This digital immigrant has actually created a video!

Here is the link to the video I created using chemistry related pictures - it is complete with a soundtrack! I created it on animoto and it was super easy to do. Thirty second videos are free - longer ones will cost you. Try it and have some fun!!

http://animoto.com/play/NFaD1jnjtmeQKW1LEPkGCQ

Software Critique: Engrade

I investigated the free online gradebook, Engrade, from www.engrade.com. This was a very interesting setup for a gradebook. In the school district that I work in the gradebook we use is called Integrade Pro. I have listed below my likes and dislikes:

www.reportcard.net

What I Liked:

- Can drop the lowest score in a particular category (example: quizzes)
- Can print out for individual students the assignments they are missing
- Able to give extra credit for any assignment
- Can excuse a student from an assignment without penalty
- Can enter a letter m for a missing assignment and a zero is calculated in
- Can do daily attendance for each class
- Class averages are shown for each assignment
- Can add comments for students – especially helpful to keep track of miscellaneous information that comes up on a daily and regular basis
- Students and parents can access grades by setting up an account Can upload various types of files for parents and students to access (notes, syllabus, assignments, etc)

What I didn’t like:

- When printing out grades from gradebook cannot just print for a single assignment, such a test, will print out all grades for all assignments for each student
- When need to change grades cannot see all students assignments and grades at the same time – only for one student at a time; cumbersome to change one student at a time if you have multiple grades from multiple students to change
- All recalculations are done in excel which I find very difficult and extremely time consuming to use (just a personal opinion)

I believe this could be a very useful tool for teachers. I think that each teacher will have personal opinions as to which program they like and why. I don’t think any one is better than the others. They all have pros and cons to them. Any gradebook such as this is a very helpful tool. The grades are automatically calculated for you which is a huge time saver. Parents will like this as well because it empowers them by giving them access at any time to their child’s grades. Students may or may not like this gradebook depending on whether or not they are doing well. It allows them to access their grades so they can see what they are missing at any time.

I have used Integrade Pro for five years now and am very comfi=ortable with it but I wish it had a few of the features that Engrade has. Engrade has the ability to allow for extra credit, put an m in as a grade which signifies a missing assignment and therefore calculates the grade as a zero, the ability to drop the lowest score in an assignment category, allows parent and student access without extra work by teacher. These features are not available with Integrade Pro.

I created a newsletter for my Regents Chemistry class!

Here's the link to my stupendously created newsletter!

http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/MRSK/90645/

Please visit and let me know what you think. All constructive criticism is welcome.

Communication between teachers and parents is crucial because it prevents the problems that can occur when information is not shared in a timely manner. I believe communication is so important that I request e-mail addresses from the parents of all my students so that I can send both individual and group messages as necessary. I also send weekly or monthly grade reports to parents of students at risk. On my website I post a wide variety of useful information so that students and parents are well informed.
I like the idea of creating a newletter for each unit and it is something that the students themselves could actually create. This would give them the opportunity to present what they have learned in an authentic manner.
I'm not yet convinced of the value of wikis in the Regents level chemistry classroom but I am open to blogging in which the students and I can communicate. I'd like to try it but I am very concerned about the lack of face to face contact in which the students and I now communicate by speaking as well as drawing stuctures to help explain concepts. I am very comfortable using blogger.com. I think this could be a useful alternate assessment tool to a traditional paper and pencil quiz/test. The students would be forced to explain things in their own words and in addition they could use their creativity to add pictures, animations, etc. (Those are the things I'm still not comfortable doing myself).

Chemistry Crossword Puzzle

This is the link to my school web page. Click on the HANDOUTS link to view the crossword puzzle.

http://teacherweb.com/ny/johnjay/kotlowski

I couldn't figure out how to put the puzzle on this blog so this is plan B.

I use crossword puzzles with my students for vocabulary words for each unit that we cover. The students enjoy doing them and it does help the learning process. Plus it is fun to do. I have the good fortune of have a puzzle maker program that was provided by our textbook publisher that creates puzzles for each unit with preset vocabulary words as well as the option to add/delete additional words. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes for each puzzle and creates an answer key. This process, using the excel program took me 4 hours. Would I ever use excel to create puzzles? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!

Mind-Mapping Experience

Here's the link to the mind map I created: http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1444920/L.jpg

Many of my students have a very difficult time memorizing conversion information that they need to know for many of the math calculations they need to perform in Regents Chemistry so this mole map was created to make things easier for them to remember. It is designed to show the realtionships between these chemistry units of measure: moles, grams, particles and liters (gas only). The arrows show the path between two items. To help the students remember which direction is multiplication it is pointed out that all moles (the animal) need to emerge from their hole in order to multiple. This concept map has definitely helped the students with their unit conversions. Often the students will draw the map in the margins of their tests before they begin so they have the information right there to see and use. The visual image as well as the correlation with the animal seems to stick in the students minds. I found that www.mind42.com was definitely the easiest site to meaneuver compared to www.gliffy.com and www.mindmeister.com. Mindmeister only had specific templates that one could use and none fit the mole map concept. I found Gliffy too difficult to figure out. The biggest disadvantage for me is the amount of time it takes me to figure things out. Once I have mastered a site though that will be the one I will use again and again for other applications.

TwT Group Projects for Week 3: Boy am I Impressed!

This week each group was given an assignment to create a project that contained 3 separate sections. The opening section was an oral presentation of the history, concept and implementation of the Constructivism Theory. The second section consisted of a visual presentation of the Constructivism Theory. The final section was a science lesson designed using the 5E model.
I was absolutely floored by the magnitude and scope of the technology presented by each group. They were all different but equally intriguing. The projects were all visually appealing, containing video clips, animation, color, etc. No two lessons were alike and one group even went so far as to create several lessons to show different presentations of different content. I am particularly proud of my group’s final product. I have two awesome partners, Jen and Katie, who worked especially hard to add a terrific animation, lovely audio track and superb video clips to our project. Without their effort our presentation would certainly have lacked the appeal that it possesses. I have learned a lot about all this technology available to us teachers to help make our lessons more student friendly but I can see from all these group projects that I have a long way to go – I am still very much a digital immigrant!

Week 3 of TwT:Teachers and Students: Can we both win?

This was a very intense week where we discussed various learning theories (Behavioral Theory, Cognitive Theory and Social Theory) and teaching models (ADDIE, ASSURE and Constructivism). I discovered that my teaching style is in keeping with the ADDIE model. This is probably due to the fact that this model seems to be very well suited for the sciences. ADDIE is a step-by-step, methodical system of presenting curriculum to students, which supports the intense, data specific New York State Regents Chemistry curriculum that I teach. This model does involve continuous evaluation of students, which I personally find to be an advantage in the classroom. This allows me to modify my lessons as necessary to maximize the success of my students. Compared to the ADDIE model the ASSURE model is generally more student friendly. It leads to a more authentic classroom environment where the lessons are more student driven rather than teacher driven. This model would work very well for contents such as Social Studies and English but is not too well suited to the content of high school science classrooms. We investigated the model of Constructivism next. This I found to be very enlightening because the model is based on the idea that learners build knowledge on what already know. Students must be active in their own learning because their knowledge is a product of their own personal cognition. This model provides authenticity to the learning process. The advantage of this model is that it is student driven with the teacher being more of a guide for the students as they participate in their own learning. A huge disadvantage with this model is the fact that it is very time dependent. Students all learn at different paces to get to the same finish line and it can be very difficult, depending on the content to be learned, to accomplish this in the time allowed. The 5E Model was particularly interesting in its concept and design. The five E’s represent the steps a teacher follows when creating a lesson to maximize student achievement and higher level learning. They are:
Engagement – activation of prior knowledge
Exploration – hands-on activities to satisfy the curiosity of the student
Explanation – student’s must describe what are learning about content
Elaboration – student’s knowledge is extended into other content areas
Evaluation – student’s exchange their ideas and/or experiences with others This is an authentic way of using an inquiry process to allow students to take an active role in their own learning. As a principal this would be a very attractive concept to pitch to teachers because it puts the onus on the students to actively participate. On the down side is the fact that time is a huge issue, especially in the highly packed content curriculum found in Regents level courses