5 Reasons I'm Glad To Go Back To School

Folks, it's time for an attitude adjustment. I've been having pretty mixed feelings about returning to school. At times, I'm OK with it. At other times, I'm hating life. At yet other times, I'm excited. I'm tired of the mood swings. (It's like I'm pregnant or something - no, wait, that's my wife.) So, in an effort to pull myself out of the funk, I'm going to write five reasons that I'm GLAD to be heading into a new school year.

...

Uh, number one...

Number oNe...

*sigh*

This is going to take a bit of effort. Alright, here we go:

1. I'm excited to try out some new ideas. I've had some cool lessons percolating on the back burner for a while now. Last year, between grad classes and Robotics, I didn't have time to pursue them. Now I do. It'll be great to finally take them off the drawing board.
2. Fresh starts are refreshing. In few other professions do you really get a fresh start so often. Most gainfully employed people need to switch jobs to really start anew. Teachers get to do it every 12 months. Had a miserable sixth period class? Wait a few months and you'll get a new one. Messed up a perfect lesson? Don't worry - you can try it again next year. Fresh starts are one of the hidden benefits to teaching.
3. I'm on the best part of the learning curve. As a fourth year teacher, I'm in a great place. I've been teaching long enough that I'm no longer in survival mode. But, I'm still learning a ton - AND I recognize it. It's a great feeling.
4. I no longer feel obligated to do ALL of the housework. Of course, I didn't do ALL of the housework, but it sure felt like I did. Since Cali had to work like normal over the summer and I had all this "free" time, it fell to me to do the laundry, wash the dishes, clean the house, etc. At the beginning of the summer, it wasn't so bad. But by the end, I hated doing dishes. Could I mention this to Cali? Nope. She'd give me the "I'm pregnant with your baby and I have to work every day while you ride your bikes AND NOW YOU WANT ME TO PITY YOU?!?!" look. No, thank you. I'll do the dishes.
5. I'm getting a Smartboard. Actually, it's in my room right now, just waiting for the software to be installed on the presentation computer. Cool!!!!! I borrowed one a few times last year and really had fun with it. But this one should be MINE. I've got some great ideas on how to use it.
6. BONUS! I'll get to bike commute this year! No grad classes half way across the county any more! Hooray!
   

Honestly, I feel a little better now. Let's hope it sticks. If not, well, ...hey, just have 10 months 'til summer break!

Loose Ends: Mr. E Science Theater 2008

This last school year I tried a new project with my Honors physics classes, called "Mr. E Science Theater." Inspired by an article I had read in an old copy of The Physics Teacher, I envisioned my students giving presentations on some physics-related subject of their choosing. I had a few goals in mind:

• High Quality: I wanted my students to put together a high quality presentation. Not only did I want clear and scientific explanations, I wanted interesting and engaging presentations.
• Student Choice: Very much related to my high quality standard, I wanted to give my student's some choice in what and how they presented. I offered three broad subject options: science fair presentations, physics problem re-enactments and explanations, and real life physics demonstrations. Likewise, they were given three options on when/how to present: in-class live presentation, in-class video presentation, and out-of-class live presentation.

The project went surprisingly well for a first-time, shot-in-the-dark attempt. (My motto in life: when doing anything for the first time, survival is success.) As expected, some groups absolutely loved it and ran with it. Other groups were decidedly less enthusiastic. To give you some idea of the quality of some of the presentations, check out this video one group made to preface their calculations of their cars' horsepower:



I LOVE it! One of the student's parents later told me how impressed he was that his son had been willing to spend Spring break making a physics video. Of course, there is very little obvious physics in the clip, but from the speedometer scenes the students' did calculations and came to reasonable results. Hooray!

As a follow-up to the project, I created a wiki about the project and had my students "edit" it. The wiki I created was really just an outline. Students were expected to add details and suggestions to the outline. You can see the wiki here. Responses were good, but many were somewhat repetitive and borderline (and not-so-borderline) silly. I like the wiki as a way to encourage collaboration, but I think I need to refine my (written and expressed) expectations.

This project is definitely in the schedule for next year. Now that I have some quality examples to show, I'm excited to see what my students will do!

Thoughts from the Saddle: Grad School Reflections

Chillin' after class: VT Science Education Cohort 2007-2008

My graduate school experience is quickly coming to an end.

*attempting to control my excitement*

I'll finish my last classes in a couple of weeks and unofficially graduate mid-August. (Although technically, I believe I "graduated" in early May.) It's a natural time to look back. Let's do it in list format (the best kind of format, if you ask me).

Things I Liked About Grad School

• Cohort System: the VT science education program is set up so that all students entering at the same time take just about every class together. Part of this is simply that there is little variation on what classes the program requires and when they are scheduled. Nevertheless, I very much appreciate having familiar classmates. As reserved as I am, not having to get to know new faces each semester was a relief.
• Emphasis on Applicability: Jim, my program adviser, often explained to us that one goal of the program was to truly support the work that teachers do in the classroom. During the program, this sentiment translated into assignments and projects that had direct applicability to my classrooms: unit plans, lessons, activities, etc. By and large, I wrote very few research or educational philosophy papers. (The vast majority of the papers I've written have been reflections about the teaching profession and practice, which are quite helpful actually.)
• Mix of Online and Face-to-Face Classes: Personally, I can see the value in both kinds of classes and really I can enjoy both. But when I consider how different the program would have been if it had been totally one type or the other, I'm grateful that they mixed it up. (Trust me: Cali is grateful, too.)
• Short Duration: I began grad school last May and am finishing this August, a grand total of 14 months. That means I only had to take classes during ONE school year. (See below for my thoughts on balancing teaching and coursework.)
  

Things I Disliked About Grad School

• The Balancing Act: At moments during the program, I was going crazy trying to keep all the bowling pins I was juggling up in the air. Teaching, VT classes, homework, sponsoring the robotics team, keeping Cali happy, serving in the church, after school committees - at times I was only borderline insane. (Some might argue whether "borderline" is an appropriate adverb here.) The disturbing Law that I consciously avoid considering is the Second Law of Life: "Life never gets simpler. Entropy only increases."
  
• Virtual Flat Tire on the Bike Commute: While I anticipated a loosing a good bit of free time (read: bike time) during grad school, what I did not realize is how effectively it would prevent me from bike commuting. Between Robotics meetings on Thursday evenings and classes two nights a week, I had too much ground to cover in not enough time. That meant I got to know Rt. 7 from behind the steering wheel too well, much too well.
  

As you can see, the positives outweigh the negatives; overall, I think grad school has been a great experience. I definitely feel that I am a better teacher for having done it. Of course, the most convincing rewards won't arrive until the first paycheck of the new year does...

Update: Bonus Comic! Source: xkcd.com

Robotics Trip to Atlanta - Day 3

(This one took a while to get out. Why? Because spending 5 days with 40 teenagers is exhausting!)

One of the chaperones took one look at me this morning and said, "You look tired!" It's been a long week. I'm glad we're going home tomorrow.

We had our last two qualification matches today and lost both, leaving us 3-4, ranked 54th out of 86 teams. Boo. It sounds like an excuse, but... we didn't get much help from our alliance partners (see this thread on Chief Delphi for a discussion of the sorting algorithm used to determine match-ups during qualification matches) and were double-teamed constantly. I guess it's a compliment to our team and robot that we would draw so much coverage. I was surprised by how high some teams were ranked; luck in alliance partners during the qualification matches is a real factor.

To determine the FIRST champion, the 300+ teams at the Championship were divided into four divisions (Newton, Galileo, Curie, and Archimedes). Each team plays seven qualification matches, after which the top eight teams select two alliance partners to join them in the division tournament. The tournament matches are played best out of three. (Each match-up plays at least 2 times.) The division tournament determines a division champion, who goes on to compete against the other division champions to determine the FIRST Champion.

After our last qualification match, part of the team volunteered to help take down practice fields in the pits. (I went with them because a free T-shirt was offered.) Alliance selections took place while we were down there. We may have been ranked 54th, but we were the 5th team selected! It was exciting to see our team number pop up on the monitor; we let out a cheer when we saw it. Our alliance was led by Team 1595 (St. Georges School from Spokane, WA) and included us and Team 93 (Appleton Area School District from Appleton, WI). 93's robot was a ramp bot; it worked reasonably well and could score ringers too, albeit slowly. 93's ringer skills actually came in handy a number of times when 1595's robot and ours were encountering some harsh defense. Team 1595's robot, was a ringer bot, like ours, but had a crazy arm. It looked kind of like the number 4 (with two joints and a claw).

Our first match-up was with the 4th seeded alliance. In what would be indicative of just how deep the field was at the competition, the 8th seed beat the 1st seed. In similar fashion, we beat the 4th seed with a fair amount of ease and moved onto the semi-finals. In the Semi's we lost in 3 games by 8 points. Would have won by 2, but our alliance was penalized 10 for "de-scoring" a ringer. From the murmuring of the flight crew, it was a pretty bogus call. (Check out this thread to read all the grievances on the officiating.) Nevertheless, I was pretty darn proud of our kids. They fought the good fight.

Closing ceremonies was intermixed with the matches between divisional champions. The matches were pretty rowdy, lots of pushing and shoving, and one alliance was DQ'ed for tipping a robot on the other alliance. Closing ceremonies were slow, and long, and well, I'm not much for that sort of thing. It was impressive to hear about the team that one the Chairman's Award, the most prestigious award given. Team 365 from Wilmington, Delaware, the Miracle Workerz, have done some amazing things - very deserving in my opinion. A big head from DARPA announced the future involvement of his organization with FIRST and showed some cool videos about the things they do. Very cool. The DARPA Grand Challenge is an incredible event; check it out if you've never heard of it.

The wrap party after closing ceremonies was loud and dark. In all fairness, the party should have been outside, but rain and a Thrasher's playoff hockey game prevented that. So, performers prepared for an expansive venue were forced indoors. I should have brought ear plugs. The usual assortment of carnival-type games and booths were set up and the food was pretty good. The entertainment was pretty impressive: Stomp (the Stomp), a hypnotist, Circ de Soleil, and others put on a good, but deafening show. The team was exhausted, though, so we only stayed an hour or so.

Not a bad day! Not a bad trip! It's amazing what these kids, with a little help from some patient engineers, can do!

Robotics Trip to Atlanta - Day 2

Well, well, what a day! I've been fueled solely on caffeine today. I'm due to crash anytime now. So I'll have to make this quick. The run-down:

• Got woken up at 4:30 a.m. when the mentor I'm sharing a room with finally arrived. I knew he was getting in on Friday, just not that he was getting in at such a unbearable hour.
  
• Tossed and turned 'til 5, got up ran 3 miles on one of the hotel treadmills, watched Sportscenter on (yes, on) the treadmill. Remember how we're staying in this posh hotel that even has TVs built into their treadmills?
  
• Met the team, went to breakfast at the CNN center food court (it's miserable to have fast food for breakfast although I did enjoy one of those "Chug" chocolate milks), got to the Dome around 7:30.
• About 8 a.m.: Robot Parade! Just what you'd expect - a gaggle of nerds meandering around the playing fields acting... well, nerdy. Parade included too many people and not enough robots. 'nuff said.
• Opening ceremonies: blah, blah, blah... not really interesting to me.
  
• 9:28 a.m.: First qualification match: Us 52, Them 2 - we rocked.
• 11:03 a.m.: Second qualification match: Us 271, Them 46 - we really rocked. 271 points scored in one game turned out to be the highest for our field for the day. Our flight crew is awesome.
  
• 2:12 p.m.: Third match: Us 0, Them 128 - we through a chain and immobilized ourselves. Ugh. That was a tough one to watch.
• 2:42 p.m.: Fourth match: Us 82, Them 4 - Back to dominating. We were seriously the best robot on the field in this match. At this point, we were ranked 5th out of 86 teams in our division.
  
• 4:54 p.m.: Us 2, Them 54 - another tough loss. We were workin' like robotic beavers, but didn't get any help from our alliance partners. One broke down in the wrong place (and needless to say, at the wrong time), was penalized, and cost our alliance 10 hard-earned points. The other alliance had two former world champions. I could tell from the get-go that we were in for a drubbing. Final ranking: 38th. We're definitely better than that ranking shows and the other teams know it. It means though that we'll really have to market ourselves well tomorrow.
• Team photo in the bright sun with the robot. I may have gotten sun-burnt.
  
• Call my babe. (I miss her!) It's amazing how I've only been married for eight (eight!) months and I already miss sleeping by her.
  
• Dave & Busters: OK food, fun games, good times.
  

Up for tomorrow: Our final two qualification matches, alliance selection, tournament, and glory! We won't rank high enough to get automatically into the tournament, but we should be selected. Keep your fingers crossed!

Robotics Trip to Atlanta - Day 1

As a mentor for the HHS Robotics Team, I get to accompany the team to one competition a year. This year, it's the FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta from April 12-14. If you're interested in the fun, you can see the webcast here.

A little bit of background: FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the organization that runs the competitions, is committed to persuading young people that science and engineering are cool and deserve as much attention as American Idol. Each January FIRST announces a game. (Oooo, a game!) During the next six weeks, each team must design and construct a robot to play that game. For instance, this year's game is Rack 'N' Roll (animation here). It's played by two three-team alliances; each alliance must program their robots to strategically hang colorful inner-tubes on a large rack to score points. Competitions run several days to determine the seeding in a single-elimination tournament played on the last day.

The competitions have the look and feel of opening night of Return of the King - loud, cheering, costumed weirdos, face paint, and large crowds of Red Bull-abusing teenagers. It's pretty impressive. Dean Kamen, one of FIRST's founders, has said that he'd like their robotics competitions to be as popular as professional basketball. (If he aimed for professional hockey instead, we'd already be there!)

We left yesterday from school after 4th period. (No 6th period! Hooray!) The charter bus was much nicer than I was expecting - it had a decent TV/DVD system, faux leather headrests, and a bus driver that shamelessly rocked out to James Brown for miles and miles on I-81. During the twelve hour ride there, we watched the entire Star Wars saga (I say "entire" because the new ones don't count), Spaceballs, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yup, Dean would be proud of us defying all those nerd stereotypes. Favorite nerd-ism overheard: "I bet I could outrun a Bantha." When arrived around 12:30, I checked everyone in, tucked 'em in (and took the wine out of their mini-fridges), and was in bed by 2. Not bad, especially considering that last year I didn't get to sleep until 6!

Today was a practice day. The pit crew unpacked the robot, checked it, and played six scheduled practice matches. Everyone was tired and pretty laid back. The robot was working fine from the get-go, but the software guys wanted to tweak code - they're never finished. I did some sudoku, listened to Cali's iPod (thanks, babe!), and wandered the pits. Highlight of the day: Autodesk, one of the big sponsors of FIRST, was handing out leatherman-like multi-tools after their presentations; some of the students got one.

Somehow our team ended up staying in a posh four star hotel, the Westin Peachtree Plaza, standing 73 floors tall in the heart of Atlanta, just down the street from the Georgia Dome. Towels are soft as newborn-bum, beds are stacked with dozens of pillows, and free wifi in the lobby. Not bad, eh? Some of the kids are in the pool now, some watching movies in their rooms, and others riding the glass elevator to the top floor to check out the view and the rotating restaurant. Only one frustration: with 73 floors, the elevators get a lot of use. Unfortunately, I don't know if these Westin elevators are up to the task. Sure, they're fast, but dumb as tar. I watched one bounce from the 45th to the 32nd back to the 39th, down to the 23rd back to the 30th, and so on as I waited for ten minutes for the thing to reach me on the 5th! They could learn something from C3PO!

What's up for tomorrow: opening ceremonies, the "robot parade" (don't know what that is, but I think it must be part of every nerd's paradise), start of qualifying matches, Dave & Buster's for dinner, hopefully victory and glory! Huzzah!

Green Housing? Sustainable Architecture? Who Cares?

Over the last grading period, I've noticed something about my sixth period class: a severe apathy towards all things school-related seems to have gripped them. Sixth period is one of my Active physics class, a conceptual physics class geared toward sophomores. Most of the students that end up in Active physics barely passed biology last year and would have failed miserably in chemistry this year, had they taken it. Active physics gives them a year to work on their math skills and to (hopefully) mature a bit before they attempt chemistry. Often my Active kids have diagnosed learning disabilities; I team-teach the class with a special ed teacher. Needless to say, these kids have little patience for school; they've never been good at it, so why should they try? If it's not on their iPod, it's not worthwhile. Dave, my team-teacher, and I have really struggled to get sixth period involved and interested. Nothing we do seems to catch them.

Now it would be one thing if they were just listlessly sitting there, drooling. It's another when they're throwing food, bickering endlessly with each other, swearing like it's going out of fashion, vandalizing desks and textbooks with bathroom-stall material, and committing other assorted acts of destruction. At times, I've felt, "As long as no one dies, this class will have been a success." Needless to say, I dread sixth period. So what can I do? How can I grab them? Even if I can't salvage sixth period, what could I do next year to prevent another disaster like this?

An article in The Physics Teacher led me to wander around the website of a charter school system in California, High Tech High. The schools emphasizes interdisciplinary learning and project-oriented evaluation. A chemistry/math teacher created an interesting project for her students called This New Home; the write-up is quite detailed. The basic idea is that students design a "green" home, one that includes certain elements of sustainable design and planning. The end product is a scale model of the home they design and a brochure describing the green elements demonstrated through it. When I first read through it, I was really excited. I thought, "This is something that would be perfect for Active!"

Now, although I couldn't do it this year - too much planning and money needed for a project like this - I could try it next year, probably during the third quarter when we study electricity and circuits. I like the project for several reasons:

• It addresses a real-life problem: Everyone's heard about global warming and what we should or shouldn't be doing to solve it. The problem isn't one that's contrived or made up simply for a physics class. Students deal directly with what they hear on the news.
  
• It involves a variety of skills: Students will have to do math (geometry, bugdeting, ratios), physics (electricity, circuits, photovoltaics), and art (models, design schematics, brochure).
  
• It's hands-on: Students work with their hands to create designs and models.
  
• It involves the the community: I intend to invite some area architects familiar with sustainable design to present about green housing, provide examples, and critique student designs.

The question I keep coming back to is this: Who cares? Why won't they not care about green housing and global warming as much as they don't care about conservation of momentum and projectile motion? Considering that this project will require considerable time and expense to plan and run, wouldn't it be a waste? If I did this project with my sixth period class, I'm certain I'd regret it. So why bother?

(Now don't get me wrong. I plan on doing this project next year - I've already invested a lot of time and thought into it - but I want some sort of assurance that it's going to be a success. And I want ideas about what I can do to make sure it'll be a success.)

Textbook Writers vs. Students with Cameras

Love the video! As a physics teacher, I can sympathize with textbook writers. (It's hard to write 60 relevant, original practice problems!) I applaud the creativity of these kids!