I use formative assessments? Not just asking the students to answer a question or list the forces of flight and seeing who can recall it. What else can I do in my classroom now?
One of the activities that is usually part of my class is on the last day when students are finishing up their work samples. I have two or three of them come forward and read their Experiment Procedures. While they read what they've written in their rough draft, I mime their actions, setting up and doing the experiment exactly as they've described. This is a great tool when the first one or two are really bad. When they're good, its harder to use as a tool.
Are my students a tool I'm using (asking them questions and gauging their responses verse what I want/expect) or are they also benefiting from the assessments? During those demonstrations, they're helping each other, they can watch each other, listen to each other, and offer advice. It's a technique that works, it involves the student and it gives them a fair opportunity to review their draft before completing the assignment. What about other times in my lesson plans - do I offer more opportunities when they can assess themselves and each other, or do I wait for them to regurgitate information to see if it stuck?
This is a topic that I tend to think about a lot. I want to know if I'm getting through to my students before I have to grade them on it. I'm always hoping to do a better a job with formative assessments in my classrooms, so that I can feel like I've done every thing I can (in the 5 hours I'll see these students) to help them succeed on their work samples. So, I'm pretty familiar with the topic.
I raise my hand, and give a response: "Formative assessment is on-going. Its when you check in with your students during class and try to get a feel for what they're understanding or what you need to clarify. Summative assessments are at the end; the tests and papers that are graded to see what they retained." My definition wasn't complete enough for him, but he said it got an "A". That was his own formative assessment - he was telling me, you have the idea, but there's more to learn - pay attention.
So how else can I use formative assessments? Not just asking the students to answer a question or list the forces of flight and seeing who can recall it. What else can I do in my classroom now?
One of the activities that is usually part of my class is on the last day when students are finishing up their work samples. I have two or three of them come forward and read their Experiment Procedures. While they read what they've written in their rough draft, I mime their actions, setting up and doing the experiment exactly as they've described. This is a great tool when the first one or two are really bad. When they're good, its harder to use as a tool.
"Another distinction that underpins formative assessment is student involvement. If students are not involved in the assessment process, formative assessment is not practiced or implemented to its full effectiveness. Students need to be involved both as assessors of their own learning and as resources to other students." Catherine Garrison & Michael Ehringhaus, "Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom"
Are my students a tool I'm using (asking them questions and gauging their responses verse what I want/expect) or are they also benefiting from the assessments? During those demonstrations, they're helping each other, they can watch each other, listen to each other, and offer advice. It's a technique that works, it involves the student and it gives them a fair opportunity to review their draft before completing the assignment. What about other times in my lesson plans - do I offer more opportunities when they can assess themselves and each other, or do I wait for them to regurgitate information to see if it stuck?
"..[F]ormative assessment occurs when teachers feed information back to students in ways that enable the student to learn better, or when students can engage in a similar, self-reflective process." Staff, FairTest; "The value of formative assessment"Not as easy as we want it to be.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Technology is...
I'm going to start collecting these quotes. Some are thought-provoking and some are funny, but mostly, the value is in considering the instinctual reactions that people will have when you say you want to bring "technology" to the classroom.
Here are three to start us off.
Here are three to start us off.
"Technology is anything you don't trust. It's the things that break. If it's going to work, you call it a toaster." (Paraphrased) - the Director of IT at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
"Technology is anything invented after you were born, everything else is just stuff." - Alan Kay (via Drape's Takes)
"Technology is anything that makes something else easier to do. This pencil is a form of technology." - (paraphrased again) Dennis Dunleavy, Assistant Professor of Communication, Southern Oregon Universiy
El Paseo
Back in school for the first heavy-duty term of the Master's program. Of course, every term is supposed to be relatively light, so it can be worked around jobs, family obligations, etc, but this term will definitely be more work than last.
We started our Multicultural Education class with an interesting activity last night, an El Paseo "Circles of Identity" activity (click for link to pdf). It was a good way to integrate the basic "get to know your classmates" first day activity with the class' topic and a teaching tool that is relevant to the topic. The activity started with listing the categories of things that we consider part of a student's identity. What pieces fit together? Race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, family environment... the list goes on. Then we needed to build our own web of identity. Using specific terms in place of the categories, what makes us who we are? What is our own identity? We then went around the room having one-on-one conversations to share reflections on those characteristics. We didn't stand there and list off what we wrote - we talked about why those things made us who we are. Using our identity web and our conversations, we should have a good start on our first assignment, writing an autobiography.
It wasn't until today that I realized the subtle work the professor did in bringing the standard first-day classroom introductions, the class content, our first homework assignment, and a useful teaching tool together in one activity. We're taking these classes to learn to be good teachers... how often do we notice the tools the teachers are using and recognize the ways they're demonstrating technique in addition to the content?
After drifting a bit for the last month, and falling behind on posts and reflections, getting back into class is motivating. A lot of it comes from the increased stimulation: reading assignments, discussions, class time, etc. I want to remember to reflect on this stuff, so that 'el paseo' (the road) to my Master's definitely won't end with the degree. It should all be part of the learning experience and the never-ending quest to improve my teaching strategies and abilities.
We started our Multicultural Education class with an interesting activity last night, an El Paseo "Circles of Identity" activity (click for link to pdf). It was a good way to integrate the basic "get to know your classmates" first day activity with the class' topic and a teaching tool that is relevant to the topic. The activity started with listing the categories of things that we consider part of a student's identity. What pieces fit together? Race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, family environment... the list goes on. Then we needed to build our own web of identity. Using specific terms in place of the categories, what makes us who we are? What is our own identity? We then went around the room having one-on-one conversations to share reflections on those characteristics. We didn't stand there and list off what we wrote - we talked about why those things made us who we are. Using our identity web and our conversations, we should have a good start on our first assignment, writing an autobiography.
The "circles of identity" I came up with last night.
After drifting a bit for the last month, and falling behind on posts and reflections, getting back into class is motivating. A lot of it comes from the increased stimulation: reading assignments, discussions, class time, etc. I want to remember to reflect on this stuff, so that 'el paseo' (the road) to my Master's definitely won't end with the degree. It should all be part of the learning experience and the never-ending quest to improve my teaching strategies and abilities.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Trying to go Paperless
How do you take an Outreach science program and go paperless? This is the question I'm trying to answer. Classroom teachers have that advantage of knowing and controlling the assets their students have access to: PDAs, computers, programs, etc that can help them go paperless. Though budgets may be tight, when you can get those assets into the classroom and use them right, everyone benefits. But, when I go out to some of the more rural schools, I may be faced with classrooms where finding a sharpened pencil is a challenge, let alone having a computer each student can enter their data on.
If my programs were just a hands-on science experience, I could totally do it. My big challenge comes from the state: required work samples for all students grades 3-high school. They need to write out an entire scientific experiment, from question and hypothesis to data analysis and conclusion. Not a small task by any means, and certainly not one that can be done without paper.
I can still cut down though. Teachers used to receive a binder of information (additional lessons, background on the Science Inquiry Cycle, scoring guides, ideas for designing their own lesson) that they may or may not use. This year, they'll start receiving a CD with the same information that they may or may not use. (Personal goal: be able to dress up the CD so it's more than just a bunch of files).
On my side, instead of a dozen notebooks full of random notes, I'm now fully engulfed in using Evernote to carry my information and Toodledo to keep my to-do lists in order. Notes from meetings are typed, not hand written; websites I may need to find again are bookmarked (thanks to Foxmarks); I go nowhere without laptop and iPhone.
There are times my hand twitches and makes me feel like I can't focus without drawing out my plan for the day. But I take a deep breath, open up OmniGraffle and draw a flowchart of my ideas. I've upgraded my Toodledo to a Pro account so I can track subtasks and watch progress get made toward goals I've set, but it still didn't do the visual flowchart of ideas for me. OmniGraffle picked up that piece. And the only thing on my Christmas wish list at this point is a graphic pad (though a Kindle wouldn't be bad either). That should help me make that last push to just being done with paper, at least on a personal level.
Now, to implement as many ideas as I can for doing it at work too.
If my programs were just a hands-on science experience, I could totally do it. My big challenge comes from the state: required work samples for all students grades 3-high school. They need to write out an entire scientific experiment, from question and hypothesis to data analysis and conclusion. Not a small task by any means, and certainly not one that can be done without paper.
I can still cut down though. Teachers used to receive a binder of information (additional lessons, background on the Science Inquiry Cycle, scoring guides, ideas for designing their own lesson) that they may or may not use. This year, they'll start receiving a CD with the same information that they may or may not use. (Personal goal: be able to dress up the CD so it's more than just a bunch of files).
On my side, instead of a dozen notebooks full of random notes, I'm now fully engulfed in using Evernote to carry my information and Toodledo to keep my to-do lists in order. Notes from meetings are typed, not hand written; websites I may need to find again are bookmarked (thanks to Foxmarks); I go nowhere without laptop and iPhone.
There are times my hand twitches and makes me feel like I can't focus without drawing out my plan for the day. But I take a deep breath, open up OmniGraffle and draw a flowchart of my ideas. I've upgraded my Toodledo to a Pro account so I can track subtasks and watch progress get made toward goals I've set, but it still didn't do the visual flowchart of ideas for me. OmniGraffle picked up that piece. And the only thing on my Christmas wish list at this point is a graphic pad (though a Kindle wouldn't be bad either). That should help me make that last push to just being done with paper, at least on a personal level.
Now, to implement as many ideas as I can for doing it at work too.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Day 2: OTS Conference
First: an opening for Outreach Coordinator at the Imaginarium in Anchorage is very tempting. There's a Center for the Performing Arts right across the street. Maybe they need a Theater Technologist?
Anyway, the conference continued to be a source of good inspiration. We dragged ourselves down into mucky areas as we debated the "what comes next" question, how do we move beyond the grant and into sustainability and all that. Our Collaboration of museums work well together on sharing ideas for how to do things during the grant, but because the museums are so different, we all have our own needs and ideas about how the exhibit becomes self-sustaining, or even if it can.
Also, our museum was the stand out of how we ran the program this year, and the only one with a change in direct management of the exhibits between years. Those are our challenges. I don't feel like I have the information and data necessary to make good choices in venues for next year, and I plan on using this year to experiment, collect data and make good choices for the following year. Everyone else had reached more of the types of venues they needed to for their data, and have information for making choices this year.
We also got a chance to hear more about the Imaginarium's Outreach program. They take planes to the villages, sleep on mattresses on gymnasium floors, pack in their own food (so they don't have to eat smoked fish dipped in seal oil), and get to reach entire families with programs and science they'd never see otherwise. Dog sleds, snow mobiles, the Alaska Ferry system, and lots of snow - all to bring science to some of the most rural villages imaginable. And totally worth it.
It was a good day. I've made good contacts for future collaborations. Got to know a guy from the Exploratorium who invited us down for Maker Faire in May. Sounds awesome, and would help me make even MORE contacts at Exploratorium - a very good place to have science museum contacts.
Summary - interesting discussions, great brainstorming, fun conversations and dinner, and an overall good time.
Anyway, the conference continued to be a source of good inspiration. We dragged ourselves down into mucky areas as we debated the "what comes next" question, how do we move beyond the grant and into sustainability and all that. Our Collaboration of museums work well together on sharing ideas for how to do things during the grant, but because the museums are so different, we all have our own needs and ideas about how the exhibit becomes self-sustaining, or even if it can.
Also, our museum was the stand out of how we ran the program this year, and the only one with a change in direct management of the exhibits between years. Those are our challenges. I don't feel like I have the information and data necessary to make good choices in venues for next year, and I plan on using this year to experiment, collect data and make good choices for the following year. Everyone else had reached more of the types of venues they needed to for their data, and have information for making choices this year.
We also got a chance to hear more about the Imaginarium's Outreach program. They take planes to the villages, sleep on mattresses on gymnasium floors, pack in their own food (so they don't have to eat smoked fish dipped in seal oil), and get to reach entire families with programs and science they'd never see otherwise. Dog sleds, snow mobiles, the Alaska Ferry system, and lots of snow - all to bring science to some of the most rural villages imaginable. And totally worth it.
It was a good day. I've made good contacts for future collaborations. Got to know a guy from the Exploratorium who invited us down for Maker Faire in May. Sounds awesome, and would help me make even MORE contacts at Exploratorium - a very good place to have science museum contacts.
Summary - interesting discussions, great brainstorming, fun conversations and dinner, and an overall good time.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Day 1: OTS Conference
Despite my hestitancy in taking over this program, nothing can stop that instinctual desire to improve, control, brainstorm, research, etc, etc that makes me the perfect person for (most of) this program. The presentations and discussions yesterday helped prove that. I couldn't help but be interested in hearing their experiences and ideas for improvement. I couldn't help but start getting excited about how I could improve what I had seen in our exhibit set up and implementation. We've been missing the boat (shuttle) on this one.
I'm still not excited about the extra hours, the truck driving, the dealing with venues, the crowds, the set-up/tear-down. It's a lot more manual labor and organization then education - and I'm too good at teaching to spend so much time on it. That's always been one of the things I really like about teaching through a museum - a higher percentage of time is spent on actually developing curriculum and teaching it then on the bureaucracy and administrative responsibilities of classroom teaching. But, there's a chance I could do this, with minimal suffering.
I'm still not excited about the extra hours, the truck driving, the dealing with venues, the crowds, the set-up/tear-down. It's a lot more manual labor and organization then education - and I'm too good at teaching to spend so much time on it. That's always been one of the things I really like about teaching through a museum - a higher percentage of time is spent on actually developing curriculum and teaching it then on the bureaucracy and administrative responsibilities of classroom teaching. But, there's a chance I could do this, with minimal suffering.
Monday, September 15, 2008
OTS - Anchorage
Headed to Anchorage for a two-day conference for the Outreach to Space exhibit. Unsure what to really expect when I get there, just a general outline of Day 1 - talk about exhibits; Day 2 - talk about how cool Outreach is when you need dog sleds to get you to your schools.
It should be an interesting experience. It is the first of what I hope will be many conferences and professional development opportunities for me this year. I've been teaching science outreach for several years, learning from those who have done the job before me, from research and websites, from experience. And now I'm starting to see it from other perspectives, expanding the resources of experience that I can call on when looking for solutions to problems. It can be overwhelming - there are thousands of educators in the world, hundreds who do outreach. Trying to gain the sum knowledge available from their experiences is more than an lifetime of work.
I was talking to one of the museum's many volunteers this weekend. He comes from the Silicon Valley and the technology-insanity with years of attempting to just keep up with the tons of knowledge that are being produced every day. And now, retired and comfortably living in a calmer world here in Oregon, we were contemplating the value of always being so concerned about knowing what everyone else is learning and doing. If you're always reading the new information, the reviews of the new discoveries, and the debates about them, how much time are you leaving yourself for learning something new yourself? On the flip side, without knowing what's out there, what opportunities do you miss out on? How do you find the balance?
Coordinating the exhibits for the next year or so was not necessarily an opportunity I sought out, but there is a good feeling involved in bringing science out to the community. Perhaps being here and talking with other people who work with these exhibits will help me find something to be excited about.
It should be an interesting experience. It is the first of what I hope will be many conferences and professional development opportunities for me this year. I've been teaching science outreach for several years, learning from those who have done the job before me, from research and websites, from experience. And now I'm starting to see it from other perspectives, expanding the resources of experience that I can call on when looking for solutions to problems. It can be overwhelming - there are thousands of educators in the world, hundreds who do outreach. Trying to gain the sum knowledge available from their experiences is more than an lifetime of work.
I was talking to one of the museum's many volunteers this weekend. He comes from the Silicon Valley and the technology-insanity with years of attempting to just keep up with the tons of knowledge that are being produced every day. And now, retired and comfortably living in a calmer world here in Oregon, we were contemplating the value of always being so concerned about knowing what everyone else is learning and doing. If you're always reading the new information, the reviews of the new discoveries, and the debates about them, how much time are you leaving yourself for learning something new yourself? On the flip side, without knowing what's out there, what opportunities do you miss out on? How do you find the balance?
Coordinating the exhibits for the next year or so was not necessarily an opportunity I sought out, but there is a good feeling involved in bringing science out to the community. Perhaps being here and talking with other people who work with these exhibits will help me find something to be excited about.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Outreach
Over the next few months, I'll be taking the Crickets program on the road. The no-longer-shelved grant is finally getting off the ground and reaching teens in after school programs.
And not a minute too soon.
I met with the director of one of the after school teen clubs I'll be taking the program to, to get a feel for their layout, talk about the requirements, and discuss options for the program. I'll spend 8 hours total at each of the clubs, and it had seemed like enough until I saw this one. In a tiny town in the middle of the mountains, this is a club that barely scrapes by, and offers everything from meals to a place to sleep, games to educational programming. The kind of place that deserves all kinds of support from its community. Not the kind of place that should be broken into to have its new computers stolen. No, not even stolen - gutted. Anything that wasn't traceable. Same as the library and the school that share the parking lot. WHO DOES THAT???
Grr...
I'm taking technology to these kids. I'm bringing them toys that none of them will have access to outside of our 8 hours together. It's not enough. But at least it's something. When I did this with the kids during summer camp, half of the families were talking about getting the kits for their kids after the program. They didn't have to worry about having the computer or the money for the kit. The kids I'll see in this after school program? Maybe 1 of them has a personal computer with internet. They'll be in the workforce a lot sooner than those kids I saw this summer, they'll need the skills for college (if they go). And they don't have access to it outside of a computer class.
We need to overhaul education and the economy. This isn't acceptable.
And not a minute too soon.
I met with the director of one of the after school teen clubs I'll be taking the program to, to get a feel for their layout, talk about the requirements, and discuss options for the program. I'll spend 8 hours total at each of the clubs, and it had seemed like enough until I saw this one. In a tiny town in the middle of the mountains, this is a club that barely scrapes by, and offers everything from meals to a place to sleep, games to educational programming. The kind of place that deserves all kinds of support from its community. Not the kind of place that should be broken into to have its new computers stolen. No, not even stolen - gutted. Anything that wasn't traceable. Same as the library and the school that share the parking lot. WHO DOES THAT???
Grr...
I'm taking technology to these kids. I'm bringing them toys that none of them will have access to outside of our 8 hours together. It's not enough. But at least it's something. When I did this with the kids during summer camp, half of the families were talking about getting the kits for their kids after the program. They didn't have to worry about having the computer or the money for the kit. The kids I'll see in this after school program? Maybe 1 of them has a personal computer with internet. They'll be in the workforce a lot sooner than those kids I saw this summer, they'll need the skills for college (if they go). And they don't have access to it outside of a computer class.
We need to overhaul education and the economy. This isn't acceptable.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A Thought-Provoking Article
Hopefully, Gary Stager's recent article in GOOD Magazine does more than provoke thought. I hope it provokes communities into action. Read the whole thing here.
This is how he starts:
And everything in the middle deserves your attention.
This is how he starts:
Schools are seeing recess eliminated, electives are being cut, and teachers are insulted by the prospect of having their career and income threatened by their students’ scores on a single multiple-choice test. All in the name of No Child Left Behind, a mathematically impossible piece of federal education legislation, which requires all of the nation’s schoolchildren to be above the mean on standardized tests by 2014.And here's how he ends:
...Parents need to be vigilant and take a stand. Parents can go to back-to-school night this fall. If the science lab contains no equipment, they should demand to know why and not wait patiently while the district hopes they forget. If their first grader was excited about going to school, but by the third day cries hysterically and says, “The teacher hates me,” his concerns should be taken seriously. If their kid’s school is test-obsessed, parents should let teachers and administrators know that they expect more of an education. If every parent was vocally fighting for the best public schools for their children—instead of some of the most involved and caring opting out in disgust—the government would be forced to listen.
Because despite their flaws, inequities, and shortcomings, public schools are an American treasure owned by the citizens, and we should treat them as a public trust."
And everything in the middle deserves your attention.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
WoW = Science Inquiry?
I love this:
...What is science? It's a technique for uncovering the hidden rules that govern the world. And videogames are simulated worlds that kids are constantly trying to master. Lineage and World of Warcraft aren't "real" world, of course, but they are consistent -- the behavior of the environment and the creatures in it are governed by hidden and generally unchanging rules, encoded by the game designers. In the process of learning a game, gamers try to deduce those rules.<The article goes on to discuss the findings of Constance Steinkuehler, a game academic at the University of Wisconsin, who studied almost 2,000 messages posted on a World of Warcraft discussion board. She found that a majority of these messages were analyzing the game, with posters going back and forth positing hypotheses and responding with experience-based rebuttals - the marks of good science inquiry.
This leads them, without them even realizing it, to the scientific method.
- Clive Thompson, "Games Without Frontiers" Wired.com September 9, 2008
Indeed, the conversations often had the precise flow of a scientific salon, or even a journal series: Someone would pose a question -- like what sort of potions a high-class priest ought to carry around, or how to defeat a particular monster -- and another would post a reply, offering data and facts gathered from their own observations. Others would jump into the fray, disputing the theory, refining it, offering other facts. Eventually, once everyone was convinced the theory was supported by the data, the discussion would peter out. - Thompson, "Games Without Frontiers"In the classroom, it's difficult to inspire student-driven inquiry. How do you get them to ask their own questions and seek out their own research to answer it? We can see that teens will use this method on their own, and do to play games - shouldn't we be able to get that same behavior to test gravity, momentum, chemical reactions, etc? They don't realize they're doing it when the goal is to win the game. How do we get them to try it in the classroom?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Early Ed and Teenage Literacy
In one of those moments of shear, but strange, coincidence, I stumbled upon the following article today, shortly after my kindergarten-teaching mother-in-law asked me if I had found anything interesting in the realm of early ed lately.
In an article in the New York Times addresses the issue:
Britain has a national curriculum with specific goals, and schools there are rigorously inspected and evaluated. Most kids enter school at 4, instead of 5 as is the case here, and pre-kindergarten programs tend to be more academic than in the United States. American programs are often more play-based than academically structured, and standards vary widely from state-to-state and between public and private settings.It's not an open-and-shut case as to whether one country's approach is better than another. On a recent international reading test, U.S. fourth-graders and their peers from England had the same results. They weren't all that impressive. Students from the two countries posted lower average scores than students in Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, Hungary, Italy and Sweden, along with several Canadian provinces.
In math, kids in the United Kingdom, which includes Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, outperformed their American peers on an international test given to 15-year-olds. - Nancy Zuckerbrod, AP, "Mom finds U.S. lagging in early education" August 25, 2008. CNN.com
The math is especially telling. By requiring 6 year olds to know fractions (well before the Oregon State Standards - 3rd grade (Oregon Math Standards available here)), they get an incredible jump on all future math learning. And it isn't beyond the reach of a Kinder, I've watched my younger cousins determine that their half of the cookie isn't actually half. The games we play with young students to demonstrate halves, thirds and quarters can be comprehended by a 6 year old if done correctly. Why isn't it pushed more, why not include it in the games we play with our preschoolers and kinders? I don't spend all day with kids this age - is there any one out there who disagrees?
The reading is interesting. Britons are pushed to read far and above Americans by the age of 6 - but 4th graders test the same. If they're pushing so hard at the beginning, and developing those skills early, why aren't they continuing to build on them? The following is a quote from a Canadan news network, Globe and Mail but sounds very similar to the things written about American students.
And yet everything conspires against children learning to love books. Ubiquitous electronic devices, whether desk-bound or small enough to fit in their pockets, occupy an alarming proportion of children's days, and seem to shorten attention spans. Organized sports and music take up much of the remaining time. Homework - often mindless rote activities done by one tiny segment of a brain otherwise occupied by television - uses up time better used for reading. School literature courses often seem designed to expunge any traces of love for books. Parents may hector their children to read but tend not to read much in front of their children; children are quick to ignore such lip service. - Editorial, Globe and Mail Staff, "The Reading Habit Forms in Childhood", September 2, 2008.What can we do, after they have the basic grounding in reading, to continue developing the skills and interest? Or, is the emphasis on reading out-dated? Does it really fit with our culture and world as it once did?
In an article in the New York Times addresses the issue:
As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.
But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.
Even accomplished book readers like Zachary Sims, 18, of Old Greenwich, Conn., crave the ability to quickly find different points of view on a subject and converse with others online. Some children with dyslexia or other learning difficulties, like Hunter Gaudet, 16, of Somers, Conn., have found it far more comfortable to search and read online. - Motoko Rich, "Literacy Debate - Online R U Really Reading?" New York Times, July 27, 2008
The debate will rage on, I'm sure. But what will be our driving force? What's best for our kids and our world, or what gives us the better test scores compared to other countries?
References:
Globe and Mail Staff, "The Reading Habit Forms in Childhood", The Globe and Mail September 2, 2008. CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080902.wereading02/BNStory/specialComment/home
Rich, Mokoto, "Literacy Debate - Online R U Really Reading?" New York Times July 27, 2008. The New York Times Company. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Zuckerbrod, Nancy. "Mom finds U.S. lagging in early education" August 25, 2008. Associated Press. http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/25/early.education.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText
Thursday, September 4, 2008
More from Turtle Bay
I'm back from my vacation now, and should be back in the habit of daily updates too. Here's an easy one to start with: pictures from Turtle Bay...
If anyone could help me identify this butterfly, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Turtle Bay encompasses many types of museums and areas of study. They have sections devoted to forestry and natural history, animals from a rescued box turtle to a black vulture, as well as an arboretum and gardens. We didn't get to see everything, of course, since the trip was cut short due to a vegetation fire on the grounds. But we did see a lot.
This was an interesting juxtaposition to me: the old and the new technologies.
If anyone could help me identify this butterfly, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Turtle Bay encompasses many types of museums and areas of study. They have sections devoted to forestry and natural history, animals from a rescued box turtle to a black vulture, as well as an arboretum and gardens. We didn't get to see everything, of course, since the trip was cut short due to a vegetation fire on the grounds. But we did see a lot.
This was an interesting juxtaposition to me: the old and the new technologies.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Turtle Bay
Got to go to Turtle Bay in Redding, CA today. It was a group field trip organized by our museum director and their CEO so we could see their organization and compare notes. They're also a relatively new organization, and one that has had its own challenges in development and growth. We really had some great conversations with them regarding how their experiences and ideas could work in our situations.
Then a small vegetation fire started working its way through their Garden and Arboretum forced an evacuation and we had to cut our conversations short. Article and pictures can be found on Redding.com.
I'll post a pic or two (of the parts of the park we did get to see) later.
Then a small vegetation fire started working its way through their Garden and Arboretum forced an evacuation and we had to cut our conversations short. Article and pictures can be found on Redding.com.
I'll post a pic or two (of the parts of the park we did get to see) later.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Evolution
On the projector, Mr. Campbell placed slides of the cartoon icon: one at his skinny genesis in 1928; one from his 1940 turn as the impish Sorcerer’s Apprentice; and another of the rounded, ingratiating charmer of Mouse Club fame.
“How,” he asked his students, “has Mickey changed?”
From "A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash" - New York Times, August 24, 2008
Teaching evolution in the classroom is not an easy task.
Even states that require teachers to cover the basics of evolution, like natural selection, rarely ask them to explain in any detail how humans, in particular, evolved from earlier life forms. That subject can be especially fraught for young people taught to believe that the basis for moral conduct lies in God’s having created man uniquely in his own image.
That's a perspective I never really considered. If you can reach them and have them understand that life evolves, how do you get them to understand they still have a responsibility to themselves and their community to act with a code of moral conduct, when the source of that had always been the God that created them?
I attended Catholic schools for 12 years. Fortunately, in an environment that was open to the idea of science and religion as two ways of looking at the same world, and believing in one did not mean that you were disbelieving of the other. I worry sometimes about how I would answer questions from students about evolution. I would need to follow my state's guidelines, the need for the students to pass the assessments, and my own personal choice to never lie to a student or mislead them, to give them the best information I can.
I like the response the teacher in this article has:
“Faith is not based on science,” Mr. Campbell said. “And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks.”
“But I do,” he added, “expect you to understand it.”
Sometimes I forget the debate is still going on in some states about whether or not evolution should be taught in a classroom. I'm glad I stumbled on this article, it's inspirational, and a great example of a teacher who deserves praise for courage and determination (as well as creativity in reaching students).
Sunday, August 24, 2008
A Good Teacher or a Great One?
As I sit at my computer today, trying to gather thoughts and to-do lists into a more organized chaos to address as needed before my classes start in four weeks, I want to take five minutes to review a list of questions I found on Edutopia.org a few weeks ago "Pride of Profession: Striving to Become a Great Teacher".
Here are the seven questions the author, Ben Johnson, asks at the end of the article:
I'm going to answer just the first one and the third one today, because to me they work together: "If think of myself as a good teacher, what qualities do I want to develop to become a great teacher?"
I do think of myself as a good teacher. My students like my classes, parents share with me that their students come home excited and ready to go back for more, students learn something from it, and I generally have good control over a classroom. But I know of several things I wish I could improve on to become a great teacher.
Here are the seven questions the author, Ben Johnson, asks at the end of the article:
If I think of myself as at least a good teacher, what would I do differently in order to be a great teacher?
What student outcomes do great teachers achieve that I don't achieve?
What qualities does a great teacher possess?
What sacrifices would I have to make to become a great teacher? What am I willing to give up to become great?
What does a great teacher's classroom look like?
What kind of relationships do great teachers strive to create with fellow teachers and administrators?
What will be my first step toward greatness?
I'm going to answer just the first one and the third one today, because to me they work together: "If think of myself as a good teacher, what qualities do I want to develop to become a great teacher?"
I do think of myself as a good teacher. My students like my classes, parents share with me that their students come home excited and ready to go back for more, students learn something from it, and I generally have good control over a classroom. But I know of several things I wish I could improve on to become a great teacher.
- greater patience
- increased calm assertiveness to maintain/regain classroom control
- improved skills in communication and idea sharing to work with other teachers and the educational community
Friday, August 22, 2008
Blogs I'm Following Now
My newly developed interest in seeking out the blogs and digital communities of educators has led to a few new discoveries today. Here are four new blogs I've added to my sidebar today. Each had it's own "that's why I want to follow this person" moment that I wish I had had time to record in this post, but my day is like all the others this week - a battle to remain even partially focused on getting prepared for classes and everything that needs to be done before, during, and even after this school year. So, I link, but I can no longer remember why. Except that at some point I want to go to these blogs and really absorb some knowledge from them.
And what I really need is advice on how to not go crazy in trying to get ready for the first day. Right now, I still have a month to go, but that could change any day. And I have enough to do during the month to stay busy, if it doesn't.
How do you balance the hundreds of ideas of how to make this year better than last with the time that you have?
And what I really need is advice on how to not go crazy in trying to get ready for the first day. Right now, I still have a month to go, but that could change any day. And I have enough to do during the month to stay busy, if it doesn't.
How do you balance the hundreds of ideas of how to make this year better than last with the time that you have?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The First Day
When the first day of school comes, will you be ready?
I have a 'first day' every week in my job. With every new school I visit, I have to create that image of who I am to my students (and their teachers!) so that they will trust me and be willing to learn from me for the next four days. I have minutes to gain their respect and control over the classroom if I want my five hours with them to be worthwhile for any of us. I take to heart a lot of what's written here: Teaching Secrets: Take Charge of Your Classroom. It's been my perspective for awhile now that I'm not there to be the students' friend, but to be their leader, a good role model, and mostly, to have them leave and say "I respect her and what she tried to teach me."
I have a 'first day' every week in my job. With every new school I visit, I have to create that image of who I am to my students (and their teachers!) so that they will trust me and be willing to learn from me for the next four days. I have minutes to gain their respect and control over the classroom if I want my five hours with them to be worthwhile for any of us. I take to heart a lot of what's written here: Teaching Secrets: Take Charge of Your Classroom. It's been my perspective for awhile now that I'm not there to be the students' friend, but to be their leader, a good role model, and mostly, to have them leave and say "I respect her and what she tried to teach me."
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Get Organized!
The school year is about to start, and I know I'm not alone in looking for how to stay organized and feel confident about to-do lists, calendars, and other stuff that piles up.
Cool Cat Teacher was just talking about it this morning. And my husband and I have been on the lookout for the perfect on-line, mutli-functional, integrated, use-it-anywhere to-do list we can find for the past few months. I think I've found it: Toodledo. Talk about integrated! iGoogle gadgets, iPhone apps, Twitter compatible, Jott compatible... it goes on. The best part for me - the Google Calendar sync, which I can view from either my personal Google calendar or my work Google calendar (due to some security on my work calendar, I can't directly sync one to the other without losing info). So, one to-do list, for both halves of my life. What else can you ask for?
Cool Cat Teacher was just talking about it this morning. And my husband and I have been on the lookout for the perfect on-line, mutli-functional, integrated, use-it-anywhere to-do list we can find for the past few months. I think I've found it: Toodledo. Talk about integrated! iGoogle gadgets, iPhone apps, Twitter compatible, Jott compatible... it goes on. The best part for me - the Google Calendar sync, which I can view from either my personal Google calendar or my work Google calendar (due to some security on my work calendar, I can't directly sync one to the other without losing info). So, one to-do list, for both halves of my life. What else can you ask for?
Monday, August 18, 2008
Shed a Little Light
Tonight I witnessed my second Daedalus Project Oregon Shakespeare Festival AIDS Benefit Variety Show. It is the most humbling display of the best humanity has to offer. In talent and in heart. It is funny, it is touching, and it is incredible to see. If you ever have the chance to attend, you should. This was the 21st annual, and it will continue as long as there is an AIDS epidemic that needs to be fought.
State Science Standards
This is the year they revise the Science Standards for Oregon, and I'm currently reading my way through the first draft. This will have a definite impact on what I teach this year and what new curriculum I will need to design for next year. I have to do some serious research into the resources and references they're using to support their decisions, and put some real time into thinking about how to implement them in our outreach classes next year and beyond.
Too much to think about... I still have to get through this year with the old standards and all the changes I wanted to make. Must remember to conserve energies and be efficient in how much I put into improvements this year when they'll need to be revised again next year.
Too much to think about... I still have to get through this year with the old standards and all the changes I wanted to make. Must remember to conserve energies and be efficient in how much I put into improvements this year when they'll need to be revised again next year.
There's Always a Solution
I love this line:
You do what you gotta do to get'em interested. And when it works, it's incredible.
Noticing that Michael’s attention strayed during math, she hired a tutor and encouraged him to use word problems tailored to Michael’s interests: “How long would it take to swim 500 meters if you swim three meters per second?” - from "Michael Phelp's Mom on Parenting an ADHD Superstar" in the April/May 2007 issue of ADDitude
You do what you gotta do to get'em interested. And when it works, it's incredible.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Trying to Calm my Creative Jitters
The Educational Technology course stimulated those creative energies I rarely allow myself time for these days. I did the whole "create a banner for a webpage" thing (my SOU home page) and thought about actually designing that page to store some of the curriculum I've done that isn't more-or-less 'owned' by the museums I've worked for. (tangent: does any one really understand how those rules work? If I write the curriculum I'm using to teach a class through my employer, the museum, who 'owns' the curriculum?)
Anyway, back to the topic of Creative Jitters. I've added a new tab to my iGoogle page just for my teaching/education resources, thus separating them from the Science resources I had originally grouped them with. So, I wanted to put an educational theme on the header of the page. I searched for "education", "chalkboard", "teaching", "classroom", "student", "write", "math", etc etc looking for something like a chalkboard background - that very traditional "school" feeling. And turned up a big nothing.
But, there is that "create your own theme" option. And they give some pretty good instructions. So I'm thinking of creating one. I'm hoping it will be a good way to focus my energy on something creative, so that when I'm back in the office this week finalizing the curriculum for this school year, I can actually focus.
Anyway, back to the topic of Creative Jitters. I've added a new tab to my iGoogle page just for my teaching/education resources, thus separating them from the Science resources I had originally grouped them with. So, I wanted to put an educational theme on the header of the page. I searched for "education", "chalkboard", "teaching", "classroom", "student", "write", "math", etc etc looking for something like a chalkboard background - that very traditional "school" feeling. And turned up a big nothing.
But, there is that "create your own theme" option. And they give some pretty good instructions. So I'm thinking of creating one. I'm hoping it will be a good way to focus my energy on something creative, so that when I'm back in the office this week finalizing the curriculum for this school year, I can actually focus.
Another Member of the Zoo
Weekly off-topic voyage into photography...
8/26/07; f/4.5; 1/15 shutter speed.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Infinite Source of Community
I'm still in awe of how many resources I'm discovering for teachers. Technologies that make it easy to create a community for sharing ideas and support.
In addition to those I've mentioned before (like Twitter, Edutopia) here's a few more:
I like this new perspective I'm developing on things I was taking for granted. I've been using the Internet to search for curriculum ideas and for hundreds of other things for years. But never for finding a new community to belong to. I think I had forgotten how much I still have to learn, and how much support teachers need from others who go through the same thing every day. Yes, lots of websites are poorly maintained, some blogs or sources may be too personal or unprofessional to consider as good sources, and we always have to be cautious of what we say and how we say it to protect ourselves and our students... but the Internet is a great way for teachers to come together as a community. And the more I explore it and set myself up to follow people who are good resources, the better prepared I am for my classroom.
In addition to those I've mentioned before (like Twitter, Edutopia) here's a few more:
- more blogs: as I search for new ideas, support for the upcoming school year, etc, I'm realizing that the blogs I may have overlooked before as unprofessional are actually good resources for feeling like I'm not alone out there when I'm in front of my class
- sites like About.com or Yahoo! Answers where strangers can read and respond to questions (here's an example with suggestions for taming unruly students)
I like this new perspective I'm developing on things I was taking for granted. I've been using the Internet to search for curriculum ideas and for hundreds of other things for years. But never for finding a new community to belong to. I think I had forgotten how much I still have to learn, and how much support teachers need from others who go through the same thing every day. Yes, lots of websites are poorly maintained, some blogs or sources may be too personal or unprofessional to consider as good sources, and we always have to be cautious of what we say and how we say it to protect ourselves and our students... but the Internet is a great way for teachers to come together as a community. And the more I explore it and set myself up to follow people who are good resources, the better prepared I am for my classroom.
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