What Did You Learn Today in My Class?

A long time ago - when I was doing my M.Ed. program - I started giving students "Exit Tickets" on Fridays.  I asked things like, "What specific thing did you learn this week in Science?" and "What question do you still have?"  These little tickets were informative, but I didn't really do much with the information I got from them.  I still think exit tickets are a good formative assessment and now I have found a new way to do them with my Science X students!

I use Socrative.com which actually offers a stock exit ticket as one of its choices.  The site also allows teachers to create short quizzes (multiple choice and/or open ended) as well as survey students and display real-time responses.  It collates the results and teachers can download them as an excel spreadsheet or have them emailed.

My Science X students have been using the Keynote app on their iPads to create a presentation on a topic of their choice related to the brain.  The topics include a variety of interest areas, many of which come from a personal connection that the students have with them.  They include: depression and the brain, the effects of gaming, allergies, concussions and other brain-related sports injuries, epilepsy and many more.  On Friday I did a short Socrative exit survey at the end of class (shared with me by a colleague).  One of the questions asked students to rate their level of comfort using the Keynote app which is a lot like Power Point.  I was very surprised to find that one boy rated himself "not at all comfortable" with this app so I was able to give him a little more personal time during class today, but not in an intrusive or obvious way.  I might not have known this if it weren't for the Socrative Exit Ticket.  I hope to use these throughout this school year to find out how the learning process is going for my students and to make changes in my instruction when I need to.

Solidarity

Chicago teachers are on strike.  I can't imagine what being a striking teacher would be like, but I truly believe voting to strike had to have been the last resort and after a whole lot of give on the part of the union.  No teacher who looks through the lens of "what's best for kids" would ever choose a picket line over a classroom if it weren't absolutely necessary to the well-being of their students' education in the long run.

We received an email shortly before the end of the school day this afternoon from our union president asking us to wear red Wednesday in a show of solidarity for our Chicago union brothers and sisters.  Several years ago when our own union was really getting squeezed due to budget constraints and a major mistake on the part of the district comptroller (the mistake I will forever refer to as the FICA F-up) our union distributed red t-shirts to all the members.  The shirts say "Proud to be a Teacher" on the front, and I am proud to be a teacher.

I am proud to be a teacher despite the fact that I came to be one at the age of 41 and will NEVER make as much as my same age colleagues, despite the fact that I was earning more when I left the business world, a decade before, despite a student loan that I will be paying off until I am 59 (when some of my colleagues will be drawing retirement) which means I work more than one job to earn a decent living, despite classrooms of up to 36 students, despite year after year of being asked to do more - one more committee, one more project, and despite the lack of respect for this profession shown by politicians and the media.

I am proud to be a teacher because I impact young lives in a positive way.  

Scavenger Hunt 2.0

Finally Getting Started

We finally got started with the iPads in Science X.  My class is sharing the carts with another and it is somewhat cumbersome as students from the previous class have to wheel the carts from the other side of the school to my classroom every day and they don't arrive until the bell rings, so students really don't have a chance to get them check out and ready to go.  But at least we have them now.

One of the first things we did was sign a user agreement.  Actually students and their parents signed it.  The kids took it very seriously, even though many of them have access to an iPad at home so they are familiar with how to use and care for them.  The only real issue I see comes in when students create things because the iPads don't have user folders.  We have to go through some machinations to make sure that they name Notes with their own names and maintain integrity when it comes to work that belongs to other students.

In a few days we will begin using the iMovie app and to get the kids going I created a short iMovie that includes some of my travel experiences.  Check it out!

The First Day of School

I was so excited about this morning that I could not sleep... After retiring early to get a good night's sleep, I watched the clock until about 2AM and then started again at 4:30 AM. Ugh. I hope tonight will be better. The groups today were terrific! It's always a challenge to try and learn new names and help kids get from one classroom to another. And this year I have the added challenge of several hearing-impaired students who require me to wear a microphone which amplifies my voice through a speaker system. It was a little disconcerting. And then there was the iPad issue... our new Science X course was advertised as providing students with iPads to use in the classroom. Now this is not a one-to-one device program like our neighboring district Minnetonka has had for two years, but rather a cart system where the X classes share carts of iPads that students in the course use during their class period. But as is often the case with technology, we did not have the iPads to use today. We were told to plan to use them from Day 1 and hit the ground running with them. Nope, didn't happen today. So we adjusted the plan for the day and hope to have them ready to go in two days. But all in all, it was a good day, and the adventure of another school year has begun!

Open House

Open house is Wednesday for our incoming sixth graders! I really look forward to this day and I put little treats into my advisees lockers with a "Congratulations! You opened your locker!" note attached.  I also recorded this podcast:

"Let's go change some lives!"  That's what my colleague Bob says each morning before the first bell rings.  I wonder, do we change lives?  I hope we have an influence on the kids who come through our doors, and I expend a lot of effort to try and make sure my influence is a positive one, so I think I can just go with this - yes, this year... let's go change some lives!

Here is a link to my school's website:Chaska Middle School West