On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
At a recent school PD session, it was announced that we will be revisiting grading practices in an effort to come to agreement on common practices as a staff. I admire our administration for taking on this issue. Grading practices are something that most staff don’t like having open conversations about, myself included. I feel like I always need to be able to defend my position and I should be. So, the point of this post is to help me frame my beliefs as it comes to opportunities for students to receive feedback and act on that feedback. This diagram below is an attempt to summarize the process I allow students in my classroom when it comes to a particular learning outcome. I recently revised my objective rubrics to follow a 0-4 scale based on Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs. 4 Synthesize multiple pieces 3 Analyze unique information 2 Apply understanding 1 Explain basics The key to this process is providing students feedback and giving them the opp