comp day II

heads up!

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:04:32 PDT

heads up was the topic for today's collaborative meeting.
Karin Grisham from New Boston ISD was the presenter, and will be for the next couple (I think) of meetings. It is my understanding that we will delve deeper into the heads up curricula during these meetings.

The curricula is on six dvds and 7 cds. The project was funded by a grant that ended this summer. I have no idea exactly what this means as far as updates to the program.

There are six modules targeted at middle school health and science. Below are the module titles;
Genes, Health and You
Diabetes/Cardiovascular Disease
Nutrition/Physical Activity
The Nervous System
Advanced Genetics
The Immune System and Infectious Diseases

At first glance the topics aren't linked to any of the 6h or 8th grade TEKS. Perhaps, future training and exploration will prove me wrong. Most of the topics could be linked to 7th grade without much stretching at all.

The multi-media (Kirk; videos!) portion is o.k. It has good information, interviews with science professionals, and some good demonstration video (ex. dissection of an eye). Some of the videos are up to 30 minutes in length. Preview them first. Some will put you to sleep almost as fast as they would put the kids to sleep (not that this is always a bad thing.) Some of them are really pretty good. I watched an interview with a strength training coach for the Houston Texans (all of this was produced in Houston) that was impressive. He mentions that he had wanted to play pro ball, but that didn't work for him and he was fortunate to land a job in the area he was in without the "proper" coursework / connections.

The lessons / activities / labs / whatever you want to call them that we worked through seemed pretty good. I saw a handful that I will do pretty much "straight off the disk." I really enjoyed the "your beating heart" "lab". Ms. Hollenshead offered the addition of a bit of carbon monoxide to kill the heart as the lab progressed. (o.k., she didn't mention killing only oxygen deprivation I took the extra step to the kill level). Mr. Glossup and I discussed an engage of a bit of music; your cheatin' heart. In the music vein; Curtis Grimes is Ms. Hollenshead's nephew, and she says to check him out.

Heather Morgan from Miller Grove ISD talked about science journals. She had some nice ideas with a powerpoint. I was listening instead of writing, but Heather said she would get Lacy (Clarice) the file and Lacy said she would post it on pbworks. Of course Lacy and Karen said that they would post files from last month's training there too. And... nothing yet, except the excel file with everyone's picture. Anyhoo... I liked the idea and format. I'll have to press Lacy or Heather one as I would like to use this format if Coach ordered the comp books.

quote of the day!
silence is golden,
duct tape is silver.

Texas HOT jobs http://www.texashotjobs.org/
looks to be pretty slick, especially for those of you that like to share "science jobs in life" gives a snapshot of a science job with salary, projected outlook, path to that career, and much more.

online stopwatches / timers http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

elps

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:38:25 PDT

July 30, 2010
Today's binder; ELPS Academy for teachers of science
Leonard Beles was the presenter for the morning session with Karen Phillips for the afternoon.
We received a few books today, ELPS Flip Book, Navigating the ELPS in the Science Classroom, and Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts.

The Navigating the ELPS appears to be a good resource book. It includes state law about servicing ELL. It also has strategies / activities to use with ELL. The flip book will be more useful with the ELL. Using TELPAS ratings you can see a snapshot of what the kid can do and what the teacher can do to help the child learn.

One of the big points that Beles made was dealing with the comfort level of the student. As the comfort level increases the output will also. If the student is uncomfortable or afraid of ridicule then output will be virtually nil.

I would like to get Beles to agree to a podcast to go over at least some of the information. I can't do justice to any part of his presentation. I may also try and get a bilingual teacher on at the same time. The two of them would be able to provide a lot to those of us that weren't ever ELL.

another interesting idea;
take pictures of your word wall and put the words in a digital frame (just pulled at random $15). The ELL could take this to his desk and use as a review for vocabulary test. You could also take pictures of labs for those that miss lab work to review.

biology eoc July 27, 28, 29

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:09:00 PDT

TEA binder #2 along with TEA powerpoint.
End of Course testing comes into play 2011-2012. TEA says the tests will be much more rigorous than previous tests. "fewer, clearer, deeper" is repeated as far as information about the questions.
Students will need to pass three science tests (or score a minimum number of points on the three whereby they could do well on one fail one and still be able to graduate).

The question as to whether or not one should take IPC should not be taken lightly. IPC is not going to be tested. There will be tests for biology, chemistry, and physics. If a student takes IPC freshman year and one science class per year after freshman they will be banking on passing a test the spring of their senior year to be eligible to graduate if they aren't on the minimum graduation plan. If on the minimum graduation plan a student would take IPC (no test) and Biology (EOC) and would only have to pass the one EOC test.

Methods to help kids were discussed including word walls, defining using the Frayer model, more group work, and hands on activities in the classroom. 40% of classtime should be lab or field investigations.

Another idea was shared; having kids create videos demonstrating labs. This would help enrich curriculum for some kids and if shown prior to a lab would reinforce the instructions for the lab and give the students a clearer picture as to how to proceed with the lab. This would require some planning ahead, but would certainly be workable.

a few added nuggets;
a couple of books:
Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning
Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom: Strategies and Techniques Every Teacher Can Use to Meet the Academic Needs of the Gifted and Talented

Glen Wokenfeld performing Food Chains a musical lecture is linked in posting below

using formative assessments fairly often to gauge student learning (can help indicate need for RtI or ELPS work)

oil from algae from Solazyme

food chains

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:15:00 PDT

I'll post more about this week later, but I had to post this video today before I lost the link! My favorite music video as of today.

Randy Thompson

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:14:07 PDT

Randy Thompson was in our district for four days this past week. I was only able to attend on Thursday (July 22). Having heard him the one day, I really wish that I had been able to hear him the other three days.

Tuesday - Thursday he was in Paris doing team training. Crockett (5-6) and PJH (7-8) are both going to have teaming this year. Crockett is teaming with all of their core teachers. I think the word they are using is pods. Each pod of three teachers will share a group of kids and have them for reading, math, and the science teacher will also teach social studies. This configuration is interesting to me as the reading and math teachers will get 1.5 hours a day for their discipline and the science teacher (at least in 5th grade) is responsible for a test and only gets, at best, half the time. At PJH there will be one "pilot" team for 7th and one for 8th. I am going to be a part of the 7th team. There are five of us that will share 80 kids. Interesting point on our team is that it will have no g/t kids.

Paris has done the teaming thing before and I will say that I hope it is a better experience than I have previously been a part of. Thompson's spin on the teaming thing is interesting. I hope that it will be implemented as he suggests. I haven't yet read the book that he left with us Get Fit!. I am looking forward to reading it.
A few intriguing things I have read / heard thus far;
We have scripted (not really)agendas for our team meetings.
COW (curriculum on the wall) as a method of cross curricular lesson planning.
thumbs down - heads up an administrator sits in on a team meeting and then talks to kids with a thumbs down.
business involvement (not this year, maybe next?)

I'm really looking forward to this year and the teaming process. Again I hope that administration supports this and our team is up to the challenge.

science academies final day

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:01:49 PDT

A favorite thing of mine to do is listen for the new educational buzzwords and sayings. My table started helping me collect these on the third day and I wound up making tally marks by the most popular.
PLC (professional learning community) hands down the winner today mentioned at least 7 times
others that we noticed;
global vertical alignment
its not about fault, its about change (up and comer it may challenge PLC later in the year)
you don't know what you don't know
if you don't know where you're going then any road'll get you there (one of my favorites)
two halves don't always make a whole

back to work,
CCRS college and career readiness standards
TEKS are build upon CCRS strands that move from K-12 for what it is worth.

CSCOPE news; the vads have been updated and are cleverly located in the "other" tab instead of the specific discipline. There are NO exemplar lessons this year. They are going to work on assessment this year and then the lessons next year as the lessons are based on the assessment.

collaborative days 1-3

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:52:43 PDT

science academies grades 5-8 July 19-21
materials; TEA
This is a part of the science collaborative training for school year 2010-2011. This training will consist of 120 hours over the school year for the STMs (science teacher mentors) and then 12 hours of training for cadre members (back at the district minimum of 3 different teachers) logging of these hours will be required. The fall dates will focus on Biology and spring dates will focus on Earth science. There are at least 40 collaborative groups through the state, our group has 50 members and is one of the largest groups in the state.

The first three days are in a script from TEA (complete with videos not ENTIRELY copied from the internet) ex; the world is changing here are a couple of pretty close ones from youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YovkrHlpGyk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&feature=related

I’ll post some documents from the training soon. Below is a brief overview!

The stated purposes of the science academies;
Improve overall science instruction and achievement.
Facilitate modes of learning that meet or exceed grade-level standards.
Provide connections to and strengthen the knowledge of the CCRS, ELPS, and RtI.

The new structure of the 5-8 TEKS;
five strands
scientific investigation and reasoning
earth and space
force, motion, and energy
matter and energy
organisms and environment

We looked a bit at some of the changes in TEKS. There is a bit of a move towards the “old style” 7th grade life science and 8th grade earth science, but not completely. Those of you that have been around long enough will see it. Still present is the spiraling curriculum. Consider the new a blend of the two if you will. TAKS will be replaced with STAAR in ‘11-’12 and with EOC (end of course) testing in high school.

If you aren’t already documenting use of 5e, you might want to get ready to start. You are probably already 5eing, but aren’t documenting anyway. 5 es; engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate

You’ll also be hearing ELPS (english language proficiency standards) a lot. This involves evaluating a student’s english language abilities and how to help them be successful. RtI is another term you’ll be hearing. RtI involves helping each kid be successful no matter their ability from special ed. to gifted.

There was a bit of a spontaneous discussion about the joys of CSCOPE today. It was interesting to hear that there are many teachers from other districts received training similar to ours in CSCOPE and that there is lots of unhappiness about this with a fair amount of disconnect between labor and management. Cynthia Bayuk just happened to be in the room at this time. She assured us that all misconceptions about CSCOPE were being addressed with new training. One can only hope this new training is superior to previous training. Scott did a pretty decent job of keeping things from really going downhill fast, I think a perfect storm was brewing. On a personal CSCOPE note, I appreciate the vad and find the ifd to be quite useful. We were reassured that CSCOPE has already updated to the new TEKS for science. A quick perusal shows that to not be the case.

Scott Hanes will be presenting for the next two weeks then will be leaving the ESC to work at Liberty Eylau schools. Karen Phillips and Lacy ??? will carry on from there. I’ll be keeping tally of mention of all of the trendy educational buzz words.
I’ve already gleaned a few nuggets;
professional learning communities
armed for the year
we are a living working body
dual coded questions
content rigor
cognitive rigor
jigsawing
5 E model

bonus;
we discussed places that needed to be checked out when possible;
http://www.esthersfollies.com/ in Austin
http://www.pocketsandwich.com/ in Dallas
and a bonus site; google squared http://www.google.com/squared

summer and school

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:05:49 PDT

o.k. It has been well over a year since my last post. I think I'll try and get back into the posting mode at least once a month. Of course the incentive that I had when I created this blog is gone (the old STAR grant technology grab), but I think I'll spin this as my way of fulfilling the requirements of being a STM (science teacher mentor) this year.

During school year 08-09 a couple of our campuses were labeled as academically unacceptable by TEA. Science scores in 8th grade were a part of that. Our regional service center complained to some administrator that our middle school / junior high science teachers weren't coming to the service center enough for staff development and we certainly should be given that we were unacceptable. Fast forward a few months and what do you know? I get to be developed this school year. Not only do I get to be developed, but I get to come back to the district and develop others. This will get us on that rocket sled back to the top!

Seriously, I am planning on sharing whatever I need to via this blog, a podcast, and my website. I will argue until I am blue in the face that this is superior to forcing meetings during or after the school day. I am also doing all of this off of the school's server and will endeavor to maintain as much control of this training as possible.

With all of that being said, (no, I didn't do well in grammar classes so pick this apart if you must!) I have a schedule for training this summer and beyond from: Scott Hanes
Secondary Science Consultant
Region 8 Education Service Center
July 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 are the initial dates. The trainings on these dates will be the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) trainings for science teachers. The trainings will include TEKS Overview k-12, Science ELPS, 5-8 Science Academy, and Biology EOC Success.

Other dates include; August 11 (still during summer break), September 16, October 14, November 11, December 9, January 20, February 10, March 17 (my spring break!) (each of these meetings will be from 9 AM to 4 PM). There will also be other trainings scheduled for our STMs to make up for any meetings they might have to miss during the school year.

If anyone happens to still be reading this shoot me an email if you would like to participate in a podcast, we can do it with something as simple as a phone-call. I believe in the height of the starcast podcasts there were at least three or four listeners! I also welcome topic suggestions.

What I Did This School Year

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:46:44 PDT

What I Did This School Year
The discussion will be audio recorded, converted into mp3 format, and posted on the internet for listening as a podcast later. Come and share how you used technology this year in the classroom. Let us know if it went well, or share your horror story. We’ll discuss how it could have been better, or worse. Feel free to bring products of the lesson to share. If you have a digital copy of the lesson bring that along also and we can post the file on our Starcast page.

Here is the mp3 file from the April 22 Star grant meeting. 23.6 MB (25 minutes 50 seconds)

Cell phones in Learning
Cell phones have the capability to become the "Swiss army knife" for student research and organization. First, we explore using cell phones as data collection tools: audio recorders, digital cameras, and digital camcorders. Additionally, we consider how classroom projects can be developed for cell phones: creating ring tones, text messaging, mobile WebPages, and mobile surveys. Finally, we contemplate the future features of cell phones and how those features play a role in learning.

Starcast 0127

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:56:36 PST

Here is the mp3 file from January 27 Star grant meeting. Star0127 23.2MB (25 minutes 23 seconds)

Let me first say that the audio quality is fair at best. The sound level is low, so after you download crank up your volume. I take the blame for this, I had equipment failure and my backup machine wasn’t quite up to par.

I’m not sure that we cleared up much with anyone there about CSCOPE. There seemed to be a lack of knowledge about CSCOPE and how to implement, how much to use, and I don’t know what.

As much as I hate to say it, we might need some sort of staff development. I will surely regret saying this, but I wouldn’t mind being a part of the staff development that got everyone on the same page with CSCOPE.

Oh, let me say thanks to Craig. I didn’t realize how much he was carrying me through this before today. He makes facilitating these discussions look easy.

CSCOPE with Dale (formerly of the reg. 8 Dales)

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:49:05 PST

Here is the mp3 file from this discussion. 6.83 MB (29 minutes 50 seconds)
Craig, Charles, and Dale McCurdy (CSCOPE Content Area Coordinator, Science for Region 16) discuss CSCOPE. There seems to be a fair amount of confusion about what this is, why this is, and how to use it. We hope to clear the muddied waters a bit.

Dale also gave us a pdf of how to use a feedback tool in CSCOPE, so if you are using and want to give feedback check this out.

more socks

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:28:47 PST

CSCOPE

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:43:50 PST

Next week Craig and I will discuss CSCOPE with Dale McCurdy. Dale has had a hand in the development of CSCOPE and was with Region 8 for the past few years. He is current title is CSCOPE Content Area Coordinator, Science for Region 16. We hope to produce a podcast with an overview of CSCOPE.
If you have any questions or comments that you would like me to pass on to Dale either comment below or email me if you do not wish to have your name associated with the question/comment in any way.
After this discussion with Dale I hope to have another STAR grant meeting on the specific topic of CSCOPE. Your listening to the overview with Dale would make a good prerequisite to attending.

sock puppet debut

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:45:51 PST

Here is the anticipated first episode of sock puppet theatre!

Starcast 1028

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:36:15 PST

Here is the audio from this discussion. 9.23 MB Education and Technology. Where are we now?

Starcast 1209

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:54:42 PST

Here is the audio from last night's discussion. 14.1 MB and time is 30:53.

handout

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:18:46 PST

here is the "virtual handout" for the starcast series of podcaststs:
My goal is to use technology as a tool and not the driving force behind what is being done. In that mindset I am an advocate of the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) system. [Note to self: talk to Karol about making it more simple in regards to webedit]
microphone
I'm using only the macbook with the built in microphone. It is easy enough to check and see if your computer has a microphone, if not you can buy one for $20 or less. As far as I know my budget for this is $0, so I am spending that amount on a microphone. In my opinion, the fewer pieces there are, the fewer I can destroy.
software
I'll be using Garageband. This is a mac piece of software that came with my machine. It seems to be pretty user friendly and capable of doing more than I could dream of. If you don't have a mac I recommend Audacity, this is free and available for Mac, PC, and Linux. Audacity isn't as "pretty" as Garageband, but certainly does the job. I used it for a couple of years before getting the mac and have had no problems with it. The only extra step to go through with Audacity is having to download a lame encoder (they explain it and give much better directions than I could) if you want to convert the .wav file to .mp3. You only have to do the step once, so it really is relatively painless.
after recording:
If you are just putting this on a cheap cd player for the kids to listen to, I would leave it in the .wav format. I have had fewer problems with the cheapo cd players and .wav than .mp3. I was able to find at Wal-Mart cd players for ~$10 pretty regularly, I haven't seen any in a while, they have increased in price by 50% and are available online here for $15.
If you are looking at doing this you might consider a cheap mp3 player. Those are available at Amazon here for $24.
I would suggest the mp3 player would be better because one doesn't have to burn cds, simply load the file onto the player. And, the cd players break, they are cheap.

Gary, do we have some budget money?

burning:
I'll talk iTunes here, all of the machines (semi-modern ones) in the district should be able to handle iTunes and I can give burning instructions for one piece of software instead of 35. I have taken some screenshots of this process and added that to the handout here.

Open iTunes and click File: New Playlist. Give this some sort of name you can remember, I chose star for the demo here.
drag the audio file into the playlist you just created.
put your blank cd in the drive and click burn disc.

uploading to the internets
This is the part that I think could be the most exciting.

Everyone in the world could listen in to our discussions. We could invite people from around the world to participate in our discussions. (I am wanting to invite Dale McCurdy in for a future discussion panel about cscope. Dale is currently living in another part of the state, but had a hand in the creation of cscope and I think he would make an excellent panelist. For those of you that might be interested in a discussion of cscope let me know and I'll be sure to invite you.)
Parents learning english and wanting to help their kids with vocabulary/spelling pronunciations could download the current word list and hear the correct pronunciations. The flip side, kids learning spanish could hear the "expert" pronouncing the words or listen to a recorded conversation in spanish. Teachers could record books for the kids to listen to as they read along at home. (***disclaimer*** I am not advocating any copyright infringement, send all lawsuits somewhere else)
Students unable to attend class, but eager to listen to their teacher's stimulating lectures could download and listen so not to fall behind in classwork.
Parents could listen to their kid's presentations for class.

can I really do any of this????
Well, the answer is yes, but not easily.
I am posting these podcasts to a site that I purchased (no PISD monies involved). I have to move the files that we create today to a PC because I don't have any software to work on my site with the mac. (Karol, Dreamweaver would allow me to work on my site with my mac and is only $199. If you have some money laying around and want to blow it on Dreamweaver for me let me know and I'll be happy to spend your money.) Of course this option still involved me buying a domain and paying the hosting fees. PISD does have server space that some people have access to at www2.parisisd.net, but you still have to have software like Frontpage (that has been discontinued by Microsoft but the district has copies of) and some time to kill to do this.

There is a better / easier / much more teacher friendly way to do this. Built into webedit there is the ability to upload images. If someone would change the code and allow .mp3 files to be uploaded instead of only image files we could put these in our PISD webpages with no commercial web editing software. HINT, HINT KAROL!

***disclaimer*** the following paragraph is fictional for any administrator type person reading. If you are an administrator please stop reading now.

I was able to get an ~~.mp3~~ .jpg file uploaded via the webedit route and then download the ~~.jpg~~ .mp3 file and listen to it. The process was certainly not simple and would not be obvious for a parent / student / teacher to go through.

for anyone lookin

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 06:04:55 PST

I copied my parisisd.net blog to this site. Given the state of servers, I thought I would move everything here and run a backup so to speak. At some point I'll just use this domain instead of the school's.

Starcast

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:24:47 PST

Starcast
October 29th, 2008 by ckennedy

Our first Star grant meeting/class was held yesterday. The plan was to have a round (rectangular) table discussion about education and technology (see full description below). We had three participants and produced a 20 minute audio file. For those of you interested look here.

There are several ways that this can be improved upon. First, a larger panel. I think somewhere around five might be an ideal number. More than that and someone might get lost, we had three and needed a bit more at times. Second, better panelist locations around the microphone. I suppose that ideally everyone would have their own microphone, but I want to keep this as simple as possible and right now would argue against anything other than what is built into my laptop. My thought there is that if I want to demonstrate how others can use this equipment I do not want to make the setup so elaborate that one is intimidated by the setup. Just the macbook, that is enough. Third, perhaps a more stimulating topic or maybe more directed. I have mixed feelings on the direction part. I would like the meeting to be somewhat free-flowing.

We hope to have a meeting in November. I’ll post the date here for interested parties.

And the sock puppets… I have a couple of characters made, and am working on myself. Hopefully before the end of November there will be an episode to look at.

Education & Technology: Where Are We Now?
Participants will discuss the relationship between education and technology as they see it now in our district. (More detailed topics/questions will be sent via email once the participants register.) The discussion will be audio recorded, converted into mp3 format, and posted on the internet for listening as a podcast later. Participants will not only engage in the conversation but will be shown how to record and post the file on the internet so others may listen in on the discussion. This could be used later in the teacher’s class for any number of student recordings and postings.

starcast: Teaching in the 21st century

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:22:37 PST

starcast: Teaching in the 21st century

November 17th, 2008 by ckennedy

Our next panel discussion / meeting / tech class is scheduled. The date is Dec. 9 from 4-5, sign up via mylearningplan if interested. The official description is pasted below. We’ll send you a question or three to be thinking about when you sign up. I think the hope is for a general discussion about teaching. The tech portion of course will be in the production of the mp3 file, posting on the internet, and burning cds. Hopefully, we will be using technology as a tool in our discussion of our profession.

Part of the theory (I’ll take the blame for the theory if you are ready to blast it, if you choose to praise the theory I’ll share a couple of other names here. I don’t want them lambasted for my ramblings on this blog. I freely admit that I did not come up with this concept, but will happily take the blame.) there is if you can find ways to integrate technology into what you are already doing one will be more likely to see the usefulness of said technology. Then, once becoming comfortable with said technology you will actively search for ways to use it perhaps in the classroom.

Teaching in the 21st Century
The discussion will be audio recorded, converted into mp3 format, and posted on the internet for listening as a podcast later. Burning audio to cd for playback on any cd player will be discussed and demonstrated using iTunes software. Participants will not only engage in the conversation but will be shown how to record and post the file on the internet so others may listen in on the discussion. This could be used later in the teacher’s class for any number of student recordings and postings.

year two (the final one) of star grant begins

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:21:17 PST

year two (the final one) of star grant begins

September 27th, 2008 by ckennedy

Actually, I am already almost six weeks into the year. Even though each day seems to creep by agonizingly slowly (some periods I can feel each second as it drags on), overall things seem to be flying by.

Here are my initial impressions of my star goodies… I really do like the macbook. I think I have maybe drunk the Apple kool-aid and am about ready to swear allegiance to the company. The largest issue so far is having to boot into widows to show the kids what we are doing in Excel. Boot camp and Windows XP are installed on the Mac and I am grateful for that, but it is a pain to have to switch over to the Windows side. I find myself longing to be back on the Mac side almost immediately after booting into Windows. I guess the upside is that the need to have Excel onscreen is a semi-rare occasion. Anyhoo… I have no other complaints about that piece of equipment. It frustrating to a certain degree of having to relearn how to do some things, but I am always amazed at how simple the tasks seem to be in Leopard.

The projector: I think that a projector is almost a necessity in my classroom each day. O.K., yes we could have class without it but I really really like having one. It would be nice for every classroom to have one.

chalkboard: So far I am under whelmed. This piece of technology seems really neat on the surface. In reality, I haven’t found a whole lot of use for it yet. I’m still looking and thinking about ways to use it more often.

Elmo: Maybe the sleeper surprise of the goodie bag. When I was told we would be getting one I understood the concept, but wasn’t foaming at the mouth for this piece of equipment. I got to use mine two days before it died (actually two one half days.) My Elmo is currently in New York according to UPS, the Elmo company can’t confirm this. I sincerely hope I get this piece of equipment back. The district (Karol? Sam Rayburn?) might want to think about some sort of plan for repair for these.

Almost daily now I find myself thinking “I could use the Elmo for this”, but of course it isn’t in my room at the time and even though Craig, and grudgingly my wife, have both offered me use of their Elmo the moments of use pass and I trudge on.

I’m guessing this is all of the equipment we’ll receive and it certainly is a decent list. Now we’re in the payback phase. I still like the idea of sock-puppet theatre and am planning on getting started with that soon.

fizzled out and over?

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:20:24 PST

fizzled out and over?
April 19th, 2008 by ckennedy

I dropped the ball so to speak during the year on keeping up with a post each six weeks. I’m hoping my teacher will overlook this and give me course credit anyway.

I’ll blame him for my stopping of posting anyway. Craig assessed the study findings earlier and I think he hit the nail on the head. I believe there is no”one glove fits all” curriculum.

I believe that one of the coaches I worked for had it best figured out. Create a folder of the topics in your content area. When new curriculum comes your way, evaluate it and decide if it is worth the effort required to yield equal or (preferably) better results. I would argue that if it isn’t better there isn’t a need for change for the sake of change, don’t worry with that new lesson and move on. If the lesson seems promising take that and put it into your folder for the given topic.

I understand that I need multiple ways to teach a concept. Year to year and even class period to class period might dictate a different methodology. One of the labs I do each year, and would argue that it is the best one I have found for that particular concept, was in a textbook published in 1991. I have seen other labs, but continue to use this one.

I have started scanning in overhead transparencies, I have some really great ones, so that I can use them digitally in the future. I’m not even sure my overhead projector still works. I have a set of slides that I use each year, I really need to convert them to some digital image because there is exactly one slide projector on my campus. I am attempting to begin migration from a hard copy folder to an electronic copy as the electronic seems easier to organize and maybe easier to pick and choose from.

Maybe I’ll be able to create the perfect science curriculum and make a fortune. On second thought, I think I’ll just work up some sort of semi-entertaining and semi-improve your TAKS scores staff development show, take it on the road because… the road goes on forever

mac converts unite!

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:19:46 PST

mac converts unite!

March 8th, 2008 by ckennedy

Through my agreement to participate in the STAR grant I received a macbook this week. There are seemingly an endless number of differences between the mac and pc world. Most of them do not seem to be great barriers, but more along the lines of annoyances to me. I have spent the last I don’t know how many years in the pc world and have grown somewhat adept in navigating through windows eccentricities. Now I have entered the mac side and catch myself wondering how to do so many of the things that I mindlessly did before.

I also find myself pleasantly surprised with some of the “cool” things that I am able to do and play with now that I have not before.

I would like to use this space to share my experiences and certainly welcome / beg for others to post their findings, joys, and frustrations here too.

curriculum comparison continues...

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:18:58 PST

curriculum comparison continues….

November 28th, 2007 by ckennedy

Here’s my results from the second six weeks curriculum comparison:

TEK objectives 9 BC
obtaining, transforming, and distributing energy

IS: ???mentions energy transformations in a telecast and discuss using solar panels to power cars in another

C-Scope: Explore your World Share-A-Thon and Tonight in the News

PH: Cooking with Sunshine lab

C-Scope had the students research a renewable energy source and create a poster discussing that topic. The second portion was to have the kids share their findings in a news show format. I have never been a big fan of posters, it is painful (for me) to try and get everyone to bring one in and then I have to decide what kind of grade to give based on the kid’s portion of the work. I think the tonight in the news sounds like it could be interesting with the proper class. I don’t see it faring well with my classes.

The Prentice Hall book had a lab in which students built a solar oven and then used the oven to toast marshmallows. This doesn’t sound bad, but is limited only to solar energy. The text of the book did have a pretty good section discussing each of the renewable energy sources.

I used neither of the activities mentioned above. I did show the few minutes of an inventor with his solar powered call video. I did discuss the forms of energy the way they were described in the textbook. I had the kids complete a webquest that I have modified to suit me over the years. The kids were given a renewable resource topic and then did internet research according to the guidelines that I had given them.

TEK objectives 8B,C
Energy

IS: Owl Pellets, ??

C-Scope: Owl Pellets compost column

PH: pictures of and discussion of food web and compost bin

IS: had a four minute video clip of the barn owl with instructions on how to dissect the pellet. There was nothing that I could find about compost bins/piles

C-Scope: called for owl pellet dissection and creation of a compost column from two liter bottles.

PH: had pictures of and a discussion of food webs and compost bins

The owl pellets are an excellent lab and help to show how energy moves through different organisms. This is one of my (and I think the kid’s) favorite labs. We also constructed a food web to show flow of energy.

We discussed compost bins/piles. Last year I watched a demonstration of the compost column and it didn’t work properly. I used temperature probes and laptops to demonstrate it with my classes and it didn’t work well. The construction involves cutting of the bottles with a razor blade, I don’t think this is a good idea for 6^th graders to use. Implementation on a “per group” basis would require a great number of thermometers and storage space over a period of days. I’m not totally discarding the idea, just trying to figure out how to make it work.

side study finale

noreply@blogger.com (ckennedy) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:18:06 PST

Side study finale

November 27th, 2007 by ckennedy

Side study finale;

We attended a day of staff development during the second six weeks featuring Dr. John Crane. He commented on the writing of the objectives. His opinion was that the procedure was worthless and did nothing for the students. The only thing it did was help out administration in trying to determine what was being taught.

I continued my study to see what my results would be.

During this time all classes except for one had the objectives posted.

The range between highest class average and lowest was 6.6 points. The class with the highest average this time did not have the “advantage” of the objective written, it was the same class as last six weeks. They finished at +3 above the average. The class that had the lowest class average last time (without objectives) had the next to lowest average this time (and did have objectives). They were at -3 from the entire group average.

I’ll call the study over. I bow to Dr. Crain’s expert opinion.