Mo Physics Mo Problems

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 ...

I remember a few year ago the mantra at our school was that you can’t grade “behaviors”. What that translated into is all assessments only addressed content specific standards. What message does that send to our learners about what we value in them and what we want them to become? While the goal was to not put a grade on things like “completion of homework”, the result was assessments which only looked at part of the student as learner at not at habits of mind that are essential to creating learners. In Students at the Center , Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda ask us to make habits of mind an explicit part of our instruction in order to shape learners who focus on learning rather than being assessed. In their book, they find the connections between Personalized Learning and Habits of Mind in the classroom. The goal of this work is to show how habits of mind (“soft skills” or learner dispositions) are not things that live on the side of learning, but are essential to creating l...

I have finally been able to start a book I’ve been wanting to start since it was released earlier this year, Students at the Center by Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda. It is a great read so far.  Lots of information that addresses the “what” and “how” of personalizing learning in the classroom. Just as importantly, it has lots of examples of what it looks like across a wide variety of classrooms. So, you’re bound to find an applicable example for your classroom or school.  There is a lot in the book, so imagine I’ll have a few reflection posts as I continue reading. But, what better place to start then with chapter 1. It outlines the 4 attributes of Personalized Learning . What I appreciate is that they are presented in a easy to grasp framework for teachers and learners.   When evaluating or framing an activity or unit, ask yourself where you are providing opportunities for these four elements. Voice : You may have standards, but where do students have...

Assessment and feedback loops are fundamental components of learning.  In their book Empower , A. J. Juliani and John Spencer emphasize the importance of moving the locus of control of these cycles from the teacher to the learner. They invite us to make the shift from, “Taking an assessment to assessing your own learning.” A major component of this shift is rethinking what assessment is. Assessment is not simply summative assessments such as tests. We need to look at assessment as happening every time students are introduced to new content or skills, practice, or demonstrate mastery. Assessment is happening every day in our classes. All of these are opportunities to measure progress towards mastery. Too often, though, students see these as tasks the complete for someone else to judge rather than opportunities to self-manage and self-assess. We need to be intentional about the process not simply the work students are being tasked with. Spencer and Juliani outline 4...

When I first began teaching in my current school 13 years ago, we had something called power standards. There were specific power standards for each class.  Teachers spent many professional development hours debating about them and refining the wording. These standards were eventually put onto posters to be placed on the wall. In many cases, the were just that: words that hung on a wall. It didn’t feel like anyone owned these standards. So, they had very little power at all. In John Spencer and A. J. Juliani’s new book Empower , they ask us to rethink standards. If I had been presented with the ideas in Empower 13 years ago, I probably would have argued that I need to abide by these power standards and there is little I could change. The authors reply to this is focus on the areas you have control over.  They say, “Standards are the architect's blueprint, and you, the teacher, are still the builder and designer.” (pg. xxxviii) Specifically, they recommend fi...