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

Portfoli-O-Yeah!

Image
By

I started the year with a grand plan for portfolios. But like most plans, it got changed dramatically.  But, I do like that I am iterating the work we are doing in class to match a purpose. At the beginning of the year I had a plan to have a portfolio page per unit that would contain
  • List of outcomes for the unit
  • Reflections on formative quizzes
  • Unit reflection with presentation of summative assessment


As we are moving towards adopting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), I’ve been using science practices as overarching outcomes in assessing student work.  So, these same outcomes are addressed across multiple units. This along with a conversation with some people at state ASCD convention, led me to rethink the portfolio design.
The portfolio still has a home page, passion page (where they embed YouTube videos that represent their interests and aspirations), and “Me as a Learner” page (where the learner profile/preferences are housed).  But, I’ve changed the unit pages into pages based on the 8 overarching science practices identified by NGSS (we've formally assessed 5 so far). All reflections will be housed on a separate page just for reflections. The hopes are that someday this will develop into a blog type component.


For each Science Practice page, student were required to give a brief introduction of explaining the science practice itself.  
Sasha s Physics Portfolio Carrying Out and Planning Investigations.png
Sasha s Physics Portfolio Mathematics and Computational Thinking.png
After the introduction, students are required to present two pieces of evidence from the term that demonstrate competency for this practice.  It turns out that this was a great way to help us all see and understand what each practice was outside of being in the experience of the activity.
Physics Portfolio Developing and Using Models.png

Ellen Physics Portfolio Planning and Carrying Out Investigations.png
Physics Portfolio Mathematics and Computational Thinking.png
Alexa Physics Portfolio Constructing explanations and designing solutions.png
I really appreciate this idea of curation and choice of artifacts rather than me just mandating what should be in there.  What I really enjoyed was discussing the relevancy of presenting artifacts as evidence of a competency and how that is a lifelong skill that will extend beyond any classroom into the workplace.
The ease of Google Sites has made this processes so much easier to embed evidence and provide a reflection.  In addition, Alice Keeler’s WebCam Record Chrome Extension made it possible for those students who have difficulties typing to reflect using a webcam video saved to Google Drive. The students can embed those videos in their portfolio from Google Drive!
I look forward to having students continue to add evidence as they progress through these different practices.

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