Study Tips to Pass on to Students: Feel free to add more!

1. Don't procrastinate.  Nothing is worse than remembering the assignment that was due... yesterday...
2. Start studying for tests and quizzes about a week in advance.  A little bit each day will go a long way!
3. Review the concepts you DON'T know, and don't spend a lot of time on things you do!
4. If you don't understand get something, ask a friend.  If that friend can't help, that's why you have more than one friend.  Just kidding, ask someone else.  If you can't find anyone, ask a teacher.  
5. Don't even bother trying to cheat.  We're teachers.  We've seen almost everything.  We're smarter than you, and we'll catch you.

Reflections on a Great Debate...

I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the online debate that we just completed for our Master's class.  Perhaps it's because the last thing I did with my students was a debate and it's still fresh in my mind, but I feel like we were well prepared for what was expected of us, and I had a lot of fun gathering data, trying to tone down my arguments, and to try and present what I could in the best way possible.  One thing that I would like to try and do next year with my own students, is to give them more time preparing for and practicing the debate.  This year, I spent one day explaining (and practicing!) the format of a debate, another day gathering research and preparing speeches, and that's it.  They had little time once the debate begun to actually figure out what they were going to say.  For a student who is already wary of speaking in public, the lack of time would be truly nerve-wracking for a student, especially when many of them have never actually participated in a debate before.  I don't know if engaging in online debates through VoiceThread would work well with 8th grade students, but the time it allows for formulating clear thoughts is certainly something I'm going to look into!

Interesting Thought on Grading...

This past year, I thought everything ran quite smoothly, and that my students really learned a lot.  To prepare for our final exams, I gave the students extra time in class to work on their final exam study guide, to review the answers of the study guide, and to play a Jeopardy review game that covered the content for the test.  I was confident that my students were going to do well!  Then, I got their scores back.  While they were not bad by any means, (the average for Science 8 classes was around a 70%, while Accelerated Science 8 classes averaged 90%), my colleague that teaches across the hall from me had a whopping 77% for her Science 8 classes, and a 94% for her Accelerated Science 8 classes.  I was perplexed.  For years, our students have had virtually identical performances on tests and exams.  This was the first time in five years that her students had outperformed the other classes by over a 4% margin.

In talking with her, we asked what she had done differently to ensure that high rate of success.  She simply said that she made her students complete test corrections for the two large unit tests before the final exam, and if they didn't get a question right the second time around, she would make them do it again...and again, until they had every question correct, and an understanding of why it was right.  Not only that, but throughout the final quarter of the year, she would not allow the students to participate in highly engaging labs until all of their work was done, and well.

She received complaints from parents that their child was not able to participate in the labs that their friends were getting to do, but I guess when the scores come back at the end of the day, her students performed at a higher rate of success because of this emphasis on correctness and completeness.  While I am intrigued to try this in my own room, I do wonder how successful this method will be for students that struggle to turn in their work the first time anyway.  Well, live and learn!  I'll let you know how it goes...

Keeping Kids Engaged 'til the End!

I am so thankful that I ended up changing the order of my unit so that I am doing my Energy Research Project at the very end of the school year.  In the past, I did this about a month prior to school ending, and I would have only 1-2 weeks at the end of the year in which I would have to squeeze all of the lessons on electricity and magnetism.  This year, I decided to try something different and take my time with circuits and magnets first, saving the group research project for last.  In doing so, I have found that my students are not as rushed in doing their research, they are putting more effort into their presentations, and are generally doing a much better job presenting the information in the process.

I posed the challenge to my students to research information on an alternative energy source that could potentially be used to replace oil.  From there, they have to try and teach this information to their classmates through an engaging, and educational presentation.  Some students give PowerPoint presentations, others do skits, some create videos.  My accelerated classes are then going further, creating, assigning and then grading homework assignments for their classmates based on the information they want their "students" to learn.  The assignments are creative themselves, some being crossword puzzles with vocabulary terms relating to their energy source.  Others are word searches, some fill-in-the-blanks, short answer or essay questions, but all are meaningful in one way or another.  The comments I have heard from my students are funny in a way...  I have not heard anyone complain about doing the work, but some of my students are sad or disappointed for their friends who get low grades on their assignments.  When I ask why they didn't get a good grade, they respond, "Well, they didn't finish the assignment," "They didn't do it, and I spent so much time making it!" or simply just, "They turned it in late."  I have to stop myself from laughing, but I get to tell them, "Welcome to the world of being a teacher!"  What a great lesson for students to learn; we as teachers do not want our students to fail or be unsuccessful.  We want them to do well, which involves fully completing the assignments given to them.  Perhaps I'll try and incorporate this activity earlier on in the year so that all of my students can see what it's like to be the teacher...