A storm's a brewin'

Oh February.

You know the saying "when it rains it pours"? Well consider February to be the monsoon season of the school year. Everyone is feeling it. The kids are stressed, the teachers are stressed, the administration is stressed. Deadlines are closing in. The end of the year is close, but a little too far away for a lot of people.

This is about how everyone looks and feels...



GIVE.US.SPRING.BREAK.

This three day weekend stuff, although appreciated, is not enough. Most of us spent our day off catching up on school stuff anyways. And making a lesson plan for 5 days. Ugh.

Give us march. Give us spring break. Give us the re-energized students who can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Complete Flip

So I've done it.

As of 10:00pm tonight (or whenever everything finishes uploading to youtube) I will be done with the Flipped Classroom Institute.

More importantly - I will be set to begin next year flipped. I'm so excited.

I've really enjoyed this opportunity to grow as an educator. I feel like there are so many things I am receptive to now because of how much time I feel I'll have in the classroom because of the flipped classroom.

Check out all of the videos I've made - they are part of a playlist I had to create for the last assignment for the class.

Specifically, learn why I flipped my classroom.

And then start flipping yours.

I'm kind of a you tube star

Ok. I'm not.

But I do have a lot of videos. Check it out. 

In fact, today, I made the last video I will need for my curriculum this year. I still have 6 more videos to make for my flipped class so I'll be making those about unit 1 for next year (the nature of science) and how to take notes from these videos.

Plus one about why I flipped my classroom. I'm a little nervous about that one because I have so much to say. We'll see how it turns out!

The biggest test of the year

that really means nothing to the kids future.

The Science FCAT is near.

Students take it in 5th and 8th grades. They used to take it in 11th grade, but that test has been replaced by the high school biology end of course exam.

The Science FCAT literally means nothing to the students - and a lot for school grade.

And it is very rare that any school, anywhere, does good on it.

And I don't like excuses, but it sort of makes sense.

Lets test the students once every three years and stuff they have learned for the past three years.

This stuff includes...

layers of the earth, biomes of the earth, outer space, star lifecycles, weather, the atmosphere, earthquakes, erosion, (I'm sure I'm missing some... but that is all the Earth Science I can think of), cells, cell organelles, human body systems, binomial nomenclature, classifying animals, evolution, ecosystems, interrelatedness of species, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, genetics and heredity (still sure I am missing some, but that is all the Life Science I can think of), the atom, properties of and changes in matter, electricity, magnetism, light, sound, waves, forces, motion, the periodic table, (still sure I am missing some, and I teach this, but that is all the physical science I can think of), and of course, the scientific method, how science is releavant to the real world, the important of accurate representation of data.

Oh, and lets split this up into three different years so that by the time you are tested on the topics you learned  at the beginning it has been three years since you learned about it. And lets not release anything more than a computer game based review.

Things I like about the science FCAT - it is fairly higher order thinking. Students are not recalling facts but comparing them, drawing conclusions, and making predictions.

Things I don't like about the science FCAT - it doesn't matter to the kids, and they know it.

I don't know who along the way decided to reveal our secret. But I don't like that person. I get it - kids have testing anxiety. But telling them the test doesn't matter doesn't help them! Sure they are less nervous - they don't have to care! But the problem becomes - they don't care. If they don't care, the chance they try is so much lower.

Why do we bother to give this test? Shouldn't it matter more?

And all this talk about the Next Generation Science State Standards... how are we testing for those? I know the thought is end of course exams... how about we start that now and stop wasting the money on the Science FCAT?

Why you should be on the ball every day.

There is a lot of talk in schools, especially with the number of observations we get.

I am supposed to get something like 1 walkthrough a month (5-7 minutes), 3 informal observations (10-20 minutes), and 3 formal observations (an entire class period, advanced notice with a pre-conference and a post conference). 

I'm going to be honest... it doesn't bother me. I wish people came through more often actually. 

But there are a lot of teachers it does bother. And I can understand it - it is really nerve wracking to know someone is coming to judge how you are doing - it could be a bad day, and activity that isn't going well or something you haven't tried before and are unsure how your students will react. 

But here is why you should be on the ball every day.

Today, for 20 minutes, with no notice given to me, the superintendent and the assistant superintendent watched my class do a lab. 20 minutes is FOREVER in middle school time! 

Here is what was awesome about that...

1: It was a lab! We do at least one a week but I was SO glad she caught us on a lab day!

2: It used the iPads. Literally only as a stop watch and then a calculator but I don't think they caught that part...

3: The kids were working in collaborative groups. Ever since the Kagan's became super famous in education collaborative grouping is a buzzword. 

4: They got to see my kids transition from gathering data to analyzing the data. Yay!

5: My outfit today is pretty cute... (not totally relevant for education but also relevant to life)

Here is what was not so awesome...

1: I got really excited when I saw them coming and started sweating. And then she took a picture with me. 

2: I had plan period afterwards and no one answered my excited phone calls to tell them about.

But if any lesson is to be learned from this - be on the ball every day! I usually am (and I'm not sure how people aren't... have you seen our pacing guides?!?) but this was a great extra reminder.