Mo Physics Mo Problems

For those of you who are unaware, I am a huge proponent and user of Pear Deck in my classroom.  If you’re unfamiliar with Pear Deck as a presentation tool that increases student interaction, please check out some of my previous posts .  My continued use is fueled by my students overwhelmingly positive response to the platform. It continues to be the #1 thing my students site that helps them learn in our classroom . So when Pear Deck announced a new tool, I was super excited to try it out. But, you don't have to have any familiarity with Pear Deck to use their new app. The new app is called Pear Deck Vocabulary or Flashcard Factory .  It is a collaborative vocabulary tool that features integrations with Google, Quizlet, and Merriam-Webster. Why is this a beneficial app? It allows learners to collaborate in going beyond simple definitions for terms or concepts. It asks students to collaborate to generate multiple representations for terms and concepts.  Then, it a

Pear Deck has just released a series of Slides Templates related to science and you can get them by clicking here. They can also be accessed from the Pear Deck Sidebar in Google Slides or PowerPoint The slide templates are free to use and edit by all and are a great way to start digging into the NGSS Science Practices. If you are unfamiliar with the Science Practice you can read more about them here. In this post, I’d just like to highlight how some of these slides could be used as another way to bring the science practices into your classroom. Developing and Using Models When students create and use models they are creating representations of phenomenon. Models are a great way for students to communicate ideas beyond simple text explanations. These can take a variety of forms and that’s where some of these different slide interactions can come in. Slides like the Draw an Atom give students an opportunity to practice applying atomic models for different elements. It’s simple for t

When I learned about Closed Captioning in Google Slides from Kasey Bell & Matt Miller , I was excited but realized I wouldn't be using it much because I use Pear Deck for my Slides presentations. Well, it turns out that we can all use Closed Captioning in our Pear Deck Presentations as well! If you're not aware of the new captioning feature in Slides , it can be turned on from the presenter menu in presentation mode. You do need to have a microphone either external or internal turned on for the feature to work. It presents live text of what is being heard by the mic to the screen. Now to access this same feature in Pear Deck, it's pretty simple. You just have to click at the right time. In the video below, you'll see that if you click on the CC in the Slides Presenter bar that pops up as the presentation loads into Pear Deck, you'll get the lived closed captioning! As you can see the CC is not yet perfect and I was using my internal computer mic. But i

Just today Pear Deck launched a beta integration of Microsoft’s Immersive Reader as a part of student view. This means that students can use the Immersive Reader to increase accessibility to text content present in a Pear Deck Slide. Pear Deck already has the ability for video and audio content playback to be controlled by students when in Student Paced mode. This option allows learners to launch the Immersive Reader regardless of the presentation mode. If you are unfamiliar with Immersive Reader, check out the quick overview video I made below detailing the Immersive Reader Extension for Google Chrome. All of the same features are available in the Pear Deck integration. To launch Immersive Reader from a Pear Deck slide, students simply click on the icon at the bottom right corner of their screen. The Immersive Reader beta integration is currently available for premium accounts. Teachers just need to go to their settings and turn on the integration. I look forward to seeing how teac

This week marks the opening of Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven . It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name which was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai .  It may be a matter of subjective opinion, but neither of these remake’s provide an improvement on the original masterpiece. As defined by George Couros, neither are "innovative".  In chapter 1 of The Innovator’s Mindset, Couros defines innovation as “ as a way of thinking that creates something new and better.” So while these “Magnificent” films might be newer, they are not by definition innovative (in my opinion).  Even the very good Japanese remake 13 Assassins can’t top the original masterpiece. Some innovations require time to tell the tale.  Will be getting rid of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 prove to be better?  Time has not judged “New” Coke or Crystal Pepsi kindly. I didn’t need much time to determine that one of my favorite classroom tools I discovered last year was an innovation

Universal Design for Learners (UDL) has been the lens through which Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey have helped us view each learner’s strengths and challenges in the class.  These insights have been the basis for choosing appropriate tools and strategies for learners. In my final post on their book How to Personalize Learning , I will focus on how they expand on the UDL lesson review process to allow teachers to design instruction that considers every learner. The four step model the authors present is as follows List methods,materials, and assessments to be used in lesson. Describe what learners will be doing with these materials. Identify possible barriers learners may encounter Indicate which classroom tools/strategies can be incorporated to reduce these barriers        Instructional, methods, materials, and assessments Requires Learners to Possible Barriers UDL Solutions and Strategies Teacher presents information on mechanical waves