Never would have guessed this....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     You know....this time of year I will take good news anywhere or anytime.  The end of the year is particularly  difficult.  Closing things up, transitions, grades, exams, grades, people complaining about grades....you get the idea.

     Two things happened.  First, just by accident, I compared two classes exam grades from this year to almost the two same classes and exam from last year.  I happened to have found the spreadsheet where I put the old scores in so I could take a look at standard deviation and averages.  What I saw was a bit shocking.  The scores from this year were significantly higher than last year.  If you had asked me, I never would have guessed that.  This year I felt like we had a million more snow days,lost days to testing, interruptions, etc......Also, the kids were fantastic but I felt that last year I had a harder time connecting with them.  Far more blank stares and looking into their cell phones.  So what do I think was the difference? The second thing that happened which has to do with the above picture.  One of my students made a ceramic model of a salt crystal (you guessed it....the particulate nature of matter).  This year I made a more concerted effort to discuss not just the macro scale and symbolic but the particulate as well.  I never did a huge big project or assessment.  I just mentioned within the context of every unit and tried to show examples.  Maybe someone was listening...

Rounding Third, Heading for Home....hopefully

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

 I know that I have not written lately. The end of the school year has been a grind. The above picture is the titration of mustard. The cool part of this lab is that the indicator and acid are in the mustard. A simple dropwise titration with a standardized base and you can figure out the percent by mass of acetic acid, vinegar, in mustard.

As cool as I think it might be, the it is a struggle when the students have checked out. Regardless, it does not mean that I won’t stop trying. So….what are some major ideas that I have learned that I hope to work on in an attempt to help students next year….

1. Technology - I am going to try to “flip” the classroom as much as possible. I will hope for the best but plan for the worst. With all of the testing and interruptions I think it would be easier to have the flipped classroom and then work with kids when they do show up instead of not having a backup plan and allowing the interruptions to derail the lesson.

2. Formative Assessment - It is still my hope and dream to develop an all in one SLO, formative assessment using technology that is efficient, effective and helpful. I think I can do this through google forms and a linked site with researched based activities.

Looks like it will be an interesting summer….I will keep you posted….