Our new metaphor

Over the weekend I was vacuuming, which I find cathartic but that's another story, and was thinking about school.  An old saying popped into my mind: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime."  This quote is by a Jewish Spanish philosopher named Maimonides.

I wrote the quote on my white board; however, I wrote give, a day, teach, and lifetime in another color.  At the beginning of each period I had the class read the quote and I asked them what it means.  Each student was correct in their interpretation.

I then asked them why I chose to write those specific words in color.  I got, "You wanted them to stand out." or "They are important."  Well, yes, that is correct but I wanted more information.  I had to prompt them more.  From each class I finally got that they saw the quote as a metaphor for our new PBL class.  SCORE!

My next question was: is it easier to be given a fish to eat or fish for it, reel it in, clean it and then prepare it?  Every time I was told that getting a fish is easier.  I then asked them which class is easier: the old way of me talking and assigning work or the new way.  I got, "I like this way better".  I had to remind students that this is not what I asked.  I then repeated the question, "Which class set up is easier."  That is when I saw the lightbulbs go off: yes students, this way is harder and you are going to have to dig in to get the "fish".  However, when you work for something you are going to retain that information much longer.

I'll keep the quote up.

Happy Teaching!
C

I'm FLIPPING

Flipping you ask?  I am flipping my class in my next unit.  This means I will be delivering notes through video presentations.  Students will be responsible for watching assigned lessons and or videos prior to coming to class.

Now that I have more time in class I will be assigning project based learning activities.  Now, I'm not really sure what those activities are yet.

What I do know:
1. My unit is on Middle Ages Europe
2. My unit will be approximately 3 and half weeks
3. My students will need access to both the internet and some sort of electronic presentation program
4. I want a variety of different student outputs: formative and summative
5. I want my students to share their output: either in class or online
6. I will use Schoology to facilitate the delivery

What I do NOT know:
1. How exactly I'm going to deliver my lessons
2. What exactly will my students produce
3. How much time should I allow for class work

I have talked to my county blended learning coordinator, my school ITRT and consulted a ton (okay, that's a hyperbole) of websites.  My favorite website is bie.org.  It is full of very useful and well organized information.

I will keep you up to date on my flipping!

It's the end of the world: a project

The first semester had two projects.  Both of them were thesis papers based on specific SOLs.  I am not sure the students enjoyed it but I think most honed their research and writing skills.  

Second semester will offer a new project.  I got the idea from another teacher, who I found online, that gave a similar assignment.  

So here it is: I will give the students a scenario that the world's population has dropped by 98% as a result of an influenza outbreak.   That means there are a little over 100 million people in the world and only 6.5 million people in the United States.  Currently, Virginia has a bit over 8 million people.  In the scenario, the influenza outbreak has been stabilized but the government, economy, and society have failed and need to be restructured.  The new government has put a search committee together to locate students of World History to help advise the new government on how to proceed.  What worked well in the past and what should our new government, economy, and society.  

I would like to offer a few options for the product the student is producing.  Obviously, they could  do a written report: like on you would turn into a boss for a proposal (not a research paper).  I am also thinking power point.  I would like to come up with a few more products.  I guess I'll keep my thinking cap on.

Happy Teaching!

C 

Aqueduct Construction

We have been busy this week of Thanksgiving learning about Roman contributions.  We discussed how arches, not native to Rome, were used to produce structures that could hold more weight and produce buildings with huge indoor spaces.

On Monday, we watched the Khan Academy video about the Pantheon.   The students were encouraged to take notes as I stopped it and discussed.  We discussed that a structure like the Pantheon would have been impossible to make with Greek post and lintel construction.  The video can be found here.

On Wednesday, I had the students divide into groups of two or three.  I gave them six cups, a sheet of construction paper, and scissors.  They had the class period to make their "working" aqueduct.  The requirements were the aqueducts had to have arches, no adhesive and a small glue cap had  to run down the aqueduct.  The only grading guidelines I gave had to do with behavior.  If I had to speak to a student about their behavior or redirect a student I would deduct 5 points per discussion.  I only had to take points away from three students.  Overall it was a great lesson!

Here are some pictures:

Here is a video of one of my favorites!

I got this idea from this online lesson.

Happy Teaching!

C