Updated Guiding Principles

Over the last few weeks I was able to see some great examples of how technology can be used to encourage students to use their creativity to present and share what they know. The only change I would make to my original four guiding principles is the addition of Number 5.

1.Positive Attitude: I need to have a positive attitude about any technology we use in class.
2.Skills: Only use technology when I have a firm grasp of how it works.
3.Safety: Make sure my students use technology in a safe and appropriate manner.
4.Authentic: I need to use technology when it helps students develop critical thinking skills or helps them master one of our core competencies. It has to be tied to the curriculum.
5.Create: Use technology to encourage students to think in a creative manner and produce original work that truly represents what they know.

I hope over the next couple of years to increase my usage of project-based learning, allowing the students to demonstrate what they have learned in an authentic creative manner. I’m going to encourage students to use many of the websites and programs Eric and my fellow classmates have shared over the last seven weeks in projects throughout the year.

Final Project

So here it is, my "In Plain English" video on Hardy Weinberg and the accompanying student assignment sheet. Enjoy.




Name:_________________________________________ Date:____________

Digital Storytelling: Protein Synthesis

Introduction:
Instead of a normal end of chapter exam for this unit you will be producing a video, audiofile, or voice thread explaining how the information encoded in a gene is turned into a protein. I really enjoy the “In Plain English” video series by Common Craft (search “In Plain English” on YouTube) and think this style would be a great fit for this project. You could also create two or three nice diagrams of the process of transcription and translation and include them in a voice thread. Check out some examples at www.voicethread.com. If you’re into storytelling you could record it as a story using a free program call Audacity, downloadable at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Be creative, you can go in any direction you like, provided you run the idea by me first!

My hope is that you can produce a short (no greater than 5 minutes) presentation explaining the processes we have covered in class. You MUST include the following terms in your project:
DNA, Double Helix, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine, RNA Polymerase, Spliceosomes, Ribosome, mRNA, tRNA, Codons, Anticodons, Amino Acids, Stop Codons, Peptide Bonds

Working with one other person or by yourself you will have one week to complete this assignment. You will have in class time to research and prepare, but you will most likely have to record your story outside of class. Digital still cameras and video cameras are available in the library and simplistic video editing software is on both the PC’s and Macs. If you need help using this equipment let the librarian or myself know.

Suggested Schedule:
Day1: Brainstorm. Visit the sites and videos I described above. Discuss with your partner the type of technology you would like to use. Can you think of any limitations your plan might have?
Day2: Start writing a script and, if you need them, developing images you will use
Day3: Continue planning and writing
Days 4-7: Record your story
Day 8: Bring you audio/video file to school or post it on an appropriate website. We will share the projects with refreshments that day!


Grading: You projects will be graded by using the attached KRHS Communication Rubric.

Kitchen Update on Photopeach

The last couple of weeks have been busy in the kitchen. We had guests come in for a week long visit yesterday and I had hoped that we could have the kitchen renovation done. We came close. The countertops are coming in this morning! The last two things that need to be done is plumbing in of the sink and faucet and finishing the floor tile. Our guests have been very understanding. I told them to think of it as indoor camping.

I created a Photopeach account and built a short slide show so that you can see what I have been up to over the last few weeks. Enjoy

Kitchen Renovation on PhotoPeach

Toasted by Timetoast

Last week I read a few folks blogging about Timetoast a free online timeline program. I was intrigued by their descriptions so this week I thought I would check it out and build a time line on the History of Life on Earth. This is an assignment I give my biology students each year. They usually make it out of paper and string using 1 mm for 1 million years. It really puts the age of the Earth into perspective for them. And it shows them just how short their existence is on Earth. Sad, I know.
I wasn’t planning on changing the student assignment as I think it’s important for students to “physically see” (if that makes any sense) the enormous age of our planet. However students that miss the lab could build a timeline at home using the program.
I did find one problem immediately. The time entries don’t go past 0 years. From 0 to 2010 you’re fine. Try anything past that and you’re in trouble. Want to plot the first prokaryotic fossils 3.5 billion years ago? Good Luck! It looks promising for timelines on evolutionary theories for example. It is easy to use, but wouldn’t work for this particular assignment.
Second I need to apologize for a couple responses I gave to folks about Create-A-Graph. Last week I said I took a look at it and said Excel was far superior. Excel would be better for high level students. But for my Standard Biology Students it is excellent! I built a little graph for a plants class I’m taking and it was 100X more user friendly than Excel. So I take back everything I said about Create-A-Graph :-). Check out my graph. And yes, my wife already told me I forgot the units.

Not 100%, but improving

I must admit that I wasn’t and I guess I’m still not 100% behind the classroom blog, but it’s improving. One reason for my apprehension might be my first online experience. A few years ago I built, with the help of my brother, a class website to share important links and daily homework assignments. I thought parents and students would find it useful and use it often. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I advertised it with letters home and in direct conversations with parents and it got very little traffic. Very little might be an overestimate. After keeping it up for three years I abandoned it.
The blog definitely seems like an improvement from what I had because students can directly participate by adding comments. I think in order to make sure students participate I would have to require a certain number of comments from each student. For those of you that have blogs is this your practice? One point Eric hit upon in the PowerPoint he shared with us is that classroom blogs encourage ALL students participate. One quote he included that I really liked was, “I like the opportunity to compile my thoughts and express them when I’m ready and at my own pace.”
I also think Dan Basler has a great thing going with his blog. In AP biology I’m so focused on covering content that I don’t have usually find time to discuss current scientific research/discoveries. Or if we do it lasts only a few minutes because we have to move on. My AP students are truly interested in biology and I think they would put in the time and become invested in the process.

Thoughts on “Generate an Argument” Instructional Model

I enjoyed Sampson and Grooms article and agree with the authors that we should encourage students to work together to critically analyze data and draw their own conclusions. I also think this instructional model could also be a time saver if used a few times a year providing students with data set rather than having them collect their own data. It would also give students a look into current scientific research.
I was a little worried with the title of the article “Generate an Argument”. Debates work well when all students are invested. The roadblocks I have encountered in the past when having the student debate (genetically modified foods being an example) is that a handful of passionate students take over and monopolize the discussion. The more timid students (the majority) sit back and don’t participate. I feared that this could also happen in this activity. I was glad to see that the authors encourage a round-robin format in which one member stays with the poster and the others circulate to each of the other groups exchanging ideas and defending their conclusions. I believe this will encourage more participation on the whole.
There was only one problem that my wife (fellow biology teacher) and I discovered which was a lack of usable student data on topics that we cover. Our curriculum is really centered on molecular biology. We both spent quite a bit of time trying to find a data set that we thought the students could understand and manipulate. (If you have found a great site please send a link!). I have adapted a data set I already had, but its more ecology focused and we don’t spend a lot of time on that material.

I need help!

I feel like last week I missed the boat on embedding videos in the blog. So this week I thought I would shoot a little video and show you how the kitchen renovation is going (we now have walls!), download it and embed it in the blog. Along with that I thought I would ask for your help and create an online survey to choose our paint color (again I have never created an online survey before).
My wife and I are terrible at choosing paint colors. We have redone 4 rooms already and we go through and average of 4 sample colors per room. We wake up in cold sweats during the night, can’t eat and can’t sleep until the paint color is up. If you go down to our basement I have Behr and Sherwin Williams entire color selection in small 250 ml bottles. So watch the video and help me choose our paint color. Cabinets are going to be a light cherry, I don’t think I mention that in the video. Thanks a bunch!



Click here to take survey

Audacity

Because of the roadblocks I mentioned in an earlier post I scrapped the Slideshare idea for this week and played around with Audacity. I enjoy playing audio clips to start out classes and jumpstart discussions. I will often use episodes from Science Fridays, Radio Lab and This American Life. Because I usually only want to listen to a short portion of the broadcast I end up wasting class time fast forwarding and rewinding to find just the point I want. Editing and saving the shortened audio clips sounded like the ticket.
Downloading Audacity is easy and the program is intuitive to use. I wasn’t able to import MP4 files from iTunes, but could import MP3s. I edited a segment from This American Life I really enjoy about parasitic life cycles and saved it as a wav file. I couldn’t export it as an MP3 for some reason. I looked into posting it on Gcast, but Gcast is no longer accepting downloads (Eric, is there anywhere else you recommend?). I was also worried about posting it due to copyright infringement. If you would like a copy of it, leave your email and I will send the file along. Anyway, if you have a few audio files that you use regularly and you hate wasting the time to fast forward and rewind to just the right area because during that time your students will organize a coup, this program may give you a hand at squelching the rebellion.

Roadblocks

I thought this week I would spend some time learning how to record audio during PowerPoint lectures and saving them to Slideshare. I felt this would be much more valuable than me handing a copy of the notes over to students that are absent. Each day I could hit the “record button” then save and upload the presentation. The only roadblock I perceived was purchasing a microphone that could wirelessly transmit the signal to the computer as I walked around the room.
This idea was really naive. Using Slideshare I would have to upload the document to their server. Upload audio to another server. Then edit the two together before saving. That is just ridiculous. Who has time for that? PowerPoint allows you to record audio at the same time, but your presentation needs to be timed. I can’t have all my presentations timed out prior to giving them.
I did find a program called Camtasia Studio that allows you to do just what I want, and it gets great reviews. The only problem is it comes with a 300 dollar price tag.
The final roadblock was copyright. I have grabbed images from all over the web for my presentations. Three minutes into any of my lectures and I’m sure I have broken countless copyright laws and could be locked away in prison for the rest of my natural life. I’m really not all that worried about using the images in a classroom setting, but wouldn’t dare post them on the Internet. And I’m not about to re-create all new lectures with “safe” images.
I will record a presentation this week and have a link on here to view to fulfill the course requirements, but as far as using it in my classroom the roadblocks regretfully are just too great.

I'm a Lurker

I know that sounds a little creepy. For years I have hidden in the shadows of the Internet peering into a variety of message boards, from travel to sports to politics. I NEVER post. I’m not exactly sure why. I enjoy reading the thoughts and opinions of other folks. I guess I never thought I had anything valuable to say or I was scared to say it. This week I have spent some time (actually a lot of time) looking at The Synapse, a PLN for biology teachers. I’m not sure if I have the time or energy to create a network on Twitter. This one is already built and is full of motivated, collaborative teachers. I really enjoyed the AP biology discussion group. In a few hours I got a dozen great lab/test-prep/and video ideas. If you are a biology teacher check it out! Thanks Eric for passing this along. It got me so motivated that maybe I’ll come out of the shadows.

YouTube replaces 150 plumbers. Are teachers next?

This week Eric brought up using YouTube and other online videos in class. YouTube has revolutionized the flow of information and I use it often in my class. It can teach kids to think critically. However, as Eric also demonstrated through the video links, there is a risk.

For example before YouTube if you had a small plumbing job and you wanted to “sweat a pipe” you were left with three options:
1. Actually hire a plumber (true the job would be done correctly and safely, but what is the fun in that?)
2. Read a published article on plumbing (this article most likely would come from the 30 year old home improvement books you inherited from your grandfather. The yellow moth eaten paper would be tough to read, but you could manage)
3. You could have Bob your next door neighbor come over and give you a hand (Bob professes to be an expert in all things home improvement. Bob’s house is still standing; he does his own oil changes, so he must be handy.)

I was met with this predicament this week and I chose Option 4. “YouTube it”. I searched YouTube for videos on how to sweat a pipe and numerous videos came up. I must not be the only one who went with this option because the video I chose had 126,777 views, making it a pretty popular video. So I watched the video and with only two tries and 2 gallons of spilled water, I successfully put on a shut off valve on my kitchen water supply! After watching Eric’s videos it occurred to me that maybe “how to videos” posted by who know who may not be the safest source for important information. Bob is looking better and better.
Second, is anyone worried about being replaced or “outsourced” by YouTube?

Seriously. There is a video on YouTube for everything I teach, from how to use a compound microscope to protein synthesis. That one plumbing video could have put (based on my estimates) at least150 plumbers out of work. Could teachers be next?

I will only add to the cycle by linking to another video. This one is an interpretive dance on protein synthesis, produced in the early 70’s by some students and professors at Stanford. It is trippy. The good stuff begins at the 3:15 mark. My AP Bio students get a real kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9dhO0iCLww

Reflections and Guiding Principles.

I guess its time for some class reflections. First, it is exhausting moving from one blog to the next. All good stuff but it takes too much time. Next week I’m focusing on setting up Google Reader. Second, I really like what BFritz is doing with http://realearthscience.blogspot.com/. I could see myself running a similar classroom blog. Third, I love the TED Presentations. Thanks Eric for passing that on. Killed an hour last night watching a bunch. My sister-in-law mentioned them a while ago, but I never got the chance to watch one. With content like that on the Internet, who needs cable television? Finally I really haven’t warmed up to Twitter yet, but I’m keeping my mind open.
Ripping up over 250 ceramic tiles over the last few days I have more than enough time to start thinking about some guiding principles for using technology in the classroom. Here are some guiding principles that I think I need to have:
1. Positive Attitude: I need to have a positive attitude about any technology
we use in class.
2. Skills: Only use technology when I have a firm grasp of how it works.
3. Safety: Make sure my students use technogy in a safe and appropriate manor.
4. Authentic: I need to use technology when it helps students develop critical
thinking skills or helps them master one of our core competencies. It has to
be tied to the curriculum.

Outlets!!!!

So I said earlier I was a Cheap Yankee and that is mostly true with one exception........Electrical. I can demolish cabinets, put up dry wall, and lay tile. But I think handling 220 volts of electricity is best left to the professionals. I hired an electrician to run wires for the kitchen and I couldn't be happier. The funniest thing is the number of outlets I need to meet code. We've gotten by with two outlets for years. Now there are eleven!!!!!! If I plugged every electrical device I own in I couldn't fill 22 sockets. Its good in one way. My wife wanted to tile the back splash, which I was lukewarm about. Now we don't have to, our back splash is electrical sockets. If you're interested here is a picture of the kitchen on Saturday and then of one today.

Intro

Hello World,
I’m not sure if I should start my first blog post that way as Tiger Woods coined the term in his first press conference. And that hasn’t gone well lately. Hopefully this blog will sail a little smoother…………
Welcome, make yourself at home—just make sure to use a coaster. My name is Jeremy and I’m a teacher at Kingswood Regional High School. I have taught for 9 years (Biology and AP Biology). I am married to the most understanding wife in the world, Christina. We have two beautiful children, a dog named Sydney and a cat named Pumpkin (yes, he is black and white like the name suggests).
Right now I am in my second year of the MSSE program and so far it is going really well. I am taking another course on the Ecology of Plains and Prairies, which make a lot of sense because I live in New Hampshire. In all seriousness I’m looking forward to learning much from both classes but a little nervous about balancing school work and home life.
I picture this blog being mostly focused on my courses when I get back to school in September but as of right now it will be all about one thing: my kitchen renovation. Because I’m a cheap Yankee I have decided to do the majority of the work myself. This blog will chronicle that journey over the next month and a half. Hold on tight it will be an emotional ride. And last but not least if you know of any way to pull up old tile let me know…….That stuff is a beast.