August 18 Build You PLN with this PLN

Wowser ! Another great day!

Grammasheri GKid 1 of 10

First, I entered yesterday's blog in the dark back in the room as my roommate drifted early into sleep.  So I forgot to thank Tim Sorey for his always helpful and inspiring model of excellent teaching. He throws on instructional and collegial hats to guide us and join with us in discovering what works in our educational strategies and content. So, I just want to ask in thinking about properties of matter, or transfer energy, what are "thoughts"?

Next, what is my feedback? WOWSER!  All the presenters and presentations provided powerful paths to improve our teaching to improve student learning. The last two years, we have learned and shared from the best; this year the best of us and our former teachers shared those learnings as lessons we completed here and can conduct back at school from the modeling provided.  So thank you for:

• Excellent presentators, presentations, lessons, discussions
• Time for networking and idea sharing: discussions, both formal and informal
• Active participation
• Open and inviting climate
• Intro to another reflective component of teaching: Lesson Study
• Love Wenatchi Hall: what a beautiful building
• Breaks, snacks, and a pig
• Comfort Suites

So today, thanks to Kathleen Ferguson and Gary Morrison-Nelson for a thorough introduction to unit development with GLAD strategies.  The examples and adaptations from beginning to end with a fantastic handout really demonstrated how the process flows to help provide metacognitive strategies so students can continuously hook new learning to old, building new concepts daily and correcting misperceptions through the continual review of relevant concepts. Thanks so much!

Finally the dynamic jedi of Web 2.0 tools, Matt Brewer, inspired participants to build their Personal Learning Network -- expanding their current building and MSP network into the global community through the power of Twitter (@mbrewer_SL ). Be sure to read his Google Doc "The Power of My PLN" to learn from his "tweeps." Remember: five minutes a day could bring you a wealth of useful strategies, tools, and blogs to read. More suggestions for building a PLN from my blog: What Else Posts. Thanks, Matt for your fast-paced and hands-on session.

And as a thank you, I created a site for the MSP group: "This project shares some of the strategies and tools of social networking that help chunk learning so that teachers can intermittently through the teaching process assess the levels of understanding of students in their classrooms so that adjustments, reteaching, or extensions can occur to ensure all students learn."  Ask What Else: http://www.askwhatelse.net

I hope it is of some help to those learning Web 2.0 tools.

Thanks again for another great learning event.

---

Sheri Edwards  (@grammasheri )  What Else  Ask What Else: Tools For You
Reflect curiosity and wonder...
Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness..
42

August 17 Questions and Options

Questions and Options

Questions and options: that's what today emphasized.

What questions do you have?
What questions would you ask?
How else could this work?
How could this be adapted to other levels? other topics?

I just want to say that Nancy and Todd, Gail, Erin, Aaren, and Darrin (sorry about any misspellings) presented fantastic models of excellent lessons today. Every day so far these models for us offer such marvelous methods of how to adapt the 5Es to fit each and any topic and standard. If the kids in these districts represented by the teachers from the last three days are not learning, it's not because of the teaching or lessons.  These teachers are fabulous and I thank them for the time and effort taken to share with us.


Nancy and Todd presented something very simple that shared their way of teaching. While Todd engaged us in questions and options, Nancy annotated the information on the board. This demonstrated how each student for their labs creates a part/function list, a labeled diagram of the process, a flow chart of the system, and an organized list of all variables for their own inquiry. Their students apply systems and inquiry; they have practiced the standards of systems, inquiry, and application. Wowser.

Who wouldn't be excited to learn about Antarctica with a scientist as a guide? Another Wowser and thank you to Jeff Bowman for inviting us on his journey. To have a human connection, a real person students can know is so powerful for students to think, "I could do this." Such an inspiration.

And, of course, we finished our day with a network of friends and food. Thanks Jeff Bullock for understanding that people need to grow together to work together.

So here's a pictorial summary of the day. Enjoy, and thank you all.

---

---

Sheri Edwards
Reflect curiosity and wonder...
Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness..
42

Move it!

Monday 8/13

Acceleration is a change in velocity.

Think about what's happening to the movement in time and space of this thin ninja. How is s/he "speeding up?"



/// / / / / / /


Since the intervals are increasing in distance in increasing amounts, the ninja is speeding up exponentially.



/ / / / / / / /


This ninja is accelerating at a constant rate because the distance intervals are equal.

However, if you read Bruce Palmquist's comment below, you must remember this:
" Your middle ninja is accelerating at a constant rate. But that rate is zero because her velocity is constant."


/ / / / ////


This ninja was accelerating at constant pace (see first four intervals) but then decreased acceleration (last three intervals).


What acceleration do you see with this ninja?

/ / / / / / / / / /////


How could you apply ninja's in your class?

---

Photo Credit: by glascow's finest.


Flickr CC

Sheri Edwards
Reflect curiosity and wonder...
Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness...





42

MSP August 16

Welcome Back!

Learn

Early birds get the worm. We

won't make it for breakfast. Omak is only fifty miles away, but it takes more than an hour to get there if one drives safely on the beautiful winding road through the Okanogan National Forest. There might be some data to analyze here on the Douglas Fir Tussock Moth Suppression Project. That would be a real project about which to learn. You can follow the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/OkaWenNF

I think I learned about the "models" button in Fathom; that's a pretty slick trick to use, and I'm sure there's more. We were stuck on finding slope (we're short a math person right now), and the model let us figure it out. I'll need to play around with it more.

I also think I learned about r^2 in that model button -- that number tells you how valid the data is. Yay! I knew that 1.0 meant the points were probably right on the mark. (That fearful stats class from 25 years ago still haunts me, and still pops out ideas when I need them).

Since it's only the first day, I think I'm just thinking I'm learning, and tomorrow I will.

What I really liked about today: the technology was part of the process, used as needed, and not the focus. We're learning to apply the technology with our standards, not just use tech for tech sake. :)

Questions

I don't remember learning last time about the science 5E's+R we followed today:

Engage

Explore

Explain

Elaborate

Evaluate

Reflect, which could be the sixth e: envision

I'm trying to follow the STAR process, as recommended by our administrator, which could mean:

See -- Engage and Explore

Talk -- Explain

Apply- Elaborate

Reflect -- Evaluate and Envision

Question 1: What do you think?

Oh, I am so glad we have the science and math people together. Science is the forest, and math are all the needles. (Just kidding.) One math person said, "I'm just not a scientist." A mathematician is a scientist naturally! But:

Question 2: When will the math/science people work their schedules and standards to collaborate? Such a dilemma in education... separate, but equal...

Practice

Another local project is the Washington Pass Restoration Project, picture at left. I rather feel like I'm on the edge of knowing what to do, but taking that step...

We have so much pressure on us to meet AYP, to pass that test -- are some teachers wondering how to manage the time?

One of my favorite sites is Edutopia. It focuses on what works in schools, and project/problem based learning is one area that engages students to learn, grow, and apply. It includes those science 5Es. Projects like Voices On The Gulf developed from the PBL Summer Camp. They have an entire list of resources and lessons. Here's one on liquid density and oil spills from National Geographic Xpeditions (another one of my favorite sites when I taught science).

I think Jama and I will look at this site for some relevant ideas related to something that has touched all of us. Surely there is data just waiting for us to discover, and perhaps offer some sense and maybe help to the issue.

Perhaps, for a visual, look at:

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/disasters/bp

as food for thought...

Photo Credits:

Okanogan Forest and Washington Pass: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/oka/

Duck by Flickr CC Adam Mela ncon

---

Sheri Edwards

Reflect curiosity and wonder...

Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness..

42