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Alternative Lesson on Alternative Energy

Jan 18th, 2012 by

This week I am trying a new way to teach my lesson on alternative energy.  In the past I had the students work with partners to research different energy resources.  They read articles, took notes, and made a presentation to share with the class.  After reviewing my notes from the H.E.A.T. workshop I attended last year, I decided to take a chance on a different kind of lesson.  This time the students are choosing the focus of their learning as well as the project they want to complete.  We began today with a poll question.  Using Edmodo.com students chose which of four problems was our greatest problem resulting from our use of energy.  We discussed some of the problems such as our dependence on foreign oil, acid rain, and climate change.  We then brainstormed ways an eighth grader could help make a difference.  Some talked about contacting legislators or helping to inform others about the issues.  Students wanted to make commercials or start a blog.  Others wanted to stage a protest or teach others how to conserve energy.   

While I need to be sure that the students learn the pros and cons of using different energy resources, I also want them to be engaged in the lesson and form a personal connection to the issues.  In addition to their reading I plan to show short video clips and use the response clickers to begin and end each class during the lesson.  I will try to help the students find ways to incorporate the content into their projects and use formative assessment to be sure they are getting the information they need. 

Before I began the lesson today I was very worried that I didn’t have a worksheet or a clear plan for where this was all going.  It felt very risky to run a lesson like this.  The enthusiasm and creativity that the students demonstrated, however, gave me confidence as we progressed through the poll, the brainstorming, and the group planning.  Each group of students will have a different learning experience but it seems as if they are already taking control of their learning and are eager to make a difference in the world.

 

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Grades Getting in the Way

Oct 5th, 2011 by

I just handed back our first unit test for the year.  Leading up to this test we did many activities that helped the students master the learning targets for this unit and several quizzes to help them know what they needed to focus on.  Things were going well and I was very confident that the students would do a good job on the test.  I am very pleased to say that overall the students did a great job!  What bothers me isn’t their scores at all.  It is the way the atmosphere in the room changes when an assessment is handed back.  Everyone feels uncomfortable including me!  The students who didn’t do as well as they liked feel angry.  The students who did very well don’t want to make other students feel bad and so they also feel uncomfortable.  And I don’t like the feeling of trying to justify having had to grade the kids.  “I understand that you know what you did wrong but I can’t just change the grade on your paper.” 

 

My question is how can I get the students to focus more on learning and less on the grade.  In our school we use standards based grading which is supposed to help shift the focus to the learning.  We give students feedback and allow them multiple opportunities to show mastery of each learning target.  The feedback that matters most to the students, however, is not the kind that shows them where they are in the learning but the grade they received on the assessment.  Although we changed the terminology from “A through F” to “Advanced through Insufficient Progress,” students still look at the grade as a judgment for or against them.  I tell them to focus on the learning and the grades will follow.   Meanwhile I’ll keep going back to any target where they are not proficient and helping them learn the targets.  A grade of “not proficient” should really be “not proficient yet.”  

 

I don’t see the grade as a final judgement but a marker along the path towards their success.  Now I just need to help my students stick to the path and keep moving onward.

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Letting Technology Teach and the Teacher Build Connections

Sep 13th, 2011 by

This week I am working on differentiation in my science classes.  The classes are getting larger and there are more needs to be met.  I think technology can be part of the solution.  My main goal is to have all of the students reach proficiency on some basic learning targets such as using the lab equipment correctly and writing detailed observations and inferences.  Some students need extra help with these targets but others are ready to move ahead.  What I tried is listing various activities on the board for students to do in any order and at their own pace.  Two of the activities involved remediating the learning targets that some students haven’t yet met.  Students who are proficient could choose from the other activities. 

Once activity was to watch a short video on a laptop computer.  The students watched and made notes in small groups or individually.  Other students worked on some critical thinking questions that applied what they had learned in the previous lesson.   Another group made measurements in the lab and recorded their data on a website called Edit Grid.  They got feedback from looking at the data entered by other students and could see if they were on the right track.  I worked with small groups who needed extra help with the learning targets, gave them a quick assessment, then allowed them to move on to the other activities. 

Most of the students were engaged and moved from one activity to another but some seemed distracted.  It wasn’t a perfect fix but I was able to help students who needed the one-on-one help while letting the others learn new skills independently.  With all of the great websites and videos available, I think I can shift my role from one of providing content to one of helping kids form connections to what they are learning.  With Edit Grid I was able to go back and see how the students did with their measurements without having to walk around and look in every lab notebook. 

I would love to have feedback about this lesson and see what others are trying as far as differentiating with large classes!  Please feel free to leave a comment!

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Holding On

Aug 30th, 2011 by

(This is the tree I see when I look out my classroom window.)

“Hold on to what is good
even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe
even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do
even if it is a long way from here.” - from a Pueblo Verse

Lately, when I read what others write about education and education reform I feel a sense of confusion.   It doesn’t seem to relate to what I see at school.   Everyone has opinions and ideas for what needs to be changed.  But none of it mirrors my experiences as a teacher. 

So I remind myself to “hold on to what is good.”  What is good about public education?   Maybe it is too simple to make the news…Talking with a student about their interests and helping them discover their own power to learn and grow.  Adults and children working together to create something meaningful and good.  Connecting.  And I try to “hold on to what I believe.”  Like the tree which stands by itself, there is only one thing that I need to focus on,  the student in front of me right now.  What will be best for that student today?  Each young person is unique, interesting, and has something to share.  When we value them individually students gain the confidence to reach out for success.  That is all that really matters.  “What we must do” seems overwhelming sometimes, but we know we cannot give up.  The end result we work for may be a long way from here but each day we can take another step. 

Politicians and journalists discuss education reform. But inside our schools teachers are working hard to make improvements and to meet the personal goals that they have set for themselves as educators.  Simple goals like getting to know each student individually, being alert for bullying in the hallways and cafeteria, helping each student make a personal connection to the curriculum, and finding new ways to motivate reluctant learners.   This is the kind of reform that I hear teachers discussing every day.  As I begin an exciting and promising school year with another amazing group of 8th graders, I will tune out the critics in the media and hold on to what I believe.

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Distance Learning and Science in the Library

Jun 21st, 2011 by


I meant to post this earlier but better late than never! My class had the special experience of participating in a video conference this Spring.  We “traveled” to Ohio to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery simply by walking down the hall to the school library!  That is where the video conference equipment was set up.  Our wonderful librarian graciously allowed me to cover her tables with newspaper and make a big mess as we learned about oil spills from our instructor at the museum.  She sent all of the materials for us to run a lab simulation of an oil spill along with a mini boom, skimmer, sorbants and dispersants to clean up our spills.  The kids listened, took notes, asked questions, recorded observations, and discussed the pros and cons of various oil spill clean-up techniques.  Our instructors, Liz  and Amy did a great job of presenting the information with photographs, lab demonstrations, models, and inquiry activities.   The experience of participating in a distance learning lesson was a first for my students and they seemed to really enjoy learning in this way.  The students shared what they learned by making Creative Choice projects.

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Rich and Meaningful Experiences

Mar 17th, 2011 by

In his book, Make the Impossible Possible, Bill Strickland writes that in his schools they try to help the students reconnect with “the deepest possibilities of life.”  He says “you can’t talk yourself or someone else into thinking this way.”  Instead they let students “lose themselves in experiences that are rich and meaningful enough to make their broken lives whole again.  We help them to see clearly the real potential they hold in their hands.” 

Every teacher knows the futility of trying to use words to convince students that school is important or that if they just work hard at school their lives will somehow be better.  We try to give our pep talks and motivational speeches but we know how ineffective they can be!   I can’t convince students to be motivated and no matter how exciting I think a lesson is, some students in the room will still find it meaningless.  When I read Bill Stricklands words they clarified for me just why some lessons I teach are so much more effective than others. 

It all hinges on rich and meaningful experiences.  It starts when we great the students at the door and find ways to make them feel comfortable in our classrooms.  We start a lesson with a fun game and a little laughter to help them connect with their classmates in a friendly way.   We show them how the lesson connects to their own lives and give them the opportunity to explore the topics that have special interest to them.  We give the students the freedom to access content from the type of media they prefer such as books, magazines, videos, or websites, and allow them options to create projects that express their opinions and ideas.  We take the time to plan and organize activities that are enriching and relevant.  And although the results may not be immediate, I am hopeful that over time students get a sense of their value in the world and regain the knowledge that their lives are filled with exciting possibilities.

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They did it their way.

Feb 8th, 2011 by

HydrogenPart of my lesson plan today involved some basic note-taking. I had a nice template to use with Smart Notebook but my plans were just too teacher centered. I knew the students would be disinterested and might tune out the activity completely.

With a few computers available I was able to shift gears and offer the students some choices that transformed the lesson quickly. First, we played a vocabulary game from Quia.com.  The students enjoy playing games and they are more ready to learn after a little fun.  Next we did a few quiz-type questions on the SMART Notebook activity from the SMART Exchange to get them thinking about the topic.  But when it came to the new vocabulary, where I would normally give them the notes they need, I offered the students a choice.

They could make a poster to show the vocabulary words, create a section on their group wiki page, make a Microsoft Publisher poster, make a Microsoft Word document, or use the available media anyway they liked in order to display the new vocabulary in a memorable way.  Given only 20 minutes the students created many types of projects.  They went one step further and added their own drawings, home-made graphics, and pictures from the Internet.  They checked their understanding with students in other groups and they found additional information to supplement what their text books provided.  The students were active and that means they were ready to learn!

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Watching a Movie? Not what it sounds like!

Feb 1st, 2011 by

Computer
Showing a movie in class used to be a way to fill time, calm kids down, or maybe an easy lesson to leave the substitute teacher. Today I had fun letting the students have very different learning experiences while…watching a movie!

Before starting the movie a student asked me if we could use Cover It Live to take notes while we watched the movie. In three minutes I was able to launch a live event and get them set up. Another student asked if she could use our Livescribe Pulse Pen to record notes and audio. Sure, why not? Another student decided to just type her notes on a Microsoft Word document. She added some pictures and used colorful headings. There were still 4 students who preferred writing their notes in their lab notebooks. Using the Interwrite Mobi slate it was easy to pause the movie for discussion as it streamed from Discovery Education and could even draw and add notes directly on the screen. When the movie was finished, I uploaded the Word document, the Pulse Pen pencasts, and the Cover It Live notes on our class wiki page.

What is changed when technology is incorporated into a typical lesson?  Do the students learn more?  Can the difference be quantified?  These are the questions that we have to face in order to build a case for technology.  We are asked to prove that the students do better when using technology.  I don’t collect data, but I do make many observations.  The students are happy to have a choice.  They are engaged in the class activities.  They are practicing their communication skills.   And they are proud to show me what they create using technology.  That is enough proof for me!

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Energy Resources Project

Jan 13th, 2011 by

Last week we worked on our energy resources research project. The students each researched a specific energy resource to share with the rest of the class. We found many great web sites to help with the research but many of them were confusing to navigate. What should the reader do when they finish reading the main section? Is there a “next page” link at the bottom, tabs across the top, a menu at the side, or links throughout the article that take you to other pages of information? The books from our library were very good but I wondered if the students were skimming to the point of not really getting much information. Reading is such an important part of becoming an independent learner but it takes a lot of practice! There are many reading strategies that can be used to help students grasp the concepts in science texts and articles like accessing prior knowledge, asking questions, predicting, and taking “talk back” notes. During a research project, however, the students are all reading different articles so it is difficult to guide them.

In our project students read three articles and organized their notes around “big ideas” that they came across as they read. They then shared their notes on a Google Doc (one shared account for the whole class) in which students with the same topics shared one document. Next, each student created a digital diagram to explain how their energy resource worked. Some used Paint, some chose Picnik, and others drew their pictures on paper and then took a digital picture with a camera. They uploaded these images to their Google Docs. Finally, students created Flip videos and online quizzes (testmoz.com) and embedded these on the Google Doc as well. I had planned to have them create Power Point presentations but their Google Docs worked just as well! Pictures, organized notes, and embedded video and quizzes. I put several of the projects on a Glog and posted all of them on our class wiki.

The use of technology in this project helped the students stay involved and motivated. They took more responsibility as they had to really collaborate on their Google Docs and were eager to share what they had learned from their research. Creating the diagrams forced them to apply what they were learning and the videos and quizzes helped them summarize their important findings.

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Writing Science Stories

Dec 22nd, 2010 by

Picture 9

I love the idea of digital story telling!  Although I don’t teach language arts, I love a good story as much as anyone else and there is nothing better to get kids fired up about their learning than letting them create stories.  The stories we made in class today weren’t actually written but drawn on paper and the students talked and shared while they drew.  They had to include the seven forms of energy in a super hero style story.  First they created their hero and gave them a special weekness to make them more interesting and likeable!  Next they drew a disaster for the hero to face.  They filled in the rest with the hero’s adventure and finally they helped their hero save the world by restoring energy to the people!  Hurray!

We used “Really Big Super Fun Science Paper” otherwise known as newsprint and began with some notes in one corner of the paper to be sure everyone had the background knowledge.  I like the large paper because the kids aren’t afraid to mess up and they seem to try to fill up as much of the paper as they can.  Think big!  We all love when our students are engaged in what they are learning and I was really happy to hear the students chatting while using the vocabulary from our unit.  While it is difficult to write and hold a conversation, the students today had no problem talking and drawing at the same time.  Everyone was relaxed and enjoyed themselves.  I’m hoping that they will remember their own stories and will have a positive attitude about the next lessons that look more deeply into the seven forms of energy.

The Flip Video cameras made it easy to record what the students were doing and everyone (almost) wanted to tell their story to the camera!  It added an element of fun to the project and the students enjoyed sharing what they were learning.

Posted in Creativity, learning, teaching, Technology | No Comments »

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