Physics and technology are all about thinking differently. Here is a great video that sums up some ideas that I have been trying to communicate to some folks very close to me. Perhaps we should do some dangerous stuff in school!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Funny
I was looking for some good videos for physics and came across this. I'm really surprised I had never seen it before. This is what I'm trying to avoid...
Super Awesome Student Projects
I have been having my students maintain a digital portfolio in graphic organizer format and publish a blog of their lab reports. I must confess, some of my students' blogs make me jealous they do such a good job. Take a look at this portfolio and Student Blog.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Excitement!
Portfolios
A major portion of my technology integration for this school year is digital portfolios. I was and still am excited about the prospect of my students keeping a portfolio to show their progress throughout the course. However, I think the portfolio could be a little more productive.
I am having my students use Mind42, a graphic organizer, as a collection of links and ideas to their assignments and projects. The format is very good as it allows students to get a feel for how the content is organized and how it fits together. On the other hand, there are some practical matters that are causing a few difficulties. The first is storage. When using Mind42 there is no place for the students to store their documents. Thus, they need to use an outside source such as Google docs and link their document to their organizer. This works fine, but can be time consuming and the students need to learn a few more skills to accomplish this.
When starting off, I debated between using the mind map format and a wiki. In hind sight, I think the wiki format (such as PBworks) would be more productive. It would give the students a place to store documents and these could still be linked to a mind map to get a feel for the interrelations of the material.
Even though a wiki might be simpler, students would still have to master the skills of creating documents and uploading them to the wiki and they would have to learn how to navigate the wiki. I am beginning to think a digital portfolio hosted on our server at the school might be an even better option.
I will continue to explore different ideas and option for digital portfolios until I find the best one. If I do find a better way, I will transition my student to this and report back the results.
I am having my students use Mind42, a graphic organizer, as a collection of links and ideas to their assignments and projects. The format is very good as it allows students to get a feel for how the content is organized and how it fits together. On the other hand, there are some practical matters that are causing a few difficulties. The first is storage. When using Mind42 there is no place for the students to store their documents. Thus, they need to use an outside source such as Google docs and link their document to their organizer. This works fine, but can be time consuming and the students need to learn a few more skills to accomplish this.
When starting off, I debated between using the mind map format and a wiki. In hind sight, I think the wiki format (such as PBworks) would be more productive. It would give the students a place to store documents and these could still be linked to a mind map to get a feel for the interrelations of the material.
Even though a wiki might be simpler, students would still have to master the skills of creating documents and uploading them to the wiki and they would have to learn how to navigate the wiki. I am beginning to think a digital portfolio hosted on our server at the school might be an even better option.
I will continue to explore different ideas and option for digital portfolios until I find the best one. If I do find a better way, I will transition my student to this and report back the results.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Time Crunch
Check out this interesting article. Article on planning time
Many teachers gripe about lack of time to do this or to do that, but when you try something new, time can make or break the implementation. Recently our administration has been "encouraging" us to not use class time to accomplish some of the clerical tasks involved in teaching such as planning, grading, professional communication and such. As any teacher knows, there are those times when you must give the students some independent practice of some sort to accomplish these things. For the nay-sayers, here's a break-down of my schedule. I might also add that I have never had a schedule much different from this one.
Since I made a conscious choice to be a teacher, I really don't mind putting in a few hours outside of class. So if I come in early an leave late (6:45-4:45) this will give me about 2.1 minutes per student for grading, planning, lab setup, lab breakdown and cleaning, parent correspondence and other duties associated with conducting the class. (for <40K per year and only 3 hours a day to spend with my own children!)
As I said before, I have chosen my job, so I am prepared to deal with the difficulties of teaching. However, my goal is to do the best job possible and ensure my students timely feedback and well prepared lessons. I feel that policy and decision makers do not understand the time outside of instruction that goes into excellent teaching. On top of this, there are other duties that are mandated (differentiation for special ed and ESL, prep lessons for AEP, ISS, and homebound) by the state which take up even more time. I think it is time to send a message to policy makers and let them know that they have given us the time equivalent to an unfunded mandate. If we want excellent education and implementation of technology and cutting edge methods, it is imperative that they give us the time to do these things.
Education will be behind until teachers are given the necessary time to do an excellent job.
Many teachers gripe about lack of time to do this or to do that, but when you try something new, time can make or break the implementation. Recently our administration has been "encouraging" us to not use class time to accomplish some of the clerical tasks involved in teaching such as planning, grading, professional communication and such. As any teacher knows, there are those times when you must give the students some independent practice of some sort to accomplish these things. For the nay-sayers, here's a break-down of my schedule. I might also add that I have never had a schedule much different from this one.
- 7:45 School day starts with tutorials (often I arrive at 7:15 to find students waiting at my door)
- 8:15 First period starts. (I am completely occupied with students until lunchtime)
- 12:05-12:35 Lunchtime. (often students com in during my lunch...I'm not too nice about telling them it's lunchtime, but I spend this short time grading or planning... Oh yeah did I mention it's the first opportunity of the day to take a bathroom break?)
- 12:35-1:30 Class
- 1:30-2:25 Planning and Prep (I work feverishly to plan for the next day, make copies, communicate, grade, etc.)
- 2:25-3:20 Class
- 3:20-3:45 Tutorials (Again, occupied with students this entire time)
- 3:45 The official end of our duty hours.
Since I made a conscious choice to be a teacher, I really don't mind putting in a few hours outside of class. So if I come in early an leave late (6:45-4:45) this will give me about 2.1 minutes per student for grading, planning, lab setup, lab breakdown and cleaning, parent correspondence and other duties associated with conducting the class. (for <40K per year and only 3 hours a day to spend with my own children!)
As I said before, I have chosen my job, so I am prepared to deal with the difficulties of teaching. However, my goal is to do the best job possible and ensure my students timely feedback and well prepared lessons. I feel that policy and decision makers do not understand the time outside of instruction that goes into excellent teaching. On top of this, there are other duties that are mandated (differentiation for special ed and ESL, prep lessons for AEP, ISS, and homebound) by the state which take up even more time. I think it is time to send a message to policy makers and let them know that they have given us the time equivalent to an unfunded mandate. If we want excellent education and implementation of technology and cutting edge methods, it is imperative that they give us the time to do these things.
Education will be behind until teachers are given the necessary time to do an excellent job.
Monday, October 10, 2011
QR Codes
I thought I'd check to see if the QR codes had increased traffic to my website. My goal is to get my students using the website frequently to stay current on their home work and informed of what we're doing in class. I posted QR codes around the school on the afternoon of October 3rd. From the analytics website it appears that traffic increased gradually throughout the week.
Was it the codes? I'm not sure, but I do know that I did not instruct anyone to go to the website during the week and many students were asking about the codes. From the circumstances, it appears that the increase in website views is related to the QR codes. I plan to post some codes that go directly to the assignments page. I should be able to use information from these codes to figure out if the students are using them.
Was it the codes? I'm not sure, but I do know that I did not instruct anyone to go to the website during the week and many students were asking about the codes. From the circumstances, it appears that the increase in website views is related to the QR codes. I plan to post some codes that go directly to the assignments page. I should be able to use information from these codes to figure out if the students are using them.
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