Reflections of a Techie

Phoenix Lands, Preps to Start Digging and Running Experiments

The Phoenix is on the Martian surface!!!!! and about to start its experiments.  Can you imagine how unbelieveable the next 90 days of experiments will be?  This little robot who is about to start digging to find hidden treasures within the soil and rocks below it.  With the chemistry experiments that Phoenix it can do, scientists think they'll find new information that has never been.  In the fall, the sun will permanently set on Mars and Phoenix will be encased in the Martian polar ice cap or frozen carbon dioxide 1 meter thick.

Honestly I have to tell you that I haven't been this excited about something in our space program for years.  Last night as I watched every second of the 7 Minutes of Peril/Terror, I kept thinking about those long ago days when we were all crowded into my elementary school gym to squint at a TV way up on the stage...hoping that John Glenn would be successful.

Not long after it landed, I got my first email from one of my students.  They were excited and wondered if I had watched.  And then came another email and another and another.  It would seem that 7 or 8 kids watched this broadcast on Sunday night.  We studied robots and then extended that study to the Phoenix.  Thinking about this 450 pound robot that traveled for almost a year really pushed my students to think beyond their beloved Sumobot.  They began to catch a glimpse at the possibilities.

How exciting.  What if one of them someday is able to go to Mars?  Oh to be young and at the point where all the fun of space exploration is before you!!!!  What are the scientific truths of the Martian polar ice caps  (especially in this year of Earth's polar zones)?

Celebrations...a solution to the homework completion dilemma

One of the most successful strategies we've found for upping homework completion is to have end of  the quarter celebrations.  If you're wondering what this is...well, it's basically a drawing and recess.  Two simple components that all kids love...especially our middle schoolers.

In order to come to the celebration, you must have all your work turned in by a certain date.  Simple and easy to understand.  All of our grade level teachers publicize this date on their boards, we announce it on our class webpages and in a voicemail home.  We have fanatastic parents who support us...they collect a wide array of "giveaways" in August.  they get movie money, First in the LunchLine pass, bags of candy, 2 L bottles of pop, Lunch in classroom with 5 invited friends, coupons from local businesses.  Each student gets a set of passes to use if they need to go back to their lockers, to the bathroom or other things like this.  Whatever passes aren't used at the end of the quarter, go into a drawing.

You'd think we're giving away a car with all the whoop-la.  It's so much fun.

Once the drawing is over we go out and play.  Depending on the season, we play kickball, walk/talk, ultimate, dodgeball, karaoke, board games and so on.  We stay out for about an hour and the parents donate bottled water.

Why do we go through all this?

Homework completion had become a huge problem.  Threats just weren't enough.  Detentions and mandatory study sessions didn't work.  We decided that a carrot might be more effective.  That's the reason we developed the drawings and the celebration activities.  The response is amazing...once you put up the missing assignments at the beginning of the week.  Well, you might have 20 or 30.  They see their name and freak that they won't get to go, so the work just starts coming in.  Without any huge threat from me and by the deadline comes, I have 2.  This quarter over the 5 classes, I probably had 15 assignments for 30 kids each...450 in all.  Only 2 assignments weren't turned in.  So they will go to a help session while we are outside and get their assignments turned in.  Then when I go to calculate their grade, they will have a complete set of scores.

The first quarter every year we have about 10-12 kids who have to complete their homework during this work time.  By the fourth quarter, we're down to 2 or 3....out of more than 200 students.  All of us have stopped chasing the homework train and it is so much better.  We have the work turned in AND we have a time to relax with students, get to know them in a different setting than the classroom, and celebrate all the hard work that everyone has done.

Photos licensed by Creative Commons.  Homework photo is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/ .

The Second most famous irrational number & golden ratio

Drawing the nautilus today was our culminating activity of our weeklong study of Fibanacci numbers and the golden ratio.  In days just before we had looked for the golden ratio in our bodies by measuring tapes, studied DaVinci's Vitruvian Man , beforpracticed golden problems.  We'd talked about how the ratio of short/long and long/short...they definitely were tuned into 1.618 and .618.  One student even downloaded the first 10,000 places of phi!!!!

I'd say they were pretty much in love with the second most famous irrational number.

Our read aloud, Wild Fiboncci, was delightful.  We had a great worksheet activity from Fibonacci Numbers and they did this to figure out the technique.  Since we are near the end of the school year, we'd moved to the commons so they could spread out on the floor.  Once they had perfected the technique, I had them move to the lunch tables...and use a scale factor to enlarge the worksheet rectangle onto BIG graph paper.   Some of our drawings were 3 feet across.

Now all this is a great activity, but what was so fun was to think about the math with them.  They first noticed that each square had a Fiboncci number for side length.  They were amazed to find out that it started at 21, then went to 13, then to 8 then to 5 to 3 and so on.  Lots of excitement actually filled the air as they uncovered this truth.  We "wondered" if we blew the drawing up by scale factors of 2, 3 or 5 if it would still work. It did!!!

Then that smarty kid wanted to know if we had a 0.5 scale factor if the pattern would still hold.  I gave them paper and they feverishly worked on it.

It was a great day and a fantastic way to end the school year.  They were excited about math and they were explorers.  Gosh I'll miss them next year.

Finding your voice in writing about math

Yesterday I spent most of the day working with colleagues on how we'd differentiate a new course offered next year.  A "Plus" math class to compliment the regular math class.  My opinions of this decision is a whole other post...and not relevant to thinking about how I'm going to deal with reality.

We went through each unit and pulled the most challenging problems...those that were extensions of the idea into new realms.  Or ones that had students access information from previous units...in the attempt to tie all things together.  I think that works out pretty well.

As we began to talk, a colleague really hammered home the need to "frontload" vocabulary.  If you are working with a math curriculum that is story problem based, it is essential for them to use words as precisely as possible.  That thought then got me considering other things...such as writing in their math journals.

I'm definitely going back to the word wall idea next year.  Don't care if my middle school colleagues laugh.  I think it helps to "read" the wall...use that flashlight to practice vocabulary.

Right now I'm pretty limited in knowing how to teach writing in math class.  I have a set of "signal words" from a LA teacher.  That has helped me require students to improve on their word choice depending on the types of text answer they are attempting.  It has worked pretty well, but it is still quite difficult.  At the beginning of the year when students would try and describe a process they'd used to solve the problem, you'd hear all sorts of artiifical langauage...they'd inject after, before, later, then, when, not long after, etc etc etc.  No matter how well it fit the situation, it was there...maybe all of them would be there!!!!!  Slowly they began to use the language better.

I still need to improve dramatically in how I teach them to write about what they know in math.  I want to incorporate more than word choice...I really want to expand into organization...and do you think there's voice in this type of writing.  I think so.  If I think about really great expository writing, there's voice in there.  Now I don't know if you consider math journals expository or technical writing.  Note to self:  Find that out.  It probably will help you determine if there's voice or not.

Here's what I really know.  There is a void of writing examples in math.  You try finding something that isn't an elementary school student.  I haven't been able to find a middle school example.  I am going to try and work with our school improvement specialist on this. 

Photos are licensed as Creative Commons images from www.origamitessellations.com/category/mentions/.

Need more student feedback

As this school year comes to an end (yes, only 3 more days)...I've really been wondering about what/how my planning for the next year should change.  I looked over my plan book, but it really doesn't reveal the kinds of data that I am wondering about.

Then I realized...I needed much more student input about the things we've done.  It's far too late in the year to ask them.  I have already circulated my student satisfaction survey and gathered parental feedback.  But what I really need is better info.

I've made a resolution that next year, I'll really work on incorporating this into every end of the unit assessment.  Maybe at the end of the summative....I think just a couple of questions that ask about what they thought was the most effective thing we did, what was the least effective (and I can promise you it lots of comments about having no homework and/or no tests), and what they wished we'd done that we didn't do.   I know I have my perspective, but their perspective would be very helpful.

Frustrating and intriguing----great possibilities for simple machines

I read about this supposedly fantastic website to help students figure out simple machines while at the SmartBoard.  I was excited to get there and try it out.

Hours later and only having mastered several levels....I have to tell you that Magic Pen is frustrating as all heck for me. But ripe with wonderful possibilities for the kids.  It reminds me of an old piece of software from way back in the day...called Amazing Incredible Machines.  The kids would be given all sorts of different simple machines and they had to figure out how to put those together to solve the puzzle.

Magic Pen works on this principle.  Instead of having premade shapes, you have to draw them.  Eeeks.  Honestly if you can even come close to the shape, it recognizes it.

So I couldn't blame by utter lack of success on my drawing ability.  It must be my lack of inventiveness because for the life of me, I could get my drawing abilities coordinating with my problem solving abilities.  Trial after trial, I'd work on getting this little red ball from one side of the screen to the other...navigating past obstacles.

These are the kinds of puzzles that are perfect for my 6th graders.  Especially since there old teacher can't do them.  They'd take untold delight in showing me up and also I can see how it would absorb some of the potential engineers in the class.

Heed my warning, though.  It is addictive, frustrating and sucks your mind right into the fun of using these simple machines.

Dust off Donald, Let's see the Magic in the Golden Ratio

I'm old so I remember the glory days of Disney.  I have to admit that this little jewel had slipped my memory, but when we dusted it off and used it with our students....wow....the power of Disney to make something interesting came to life.

Donald in MathMagic Land does many great things.  We are in the process of studying ratios, specifically the golden ratio.  This is the perfect movie to show them.  I think one of the most amazing parts of the movie is where Donald shows how this ratio comes into play with musical instruments...ha!  get the pun?  (We have an old VCR copy of the movie, but you'll get the idea from this YouTube clip.)

Well, we tried it.  Some of the strings students went and dragged their instruments into our classroom.  At first we couldn't stretch the string tight enough to just do as in the movie.  But eventually we were able to replicate Donald's experience.

Students at this time of the year are darn hard to engage nevermind impress.  This old, old movie did it.  Now the kids are totally pumped to learn about the 2nd most famous irrational number.  In our class opinion, pi takes 1st place and phi takes 2nd place.

It will be fun to see what kinds of drawings they are able to make of the nautilus shell.  The best part of all this is that learning is fun and it is setting them up for their next unit at the start of 7th grade.

I Hate ROBOLAB

That's a pretty strong statement but it sums up my 7 years not so pleasant experience with the software. 

Picture this...we're working on our bots and my kids have been working hard to figure out gear ratios.  OK, they're 6th graders and ratios are still a bit foreign to them.  We've spent the whole week talking about ratios and what they mean.  And they've got their bot built and are ready to start the trials...we were to change into different gear configurations and see what the effect was on speed.

I only needed Robolab to allow the kids to create the simplest of programs...just a short 4 second turn on of both motors.  Not so much to ask.  But Robolab IR interface is a continuing problem in our school environment. 

First of all, we don't have the proper network permissions for the kids to be able to plug in the USB Infrared Tower...so I have to log onto the computers.  So much for network security.

Then it won't "see" the IR tower because we have too much light.  We try putting the tower in a box, under a desk in a box and so forth.  Still our program won't download into the RCX brick.  I find out that we haven't installed the patch.  Whatever the darn patch is..........

It's enough to discourage teachers and students.  It's why I hate technology.  When it's so complicated that you just want to throw in the towel ....well, all the cool learning is gone.  The kids were so disappointed that we could run their tests...

Not to worry.  I called a friend who has a stand alone computer not invovled in the network.  She brought it over to my room and we just wrote one program that everyone used.  The IR towers worked great and the bricks got the instruction set. 

Monday we'll run our trials.  I wish I could permanently borrow my friend's computer.  That's so not practical.  I simply lack the resources or know-how to get this to work on what I have in my room.  And by the way, let me tell you that our NXT software, LabView, works like a charm.  If I only had enough NXT bots, I'd be just fine.

Using motion dectectors to explore speed and velocity

I used the Go! Motion Vernier probes this week to teach about speed.  Historically students have struggled with this idea and the graphing as freaked them out.  Not this year.  I borrowed a motion detector from a colleague and set it up in the front of my room.

The labs that Vernier suggested were powerful teaching tools and my kids "got" it.  Right off the bat and better than any other year I can imagine.

It was powerful to project the graphs onto my Smart Board.  These huge graphs made getting everyone at the same place at the same time pretty easy.  I loaded a blank graph onto the SB and used 2 students of very different heights to slowly walk a distance I had pre-measured.  This way they figured out how the detector worked and got into the spirit of the activity.

Next I projected a graph onto the board and they took one minute to plan how they would walk so that the line the motion detector plotted would match the one I displayed.  Discussion between shoulder partners was abuzz with tons of ideas.

When they started to walk, it only took a couple of student tries for them figure out what worked and what didn't work.  Once they had the idea, we worked on strategies for getting a closer and closer match.  Without even realizing it, the students learned that to have a flat line on the graph you needed to stop moving; to get the line to have a steeper slope they needed to speed up and so on.

One of my perennial science ba-humbug kids said to me..."hey I actually get this."

We added on just a bit....I asked them to use the Smart Board pen and draw a prediction line of what would happen to graph if they walked toward the detector instead of away.  Out of the 4 classes, 3 classes correctly predicted.  All classes "got it" before 10 seconds had passed.

Here is a perfect case where the lesson wasn't about the technology, but what the technology allowed us to discover about the concept.  It's why I love technology and can't imagine how I'd teach some concepts nearly as well without using it.  I wouldn't want to go back to the pre-SmartBoard days or not have access to probeware. 

I'm just starting to learn about probes...now I have 2 under my belt...this motion one and the temperature probe.  Maybe I can get a grant to buy a force one or the UVA or UVB dectector.  this is engaging science...it is science where we learn by doing not just by reading.  It makes the textbook stuff come alive and they really comprehend what they read.

Tapping into the best learning style

It's the end of the year and I'm knee deep in teaching Force & Motion.  I usually try and save this for the end of the year because it is highly engaging content even though kids think they'll die with all the math.  Lots of moaning and groaning when I tell them that physics uses the language of math to explain how things move!!!!

Unfortunatley we don't have enough time to really discuss cool, but only related material to F & M.  right now we're using Lego Robotics to study gears.  Specially how gears can make the TankBot go faster or slower depending on what gears you install.  I use these because the kids love robotics.

I thought one way I might continue this conversation is to use a wiki for expanding their ideas.  On the wiki I thought I'd put all the things you might expect to see in a F & M unit....Newton's laws, motion, speed, work, simple machines...but then I'd have a separate section of Robotics.  So I went in search of cool things on robots and Mars is the natural choice.

I called the page...Fact or Fiction??? and then hyperlinked to Mars rover animation.  With 4 hours, almost 300 comment flooded into the wiki.  Because I'm also trying to teach them how to actually have a conversation they did a pretty good job making reasonable comments.

Here's the thing..............they loved using this format for their learning.  They spent hours online last night and could hardly wait to see what new treasures I brought them to see tonight (can you tell me about the 7 minutes of terror???)  As we near bedtime on the second night of the conversation, they logged almost another 200 comments.  What teacher wouldn't be thrilled if even half of these comments were good one and that kids were busy talking to each other about space exploration????

As I reflect on my choice of using a wiki, maybe I made the wrong 2.0 choice.  I probably should have used a blog and then worked on creating threads.  I will consider this when I finish....and a good friend suggested that I accumulate some of the conversation and then have student summarize what was said.  I think that was a great suggestion.