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Let Flexibility Lead To Alignment

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  In my previous school district, I was the only teacher teaching a physics course with set, district-wide learning outcomes. These same outcomes were also taught in physics classrooms at the other high school in our district. But at our school, I was one of the 2 physics teachers. The other teacher taught the AP-level physics courses. So, in many ways, I had opportunities to incorporate strategies I believed were best for learners and that I found worked best for them without being seen as out of alignment with anyone in our building. My amazing friend and one of my teaching philosophy goddesses, Katie Novak, stated the following misconception about alignment: All teachers must deliver instruction in the exact same way. True alignment, she says, is about shared goals, rigor, and outcomes. Thank you, Katie! Katie has taught me to truly believe that learner variability is the rule, not the exception. I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Katie Novak explain it in the ...
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Virtual Learning Days

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My school district will be out next week to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Over these days students will be assigned virtual learning assignments to be completed at home with the assistance of their Chromebooks. I'm designing a series of daily activities for my students using a number of resources. I just wanted to do a quick share and provide some 1 minute videos just in case you were interested in trying these tools out.

Pear Deck

I will be providing guided content instruction and videos through the use of student paced Pear Decks. These are Google Slide decks with added interactivity via the Pear Deck for Slides add-on. Some slides have videos embedded and others have the ability for students to respond to prompts. In student paced mode, students join the deck via a link and progress at their own pace. The teacher is then able to view their progress and responses to prompts in real time.

To learn more about using Pear Deck for virtual learning, check out this post by Stacey Roshan.

Gimkit

Gimkit is an online quizzing platform that my students love. It lets students answer questions at their own pace and shop for upgrades and powerups. Gimkits are usually run with everyone playing at the same time. But Gimkit has the option for students to join a game and attempt to reach an goal asynchronously. To do this, first a teacher must make a class and have students join it via a link. The teacher then validates those students. Finally, teachers create an assignment with a Kit and push out the link to students.


Flipgrid

I have traditionally used the video response tool Flipgrid for students to record reflection on their learning. But I plan to deploy it differently over the next week. I'm asking students to work as a class to create a key to the problems I will be assigning them. Each student will record a video working out a problem I specifically assign them. The host of new tools available in the Flipgrid camera will be a big help. These include whiteboard background, text, drawing, and importing pictures. I'll create a topic for each problem set.


I plan on using Pear Decks as the primary mode of instruction with links to simulations from PhET to help with the learning and possibly building labs around these simulations. Then students will practice their understanding with possibly a Gimkit or a set of problems in our learning management system Canvas.  Flipgrid will be great for creating those student generated answer keys in AP.  But if we are away longer than a week, it would be a great place for students to create or upload presentations demonstrating their understanding of the concepts they are studying. 

I'm sure I'll be having a little time to blog while we are out so I look forward to updating and maybe sharing some of the specific work we are doing. As alwyas, would love to hear what you are doing.

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