Here is a link to a (really) long podcast. I have had it waiting in my to listen tag, and Saturday morning a one year old afforded me the time to listen early this morning. Normally podcasts frustrate me a bit because they are not tight enough, there are parts that do not apply to me or my situation and no way to skip them like when reading. The whole thing was worth a listen for me. It was a heartwarming and honest conversation between educators. They are obviously passionate and talented and some are even famous in the educational technology arena. Yet the reflect openly about struggling to engage their students. They talk about their frustrations with a student productivity. They talk about the life of a teacher. The conversation could have been going on in my teachers lounge or my office as I coach someone. Good teachers reflect. Good teacher know that there is always room to improve.
It is hard to avoid reading about standards based grading. I have even tried it out for half a semester in my physics class this semester. I liked the switch from conversations about point to conversations about physics, instead of students asking how can I get more credit I really did get questions like how can I add a mathematical model to my project? The hardest part for me was writing the standards. Here is an interesting article from a Chemistry Professor with a very clear and concise explanation of how he has added standards to his class, using one of my favorites Blooms Taxonomy. I found this link from a wonderful physics blog.
With permission of the author I quote an email from the National Science Teachers Association physics list. There has been quite a debate there about the value of homework. In our one to one district there is also a lot of debate about the value of homework. A laptop environment can render completely useless anything that is copyable. There is no hurdle to it at all. For a while in my physics class CAPA and WebAssign helped, and they still are great tools for kids interested in learning and collaborating, but many kids now cheat on these too. The Internet is filled with answers.
I quote this email in entirety because I agree so much with what the author has to say. I will add two reflections to hers. First, I think that teachers from all disciplines could help make these assignments for each other. In fact I think in all subject areas it requires dialog outside of your department to come up with these. People not in your area will force you to be creative with how you express yourself, and assignment making is one of the ways teachers express themselves. My first year of teaching I was grading a boring assignment in the lounge and I was exhausted by it. A veteran teacher looked over at me and said, "Boring assignments make boring grading." First I thought ouch. Then I thought true. Second, I learned at MACUL a few year ago the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of the work on a project is the last 20 percent of the presentation. In the film industry once the actors are all filmed, the real work begins, even though 80 percent of what is seen in the movies is on film. The lesson in this for teachers was that since for the most part we are looking for the 80 percent, do not expect the 20. The content and the analysis and the creative direction are what is important to us, not that every i is dotted. My observation here is that if you ask for the 80 percent a lot of kids will give you the 20 percent for free on their own time, because they love the assignment. You can call that homework I guess, but if you require it then it will not get done as well.
I've personally fought the battle regarding homework, and here's my ultimate conclusion:Homework should be a creative product. Yes, it should allow students to practice concepts taught in class, allow students to do work outside of the constraints of class time, and it should NOT be copyable. In physics, this can be a challenging task, where standard problem-solving is the norm.I'm lucky in that I teach a primarily conceptual class. Still, here are some of the things I've done...1) Photograph (or find online) a picture of an interesting atmospheric phenomenon involving optics. I provide a rubric in which I require students to elaborate on how the electromagnetic spectrum, diffraction, refraction, reflection, dispersion, etc. Then I can display this student work in the hallways for other potential students to see!2) Create a "story book" involving simple linear displacement, constant velocity, and constant acceleration. Students represent their story (5 or more motions) through pictures, x-t graphs, v-t graphs, a-t graphs, and dot plots (vectors). Students LOVED this assignment.3) When it comes to doing traditional problems, I have students practice 5 questions or so (I do not grade this), and then I require them to write their own problems, or even to administer them to another student. This is great, because students must confront issues like "What is a reasonable mass or weight of an elephant?"With all of these approaches, I've NEVER had a student cheat off of another. Students feel like the homework is worthwhile. I don't assign a lot of homework, but when I assign it, I try to make it reasonable and relevant.
I quote this email in entirety because I agree so much with what the author has to say. I will add two reflections to hers. First, I think that teachers from all disciplines could help make these assignments for each other. In fact I think in all subject areas it requires dialog outside of your department to come up with these. People not in your area will force you to be creative with how you express yourself, and assignment making is one of the ways teachers express themselves. My first year of teaching I was grading a boring assignment in the lounge and I was exhausted by it. A veteran teacher looked over at me and said, "Boring assignments make boring grading." First I thought ouch. Then I thought true. Second, I learned at MACUL a few year ago the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of the work on a project is the last 20 percent of the presentation. In the film industry once the actors are all filmed, the real work begins, even though 80 percent of what is seen in the movies is on film. The lesson in this for teachers was that since for the most part we are looking for the 80 percent, do not expect the 20. The content and the analysis and the creative direction are what is important to us, not that every i is dotted. My observation here is that if you ask for the 80 percent a lot of kids will give you the 20 percent for free on their own time, because they love the assignment. You can call that homework I guess, but if you require it then it will not get done as well.
I learned something about bias. My tech director sent me a link to blog post about using wordle in the classroom. I have a bias as a science teacher and sometimes overlook the power of words. He smartly copied the whole English department and they responded. Elizabeth took the time to blog about using wordle to analyze characterization. I need to figure out as a tech director how to broaden my search for ideas. It was good to be reminded that some of the best tech training I have done is just showing off something cool and supporting teachers as they run with the tool.
Here are blogs I recommend for administrators.
Here are specific posts that will lead administrators to all sorts of new resources to expand their horizon.
Finally a list of specific posts to emphasize the importance of technology using administrators.
Any additions?
This weekend I was watching a little TV (my graduate class is done and my wife was working a night shift, so after the kids were in bed I indulged) and surfing the web. All of a sudden there was a flurry of tweets between two people I follow. They were arguing about school design. I watched in fascination as these two educators tried to push and pull at each others and tease out of each other what each stood for. One of the educators was Christian Long. He has the distinction of being the very first blogger I ever seriously followed. His posts at Think Lab about how school spaces support and encourage learning were amazing, and he linked his posts full of awesome connections. I am sure that I found half of my initial blog roll through his blog. Without ever knowing it he taught me how to be a lurking member of the edublog community. The other one was Ira Socol. He is one of the most recent members of my blog roll. I follow him because of a personal rule of blogging. If I run into anyone's posts twice in two different contexts I subscribe to their blog. I first ran into him when he blogged about a visit to HCHS. Then Will Richardson tweeted out a post of Ira's. That is when I also found out that he lives right here in Holland, Michigan. Everything was going along just fine until a tweet that read, "@ChristianLong No, what was most impressive was the vision of school which drove those design choices. http://is.gd/c0a8t" The link goes to the post about the school that I had some input in designing. I did not have a large input, but I was in several meetings. I lay absolutely no claim to any final design, but I know that the people who designed the building were influenced by articles and ideas that were formed years ago by my reading Christian Long. Ira followed up today with a great summary of the discussion. To me this demonstrates the power of blogging and twitter. I am sure that neither of these men knew that they were connected so closely. I never would have known if i had not been following them both on twitter. What an amazing connected world we live in.
Here is a quote, a big quote, from Dan Meyer reflecting on NCTM. My thoughts are at the end. Sorry if you read the earlier and thought that the observations were mine, posterous did not quite make it clear enough what was quoted.
At the EML, they decided that homework is best used for …
- … between-class work to bridge the gap between today and tomorrow.
- … structured, independent work to free up in-class time for social or extended learning. (cf. these guys.)
- … study-skill development, for learning how to learn and study math and develop a productive disposition.
Her demonstration assignments required no more paper than what they were printed on and they were further scaffolded by …
- … a student contract to the effect that this is a serious class and you will need to complete this work to be successful.
- … a teacher contract designed by the students to the effect that the teacher will bring the heat every single day. The practical result of both contracts was largely symbolic but DLB said it set a powerful tone for the course.
- … homework kits containing scissors, tape, and other necessary supplies.
- … explicitly labeled problems. Three varieties.
- Independent practice. Skill development, reinforcement, and reflection, designed to be completed without help. In fact, students were told not to get help.
- Preparation for new work. "Go as far as you can." This was work they hadn't been fully taught, designed to teach tolerance for difficult work and a productive disposition toward math. Students didn't finish the majority of these assignments.
- Work to be shared. This was to improve home/school communication, to develop a student's ability to narrate her own work. "Share what you're learning with someone in your home."
The EML (which, it must be said, hardly resembles a student's experience in a traditional classroom during a traditional school year) posted a 100% homework submission rate. I'd soften my stance toward homework even further if I could a) get someone to teach me how to create these assignments and b) get several members of my department on board to distribute that creative work.
I would love to have a conversation about this attitude towards homework at HCHS. When Dan says, "a) get someone to teach me how to create these assignments and b) get several members of my department on board to distribute that creative work." I definitely have b) in my department, and I think I have people to help me with a) in my school. Now how to make the conversation happen?
For Earth Day my environmental science class each got one minute to talk about what most impacted them in the discussions a research we have done on climate change. Here is the video. I am very proud of their work and thought that their presentations were artfully done stories.
Here is a great article about the importance of camp. The best quote:
How could we say the same about schools? How do we make schools a place where everyone is constantly growing up? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/summer-camp-launched-my-career/article1535897/
Over those same years, I've been repeatedly amazed by how many grown-ups did their most important growing up at camp. Out from under expectations at home (especially the self-fulfilling ones), they blossomed and bloomed into what they otherwise might never have become. Their weeks at summer camp, they'll tell you, sometimes shaped them as much or more than all the rest of the year combined. Which is why, every year, I write a cheque to help send inner-city kids to camp. They may never have heard the word “epiphany,” but they just might experience what it means.
How could we say the same about schools? How do we make schools a place where everyone is constantly growing up? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/summer-camp-launched-my-career/article1535897/
An awesome reflection on an awesome talk.