Class Notes

After last week, I feel better about creating class notes that are appropriate for public schools. I was concerned throughout the process because the only notes I have ever made were for a college class with over 250 students enrolled. This was very different. I actually found that I enjoyed making lessons that were highly interactive (thanks to my volunteers, by the way!). I try to do that even with the college lectures, but with such a large class size there is only so much I can do.

The only issue I had - and I guess this will come with time and experience - is that I wasn't convinced that I had put enough information in my powerpoint slides. I felt that the students would be more interested but less informed. I am not sure how to incorporate vocabulary and other terminology into a lesson if I cannot put that information in my class notes. Should I use homework assignments? Class worksheets? I feel like building the information is a great idea, but the students do need to know what things are called. On the SOLs it won't say "the purple thing", it will have a name. How do I find this balance? Any ideas?

An interesting article

I just came across an interesting article on ADHD and thought I'd share it with everyone. According to the article, recent reserach has shown that the best method of curbing ADHD is a combination of providing immediate incentives and 'low' doses of drugs such as Ritalin. Earlier it was purely medical (high doses of drugs).
However, the question posed at the end of the article interested me most.. How practical would this be in regular schools? What are your thoughts on this?

Here's a link to the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8625741.stm

Lesson plan designing - a laborious, yet satisfying experience !

I designed my first ever lesson plan the other day, in accordance with the 5E model. When I first started off, I was enthusiastic and bubbling with ideas. Brainstorming questions, strategies and ideas, it was pretty exciting, must admit ! And then I got down to actually designing it. Initially it was fun, but as I started advancing through the E's .. it started getting a little frustrating... and after about 2 hours, realized that I had only finished about 30%. I thought to myself, 'Is it going to take me this long to design all my lesson plans?' However, I kept at it... it was a test of my patience. And it was worth it ! Soon it started taking shape, and my enthusiasm revived once again. It took me another 3 hours to complete the job, and another hour to edit, and finally I had my first lesson plan complete in front of me. It was a heartening feeling.

The most challenging segments were 'exploration' and 'elaboration'. As I found later, even though both are distinct categories, there exists a very thin line between them...

The other thing that took a lot of time was coming up with deep, yet simple questions, triggering higher order thinking. My difficulty here was coming up with a sort of 'simple' question. It's a tricky combination - testing a simple concept.

All in all, it was a nice experience. It was certainly a challenge designing the lesson - but a challenge very well worth it !! At one point, I was so discouraged that I didn't feel like going ahead, but I'm glad I stuck to my task, and ended up framing a decent first ever lesson plan.

I think this was the one time in life where I really felt that I reaped the fruits of my labor ! :)

Set the example!

Sir Ken Robinson makes an interesting point about public education by comparing it to a factory of mass production. In our education system we have standard tests and standards for grade levels that “conform” students to specific guidelines and grade levels. He goes on to say that schools today are “preoccupied with certain types of ability.” He says that his aim is to help students find their passion and inspire creativity. Here is where I have a problem in what he is saying…

As a society, I believe that we should have standards because we need to be able to compete with a growing technological society. The problem with our standards in this country is not with the standards themselves. The problem is with the way we teach the standards and the way we “rush” children through the system. We have pushed children through the system not worried about whether or not they will catch up next year or fall further behind. We have labeled children that can’t work at their grade level target as being learning disabled. Maybe we should not worry about years and time lines anymore and allow students to advance in grade levels ONLY when they pass the subject area demonstrating mastery of the content. This would require students to show motivation to move forward and would require those that need help to spend as much time as they need. Why do we have to categorize students by a grade level that requires them to master content in one year? Why can’t students work at their own pace and advance when they are emotionally ready to? Why isn’t there more flexibility?

If we adjusted these requirements it would allow teachers flexibility in teaching by giving them more time to teach. For example, it might be better for students to finish a science subject in 9 months, test, and move on to the next level. Where as, in language arts they should work for 11 months, test, and advance. Currently our students are testing between March and May in Virginia; this means that teachers only have from September to February to teach content material. That is only 6 months! Are we setting our children up to fail? To hate school?

I agree with Robinson, there is a need for more creativity and inspiration in schools. Most teachers would tell you they don’t have time to be creative. However, I feel that there are bigger issues to deal with that would fix this issue.

As a classroom teacher, you can’t change educational policy on your own. What you can do, is find a method that works best for you. Find what standards and practices go best together and how the students work best with each of them. Create more time in your classroom by find ways to combine content so that you can provide ways for students to demonstrate mastery of material in ways other then testing. When students are able to do hands-on, practical or design based learning activities it encourages them to make connections with content that forces them to use upper level thinking and inquiry skills.

And finally, to inspire creativity and passion in the classroom, teachers must always remember that they create the classroom environment. So, create an environment that encourages creativity and passion for content knowledge. Be the example that you want students to be!

Bringing Choas Back to Education

As a teacher there is one goal I desire to do to help improve the conformist, lazy direction education is heading in. I want to bring reality to the class room. What I mean by this, is not only just bringing real world examples into my science classroom, but also breaking the typical social setting: adult teacher lectures and ignorant students listen and learn. That is not how people learn in the real world. They must experience. They must learn it on their own.

Furthermore while the social and technological world has changed, education has not changed to match it. With a world wide internet, the access to information is unlimited. SO why spend all our time forcing memorization of irrelevant facts when students really need to learn to apply the information they gather to real life situations.

Lastly we need to encourage students to try lots of subjects, etc. until they find what they enjoying learning and doing. THEN we must provide enough flexibility within our school systems to allow students to pursue those goals to see if its really what they are interested. This needs to happen before kids go to college so they are getting an idea of themselves sooner.

Education or Mass Production?

There were several things that Sir Ken Robinson said that formed very vivid images in my mind . I'd like to comment on them first.
The analogy made with children being mass manufactured like products in a factory reminded me of the film, 'The Matrix' - in particular the scene where the machines are creating new species in the 'real world'. To be honest, this is very very scary.... and it's really happening- which scares me more. Is this what our education system has come to? Sir Robinson is correct when he mentions that our education system is based on the principles of 'mass production'. However, this is extremely unfortunate. This has to change... I don't really know how.. but it's not heading the right way.

The second vivid image that came to mind was when he talked about how a plant grows. A plant needs nurturing and the correct conditions to grow. This is very true. It is absolutely imperative, critical, crucial, important, and ESSENTIAL for schools to provide conditions, and teachers to enhance 'personal development' -- this according to me is the KEY to a good education. As Sir Robinson mentioned later, you can't just put the roots in the ground and stick the petals and expect the plant to grow.....

One factor that greatly contributes to this mechanical system is the fact that the government sets very definite targets by which it wants to accomplish extremely challenging feat. The new goal that came with the recently reformed ESEA is, " ..... that by 2020, America once again will lead the world in college competition." I would be really glad if this happened in the next decade. However, I'm just afraid that in order to accomplish this goal, we will resort to narrowing our focus on 'important', yet limited, aspects of teaching. Achieving targets, at the cost of inhibiting personal development, in my opinion is extremely unfair.

In such a system, not only do the students suffer, but so do the teachers. The latter have to teach to a restricted (and not necessarily an educationally prolific) curriculum.
On the positive side, the government has put in a HUGE amount of money into education, which should really help in a lot of ways. Also, the fact that the govt. mentioned that schools not performing well will not be punished, but instead be helped -- this was immensely heartening and encouraging to hear !

As a teacher, I firmly believe that I need to teach my students science in such a way that they understand , enjoy , learn it well, and trigger (in even the smallest of ways) some excitement or fascination for some aspect of science. I would like to provide conditions necessary for healthy personal development, as I believe that this is imperative. I had very few teachers who motivated me well, but I know that if I did, I would probably have learned much more, in a much better way. I wouldn't want my students missing out on this, and will do my best to be an inspiring teacher.
The problems in education are huge, and impossible for a single person to solve. Even though it might be insignificant, I will put in an earnest effort in ensuring that my students have learned the subject well, and nor just for the sake of the exam. If I can succeed in this challenge, I will be really satisfied.

The Road Less Paved?

I went to a conference earlier this fall where a man showed a ppt slide of a "sketchy" neighborhood with run down homes and pot holes in the road. He made the analogy that this was our education system. We keep repaving the road with our "reforms" but essentially the road still leads to the same bad neighborhood. Then today, I saw this on cnn.com.http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/17/ted.ken.robinson/index.html?hpt=C1Read this short article and respond to it on the blog. Perhaps you as a single teacher in a classroom may not be able to completely overhaul education - but what can you do to keep from just repaving the same bad road?

Video Streaming

I don't know how this relates to some subjects, but I plan to teach biology. I have already used videos as a way to reinforce my own learning in my biology classes, and there are some processes and concepts in biology that would have confused me for a long time without videos to enhance my understanding. I also have seen what videos do for the students in my class and the students I tutor. I really believe that there are times that I could keep talking until I am blue in the face, but it is not until they see the video that it really makes sense to them. I don't really think it matters if you are streaming or playing a file off of your computer, but moving pictures are invaluable in many biological concepts. I would never dream of teaching my class using only the static images in their textbook.

Assistive Tech

If a student is a struggling reader and they do poorly in your class because they lack that skill, then your tests are likely assessing reading ability more than mastery of the content in your class. I would never say to make the questions easier, but if you are aware that your class struggles with reading, you ought to write questions that do not take excessive amounts of time to read. I believe there is a rule of thumb in education about the reading level of your tests remaining lower than the grade that you teach. I believe this is a good thing. I would hate for a student to truly understand the material, but in my test I use a word (not a vocab word from class) that causes them to answer the question incorrectly.

I think that if you build many types of assessment into your class, this can help those students succeed. Labs during class are good because they have you and their peers to help them if they encounter troubles due to their reading level. Homework can also be helpful because it allows them as much time as they need to read whatever the assignment entails.

Assistive Technologies can help a struggling student as well. The read-back programs could really help these students by letting them learn the information despite their reading level, and things like a smart-pen may help the students who struggle to listen and take notes simultaneously. I do worry that students who could manage on their own may become too reliant on such programs, but for the student who truly needs the aid, these programs are invaluable tools.

KNOW your students!!!

This is a common issue for every teacher no matter what the subject may be. You will come across students who are incapable of reading and will require other ways of obtaining the information you teach. Although we all wish the students we get at the beginning of every school year will be up to par on their reading abilities, we do not live in a perfect world.

If you have a student that is incapable of reading and you give periodic assessments which require a substantial amount of reading then the student will most likely do poorly on the assessment. Some students get very anxious when given anything with a large amount of words on the paper; this will also lead to poor grades.

My best advice is to KNOW your students and be able to give appropriate accommodations to everyone, especially those with 504 plans and IEP’s. Know the reading abilities of ALL of your students so you can assist them to the best of your ability. For example, I had some students who had difficulty with “big” words. Therefore, every handout I wrote up I simplified the language or instead of writing a word like ‘submit’ I would say ‘turn in.’ Although this did take a few extra minutes of my time when writing lesson plans and handouts, in the end it made everyone’s lives easier.

If the student requires an aide, this person will be in class with them to further assist the student in any way possible. The aide should be very helpful in making sure the student is not hindered due to their poor reading abilities. Strategies such as reading test questions allowed, page formatting (not putting too many words on one page), font size, test formatting, simple language use etc. will all be duties of both you and the student's aid.

In the end our job is to teach our students science, but with science comes language. It is not bad to spend a little extra time defining words your students don’t understand. From my experience anytime a student has come across an unfamiliar word, they ask, and then you have the opportunity to explain it to them. Also, when speaking to the entire class, if you say a word and students respond with funny looks on their faces, ask the class if anyone knows the meaning, usually someone does and then that student can tell the class.

Assistive technology can always help us in some way. If we know our students abilities, and know and understand the assistive technology we are given, then we should be able to appropriately use a majority of the equipment in everyday instruction.

Hopefully we will all be the best science teachers we can be, meaning, we will take advantage of assistive technology our schools provide us with. We will be in tune with our students and know their individual needs in order for them to succeed. If they have difficulty reading, try and do everything you can to help them understand the principles of science rather then testing their ability to read.

A Teacher's Obligation

While each teacher has a different title, be it a science teacher, math teacher or special ed teacher, all teachers are teachers. Our core job is to educate students to the best of our abilities. When a student cannot read, then teaching science by having students read book chapters is not going to educate the disadvantaged student. If our goal is to educate someone in science, then reading should not be a limiting factor. Instead, the science teacher must get creative.

If a student cannot read, then find a way to present material with limited visual words. Many people around the world are illiterate but function in life because life is not one dimensional, and reading it not the only way to convey a message. Videos, pictures, games, active participation in labs…all these things exemplify ways to convey science without words. If the student struggles with test time, then the student should be given accommodations for verbal or visual testing without words. Fortunately there are many assistive technologies to help students take verbal tests, without needing a human dictator, and the more technology grows, the more educating students can become creative.

Second, use other teachers! It simply amazes me that a science teacher struggling with a student who cannot read or perform math, does not seek out the math teacher and explain the troubles. It is possible that the other teacher has no clue how much the student is struggling. As a science teacher, I could easily provide a list of words which the student could practice with the reading teacher to help the student learn multi-dimensionally, with limited constraint on my personal time schedule.

Furthermore, there are tricks to every trade. In science, teaching a student to break down the scientific words into something easier or create a symbol in place of a word is common place. This may be the best method to limit words but still allow a student to be educated in science.

It is possible to educate around limiting factors, such a reading, and without much more effort. The effort must come from the creativity of the teacher and the conquering of the fear to try something new.

Reading in Science : A Struggle for Many

Even though a test may be designed with the intention of purely testing the students' knowlegde of the content, it is not so for those struggling with reading. Written tests, unfortunately, prevent such students from excelling in the subject, no matter how good they might actually be at solving math problems, applying physics principles, or even at performing experiments in bio or chemistry for that matter.
I believe that a science teacher's principal role should be to ensure that his/her students gain a solid understanding of scientific content.
According to me, the process of learning science is more hands-on and a minds-on, and things like language and the text book are just tools. As a science teacher, it would certainly not be my priority to train my students to scrutinize the text or identify subtleties in it. In fact, I would try to frame my test questions so that they are easy to read and understand, and would expect similar answers from my students. In addition, I would also have my students do experiments, projects and presentations (and grade them on each of these), thus providing a wider window of opportunity for doing well.
Assistive technologies can help students greatly in this respect. For instance, auditory learners find reading and absorbing large amounts of information simultaneously a challenging task. For such learners, the read aloud softwares can be extremely helpful. This software also comes equipped with features such as highlighting important text and an inbuilt dictionary which instantaneously looks up the meaning of the desired word in the text... which I think is pretty cool ! On a different note, difficulty in reading might also be due to poor vision. Magnifying software can blow up the text to 20 to 30 times the original size (without much distortion), which is ideal. Thus, assistive technologies play a major role in helping out students.

All students should benefit from assistive technologies!

In the past, I’ve experienced working with students of all grade level abilities at the secondary level. I've worked with students that are legally blind to students that are seniors reading on a third grade level. What works best for me and my classroom is figuring out the students and what works best for their specific situation. For example, when I taught high school it was often times embarrassing for students to have tests read to them individually. Usually, I would read the test directions and main sections a loud to the entire class. In the case with the legally blind student, he required print of 14pt font. That year everything I did for that class was in that font; making it easier for me and the student because he was not singled out with a different copy of work each day.

I’ve found that this can be most challenging in the middle school classroom. Often because students still need a lot of assistance in class (compared to high school students). I take the same approach with reading directions and main questions out loud, but then I use my planning time to find the student who was unable to finish the test and I finish reading the test to them one-on-one. In some unique cases, I’ve had to pull students aside outside of class and verbally ask questions to them the entire test to “test” their knowledge. I personally feel that it’s more important to test their knowledge then to worry about the means in which they are being tested. Although this is time consuming for me, I feel that it’s best for the student. I struggle with those teachers that fail students because they didn’t finish a test. I’ve never understood the rationale in penalizing a student because they are a slower reader, or want to check answers, etc.

Another aspect of my classroom is organizing the structure of delivery and learning approaches such that all students will be successful. I try to use labs, assistive technology, problem-based learning, inquiry, and other methods of instruction to help students learn, as well as test their skills and knowledge in a subject area. I feel that all students should benefit from assistive technology regardless of their disability or lack of disability.

As a teacher, I believe in giving students every opportunity to succeed. Sometimes this means scarifying my planning time or lunch, but my students know that I care about their success and I think they worker harder in class because of it! I’ve always found it a huge complement when other teachers come to me about a student seeking advice on how to get “Johnny” to do his work because they struggle with the student for a variety of reasons. From my experience, it’s all in your approach with how you handle the students both individually and as a class. When students know that you care about them and their success they will try their best and work hard for you regardless of their disabilities or daily struggles.

Students struggling in Reading

Tests can be a poor assessment of a student's knowledge of a science, you are testing their ability to read the material in addition to their comprehension of it. Even a practical exam will have written instructions, and a students grade may not accurately reflect their understanding of the material. However an individual's competency will assessed through reading for the rest of their student and professional careers. There are technologies that can be implemented to minimize the effects of difficulty reading on the assessment e.g larger text or different formatting may help students with visual impairments, having someone read the questions to the student or using a text-to-speech program.
In addition to assistive technologies, it is important that teachers work on reading skills in all subjects. All our students may benefit from skills taught to struggling readers. Student who are reading at a high level in other subjects may need to be taught how to read the textbook and there will be plenty of unfamiliar vocabulary in our lessons. It would be a shame if difficulty and frustration over reading the class material and tests resulted in a student's dislike for the subject.

Web page designing

I thoroughly enjoyed designing the class webpage, and think that weebly is extremely user friendly and simple. The choice of backgrounds is quite amazing, and uploading files and embedding links is very simple, which is good. However, there are some faults too, such as not being able to shift the text box to the desired position, and just limiting your videos to two clips. I'm not sure, but these problems might be specific to the design or background chosen. I wonder if y'all too encountered the same problems?
On the whole, it's simple, fast and yes... quite addicting too :)

Web Page Fun

Wow I love weebly! I think this is a great tool to allow students access to materials, either extra materials or to give them the option to look at lecture content again. I also like the idea of a communication tool that is open to parents and students. I am a little frustrated with formatting issues, but I definitely can't complain when it's free! I don't think any classes in my high school had their own websites, but I really like the idea!

Graphic Organizers

After making my graphic organizer in Word (which took forever because of all the formatting problems by the way), I was thinking about this whole concept of graphic organizers. I remember hating worksheets in high school. I think, as a student, I would have preferred to have a handout without blanks so that I could use the visual aid when studying or making my own graphic organizer. Following the thoughts and format of another person never really helped me. I had to create my own connections throughout the content. I was just wondering what you all thought of the "worksheet" version versus a "handout" version or having the students synthesize their own. Depending on the academic level of the students, this might be done as group work in the classroom.

New to Graphic Organizers

This week I made my first graphic organizer and I wanted to share both the joys and trials of the experience. I really enjoyed designing, creating and formatting the whole thing. I used power point for the design, partially because it has good features and partially because its a program I know well. My difficulty was that power point made it difficult to manuver whole pieces instead of just individual pieces. I also found it hard to reduce my explanations to one page. There is just so much to say about the awesome subject of science!! Anyway, I hope that you all have enjoyable experiences with making graphic organizers...they really are a neat teaching tool.

Lost Data

I have only had a few encounters with lost data. After my first accident with losing information I became an "obsessive saver." Every few minutes I have to hit the save button just incase. My first experience with lost data happened my senior year of college. I was working on a 10 pager paper that was due the following evening. I had only finished about half of it when I sat down at home to do the rest. I lived in an extremely old house and our power would often trip which would send all of our electronics into a frenzy. My roommate had actually been working on the same assignment with me when all of a sudden..someone in the house turned on a blow dryer and boom. Power tripped. At the time I was in the last few stages of life with my Dell computer, it couldn't keep charge unless the computer was connected to the wall. So, unfortunately I had lost about 3 pages of information. Soon after I got a MAC and haven't had any trouble since!

Helping My Mother

A couple of years ago my Mom upgraded her virus protection to a great program. One that I would definitely recommend. But, she bought it for just a year subscription. When I visited home about a year and a half later the computer had so many issues on it. It was slow, it was full of spy ware, and my mom was having trouble with Word, where she was trying to write her book!
I recognized that she had not resubscribed the program. Fortunately, there were no major viruses, but it was enough to make working on the computer a hassle as opposed to a convenience. Moral of the story, make sure your virus and spy ware protection are up to date.

Virus in the CD-rom drive

My very first encounter with a virus was the most memorable one. This happened about 15 years ago, and I remember that we had recently upgraded our computer from a 368 to a Pentium (which was a big family decision, and a source of great excitement !).
About a month after the new computer arrived, I received an email with a music file as an attachment, which I downloaded... and later wished I hadn't. Seconds after the file downloaded, the CD-rom self ejected itself, and on pushing it back in, would pop out again. This happened a number of times. Restarting the computer was futile, because the moment Windows would load, the CD-rom would start its tricks again (as if it was possessed :) )
Eventually, we did manage to get it fixed, but had to replace both, the CD-rom and floppy drive (no, floppies weren't obsolete yet..) , as both had apparently been affected. It was quite a bizarre experience !

High School Hackers

When I was in my sophomore year in high school, a group of guys on the football team were angry because they weren't allowed to go on their senior trip due to their behavior problems in their classes. As retribution against this "injustice", they decided to hack the school's computer system and crash the server using a virus their buddy designed. This wreaked havoc in the school office because all data was lost - including grades and academic records. Luckily the majority of this was backed up in a district server or something like that, so most data was recoverable. All data for the most recent month had not been saved, so it had to be re-entered into the computer system after they got the computers working again. The administration complained about that one for years, but at least they had most of the data safely stored in another location.

Backing up your work

One week before graduation, my computer crashed and "lost" the completed draft of my thesis that I was working on at the time! Thankfully I had saved drafts as a went along under different file names and saved edited drafts that I had received back from friends. The damage at the end was about 5 pages that I had to re-write and all of the final editing. But I was able to turn it in on time and graduate!
Lesson Learned: Save drafts of all steps!

Facebook Virus Horror Story

I have my FB (facebook) set to send me updates when I get a message. Little did I know that there was a new virus being sent from this application feature.

It all started in early fall 2009 when I received a message from my sister-in-law regarding something silly I was in. I was on my home computer (and not a work thank goodness) when I opened the email. I clicked on the FB link, assuming it would take me to the message as it always does. Here is when the horror began...

Within minutes the virus sent itself out to everyone on my FB friends list. I saw what was happening but I had no way of stopping it. I tried to use my internet explorer and the entire program had crashed. I would open explorer and get a message telling me that I had a virus and need to download their protection software. I would try to then close the message box, only to receive more boxes pop up. Ultimately, I had to shut down the computer.

I called my computer guru Mr.B and he quickly came to my aid. I was in the middle of graduate school work and didn't have time to lose work. Mr. B worked his magic and found that this virus was designed to attack explorer. He tried to get rid of the virus by downloading a "patch" but every time he searched for the patch the virus "stepped" in and would cause the program to crash. As Mr. B worked on the virus he learned that the creators of this virus had designed it such that you could not delete the virus unless you PURCHASED the patch from them (which was smart thinking on their part - I guess). After about 4 hours, Mr. B was able to find a patch for the virus. The virus could not be deleted by it is in quarantined for now.

Today: My computer no longer uses internet explorer (it had to be removed) and it still needs to be reformatted (but that will have to wait until after I graduate). Currently I use Firefox and Navigator for internet work. If I use any search engine I have to copy the link and open a new browser in order to view the information. If I click on the link from the search engine the page will crash.

Lesson Learned: Trust your instinct, if something does not seem right it probably isn't! I never should have clicked on that email message!

Welcome!

You will use this blog throughout your master's program to communicate with your peers. Although only members can post to the blog, it is not a private site. Therefore, it is very important that you create a pseudonym for yourself and any teachers, schools or students you may reference in your postings. I look forward to reading and responding to your posts this semester!