Graphing Tutorial and Table Cloth Trick

"Below is a quick tutorial on using Vernier's Graphical Analysis. It's not perfect, but I am pleased and excited!!!!!!!!!!!

It took me a while to learn how to embed the video from Jing and Screencast so as a bonus here is my favorite educational video from David Zanthor on how to pull a table cloth from beneath a dinner service:

Party Tricks:
How To Pull A Tablecloth From Under A Dinner Service

Reflection on Science & Literacy

I found the Science & literacy reading to be stimulating. One of the questions that I had while reading the end of the first paragraph was, "What is meaningful science?" I think I know what it is, but I would really like to post that question to the rest of the teachers in my department. I fear that between NCLB and preparing the students for the state test at the end of the year, many of them have forgotten to make science meaningful and fun!

In the first strategy about performance expectations the author mentions that some teachers tell their students to "do better", but fail to take the next step which is to show the students what "better" looks like. Luckily more an more teachers are using exemplars and samples of student work in the learning process.

In the second strategy about explicit teaching strategies the author describes a Write as You Read Science strategy which sounded better than nothing but might not be as useful as the SQ3R method where the students first Survery the reading assignment to stimulate prior knowledge, then write a Question for each major heading or section, next the students Read the passages looking for the answers to the questions they wrote. The second R is for Recording the answers to the questions. The final R is Reviewing the notes in preparation for an assessment. This technique might not be as colourful as the other method, but I think it is a valid alternative.

Finally I was truck by the "storyteller in your head" for the metagcognition strategy. I am not certain that it fits all learning styles, but I know that it works for me and some of my students.

Week 2 tools

This week I was able to create my first glogster. I titled it ,Why you should take physics and although I learned the hard way not to "arrow back", I am pretty pleased with the results.

http://mrsfyzix.edu.glogster.com/mrsfyzix-glog1/

I am still concerned about copyright issues. I need to cite the pictures that I got from the ancillary materials for my textbook as well as the ten statements in the "bubbles" that I got from an online site by googling "top ten reasons to take physics". My next goal is to add some music to it, She Blinded Me with Science ought to be appropriate. Also a little animation; maybe a cartoon Einstein zooming around.

All in all, I am having more fun with these tools than I thought I might. I still look at my fingers when I type, but when I do look at the screen I am happier about what I see.

Glogster

Week 2 reflection on PLNs

I liked the way the reading started by going back to those first days at a new school when we had to "learn" the technology to which we would have access: the phone, copy machine, overhead maybe? The technology training must be the same everywhere; we all crowd around the new copy machine while a "trainer" talks us through all of the do's and don't's of running it. After a few weeks and multiple repairs the secretary puts a note on the machine, "If you need help, see me or one of the physics teachers". Now, more than a decade later all of the overhead projectors are replaced by LCD projectors. All of our precious transparencies have been replaced by digital images. We use computers for email, attendance, grades, lesson plans, testing, EVERYTHING. I showed my parents my flash drive and revealed all of its contents; as former teachers they marvelled in disbelief.

I'm not sure if I can keep up with the pace of changing technology. I know that I am excited by all that I see in web 2.0. As department chair I am tempted to delegate. We all have too many demands on our time to become experts at all of it. If we each select a few tools, master them and then do turn around training, maybe we would all benefit. I just have to figure out how to do that better than the old copy machine trainer.

Guiding Principles for Using Technology

The physical teachnology (Was that a typo or a flash of brilliance?) that I have in my classroom includes:

1. My laptop computer with heavily filtered connection to the internet

2. An LCD projector

3. A mimio interactive white board tool

4. A laptop cart with 12 student computers for up to 30 students

5. An array of probes that interface with the computers for data collection

After some reading and reflection I will try to live by the following principles of technology use:

1) Using a laptop computer ¹ learning from technology.

2) Since students have to share the computers, assign their groups so that they have experience “adapting to different personalities and communication styles.”

3) The epitome of a computer experience for the students results in the students producing something or participating in something that results in stimulating lifelong learning.

4) Evaluate the merit of using a high tech probe vs. a low teach measuring tool for data collection. Greater precision and accuracy do not outweigh the value of the students “feeling” the data, as with force probes and spring scales.

5) Incorporate the LCD projector and mimio tool for student use vs. instructor use to provide the students the opportunity to share what they have produced.

Setting the Stage Reflection

Setting the Stage Reflection

While completing the 5 readings that were in the Setting the Stage assignment I started seeing the various benefits and challenges that we as educators will face in the era of web 2.0. If I feel overwhelmed by the “tidal wave of information” I am sure that at least some of my students will feel the same way. I already use wikis for some of my students’ group assignments and discussions so I have seen the value of incorporating them into the learning process as well as the downside: not every student has the same level/quality of access at home, what happens to the project when the wiki doesn’t work, my parents won’t let me have the computer on during a thunderstorm, etc. One thing that I have noticed in just the past three years of using wikis is that I have to give fewer students instruction on how to use the wiki. Even some students who have never used a wiki before figure out how to use it intuitively.

One of the other things that spoke to me was the description of lurking. I clearly need to do a lot of lurking to feel more comfortable with the blogging stuff. Heck, I still look at my fingers when I type; typing takes a long time for me. I’ll just read for a while, thank you very much.

Finally, I plan to pull my students further into web 2.0 by keeping a quote from “It’s a Flat World, After All” in my mind: “Finish your homework—people in China and India are starving for your job.”

My intro

Educated as a mechanical engineer, I found my passion for physics teaching after raising two sons (now 26 and 23) and being a pastry cook. I have been teaching for 13 years, the last 10 have been in the suburbs of our nation's capital.

The biggest challenge that I have dealt with in my career has been adjusting to the International Baccalaureate curriculum from the Advanced Placement curriculum. The most challenging experience that I have had is mentoring a difficult intern and the most rewarding experience that I have had is awakening the love of physics in young women (and men) who feared it initially.

I like to spend my free time working out so I'm not looking forward to the extra time that I am going to have to spend sitting in front of the computer. Grrr.

Finally, this is my 6th online course from MSU as I am working toward my MSSE degree. The only way that I can get a raise from my school district in the past 3 years is to add grad credits to my degree.