My school purchased 14 iPads. The principal asked via email that if anybody wanted to use them in their class, they just let him know how and what for. I strained my brain and couldn't think of what to do with one (aside from projectile motion analysis in angry birds -- thanks @fnoschese), so I didn't respond. You see, I am one of those rare individuals, that though I love technology, don't have a laptop or even a cellphone. Why? I am unfortunately one of those common individuals that is basically broke.
Now that it is summer, and I've been doing a lot of work trying to think of ways to get students to use a blog or multimedia for labs, and poll everywhere etc, I thought I'd ask people (I know I should use a poll actually), "How do you use iPads for education?"
I took two home for the summer and I have been fooling around with them, getting a feeling for their usefulness and capabilities. I love them, but I am just starting to see ways to incorporate their use in class, and to be truthful, it is in more of a novelty fashion than in a learning fashion. For instance, I have a digital periodic table app installed. I have some mind mapping software on there (as readers of my blog might have guessed I would), and some drawing apps that could replace (in some ways) a smart board. I've also installed some digital info banks on the solar system, the particle zoo, and things like that. I also have some digital textbooks installed in the ebook reader. Not much that is truly interactive.
I am very eager to learn how to use them and how you are using them. So please, respond and share this blog post with your friends so we can all help one another out!
Thanks.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Misconceptions Assignment -- part 2
So, I believe my last post (about a month ago) was in reference to an assignment on misconceptions. It was quite well received, but thanks to google and the 'quicker is better' mentality that is prevelant today, about half of the reports dealt with the infamous "penny from the CN Tower" misconception.
I'll summarize the results of my little misconception assignment experiment.
I'll summarize the results of my little misconception assignment experiment.
- The students enjoyed it, and so did I (in theory)
- In practice, the students didn't challenge their preconceived notions. They tackled items that they had already come to understand and didn't really include any personal commentary about what they used to think about the concept or why they found it challenging originally.
- Also in practice, kids love to see themselves on video and think quality video editing and stylish end-titles make for good physics.
- Lastly, and this is to be expected but is still unfortunate, students just don't know how to ask the right questions. They really led their subjects. Sometimes, the question was posed in such a manner that there was only one answer possible, or the question itself was so confusing that the subject couldn't fairly answer it.
- Outline my expectations more clearly and build success criteria with the students instead of handing out a rubric and hoping against hope that I get some real gems. In short, I didn't specifically outline my wishes for the assignment, and not surprisingly, I didn't get what I was hoping for.
- I will definitely have students write anonymous critical analyses of one another's work, with focus on questioning technique and on the explanations offered to the subjects afterward.
- They will comment on whether the misconception was clearly introduced and whether sufficient evidence was offered to challenge the misconception.
- Finally, I might have to do something about assigning specific misconceptions to students. I originally avoided this because I wanted students to be passionate about their personal selections and to choose something that had personal meaning to them, but that didn't seem to work.
It's been too long
Where have I been and what have I been doing? Too much educational reading can get in the way of one's passionate writing about education it would appear.
I have much to say, but I don't have the desire to say it all at the moment. What inspired me to write today is the current buzz about physics education, modeling, and inquiry. I guess I'm upset about the all or nothing approach to educational practices. Is there no value to socratic lecture, or investigation, or guided inquiry? Of course each method of instruction has some merit, and yet people want to overload and employ a single approach to accomplish a complex task. Did you know that if one breathes pure oxygen at depth while scuba diving it is toxic? The answer isn't always 'more of a good thing is the best thing'. Perhaps a new way to look at differentiated instruction is to actually differ instructional methods for everybody regularly. Newton was a genius because he could decipher observed phenomena without the benefit of instruction. I am not so lucky. Are your students as gifted?
This sounds like I am defending lectures, and maybe I am, I don't know. What I do know is that all of my students, without exception (and there have been some potential Newtons amongst them), have at some point needed some help and a direct explanation of the concept with reference to some real life examples of where the concept could be seen and/or is useful, has helped them.
Blech. Edited out some garbage at the end there... Some of you are wondering 'How bad must the drivel he edited out be if this is the stuff that he kept!?'. Touche.
I have much to say, but I don't have the desire to say it all at the moment. What inspired me to write today is the current buzz about physics education, modeling, and inquiry. I guess I'm upset about the all or nothing approach to educational practices. Is there no value to socratic lecture, or investigation, or guided inquiry? Of course each method of instruction has some merit, and yet people want to overload and employ a single approach to accomplish a complex task. Did you know that if one breathes pure oxygen at depth while scuba diving it is toxic? The answer isn't always 'more of a good thing is the best thing'. Perhaps a new way to look at differentiated instruction is to actually differ instructional methods for everybody regularly. Newton was a genius because he could decipher observed phenomena without the benefit of instruction. I am not so lucky. Are your students as gifted?
This sounds like I am defending lectures, and maybe I am, I don't know. What I do know is that all of my students, without exception (and there have been some potential Newtons amongst them), have at some point needed some help and a direct explanation of the concept with reference to some real life examples of where the concept could be seen and/or is useful, has helped them.
Blech. Edited out some garbage at the end there... Some of you are wondering 'How bad must the drivel he edited out be if this is the stuff that he kept!?'. Touche.
Friday, April 8, 2011
How twitter changed my plans for the week
Wow. Where does the time go? And why does it seem like just when things are slowing down, they ramp right up?
Oh well, I'd rather be busy than bored.
So last week as I was perusing my twitter account, I came across a much RT'd post about the Khan academy and numerous pedagogical arguments behind demos and videos and student learning. I spent about an hour or two reading through posts and watching 1Veritasium's videos on YouTube and it reignited my passion for misconceptions.
I showed some of the videos to my Grade 12 University physics students, and I tried to put them in the most meaningful order. We talked about each, and I paused a lot during them to check their ideas. I talked with them (at great length) about preconceived notions and the difficulties in convincing them of something that they already know to be true, but really isn't of course. When the class was just about to let out, on a whim I posed a question to them with strict instructions that they were forbidden to look up the answer or discuss their ideas with anybody. Their only homework was to <prepare to gasp> think <gasp> about the answer and be prepared to share it. The question was "Why are there phases of the moon ie full moon, quarter moon etc?"
Immediately a couple of students dismissed it and wanted to just tell me their answer. "Sir, that's too easy, I already know why." One even got so far as to mention shadows before I shut him down. Another student suggested that they do a video project debunking some misconception.
That night I wondered what I was going to do to challenge their ideas. You see, I knew most (if not all) of them thought that it was Earth's shadow playing across the moon in various amounts. What I had to do was figure out a way to present some evidence that they were easily able to understand and that they knew to be true that could challenge their preconceived notion and force them to come up with an alternate theory. I think I came up with some good ideas. You can be the judge of that by checking out the work sheet I gave them the next day by clicking here.
At the end of the "lesson", I prompted the students to see who had maintained their initial hypothesis. Only a few did. I didn't really provide them with sufficient time to come up with an alternate theory (though I did ask them for one), which I know could have been a valid learning moment for them, but I did not do nevertheless. Instead, we went through the sheet, we shared some answers, and in the end we modeled the moon orbiting the Earth, with the Sun (me with a bright spot-type light) shining ever forward.
A few interesting things happened. One student shared that even though he could not use his shadow theory to explain a single discrepant event, he wouldn't abandon it and kept trying to make it fit instead of coming up with an alternate solution. Students were eager to discuss their wrong ideas and why they held them. They weren't embarrassed or timid about being wrong; being wrong was the point of the exercise. It has taken me a long time to convince the students that being wrong is o.k., and that learning from the process or even figuring out why something is wrong is way more important than the result.
Their project due date is May 2nd (other stuff is going on and I didn't want to rush them). I'll write about the results then.
Oh well, I'd rather be busy than bored.
So last week as I was perusing my twitter account, I came across a much RT'd post about the Khan academy and numerous pedagogical arguments behind demos and videos and student learning. I spent about an hour or two reading through posts and watching 1Veritasium's videos on YouTube and it reignited my passion for misconceptions.
I showed some of the videos to my Grade 12 University physics students, and I tried to put them in the most meaningful order. We talked about each, and I paused a lot during them to check their ideas. I talked with them (at great length) about preconceived notions and the difficulties in convincing them of something that they already know to be true, but really isn't of course. When the class was just about to let out, on a whim I posed a question to them with strict instructions that they were forbidden to look up the answer or discuss their ideas with anybody. Their only homework was to <prepare to gasp> think <gasp> about the answer and be prepared to share it. The question was "Why are there phases of the moon ie full moon, quarter moon etc?"
Immediately a couple of students dismissed it and wanted to just tell me their answer. "Sir, that's too easy, I already know why." One even got so far as to mention shadows before I shut him down. Another student suggested that they do a video project debunking some misconception.
That night I wondered what I was going to do to challenge their ideas. You see, I knew most (if not all) of them thought that it was Earth's shadow playing across the moon in various amounts. What I had to do was figure out a way to present some evidence that they were easily able to understand and that they knew to be true that could challenge their preconceived notion and force them to come up with an alternate theory. I think I came up with some good ideas. You can be the judge of that by checking out the work sheet I gave them the next day by clicking here.
At the end of the "lesson", I prompted the students to see who had maintained their initial hypothesis. Only a few did. I didn't really provide them with sufficient time to come up with an alternate theory (though I did ask them for one), which I know could have been a valid learning moment for them, but I did not do nevertheless. Instead, we went through the sheet, we shared some answers, and in the end we modeled the moon orbiting the Earth, with the Sun (me with a bright spot-type light) shining ever forward.
A few interesting things happened. One student shared that even though he could not use his shadow theory to explain a single discrepant event, he wouldn't abandon it and kept trying to make it fit instead of coming up with an alternate solution. Students were eager to discuss their wrong ideas and why they held them. They weren't embarrassed or timid about being wrong; being wrong was the point of the exercise. It has taken me a long time to convince the students that being wrong is o.k., and that learning from the process or even figuring out why something is wrong is way more important than the result.
Their project due date is May 2nd (other stuff is going on and I didn't want to rush them). I'll write about the results then.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
A little help from my friends
In the interest of students becoming more self sufficient, a group of us at work have decided to implement an idea that Barrie Bennett mentioned in passing at a p.d. session we were involved in. He talked about a homework circle. I don't know about you, but I get really frustrated taking up questions in physics class for the first 30 minutes of class, especially when it only benefits the couple of students that tried that question. The other zombies just watch and hope to learn through some miracle.
Barrie Bennett suggested that you have students form homework circles and the instructions to them are that for the first 10 minutes of class, they are responsible within their own circles to catch everybody up on the homework and to make sure everybody within their group understands it. If a student in the group consistently isn't pulling their weight, the group may impose sanctions and the offending student may be jettisoned from the group for non-contribution. The decisions are made by the group with regards to their own welfare without teacher intervention.
In the event that multiple circles haven't been able to figure out a particular problem, that problem can be done on the board by the teacher to the benefit of all in the room and perhaps additional instruction in that area is required.
I put out an email to about 15 people, and 7 responded saying that they were eager to try it. Other than me, the breakdown is 1 science, 1 history, 1 english, 1 music, 1 family studies, 1 business, 1 math. Interesting eh!? I intend to do this with my 4U physics, but not my 1D science. 4U is more consistently homework heavy and I think they have the maturity and are responsible enough to handle it. Others are trying it with all grade groups.
I informally introduced it to the students on the first day of the semester, and they didn't even bat an eye. It seemed to them to be the most natural thing, especially when I framed it with acknowledging their collective capabilities and university implications. Now, this will take some getting used to for them, but I can see it working really well. Just yesterday, in way of reviewing concepts and mechanics of problem solving that they should have retained from their previous foray in physics, I put some problems on the board and told them to try to work out the solutions, either individually or in groups. At one point, their was a dispute between two groups regarding the correct answer. Their first course of action was to ask me to referee and tell them which was the correct response. Of course my response was to trade solutions with one another and look for the mistake in the other groups' work. They did it instantly and within moments had determined where the mistakes had been made (in this case, only one group had made an error, but it would work well even if both groups had the wrong answer). Once they get used to this idea, I can see it really benefiting them in a few ways and clearing up a bunch of time to examine the curriculum a little deeper.
One final note, I learned how to, and subsequently added an RSS feed to my class website for the students. I was getting tired of constantly reminding them to check the website for updates and hopefully this will encourage them to use it more frequently. Since mentioning it to them, I've had about 30 hits. It was at just below 1000 hits and I told them that whoever was the 1000th hit, if they took a screen shot would get a heartfelt congratulations from me ;)
Barrie Bennett suggested that you have students form homework circles and the instructions to them are that for the first 10 minutes of class, they are responsible within their own circles to catch everybody up on the homework and to make sure everybody within their group understands it. If a student in the group consistently isn't pulling their weight, the group may impose sanctions and the offending student may be jettisoned from the group for non-contribution. The decisions are made by the group with regards to their own welfare without teacher intervention.
In the event that multiple circles haven't been able to figure out a particular problem, that problem can be done on the board by the teacher to the benefit of all in the room and perhaps additional instruction in that area is required.
I put out an email to about 15 people, and 7 responded saying that they were eager to try it. Other than me, the breakdown is 1 science, 1 history, 1 english, 1 music, 1 family studies, 1 business, 1 math. Interesting eh!? I intend to do this with my 4U physics, but not my 1D science. 4U is more consistently homework heavy and I think they have the maturity and are responsible enough to handle it. Others are trying it with all grade groups.
I informally introduced it to the students on the first day of the semester, and they didn't even bat an eye. It seemed to them to be the most natural thing, especially when I framed it with acknowledging their collective capabilities and university implications. Now, this will take some getting used to for them, but I can see it working really well. Just yesterday, in way of reviewing concepts and mechanics of problem solving that they should have retained from their previous foray in physics, I put some problems on the board and told them to try to work out the solutions, either individually or in groups. At one point, their was a dispute between two groups regarding the correct answer. Their first course of action was to ask me to referee and tell them which was the correct response. Of course my response was to trade solutions with one another and look for the mistake in the other groups' work. They did it instantly and within moments had determined where the mistakes had been made (in this case, only one group had made an error, but it would work well even if both groups had the wrong answer). Once they get used to this idea, I can see it really benefiting them in a few ways and clearing up a bunch of time to examine the curriculum a little deeper.
One final note, I learned how to, and subsequently added an RSS feed to my class website for the students. I was getting tired of constantly reminding them to check the website for updates and hopefully this will encourage them to use it more frequently. Since mentioning it to them, I've had about 30 hits. It was at just below 1000 hits and I told them that whoever was the 1000th hit, if they took a screen shot would get a heartfelt congratulations from me ;)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What I meant to say
You know how somebody insults you and you come back with "Oh yeah, well ... you suck" only later to come up with a real zinger? Or perhaps somebody puts you on the spot and asks you your thoughts and you pop out some answer in the spur of the moment since everybody is waiting to hear what you have to say, and right after you are done talking you figure out what you really want to say but the moment has passed?
That happened to me Monday. Somebody put me on the spot at a meeting and asked me about something I had taken away from camp and used in class and I focused on one small component, an activity, and that was the least thing I left with (as readers of my blog can attest to). Less than 1 minute (literally) after I had finished my response, I began furiously writing my TRUE response. While I couldn't share it with them, here it is for posterity.
"Before break, Jenni asked what I 'did', what I took away. I tried a limited number of teaching tools which focus on a few comprehension strategies. But more than that, I changed. I changed my focus to one of increased understanding and deeper more meaningful connections. I changed my expectations for students and the degree to which they were involved in their own learning.
I maintain a class website with some literacy links.
I signed up for twitter and I blog, both of which have increased my contact with others in a PLN and exposed me to a wealth of knowledge both through conversations with those people and the resources they have put me in touch with AND have forced me to look at what I do and why I do it and to be able to put it in writing.
I've joined the PLC at school. I'm on the SIT and am in the 'book club' for instructional rounds. I work WAY more with the TLTT's and other staff and the STUDENTS see me collaborating, and I'm here."
That is what I meant to say.
That happened to me Monday. Somebody put me on the spot at a meeting and asked me about something I had taken away from camp and used in class and I focused on one small component, an activity, and that was the least thing I left with (as readers of my blog can attest to). Less than 1 minute (literally) after I had finished my response, I began furiously writing my TRUE response. While I couldn't share it with them, here it is for posterity.
"Before break, Jenni asked what I 'did', what I took away. I tried a limited number of teaching tools which focus on a few comprehension strategies. But more than that, I changed. I changed my focus to one of increased understanding and deeper more meaningful connections. I changed my expectations for students and the degree to which they were involved in their own learning.
I maintain a class website with some literacy links.
I signed up for twitter and I blog, both of which have increased my contact with others in a PLN and exposed me to a wealth of knowledge both through conversations with those people and the resources they have put me in touch with AND have forced me to look at what I do and why I do it and to be able to put it in writing.
I've joined the PLC at school. I'm on the SIT and am in the 'book club' for instructional rounds. I work WAY more with the TLTT's and other staff and the STUDENTS see me collaborating, and I'm here."
That is what I meant to say.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Life Gets Busy
So much has happened since the last time I wrote. Let's take stock:
1. Some fool ran a stop sign without even slowing down and crashed into my car. End result: all passengers and the other driver are perfectly fine and I have a bit of a bum knee. The doctor wants me to get a scope done, but I'm hoping for the less intrusive MRI. Honestly I'm hoping the anti-inflammatory medicine he has me on will do the trick. Hopeful, but not holding my breath.
2. I've had some interesting PD and I've been heading up a team at work regarding feedback in classrooms. It is definitely a different role for me, and not one I am entirely comfortable with. The moment you speak up about something, all of a sudden you are the expert in that area. I certainly don't feel like an expert. The bonus to the whole thing I guess is that now all of my colleagues talk to me about using feedback; their successes and failures and so I am learning a lot through other people's experiences. It helps me in my own teaching, and also gives me more information to help others with.
3. The literacy camp that I attended and talked about at the onset of this blog is of course happening again this summer, and I've been looking forward to it. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be one of the facilitators for the science break-out sessions as one of last years facilitators cannot make it this year. I tried and tried to come up with reasons to turn the offer down, and aside from a lack of self-confidence and a terrifying feeling that I won't be able to contribute (ever get that feeling like 'who the hell am I to tell people anything?!'), I couldn't come up with anything concrete, and humbly (and worriedly) accepted. I think this ties back into that blog entry LONG ago about our fears of being discovered as frauds. Well, here it is folks. I'm about to lay all of my cards on the table.
4. Things in my classroom are still slow-going, and of course wrapping up for the semester. I worry about some of my students, but in the end, they have to do the work and there is only so much I can do for them. I've done quite a few things this semester, most of which I will repeat and try to incorporate more into the classroom. I have completely fallen in love with Think - (write) - Pair - Share, and of course, I'm digging various forms of feedback. Can I invent a new term here? Let's call it pre-back. I love (and so do my students) giving kids the entire outline of what they are doing, why they are doing it and how it will be evaluated. When they can look up at a chart and have steps to follow, each of them knows exactly what they need to do in order to get a perfect answer all the time, regardless of the type of question. We are having our walk-through visit with a bunch of superintendents and principals etc and we've been told that they will be asking students questions like "What are you doing?", "How will you know when you are done?", "What will you do if you get stuck?", "How do you know if your answer is right?"... things of that nature. On a whim, whilst my class was being video-taped for some presentation on moderation (I had them doing peer-feedback on a literacy piece from an article they read about static electricity in our science class using success criteria), I decided to start asking those questions. Their answers were awesome. I think I am going to post those questions around my room so I remember to ask students them more often, and so hopefully they will think about that stuff and ask themselves those questions also.
5. I still have to start up this year's incarnation of the robotics club (which I am really looking forward to). I figure I can get the advertising going now, and start up right after exams. I received the kit for the Guelph roboticon and my team is looking to build upon their success from last year's competition.
5. On the home front, my wife has booked a Disney trip for us and the kids and that has occupied a lot of our time with planning, but it has been fun. Busy? Yeah, you could say that. Off to mark some mind maps...
1. Some fool ran a stop sign without even slowing down and crashed into my car. End result: all passengers and the other driver are perfectly fine and I have a bit of a bum knee. The doctor wants me to get a scope done, but I'm hoping for the less intrusive MRI. Honestly I'm hoping the anti-inflammatory medicine he has me on will do the trick. Hopeful, but not holding my breath.
2. I've had some interesting PD and I've been heading up a team at work regarding feedback in classrooms. It is definitely a different role for me, and not one I am entirely comfortable with. The moment you speak up about something, all of a sudden you are the expert in that area. I certainly don't feel like an expert. The bonus to the whole thing I guess is that now all of my colleagues talk to me about using feedback; their successes and failures and so I am learning a lot through other people's experiences. It helps me in my own teaching, and also gives me more information to help others with.
3. The literacy camp that I attended and talked about at the onset of this blog is of course happening again this summer, and I've been looking forward to it. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be one of the facilitators for the science break-out sessions as one of last years facilitators cannot make it this year. I tried and tried to come up with reasons to turn the offer down, and aside from a lack of self-confidence and a terrifying feeling that I won't be able to contribute (ever get that feeling like 'who the hell am I to tell people anything?!'), I couldn't come up with anything concrete, and humbly (and worriedly) accepted. I think this ties back into that blog entry LONG ago about our fears of being discovered as frauds. Well, here it is folks. I'm about to lay all of my cards on the table.
4. Things in my classroom are still slow-going, and of course wrapping up for the semester. I worry about some of my students, but in the end, they have to do the work and there is only so much I can do for them. I've done quite a few things this semester, most of which I will repeat and try to incorporate more into the classroom. I have completely fallen in love with Think - (write) - Pair - Share, and of course, I'm digging various forms of feedback. Can I invent a new term here? Let's call it pre-back. I love (and so do my students) giving kids the entire outline of what they are doing, why they are doing it and how it will be evaluated. When they can look up at a chart and have steps to follow, each of them knows exactly what they need to do in order to get a perfect answer all the time, regardless of the type of question. We are having our walk-through visit with a bunch of superintendents and principals etc and we've been told that they will be asking students questions like "What are you doing?", "How will you know when you are done?", "What will you do if you get stuck?", "How do you know if your answer is right?"... things of that nature. On a whim, whilst my class was being video-taped for some presentation on moderation (I had them doing peer-feedback on a literacy piece from an article they read about static electricity in our science class using success criteria), I decided to start asking those questions. Their answers were awesome. I think I am going to post those questions around my room so I remember to ask students them more often, and so hopefully they will think about that stuff and ask themselves those questions also.
5. I still have to start up this year's incarnation of the robotics club (which I am really looking forward to). I figure I can get the advertising going now, and start up right after exams. I received the kit for the Guelph roboticon and my team is looking to build upon their success from last year's competition.
5. On the home front, my wife has booked a Disney trip for us and the kids and that has occupied a lot of our time with planning, but it has been fun. Busy? Yeah, you could say that. Off to mark some mind maps...
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