I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I seem to be waaaay busier this year as opposed to last year. My schedule is so full of things other than teaching, that sometimes I feel like I don't have time to teach to the best of my ability. 

Teaching alone takes more than the average work-week. I teach four different classes three times a week. On my busiest days, I have four different preps! Imagine having labs or activities on these days... Not to mentioned that I'm on a standards construction/revision committee, in charge of the Praise Team (Christian school, that is), Yearbook (only assisting),  and increasingly involved in church. It's hard enough to maintain a healthy marriage, much less teach effectively!

I've managed to change some grading habits so that I'm not so bogged down with work at home. Other than that I feel like I'm always playing catch-up. I look forward to the day that life slows down. I look forward to the day when I can read again. I look forward to the day that I have time to think. 

But until summer, endure I must!

What are some ways you manage your time more effectively to balance teaching and home-life?

We all experienced that moment... the moment when you graduate from university with your newly acquired teaching degree and are finally free from making those stinking, tedious, super-detailed lesson plans. It wasn't unlike when you first used your drivers license: it was a moment of freedom, a moment of maturity. And it lasted only until you were hired by your first school district, and they began requiring you to submit lesson plans on a weekly or monthly basis. Dangit... 

Being the Google fan-boy that I am, I choose to do all of my lesson planning via Google Docs. It just makes life easier. I used to do these incredibly detailed lesson plans every day... for four different classes... for an entire year.  I wasn't required to (until recently) - I just assumed it made me a better teacher. Until I realized that I was almost wasting my time. I say almost because it was necessary for a season. Similar to training wheels, it did allow me to see what was valuable and necessary on paper before it became natural in my head. Here's an example from the beginning of this year, when I was feeling particularly detailed: 

To be honest, I'm not sure why I ever wrote in full sentences. Maybe just out of habit. I've since change my ways and decided that its much easier and simpler to just do a table format. Either way, I prefer to write in my own comments so that I can easily see how the day's lesson went for future reference.

Which brings me to a question... how often do you lesson plan in this way? Share your thoughts below.

As you can see, these are the types of lessons that I do on a daily basis. Just a few lines outlining the day's activities and such. If there's anything you'd like to explain or further elaborate on, do so in the comments section below.

My previous post consisted of a project I had my 9th graders complete for a slight break in our Physics unit. Today we had presentations, and I have to admit how proud I am of all the students. Most of them really went above the bar and learned something valuable. They displayed what they learned with pride, and really took ownership of it. 

Interestingly, almost every student chose to make a presentation. Almost every student did exactly what they set forth as a requirement, and many of them went beyond. Some of the students really put more effort into the design of the slides than others, and I'm totally fine with that. Those students who are more perfectionists and focused on details were able to do so in freedom - with good animations (that were actually useful!) and graphics. Other students who aren't as focused on that were able to spend more time on understanding their concepts and gathering resources to share. 

Sometimes we think that in order to differentiate, we have to be the ones coming up with everything. What I've just learned is that the students are more than capable of coming up with the criteria on their own. And what's more, when they feel like they have ownership of their own learning - they are more capable and willing to put forth great quality work. Take a look at the video in the previous post for an example.

If you are interested in seeing an example of how to differentiate a lab, check out this post by another science teacher.

Below are some of the student projects...

Students want to learn. Did you know that? Too often they come across as not wanting to because they feel forced to learn a certain topic. And to a certain extent - they are. The state, administration, teachers, and even parents have more say in what the students actually learn than the students do themselves. But even within that framework we can still give the students plenty of choices. 

I assigned an open-ended research project to my physical science-ers. I opened the project by stating that they needed to come up with two questions dealing with our current unit, Physics (gravity, forces, friction, speed/velocity/acceleration). Two questions that, if they had enough time, they could really research and learn about. 

Then I told them we were going to actually do the research and I gave them the freedom [within set guidelines] to take ownership of their learning. Not only that, but then I gave them the choice of how to show they've learned it and I had them choose the guidelines. Often we think that if we leave it up to the students, they will do the minimum amount required. What I realized though, was that the students want to be challenged. Here's what they came up with as a class:

• 7-9 slide presentation (via Google Docs or Microsoft PPT)
• short film (could be a commercial, mock-interview, documentary/mocumentary, etc.)
• 2 page minimum essay
• Poster-board presentation

Most of the students took this seriously and had a great time with it (with a few exceptions, of course). One student in particular really dug into research and even watched a documentary on black holes. He had never made a movie before, but decided he would take a stab at it. What I love about this is that this student not only learned a great deal (and enjoyed learning it!) about black holes and gravity, but he also learned got his feet wet with making a video - an excellent skill for 21st century learners! Sure it's not perfect, but he was awfully proud - as was I pleased with what he took away from this experience! 

Check out the result below...

I came across an article recently about how the graduation rates  in the US have actually been rising during the last decade. This is a positive thing that we should celebrate.

I have a few problems with these statistics, however. First of all, in the article from The Washington Post, it seems that hidden in the backdrop you catch a hint of the political agenda of these statistics. For example, the article explains how the grad rates are up from 72% in 2001 to 75.5% in 2009 - a modest gain. Yet the article explains later on how transforming one student's life from dropout to graduate would contribute roughly $200,000 in taxes over that person's lifetime.

Don't get me wrong, higher graduation rates boost the economy because of the revenue of taxes and more, but I'm tired of the political agenda. For the legislators to bring true reform (that would actually work!) and wake up to the actual needs of students, we need to lose the political agenda. Education has got to get back to being about what works. It seems that as universities conduct more and more research and truly do find methods, strategies, and pedagogies that work, yet the government isn't moved to act on anything unless they see that it will add monetary gain.

 Take for example the No Child Left Behind Actfrom this past decade. It was all about standardized tests scores that did little but place unnecessary and excessive pressure on the teachers to perform. And when teachers didn't perform according  to the students' test scores (something that those tests were never designed  to measure), what did the government want to do? Remove that teacher in an effort to have more qualified teacher. For schools that continually performed sub-par - they risked losing money. For those schools that continued to perform well, more opportunities for funding are made. Sound familiar? 
 
The fact is that tests scores weren't meant to be a measure of teacher effectiveness. More often than not, many test
prep classes are more about test taking skills than content related information. What we're doing is not only producing teachers that waste a bunch of time teaching the test (including HOW to take it) because their very jobs are at stake, but we're also producing students that are focused more about test mechanics than displaying knowledge and skills gained. Again, don't get me wrong - test taking skills are valuable. But remember that there is a lot of pressure riding on these tests, and they were never meant to measure test taking skills but rather assess students' knowledge and mastery.

What’s interesting to me is that I’m teaching in Korea where the graduation rate is around 93% (source), where the government puts much less financing into its education department. The reason why? The value of education and motivation comes from the family structure rather than the government’s agenda to compete globally - although, it is a dysfunctional aspect of Korean society. Way too much pressure is placed on education here and it has led to an incredibly high suicide rate compared to other modern cultures. One of the goals while teaching here is to actually place less pressure on the students - since they receive more than enough from home and society. 

And this is a very different problem than my western counterparts are currently experience in their schools...

I teach a range of classes (from Earth Science, to Chemistry, to Physics) at a range of grade levels. Through all the varying content and skills covered in my classes, I keep coming back to one question:

What am I trying to accomplish? 

While reflecting on this I had a recent Twitter conversation with @MegTeaches the other day that was sparked by her question of how to "define the purpose of 21st century schools?"

My answer is that basically everything we try and teach can be summed up into one phrase - problem-solving. 

Sure, I teach how the solar system forms, how atoms interact with each other, how to predict the type of image created by the reflection of a concave mirror. But underlying all of this, I'm attempting to get my students to ask questions, utilize resources available, and come to the solution.

Reflect on yourself for a moment. What are you most skilled at? Most likely it is something in which you were free to make mistakes, ask questions, and seek the answers out for yourself. Thanks to the unreliability of Microsoft products, I learned to navigate my way through technology by solving problems that arose. Thanks to my question about how to make a pleasurable sound come from an instrument, I learned how to play guitar quite well (in my mind, at least!). 

And that's what I want for my students. I want my classroom to be a place where they can freely make mistakes (without being penalized) because they see that mistakes are merely a step in the process to finding the right solution. One day our students will face difficulties in the forms of questions and problems. If we focus more on teaching how to imitate proper lab techniques and how to memorize content, yet haven't taught them how to deal with real, 21st century issues - then we have done them a great disservice.

What do you think? What is your goal as an educator, preparing students for 21st century issues?

To read the article that sparked the discussion, go here.

So I went ahead and added a page for subscriptions. Just click the Subscribe tab at the top to be taken to the subscriptions page. All you need to do to receive email updates is add your email address to the white box. Don't worry, it will only email you when we post a new update. It won't bother you with tons of needless email spam. :)

If you use a Feed Reader right in your browser (I personally use the Google one), you will see an updated post every time you open the reader page. If your currently not using a reader, and you consume blog posts regularly, I highly recommend it!

For iPhone users, it seems that Feeddler gets pretty good reviews - but I can't say for sure because I've never tested it. And for Android users, I am an avid fan [again] of Google's Reader app.

Happy reading!

Hey teachers!

I've been doing a lot of reading lately on blogs and research-based articles on what exactly works in the classroom. As a MINI-PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (not for any credit...), I feel that I need to share some of the things that I've found in this email. I'm hoping that maybe at some point in the future I can give some sort of presentation on some more of the things I've come across, but for now I wanted to share some steps we can incorporate into being better educators... Sorry this is a bit lengthy. Feel free to read it in your free time!

The Problem with Grades... 
We're all aware that grades do very little to motivate students. Students that perform well often aren't the smartest students (this was me in high school... not particularly bright - I just did my work). Let's be real and face the fact that most of the content that we teach students is soon forgotten, even days or minutes immediately following summative assessments (such as unit tests). So we hand tests back to students to go over... when really all the students do is see what they got wrong and give the test right back. Why else do we need to review material learned previously at the beginning of each new school year? 

In fact, more and more research is showing that all grades do it wipe out all intrinsic motivation. Assigning grades breeds competition rather than cooperation (again, more and more research is showing that students aren't motivated and don't learn through competition, but learn much better through collaboration... --> think, group projects, debates, etc.). 

Check out this article for a detailed recap of a recent study on this topic: http://goo.gl/KbBuW 

Another aspect of grades is that they breed fear of failure. Our ideal classroom is one in which students are not afraid to make mistakes... we all would agree that we all learn best through making mistakes and correcting them. However, when students are focused on grades they fear making mistakes, and willALWAYS take the safest route, and avoid all risks that may lead to mistakes - because they know in doing so they will be penalized through bad marks/grades. What we end up producing in our classrooms are students who learn to "play the game of school." Its an environment in which the smart stay smart, and the lower achievers stay low achieving (for the most part).

What's the most beneficial type of feedback for students?
Information has a greater effect than rewards and punishment.

Students are more than capable of motivating, evaluating, and assessing themselves than we realize. I think you would all agree that these are particular skills we want our students to have as a result of our teaching. The best way to get them there, is through giving them the information they need, instead of rewards (good grades, positive feedback on assignments) and punishments (bad grades, negative feedback on assignments). As soon as we give students work back, they skip all the comments we made ("But I spent so much time grading and commenting on that paper...!"), check out their grade, and then throw away or put the paper in a folder. Maybe we attempt to correct their mistakes with them... but in their mind the judgment (grade) has already been made, and there's little effort in improving the mistakes. Students respond better to facts than judgement. If you don't believe me in this, do some research on the methods of John Wooden... arguably the winningest coach of all time. (or check out this blog post: http://goo.gl/qiKZy). 

You may wonder... "But we need to prepare the students for what they will face later in life. Their bosses and supervisors work within the rewards/punishments system, so shouldn't we prepare them for that?" To find the answer, watch this really good, research-based video-clip: http://goo.gl/8Httc 

So what can we do in response? 
Research shows that the single biggest impact that leads to actual, authentic, intrinsically motivated learning is through proper feedback, or formative assessment. There are two kinds of formative assessment: Assessment FOR Learning (AFL)... and Assessment OF Learning (AOL). 

-For more information on the difference between these two, check this blog out: http://goo.gl/NuQ0Q - 

Black and William of BCELC (The British Columbia Education Leadership Council) defined AFL like this...

Any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting pupil’s learning. 

What does this look like in the classroom? It depends. It depends on the teacher, grade-level, subject, personality of students and teachers, etc. To be honest, I'm still figuring out what this will look like in my class. I'm not saying we need to get rid of grades, but I am saying that (especially in THIS culture) it ismost beneficial to our students if we focus less on grades, points, and percentages, and focus more on constructive feedback. For a more practical look at it, see the attachments I have included in this email for 6 steps/methods for AFL from the BCELC that is beneficial to all grade-levels.

The last thing I'd like to share with you is this quote of John Dewey...

"What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul: loses his appreciation of things worth while, of the values to which these things are relative; if he loses desire to apply what he has learned and, above all, loses the ability to extract meaning from his future experiences as they occur?" 

Is it not worthwhile to note that some of the most successful people, were those that performed terrible in schools, yet learned much better on their own, learning things they were more interested in (a place where it was okay to make mistakes, and nobody was judging their abilities or accomplishments?)? Look at Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Albert Einstein, and more.

If you took the time to read all this, thank you. I hope that you have seen the value of the research provided. There is much more available out there, and its increasingly easy to find. I understand that we are always in process, but I want to encourage everyone to not be satisfied with our old methods. The world we live in is changing, and education is being reformed all around the world. For the sake of our students, let's not fall behind!

God bless!