Cached In: The Future - Immersion in the Classon

NOTE: The theme of this blog post is interaction and manipulation by the reader. Therefore, be prepared to interact with this blog post (by clicking the many hyperlinks below) in a way that mimics the advanced interactions that are described in the contents of this post.

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You know, as educators, we are often told that technology is critical for our students’ success in the twenty first century.

We are reminded by President Barack Obama

We are reminded by leaders of the educational community

We are reminded by students who are currently a part of the educational community

Undauntedly, technology has a major role in America’s classrooms, and technology should be an integral part in our students’ lives. Technology does play a significant role in the twenty first century, and technology will be a component of education that can no longer be ignored. As a whole, the technologies that have been introduced in the classroom have definitely changed the way that teachers provide instruction to the students. However, the definition of technology is somewhat unclear, which makes it even more difficult for technology to positively shape the realm of education.

In America, we currently have schools that are not using SMART Boards that were installed almost one decade ago, carts of laptop computers remain on their charging stations without daily use, and iPads are merely used for students to read content in ways that provide an educational experience no different from actually reading a textbook. Our school administrators, state legislatures, and federal lawmakers have meant well to increase the amount of technology in the classroom. However, other than giving students the ability to type papers on word processing programs, there has yet to be that game changing piece of technology that completely transforms school. Hmmm, maybe there will never be that “one game changer”, but we cannot deny that there will be some form of technology that literally changes how classrooms operate.

I shall now make a bold prediction...

The “game changing” technology that will affect America’s classrooms will be the implementation of virtual reality on a student per student basis.

Of course, we need to quickly discuss what virtual reality is and how it works.

As of now, school computers are used to conduct research by browsing different websites, type reports, craft written documents, calculate using spreadsheets and mathematical software, and construct presentations thanks to programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint. Sure, sure, sure, we do have websites that allow for nice simulations of scientific principals while other programs allow students to create beautiful graphs for mathematical analysis, but each of the discussed uses of technology all have something in coming – the technology implemented in the classroom has only been used as a means to an end. At the end of the day, our students are:

·         Writing Papers vs. Typing Papers

·         Researching using books vs. Researching the Internet

·         Computing calculations by hand vs. Computing calculations electronically

·         Conducting real experiments vs. Conducting simulation experiments

·         Creating graphs by hand vs. Creating graphs using software

·         Preparing for an oral presentation vs. Preparing for an oral presentation with supplemental graphics from a projection of Microsoft PowerPoint

While I do admit that I may have trivialized how students use technology by assuming this is what takes place in all schools, I do know, from personal anecdotes, that this is primarily how students use technology in other educators’ schools. Our students are still completing the same tasks that they were completing in the 1800s within the Public Education school systems across America. Technology has not actually changed how students learn, per say; technology has only changed the means of how students learn.

However, virtual reality headgear has an opportunity to change education in a way that past forms of technology have failed to do; virtual reality has the potential to give students the chance to be immersed in new worlds that allow for manipulation of a virtual environment that becomes personal to the student.

The coolest aspect of virtual reality is the fact that it is a technology that already exists for those who can afford the several hundred dollar price tag for the limited number of experiences available early in its lifespan.

Consider how teachers currently show videos/movies in class. All students in the classroom watch the exact same video. The experience is meant for an entire class rather than a personal experience. This is the same reason why one student may be captivated by an in-class film, but another student may be so bored that he/she attempts to fall asleep. Some students may take notes regarding the content from the video, but other students may whisper to their neighbors regarding information that has nothing to do with the content or skills that are meant to be gained from the viewing experience. Imagine, now, a classroom where each student has a virtual reality headset that she/he can experience based on her/his own manipulation of the virtual environment. You would have less students engaging in off task activities. You would have less students trying to lay their head down and sleep (this would still be a problem unless the classroom teacher had a method of viewing the eyes of students as they wear the headsets). You would have more students engaged in the task at hand.

For example, check out the following video regarding virtual reality and education.

With that said, please view the following virtual reality videos/experiences that are already available for already existing virtual reality headsets. You may view these on your smart phone or tablet device to get a faux experience of how these videos look within an actual virtual reality headset.

·         360⁰ Experience of Hamilton Island

·         360⁰ Experience of Skydiving

·         360⁰ Experience of Space

Now, imagine the fact that as virtual reality becomes more mainstream, there will be more virtual reality experiences that are developed that offer a more active experience within the video/software/game/activity under consideration. With more active and interactive experiences, students will be able to perform manipulations that would never be available in a typical classroom.

Virtual Reality has the potential for students to experience the following:

·         Viewing three dimensional models of atomic structure within a Chemistry Class

·         See the minutiae associated with specific chemical reactions within a Chemistry Class

·         Viewing an interactive video/virtual reality tour within a History Class

·         Viewing/Reading actual historical documents within a History Class

·         Viewing how cities have changed over time within a Geography/Social Studies Class

·         Walking through different environments within a Biology Class

·         Walking through an animal cell to visit the different organelles within a Biology Class

·         Viewing graphical data from a variety of different perspectives within a Mathematics Class

·         Viewing historical perspectives on literary pieces within an English Class

·         Experiencing the aftermath of a car crash and analyzing the crash using energy and momentum considerations within a Physics class

·         Exploring the creation and path in which photons and waves of light travel from one location to another within a Physics class

I realize that I could go on and on forever, but consider the fact that virtual reality could essentially allow students to optically experience ANY possible event that could ever take place in the Universe. With even more time, students could be hooked up to sensors in order to feel environmental stimuli.

Regardless, students who use laptop computers, tablets, and smart phones in the classroom are still distant and removed from the devices themselves. While students have become proficient at using these devices, there is still no substitute for allowing students to experience phenomena rather than read/watch phenomena. With virtual reality, immersion could be implemented in the classroom, and immersion could fundamentally reshape education in ways that no other form of technology has ever done.

So…

What role does technology have in a future American classroom? It has the potential to literally reshape HOW our students learn.

I shall leave you with a nice TED Talk concerning Virtual Reality and its possible effects on education.

And with that, I am caching out!

A Website to Cache: Reddit

We currently live in a world where social media dominates the narratives that are created in our daily lives. No longer do many individuals look to traditional news outlets, nor do those same individuals gain their knowledge from books. The internet has become the world’s most important invention (from a certain point of view), and it has also allowed for communications to take place on a mass scale. However, communication, thanks to specific web communities, is now trending in a direction that allows for more intimate, personal conversations that can be held between members who share the same interests.

One website that has truly taken advantage of the need for specific web communities is

http://www.reddit.com/

According to the website’s founders:

Reddit is a social news aggregation, web contentrating, and discussion website. Reddit's registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or direct links. Registered users can then vote submissions up or down to organize the posts and determine their position on the site's pages. The submissions with the most positive votes appear on the front page or the top of a category. Content entries are organized by areas of interest called "subreddits". The subreddit topics include news, science, gaming, movies, music, books, fitness, food, and image-sharing, among many others. As of 2016, Reddit had 542 million monthly visitors (234 million unique users), ranking #11 most visited web-site in US and #25 in the world.^[6] Across 2015, Reddit saw 82.54 billion pageviews, 73.15 million submissions, 725.85 million comments, and 6.89 billion upvotes from its users.

Most importantly, there exists many subreddits pertaining to education, which are also ran and contributed to by educators! Check out the following subreddits.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Education: Learn about and discuss the news and politics of education.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers: Learn about and discuss the practice of teaching, receive support from fellow teachers, and gain insight into the teaching profession.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeachingResources: Share and discover teaching resources, such as demos, blogs, simulations, and visual aids.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EdTech

Content Area Subreddits

https://www.reddit.com /r/AdultEducation/

https://www.reddit.com /r/ArtEd

https://www.reddit.com /r/CSEducation - Computer science

https://www.reddit.com /r/ECEProfessionals - Early childhood education

https://www.reddit.com /r/ELATeachers - English / language arts

https://www.reddit.com /r/HigherEducation

https://www.reddit.com /r/HistoryTeachers

https://www.reddit.com /r/MathEducation

https://www.reddit.com /r/MusicEd

https://www.reddit.com /r/ScienceTeachers

https://www.reddit.com /r/slp - Speech-language pathology

https://www.reddit.com /r/SpecialEd

https://www.reddit.com /r/SpanishTeachers

https://www.reddit.com /r/Awwducational

I encourage you to check out these “subreddits” to see the different ideas that are discussed within the educational community!

Cached In: A Leadership Project (Killing Two Birds with One Stone)

As a former Advanced Placement Physics teacher, I can unequivocally state that the most important period of the academic school year was the three to four weeks prior to the administration of the official examination. As the teacher who designed his own course outline and curriculum, I made sure to dedicate the three weeks prior to the examination to a complete review of all topics explored throughout the year-long course. Not only was this strategy important to remind students of everything that was taught in the course, but it was also a fantastic opportunity to finally make connections between various domains of content that would not have been possible whenever the topics were first explored through the different units. After speaking with other Advanced Placement teachers and individuals who work with The College Board, it is evident that the “review period” has been statistically shown to increase the pass rate for all Advanced Placement subjects. While one can argue that the test is “being taught” during this period, it is important that this period utilize the time to solidify students’ understanding of content and skills that may not have been immediately understood at the time of original instruction.

Since I am an advocate for standardized testing, and I realize that an individual school cannot change testing culture if it is mandated (and dictated) by the state legislature, I would like to spend time in this blog post to describe a school-wide leadership plan that can address the need for meeting state accountability benchmarks on the 11^th grade ACT examination (for the state of Kentucky) while simultaneously improving the school culture pertaining to the relationships between the teachers and students in the school. By implementing this plan, it is my hope that one can see the value of preparing students for the 11^th grade ACT examination while fostering more collaboration between teachers and students alike.

The plan consists of the following steps

·         At the beginning of students’ Junior year, all teacher who primarily teach Juniors will administer a mock ACT Examination to determine where all 11^th grade students stand in terms of meeting the benchmarks at the end of academic school year.

·         The school’s accountability administrators and curriculum specialists will use the 10^th Grade PLAN Examination along with the results from the mock ACT Examination to separate students into performance bands (Low performance, Mid-Low performance, Middle performance, Mid-High performance, and High performance).

o   Junior-level teachers may also provide insight into the appropriate performance band that select students should be placed.

·         Require all teachers who primarily teacher Juniors to participate in an ACT Review Day

o   Junior English Teachers, U.S. History Teachers, Chemistry/Physics/Advanced Placement Science Teachers, Algebra II/Precalculus/Advanced Placement Calculus Teachers, Arts & Humanities Teachers, and selected educators who teach elective classes.

·         All teachers selected to participate in the ACT Review Day should be arranged into groups of two teachers who must work together to come up with fun, interactive, engaging, and insightful/meaningful activities/games/instructional strategies that can be used to help Junior-level students review for the ACT Examination. The paired teachers should plan to teach a two hour lesson to groups of students no larger than twenty-five.

o   Science Teachers will be paired with each other.

o   English Teachers will be paired with U.S. History Teachers and Elective Educators

o   Mathematics Teachers will be paired with each other

o   Administrators will be paired with Guidance Counselor Staff

·         The paired teachers will need to create specific lessons/instructional activities that meet the needs for the performance bands that were established earlier in the academic school year. This will allow paired teachers to specifically address the needs of each performance band in order to increase performance in areas that they struggle the most. This zero-ing in on areas of improvement will be data-driven based on the mock ACT Examination results.

o   Paired Science Teachers will need to create lessons pertaining to the Science portion of the ACT

o   Paired English/US History/Elective Teachers will need to create lessons pertaining to the Grammar/English portions of the ACT

o   Paired Mathematics Teachers will need to create lessons pertaining to the Mathematics portion of the ACT

o   Paired Administrators/Guidance Office Staff will need to create lessons pertaining to general test-taking strategies/tips for all portions of the ACT

·         Prior to the ACT Review Day, the school administrators need to contact a local community college or a community center that can accommodate the teachers and 11^th grade students for the special occasion. This location needs to be rented (through grant money or as a result of a kind gesture).

o   This will take the students out of the “boring” classroom, and place them into an environment that is new, different, and exciting. This will also decrease the formality associated with teaching lessons in the designated school that the students attend.

o   Funds would need to be secured to bus the 11^th grade students and teachers to the special location.

o   If a community building cannot be acquired, one section of the entire school building needs to be sectioned off and used in a way that seems new, special, and exciting.

·         Prior to the ACT Review Day, the school administrators need to secure the funds necessary to provide the students with a special lunch that does not consist of school food. Teachers can choose to make food for the students from their homes, pizza can be ordered, or food from a restaurant may be catered in to the students to keep the event fun, exciting, fresh, and different from a typical school day.

·         On ACT Review Day, teachers/administrator who participate should dress down to make the day more exciting, fun, engaging, and informal.

·         On an ACT Review Day, students will be separated into their performance bands without specifically referring to them by their performance band categories. In other words, students will not be told that they have been placed in the “High Performance Band”.

·         All teaching pairs will be required to teach two lessons consisting of two hours in length. Students organized by performance bands will circulate around the five possible lessons: Grammar, Mathematics, English, Science, and Test-Taking Strategies.

·         Since students will only be able to attend two lessons in a given review day, the ACT Review Day should be implemented three times before the official ACT exam is administered in March. It is recommended that the first ACT Review Day should be held in November, the second ACT Review Day should be held in February, and the third ACT Review day should be held in March (right before the ACT examination).

o   ACT Review Day #1: Students will attend 2/5 of the available lessons. The remaining time of the school day is used for a one hour lunch, travel time to the location, travel time to the school, and field day activities.

o   ACT Review Day #2: Students will attend 2/5 of the available lessons, but not the lessons that they have already attended The remaining time of the school day is used for a one hour lunch, travel time to the location, travel time to the school, and field day activities.

o   ACT Review Day #3: Students will attend their final lesson. The remaining time of the school day is used for a one hour lunch, travel time to the location, travel time to the school, and field day activities.

·         All teachers in the school building will be asked to create “field day” activities that are mean to reduce the anxiety and fear of testing culture. These activities should be developed in such a way that encourages student-teacher interactions that are in the form of team-building activities or competitions. Regardless, teachers should participate as much in these activities as the students. This should also include administrators as well.

·         Before the official ACT Examination is administered, it is important to hold an academic pep rally that is as exciting and eventful as an athletic pep rally.

·         Freshman Teachers should plan to prepare students for the PLAN Test that they are to take in their Sophomore year. The steps outlined for the official ACT Review Day should be followed, except Sophomore students should not be bused to another location. They should informally use the school building.

o   These review days will take place on the same days that the Junior level students will be gone from the building.

·         Sophomore Teachers should plan to prepare students for the ACT Examination that they are to take in the following year. The steps outlined for the official ACT Review Day should be followed, except Sophomore students should not be bused to another location. They should informally use the school building.

o   These review days will take place on the same days that the Junior level students will be gone from the building.

The above strategy allows for a school to meet the needs of its accountability from the state, but it also allows students and teachers to foster more meaningful, less formal interactions that allow for student-teacher bonding. While it is important that we want to get away from “testing culture” at some point in the future, it is critical that we begin improving the overall school culture by fostering the relationships between the stakeholders of the individual schools. Once culture has been established, these relationship-fostering events can be applied over a variety of different situations that are not exclusive to the ACT Review Days. As the school culture improves, it is expected that students perform at a higher level on their benchmarks as well.

As of now, that is probably enough. Until next time, I am caching out.

Election Day: Where do the Two Leading Candidates Stand on Education?

Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Tomorrow is Election Day in America! Once every four years, we, as citizens of the United States, have the right to elect our next leader in the form of a truly democratic voting process (due in part to the Electoral College).

I am not here to tell you who to vote for, nor am I here to specifically provide opinionated commentary regarding Hillary R. Clinton and Donald J. Trump, the two primary candidates hoping to come out as the victor on Tuesday evening.

I do not advocate that you ever vote for any one candidate based on a single issue; all issues need to be considered when making a choice for the leader of your country. However, since this is an educational blog, I do want to list where the two candidates stand in terms of the issues pertaining to education. Use this information to help guide your vote whenever you walk into the voting booth on Tuesday.

The following information has been copied, word for word, form both candidates’ campaign websites.

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Donald J. Trump

·         Immediately add an additional federal investment of $20 billion towards school choice. This will be done by reprioritizing existing federal dollars.

·         Give states the option to allow these funds to follow the student to the public or private school they attend. Distribution of this grant will favor states that have private school choice, magnet schools and charter laws, encouraging them to participate.

·         Establish the national goal of providing school choice to every one of the 11 million school aged children living in poverty.

·         If the states collectively contribute another $110 billion of their own education budgets toward school choice, on top of the $20 billion in federal dollars, that could provide $12,000 in school choice funds to every K-12 student who today lives in poverty.

·         Work with Congress on reforms to ensure universities are making a good faith effort to reduce the cost of college and student debt in exchange for the federal tax breaks and tax dollars.

·         Ensure that the opportunity to attend a two or four-year college, or to pursue a trade or a skill set through vocational and technical education, will be easier to access, pay for, and finish.

KEY ISSUES

At the state and federal level, the United States spends more than $620 billion on K-12 education each year. That’s an average of about $12,296 for every student enrolled in our elementary and secondary public schools.

We spend more per student than almost any other major country in the world. Yet, our students perform near the bottom of the pack for major large advanced countries.

Our students continue to lag behind their peers worldwide in knowledge gained. [American Federation for Children Growth Fund]

Among 34 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) found 27 countries outperformed U.S students in math. [National Center for Education Statistics]

The same assessment found 17 countries outperformed U.S. students in reading. [National Center for Education Statistics]

Our largest cities spend some of the largest amounts of money on public schools:

·         New York City spends $20,226 per student.

·         Baltimore spends $15,287 per student.

·         Chicago spends $11,976 per student.

·         Los Angeles spends $10,602 per student.

School choice is vital to reverse inequities in education and failing government schools in Democrat-controlled inner cities. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, only one in six African-American students in the eighth grade are considered proficient in math and reading. In 2016, over 2 million high school graduates took the ACT:

45 percent of all students tested met three or more benchmarks related to college preparedness.

Only 11 percent of African American students tested met three or more of the benchmarks for college and career readiness. [The Condition of College and Career Readiness, 2016]

It is time for school choice to help free children from failing government schools and close the achievement gap. School choice is the civil rights issue of our time.

CONTRAST WITH HILLARY CLINTON

Hillary opposes school choice, furthering education inequities in America and denying low-income African-American and Latino children the future they deserve.

Hillary Clinton claims Donald Trump’s school choice proposal would “decimate public schools across America.”

It is no surprise Mrs. Clinton opposes school choice because she is supported by the staunchest opponents of school choice – The American Federation of Teachers super PAC – which donated $1.6 million to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and more than $2 million to Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign. [Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2016]

Hillary R. Clinton

As president, Hillary will:

Launch a national campaign to modernize and elevate the profession of teaching. America is asking more of our educators than ever before. They are preparing our kids for a competitive economy, staying on top of new pedagogies, and filling gaps that we as a country have neglected—like giving low-income kids, English-language learners, and kids with disabilities the support they need to thrive. We ask so much of our educators, but we aren’t setting them up for success. That’s why Hillary will launch a national campaign to elevate and modernize the teaching profession, by preparing, supporting, and paying every child’s teacher as if the future of our country is in their hands—because it is.

Provide every student in America an opportunity to learn computer science. There are more than half a million open jobs that require computing skills—across the country and in every major industry. But the majority of schools in the United States don’t offer computer science. Hillary will provide states and school districts funding to help scale computer science instruction and lesson programs that improve student achievement or increase college enrollment and completion in CS Ed fields.

Rebuild America’s schools. In cities and rural communities across America, there are public schools that are falling apart—schools where students are learning in classrooms with rodents and mold. That’s unacceptable, and it has to change. That’s why Hillary will build on the highly successful Build America Bonds program to provide cities and towns the capital they need to rebuild their schools. These “Modernize Every School Bonds” will double the Build America Bonds subsidy for efforts to fix and modernize America’s classrooms—from increasing energy efficiency and tackling asbestos to upgrading science labs and high-speed broadband.

Dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. Schools should be safe places for students to learn and grow. But in too many communities, student discipline is overly harsh—and these harsh measures disproportionately affect African American students and those with the greatest economic, social, and academic needs. Hillary will work to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline by providing $2 billion in support to schools to reform overly punitive disciplinary policies, calling on states to reform school disturbance laws, and encouraging states to use federal education funding to implement social and emotional support interventions.

Hillary has been working to improve and support our public schools for decades:

As a young law student working for Marian Wright Edelman, Hillary went undercover to investigate “segregation academies” in Alabama.

As first lady of Arkansas, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Commission, fighting to raise academic standards, increase teacher salaries, and reduce class sizes.

As first lady of the United States, she chaired the first-ever convening on Hispanic children and youth, which focused on improving access to educational opportunities.

As a U.S. senator, she served on the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee, as a key member shaping the No Child Left Behind Act, with the hope that it would bring needed resources and real accountability to improve educational opportunities for our most disadvantaged students.

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I will now leave you to digest the information, consider the candidates’ stances, and reflect on who you are inclined to vote for.

Regardless who you vote for, may the best candidate reign supreme!

A Website to Cache: NGSS Phenomena

Greetings, Friends!

Unlike the majority of the posts within the blog, I wanted to take the time to BRIEFLY mention a fantastic resource for science teachers who are in the transition from teaching science based on old standards to teaching science as expected by following the Next Generation Science Standards. 

The original, more traditional science standards required that science be taught as a series of facts linearly connected so that students could eventually understand concepts. In other words, facts were used as building blocks that could be used to construct different buildings which are representative of the concepts that the students are supposed to understand. The concepts, then, are peripherally connected to understand an overall scientific theme, which is analogous to how the constructed buildings make up a small community. However, scientific themes have usually been taught in isolation in a manner that does not allow for connections to be made within the different domains of science (Chemisty, Physics, Biology, Earth Science, Space Science, Environmental Science, etc). 

The Next Generation Science Standards is unique and entirely different in that the "facts" students are supposed to learn are intended for students to understand, examine, investigation, and work with scientific phenomena. The new standards do not stress that students should learn all of the steps of mitosis in order, but they do want students to understand mitosis, how it works, but in the context of a specific phenomena. However, it is up to the science teachers to choose the phenomena to investigation. To put it more simply, students will eventually be assessed to describe, explain, and analyze data from a scientific phenomena that may have not been studied in class, but based on other phenomena that was studied in class. As an example, a science teacher may choose to study the anatomy and physiology of a human during the course of a Biology class. However, students may be asked to discuss the anatomy and physiology of a fish if given an illustration or visualization of a fish's organs. Students may also be asked to explain the differences of fish anatomy from that of a cow in terms of the organisms' respiratory system. A cow's anatomy may not have been studied in class, a fish's anatomy may not have been studied in class, but the students should possess the academic skills necessary to apply their knowledge of studying the anatomy of a different organism.

Teaching to the Next Generation Science Standards will be tricky, it will be difficult, and may even result in several years of "low average scores" on the final assessment due to teachers not adapting to the new instructional strategies needed to teach the course. This same phenomena (pun intended) occurred whenever The College Board re-wrote the Advanced Placement Physics curriculum for its Algebra based Physics course, which resulted in a 66% pass rate prior to the rewrite and a 32% pass rate after the rewrite (one of the lowest scored exams in the history of Advanced Placement Exams). 

Since the Next Generation Science Standards will emphasize phenomena, I would like to suggest that science teachers check out the following website.

NGSS Phenomena

According to the individual who created the website, 

"TJ McKenna got his start as an animal behaviorist and is now an extreme hoarder of NGSS resources (which we know to be scarce). This may have stemmed from his undergraduate research where he conceived and designed experiments on deceptive and theft-averting behaviors of food-caching Eastern Grey Squirrels - hoarders of a different kind. This later eventually led to a Masters degree in Entomology, and he is currently in the doctoral program in Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Connecticut focused on Science Education, and a lead facilitator for the NGSX project (NGSX.org).

TJ first commented on early drafts of NGSS and became very interested in education because of the way the Next Generation Science Standards capture what it is like to think like a scientist in authentic ways. Now, drawing on his background as a research scientist and his 7 years of on-air television work, phenomena has become a major way he engages students and teacher learners (both pre-service & in-service) with core science ideas that they want to figure out.  Because the NGSS reflect how TJ thinks about science, he hopes that through curating a cache of phenomena this will open conversations and  with educators across the nation who are hoping to create the next generation of student engagement in science."

The website is fantastic due to the fact that it gives teachers access to a variety of different phenomena that can be used to introduce a topic in science and referred to throughout an entire unit or an entire course to help drive the science that students are expected to learn. As of now, the phenomena listed on the website is not connected to the Next Generation Science Standards, but I would assume that TJ may make those connections as he continues making progress with his website.

Please consider the amazing phenomena already listed on the website to help drive future lessons, or submit your own phenomena that amaze you. Regardless, this is a website that needs to be cached.

And with that, I am caching out!

Cached In: Leadership Needed for the NGSS

Let’s take a moment to think about leadership. Not only should we focus on leadership in general, let’s focus on the leadership that is currently needed at a time of mystery with regards to science education in the state of Kentucky and within the nation.

We are odd a very odd place in America when it comes to science education within our nation’s public schools. Whenever I taught high school Physics from 2011-2015, I must be honest in stating that I was allowed to teach whatever I wanted to teach except for my Advanced Placement Physics courses; the only standards required to be taught at the high school level for science, in the state of Kentucky, are the ACT Quality Core Standards for the Biology End of Course Assessment. Educators at the high school level who teach Integrated Science, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Marine Biology, Botany, Microbiology, Experimental Science, Applied Science, and other specialized science courses are given free reign to teach whatever they want to teach to their students. At the Elementary School level, since science is not assessed in any form, science is rarely taught in a form that is conducive to learning about the scientific process through the act of learning new scientific skills; elementary school teachers are left teaching science content through literacy lessons since English and Mathematics are the primary academic disciplines that students are assessed in grades K-5. Middle school science, sadly, is also placed in a box when it comes to science education due to the testing requirements established by the Kentucky Department of Education. While I know that science is being taught at the high school level, I have seen enough first hand evidence to know that it is not being taught in a manner that is in agreement with the expectations outlined by the Next Generation Science Standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6eoRnrwL-A#action=share

The Next Generation Science Standards have been adopted by the state of Kentucky, and they have recently become part of Kentucky’s academic standards; since an official assessment has not been developed, the adopting of the standards does not mean that the standards will be taught. At this moment, many science teachers are unaware of the expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards (why worry about standards that are not yet even tested?), which will make the implementation process even harder when they officially are enforced to be taught. Based on my experiences teaching pre-service teachers who plan on becoming elementary school teachers, it is evident that there will be many struggles and many growing pains whenever it comes to implementing the Next Generation Science Standards in the classroom. As it stands, individuals who have never seen the Next Generation Science Standards are overwhelmed by the layout of the document, cannot extract what is to be taught to the students, and cannot think of how to incorporate the new skills and knowledge sets into their own classrooms to teach science in a way that is unfamiliar to them.

Essentially, the Next Generation Science Standards are not straight forward, and they are not entirely that easy to read, comprehend, and immediately implement in the classroom. See the example standard below:

Yeah…that is ONE standard…for middle school students. The above diagrams depicts a large amount of information needed just to teach that ONE standards in the classroom.

In order to provide a smooth transition from the current science education to that required by the Next Generation Science Standards, I recommend that each school create two leadership positions who will learn the intricacies of the Next Generation Science Standards, how to deconstruct the Next Generation Science Standards, and how to communicate this process with the school’s teachers in order for the transition to take place.

I recommend that two science educators (or a curriculum specialist) from each school, who are respected, have a vested interest in the school, and who to remain at the school for several years in the future (teachers who are tenured) to be chosen as the school leaders to educate the relevant science teachers about the Next Generation Science Standards.

·         The chosen individuals should be required to attend science leadership meetings (offered by the Kentucky Department of Education, third parties such as University led workshops, or informal meetings with other science educators). These meetings should serve the purpose of:

o   Learning how to read the Next Generation Science Standards

o   Learning the specifics of the different domains of the Next Generation Science Standards

o   See examples of how the standards are already being implemented in classrooms that have already completed adopted the standards

·         The team of educators will need to sit down together and create a learning progression sequence map of when each standard will be taught in the context of the school under consideration. For example, a team from an elementary school will specifically map out each standard and connect it to a specific grade level from Kindergarten to 5^th Grade. A high school team will need to map out the standards for what is to be taught in 9^th grade, 10^th grade, and 11^th grade (and some high schools may require a senior level science course) and in which classes the standards will be taught. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

·         The team of educators, after mapping specific standards to grade levels, should then organize the standards (organized by grade) into a learning sequence that displays the order that the standards are to be taught. For example, the team will need to determine which content and skills standards will be taught in each month of the academic school year. This will give the team a logical sequence in which the standards could be taught. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

·         For EACH standard, the team of individuals will need to deconstruct the standard by reviewing the Performance Expectation, Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Cross Cutting Concepts, to specifically determine which specific content and skills will be taught in a given science unit in a given grade level. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

o   This deconstruction process should be based on the criteria established by the Kentucky Department of Education

o   http://education.ky.gov/curriculum/leadnet/Pages/Deconstructing-Standards.aspx

·         The team will then develop student learning objectives for each deconstructed standard that have already been divided into instructional units by grade level. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year at least two years before the standards have been implemented)

·         The team will then be responsible to present the Next Generation Science Standards to all of the science teachers within the school. At this point, the team’s task will be to educate the teachers how to read the standards, what the different domains of the standards are, and provide background on the rationale of the intent of the standards in the context of the students to be taught. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         The team will then be responsible to present their deconstructions of all standards per grade level to all of the science educators at the school. The deconstructed standards will specifically tell the science educators exactly what to teach and how the content and skills should be presented in order for students to effectively learn from the standards.  (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         At this point, the team of educators will need to assist the grade level specific educators (or content specific educators in the case with high school teachers) in developing high quality assessments that align with the deconstructed standards under consideration. These assessments should also align with the student learning objectives that the team developed as a result of the deconstruction process. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         The team will then need to provide assistance to the grade level specific (content specific) educators on crafting specific lessons, activities, laboratory investigations, and experiments that can be implemented in the classroom to ensure that the deconstructed standards are met with success. (This should take place over the course of an entire academic school year before the standards have been implemented and/or over the summer months prior to the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards)

·         The team, at this point, will serve as Next Generation Science Standards experts throughout the implementation process in order to provide assistance and answer questions from individuals within the school building as they arise.

After the standards have been deconstructed and the assessments have been developed, it is important that these deconstructions and assessments be shared with other teachers around the country who have also completed the same process as outlined in this blog post. By sharing the deconstructed standards and the developed assessments, comparisons can be made of the deconstructed standards to ensure that the standards have all been interpreted in the same manner, and that all educators around the nation are on the same page when it comes to understanding the intent that the standards have for the children who are exposed to their expectations. By sharing assessments, a nation-wide data based can be developed that contains a large repertoire of assessments that can be used by all teachers. Of course, I realize that we, as teachers, can be selfish, we do not like to share our home-made content, and that my sermon is more than likely a large pie in the sky.

It is important to state that these science standards gurus should still be classroom teachers, and should still fulfill their responsibilities as an educator in the state of Kentucky. By starting this process several years in advance, there would be no need to spend hours and hours each night preparing for the new standards; these teachers could fulfill these requirements during their already required professional develop hours that they must obtain each academic school year. Exceptions and exemptions must be made for these educators to skip “general education” meetings and skip “catch-all” district meetings that are meant as a “one size fits all” professional development opportunity for teachers regardless of content specialty. As the Next Generation Science Standards are implemented, it is very possible to provide these teachers with an extra planning period to deal with the demands and requests from other teachers within the building who struggle with implementing the new standards.

While the process outlined is a lot of work for teachers who remain in classroom, I emphasize the fact that these important roles be leadership positions that are not taken lightly. While a school can try to hire a full time employee who does nothing but work with the Next Generation Science Standards, these positions usually end up paying above the salary of a classroom teacher, but does not have the benefit of directly educating students. If a school can afford a Next Generation Science Standards Specialist position, then kudos to the school for being able to do so. However, if funds are short, the above strategy may be the best option available.

Regardless of how a school specifically tackles the issue of implementing the Next Generation Science Standards, it is critical that the implementation process begins now, and it is critical that teachers become prepared in advanced to the implementation of the standards rather than during the implementation process itself.

We just need school leaders willing to go above and beyond to ensure the success of their individual schools.

And with that, I am caching out!