1) We are approaching the winter solstice (for the northern hemisphere). Perfect timing in light of the Energy/Insolation exam that my students will be taking tomorrow. We completed a higher-than-average number of hands-on lab activities during this unit, and we used a lot of "old school technologies": heat lamps, ring stands, thermometers, insulated cups, protractors, etc. All students seemed to understand the concepts. It will be interesting to see how that translates on the test. I also set up a practice test on-line at www.castlelearning.com. It consists of 33 practice questsions that deal with energy/insolation from past Regents exams. I brought six students to the library during 5th block to work on the assignment. In general, they seemed frustrated at first, but then after realizing that a) the questions were just reworkings of activities/concepts that they confronted in lab, and b) they have two chances to answer each question, I observed increased confidence and the students flowed through the assignment.
2. The ESF class and the Earth Science classes all worked on poster projects to present information from their textbooks this week. Some students used powerpoint to present the information. The results were pretty good. I discussed this activity with some other teachers. We generally agreed that it a) requires students to think more about the content when they will have to present it to the class and b) helps the students to hear information from other students and get a break from the teacher talking. I required that students take notes during their classmates' presentations to ensure that everyone was getting the most from the experience.
3. For future presentations, I will review the rubric the day before the project begins, and again on the day of the poster project. Some students are still just reading from their posters, or just using ideas directly from the book. The objective of the rubric is to show students that they will lose points if they cannot verbally demonstrate that they understand their topic. That means they can discuss the concepts without looking at what they wrote on their poster. I really need them to understand my expectation that they take 'ownership' of the information.
The Earth Science students also completed a lab on 'angle of insolation'. The results and the graphs turned out really well. However, the temperatures peaked at about 7 minutes, and then flattened out. I am going to shorten the experiment length from 15 to 7.5 minutes, and have students take temperature readings every 30 seconds (instead of every minute). This should provide a more dramatic illustration of how a 90 degree angle of insolation will heat up more quickly than lower angles (angled away from the sun). I also taped thermometers to a globe to show how the angle decreases as latitude increases. I am going to revisit that model again today and before the exam tomorrow.
4. Some students lit off a few firecrackers in the cafeteria on Thursday (and some copycat students popped a plastic bag on Friday). This is a serious offence, and the students deserved their punishment, however the local media blew the incident way out of proportion. I can't tell you how many people from the greater Syracuse area (and beyond) have contaced me this weekend to ask about the fireworks display that had been detonated in my school.
Well...tis the season. I am looking forward to hanging with family and friends this week. Some friends and I are going to the YMCA on Friday morning for some Christmas Eve hoops. My dad's side of the family got together yesteday, and treated me to a meal 5 times larger and more buttery than what I would typically eat (delicious). Happy holidays everyone!
5. "This is a good school...this school should not be on an improvement list" -- Jim Violla, Joint Intervention Team officer for the New York State Department of Education
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Reflection 7 (12/12/10)
1) We had a monthly meeting at Fowler, where I had my second round of Castlelearning Training. I created an energy/insolation review assignment (33 multiple choice regents questions), and will assign it to students as a review homework assignment on Monday. It will be due by next Tuesday (the day before the test), so that I cannot determine which concepts (if any) should be reviewed before the exam. The classmarker quiz was a double-edged sword. The good news is that the class average was an 85%. The bad news is that less than 50% of students took the quiz despite constant reminders. The snow days may have had something to do with the lack of quiz takers.
ESF students went to the computer lab and created population pyramids (using excel and powerpoint) and emailed me their projects. Students did well with this assignment, and it was good practice for compiling and organizing data for their independent research projects.
2) The hands-on lab activities worked very well for my Earth Science students this week. Students really seemed to grasp the concepts after having hands-on experiences. Students also created graphs using their own data, and made meaningful interpretations of the data when answering the lab questions.
3) Because of the snow days and half day, Block 1 has fallen 2 classes behind Blocks 3 and 4. I will need to establish a class period this week to catch up block 1, and they need to finish graphs from 2 labs. The directions for the ESF lab (population pyramids) were based on microsoft office's word program from 2003. I need to redesign them based on office '07, to match the computers in the computer lab.
4) We had the annual Corcoran Christmas party at Ms. Root's house on Friday. It was fun to hang out with colleagues outside of work. The State Education Department will be conducting a JIT review at Corcoran this week in order to provide suggestions for how our school can be re-designed and improved. I was selected to be interviewed by the reviewers. I look forward to participating in this constructive process, but still find it nerve-racking and discouraging that the general trend seems to be placing "blame" on teachers for all educational problems. Other than that, we have been enjoying the record-setting wintery weather. Syracuse was hammered by more than 3 feet of lake effect snow last week.
5) "I like your sweatshop" - comment from student, taken as a compliment on my sweater
ESF students went to the computer lab and created population pyramids (using excel and powerpoint) and emailed me their projects. Students did well with this assignment, and it was good practice for compiling and organizing data for their independent research projects.
2) The hands-on lab activities worked very well for my Earth Science students this week. Students really seemed to grasp the concepts after having hands-on experiences. Students also created graphs using their own data, and made meaningful interpretations of the data when answering the lab questions.
3) Because of the snow days and half day, Block 1 has fallen 2 classes behind Blocks 3 and 4. I will need to establish a class period this week to catch up block 1, and they need to finish graphs from 2 labs. The directions for the ESF lab (population pyramids) were based on microsoft office's word program from 2003. I need to redesign them based on office '07, to match the computers in the computer lab.
4) We had the annual Corcoran Christmas party at Ms. Root's house on Friday. It was fun to hang out with colleagues outside of work. The State Education Department will be conducting a JIT review at Corcoran this week in order to provide suggestions for how our school can be re-designed and improved. I was selected to be interviewed by the reviewers. I look forward to participating in this constructive process, but still find it nerve-racking and discouraging that the general trend seems to be placing "blame" on teachers for all educational problems. Other than that, we have been enjoying the record-setting wintery weather. Syracuse was hammered by more than 3 feet of lake effect snow last week.
5) "I like your sweatshop" - comment from student, taken as a compliment on my sweater
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Reflection 6 (12/05/10)
1) I brought all three Earth Science classes to the computer lab this week. Each student created a Gmail account and emailed me their answer to the question of the day (5 things that can happen to electromagnetic energy: absorbed, scattered, reflected, transmitted, refracted). The procedures for creating a Gmail account have changed a little since I made the instructions. I need to edit the instructions for next year.
After creating email accounts, I had all students 'friend' me on facebook (or create facebook accounts). Students were then given their login names for classmarker, and shown how to login and view the vocab for the quiz via my facebook page. Students have until next Wednesday to take the quiz as an open notes quiz. So far, 3 students have taken the quiz (all 3 received 100's). I will update you on the status of the quiz in my next reflection.
Finally, students collected annual climate data and latitude for 12 different cities (www.wunderground.com).
The ESF students also went to the library this week and worked on a moduel dealing with world population data (www.geographyiq.com). It was a very effective activity for providing students with some experience dealing with extensive on-line data. It should prove useful for the students' research projects.
2. Students seemed to really enjoy working with the computers, and also the hands-on conduction lab. All students present successfully completed the conduction lab with an 85 or higher (including the higher level thinking questions that required them to interpret the graphs of their temperature data).
3. Earth Science students worked on a conduction lab. Students had to take temperature readings every 1 minute. I wanted the class to be on the same schedule, so I used a timer and told the students when it was time to take readings. A passing teacher suggested that I place the stopwatch under the document camera and allow students to take readings independently. I am going to use this method again for the radiation and angle of insolation labs next week.
Also, students did not have time to construct the graph illustrating the relationship between climate and latitude (www.wunderground.com). Students will revisit the graphing portion of that virtual lab on Monday. Extending that lab into a second class period may help to reinforce the content for the students (i.e. re-teaching).
Two of my Earth Science classes took the Meteorology exam the day that we returned from Thanksgiving. The class that took the test the day before Thanksgiving scored an average of 8 points higher on the exam. I will do everything in my power to schedule exams before 'breaks' in the future. This may require me to shuffle some labs around.
4. My oldest son, Evan, is loving the snow (pronounced "no"). We are getting ready to go out and get a Christmas tree right now. 'Tis the season. Marty is starting to sleep through the night, and he seems to almost always be in a good mood. It makes my job as a Dad pretty easy - and provides me with more times to work on projects around the house and focus on my lesson plans.
Evaluators from NYS are coming in next week to review our school and provide suggestions for improvement. I think in general, teachers are feeling like there is a lot of accountability (and even blame) for all of the school's shortfalls. I have heard only very minimal discussion of the role of communities, families, and students in taking some responsibility for the educational process. Teachers cannot do it ALL.
5. "Oh, I didn't know it was going to conduct like that" -student responding in surprise to the hot temperature of the aluminum bar between the hot and cold cup.
After creating email accounts, I had all students 'friend' me on facebook (or create facebook accounts). Students were then given their login names for classmarker, and shown how to login and view the vocab for the quiz via my facebook page. Students have until next Wednesday to take the quiz as an open notes quiz. So far, 3 students have taken the quiz (all 3 received 100's). I will update you on the status of the quiz in my next reflection.
Finally, students collected annual climate data and latitude for 12 different cities (www.wunderground.com).
The ESF students also went to the library this week and worked on a moduel dealing with world population data (www.geographyiq.com). It was a very effective activity for providing students with some experience dealing with extensive on-line data. It should prove useful for the students' research projects.
2. Students seemed to really enjoy working with the computers, and also the hands-on conduction lab. All students present successfully completed the conduction lab with an 85 or higher (including the higher level thinking questions that required them to interpret the graphs of their temperature data).
3. Earth Science students worked on a conduction lab. Students had to take temperature readings every 1 minute. I wanted the class to be on the same schedule, so I used a timer and told the students when it was time to take readings. A passing teacher suggested that I place the stopwatch under the document camera and allow students to take readings independently. I am going to use this method again for the radiation and angle of insolation labs next week.
Also, students did not have time to construct the graph illustrating the relationship between climate and latitude (www.wunderground.com). Students will revisit the graphing portion of that virtual lab on Monday. Extending that lab into a second class period may help to reinforce the content for the students (i.e. re-teaching).
Two of my Earth Science classes took the Meteorology exam the day that we returned from Thanksgiving. The class that took the test the day before Thanksgiving scored an average of 8 points higher on the exam. I will do everything in my power to schedule exams before 'breaks' in the future. This may require me to shuffle some labs around.
4. My oldest son, Evan, is loving the snow (pronounced "no"). We are getting ready to go out and get a Christmas tree right now. 'Tis the season. Marty is starting to sleep through the night, and he seems to almost always be in a good mood. It makes my job as a Dad pretty easy - and provides me with more times to work on projects around the house and focus on my lesson plans.
Evaluators from NYS are coming in next week to review our school and provide suggestions for improvement. I think in general, teachers are feeling like there is a lot of accountability (and even blame) for all of the school's shortfalls. I have heard only very minimal discussion of the role of communities, families, and students in taking some responsibility for the educational process. Teachers cannot do it ALL.
5. "Oh, I didn't know it was going to conduct like that" -student responding in surprise to the hot temperature of the aluminum bar between the hot and cold cup.
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