Week 4 | Reflections, Projects, and Notes | #Teach180

Now that we are into week 4, we are still looking forward and preparing for the semester ahead but we now also have some weeks in the past to reflect on and pull from as we encounter new challenges. I hope to continue reflecting with students in the weeks and months to come so that in the end, students can look back on the semester and see the plan that was there all along :)

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Test Reflections

Now that we've had a our first test in my 9th Grade Physical Science class, we can finally sit down and have a meaningful reflection on how well the Unit 1 test represented the effort and learning that lead up to it. Summative exams typically cover a wide variety of topics and skills (especially in a surveys course like Physical Science) and I want to help students see where their scores are coming from. Their understanding of each topic contributes to the final grade that they receive but the gradebook only reports the single number. To help tie this together, when I pass back tests, I have them collect data on how they did in each section of the test. From there, they are asked a series of questions about the patterns they saw in their results and what help explain the results that they found. I am very clear that "this is for you, not for me". We will be pulling these reflections back out before the semester final so that we can use them to help drive our preparation and review.

#Day15: students collect data on their learning in a post test reflection #ThinkingAboutThinking #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/n4OF29DFyn

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) September 29, 2015

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The Pendulum Lab - Projectified

#Day16: Started working on our next project, "Beats by ___" | great exploration by students today! #PBLchat #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/PFeHpszDBx

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) September 30, 2015

I didn't give any procedures for today's pendulum project. It took more time, but the learning felt different. Deeper. #PBLchat #Teach180

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) September 30, 2015

 One of my favorite labs to emphasize testing and controlling variables is the classic pendulum experiment. Typically this is framed in a procedure prompting students to perform trials where they change one variable about the pendulum set up and collect data about how the frequency of the swing is affected. This is repeated for the mass of the bob, the string length, and the pull back amplitude. It's a surprising conclusion for many that only the length of the string affects the frequency but the numbers don't lie. 
This year, in my quest to projectify my class, I redesigned this lab around a single task: Design and build a swinging light prototype that can be modified to match any tempo. (There is a whole back story and roles as well but I don't want to get into that here) With this task, it's all up to the students  to design an experiment to test the different variables, collect data, and model the system.
The work time that I gave them in class was really fun to watch. Many groups ended up developing a very similar procedure to the one that we used to give them. The difference was that this was their procedure, not mine. They were experimenting because they decided that experimenting was important.
There is no question that the process took longer with this approach but for the depth of learning that I witnessed in this process, I'm willing to make that sacrifice.
I hope to one day have a blog post outlining this project from beginning to end. Stay tuned...

#Day18: Talked about linearizing data to derive equations from numbers. "science is reverse math" #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/VMt8qOKBLG

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) October 1, 2015

#Day19: swap a procedure for a challenge and a science lab becomes an engineering project. #PBLchat #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/em6EWK3Te9

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) October 2, 2015

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Notes in an 1:1 iPad Classroom

I really enjoy teaching in a 1:1 iPad classroom. One of the things that I've really embraced the iPad for the most is note taking. When I think about lectures in my educational past there are two extremes that come to mind:

1. Sit and Watch
2. Furiously scribble to stay caught up

When I approach lecturing in my classroom (yes, I do lecture more often than I sometimes would like), I try my best to find a middle ground. I want to provide my students with a record of what we did so the pressure isn't entirely on them to capture every little thing that I say because in my experience, I spent classes like this in so much of a flurry that I never really had time to think about what I was taking notes on. At the same time, I also don't want to provide everything so that they have nothing to do but watch me flip through slides all the time. I want interaction.
The solution that has worked well for me has been to make my slides (on powerpoint) in a way that it's ready for the content, but the content isn't there yet. This is similar to a skeleton note approach but it takes place on the slides themselves. Using Notability and Reflector, I'm able annotate the same PDF that I post on Schoology so I can "write on the board" from anywhere in the room and they have the identical framework to follow along. Taking notes this way allows students to be interacting with the most important parts of the lecture without spending time recording all of the background information so I can move faster and know that they are still with me. It also allows me to differentiate the flow for different students and build in challenge problems for students to move on to if they are comfortable with the topic and don't need as much guided practice.

#Day17: "Peak learning Wednesday" in physics. Using #Notability from @gingerlabs to make notes more engaging and interactive #Teach180

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) September 30, 2015

#Day17: some screenshots of the lesson notes #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/P86LhBXECL

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) October 1, 2015