The last two days we have spent developing the "My Favorite Things" App together. My thinking was that I love the "ColorSleuth Lesson" because it gets all students on the same page.
The My Favorite Things App is a little complicated and students tend to just skip it and then are in BIG trouble when it becomes an image scroller app. This way all students (should) have a a functioning My Favorite Things App ready to go for the next lesson.
Overall, this was a good move. I have about a total of 7/65 students who already finished it. They did it at home (those buggers...) so they could do extensions or work on other work. I have decided I am ok with this solution. We are challenged to keep in mind student mental health, allowing those kids who worked outside of class some down time (or independently directed time) is and OK thing to do.
In my first hour the socratic method was a flop. I mean, questions like "What is 2-1?" was met with silence. Even when I asked them to talk to an elbow buddy about a question, it was silent. So I made them go for a walk and talk to get energy up. I played high energy music as they walked back to the room. That helped a bit.
The next day, I asked students what the word "Assessment" meant. They said "test".
Which, I get. But I asked about what other kinds of ways to assess students there are. That generated a few more ideas. I was fairly transparent that when I ask the class a question, and it is silent, I cannot assess the class. That is an informal assessment that lets me know that students are tracking with me. Of course, there are always "formal assessments", but having students participate in informal assessments is more important to me. (I told this all to students). Today after that speech they seems a little more willing to engage.
Tomorrow we will pick up with pair programming with the image scroller app.
AP CSA
Today we did a peer review of their 2D array projects. It was good to see students play with other programs - they were going strong into leaving feedback for about 15 minutes and then they reviewed the feedback. I am not collecting their projects for another few days so they can make changes if they want, but in theory they were supposed to be done today.
Students writing feedback on pink sheets at each project
This is what the feedback sheet looked like - students needed to go to at least 4 projects - most went to more projects.
After that, we did two FRQ questions on 2D arrays. We are ahead of where we were last year. That means we have nearly 5 weeks for AP test prep. I will be honest... that is too much time. I am wondering if I could do a cool data project for a week of that time... I have already sent out feelers into the facebook land for ideas.
Geometry
Students tested today on trig. We are doing "Proficiency Based Grading". Don't ask me what that means... it has morphed a ton over time. Right now, it means that our tests are aligned to learning targets (which the were before) and we put each learning target in the gradebook on a scale of 4 where 4 is "Mastery". NOW... I will say this has raised a good question of "What is mastery in math?". I would say mastering content means you can apply it in a novel context. But what does that mean about the "exposure" topics you might cover.
Long story short... we are still working through this as a PLC.
One Good Thing
Our LNL Facilitator group met today and there were some good a-has with the group. It is good to have such a fantastic group of allies in these teachers!
Also, I missed 2 days of project work time - typically students get crabby at me and are mad that I wasn't there to fix all of their problems. BUT, I actually don't think a SINGLE student complained, that was nice! And their projects were good! Double win!
