Here is an interesting way to teach a lesson that came from the mind of Kevin Honeycutt: Suppose you are trying to teach a concept. For instance, the water cycle. But it can be any concept really. Why not start out by having students watch a video without any narration. They then would have to create the narration themselves. So they would have to research the topic, they would have to write an outline, they would have to write the narration, then narrate the video. I think, by the end of the lesson they pretty much have figured out what you were trying to teach. Look at this video by NASA on the water cycle. It is about 5 minutes long. Now, watch the exact same video with the sound off. Wouldn't that work for almost any video? Even a Khan Academy video with the sound off where the students woudl have to narrate the steps on how to solve the problem. Of course you might want to have different length videos for different aged students. A 30 second video showing a chameleon changing colors would be great for teaching camouflage. What do you think? Is that a cool way to teach a lesson or what?
Click to set custom HTML
At the January/February 2017 State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting, the SBOE approved for first reading and filing authorization proposed amendments to the science Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Kindergarten – Grade 8 and certain high school courses. The proposed amendments would streamline the science TEKS with a recommended implementation date of the 2017-2018 school year. The SBOE is scheduled to consider the proposed amendments for second reading and final adoption at its April 2017 meeting. The official public comment period for the proposed amendments to streamline the science TEKS is now open. Please note that the SBOE has specifically requested feedback regarding the amount of time to provide instruction in the proposed student expectations. Specific feedback related to the time needed to teach individual concepts would be helpful. To view the proposed amendments and submit public comments, visit http://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Laws_and_Rules/SBOE_Rules_(TAC)/Proposed_State_Board_of_Education_Rules/ Proposed amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 112, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School Proposed Amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 112, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science, Subchapter A, Elementary, Subchapter B, Middle School, and Subchapter C, High School Summary: The proposed amendments would streamline the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for science with a recommended implementation date of the 2017-2018 school year. (First Reading and Filing Authorization: January/February 2017 SBOE meeting) (Publication in the March 3, 2017 issue of the Texas Register) (Earliest Possible Date of Adoption: April 2017 SBOE meeting)
Send a public comment on Proposed Amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 112, Subchapters A-C NOTE: The SBOE has specifically requested feedback regarding the amount of time needed to provide instruction in the proposed student expectations. Specific feedback related to the time needed to teach individual concepts would be helpful. Science Teachers Association of Texas 5750 Balcones Dr. Suite 201 Austin, Texas 78731
Have you ever been asked to lead some kind of professional development for your fellow teachers and all you can come up with is that same thing you did at the last staff training? Let's fold something! Yippee! Let's make another interactive notebook! Yippee! Here's another reading strategy! Yippee! Fun with Data Disaggregation! Yippee! Same stuff, different day as my father used to say, but he used a bit more colorful language. What if you had close to 100 different types of professional development, almost ready to present as is, at your fingertips, and every one of them was different, for different audiences, for different curricular areas, and every single one of them was absolutely free? Too good to be true? It isn't! A few years ago, Apple quietly released a series of books written by Apple Distinguished Educators called ""One Best Thing"." The "One Best Thing" (OBT) series was a set of then 102 books, that did exactly what the title said: Took one topic and focused laser-like on it so that a reader would know exactly how that worked by the time they had finished reading the book. Here is the description of "One Best Thing" found in each book: “"One Best Thing" is a collection of books created by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) that demonstrate the use of Apple technologies to transform teaching and learning. Each "One Best Thing" book shares a unit, a lesson, or a best practice and is designed to help another educator implement a successful practice. It’s a professional learning idea championed by an educator—in word and action—that others can look to for ideas and tips on how to replicate. Enjoy this "One Best Thing" book, along with others in the collection, and discover innovative projects, lessons, and activities for use in your own learning environment.” I said they released them quietly. I bet you have never heard of ""One Best Thing"." It was almost like Apple didn't want you to find them. I wonder why that was? That was unfortunate. First of all, they are a really good series made by real teachers. Secondly, they all have the same look and feel, so if you understand how one is formatted, you have figured out how all of them are. Third, they are all short. 20-30 pages tops. A quick read while you are waiting for a “real PD” session to start. Lastly, they cover a crazy wide variety of topics and curricular areas. Math, Science, Social Studies, Cross curricular, Professional development, ELA, Languages Other than English, Ed Tech..you name it, there is a "One Best Thing" that addresses it. How do you get this incredible resource? First of all, the entire "One Best Thing" series is located in iBooks, a program that is exclusive to users of iPads, iPhones, and Macintosh computers. If your campus has iPads, or Mac, then iBooks is a free download. Don't have any of those devices either personally or at your campus? Well, you are kind of out of luck unless you can get your hands on one. But trust me, it is worth getting your hands on one. Although the topics are all very “Apple Centered” and do highlight the use of Apple apps and devices, don't let that scare you away. The topics, while maybe specific on Apple, are generic enough that with just a little thought, can be modified to any class, using any ed tech. Consider this "One Best Thing" title: “Thinking Like a Scientist: Students as Mobile Researchers.” The description of the book is: “When we experience something for the first time, we are filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity. How can we capture these moments to be more engaged and successful as learners? This "One Best Thing" is dedicated to helping students use the variety of features and apps available on the iPad to work as researchers and truly tell their learning story.” As you can clearly see, even though the specific book is about using iPad apps, the topics is general enough so that it can be applied to almost any operating system or any ed tech toolset. Consider these science-related books in the "One Best Thing" Series:
I believe that every single one of these titles can be turned into a professional development topic. What makes these great PD resources is that they are real life examples. They are short enough to fit into a short PD session, or can be expanded to a longer PD, and are written to be easily understood, even by those that do not have a technology or iPad background. I have created a spreadsheet of all of the known “One Best Thing” titles. Some of the links may not be working anymore, as the apps or software may have been modified beyond how the original book portrayed it, or the hardware may no longer be available. I leave them in however, so that you might be able to find the book elsewhere. Perhaps a colleague actually knew about them and downloaded a few. The link to all of the “One Best Thing” book spreadsheet is: http://bit.ly/2gY7Es4 Enjoy exploring. Remember these if you ever need a quick professional development topic and are at a loss as to what to present on. (And maybe you could use these as a basis for presenting at a conference!)
Back in the days of Uri Geller and Jean Dixon (look them up), I once told my science classes that I was able to predict the future. Of course, none of them believed me. "You had to have special powers of some kind in order to do that" they told me. They then gave me a long dissertation about Nostradamus, who was back in the news for one of his 400 year old wishy washy statements, I created a lesson about critical thinking, and it took almost the entire year to complete. At the beginning of the year, we talked about people that said they could predict the future. We discussed what percentage of predictions needed to come true in order for them to be convinced that someone had true "psychic" skills. They all agreed that 75% was a pretty good indicator that someone had the ability to predict the future. So I set up a demonstration: I told them that I would be able to predict the future with at least 75% accuracy. I made a set of predictions, sealed them in an envelope, even sealed the envelope with wax, and put it on a shelf, not to be disturbed until the last week of school. When the last week of school arrived, I took the envelope down and read my predictions. Amazingly enough, I was closer to 90% accurate! The students all believed that I had some kind of power, until I explained how I did it: I remember my father telling me that if you make enough predictions, just by chance, some of them will come true. Psychics, because of the full time scam that they practice, all they do is make predictions. Sheer volume would indicate that they have a chance of making a prediction come true. JFK will be assassinated. JFK won't be assassinated. Either way, the psychic will be right and you will only hear about the prediction that came true. So, I set about making my "predictions." Some would be pretty obvious based on statistics and patterns that I had observed over the years. For instance I knew the local university football team had not had a winning season in decades, and that trend was not going to change this year: Prediction 1: UTEP football will have a losing season. Easy. The basketball team, on the other hand, was pretty good, stacked the early games of the season with patsies, and almost always had a winning season. Prediction 2: UTEP Basketball will have a winning season. Large snow storms come to the desert rarely, but light snow is very common in the winter, even if it only hangs around for a few hours at a time. Prediction 3: It will snow in El Paso this year. (Notice the ambiguity of that phrase. I didn't predict amounts, only that it would snow.) And on and on it went until I had about 25 predictions: A famous movie actor will die. A politician will be involved in a scandal. A plane will crash in a foreign country. A famous rock star will be arrested. The price of gasoline will go up. With those types of predictions, I got close to what I thought would be 75% , but I knew I had to hedge some bets, so I made some predictions that I would be be pretty sure I got correct: The stock market will go up 10 % The stock market will NOT go up 10%. A politician will be assassinated (I did that one because of all the psychics that say they predicted the JFK killing.) A politician will not be assassinated. And on and on it went. My 25 initial predictions became 100 by the time I finished them, sealed the envelope and in front of the students, placed it on top of a large glassware shelf, where it sat for the rest of the school year, until I took it down the last week of school. Most of the kids had forgotten about the envelope, but quickly remembered when I took it down. I had a student examine the seal to make sure it had not been tampered with. Another student opened the envelope up, to make sure I was not able to slip in a new set of predictions. When I read them to the class, they were amazed at my abilities. Surely, Mr, Holt had some kind of mystical powers. In fact, I explained to them, I had the power of noticing trends, statistics, hedging bets, and using language to make ambiguous statements that could be interpreted many different ways. By the end of the lesson, the students saw how predictions were made and how "psychics" were nothing more than flam flam artists out to make money off of unsuspecting rubes. I thought about that lesson recently, and thought maybe some of you could replicate it in your classes, when explaining how to think critically about something. I predict you will use this idea in your classes. Or you won't. Either way, I am correct. Hello World is a magazine about computing and digital making written by educators, for educators. With three issues each year, it contains 100 pages filled with news, features, teaching resources, reviews, research and much more. It is designed to be cross-curricular and useful to all kinds of educators, from classroom teachers to librarians. While it includes lots of great examples of how educators are using Raspberry Pi computers in education, it is device- and platform-neutral. Hello World is a collaboration between the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Computing at School, the grass-roots organisation of computing teachers that’s part of the British Computing Society. The magazine builds on the fantastic legacy of Switched On, which it replaces as the official magazine for the Computing at School community. Hello World is available free, forever, for everyone online as a downloadable pdf. The content is written to be internationally relevant, and includes features on the most interesting developments and best practices from around the world. For more information, check out https://www.raspberrypi.org/helloworld
Red Trunk Introduction from Red Trunk Project on Vimeo. We need more things like this: RED TRUNK PROJECT® The forces of intolerance and bigotry are on the rise both here and abroad. Much of the world today remains deeply divided by race, nationality, faith, and politics. Too many people — world leaders and citizens alike — think in terms of "us" and "them," and all too often people are automatically threatened by something that is "different." If there is any hope for the human race to survive, progress, and prosper, the walls that separate "us" from "them" must come down - and this hope for a better world lies with our children; they will inherit this world, and they will become the next generation of leaders and thinkers. Therefore it is our responsibility is to provide them with the necessary tools — education, understanding, and empathy — in order for them to succeed. The Red Trunk Project cultural initiative will prepare our children to better understand and empathize with their fellow citizens from around the globe. By introducing today's children to cultures other than their own, Red Trunk Project sparks a global dialogue based on the need to Respect Every Difference (the inspiration behind the color of the trunks), and thus laying the groundwork for a brighter, more inclusive future. Red Trunk Project provides children from around the world with in-depth, hands-on insights to other cultures, thereby replacing divisiveness, hatred, and violence with inclusiveness, tolerance, and a shared understanding of one another. By opening young hearts and minds to cultures which differ from their own — often from distant parts of the world that they might not ever travel to themselves — Red Trunk Project connects children with one another in rich and meaningful ways. http://redtrunkproject.org/index.htmlAt Desmos, our mission is to help every student learn math and love learning math. With that in mind, we’ve assembled a collection of unique and engaging digital activities. And best of all? Everything you see at teacher.desmos.com is free. Great resource for kids to help them get through fake and real information. When and how did everything begin? What is a miracle? What is the sun? Why do bad things happen? Throughout history people all over the world have invented stories to answer profound questions such as these. Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu’s egg? Or what about the great catfish that carries the world on its back? These fantastical myths are fun – but what is the real answer to such questions? In this fully interactive, groundbreaking app, Richard Dawkins presents the real story of the world around us, taking you on an enthralling journey through scientific reality, and showing that it has an awe-inspiring beauty and thrilling magic which far exceed those of the ancient myths.
Here is the link: http://www.magicofrealityapp.com Worth the $4.99 The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is an NSF supported project that began in 1999 to develop a library of uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction (K-12 emphasis). The project includes dissemination and extensive internal and external evaluation. Learning and understanding mathematics, at every level, requires student engagement. Mathematics is not, as has been said, a spectator sport. Too much of current instruction fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of manipulatives, physical objects that help students visualize relationships and applications. We can now use computers to create virtual learning environments to address the same goals. There is a need for good computer-based mathematical manipulatives and interactive learning tools at elementary and middle school levels. Our Utah State University team is building Java-based mathematical tools and editors that allow us to create exciting new approaches to interactive mathematical instruction. The use of Java as a programming language provides platform independence and web-based accessibility. The NLVM is a resource from which teachers may freely draw to enrich their mathematics classrooms. The materials are also of importance for the mathematical training of both in-service and pre-service teachers. The library is actively being extended and refined through projects including the eNLVM, a project to develop interactive online learning units for mathematics. http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html |
About Tim HoltTim Holt is a 32 year educator that has been the President of the Science Teachers Association of Texas as well as a nationally published blogger n education technology. Check out his blog at http://holtthink.tumblr.com Archives
March 2017
Categories
All
|