Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
This semester, as students wrap up their PBAT essays, wrap up their content learning, and wrap up their super special time with me learning about Trigonometry, I began to think about the same question over and over again. "How can I get students to think more for...
Titration Variations: Encouraging Authentic Labs
Using baking to get kids more interested in Chemistry last semester seemed almost like cheating at the authenticity game. It was an enormous effort to obtain materials, plan for choice, and design a structure the genuinely incorporated content... but students were...
Speaking Still Matters!
Last semester I posed the following question related to a problem of practice (PoP) I faced as a teacher: How might we create routines and tasks in the Spanish classroom so that students engage in authentic conversations with each other? With the help of my...
Creating an authentic science project that is not based on an experiment or lab report
I’m teaching the same microbiology class as last semester. Last semester, I worked on designing my second unit project in a way that would make it personally authentic for students. This semester, I want to revise my third unit project. In the third unit, students...
How might we incorporate authentic reflection opportunities for students to make real mathematical decisions and justify them?
As I develop drafts of projects for my students, I am constantly thinking about ways to inspire THEM to do the thinking. If I give them a project filled with steps, am I robbing them of the decision-making workout that we need as adults to thrive in this world? If I...
Applying Lessons from a Science Classroom to the Curricular Design of a Literary Analysis Course
TO ALL MY diehard fans, I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the major success I felt with my attempt to slay the proverbial beast that was my problem of practice. In my first blog post, I focused on the design of my Fall 2018 curriculum, in which "I sought to blend...
HOW TO CREATE AUTHENTIC LITERARY ANALYSIS WITH VOICE AND CHOICE!
An experiment in varied written assessment. I used to (and still do) believe that the repetition of writing structures is crucial in a student's ability to improve and and internalize organized literary analysis. I often assign the same structured essay three to four...
Cookie Catastrophes & Connecting Content
Chemistry at ESA now has a legitimate, hands-on Baking Unit! Around the time of my first post, I was brainstorming, collecting, and wrangling ideas & resources to determine an authentic anchor phenomenon to drive the unit. My planning started in August and the...
Thinking Like a Historian? Blog Post 2
Thinking Like a Historian! As per my first blog post, I grappled with the question How might we teach the skills and strategies needed to analyze materials and think like a historian? Originally when I began my journey with my problem of...
Asking Kids to Ask Their Own Questions
In my PreCalculus class this semester, I was excited to create opportunities for my kids to be mathematicians and pose their own questions, making their own conjectures and discoveries, and also be creatively frustrated. I speak about my problem of practice in...