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
With the holiday break only a few hours away, I decided that I should probably get one post in before the end of the year. I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really had the energy too. It's not that I haven't had things to share. It's just that I haven't had the energy to take the time post anything more than a tweet.
At my high school, we are currently in-person everyday. But, students had the option to attend class virtually. In person, we are socially distanced (at least 6 feet) in class and wear masks at all times. This means no sharing of materials, no working in groups, and no physical labs. This has challenged the way I teach even more than when we were all asynchronous virtual in the spring of this year. These restrictions could easily have led me down the path of a sit and get classroom. This is what I spent so much of my 20 year in education moving away from. So, it has been a struggle knowing that I am not giving my learners the science experience that I am usually able to.
So I haven't felt I have had much to celebrate. But, I'd like to take the time to celebrate some of the tools that have really helped my students during this time and some student thoughts on why these tools are great.
Pear Deck
Pear Deck is a tool I have been using in class for 5 years now. It has been even more powerful to create a sense of classroom community when 1/3 of my students are attending class virtually. It allows ALL students who are attending virtually to submit responses and have those shared with the class. We use it in instructor paced mode during lectures and in student paced mode for practice quizzes that we correct together.
"The pear decks were really helpful for me because it let me try out the calculations on my own. I really like the pear deck quizzes as well because I could do all the work at my own pace. I liked that it was self paced because I could go through what I understood quickly and spend more time on parts that I was confused on. I usually prefer learning material in classes on my own with some help from teachers so being able to try out momentum questions on my own before seeing the answers was really helpful. "
"Pear Deck is easy to use and very helpful in letting us know almost instantaneously if we are doing the problems correctly or incorrectly, which helped me memorize the right way to use the formulas. That was very beneficial to me, but also just being able to take notes and also do practice problems at the same time really helped solidify my knowledge. "
Gimkit
Gimkit is a super engaging quiz game that we run synchronously in class as a practice options. They have added many different game modes that adds a bit of gamification strategy on top of answering content based questions.
"The Gimkits were the best way for me to practice concepts because it was self-paced and I could absorb the questions and answers while still having fun and competition. It was beneficial because there was a more subconscious race against than a Kahoot. It's especially good if I didn't really understand the material because I got to take my time answering. Gimkit is like a Kahoot, but it's basically self-paced and you get to max out your own points. It helps connect to other information in and outside of school because I know now about Gimkit and I can suggest it instead of a Kahoot if I don't understand material as well. "
"The easiest way for me to engage in new learning was with GimKit. It really put my knowledge to the test and made me realize what I needed more practice with, which was very beneficial in the long run. However, to me, Gimkit was not about getting the highest score or the best place, it was about practicing effectively and correcting my mistakes. "
Flipgrid
Flipgrid has been an amazing tool for learners to express mastery. There are so many different modes of expression in Flipgrid that a majority of my learners choose it as an option when it comes time for summative assessment.
"The best way for me to show my learning in this unit was through Flipgrid. Here I have embedded a Flipgrid I turned in for my final project to explain a change in momentum. Doing Flipgrids as my project have proven to be very beneficial because I am such a talkative person. I can explain my knowledge so much better in words than I can on a test or even a lab. This connects to the overall world because being able to talk about what you know is a very important life skill, and this is just giving me more practice."
"The best way that showed my learning was through the flip grid videos because it allowed me to express my learning in other ways than just writing on a piece a paper it allowed me to make my own problems that also added a visual aspect into which helps me a lot in learning because I am more of a visual learner. "
Pivot & PhET Virtual Labs
The reason I love teaching physics over biology and chemistry is the number of labs we can do without too much set up. So losing the ability to do those hands-on activities has taken away what we would usually be engaged in 3-4 days a week. Finding virtual lab solutions like PhET Simulations and Pivot Interactive Labs has allowed us to still practice science skills even though we aren't using physical tools.
I construct all of out lab templates in Google Slides (Why? watch this.). The ability to create comment threads with students allows me to provide specific feedback to both virtual and in-person students.
"I really liked using the labs for practice because even though we can't really do hands on labs, the simulations helped me see what different types of collisions looked like. The labs were also helpful because I got more practice with the different calculations. I embedded the Air track collision lab because I was able to practice finding the velocity and then finding the momentum. I like being able to correct my own mistakes when I'm learning new material so when some of my answers were off it was nice that I could correct it and see where I went wrong."
The one thing we all hope is that some of the methods we are adopting during this time will provide some new possibilities when we move to our new normal. I know this is the case with many of the new strategies and tools I am employing. I know this post was not super informative about the "how". Perhaps, that could be a way for me to get back to writing posts...
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