Semester Two

Well, the first one is gone and here we go again. (Semesters I mean.) The end of the first semester was a time where I was wondering what I was doing yet again...I looked at the other teachers and saw them working really hard and I was wondering if what I was attempting to do was really that important.

There was even a moment when I said to another teacher, "I am over this podcast stuff." I just felt like I was still doing a lot of work and that the students (some of them) did not care. Then, it happened.

What happened? You might ask.

I thought about the process of learning. Anything that is difficult is usually given up on. At least that is how I see it. There are times when we work really hard and never see the results (everyday in the classroom, I think) and there are other days when we do not work as hard and wonder why someone is paying us.

Then, a student said "thank you". My day got better when my daughter, a 4 year old, said "thank you" for the time I spent on the floor playing and not working. It had a big impact. Over the next few days, I came back around. I wonder where the semester went and how fast this one will go. I am trying to look at each day as being full of possibilities and not one full of burdens. That is helping. I am enjoying going to work but I also am spending time doing other things. This is good.

What about around the building that is part of Arapahoe High School...
Well...
I am doing a few things.

1. The instructions for creating a podcast (vodcast) are almost done. However, I need some help. I need to know if there are any specific questions that people have that I can help with. Please leave a comment or send me an email.
2. I am adding first year chemistry to the list of podcasts. More on this later.
3. I am looking for ways to adapt the lecture format of science classes. (See this article from M.I.T.)
4. I received an award of a SmartBoard and clickers, among other items, for the classroom and they are coming later in the semester. What changes will this bring???
5. The chemistry labs that I teach are going paperless! I will talk about this next time.
6. There is a faculty dance at an assembly coming up. (Don't ask.)
7. Football is gearing back up.
8. I am trying to use Moodle for classroom stuff. If you have used this or are using it please let me and others know how. I am trying to wrap my mind around this technology and it seems to have lots of possibilities. Any help would be appreciated.

I would think that is enough for now. Like I mentioned, the documents for creating and uploading a podcast are coming soon. (I would like to think by next month.) I will be posting here and on my class page when they are completed.

It is good to be back!

Where did November go??

As I am sitting at home on what seems to be December 2nd, I am left wondering where the month of November went?

Let us see...

1. There were four birthdays in my family.
2. A major holiday.
3. Some set-backs in the classroom (more later).
4. Some great conversation.
5. A football banquet.
6. All the other stuff that comes with working in a school with high academic standards and students who continue to "blow me away" with what they are capable of.

So, here we are in December and I thought I would let you know what I am working on. By the second week of January, I hope to have some information on this blog and my other blog about making and publishing podcasts. I will have some documents that show what I am using to complete this task and some of the things that I have learned with the help of one of my students (I like to think of him as my technology advisor. However, my goto technology person will always be Karl Fisch.) So look back at the beginning of the year to find information on this topic. As always, feel free to email me about the concept and implementation of the podcasts.

In the spring, I hope to move to "Phase 2" of the classroom podcasts. This is where the students begin to produce their own class content. Perhaps it is just explaining material and problems to other students or maybe it is on the sharing of course content that is gathered by the students. I am not sure at this point and if there is anyone reading this that has tried it please let me know what has worked.

I have got the Wii whiteboard up and running and there seems to be no current issues with the technology. That means I can now write on my regular screen in the classroom with our needed actual whiteboards. The fun is just starting with this and there is one student who really enjoys working on this and has helped me a ton. We even built a pen where the l.e.d. in the pen is aimed out the back and that seems to give a better image for the Wii-mote to locate.

My AP Chemistry students produced "Chemistry Christmas Carols" and I am going to attempt to get these onto a blog (either this one or the one that hosts my podcasts) in the next couple of days.

So, here is to another month where my professional growth continues to be pushed. I cannot wait to see what discussions the students bring and how they grow in their learning.

How about them podcasts...

There has been some discussion recently about if podcasts should replace lecture as a method of delivering course content to students (I guess that old Hatak is ahead of the curve in this concept...). Recently, teachers outside of AHS have asked for feedback on the podcasts that we have been using. Here is your chance to tell it to the world about what you think. Make sure that you are telling it the way you want other teachers to hear it.



You might include what you don't like, do like, would change, would leave the same, why you have used them, why you have not used them, issues with access, easy of access and anything else that you would like to say here.



Over the weekend, please return to this post and continue the conversation. You might see people from outside of AHS commenting or at least know they are reading what you have to say.

Impact of Podcasting

So, it has been a little while since I posted on this blog. Here is a current update on what I am trying to do...

1. I am putting together a document that instructs teachers on how to build podcasts and post them online.
2. I have presented twice to teachers at my school (Arapahoe) on the podcasts and the technology behind them.
3. I have helped another teacher at AHS start a podcast. (More on this below)
4. I am looking into having students generate the podcasting material.
5. I am going to create a chemistry podcast with the next unit for first year chemistry students.
6. I am looking for "professional" scientists who would be willing to do interviews for my podcasts.

After a lot of discussion with another teacher at AHS, Mr. Jeff Smith, in the science class, we reached some conclusion on why we podcast. As a matter of fact, the greatest argument was for "just in time" learning. The ability of students to access information when they need it and to be able to supplement their learning is what I find most powerful. Enter Jeff. He teaches AP physics, among other classes, and saw a use for the podcasting approach. After talking to him about the idea and and tools, he started posting podcasts on physics. They are listed in iTunes and on a blog. Please check them out and let him know what you think. I know, as a teacher trying something so new, it is important to receive feedback.

Number 6 is the most interesting to me right now and I would like to start an "Ask a Scientist" blog. If there are any individuals reading this that would like to be a part of the first interview please let me know.

Well, I guess it is back to football, parenting, and teaching. What a wild ride this has been. Anything but neat and tidy.

Average

In a recent 5280 magazine article, University of Colorado head coach, Dan Hawkins discussed the idea of not being average. He talks about how easy it is to be average. How easy it is not to push the edge of things. How easy it is to find a "comfort zone". Well, today was one of those days when i wanted to find average and just go with it.

In a time when scores and student achievement is very important, I will not even discuss NCLB here, I wonder if what I am trying to do in the classroom is worth it? I was very excited to create a PowerPoint this weekend that included a discussion and video clips that dealt with Quantum Mechanics (and Star Trek). I thought that the students would be "into it". One hour was, the other was not. First we had a great discussion and that led to questions above the material covered. Things that just made everyone think. Things that were not average.

Then came the other class. This is when I realized that the students are actually high school students enjoying Homecoming week. The second group was not interested. (I should say here that there were probably some people who were interested but I could not hear them over the others.) So, I started thinking about ways to convince the class that their own conversations were not as important as the conversation that the group was having. Daily quizzes? (Who am I trying to teach a life lesson to me? or them?) A new seating chart? (The tried and true approach of teachers everywhere.) Just waiting for them to stop talking? (Wow...lost time.) Having a heart-to-heart discussion (Will it make a difference?) I just don't know what the correct approach is.

So, I guess if I do not want to be average, I should bring this up to the class and have a discussion with them. For now, I know that I am trying to do all that I can to guide them in the learning of chemistry, using abnormal approaches. This might be causing some of the issues. This is after all, "Not education as usual" (appears in AHS classrooms) and they are responsible for learning. So, I will try to help them through this also.

As for the average...Coach Hawkins says it best, in a video, if you don't want to work, stick to intermural sports. This is the Big 12.

That is afterall what we are trying to do, get the students to think bigger than they are and bigger than they have before. Learning is messy and it is not easy. If education was easy everyone and anyone could and would be doing it...they aren't. We do need to "go big" and that means we need to keep on working.

STEM in Colorado

Some people might know that Karl Fisch and I gave two talks in Texas (one in the Presidential Library at Texas A & M) last school year to people who are involved with the Texas High School Project and STEM. This is an attempt to reorganize education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Well today, when I got home from football, there was a mailing from the University of Colorado at Denver. Since I earned a Masters degree there, I get their quarterly mailing. Inside of the mailing is information on a STEM workshop/conference in Denver in October! This is great. I am very excited about the change that this refocus in science education could cause. My only area of concern is that if I was not a CU alumn, I would probably not know about this. Is there someone in the district that finds out about this stuff and then is suppossed to give it to the teachers? Is there another way to get this information to the people "in the trenches"? I know that the state government is looking at this as a way to re-energize the study in these fields but I wonder if it is going to move past the "at risk" sections of education and into the areas where all students could benefit? (This is starting to sound like a rant...I guess that happens when you are passionate about something and you feel like it is not getting the attention that it deserves.)

Anyway, this last summer, I decided that I was done complaining about the changes that happen in education and the ones that are talked about and not acted upon. I made a decision that instead of whining and feeling bad about the decisions that were made "for us" teachers, I would start acting when I felt led. That means no more going to workshops and conferences and complaining about the lack of "useful" information. If I was only going to complain then I would try to add to the positive conversation. I would try to make it a little better for teachers. I decided that the best way to not feel like everything was happening to me was to become active in the creation of important material in education.

I starting thinking about ways to get science students to read and write in the content (see post here). Ways of getting the students to "buy in" to what education could be. Not what it is, or was, when I liked it, but what it could be for them.

So, after reading the short STEM article and looking at some web pages on the concept in Colorado, I email the person in charge in Denver. Now, I wait. You see, I asked if there was a way that I can get involved in STEM changes in Colorado. I guess you could say that I am "all in" and I think this is the change that education in these fields needs.

The First "Full" Week

So, it seems like the first week is almost over. I just have to grade some labs, grade a test (AP) and finish posting some football video to the Internet. This week contained:

1. My first week of being sick (boy, are students willing to share).
2. Not seeing my daughters but a couple of hours each day.
3. Fighting with technology (some wins, some losses).
4. The first trial of the football video editing software at a game.
5. Five or so hours of working with tech support (which did solve the problems, thank you CoachComm).
6. Back to School Night - where most parents were excited about the cell phone "student response system" that I am trying and a few were fundamentally opposed to the thought.
7. The first AP test - which had a lower average (by three questions than last year which is a large percentage when there are only 25 questions).
8. A new squeak from my single speed, fixed gear road bicycle - which really bothers someone with my personality. It is my commuter right now, while the weather is nice.
   
9. Staying up way too late watching the DNC speeches.
10. Doing some chemistry Olympics with the metric system and laughing with the students so hard that my face hurt.

Well, then comes this post on The Fischbowl

Let me say that I am glad to see this post. I do know that I really need some feedback on this idea and I think that Karl is the right person to help me get word out. I am trying to figure out if Blogger or Feedburner is the correct place to publish the xml feed for the podcast. Here is what I am currently wondering...If the class scores on the first part of the unit test in AP Chemistry are lower (by 12%) than last years, is that caused by the lack of direct lecture? or something else? I know that we have not had the time so far to do stuff in class that I would have completed last year but it is not content stuff. Also, I noticed that the set of students this time were not working as fast as they have in the past...Could it be the test itself? While I wonder about the effectiveness of a big test, I know that the statistics of the questions (standard deviation of less than 2 for 25 questions) show that all of the students were in about the same range. So, now what? Oh, I know that I will continue to work on the things that are important in chemistry and I will continue with the podcasts, but I need some help and input. Wednesday of this coming week is the essay portion of the unit 1 test. I think that the students will do better on this part since we have been doing more problems in class.

The big issue that I am now dealing with is the compatibility of the usb wireless mic and the bluetooth interface in my classroom. I have the Bluetooth working now and I am fighting with the mic. Any ideas? The microphone works on radio frequency and the manufacturer says that it should not interfere with Bluetooth. I have updated drivers and stuff but they do not want to work on the same computer right now. I guess if I had a little more time then I could figure it out.

As for the Bluetooth, I am using it to attempt to create a less expensive form of a interactive whiteboard. It works. There is a little bit of work still to be done before I really use it in class but for right now, it is as far as I will get. Perhaps if we had in-service days...The idea comes from a YouTube video (from the Ted conference) of Johnny Lee using a Wiimote and a Bluetooth dongle with some code that was written to calibrate the screen. Then, using a LCD projector and a program like PowerPoint, an IR remote becomes a pointing device like a mouse for a computer. The best part is if you have access to software like Camtasia or SnapKast that can screen capture what you are doing. You can stand at the screen and record what you are writing, when you write it, to play back later. Think of the power of playing back material. The students that miss a day, don't miss out. The students that miss a point, don't miss out. The students that do not have access to AP Chemistry, don't miss out. The whole setup cost less than $60 and I had a student's help putting it all together (he is really into tech stuff). I will post some video when I get it up and running.

Now, I think that I will sit down and read a past edition of the Journal of Chemical Education. There is a lengthy article on the use and effectiveness of small, collaborative groups in chemistry. Who knows, I might even blog about it...