Insanity All Around

So a "friend" of mine saw me at a ball game the other night. As we were leaving, she reminded me that I haven't been to the gym to work out lately and that she was going to be in an Insanity class the next morning at 5:30 and that I should be there*. I told myself that if I woke up in time without an alarm, I would go. Of course, my luck, I was wide awake, so I pull myself up and went to town. The first one was hard. The second one was worse. But the third one, I made it through with a bit of consciousness and actually heard the music in the background.

Now there is a certain track that goes along with these workouts. At first, it sounded just like any other music you might hear during a workout video, but as I listened, I noticed something.

Just as my brain was telling me how ridiculous it was to get out of bed for this, a voice came on and said "you can do it." It was subtle. If you weren't paying attention, or more likely if you were nearly unconscious, you would miss it. The words fit right in with the music.

So I listened more carefully. Sure enough, every time my brain tried to convince me I was an idiot, that voice, either as a shout or as part of the song itself, came back and encouraged me to push through.

As I lay staring at the ceiling, "cooling down", I thought about that voice. I wondered if there was some kind of deliberate plan to it. Did the creators of this horror do a bit of research and time it specifically so that there was encouragement when someone most needed it? The more I think about it, the more I have a hard time believing this was an accident. It was just too perfectly aligned with what I needed at the time.**

So it really got me thinking about my classroom. I teach a lot of things that push kids in directions they really do not want to go. They have to think. They have to participate. They have to learn.

They get frustrated. They want to quit. My job is to make sure they don't.

I never let them, but I wonder if I am giving them that encouragement when they most need it. Am I paying enough attention that I catch that frustration before it really sets in? When I yet again answer a question with a question, is that the last straw for one of them? Do they feel like I am just trying to make them fail?

I worry about things like this.

*There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I don't even know where to begin...

**If it WAS an accident, then it was a brilliant one.

Just a Little Flip

Like so many other teachers, I have heard a lot recently about how flipping your classroom is the cool thing to do. While I admire teachers who have the gumption to undertake that challenge, I never really gave it much thought or put it on my list of things to do.

It wasn't that I thought it was a bad idea, I just had a lot of reasons I didn't really think it was for me. (Some of these reasons, I realize are based on my own misconceptions of what flipping actually is. It happens.)

*If I were to describe my classroom, it is unapologetically based on constructivism. My kids learn by doing. This is not to say they are not guided in their discovery or are left alone in hopes that they somehow learn something, but we really focus on what it means to understand a concept and how to understand that concept based on your own knowledge and observations, not just because the textbook says it's true.

*In my mind, watching a video at home is no different than reading a textbook at home, you just get to say that you have incorporated some technology into your homework. We typically don't use textbooks unless we need to make a ramp, so this was a big hurdle for me.

*I'm really not sure what people mean when they say "it leaves class time open for all that cool stuff we wish we had time for."

*I had no idea how to make a video.

*Even if I figured out a way to make a video, I don't have time to do it. Plus, I don't really have the personality it takes to make a good one.

Then I went to a SIDLIT distance learning conference, where I sat in on a session by Aftab Merchant, who has flipped his anatomy lab at the Cleveland Chiropractic College. Since my entire existence as a teacher is based on lab experiences, it was the lab part that caught my eye, so out of curiosity, I went. It took about seven seconds, and I knew this was something I was going to try this year.

What he has done is to take every lab that he does and video the pre-lab. He walks students through the lab, shows them how to make the incisions, shows them where to find each structure and what it actually looks like. He makes sure those kids know exactly what will be expected of them when they walk through the door.

This is something I have struggled with in recent years. Kids are coming to me with an alarming lack of basic lab skills. For way too long, I had this assumption that they knew all of those things that should have been learned in the lab. What does a beaker look like? I know, but way too many do not. I know how frustrating it is for me, but it took me awhile to realize how frustrating it is for those kids.

So I tried it. Yesterday, I gave my chemistry class the assignment to watch the pre-lab video* of our Mass and Change lab. They were to come in today with any questions they might have and be ready to head to the lab.

Now, I fully anticipated kids not doing their homework. Shocking, I know. So our librarian was expecting a good number of them come down if they had not watched the video. In my first section, only four of the twenty had watched it. So off they went to watch the video. The other four started on the lab. Some finished the lab some did not. Those who need to finish will be in here during seminar catching up. They are not happy, but my feelings aren't all that hurt over it. We had a little chat about how very little homework we get in this class and how important it is to actually get it done when it is assigned. Apparently, word got out because everyone in my second section had watched the video.

Not gonna lie. This lab went so smoothly I can't even believe it. Last year, I spent about twenty minutes (longer than the video) going through the pre-lab and answering questions. And more often than not, I forgot something in at least one section. This year, I showed them where the beakers were located.

It was amazing.

Even the kids thought it was a good idea. Some even got stuck on part of the lab and pulled the video up to watch it again.

I like it. I am going to keep it.

I hope. The first video I made took me most of a Saturday, so it's not something I can churn out at a very high rate, but I am thinking that I will get better at it. Now that I at least have an idea of how to set it up, the whole process should go a little more smoothly and with any luck I will be able to stay far enough ahead that I won't stress over it too much.

So what about you? Do any of you do anything like this? Or do you do something different?



*Don't laugh, this is a terrible video. Hopefully this will get better as I go along!

Back to School Blues...I Mean, Buzz...

I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not ready.

I'm not getting that feeling that I am supposed to be getting at this time of year. I'm trying, but if I am completely honest, I am dreading the day after tomorrow when kids come back.

Maybe it's because I don't feel like I had much of a break this summer. Between shuttling kids around, teaching a class and the five workshops I attended, I just do not feel refreshed in any way.

Maybe it's because an old storage room was cleaned out and every one of my lab tables is covered with stuff someone thought I might want.

Maybe it's because I have sat through three full days of meetings. Forget for just a minute that those meetings are brutal based solely on the fact that we have to sit and listen to someone talk for seven hours a day. The bigger issue is the content that may or may not have been heard over the snoring in the back. New ELA standards. New math standards. New science standards. New social studies standards (hey, one doesn't affect me directly!). New evaluation system. Crisis training. Blood Borne Pathogen Training. MTSS training. ESI training. I am pretty sure there was more "training" in there somewhere, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is.

I am trying, but I can't seem to get excited about the upcoming school year.

Science and Inquiry...What is it Anyway?

So Frank tweeted out a post by Paul. Now, coming from Frank, I was expecting a link to some amazing new teacher with some great idea I could steal and implement into my classroom. This is, after all, why I have twitter. So I was quite surprised* to find an article comparing scientific inquiry to reform math (whatever that is). My first reaction was not favorable, so I looked around to see if I could find out more about Paul. His page says he is a middle school science teacher, but I couldn't seem to find much of anything that lets me see inside his classroom. Maybe that isn't the point of his blog, and that is fine, but he doesn't seem to like science education all that much.

But that isn't really my point. I'm not really into bashing other people, but this post bothered me because it seems to reflect what a lot of science teachers (and administrators and parents and others) think inquiry really is.

Go ahead. Ask someone what an inquiry based classroom should look like. For the most part, you will get an answer along the lines of "kids are exploring whatever they want and calling it science." This misconception is why some science teachers "don't do inquiry."

I'm not sure how this perception of inquiry became so mainstream, however, if you actually read The 5 Essential Features of Inquiry described by the National Research Council (2000), you will find an explanation that it probably strays quite a bit from your definition.

1. The learner engages in scientifically oriented questions.
This does not mean they have to come up with their own questions. I can give them a question. I can even give them the procedure. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. The important part is that the activity is focused on a specific idea that I want kids to understand.

2. The learner gives priority evidence in responding to questions.
The key word here is "evidence." It is vital that we are using data to formulate the answer to our question. So we take data. Then we decide whether or not it is good data. If it's not, then we get back in the lab and figure out what we did that doesn't allow us to draw a conclusion.

3. The learner formulates explanations based on evidence.
This is the hard part. In most science classes, the data doesn't mean squat. We did a lab. It was fun, but I can answer all those conclusion questions by reading my textbook. Being able to truly explain what the data means and drawing those relationships is tough for a lot of kids. And adults.

4. The learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge.
So we have made it through the lab and have a conclusion based on our results. Now the big question is whether or not our conclusion stands up against what we already know. Does our data support the accepted theory or not? When you think about it, this is the whole point of science. Using new data to corroborate or not on a given theory and building our knowledge base allows us to question even more.

5. The learner communicates and justifies explanations.
Oh that communication piece. In my classroom, not only do students have to write conclusions that incorporate at least three different representations of their data, but they also have to present their results to the class. This is why I love the whiteboarding. Kids get up and explain to their peers what their data means and what their conclusions are. They have to really understand the ideas and be able to articulate them in a way that can be understood by others. Then they get to answer any questions that might get thrown their way and justify their conclusions.


A student-centered, inquiry-based classroom does NOT mean the students get free reign and control over their learning experience. If that were true, they wouldn't need me. Student centered means that those kids are not just writing down everything I say, filling out a worksheet and parroting it back to me on a test. That isn't learning. Plus, that is boring.

I teach in an inquiry-based classroom and let me tell you, it takes a lot of work and careful construction to get kids where I need them to go. Even Shawn, whose kids go off in the most amazing of directions, gives kids a lot more support than you might think. Again, inquiry is NOT about sending kids off on their own, hoping they come up with the "right" answer. It is about helping construct their own knowledge and make sense of the world around them. Without a textbook. Yes, it can be done.

I will also tell you that teaching using inquiry does NOT "lower the...bar for success." If all you are doing is having kids "do" science with out them learning any science, maybe science (or teaching in general) is not for you. I have mentioned before how good this way has been for "those" kids in my classes and I believe you have heard me talk about how some of those "upper-level" kids really struggle when it comes to actually thinking about the material.

Inquiry is an entire process that encompasses a whole lot more than just the procedure. When done correctly, it is a rich learning environment that involves active, student centered learning, communication and critical thinking.

Really, you should try it.


*Frank was really on a roll today with way out of character recommendations.

Beyond Tourism

For the last couple days, I have been trekking around the Badlands National Park with Don Duggan-Haas as a part of the ReaL Earth Inquiry Project. This is the second year that I have been lucky enough to be involved with this and have loved every minute of it. Not only do you get to hang out with amazing teachers, but we are creating what Don refers to as VFEs. This deserves its own post, so I will come back to that soon.

Today, we were at the Yellow Mounds and while I am over trying to figure out where the fault line actually ran, a tour bus pulled into the parking area. Out jumped a couple dozen people who on average walked about 15 steps away from the bus and took approximately 100 pictures of the "pretty rocks."

I watched them for a few minutes as they pivoted around, smiled, chatted and loaded back on the bus to travel on to their next stop. I couldn't help but think about how different our experiences were at this exact same place.

Yes, the Yellow Mound are gorgeous and deserve to be front and center in a landscape photo. But what really gets me is that so few people are truly concerned with WHY they are so gorgeous. How did they get there? For goodness sake, why are they yellow?

I thought about that for awhile and how I honestly cannot drive by a formation in any location any more without trying to figure out what it is and how it formed. While my family is usually pretty game, at some point I have to roll the window down and snap a picture on the go because they get annoyed when we have to stop more than five times on a trip to pick up rocks. I tried to think back to a time when I just looked at the rocks (or looked past the rocks) without trying to decode the history. And I couldn't.

This is my hope for my kids. When they take my geology class (or astronomy, meteorology, whatever) I hope they begin to appreciate how beautiful a world we live in and that there is so much we don't know about it.

I have had a couple instances where kids have apparently against their will really got into the actual learning. And I cannot tell you how that makes my heart sing.

Jesse came into my astronomy class one day and threw his books down and said, "Mrs. Schroeder, I hate this class." I was extremely confused by this because he seemed like he was really enjoying it. He said he was driving home with his family last night and started pointing out stars and constellations. "You have me talking to my mother and I don't like it."

This spring I overhead the baseball coach talking about kids in the outfield looking like they were staring at the sky during practice. I smiled the rest of the day when I realized they were in my meteorology class and were trying to figure out what types of clouds were out that day.

So it is possible. There is the chance that what I am doing is reaching through and sticking with some. Not as many as I would like, but I suppose I can start small.

Graduation Cards

So the other day, my nephew graduated from Flint Hills Technical College. I was only planning on paying attention as he walked across because I didn't think I knew anyone else who was receiving that honor. But as we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, I skimmed through the program. At the bottom of the third page was a name I recognized, but never would have expected to see there.

And my heart just swelled.

Cory was a student of mine several years ago. He was a great kid, but came to us with a whole host of disadvantages. He was one of those that I wish I could have taken home and just given another chance.

I always feel so proud of my kids when they have accomplished something amazing like that. I never know how some of them are going to feel about it, so I try not to make too big of a deal about it, but when I got home, I sat down and wrote Cory a note. Just a short congratulations to let him know his accomplishment had not gone unnoticed.

The next day, I had the opportunity to watch my seniors walk across the stage. Mary and Garrett are two kids that I have loved watching grow over the last few years and I am going to miss them terribly.

Mary is one of those students we wish we could duplicate. She is brilliant, organized, driven and she loves learning. As her track coach I threatened to put her in the 3200 m so she would get bored running in circles and discover the cure for cancer. There has never been any doubt that she wouldn't make it through high school and there is no doubt that she will make it through college and graduate school.

Garrett holds a special place in my heart as well. As a freshman, he was awkward and more than a little bit annoying. As a sophomore, he was still awkward, but slightly less annoying. He never made it out of the slightly annoying phase, but really grew into his own person. He is unique in a lot of ways and I really believe that one of these days, he will discover his calling and find his niche.

I have tried to write notes to each of them, tried to express how much I learned and benefited from having them move through my life. I still haven't found the right words for either of their cards.

Sometimes they just don't come out right.

Minecrafting My Class

So there has been kind of a barrage of events in the last week or so that have really got me thinking about how my classroom (and school in general) is set up. I know I am doing it wrong, I am just having trouble figuring out how to get it right.

First, Frank tweeted a link to a place that takes your online class for you and somewhere around 17 seconds later, Shawn posted his thoughts on it. "We’ve bred an entire crop of people who think school is something to finish. That learning is somehow terminable."

Later that day, our curriculum director sent us a link to an edudemic article discussing whether Minecraft is the new "ultimate tool in education". Now, my eleven-year-old loves this game, but I have never played it, so maybe I am missing out on a golden educational opportunity. But I doubt it. I am always a little leery when someone starts using video games as a major avenue for their classroom. I can see where there might be a place for something like Angry Birds or Endless Ocean on a limited basis, but to set up your entire class around it? Just not my thing. What I do know about the game is that you pretty much start from scratch and build your own world. Now, that is a good idea.

And then there was Monica, her hexagonal bubbles and an accidental capstone. It all started one morning with a failed attempt at paper mache. One of the girls who visits me every morning was looking at her friend's project. A balloon had been coated in tacky glue the day before and it was not sticking like all had hoped. So Monica was given permission to peel the glue off the balloon. This was kind of cool in itself because it all came off in a big sheet. So she wadded it up and played with it for awhile. Then came the questions. How does glue work? How can it be a liquid in the bottle but a solid outside? Can we make it a liquid again?

To be honest, I have no idea how glue works. The thought had never even occurred to me, so I told her she could heat it up if she would like to see if it would melt again. She did, and eventually discovered that this was not a physical change.* But then someone suggested that adding water would restore the liquid state. So she tried that. Nope, but the water boils up around the ball of glue in thousands of tiny hexagon bubbles. Now that is cool.

This started an entire chain of questions that just keeps getting longer. On the third day, I finally suggested that this could be a capstone if she were to write it up.

Then she got nervous.

Because she didn't have an answer that she thought was "correct." How in the world was she supposed to get points** for something when she didn't really know what it was. So we had a really good discussion that sometimes it isn't about what you know for sure, but what you don't know for sure. Because, really, she now has a whole list of things that she knows this type of glue is NOT. Sometimes, dear children, that is how science works.

This really got me to thinking about how I could make my classes a lot more like those before school projects. I know Shawn does an amazing job with this, and ultimately, I would like to move in that direction. I want to find out what I can do to get kids interested again; to make them curious about the things around them, and to not just turn to Google for a quick answer. I realize I am fighting an uphill battle, but I want them to realize that learning is beautiful and it really, truly is never ending.



*I cannot express my joy at her using those actual words.
**Grrrrrrr.....