The Heart of Your Matter: The Cardiovascular System
I discovered a wonderful web site for teaching about the human cardiovascular system. I cannot remember for sure, but I think Karl made all of us in the science department aware of this site last year. I use this in my physiology class and it has been a great tool. I wanted to share it with everyone because cardiovascular disease affects so many in our lives. Recently, a few people close to me have had loved ones who are having to change their lives and habits due to cardiovascular disease. If you have questions about your heart and heart health this is a great resource. De. Oz (from Oprah!) is a narrator for some of the video clips. I am also hoping Dr. Oz reads this and decides to come and make an appearance in my Physiology class!
http://www.invisionguide.com/heart/flash/index_reg.phpInvision Guide
ACES Training - Animals in Curriculum-based Ecosystem Studies
This past January I participated in the ACES Signals of Spring Course which was sponsored by NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration). Four of my colleagues that also teach Biology at AHS participated with me. The course is designed to teach the importance of the ocean using image interpretation of the ocean in bathymetry, chlorophyll, and sea surface temperatures. It applied to us in Biology because we cover the Plant and Animal Kingdom in our Spring Semester. The ACES training incorporates these Kingdoms by covering topics such as photosynthesis and productivity, cell structures, biodiversity, food chains and webs, nutrient cycling, adaptations of organisms and human impacts on ecosystems.
The meeting format for this class was quite interesting. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening I would log onto the ACES website and also call a 1-800 number to be tele-connected. There were approximately 25 participants that could all hear the presentation and interact by speaking through the phone. We could see who was speaking by watching our computer screen. We could also raise our hand by pushing a hand button using our mouse and then when called upon by the facilitator speak our response into the phone. Occasionally some of us would get muted because of our barking dog, or toddler in the background, but overall I was impressed with the format and how few kinks it had.
The Biology team at AHS has already started to implement some of what we covered into our Plant Unit which started this week. I am most excited to show students the live satellite imagery I can now access that shows the migration of marine animals that have been tagged at various Marine Sanctuaries around the U.S. We will use the satellite imagery this spring as we get into our Animal Unit. This training provides an excellent example of how technology can be used educationally and how technology is changing what we do in the classroom. I think students will enjoy looking at live data showing where polar bears are traveling on sea ice, rather than reading about it in a text book or even watching a movie about polar bears!
Digital Story Telling
In our past 21C meeting we had an opportunity to play with
photostory and movie maker, which I found beneficial. Last year 2
nd semester I assigned a project in my
physiology class during the immunity unit. I asked students to work in pairs to create an advertisement about some part of the human immune system. As with all student projects some were great, however I was not happy with the quality of most. So, this year I wasn't sure I would do this project again. But, after reading the article
Learning: Tips For Digital Story Telling by Jon
Orech and discussing with my co-workers how they have used photo story in their classes I think I will try it again, with some revisions. First, I will share with my students the tips Jon
Orech gives in his article. Second, I feel I need to be okay with letting students express their ideas in their own way. I tend to get mad or disappointed when students take a project like this and put together something that is silly (at least in my mind). This happened last year and the disappointment is still with me today. But, in our meeting a few teachers shared digital projects that their students had done, and the silly factor was definitely there, but I could also see that some real time, effort and learning had taken place. So, I realized that the issue was more mine than the students just having a poor work ethic. Stay tuned, I will let you know how it goes... and if anyone has other suggestions I would love to listen!
December
It's Sunday evening and it is my routine to begin thinking about the week. Tonight I am also reflecting on the semester and 21C. I am thankful to be part of this group, each member and especially Karl has taught me, encouraged me, and helped me to grow as an educator. When I think about my philosophy of education I realize how much it is influenced by the discussions and time spent in 21C. Thank you.
Reflection 11-5-07
Here I am, it is November 2007. I am writing a true reflection of where I am today, and where I hope to go.
In Biology we are beginning our final unit of the semester on Evolution. I enjoy teaching this unit. Last year I made a lot of changes in how I teach evolution, most of the change "
evolved" from applying the
constructivist teaching philosophy. For example I use an activity to teach
speciation in which students randomly select fish traits from an envelope and then are able to decide and create an
environment in which the fish would succeed. It may seem elementary but this activity supports the concept of natural selection which is what drives evolution. There are also many wonderful web resources the Bio team has found, and used in the past year. It is relevant interesting knowledge that students respond to.
In my Physiology class we are also beginning our final unit before semester break; the Nervous system. I took a class last spring in Boulder called "Brain Matters", and it was a fabulous class. I gained new knowledge myself and came away with exciting ideas on how to present and teach information on the human brain. I plan to apply much of what I learned at this class to my Nervous system unit here at
AHS. Hopefully the students will enjoy the new material as much as I did.
Reflecting on the Creativity Panel
I watched the presentation called "Creativity Panel" a few weeks ago. Since that time I have been thinking about some of the things I heard. My mind often wanders back to the Creativity Panel as I begin teaching a class. The Panel discussed the design of classrooms; and they used the term "garage metaphor" to refer to how a classroom should look or be set up to stimulate creativity. The point being that
classrooms should be messy, a place of discovery, a place where we learn by failure. The garage in ones home is often the messy place of discovery by failure. I don't have a garage, but we have a "man room" and that is where I paint my furniture and try to fix household things. I understand what the Panel was getting at, and as I begin teaching and see my students in nice, neat rows I realize our classrooms are not messy places of discovery (at least not very often). The Panel also discussed the importance of
socialization for students. They said, kids come to school to talk to their friends and socialize, not to sit in straight rows and listen to a lecture. If we could change our classrooms into messy garages where we learn through talking, doing and sometimes failing, how much more creative could we be? I would like to know! I guess, it makes me re-visit my vision for
AHS. Why not get rid of the desks, and create safe classrooms that are more like garages.
Literacy & Learning, Network Administration & PLC's
I have been thinking about the
Warlick presentation on Literacy, the article
Teacher as Network Administrator and the
PLC work we are doing at
AHS. In my mind it all fits together. From
Warlick's slide show on Literacy in the 21st Century, "The best thing we can be teaching our children today, is how to teach themselves" and "Being a reader today, means being able to find the information, decode it, critically evaluate it and organize it into personal digital libraries". These two quotes struck me. I agree with the statements, the difficult thing is moving forward in my classroom and becoming a network administrator. One resource I have is my
PLC. The
PLC I work with is open to new ideas and I feel that each member has a desire to do what is best for kids. I would like to discuss with my
PLC team members how we could begin to help students build an on-line network. In the article
Teacher as Network Administrator it states, "The ability to have your students access the absolutely most recent information on an issue and have it available to them for basically free is a radical change for classrooms." This is a radical change for classrooms, and I do think students need to appreciate the wealth of information they are exposed to but also have experience in filtering it. Finally, as I reflect on the question asked in 21C regarding our mission statement, "Five years from now, imagine there are no barriers, in what ways would be different?" I imagine a classroom where the students use their network more than any text. I imagine all classrooms as laptop classrooms, with minimal wireless issues! I imagine students
excited by the the information they find, and I imagine students teaching teachers and other students as they learn.
