18 April 2010

Two cents on the dollar.

I love PhD. comics in case you can't tell.

This one was sobering.

Check out NIH, NASA, NSF, and Education....combined, it is still less than the interest we pay on our debt. Very interesting. Is it sad to admit that I honestly had no idea that this is how the federal government has allocated our money? I had some idea, but the proportions not so much.

17 April 2010

Labs, labs, labs...

So I'm sitting here at Sweetwaters grading some labs. Students had to go to a few different stations and do mini-experiments.

This is the first lab that I gave them lab roles: equipment managers kept track of the time, and data managers made sure data was consistent between partners. Students had one night to complete the lab.

My questions for you all out there:

1. How can I get the idea that "data manager" is not the same role as "person to be copied off of by all"?

2. Do you think the amount of time they had to collaborate (one night) was an issue? It's kind of classroom policy (set up at the beginning of the year) to only have one day to do things (fyi).

09 April 2010

April!!

April's here...not too many showers, but those flowers are already coming up!

Well, in the last month, went to two conferences: MACUL and National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). I LOVE learning from other teachers!

Some good memories:
MACUL:
- winning a Wii remote holder to make my own smartboard
- eating a large number of donuts in the car (correction: watching others eat lots of donuts)
- learning how one school was transformed by project based learning.
- spending some time with MACers!

NSTA:
- learning TONS about misconceptions in learning, and sparking an initiative in learning more about HOW to best address them after you figure out what the heck they are
- petting a penguin
- learning how one teacher scaffolds in scientific behaviors in her class to prepare them for rather amazing project based learning experiences
- staying with a friend from RI at a hotel in Chinatown in downtown Philly

What were some of your favorite conference memories? Have you gotten to try anything in the classroom?

15 March 2010

Interesting article.

Hi all!

Whew! It's March. Time is just a-flying away!

So I got a link to this article. It's a response to action taken in a Central Falls, RI school, where all of the staff was fired since the school was not making AYP.

This quote stuck out to me:

It would be good if our nation's education leaders recognized that teachers are not solely responsible for student test scores. Other influences matter, including the students' effort, the family's encouragement, the effects of popular culture, and the influence of poverty. A blogger called "Mrs. Mimi" wrote the other day that we fire teachers because "we can't fire poverty." Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers.


And...this sums up a decent number of my struggles and frustrations over the last few months (the fact that we can't "fire" the multitude of things outside of my control)- I only have so much "control" in the classroom (I feel silly thinking I have any control sometimes- fire drills, anyone?). I hope you get a chance to read this article in its entirety- interesting to see a perspective from someone who has been intimately tied with NCLB but has recently decided to have a change of heart on what it means to b an "effective" (or ineffective) model of reform.

I hope all of you fellow MACers are hanging in there!

26 January 2010

Semester 1= almost over!

I can't believe that this first (high school) semester is almost over. I feel like it was just the first (well, maybe third) day of school!

It's really quite amazing at the growth that I see in myself in the classroom. Biggest thing right now: classroom management. I kind of can't believe it, but I find myself taking away cell phones, giving detention (ok only once), and posing in such a way that students actually ask their peers to pay attention. Some of these things I'm more proud of than others, but it really makes me think HARD about how I plan to set up my own classroom policies and procedures...and how important it is to be CONSISTENT!!!!!

And for your daily dose of awesome comics, check this out.

11 December 2009

20 November 2009

YAY BPC!

Check this out!

I have worked for him over the last 2.5 years (and the dude quoted in the article was my teacher 4 years ago), and most of what I had learned about teaching, education, and the construction of knowledge in our society (prior to being in the SOE) was from him. He's pretty neat: check out his personal website.

BPC (maybe controversial in his words, my own paraphrase): "Teachers should not be clients of the student. Teachers are in the relationship building business."