Week 14 E-portfolios

     I really like the idea of E-portfolios as an assessment tool.  It would definitely take some practice with middle school students.  They are not used to this type of assessment and are always looking for the "exact" answer.  This type of assessment allows for a greater freedom for the student to express that they understand the material being discussed.  It will take some time for them to get used to this freedom and outrun the fear of not having the "right" answer that would probably lead to the first few responses being carbon copies of what the "smart" kids thought about the posted questions or discussion topic.
     I have discussed with other teachers the problems with the ePortfolio assignments and the fact that some of the students do not have internet access at home.  I still believe that with this type of assignment,  planning so that students have several days to post before you check (but not too many before you check or they will get so far behind that they will never catch up) their responses, and having teams that are flexible enough to allow student access to computers anytime that they are finished with class work in other subject areas, or are in enrichment classes, or are in homeroom, or during lunch time,  that this then is no longer an excuse not to do ePortfolios.

Week 13 apps to aid students

The Total Recall app should help my very disorganized student to make connections between science concepts. This will take some practice but with the ability to chunk the information by noting relationships, the process of studying will not be so overwhelming. I have a student that is in the processor being "diagnosed" with some form of disgraphia (which I don't totally understand) that makes taking notes by writing with a pencil very difficult. The note app would be very effective In allowing the student to get the info down to study without having to worry about the actual physical effort of the writing, and it would take care of the privacy issues that a recording device would raise. Being able to type the notes would allow this student to better blend with his other classmates who are also just trying to get the info down.

Week 12 Effective Presentations

http://prezi.com/ujg0h4ey-ihy/wave-properties/

I used this prezi when introducing wave terminology and wave properties.  The graphics that go along with each term are simple and clear.  The color choices for this prezi are very crisp and aesthetically pleasing. I used this earlier in the year, and I believe from the response it received that this was one of the first prezis that many of my students had seen.  They have since seen more in other classes as well as having been introduced to the process of making prezis themselves.  I stumbles upon this one doing some research, but I believe it presented the material well and definitely kept the attention of the students.

Week 10 apps I like

Week 9 Web 2.0 tool

Below is a document for a webquest that was used as an introductory activity as the students began to explore chemical reactions.  The web addresses were all very cumbersome and so they were changed using the tinyURL.com website.  Webquests have always taken much longer with the students having to type in the long addresses.  With time in the computer lab being difficult to schedule this was extremely helpful.

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                  Name_____________________

Chemical Reactions WebQuest

Directions: Answer the following questions using complete sentences.

Go to the following website:

http://tinyurl.com/7uhdh6o

1. What is a chemical reaction?

Go to the following website:

http://tinyurl.com/788o6ef

2. What are some examples of chemical reactions?

3. In what way are the chemical changes (reactions) different than the listed physical changes?

Go to the following website:

http://tinyurl.com/bcm37

4. What are signs that a chemical reaction has occurred?

Go to the following website:

http://tinyurl.com/7qgqswb

5. What factors influence the rate of a chemical reaction?

Go to the following websites:

http://tinyurl.com/6zpuke

 http://tinyurl.com/7w3vwx9

6. Describe the 4 types of chemical reactions.

Synthesis (Combination) Reaction

                   a. General Formula

                   b. Describe

                   c. Examples:

       

                       i.

                       ii.

Decomposition Reaction

                       a. General Formula

                      b. Describe

If you have time, learn to Balance Chemical Equations!!

http://tinyurl.com/2slsbu

Week 7 Flippin' or Facebook?

     I love the idea of the flipped classroom.  It would be wonderful for my subject area of science.  It would allow for much more hands on lab time and/or development of and carrying out of experiments if the aquisition of base knowledge or preparation for lab was done outside of the classroom.  I also think it would give the students a true sense of ownership of their progress to be responsible for the work outside of the classroom.  However, I realize that their are drawbacks.  Internet access is still not in all regions of the rural area that my students live.   This hurdle could be overcome by the student being allowed to schedule extra computer time in a school climate that allowed this type of flexiblility.  Only students who were mature enough could handle the this type of classroom.  There would need to be alternative placements for those students who were found to be unable to carry deal with this type of freedom. 
     Social media does have its place in the classroom in the communication between team members on group projects and communication about work between teacher and student. 

Week 6 IDK about my DOK

     On a recent assessment that I used for an acid/base unit, most of the questions fell in level one or level two.  These were in the typical multiple choice and fill or matching format.  I did have a selection of short answers questions and some of these move into level 3 as they gave scenarios that the students had to use concepts learned to evaluate the presence or absence of certain molecules in a solution or differentiate between solutions based on acidic or basic properties.  This evalutation could easily be changed to move to level four questioning by making the test more of a practical lab exam.  I could have the students develop ways to test the acidity or basicity of  solutions that are found in the environment and what the outcomes of the testing will have on the environment at large or have them evaluate whether testing situations were done correctly and if not done correctly how they would need to be revised to be considered correct.
     Developing the skill of answering higher level thinking questions lets the student practice solving problems in creative ways.  Using real world scenarios lets the student make that connection between the skill they have learned in the classroom and how they might use it or some part of it in the synthesis of solutions to problems that, as we have already said in class, "don't even exist yet."
     Of course we all know that the greatest problem with going deep in the DOK levels is the "mile wide inch deep" science curriculum we are currently supporting.  Perhaps that is soon to come to an end.  We shall see.

Week 6 BUMP Up The Quadrant

My lesson of late have been settling in quadrant A and B as my students gather info about mixtures and solutions.  Occasionally a lab will let them venture into quadrant C as they evaluate some unknown mixture.  I believe I could bump them up into quadrant D if I had them create their own mixtures and then present them to the class and have the class figure out ways to separate the mixtures. 

Measuring usage with SAMR

Well I haven't used any iPad apps in class with my students as of yet.  I haven't purchased the cord to make it at least viewable to all students.  If I use the SAMR to measure my use of technology in the classroom, I would have to say that I live in the automating zone but aspire to escape to the informating zone.  My use of the smartboard for instruction scores as augmentation if the students are doing any interactive lesson but more often as a substitution.  The occasional webquests and even the use of the Galaxy Tabs and an interactive virtual lab are not getting my students into a learning experience where they work on their 21st century technology skills.  I see other subjects requiring prezis, animotos, powerpoints, etc... but I also see teachers struggling for computer access for all students to create and share as well as assignments taking twice as long to create and present.  I believe better subject to subject communication and coordination are definitely a must so that students can take the time to see connections between subject areas, and maybe the importance of their own voice in their own discovery as they take the time to create a product that has depth and meaning for more than one class.

The only program that I personally use at school is Accuity.  Now when I say I use Accuity, I must admit that I give the test during the window, and I have when forced gone back to look at the data to see weak areas in instruction by the teacher or understanding by the students.  Using the SAMR, this program appears to be another substitution for a paper-pencil test.  In fact I often given it as a paper-pencil test and just have the students enter their responses on the computer due again to difficulty in accessing a classroom full of computers.  This type of testing seems antiquated when looking to the top tier of the SAMR scale where we want to evaluate student progress through generation of products that show knowledge gained while using the best technology available.

21st century skills

My science classes have been doing a series of experiments involving changes of states of matter.  I can always claim  developing/practicing collaboration and communication skills with this type of small group activities, and some of the questions do let the kids relate their real life experiences to these concepts.  However I still feel that a lack of  a consistent digital element in my lesson falls short of what our educational goals should be. 

Technology Woes

This past week was speckled with my normal amount of technological mishaps.  The elmo is hooked to my computer and if I forget to turn it on before I log in to my computer in the morning, then my smartboard will not show my computer screen.  This happens fairly often so I know to look at the elmo if I can't show my bellringer power point.  For some reason my smartboard is temperamental and will work well in the morning but has hiccups in the afternoon where it won't allow me to write on it.  Most of the time I see that the red light on the screen is on and I do the paper clip trick to reset it but it takes a while to right itself and I lose writing capability again.  A few weeks ago, I lost writing capability for a week.  Paper clip wouldn't work, rebooting wouldn't work, and sysop seemed stumped.  We thought the next thing would be to order a new pen board for smartboard.  Luckily before we did this my friendly neighborhood TIS saved the day by discovering that the pen board was unplugged and he unscrewed the smartboard so that the pen board connector could be accessed and reconnected. 

First iWeek

Well I have had my iPad for a week now.  I downloaded a couple of cool apps that I think I may be able to use as a tool for activation lessons or maybe bellringers.  Of course this is after I purchase my VGA connector cable.  I used the camera in class to capture some of my students working on a forensics project.  I'm still not sure how this one iPad is going to make a big difference in a class of 24 students.  I tried to look up some lesson ideas but didn't get very far.  There were several lessons that listed the apps I would need to use in my classroom.  There are ideas out there that I think I could use in my class room but again how to do it with just one iPad.  I am looking forward to how this class will help me deal with this obstacle. 

Day 1 of iPad Class

First day of iPad class and I am psyched.  I am so excited about the options that have just opened up for my kids, and the fact that I really have no idea of the potential behind this technology is extremely exciting.