Skip to main content

Less Physics Mo Problems

By
Why am I writing this personal entry? Well, it is not an attempt to gain any sympathy. It attempts to show what is possible if a clear intention and goal serve the learner's needs.  In May of 2022 just near the end of another fantastic school year, I do not remember what happened. But, I was unable to finish the school year and was unable to teach the following year.  Why? On May 21st, 2022, I fell down a flight of 16 stairs (luckily carpeted) from the 2nd to 1st story of our home.  I was found at the bottom of the stairs. I was found foaming at the mouth. This would lead to a 2-month hospital stay which included an induced coma because my seizures would not stop, several rounds of lumbar punctures, and relearning basic physical movements like something as simple as being able to roll in the hospital bed. Simply put, when I was admitted to the hospital, I was diagnosed as being “critically ill.” Please take a moment and read those words: critically ill. They are not terms that are
Post a Comment

Edutopia My Pedagogic Trainer

Image
By



So, you're scrolling through your Twitter feed and come across an interesting headline.  You hope to read it later so you like it, flip it, pin it, or email it to yourself.  But of course you never get around to reading it.

I discovered that the majority of the posts I plan to read come from Edutopia.  So I decided to try something this week. For 3 days, I'd spend 20 minutes reading posts directly from Edutopia's site and RSS feed. I limited myself to 20 minutes to see how much I'd get out of it. I was surprised by how many posts I burned through and got great insights from. I've listed some takeaways below:



  • Feedback should focus on effort not simply intelligence. This is feedback for a growth mindset.
  • Space should be given for teachers to try new things and make mistakes and reflect. This is growth mindset for professional development.
  • Am I willing to focus on motivation as a goal for unmotivated students? If so, I have to spend time focusing on it outside of the course content.
  • A program On Giants' Shoulders pairs middle school students who are unmotivated with high school students with similar interests for brief Skype sessions that benefit both.
  • Back channel chat tools can be a tool for peer to peer and teacher students communication and assistance during work time. Some back channels include Chatzy, Today’s Meet, or Ning.
  • My greatest weakness as a teacher is still opening and closing lessons with strong routines.
  • When preparing students for a performance assessment balance  teaching  content and preparing students for the task.
  • Problem-based learning is really just a subset of project-based learning in which the driving question asks students to solve a problem.
  • Periscope is a bridge to classroom presentations to parents and the world.
  • Test corrections are a great way for all students to practice argumentation and literacy. Here are some steps taken from a science class:1) Students write the problem. 2)Their original answer 3)Why they thought it was correct? (“I guessed” is not accepted) 4)   Correct answer 5) Evidence for correct answer

Alright, I'm stopping there, but there's so much more.  So, my resolution for 2016 is to spend 20 minutes 3 days a week READING posts from Edutopia.  I figure if I hold myself to post my findings, I'll stick with it. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twitter Cards for Blogger

By
So, I’ve been seeing people with beautiful Twitter Cards in my Twitter Stream. They make it clear that there is a web page to visit and give a quick preview of what would be found. Something like the one below: I’ve been wondering how to get one of the cards to appear when I tweet out a link to my latest blog post.  Since I use Blogger, there is not a simple button to click to turn this on.  I had to find a way to paste new code into the HTML code of my blog.  It took some searching from multiple sites to get a completely functional.   This site though was quite helpful.  But, I’d like to walk you through my process and hopefully it helps a few out. There are a few types of Twitter Cards.  Two that at most frequently see are the basic summary card and the summary card with large image.  Below you can see the layout of each, but realize that they both have the same content pieces. This is going to look like a lot more work than it will actually be
14 comments
Read more

Personalized Learning Tasks and Roles

By
Yesterday, I read a great post by Jim Rickabaugh dealing with the roles of learner and teacher in a personalized learning environment by looking at tasks . The roles were set up on a continuum. This article timed perfectly with a reflection on part of Students at the Center by Allison Zmuda and Bena Kallick on idea generation and task development I had in mind. These two works are the focus of my reflection here. I think a key misunderstand teachers have when it comes to digging into personalizing learning is that for planning purposes, we no longer begin with standards but with student desires.  I believe like all good instruction, we need to start with the standards.  Think about it, standards are what we want all learners to know and be able to do as a result of passing through our educational system. That is why it is essential that we make sure that standards are representative of what we believe is important for learners to be informed and productive in their futur
1 comment
Read more

Pear Deck 101 + Q&A

By
  Last week, I presented as a part of Pear Deck’s Pear Fair 2020. My presentation was Pear Deck 101 for Google Slides. During the presentation, there was a live chat. Many people said it went too fast for a 101 Session. Luckily, it was recorded so it can be rewatched.  Also, many said that they wanted to know how to build a Pear Deck first. I structured the presentation to show what Pear Deck was before showing how to make one. Perhaps that wasn’t the best structure. But, I’m going to stick with my philosophy of showing what something is before showing how to make it. The presentation, which can be watched below, was structured in several different sections What is Pear Deck? Providing an overview of the experience from the Teacher and Student perspectives. How do you build a Pear Deck in Google Slides? How do you start a Pear Deck presentation? How do you end a Pear Deck presentation? Here is the Slideshow I shared during the session bit.ly/pearfair101 Time really flew in the sess
2 comments
Read more