Week 1

Hello!

FLiP
I recently was selected to be a FLiP (Future Learner Project) classroom at Congress Middle School for the 2013-14 school year. This means I now possess a laptop cart with 30 laptops so I can transform my instruction within the classroom to (a) increase higher order thinking (b) tap into student creativity and passion (c) develop NETS-S skills and student responsibility and (d) help myself and my peers figure out how our school will transform our instruction when the entire school goes 1:1 in 2014-15.  Yikes. What a list - but I'm excited!

Week 1 in Review
Currently my students are concluding a unit called Chemical Interactions, where they're exposed to basic atomic structure and how the periodic table is organized. This unit paves the way for units on physical and chemical propeties of substances as well as for chemical reactions and energy changes.

• Monday - Students played around with this Isotope Simulation from the guys at University of Boulder.  I gave them a sheet with guided questiosn that essentially said, "Play around with the simulation and answer these 4 questions along the way."  We did this because the kids had a hard time with isotopes last week and I've used a "Build an Atom" simulation from phet before and found the kids loved it.  Same outcome here. I think being able to viscerally manipulate neutrons and watch nuclei become unstable was much more powerful than hearing me talk at the board and drawing pictures.

• Tuesday - Students took a paper-and-pencial quiz on Learning Goal 2 - Drawing Atoms (and isotopes). Then they got started on a Periodic Table Grid.  Since we're starting our final learning goal for the unit (organization of the periodic table), students chose any of the 118 elements listed on the Periodic Table on my wall, researched their element, then wrote about them on a class Google Doc.  Students then commented on the entries, sharing what they liked and offering piece of constructive criticism.  Check them out here (you have to have a Park Hill ID in order to access the gdocs): Period 2, Period 3, Period 6, Period 7, Period 8. I really am impressed with the quality of summarizing in the "What is cool" column. Several students helped other students realize it isn't cool to just "Cut and Paste" info off a website because the information is too boring. You could tell students enjoyed the opportunity to find cool videos in the way they would whisper-yell across the room "Hey, you gotta come check out this Phosphorous video."  In hindsight, I'm glad I found 5-6 solid websites with Middle School appropriate langauge on the elements in order to help them find information. Otherwise I think this would be an extremely frustrating activity, since most of what is written online assumes one already has a basic understanding of atomic structure. You can check the sites I used off my class website.

• Wednesday: Quizzes returned and processed. Finished working on Google Doc grid.

• Thursday: My students took notes on Periodic Table Organization for the majority of the class. However, rather than having me stand-and-deliver in front of the class, I recorded myself using Screencastomatic.com and uploaded the notes to YouTube.  I don't think all direct instruction should be done in this manner (as Solomon said, there is a time and a place for everything), but I think it worked well in this case for the following reasons: (1) Kept students attention since they could move at their own place, stop and pause or keep rolling as needed, and had autonomy over volume control (2) Nothing fancy would have been done in person that couldn't be replicated via video (3) Allowed higher ability students to finish more quickly so they were able to go back and comment on their peers entries from Tues-Wed. (4) Absent students received comparable instruction.

• Friday: First day of the week without computers. Students worked in collaborative groups, rotating around the room  and examining objects at tables in order to determine the elemental structure of each compound.  Challenging, fun, and fast-paced, this is an activity I've done for 3 years and wouldn't discard it.  Computers could add nothing to this activity, so they stayed in the cart. By the end of the period students self-discover the majority of objects in the room (and outside. We spent 5-7 min outside picking random objects) are composed primarily of C, H, and O.  Then they record down, C,H,O,N,P,S for the main elements of living things and we call it a day.

Lessons Learned

1. Assign Laptops. Taking the advice from my team math teacher, I made a chart assigning each student to a laptop. Now, every day when students come in they look for the magnetic cow sticker (COW - computers on wheels) on the board, and if there, they automatically grab their laptop from the COW at the front of the room.  At the end of the period, they shut the computers all the way down and put them back in the same slot.  We've got it down 85% of the class having laptops at their desk by the time the class bells rings and less than 60 seconds putting away at the end.  This is also helpful in damage control. If something is wrong with their laptops students are quick to report it to me so the student next hour doesn't cite it against them.  Great idea. Thanks Amy!
2. Lesson Review. Rather than a paper-and-pencil bell ringer I use the opportunity at the beginning of class to do a fast-paced verbal review with my students of yesterday's material.  As I do this students know they are to be longing onto the computer and getting it to the desk top screen.  Once its there they tilt it to a 45 degree angle so as not to distract them. Seems to work pretty good.

Whew. Quite a first entry. Let's see what Week 2 holds!