Mo Physics Mo Problems

Just wanted to announce that we'll be having another student presentation night to end our physics course for students. It was a great event back in January and I'm hoping this round will be even better. For more information, please visit our site for the event.   I'll be updating the site with more specifics about projects as we get closer to the day.

As we embark on our passion projects, I wanted to find a way to keep up to date on what my students were up to.  Last year, I had students create task boards using Trello .  While it was helpful in 1:1 conversations, the downfall for me as an educator was the amount of time it took to go into each board to see where students were at efficiently.  Now that Google Keep is a part of G Suite, I've decided to leverage it as a tool. I use Keep everyday in my life as a task list an note taking tool, but I never used it in my classroom with my students.  The ability to share and label notes makes it quite powerful.  So how am I using it? Today, I had students create a task list in their Google Keep and share it with me. I then added a label to all task lists from the same class and archived the list so they wouldn't be in my home Keep page. During class, I had students begin adding projects tasks to their lists.  Now when I go to that la...

Learners in my AP class have decided on their driving question for their passion project. Now, they need to start designing the path they will follow. The goal of the passion project is not simply for students to delve into something that they find a connection to.  It is also to provide a framework for that learning.   Based on the focus of their project students will be choosing one of four possible paths. I'm asking learners to plan out their journey before they begin. We understand the path may change, but I want to emphasize the importance of knowing where you are going so you can adequately monitor, reflect upon, and communicate progress. Possible Project Paths Experimentation : Do background research on your problem Take research notes Design procedure Complete procedure Collect data Analyze data Conclude with an answer to your driving question based on your data Clear and creative presentation of data Making something: ...

Yesterday was the second year I've introduced the idea of a passion project to my AP students after hour AP test has been administered.  I have to say that although last year was a success, this year feels infinitely more exciting.  Why?  I think we had a better kick-off/brainstorming day than we did last year. I have to thank at  Denise Krebs  and  Gallit Zvi   at T he Genius Hour Guidebook and Don Wettrick at The Innovation Teacher for their tremendous ideas and resources. First was defining the purpose of the passion project. It is a matter of framing the project time as time to for learners to do something for themselves, not time to create something for their teachers.  Compliant students are very quick to see this as a task to be completed rather than an opportunity for themselves. I ran into that in a handful of situations last year, and it really bothered me.  I wasn't prepared for it. I didn't realize that many times, student...

Yesterday, I attended the 1st of 2 sessions on the Next Generation Science Standards . These K-12 science standards ask educators to reframe how the approach instruction in the classroom. Before you tune out non-science teachers, don't. When I think about my classroom my units are framed around the units learning outcomes the drive everything that is done in the unit. Although I have done some redesign last summer, the outcomes are pretty much set per unit and we progress to meet those outcomes through the course of the unit. The NGSS framework has 3 main sets of standards: 1) Disciplinary Core Ideas (these are your traditional content specific outcomes) 2) Science & Engineering Practices (this are skills that are used in all disciplines) 3) Cross Cutting Concepts (these are big ideas that can be seen across all science disciplines).  The NGSS are really powerful in their goal to have students learn about the core ideas through the practices.  Also, connect their...

When I think back to where I was 4 years ago, I would have to say I had an extremely limited professional learning network. I communicated within my department, but rarely outside of it. Since then, my desire to dramatically shift the learning model in my classroom and my increased use of social media tools have transformed me into a networked educator with a PLN that functions in many different spheres. The value of my PLN cannot be underestimated. They have improved my practice with new ideas, feedback on my practice, and emotional support when I need it most. Rather than waste your time reading about how much I value each distinct voice in my PLN, why don't you check them out for yourself. Use the Thinglink below to explore my PLN. As I said my PLN covers many sphere and topics.  Building Level I’m fortunate to have a very progressive building administration and department staff. It’s been great to have likeminded educators who are taking risks in their cla...

The purpose of personalizing learning is for learners to take more ownership over the learning process. It is not an all or nothing proposal. It is not a process of giving up control but designing opportunities. When I look at my current classroom, I look at areas where I’ve been able to give student some opportunities for ownership, but there are many areas in which they are bound to a rigid structure I impose on them. When looking at learning through the lens of Universal Design for Learning, as suggested by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey, there are 3 areas we can focuses on when promoting ownership: Access, Engagement, and Expression. In my classroom, I have worked to allow students more opportunities in how they demonstrate mastery of content outcomes.  But, this comes at the end of the unit.   Currently, when students engage with content in my classroom, they have options in how they work on the same required assignment. This could be a problem set or a l...