Wind turbines

This was phase one of a larger lesson I hope to work on. Students were given basic materials that they could use to create a wind turbine. Next year I hope to get some money to buy little motors so they can actually create energy from their wind turbines to light up a little led or similar. I love projects that start with "this is sooooo easy" and quickly turn into "this is impossible, nothing works!" Something missing from these students (and countless others) is perseverance. The final designs that worked were not created by the academically best students, but they were created by students who tried, failed, revised, tried, failed, revised, and tried again. That willingness to continue to work and not just give up when it gets hard is difficult to teach so I was glad they were provided that space to fail and then keep working on their designs. Here are the designs that consistently spun and would not topple over when placed in front of the fan.

In the news!

We tried this for the first time this year. The lead up went shockingly well. As soon as a kid coughed someone else would be out of their seat with phone in hand to report it. The kids got their first real taste of trying to handle large sets of data and thinking about how best to sort and group.

http://www.newstopic.net/news/local/x1866990066/Using-tech-Gamewell-Middle-students-serve-as-disease-detectives

Zombie attack

This is one of the highlights of my year. It involves nearly everything I love about teaching. Physical activity, math, science, ethics, role playing, class generated data, and high engagement both during the lesson and in the subsequent write up. We start the model with a single zombie. Students must get food and water each "day" (30sec.). If the zombie tags you, you become a zombie at nightfall. We chart how quickly the zombie virus spreads. Then we play again but implementing a semi voluntary quarantine. Now the bitten can choose to quarantine themselves or not and become zombies. Finally we run it again with a vaccine present. The next day we graph, analyze, draw conclusions, and look at reasons why people refuse vaccinations and the results from that decision.  Two survivors left facing down the zombie horde.

Why bonuses don't work, but an overall pay raise would

This post is influenced very heavily from the TED talk by Dan Pink. Specifically, I want to focus on the study he discusses with regards to motivation and rewards for completing various tasks. I would encourage you to watch the whole thing but occasionally I dabble in reality and know that won't happen so I will sum it up for you.  Extrinsic rewards (higher pay) work well to motivate people to complete basic skill tasks.  What we see is, the more you pay someone, the better/faster they will work.  The less you pay, equals less productivity.  This model is being applied to education across the nation.  NC is following this model.  We will give our best and brightest a bonus each year, for four years then they have to re-up for the bonus again.  The idea behind this, I think, is it rewards those that are doing a good job, and will provide an incentive for others to do better.  This will not work, or at least will not provide the desired outcomes I assume the state is looking for.  There are a number of other studies that have shown this type of motivator leads to an increase in divisiveness.  I know of no teacher that operates in a vacuum.  As a profession, we cannot thrive with this in place.  (For full disclosure, I would not refuse the bonus if I received it, however I don't think it would motivate me to do any better.)  So where should that money go...
Across the board salary raises.  We need to bring in the best possible candidates to be teachers.  We then need the best teachers to actually stay in the profession.  Teaching is not a simple skills task.  The extrinsic incentive of the bonus will not lead to an increase in scores or anything else.  However, making the profession more attractive to bright minds will.  People are leaving and/or not considering the profession because of the pay, and a potential 4 year, one time bonus will not change that.  Going back to the study in the TED talk, there was no increase in productivity on tasks that required even "rudimentary cognitive skills".  Effective teaching requires even more than that.  It's possible that this bonus will backfire and we will even see a decline in those that were identified as being the best.  With a significant increase in pay, you remove the extrinsic motivator (bonus) while making the profession more attractive to those it needs the most.

Concept cartoons

I really like using these to address where the students are. I create most of them myself so it allows me to create answer choices that I know are misconceptions about the content. Finally, and the best part is that the kids really debate over the answers. They are essentially glorified multiple choice answers but because it is a cartoon person saying it, maybe they find it more authentic. I am not sure, I just know they work. 

Todaysmeet.com + videos

My mother in law is the worst person to watch a movie with. From the opening scenes "who's that" "does he die" "are they related, does she like him?" And the list goes on and on and on...and we are only 2 minutes into the movie. If you don't answer them she gets frustrated and leaves. Students have similar questions but rule number one when watching a movie in the classroom is no talking. So how can they ask those questions if we don't allow them to talk? I have started using todaysmeet.com. It was shown to me during a faculty meeting and I wasn't sure how to use it since it seems like in a class of 30 kids I would rather they talk with each during the class and collaborate, not go through some forced secondary channel of communication. These kids are already wired in enough, no need to perpetuate it over developing face to face social skills. However using todaysmeet students can ask questions without disrupting the movie. With the students sharing an ipad or using their own device it is easy for them to ask the class (including me) questions about the movie. We have only used it a few times but it continues to work better as students get more and more comfortable with it.

Evidence for Evolution

I will upload a new video hopefully.  There are a couple of issues with this one with my wording but you should still get the main ideas. I stumbled through the last slide with the whale and on the speciation board that through speciation we get homologous structures which is not correct.

Explain everything

Today we got aquainted with explain everything. The fact that nearly every group produced something and a couple even tried to add it to a book in book creator makes me optimistic for the future with this app. We kept it simple today where they had to take a picture from the internet and then do a voice over to explain the picture using their vocab words. 

EXTRA CREDIT

How often do I give extra credit? Never...except for now. And very random other times. Go to the following link and fill out the form/quiz. Let me know what types of issues you have with it. Did you like it, dislike it, confused by it, easy, etc. EMAIL me your response to get the extra credit. In the subject line, it must say "Extra credit form" ,but don't include the quotations. Click here to take you to the quiz.

Moth lab

Our first of three role playing labs was a success. The students definitely got into it. I had to remind them to remember they are just hiding a piece of colored paper, not winning a championship, although some begged to differ. This lab allows them creativity and some problem solving skills. It also engages the hunting crowd as we discussed camo patterns and animals in their habitats. This will be the jumping off point for the dinosaur lab that comes next week.

Bread stratigraphy lab

This lab has a special place in my curriculum. It was the first lab I created completely from scratch. Pretty much everything else I have done has been stolen or heavily influenced by other things I have found. Anyways the first year it was a total disaster. In fact in my records it is labeled as the peanut butter jelly disaster "never do again". I have come a long way, the lab has been edited a few times and now it is a (mostly) clean procedure. It covers all of the major topics in geology as well as tying in the importance of accurate drawings, especially for those who are not great artist. 

Stratigraphy

Here is the video covering the laws of stratigraphy. You should copy all of the pictures and text on each board.

Close reading steps

Evidence for Continental Drift

Close reading

We did our first reading assignment and I have retired my usual reading approach for a new one. I did a bit of research and talking with others to create a close reading format that I think will work for the students. There was only minimal complaints when I asked for feedback on it today. Most of the complaints were along the lines of it was too much work, but most said they thought it was helpful. Here is a picture of a final version complete with annotations.

More measurements!

Finishing up our measurement activity. Funny watching them try to measure the mass of marbles that keep rolling off the scale.

How many hands tall are you

We looked at ratios and the importance of accurate measurements. Students asked questions such as "how many hands tall are you?" And "how many of your feet equal your leg?"  Then share out to see if it was true for others in the class. Here is the assignment.

Ipad Cases

We need iPad cases for our class iPads!  Please watch the video for more information. Show your parents also (since they probably are the ones with wallets)!

Class syllabus

Here is a link to the class syllabus. Pay close attention to the last part concerning your student and social media on the Internet. http://tinyurl.com/kusz49r