Skip to main content

Less Physics Mo Problems

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

Cooking my Content





I was lucky enough to see Dave Burgess speak today.  It was amazing. I’ve read Teach Like a Pirate but the presentation I was able to be a part of what speaks to one of his many messages. It's not just what's on the page. It's how we bring it to life! This is just a quick reflection.

Content and standards are raw. They can be presented to learners, but that doesn’t mean they will be edible or nourishing.

They won’t be coming back for more.

In fact, they may take a bite and spit it out.

They may even have a violent reaction to it.

This summer, I’ve been working to design curricular units aligned to Next Generation
Science Standards. I’ve been feeling great about my work. Until I started to hear Dave
speak and realize how much I hadn’t thought about before I think about moving forward.

Have I preheated? I can’t just put the lesson out there unless the stage is set.
Have the students been primed to learn? Are they curios about what we are going to be doing?
Do the want to know?

Have I taken the students’ orders? Student voice is key.
Have I listened to learners ideas and interests in order to make that connection to their lives?

Have I considered the presentation elements?
Am I showing passion for what I am presenting?
Am I using powerful visuals experiences to present or just a series of words on a projected slide?

What will I do with content I am not passionate about?
Will I simply try to power through it or will I infuse it with the other elements that will
matter in life like Habits of Mind and Digital Literacy. When the content isn’t exciting, that
doesn’t mean the learning experience can’t be.

How will I know when it's done? Take the temperature.
Just because it looks done, doesn't mean it is.  You've got to taste it. That means getting feedback from learners.

As I look back at the curriculum I am building, I need to consider these questions and more. I could be preparing the best piece of content ever. But, I still have to add some heat and seasoning if it's going to create that memorable experience.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Twitter Cards for Blogger

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

Personalized Learning Tasks and Roles

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

Pear Deck 101 + Q&A

  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