Mo Physics Mo Problems

I am starting a new graduate course this week on multimedia in the classroom.  Our first unit is dealing with design principles for multimedia. As students are allowed to express their understanding in new ways, multimedia products have increased exponentially.  As a teacher of content, it's easy to overlook the importance of implementing design principles. But, this is just another form of literacy.  In fact, multimedia literacy is becoming more relevant as access to multimedia tools increases. In this first unit, I was able to familiarize myself with the following design principles: As students, we were given a wide variety of ways to access this information, including videos.  This meant that I could choose the method that was easiest for me to comprehend.  And, I could compare information for multiple sources to get a different explanations of the same information.  I need to start doing more of this. Just because a source explains "A" best...

I took the exam for and gained my Google Level 2 Certification today. The training made me realize that I knew the basics of Drive, Docs, and Sildes really well.  But I extended my knowledge of Sheets and Forms.  In addition, I learned about a whole world of Google apps that I either had barely scratched the surface of (like YouTube) or was clueless about (like Expeditions).  The training was so worth it! Google Certification may not be something you're interested in.  But, I recommend you at least find out more about the Google tools that are out there to help personalize the way students access information, engage with information, and express understanding.  Just learning about one more tool, could help empower more students. Here are some of the great things I leaned about. My Maps in the Classroom Users create personal maps and add media to locations to tell a story. Google Earth Tour Builder: Virtual field trips created by ...

If all assessments were this highly performance based, we'd have a better sense of our students competencies. If Google can do it and get results back to me in 5 minutes, our standardized testing system needs to be revamped.

During a discussion on Personalizing Learning lead by Dr. James Rickabaugh, he recommended Visible Learning by John Hattie as good source for the research that went into some of the practice behind the personal learning framework.  I was able to read Visible Learning for Teachers  by John Hattie over the weekend and was able to see how the data backed up many of the practices behind the personalized learning framework.  At the heart of it all though is that students take control of their own learning to greater degree. I attempt to summarize my learning, I created the diagram below.  I want to use it as a guide for design and implementation of learning in my classroom.  I made it in a couple of hours so this is really just a first draft.  Any feedback would be appreciated! Here's a more dynamic view of the Google Drawing: What sticks out to me is that the student is identifying gaps, planning how to close those gaps, and monitoring prog...

Well, I was planning on just dealing with 2 stages of the LAUNCH Cycle in this post, but I burned through the rest of the book yesterday.  The book itself is a very engaging read.  My post may reflect the nuts and bolts of the cycle, but the book is filled with practical applications and stories from the authors lives that show what the LAUNCH Cycle looks like.  That is the power of their work. It is based on experience and data. Step 4: Navigating Ideas So, this is a step that I have always shortchanged. When I initially looked at the cycle without knowing about it, I figured I knew what it was about.  I thought it would just be a stage of organizing information.  I was wrong. Much like generating questions is a bridge between awareness and research, navigating ideas is a bridge between research and creation.  It is the a step for creating a plan for creation.  Juliani and Spencer call this process ideating . Ideating is not simply plan...

I have dived into reading the next 3 chapters (Chapters 4 - 6) of LAUNCH by John Spencer and A. J. Juliani which cover the first three steps of the LAUNCH Cycle. The book does a great job going into depth about what each step entails and what it looks like with specific examples.  I would be doing the work of the authors a great disservice trying to create a Cliff’s Notes version of their text, because what resonates with me for my classroom practice may not resonate with others.  Also, the text is so rich that it needs to be read.  It’d just be retyping the book. I think that’s plagiarism. In lieu of that, I hope to provide some of my highlights below. Step 1: Look, Listen, Learn I love the way that this step is framed.  It’s the why of the process.  But, it’s clear that the “why” is not an extrinsic motivation.  The desire to create comes from the student.  So, this first step is seen as raising interest or awareness . The authors go o...

Over the weekend, I finished George Couros’s Innovator’s Mindset .  I highly recommend reading it to understand why we should foster a culture of innovation in our schools and where to start.  A culture of innovation makes everyone a creator in our schools, unleashing the creativity that is in all of us. The Innovator’s Mindset frames the steps to create that culture of innovation in a school and it gives some powerful examples of creation in the classroom.  That’s where the new book by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani picks up.  The book LAUNCH is focused on the importance of a clear framework for the creative process.  I’ll dig into that process in later posts as I get deeper into the book.  But, let’s start with the why of creation in the classroom. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Learning Domains Complex Creating ↑ Evaluating Analyzing Applying Understanding Simple Remembering Looking at Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of le...