fizzled out and over?
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
April 20th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Do you scan the slides, too? Can that be done without removing them from their frames? As one who has had to manufacture curriculum forever for my limited area, I find that the process of continually updating and categorizing digital files can be oppressively time-consuming. Sometimes I yearn for laminated worksheets.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
The slides can be scanned if you have a back-lit scanner, hp sells them. I don’t. I have found instructions on the internet to “convert your own scanner” to do the slides. If I don’t find anyone in town that will/can do it I may give that a whirl this summer.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Maybe this is a silly question but what is one way you have of intuiting the better and more promising way of teaching something? Do you look at student response, test scores, lab behavior, question/answer, what?
April 26th, 2008 at 8:31 am
interesting question. I don’t have a physical rubric or checklist. I don’t know that I have ever sat down and thought about this in an effort to explain to someone else.
A class discussion is one of the gauges that I use. there are times when I attempt to engage one and all I see is a sea of glazed faces. Then there are times when everyone wants to discuss the topic or ask questions about it. The latter seems much better in my opinion. They are showing some sort of comprehension (whole or partial) of the topic. I suppose the glazed could indicate that they know all there is to know about said topic and there is no need to discuss.
The kids need to be able to work through the lab. It needs to be set up so that even if they totally screw up (it will happen and they will be able to make it worse than I imagined possible) they can still work through the process.
I was at region 8 a year or so ago for some training on c-scope units, we were a group of 6th grade science teacher and would meet to attempt working through the unit. There were times when working through a lab the group would get so bogged down with the complexity of said lab that we would totally lose sight of what was happening even though we understood the concept that was being taught. As promising as the concept of that lab sounded, I’ll never attempt it with kids.
Interest of course helps. Behavior; well given the age group I work with I think I tend to write a lot of that off to just being kids.
I’ll have to think more about your question and work on a more definitive answer.
Perhaps I do need a color coded flip chart to determine what is best.
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 am
I think that the situation with the complexity of the lab is a good way to evaluate any technology we use - if it makes the lesson be more about figuring out how to use the equipment or the technology than it does about what it being taught then it falls into one of two categories. It either needs to be ditched or by the time we learn how to use it, it will no longer be supported by Microsoft.