Week in Review
Monday
Monday we tested the cement Hockey Pucks we created on Friday. Unfortunately it was a cold and windy day but I told them "It's always a good day to go outside and smash stuff." I really enjoyed this lab because it was a direct application of why its important to reinforce bridges, foundations, and walls.
After reflecting on our results students were given the following choice. Choice A - work on study guide during the rest of class, finish for homework, and then do review games tomorrow or Choice B - work on study guide in class, no homework, and then finish individually tomorrow but probably without time for review games.
To my surprise 2 of my 3 regular classes choice Choice A and the other chose Choice B. Looks like students aren't as afraid of homework as I thought. Or they just love games.
Tuesday
Today two of my Choice A classes played Trasketball (thank you Mrs. Wyrick). After checking study guides against my key they sat in groups of four with a whiteboard and marker in the middle of the table. Each student in a group was given a number (1, 2, 3, 4). I read a question from the study guide then yelled out a number. For example "Give an example of a chemical change.....#3!" Only the student whose number I called could write on the whiteboard and hold it up (other group members could give feedback as the student wrote). First whiteboard with a correct answer got a chance to shoot either a 1 point, 2 point, 3 point, or 5 point (back against the far wall) shot. Teams only receive points if they made it. Teams could also lose points if they didn't clap after everyone's shot. Good times.
One of the Choice A classes had half of their class come to class with incomplete study guides. You reap what you sow. That class spent the rest of the class finishing their study guides and checking keys individually.
The Choice B class spent the period in a similar manner but without the penalty for late homework.
Wednesday
The sky fell in.
All of my regular-paced classes took their Unit 3 test on D2L. At least they were supposed too....
When my first class came in, they logged on to D2L and attempted to access the test. Instead they received this message:
You've got to be kidding me.
The next 10 minutes were a blur of making paper copies (since I was trying to avoid killing the rain forests I only had my teacher copy of the test), students constructing answer keys on their own paper, and me convincing students they would have plenty of time to finish their test today (which they did).
To our Tech Department's credit, I was on the phone within 10 minutes talking to Matt and Jennifer, 2 of our ITF (instructional technology facilitators) folk, and they went to work immediately for me. Looks like the error wasn't on our end of things, it was a D2L server error that was corrected within 24 hours. Keep it classy D2L corporate.
The next 10 minutes were a blur of making paper copies (since I was trying to avoid killing the rain forests I only had my teacher copy of the test), students constructing answer keys on their own paper, and me convincing students they would have plenty of time to finish their test today (which they did).
To our Tech Department's credit, I was on the phone within 10 minutes talking to Matt and Jennifer, 2 of our ITF (instructional technology facilitators) folk, and they went to work immediately for me. Looks like the error wasn't on our end of things, it was a D2L server error that was corrected within 24 hours. Keep it classy D2L corporate.
Thursday
To kick start our new unit on energy, students brought in small appliances/tools from home. We spread them around the room and students rotated through the stations answering 2 questions: What job does it perform? What energy is needed for it to work? The questions were completely open-ended and were aimed to access prior knowledge at how we get the devices of our life to function.
Their answers were pretty great because they weren't influenced by the sophistication of science textbooks/notes. For instance, a kid brought in a huge socket wrench (I mean HUGE. It was the size of my forearm and upper arm) and kids argued it needed "Force Energy" or "Push-Pull Energy." What a great starting place.
The above picture is a shot I took of my whiteboard at the end of one of the classes. Notice the definitions for energy in the black pen on the bottom right of the screen. These are all student-constructed responses they did at their tables as the final part of the stations activity.
Every definition is a pretty great derivation of the textbook answer --> "Energy is the ability to do work" or "Energy is the ability to affect change." I love that my students were able to construct their own working definition based on their prior knowledge and group experience from the activity, and their definitions are essentially the same as the one I would have given them.
Friday
On Friday students read an article and filled out a graphic organizer. The article was a great piggyback to the stations activity from Thursday because it gave scientific names to the processes they had talked about during the stations. For instance, during the stations activity students had described "push/pull" as an energy needed by objects. The article relabeled that energy as "Kinetic Energy - Mechanical." This article supplies the vocabulary for the next two weeks.
Lessons Learned
- Backup Plan - It paid to have a paper copy of the test on test day. Though it was a pain (and stressful) to run to the copy room to make a quick set of 35 copies, it wasn't near as stressful as not having a paper copy at all! Lesson - things will always fail when you need it most.
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