Week 12, Day 1:

Book reading passage and turn in the Friction Lab...Finally! Finishing this lab is like Saturday Night Live in the 7o's updating the health of Generalissimo Francisco Franco months after he passed away. In my Honors Science we started the compression lab.

Today's Best Practice: Have a camera handy and take pictures of your labs, student work, room, lessons, your students, your classes, steps in a procedure, even data (as in the simple end of the day survey of WHAT IS FRICTION at at right...this was my first use of formative assessment)

Reflection: This was one of those days that nothing went as planned. BUT IT WAS A GOOD DAY. I had morning duty all last week so I looked forward to having time before school to slip into to the day. Only didn't get in as early as I wanted then looked at my lesson plan book only to see that I was 6 minutes late for a meeting with my principal for a committee I volunteered for. My lab I planned for today had to wait for us to finish the previous lab...ahh. Then my prep period evaporated and I didn't get to get out for lunch and I blah blah blah. BUT IT WAS A GOOD DAY...just long.

I got some good feedback with my formative assessment survey. Now the 2nd part, how do I use it to form my next lesson and any reteaching. Do I say 1/2 the kids getting the concept is okay...move on? Here is a photo of the same survey but from my Honors science class.

Hope this helps,

Love to Teach and Teach with Passion

Remember...It's not Magic, It's Science

http://qp.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/rey_kinney

richardkinney@cusd.com

Week 11, Day 4: Good, bad, and Ashes!

Today: Force Vocabulary quiz, Book Reading Passage, Finish Friction lab...finally(see photo at right).

This is a good year. I've had about 4 GREAT YEARS* and about 5 BAD years. Most have been good years. One of the bad years I had some great kids, one of which gave me an end of the year gift shown below. I love that bowl. Sometimes I keep pistachio nuts in it, often it is used to hold the words for SCIENCE BINGO.




*My year teaching High School was a great year despite how miserable is was missing middle school kids and curriculum.



Reflection:
A friend of mine and former colleague, David Piercy, (perhaps I should call him a distant colleague) is helping me get into FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS. He says it will change my teaching style. I need to get better feedback from my students. Getting it from lab write-ups is just to minimal. I need to get in the habit of giving the kids an assessment every day, even if just a simple "WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT __________". I've got about another 10 years of teaching in me. I don't want to become a dinosaur in my class. I'm getting slower and I hope I can keep my head above the silt and not get mineralized.

Hope this helps,

Love to Teach and Teach with Passion

Remember...It's not Magic, It's Science

http://qp.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/rey_kinney
richardkinney

Week 11, Day 3: taking too long on labs.

Today students took their Force vocabulary quiz , Finished the Friction lab and began to review for the unit test.

Today's Best Practice: Make a "Notes Wall" for students that missed class to use as a tool to get missing work. In the past I would print little notes for them (easy since my notes are on power point). Now I post them on the back wall. All my notes are on my webpage for them to copy as well but few do.

Reflection:

I have taken too long to get labs completed. In the past we did them in class, set up the graph and then they went home and finished (well about 1/3 would finish them). Now I'm taking 2 (or 3) class periods and not making them take them home. I like giving them more time, but I need to end it on the 2nd day. My problem stems from the differing rates that various classes can get stuff done. And I'm trying to do too much.

Hope this helps,

Love to Teach and Teach with Passion

Remember...It's not Magic, It's Science

http://qp.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/rey_kinney

richardkinney@cusd.com