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.