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Monday, May 30, 2016

Episode 7 "The Innovator's Mindset" Chapter 1

EDUCATING JO

Episode 7
The Innovator's Mindset

"What Innovation is and isn't"

I hope you enjoy Episode 7 about the first chapter of The Innovator's Mindset. Pictures are from George Couros' book and used with his permission. I'm switching up the format just a little bit for the summer by doing a shorter video each week about the book study book my district is reading. Please let me know if you like the shorter or longer videos as that will determine what I do when school starts in August!

George Couros' book: The Innovator's Mindset

7. The Innovator’s Mindset 1
Hey Jo, this week I’m going to talk to you about chapter one of The Innovator’s Mindset!
Intro
This summer our tech integration coach, Mr. Badura decided to do a book study over the summer. I’m super excited to get to do some professional development with other teachers in my district who want to be better teachers. We will be using the app Seesaw to build a portfolio throughout the summer about the book. This lets us kill two birds with one stone: learn a digital portfolio app for our students and participate in a book study without meeting face to face. We will be discussing each of the 4 parts throughout the summer, but I decided I wanted to make a vlog about each chapter. These should be shorter than during the school year, so let me know which format you like better!
  1. Quote by William Pollard:

    1. Great year this year, still need to improve and get better.
      1. Reflection journals.
      2. Talk about global goals=global citizens
    2. Teachers teaching the same year for the 20th time.
  1. What do you want kids to do with technology?
    1. Wrong “start blogs” this is what I have been doing.
    2. Fix for next year: use blogs to connect with parents and other classes.
  2. What do you want leaders to do with technology?
    1. Easy way out is to look at administration and look for shortcomings.
    2. I’m a leader in the school, how do I meet these goals?
      1. Build relationships
        1. Snapchat
      2. Flatten organizations
        1. Twitter
      3. Collaborate
        1. Skyping
      4. Tell powerful storyies
        1. Instagram
Outro: I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and feel free to share, like, comment and subscribe! To all the other Educating Joes out there, have a great week!

Monday, May 23, 2016

Episode 6 "Textbooks"

EDUCATING JO

Episode 6
"Textbooks"

I hope you enjoy episode 6 of Educating Jo about my dislike of textbook teaching! I hope you enjoy me sharing why I don't use textbooks in my Biology classroom and some activities I do instead of reading chapter sections. 
Please share with anyone you think might be interested and I would love to see your comments here or on the YouTube channel! Thanks for watching!

Student Choice: Stars 
Activity: Jelly Bellicus



Here is the outline I used to make the video!


6. Textbooks
Hey Jo, this week I’m going to talk to you about my hatred of textbooks.
Intro
My inspiration for this post came from listening to a podcast of Matt Miller who wrote “Ditch That Textbook.” First I need to mention how lucky I am to teach what I teach. I have an 1 ½ hour prep period and then teach biology 3 sections a day. This gives me the time to plan lessons that not every teacher gets. I am also the only teacher that teaches sophomore level biology in my school which gives me even more freedom. So today I want to explain to you why I don’t use a textbook and somethings I do instead of a scripted curriculum or a read the chapter, answer the review questions approach.
  1. Why I don’t use a textbook.
    1. I think if a student wants to learn something, they google it. Reading a textbook chapter and learning information from it is no longer a skill students need.
    2. Creation vs. consumption
    3. Connect concepts to activities
      1. Easier to recall something you have done, vs something you have read
    4. As a trained professional, I have all the resources I need to make my own material. I don’t need a textbook company to tell me what connects with MY students.
  2. Read the textbook replacements
    1. Review engagement strategy
      1. For a 5 step process, group of five, each say a part then scramble. Content on the board and erase as needed.
    2. Act out the process with paper models and record.
    3. Presentations
    4. Student choice
      1. Here is the concepts we need to understand.
      2. Research the concepts to understand it.
      3. Figure out how to teach their classmates→ diagrams, videos, activities.

Highlight of the week: Golden Spaff Award
Struggle of the week: Grading and saying goodbye
Activity of the week: Jelly Bellicus

Outro: I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and feel free to share, like, comment and subscribe! To all the other Educating Joes out there, have a great week teaching or starting summer break!


Thank you for taking the time to watch my video! I'd love to continue to conversation in the comments! Starting next week I'll be trying out a new format for the summer. My school is doing a summer book club over "The Innovator's Mindset" by George Couros. I'll be doing a shorter vlog over the a few chapters each week. Let me know if you like the change!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Episode 5 "grading"

EDUCATING JO

Episode 5
"Grading"

I hope you enjoy episode 5 of Educating Jo about grading! Even though grading can be difficult to discuss, I talk about what I think about grading, my grading categories and an example unit.
Please share with anyone you think might be interested and I would love to see your comments here or on the YouTube channel! Thanks for watching!



Here is the outline I used to make the video!

5. Grading
Hey Jo, this week I’m going to talk to you about my grading policies.
Intro
Our final grades are due this week so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to talk to you about how about grading. I’ll talk about how I feel about grades, the categories I have set up for student work and go through an example unit.
I feel like grades are almost a taboo topic and they grading policies are deeply personal (which is weird). It’s like we are scared to get criticized on how we grade so we make it a secret. I’ll try to fix that here and make it obvious how I grade my students’ work.
  1. Grades are stupid.
    1. Cons
      1. Care more about grade than learning.
      2. Parents think everything is great if they have a good grade.
      3. Parents think their kids are worthless if they get a bad grade.
    2. Pros
      1. Shows how well they understand the content.
      2. Try to emphasize learning over what grade they get. Going gradeless…
      3. Lots of ungraded work.
      4. Late work and retakes.
  2. Categories
    1. Videos
      1. Done in class, previous video 5-10 points
    2. Activities
      1. Activities we do in class. Especially presentations 10-20 points
    3. Assignments
      1. Practice mastering the skills you’ll need for the test. 10-15 points
    4. Tests
      1. Show you have the content masters by answering short answer questions about the content. 35-55 points
      2. For each unit the test should be worth the same as the other categories added together.
    5. Final
      1. District policy 10% of the overall grade: 60 points.
  3. Example
    1. Genetics
      1. Videos
        1. 3 5 point videos about replication, transcription & translation. 15 points
      2. Activity:
        1. Building candy models of DNA picture on iPad, show 5 main concepts 5 points
        2. Replication activity: show what the 3 main enzymes do in replication 8 points
      3. Assignment:
        1. Differences between DNA & RNA 8 points
        2. DNA worksheet: Review what we did in the activity and videos in assignment form. 10 points
        3. Translation assignment: show how to do replication, transcription, and translation. 13 points 59 points total
      4. Test:
        1. Genetics test worth 44 points.
Highlight of the week: Student compliments
Struggle of the week: Student behavior
Activity of the week: Evolution Game

Outro: I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and feel free to share, like, comment and subscribe! To all the other Educating Joes out there, have a great week teaching!

Thank you for taking the time to watch my video! I'd love to continue to conversation in the comments!

Monday, May 9, 2016

Episode 4: I do, We do, Y'all do, You do.

EDUCATING JO

Episode 4
"I do, We do, Y'all do, You do
I hope you enjoy episode 4 of Educating Jo about this engagement strategy! Please share with anyone you think might be interested and I would love to see your comments here or on the YouTube channel! Thanks for watching!


Link to YouTube video: Click Here
Link to playlist with various examples: I do, We do, Y'all do, You do Playlist

Here is the outline I used to make the video!

4. I do, We do, Y’all Do, You Do
Hey Jo, this week I’m going to talk to you about one of my favorite engagement strategies, I do, We do, y’all do, You do!
Intro
During the last month of school it can be difficult to keep students engaged and focused on learning. I thought it would be a good idea to share one of my best techniques. This is particularly useful when I am teaching or demonstrating a complex concept in Biology. It’s pretty self explanatory, but I’ll explain why I like this strategy and give some examples of times I’ve used it.
  1. Overview
    1. I do=demonstrating an example
    2. We do=students helping me do an example
    3. Y’all do= talking with a partner or group to do the example
    4. You do=test or assignment(prove you can do it on your own)
  2. Why I like the strategy.
    1. Right amount of examples.
Too many examples leaves most of the class bored and unengaged.
      • Too few examples leaves most of the class confused and frustrated.
    • Differentiate the learning
      • This helps the me differentiate the lesson. After the I do,during the we do, students gain confidence helping me do the next example.
      • Self reflection→ do I understand the material well enough for the you do part?
      • Toward the end of the year classes will say “we can skip the we do, I’m ready to explain” or “can we do the We do part again because I still don’t understand it enough.
      • Peer teaching: those that do understand it hone their learning by teaching their classmates = best way to learn. Students learn better from their peers than from the teacher.
  • Examples
    1. Making videos of replication, transcription and translation.
      • I show it.
      • Students pick their role and we go through the part together.
      • Students practice their parts and the classmates assist as needed
      • If we have time we scramble parts so everyone learns every part.
      • I film the final activity and upload the video to Youtube (study material)
    2. Absolute dating
      • I do an example of dating a rock using ½ lives.
      • I do another example where my students walk me through the process.
      • They do several with their table partners. If both struggle they find another group to explain it to them.
      • They need to be able to do it on their own for the assignment and the test.
Highlight of the week: student choice about stars.
Struggle: Controversial Topic
Activity: Fossil Correlation

Outro: I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and feel free to share, like, comment and subscribe! To all the other Educating Joes out there, have a great week teaching!

Thank you for checking out my project! Feel free to leave comments about examples where you have used the strategy or any questions you might have!

Monday, May 2, 2016

Episode 3: Student Blogging

Educating Jo

Episode 3
"Student Blogging"
I hope you enjoy episode 3 of Educating Jo about student blogging! Please share with anyone you think might be interested and I would love to see your comments here or on the YouTube channel! Thanks for watching!


Link to YouTube Video: Click Here
Link to Mary Vaughan's website: Click Here
Link to my Students' Blogs: Kidblog

Here is the outline I used to make the video!

3. Student Blogging
Hey Jo, This week I’m going to talk to you about my Students’ Blogging for class.

Intro

This week I want to expand on the last week’s episode. Last week I discussed skyping with experts, (link in the description) and this week I want to discuss student blogging. I have tried to have my students blog every year I have taught (all 4 years) and this year was by far the most successful. It really helped to tie skyping and blogging together.

  1. How I set up my Student Blogs.
    1. Kidblog.org
      1. Recommended by Craig Badura
      2. Complete control of posts, comments if desired
      3. Promote by tweeting 1 link instead of 1 per student.
    2. Come up with a topic based off of the skype.
    3. Skype with someone Thursday or Friday
      1. Give the weekend to reflect
      2. Monday/Tuesday write the paragraph
      3. Wednesday revise and post.
      4. Promote every Wednesday called #weirdanimalwed
    4. No grading.
  2. Why is blogging important?
    1. Super important science skill
      1. Defending an idea using evidence.
      2. Writing is how science is shared.
      3. First sentence make it super obvious how you feel.
        1. Next 4 are supporting details.
        2. Some your opinions, some from the expert.
    2. Super important life skill
      1. Writing will always be important.
      2. Blog form is becoming more common.
    3. Authentic audience
      1. Why make something you are proud of if only 1 person sees it?
      2. 2500 people have seen their work.
    4. Window into the classroom
      1. Allows parents, grandparents, administrators to see what's happening.

Highlight: Student made mural Shout out to Sarah Wegenast and Heather Amundson and Mary Vaughan.
Struggle: Life catching up
Activity: Invasive Species Presentations

Outro: I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and feel free to share, like, comment and subscribe! To all the other Educating Joes out there, have a great week teaching!

Thanks for your support and see you next week!