First Week of Classes

The first week and a bit is over. How has it gone? Not badly! Here are a few updates class-wise. First, Science 8 is going well. The class is great and very easy to work with. Coursework wise, I have changed a few things, but for the most part I am keeping the timing the same (it seems to work). However, I have made sure that I repeat a lot of the concepts every day; making sure that they understand the main ideas of the course. I am at this point doing it verbally, but I will also do some more worksheet and test questions in class. Tomorrow will be Microscope work and then (my favorite) CELL CITY on Friday (a cell representation on a plate made with candy!). They can eat only the part of the cell that they can name and explain its purpose. Last year, most got all of it - this year they are having to memorize the cell parts beforehand and then blindly create the cell (no textbook) on Friday - I will mark what they know. Should be fun! The question I have is how well the students will be able to do on the city (will this assignment and the short review we have done in class be enough to know the parts of the cell and what they do?). I already know that they did this in Grade 7, so I am hoping this is review-ish for them.

One thing I will take out next year is the ICKTHOSS assignment in the Science 8 textbook. I like the idea (gets students to think outside the box a bit and solve problems) but I don't think it fits with the plan (or the objectives), which tells me that, with respect to the UBD concept, it is not a needed assignment. This is a good thing because I have a lot to cover and taking out this assignment would be good. Here is my only concern: I use that assignment to teach about working in a group as well, so I will have to find another assignment that I can use to teach about how to work in a group.

I will post some pictures and a more complete lessons plan for that assignment next posting, for those interested.

Finally, on a curriculum note, I found a worksheet in the student workbook (of which I do not use on class in its entirety) that was very interesting - very basic, but interesting with respect to what it suggested was important. Here is the assignment: it was a basic drawing of a microscope with some blanks beside the parts. The assignment was to label the parts of the microscope. However, simply knowing the names of the parts of a microscope is somewhat useless. Instead, I would rather they didn't know the names of the parts, but what the parts did. Thus, I took the blank picture and changed the assignment: write down what it does and, if you remember, what it's called. To help them, I gave them a microscope to use to see what the parts did. This I think was a better assignment and fit more with what the students needed to know about the microscope.

Getting Ready for 2013!

This year will, I believe, be very exciting! I have two to three points to focus on:

1. New course (Electronics Level 2 for Grades 10-12)
2. Second Shot at Science 8 (focus on UDB)
3. Extra-curricular educational development (personal writings, study, and journey)

New Course

One of the most interesting things I have on my plate is the new Electronics course. I began electronics Level 1 a few years back and I have found it very successful. However, we have recently moved it to the grade 8 and 9 level, and for the students the content became way too hard. Therefore, the first thing I am doing is working towards lowering the scope of knowledge the level 1 group will work towards learning. This is especially true for the math focus, where the math involved in the Electronics course was over their heads (they did not learn any of the algebraic manipulation needed until grade 9 math, so they found it very difficult to see it used in this course). As well, more focus will be placed on repetition of concepts and smaller lab work where measuring and mastering of basic electronic knowledge will be the focus. I have also lowered the projects to two of them (though I will try to get a third one in before the end of the year - perhaps another smaller project...).

Level 2 will focus on the math, complex circuitry, robotics, and alternative power (solar, wind, etc.). I am super excited about it, especially since I have some new toys to play with (Parallax SMART boards, numerous chips, etc.). Should be good!

Science 8

For this second time around, I think I will focus on refining the projects and making sure that I repeat much of the information, working towards having the students master the concepts. However, I want to still be careful that they don't focus on memorizing terms, but actually showing that they understand the main larger concepts. To this end, I will work towards finding ways to assess their knowledge of the main ideas of the units in numerous other ways beyond the large projects only. Perhaps smaller experiments that will ask students to answer the "why" without me discussing with them first what that might be and then doing the experiments to "show" it in action? I will keep posting on how this goes and what I implement.

Personal

I have recently finished working on publishing the findings from my thesis in an online journal. I am hoping to get the OK on it soon and will post the link to that here. As well, I am planning to keep up on my reading and learning in some way, working on continuing to do some reading on topics, and perhaps even continue to do some research in some way (if at all possible), under the supervision of someone if I need to.