Mo Physics Mo Problems

I finished reading Thomas Guskey’s On Your Mark last night in preparation for a discussion we had today on grading as a part of our PD at Brookfield Central.  As a part of the preparation for the discussion, we were asked to read an article on grading and share out our thoughts in an Ed Camp style environment. Different rooms focused on different practices.  I was shocked to realize we had been talking for almost an hour when our time was up.  I felt like we had just begun digging deep.  It was a great feeling to hear these conversations occurring with a positive mindset. Every once few months I read, see, or hear something that really makes me realize the box I’ve placed myself in.  The box that has been revealed to me this week is the box of using percentages to guide grading.  Like anyone trying to look outside of the box they are in, these views may seem a bit fragmented.  It’s my hope that putting them down will help me see the logic in the truth Guskey puts forward.  So

I was privileged to be asked to write a guest blog post for Epiphany Learning about using podcasts as my primary source of PD. It turned out great thanks to some wonderful editing by Heather Doucette. Why Podcasts are My Primary Source of Professional Development for Personalized Learning and EdTech It's usually best practice to address the why first, but before we do that we need to be clear on what a podcast is. In the simplest terms, it is an audio program (or it could be video) that is available to download (or stream) to an portable audio player or computer to replay at your convenience.  I also created a ThingLink for my favorite education podcasts from the post.  

I’ve been on the journey to bring personalized learning to my classroom for 3 years now. It seems that every time I think I’ve taken a big step forward, I look and see that in the grand scheme of bringing true voice/choice/agency to my students, I’m still add drops to a big bucket.  That’s not meant to be a cynical statement. It’s meant to see how much room I have to grow.  In an attempt to try to take another small leap forward, I tried something different with my current unit in AP Physics.  This might seems like personalization 101, but it was a big leap for me in terms of demand and supply. The unit I’m focusing on is Electromagnetic Induction.  Without getting into the physics of it, it is easily the most difficult concept for students to grasp in all of AP Physics.  This is the topic that students have shown the most difficulty with on the AP test.  In fact, it is the free response question which tends to be the lowest scoring on the entire exam.  Many students in

Canvas hosted their first Global Twitter Chat today.  It was hosted by Canvas Badge Jedi Jared Ward. I was able to attend the full hour. It was great to hear from Canvas users around the world.  I added some new people to my PLN and learned about some new tools to check out.  Below are some of my personal highlights. I look forward to more of these opportunities from Canvas. [ View the story "My Takeaways from 1st #CanvasChat" on Storify ]

This blog owes a lot of inspiration from this post by George Couros . Sometimes as a teacher I have to deliver content to a large group.  Today, in AP Physics 2 was a good example.  We are covering magnetic force.   I can predict the force and motions experienced by an object when acted on by a magnetic field. This is a very complicated topic that students can't experiment with at the atomic level. I can set up a demonstration that shows what happens at a macroscopic level but it doesn't help students understand what is happening at the subatomic level. The biggest difficulty is not mathematics. It is spacial reasoning and conceptualizing what is happening. It is a process which involves "right-hand rules" which provide simple models for how charges behave in a magnetic field. Here is a sample question students learned today from scratch. Ok, enough with the physics talk. What is my point? I feel that as educators, the current wisdom

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

What happens when you put fast cars on HD video? Well it might not be quite the same, but this is pretty cool, too. I recently listened to a podcast in which Vicki Davis interviewed physics teacher Ben Owens. He exclaimed how the beginning units of physics instruction can get very rote and bogged down in mathematics becoming more about the numbers than about the process and what it means. Check out more on that great episode here. In my new term of AP Physics 1, there is a strong temptation to burn through the content in preparation for our AP test in May.  The content I would usually have 18 weeks to cover I only have 12 weeks to cover due to the scheduling of the AP testing. I may end up doing some more traditional forms of instruction as we get closer to the test, but I want the first experiences with physics content to be engaging ones.  I want students to be able to “get it” and be engaged.  Like any good story or song, you need a hook.   Luckily, I