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
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