Initially, I was going to write: I don't know if I can do this, it might fail, blah blah blah, but you know what? Screw the negativity! Let's make this more positive and just start it off right. I'm going to do this, it's going to be a thing, and I'll do my darn best.
I'm going to attempt to Blog 180. But my way.
Basically, they told us about this in grad school. The concept is to write a post every day of school, which ends up being about 180 days.
Here's my plan and goal: I'm going to Cartoon 180. I have some new notebooks ready to go, and this will be a way for me to reflect on this year and stay creative and push myself to think about my teaching practice. I have been teaching for 5 years and it needs to happen. I need to try new stuff and this is how I'm going to attempt to do that and actually record it. Here's a few things.
1. I want to do a daily doodle.
2. Posts will be short. Usually anyway.
3. I want to reflect and how things went and not vent.
Hopefully, this will happen, I will love it, and I won't be making extra work for myself.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Anyway, who else wants to Blog 180 with me?
Friday, August 16, 2019
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
End of Year Entertainment
This is going to be a short post, but I had to do it. Initially, I was making this playlist on Youtube, but I moved it over to Google Music for less ads/interruptions. If you didn't know, I love puns, so I decided to make a physics punny playlist, and yes I will be updating it for a while. It's May, how else will I survive? I will be posting a few other things later this week, but for now, enjoy a physics class playlist.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Podcasting in Science Class?
We recently got an email about an NPR competition where you could make a podcast with your students. Now I don't know if you knew this about me, but I really want to make a podcast. My sister and I have been working on a crafting podcast, and I feel like it would be a great way to do some cool educational stuff. The competition is about either having the kids do the interviewing or to interview kids or something like that. Basically, with your students, make a podcast.
And this led me to thinking: how else can I use podcasting? So I did a little research, and the NPR website had some helpful links and ideas. However, I found it a little disheartening to see that their lessons were like an hour to 40 minutes long each, and I realized they were designed for elementary school students assuming they didn't have any idea of what a podcast is. I'm assuming my students have seen/heard of one before, so that barrier doesn't super exist.
The next level of research was to try and find lesson ideas. Here's where stuff gets crappy. There are tons of ideas for language, English and History teachers, which makes sense. Those are classes where you sometimes have to put yourself in the place of characters or imagine living in a different time and place. Science can be like that, but that's not usually what or how we evaluate student learning. So I'm coming up with my own list of ideas for having students use podcasting in my class, and I want to try a few of them out.
And this led me to thinking: how else can I use podcasting? So I did a little research, and the NPR website had some helpful links and ideas. However, I found it a little disheartening to see that their lessons were like an hour to 40 minutes long each, and I realized they were designed for elementary school students assuming they didn't have any idea of what a podcast is. I'm assuming my students have seen/heard of one before, so that barrier doesn't super exist.
The next level of research was to try and find lesson ideas. Here's where stuff gets crappy. There are tons of ideas for language, English and History teachers, which makes sense. Those are classes where you sometimes have to put yourself in the place of characters or imagine living in a different time and place. Science can be like that, but that's not usually what or how we evaluate student learning. So I'm coming up with my own list of ideas for having students use podcasting in my class, and I want to try a few of them out.
- Instead of writing out arguments, record them
- Research on a topic and share it out
- Give results of an experiment
- Share out about a volunteer experience (specific to something like APES or Environmental Science)
- Interview family members about energy usage or for some kind of genetics project
- Observing a physical concept in daily life
This list is not nearly as extensive as I would like, so hopefully I can add to it and get more ideas soon.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Let's Make Grading Homework Smarter-Better-Faster-Stronger
I'm a new mom and a teacher, both of which are time consuming and rewarding. Saying that, I've been trying to find ways to squeeze as much out of my workday in terms of time as I can to make it so I have more time at home focused on family. I also want to find ways to give students better, more timely and more focused feedback. Now herein lies a conundrum: what can I use to do this? Should I stick with my tried and true homework grading method or should I try a new application of edtech? Which has the highest benefit to students and myself?
Tried and True
I can't take credit for my current system. I totally stole parts of it from my mentor teacher when I was a student teacher, old and current teaching team mates. Each table has a folder. One side is for students to turn in work, the other side is for returned work. In the folder are also their Plickers (plickers.com) which they use every day for feedback and attendance. Right now, I do a quick skim of their homework for completion, give them the appropriate stamp and then enter it into my paper gradebook. My paper gradebook is actually the seating chart, and I highlight any grade that isn't full credit. That way, I enter those grades into our online system and autofill full credit for every other student.
Pros: It's fast and efficient to do marking by seating chart. Students get feedback faster, and I have less of an issue of late work not getting marked as late. I also have two copies of grades (hard copy and digital) in case a student has an issue and needs to check in with me.
Cons: I have to go through and transfer information from one source to another, which means mistakes happen. Also, when a student submits late work, I have to mark it on the paper and then remember to transfer it to the digital gradebook. Basically, there's a larger margin of error with this method. Anything that has human input tends to have this.
A New Idea
Our school uses a multiple choice system called Gradecam. It's great for tests and we've just started using for quizzes, and there is a rubric option which we will be using for giving students point values for their short answer questions on tests to eliminate the human adding error I usually have. I'm pretty good, but I'm not perfect. I've seen some interesting applications of Gradecam to do lab notebooks and homework by giving students a laminated copy of the form, and I'm curious about this. The basic idea is you mark their score on the form with an Expo marker, scan it and give them their notebook back.
Pros: Grades get quickly entered into the digital gradebook, and you still have some separation based on like different parts of the criteria if you want if it's a rubric form. Data is nice. I like data. Plus, the lab notebook part sounds awesome.
Cons: There's a lot of work to set up, and I wonder if it would be a new assignment every time and how much planning would it take. Also, like making Plickers work, would I have to do a ton of paper set up as well? Like the laminated ones sounded fantastic, but how much work is that for me.
Online Homework
A few other options could be based around the concept of online assignments. One would be to buy a license through a company and have students complete all work through that. Another would be to have them upload those assignments to Google Classroom or Turnitin.com, both which have really strong submission softwares. It's becoming increasingly easy for kids to do work on their computers, and with an increase in touch screens on like everything (including this laptop), showing work is easier than ever.
Pros: Less paper is always good, for me and them. I already use Google Classroom for a ton of stuff, and Webassign has a database of problems that we could just pick through. I also had a few students submit their homework accidentally on Google Classroom early on, so they already have a concept of how to do it.
Cons: Programs like Webassign are costly, and I wouldn't want to make a ton more work or equity issues for students who might not have the ability to scan/photograph work and upload it. Kids are also so used to turning in hard copies, I feel like a few weird errors would come up that I couldn't foresee.
My Conclusion as of Right Now
As it stands, I'm sticking with tried and true. I am going to meet with some teachers that have used some of these methods to streamline work submission and get advice for next year. I might try a few things out, like making some online Google Form quizzes and see if that would be realistic to do. I also have made a form for students to create like "problem write ups," so that could be fun to play around with. Basically, we have a work in progress, but I like feeling inspired by this kind of stuff.
Because I am a weirdo.
Tried and True
I can't take credit for my current system. I totally stole parts of it from my mentor teacher when I was a student teacher, old and current teaching team mates. Each table has a folder. One side is for students to turn in work, the other side is for returned work. In the folder are also their Plickers (plickers.com) which they use every day for feedback and attendance. Right now, I do a quick skim of their homework for completion, give them the appropriate stamp and then enter it into my paper gradebook. My paper gradebook is actually the seating chart, and I highlight any grade that isn't full credit. That way, I enter those grades into our online system and autofill full credit for every other student.
Pros: It's fast and efficient to do marking by seating chart. Students get feedback faster, and I have less of an issue of late work not getting marked as late. I also have two copies of grades (hard copy and digital) in case a student has an issue and needs to check in with me.
Cons: I have to go through and transfer information from one source to another, which means mistakes happen. Also, when a student submits late work, I have to mark it on the paper and then remember to transfer it to the digital gradebook. Basically, there's a larger margin of error with this method. Anything that has human input tends to have this.
A New Idea
Our school uses a multiple choice system called Gradecam. It's great for tests and we've just started using for quizzes, and there is a rubric option which we will be using for giving students point values for their short answer questions on tests to eliminate the human adding error I usually have. I'm pretty good, but I'm not perfect. I've seen some interesting applications of Gradecam to do lab notebooks and homework by giving students a laminated copy of the form, and I'm curious about this. The basic idea is you mark their score on the form with an Expo marker, scan it and give them their notebook back.
Pros: Grades get quickly entered into the digital gradebook, and you still have some separation based on like different parts of the criteria if you want if it's a rubric form. Data is nice. I like data. Plus, the lab notebook part sounds awesome.
Cons: There's a lot of work to set up, and I wonder if it would be a new assignment every time and how much planning would it take. Also, like making Plickers work, would I have to do a ton of paper set up as well? Like the laminated ones sounded fantastic, but how much work is that for me.
Online Homework
A few other options could be based around the concept of online assignments. One would be to buy a license through a company and have students complete all work through that. Another would be to have them upload those assignments to Google Classroom or Turnitin.com, both which have really strong submission softwares. It's becoming increasingly easy for kids to do work on their computers, and with an increase in touch screens on like everything (including this laptop), showing work is easier than ever.
Pros: Less paper is always good, for me and them. I already use Google Classroom for a ton of stuff, and Webassign has a database of problems that we could just pick through. I also had a few students submit their homework accidentally on Google Classroom early on, so they already have a concept of how to do it.
Cons: Programs like Webassign are costly, and I wouldn't want to make a ton more work or equity issues for students who might not have the ability to scan/photograph work and upload it. Kids are also so used to turning in hard copies, I feel like a few weird errors would come up that I couldn't foresee.
My Conclusion as of Right Now
As it stands, I'm sticking with tried and true. I am going to meet with some teachers that have used some of these methods to streamline work submission and get advice for next year. I might try a few things out, like making some online Google Form quizzes and see if that would be realistic to do. I also have made a form for students to create like "problem write ups," so that could be fun to play around with. Basically, we have a work in progress, but I like feeling inspired by this kind of stuff.
Because I am a weirdo.
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