Scientific Method/Process of Science

The Scientific Method

Metric Units

Matter, Mixtures & Solutions

Measuring Matter

States of Matter

Matter Changing States

Compounds and Mixtures

Living Things

Homeostasis

Origin of Life

None

Cell Structure and Function

Microscopes

Cells

Cell Structures

Cell Specialization

Cell Chemistry

Atoms

Atomic Model

Body Chemistry

Water

Carbohydrates

Fats

DNA

RNA

Cell Transport

 Diffusion

Passive Transport

Active Transport

Photosynthesis

 Photosynthesis

Respiration

Cellular Respiration

Mitosis & Meiosis

Asexual Reproduction

Mitosis

Classification

Classification

Six Kingdoms

Vertebrates

Mammals

Protists

Bacteria

Change Over Time

Geologic Time

Fossils

Natural Selection

Human Body

Human Body

Circulatory System

Blood

Respiratory System

Heart

Digestive System

Nervous System

Brain

Reproductive System

Urinary System

Skeleton

Overhead Camera, Big Piece of Paper

That’s basically it. The video recorder is suspended with a boom over a table. The work is drawn and written on a large piece of paper using a sharpie. The large paper has the advantage of being able to be shifted around to provide more writing space without having to start on a new piece of paper when more room is needed. Some folks believe that such videos are better received when the viewer gets to see an actual face and associate it with the voice of someone they know. It makes sense and that seems to be the word on the street. So, for the first time (for me), this one includes an introduction featuring my head.

The following video is about very basic ideas surrounding percents and converting percents into numbers, and numbers into percents. This was the second take although it could certainly be improved further.


 

PEDs! (Yutaka Tsutano/Flickr)

I’ve had a few requests for our school’s policy on learner use of personal electronic devices, or as we call them–PEDs. I drafted the original version last year and since then it has been reviewed by our district IT department and is approved for use at our school. I thought it was approved district-wide, but apparently we are not quite there yet. So, for anyone that would like to use this as a starting point to develop their own PED policy, here it is.

Guidelines for Learner Use of Personal Electronic Devices

The following guidelines are in effect with respect to learner access to the Challenger Middle School filtered, unsecured “Personal Devices” Wireless Network.

(1) The extent to which learners are allowed to use personal electronic devices (PEDs) in class is up to the discretion of individual teachers. However, since Challenger is a D20 School of Innovative Learning and Technology, teachers are encouraged to incorporate appropriate use of PEDs into the classroom to facilitate 21st century learning.

(2) PEDs include, but are not limited to: laptop computers, net books, iPads or other tablet computers, iPods and cell phones with relevant apps and/or data plans.

(3) No technical support is provided for PEDs at school.

(4) PEDs are not to be used for inter‐learner communication (email, texting or telephoning) at any time, unless authorized by a teacher. Students may not use the camera features of PEDs without the consent of a staff member and the person being photographed or videotaped.

(5) PEDs are not to be used during testing without the express consent of the teacher.

(6) All PEDs are brought to school at the user’s own risk. Challenger Middle School or district staff members are not responsible for theft, loss, or damage to PEDs.

(7) Use of PEDs for unauthorized gaming is prohibited.

(8) Teachers and administrators may bar an individual learner from using PEDs as deemed necessary.

(9) PEDs are subject to all provisions in the district’s Acceptable Use Agreement.

(10) Shared use of PEDs as a wireless hotspot to circumvent the district’s web filter is prohibited.

(11) PEDs may be confiscated at any time if these guidelines are not followed. Return of the device is contingent on the outcome of a meeting with the parents of the involved student(s).

I’ve had a couple of months now to think about the year ahead and to try and sort out some ideas that were left swimming around in my brain after the last school year. It was definitely the most difficult year of my teaching career. I guess that is to be expected when you make the switch from being a “teacher” to a “learner-in-chief.” I certainly knew what I was getting into when I decided to adapt the flipped class model to my 7th grade mathematics classes. I found that there is still a great deal of confusion about the difference between “teaching” and “learning.” Most people still think the best way to learn something is for it to be taught to them. That is most definitely wrong and I will defend that from now until my last day in a classroom. So what should a teacher be doing? Why, helping kids learn of course!

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to attend and be a presenter at the 2011 Flipped Class Conference in Woodland Park. I gave two sessions each day, one on Moodle question banks and one on measuring progress and achievement in the flipped class environment. The attendees were great and had some wonderful insights and questions. It was super helpful to hang out with the other presenters for a week to benefit from their experience at flipping the classroom. The discussions we had outside of the seminars were truly enlightening. Inspirational even. Many of the following thoughts are directly the result from discussions I had at the conference, but others I’ve been mulling over for awhile now.

What I learned in One Year of Flipping

I did many things right and I did many things wrong last year. I like to think I have learned a lot from my mistakes and will put those lessons to good use in the coming year. No pretty pictures here with keyword-laden captions. Just hard thinking and reflection. If you can handle that sort of thing, read on.

Communication, Communication, Communication. How import is communication? Important enough that I decided to write the word three times at the beginning of this paragraph. I had abut 90 or so kids in my classes last year. Of those I’d say about 20 had parents who started out, remained, or ended up pretty strongly apposed to the flipped class model. There were no show-stopping reasons for their opposition (at least not as far as I could tell from talking to them), it was just new and they didn’t like it. In other cases they wanted to protect their kids from being out on the edge of certainly, which isn’t always comfortable, but where true insight comes from and actual learning happens—not from some “expert” giving step-by-step instructions for how to solve a problem that “looks like this.” I’d say I had about 10 (that I knew of) who were on the opposite side of that and who seemed genuinely appreciative of the flipped class model. What the other 60 thought about it, well, I guess I’ll never know.

The first half of the year was the hardest, but the second half was a lot better. Why? Two reasons. First of all, I analyzed what was working and what wasn’t and changed the things that weren’t to try something else. I announced the changes to the learners, their families, and the administration. I believe that kept them on my side for the most part, or at least let everyone know I was not just dogmatically following some prescribed plan that I was dead set on continuing no matter what. People will appreciate your ability to self-reflect and change. They also like being kept informed about what you are doing.

There were 4-5 cases where the parents were pretty strongly set on pulling their child from my classroom. I am happy to say, that after meeting with them personally, not one child ended up being pulled from my class. It’s that communication thing again. Once they saw in person that I had thought this flipped class thing through pretty well, that I was serious about providing the best education possible, and that I had some good arguments in favor of what I was doing, the criticism waned, and at least I was given a chance. Good all around on that, as far as I am concerned.

Second of all, I made a conscious effort to send an email message home at least once a day to a family, giving them an update on how their child was doing. It was easy to find something positive to say on a daily basis and I always sent my message to someone new each time. Most of the time the response was very positive and only in one or two instances did my messages go unacknowledged. It pleased them and it pleased me too. It also pleased the principal and the counseling office (who I cc’d on my messages). Communication, communication, communication.

My Videos, Not Your Videos. There are a lot of really good videos out there designed to provide learners with direct instruction and examples. No matter how good they are, I have yet to see a single one that matches up perfectly with my curriculum, or presents things the way I would do it.  I used a combination of videos made by others, and made by me last year, and since there is not an infinite amount of time available for making videos, I will no doubt do the same this year. However, I hope to shift the balance more toward using my own videos. Word on the street is that kids prefer to see and hear their own teacher when watching instructional videos. So be it.

And another thing. When I made my videos I tried to make them generally usable by anyone else who wanted to use them. In other words, I wanted them to be useful for all math teachers, not just myself. No more. I am not responsible for the mathematics education every kid on Earth—just the ones in my classes. So, my videos will be customized specifically to exactly what I am doing, and to match up exactly with the curriculum material we are using at my school. If someone else finds them useful (I’ll still make them available) super. If not, that’s fine too.

Zero Bad, Missing Okay. Whew, did I stir up a hornet’s nest when I started entering zeros for quiz scores that were way overdue. That has a rather sudden and detrimental effect on one’s grade. Was it a fair thing to do? Maybe. Did it have the desired result (getting the kids to get to work and taking the quizzes)? Sometimes, but not as much I predicted it would. What it mostly did was cause the phones in counseling and the principal’s office to start ringing off the hook. Why it wasn’t MY phone that started ringing  off the hook is a good question, but one that must remain unanswered for now. So, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all (despite the best of intentions).

Execute plan B. Instead of entering zeros, I switched to marking quizzes as LATE after a reasonable time had gone by. The “hey, heads up” message was still successfully sent to anyone who was monitoring grades at home, yet it did not cause any grade-panic to ensue. The phones stopped ringing, the grades were stabilized, the message was sent, and more quizzes started getting done. Cool!

Sit Here, Not There. One of the better things I implemented for my second half comeback was the Intensity Table. The Intensity Table is actually a set of tables at the front of the room where I sit to work one-on-one with learners. I answer questions, provide an explanation or two, go over quizzes—whatever they need. I used to do that sitting at my desk. Wrong! When people (especially 12-13 year-olds) see you sitting at your desk for too long, they interpret that as “doing nothing.” It doesn’t matter that you may be talking to someone at your desk, grading a quiz, or whatever—that’s just the way it looks (sometimes). Besides, when you are at a more open and accessible area that is more a part of the room as a whole, you don’t seem like the high and mighty wizard behind your protective curtain and the class atmosphere just improves. Your are “one of them” in learning instead of it being a case of “you and them.” Do it.

Changes For Flipped Year Two

Are there any new things I will do this year. You bet! Some might work and some might not. But, I’ll be danged if I’ll be prevented from trying something just because “it might not work.” By the way, I highly recommend the book Better by Mistake by Alina Tugend.

Camping In. It’s a minor thing (or maybe it isn’t) but one thing I am going to do this year is carry a small folding camp stool under my arm in class. Sure, I spend a lot of time at the aforementioned Intensity Table, but not ALL my time. I circulate around the room to see what is going on and to check in with everyone at least once per class period. Sometimes I even get called over. In those cases, instead of towering over the table, I will pop open my camp stool and sit right down next to the person or persons who want to talk to me. It’ll put us at the same level, it will be more comfortable for them and me, and it’ll send the message that I am there for as long as it takes to get the job done. Sounds like fun so I sure hope it works.

New Instructional Video Format. I am trying a new video instruction format. My best previous method involved setting an HD flipcam on an overhead boom looking down on a piece of paper to record my writing and talking. In deference to the generally agreed upon better method of having one’s face appear, I have experimented with recording myself working at a black board and using the Camtasia zoom feature to move in on the board as needed to show the details of my work. It will be more like a traditional class lecture and it should personalize it more. We’ll see.

Better Ahead Than Dead. I was always struggling to keep the course plan posted ahead of the fastest learner in class last year. I was hoping that would not be so bad this year since I already had one under my belt. Oops, we changed curriculum so pretty much all of my detailed course planning from last year does not apply. But I really like the new curriculum (Big Ideas) a lot better than the previous one (Connected Mathematics) so I’m not complaining. I hope to get pretty far ahead in the plan before school even starts this year. Should be doable.

Quiz Time (Snicker, Snicker). It was pretty obvious that the average scores on the automatically graded on-line quizzes last year were notably higher than the test scores which were not on-line and required demonstration of a much deeper level of understanding. Why? Oh… lot’s of reasons I can think of, which I am sure you can think of too. Having someone else take the quiz for you? In some cases. Parents checking answers before submission? Possibly. Looking things up on the internet during the quiz? Sure. I do not want to eliminate the ability to take quizzes outside of class though.

How about this? Each quiz will have a time limit of 30 minutes. We are talking middle school math here; it’s just not that hard. If you can’t answer 10-20 questions in that amount of time then you have not learned it well enough.

There will be a two-tiered system. Tier I-A consist of a single attempt and you cannot go in to Tier I-B unless you talk to me about it. After you talk to me, I allow you to go on to Tier I-B  consisting of 4 attempts and your final grade on the Tier I quizzes will be the average of those 4 quizzes (unless you ace Tier I-A, in which case you press on!). Tier II will consist of a single attempt that can be taken after the Tier I is complete. You will get the higher of the two scores from Tier I or II. That ought to slow down the cheating, damper the desire to guess and hope for the best, and encourage actual learning. We’ll see. The goal is LEARNING not passing quizzes. Of course all this will be negotiable on an individual basis.

Back to School Night. How can anyone possibly get to know me and my educational philosophy in 10 minutes? Can’t be done, but that’s is all the time we have for each class at our back to school night. So, instead of explaining my grading policy, why and what the flipped class is, and what the class procedure is, thus leaving approximately 40 seconds for any questions, I’m going to spend five minutes explaining me. I’ll tell about what I like to do, and show the covers of all the books I’ve read over the Summer (I’ve read quite a few). I’ll give a few zippy quotes from respectable heroes that provide some insight into how I think and then I’ll leave a full five minutes for Q & A. That should prove interesting since I’m sure for some in the audience my reputation will have preceded me. See you there!

Putting together a set of index cards packed with facts, vocabulary words, concepts, and information is a time-tested and effective way to put knowledge into memory to get ready for a test, or just for learning. Electronic flash cards and software study aids are good, but homemade study cards on card stock still have their place. This is because they are inexpensive, portable, easy to make, and can be customized for any subject.

Flash Cards vs. Study Cards

It's still hard to beat a big 'ole stack of study cards (drcw/Fickr)

The “classic” flash card consists of a short bit of information on one side and a related bit of information on the other. There is a logical connection between the two. The basic vocabulary flash card is a well-known example. Flash cards are ideal for learning terminology, definitions, foreign language words, and math facts.

A study card is a bit different, although it is used in basically the same way (look at one side and recite or remember what is on the other). A study card consists of an idea, theme or larger concept statement on one side, and a significant quantity of information about the subject on the other side. These cards are suited for bigger chunks of more complex and connected information. An example would be putting “Monroe Doctrine” on one side, and a variety of information concerning the relevance of the Monroe Doctrine on the other side.

Picture Flash Cards

For some uses, images may be better than words, especially if images are important to the topic. For example, in studying the atomic orbital shapes of electronic configurations, an actual picture of each orbital type (either hand drawn or cut and pasted from a pre-existing image) on one side of the card with the orbital name and notation on the other would be appropriate.

To make vocabulary flash cards more interesting, pictures of objects or action scenes can represent a word or phrase on one side, and the written word or phrase goes on the reverse. Picture flash cards are ideally suited for studying and remembering data on graphs, charts, tables, historical photos, art works and artists, and mineralogy and geography, to name just a few applications.

Study Card Tips

Here are some ideas to make learning with flash cards more fun, effective, and less monotonous:

• Start with a small set and add to the set as the need arises. Keep building!
• Many people use rubber bands to keep card sets together, but these degrade and break after a time. Really big binder clips are superior for this purpose.
• Use a colored dot or sticker in one corner to quickly identify which set a card belongs to.
• Index cards come in a variety of colors. Use different colors for different subjects, or sub-topics within a subject.
• Carry the cards always! This way, any spare moment can turn into test prep time.
• For a real challenge and change of thinking, mix different topic sets together before use.
• The brain seeks and enjoys novelty. Make the cards memorable through use of color, varying text styles and sizes, and by using oddball associations to link one part of the information to the other.

Study cards are just one of many techniques available for helping a learner retain and synthesize information. If the cards are designed imaginatively, they will assist in forming mnemonic associations that lead to better results than can be achieved by straight rote memorization.

Note: This article is  a re-post of one first appearing at Suite101.com.