1. Introduction
2. Rapoport Problem of the Day
3. The Queen Speaks Again
4. Reintroduction to Illinois State Science
5. Science 8 at the Beginning of the Year
6. Science 8 in the Middle of the Year
7. Science 8 at the End of the Year
8. Cosmos Episode 3: "Lost City of Life"
9. Cosmos Episode 4: "Vavilov"
10. Conclusion
Introduction
This is my second spring break/coronavirus break post. I chose to post today because it's the fiftieth anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration. And in case you're wondering why I'm calling it Earth Day when it's not yet April 22nd, we check out the following link:
https://greengroundswell.com/first-earth-day-and-earth-day-history-2/2013/04/15/
Environmentalist and peace activist, John McConnell, initiated the first Earth Day celebration held in San Francisco, CA on March 21, 1970.
He chose the vernal equinox to celebrate Earth Day.
“What could be more appropriate than the first moment of Spring, when day and night are equal around the world and hearts and minds can join together with thoughts of harmony and Earth’s rejuvenation.”
According to the link, both the March 21st and April 22nd Earth Days began in 1970. But almost by definition, the first March 21st Earth Day was celebrated exactly 32 days before the first April 22nd Earth Day. Therefore today really is the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration, just as I promised above.Here's another link describing the first Earth Day and its golden anniversary:
https://www.ajc.com/news/looking-back-years-since-first-earth-day/gvKvfIByQn86K1h0HSb80J/
While many know April 22 as International Earth Day, the first Earth Day occurred 50 years ago on March 21, 1970, predating the inaugural April environmental celebrations by a few weeks.
Of course, no one will be celebrating Earth Day this year -- certainly not today, and most likely not on April 22nd either. Everyone is busy thinking about only one thing -- the coronavirus. Admittedly, the biggest threat this year to the human species is the virus and not any environmental problems.
Schools remain closed, of course. But there's no point in wondering, what would I be doing now if I hadn't left my old charter school, and I were currently in my fourth year of teaching there? That's because the charter renewal was denied -- the school was closed even before the virus outbreak.
Nonetheless, the virus-related closures have given me time to think back to the the time I spent at the old charter school. I recently found my copy of the old Illinois State science text for eighth grade, and now that I see it again, I wonder how I could have taught science better the year I was there.
Each time I subbed in a science class this year, I reflected upon what I saw in each class and how I could have taught it at the old charter school. But those reflections didn't take into account that I was bound to teach to the Illinois State text. In particular, I couldn't really teach any project or lab that I saw in those classes, unless that project or lab appeared in the Illinois State text.
Now that I've found the Illinois State science text again, I can finally take an accurate look at how I should have taught science three years ago. And now I have the luxury of time to write up today's post, which is all about teaching science using the Illinois State text.
This post overrides anything I've written about teaching science in the past few years. None of those previous posts took the Illinois State text into account.
Before we begin, let me get a few math-related topics out of the way. Then the rest of this post will be devoted to science, as is fitting on the day marking half a century since the original Earth Day.
Rapoport Problem of the Day
Today on her Daily Epsilon of Math 2020, Rebecca Rapoport writes:
Label the faces of two regular icosahedra from 1 to n (where n is the number of faces). What is the expected value of a roll of both of them?
I'm posting this as if it were a Geometry problem, though it's only slightly related to Geometry. In the Exploration section of Lesson 9-7 of the U of Chicago text, we learn that an icosahedron has twenty faces, so n = 20. That's all the Geometry we need to solve this problem.
Of course, we can classify this as a probability problem -- and under the California Common Core, probability is part of the Geometry course, so maybe I was correct to post this all along. (Indeed, perhaps this sort of problem justifies teaching probability along with Chapter 9 of the U of Chicago Geometry text -- where it also fits after Chapter 8 on area to motivate geometric probability.)
Dungeons and Dragons players would describe today's dice roll as 2d20. To find the expected value of our 2d20 roll, we notice that the expected value of each die is just the average value of all its faces, which works out to be 10.5. Since there are two dice, we double this to 21. Therefore, the desired value is 21 -- and of course, today's date is the 21st.
I do wish to back up a few days, when I caught another error on the Rapoport problem:
DCDVIII - DCCCXCIII
These obviously look like Roman numerals for us to subtract. Some of the values cancel out right away, particularly the first D and the three I's. We're then left when CDV - CCCXC, and then it takes a little work to obtain the difference as XV, or 15 -- and of course, this was for the fifteenth. (And it's fitting, on the Ides of March, to have a problem with the Roman numerals that Julius Caesar used.)
But here's the error -- the first term begins with DCD, which is not a valid Roman numeral. If the intended value is 900, then she should have used CM, not DCD. Thus the problem should have read:
CMVIII - DCCCXCIII
Admittedly this would have been a bit trickier, but the Roman numerals would have been proper.
The Queen Speaks Again
The coronavirus break is certainly giving Fawn Nguyen extra time to post. Here is a link to her most recent post, dated St. Patrick's Day:
http://fawnnguyen.com/common-denominator/
I already wrote about dividing fractions here and here.
I use the explanation of “dividing by one” to explain why 5/6 divided by 2/3 is the same as 5/6 times 3/2.
But when I was asked recently about how the “common denominator” strategy worked, my muted response was, “Because it does.” I didn’t mean to be a jerk, rather I just hoped she’d go along with me.
Notice that Nguyen's first link above is dated about three months before I began at the old charter school, while her second link is from before I started my own blog.
Here Nguyen describes a "common denominator" strategy for dividing fractions -- that's right, she wrote dividing, not adding or subtracting (where we expect common denominators). I'm not quite sure how common denominators work for dividing, but let's try the example that she gives:
(5/6) / (2/3)
Rewriting with a common denominator:
(5/6) / (4/6)
Now we divide the numerators:
(5/6) / (4/6) = 5/4
which is the correct answer. Anyway, here's what happened when Nguyen tried to explain why this method works:
Before I could give another example, she took the paper and rubbed it on my head. Rude.
Actually, I can almost see the traditionalists (or one of their like-minded sons/daughters) responding this rudely to an understanding/"Why does this work?" question. But this was a girl who asked her why the method works. I wonder what response Nguyen could have given that wouldn't have resulted in this response.
She labels this as a "6th Grade Math" post -- and indeed, division of fractions appears in the Common Core Math 6 curriculum. Sixth graders are young enough to still enjoy my songs, and so I wonder whether I could have given a musical response that this girl would have enjoyed.
Nguyen continues her post:
The real common denominator is we’re all in this together to #flattenthecurve. This tweet is like rainbow.
Here "flatten the curve" refers to a mathematical model of the virus population. To see what this means, let's return to Michael Starbird and Calculus.
In my February 6th post, Starbird mentions that many populations increase increase exponentially, at least at first. But this exponential growth can't last indefinitely -- eventually, the conditions (such as resources) for growth must end, and the population graph becomes a logistics curve. This is often referred to as an S-curve, as opposed to the exponential J-curve. And this applies to many biological populations, whether of people, pachyderms, or -- most importantly -- viruses.
So far, the coronavirus has been spreading exponentially. And it will continue to grow exponentially until we end the conditions of virus growth come to an end, and it becomes a logistics curve. We stop the growth conditions by closing schools, canceling sporting events, and so on.
Notice that Vi Hart, in her Pi Day Rant video, also alludes to this idea. She points out that if the exponential growth of the coronavirus continues, then eventually trillions will be infected, which is impossible (unless aliens catch the virus too). Thus the growth must eventually slow down -- and Vi Hart does indeed draw a logistics curve on her video.
A few other YouTube videos explain this in more detail. One is by 3Blue1Brown:
A similar video comes from "It's Okay to Be Smart":
And here's yet another video from Khan Academy. (According to its YouTube page, this educational channel has spiked in popularity since the schools closed.)
The idea is for this exponential growth, then, to slow down sooner rather than later. And this is what Nguyen meant when she mentioned "flatten the curve" in her St. Patrick's Day post.
Speaking of St. Patrick's Day, I had already purchased some green pencils for a holiday giveaway. It's hard for me to think about St. Paddy's Day before Pi Day, and so I was waiting to give them away on the days in between the two holidays.
Of course, that backfired, since there were no school days between Pi and Patrick. Perhaps when I saw the writing on the wall and suspected that schools might close, I could have given the pencils away, but I thought that would have distracted us from the pie and pizza that I was handing out.
Reintroduction to Illinois State Science
Let me begin my description of what science should have looked like three years at the old charter school using the Illinois State science text. Recall that there were several issues going on at the time, especially the transition to the new NGSS standards. Had it been fully California Standards or fully NGSS, there would have been less of a problem, but the fact that it was the transition that caused me much confusion.
The main idea is that Grades 7-8 would have been grandfathered into the old standards, while sixth graders would have begun the new NGSS standards:
- Eighth Grade: Physical Science
- Seventh Grade: Life Science
- Sixth Grade: Preferred Integrated Model of NGSS
In past posts, I listed science plans that reserveed one day per week for science. But in this post, I want to do the subject justice, so let's devote two days per week to science. Since coding was already reserved for Mondays, we'll do math on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then science on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Notice that seventh graders had music on Wednesdays, so they get science only on Fridays. Still, this is much more science than what I gave them in real life -- one day per week for eighth graders, hardly any at all for Grades 6-7.
The reason that I taught very little science back then was confusion regarding the texts. At the start of the year, I was told that there were no printed science texts -- and I misinterpreted this as meaning that I would teach no science, or that the math STEM projects counted as science.
What I should have realized instead was that I should have found the science texts online. That is, I mistakenly thought that "no printed text" means "don't teach science." (That mistake really looks silly today, when all classes are using online texts and assignments due to the virus!)
What I should have realized instead was that I should have found the science texts online. That is, I mistakenly thought that "no printed text" means "don't teach science." (That mistake really looks silly today, when all classes are using online texts and assignments due to the virus!)
The Illinois State text is based on the middle school NGSS standards, but a problem with dividing the standards into three one-year courses is that different states divide them differently. Even though California uses the Preferred Integrated Model, other states keep the traditional division into Physical, Life, and Earth Science.
And so in order to be state-neutral, Illinois State uses the traditional division. But at least this fits the grandfathered science courses -- eighth grade would use the Physical Science text while seventh grade would use the Life Science text.
Meanwhile, there was also Study Island software available in my classroom, and that was based on the new Integrated Model. Thus the sixth grade curriculum would be based mostly on Study Island rather than the Illinois State texts.
But this doesn't mean that Grades 7-8 wouldn't use Study Island, or that sixth graders wouldn't use Illinois State at all. In particular, sixth graders might do a project or lab from Illinois State, while there was time on the official schedule (Wednesdays after nutrition) for eighth grade Study Island.
In previous posts, I suggested dividing the year into four-week units. This four-week cycle is good, since I was required to submit photos of student projects to Illinois State every two weeks (so that would be two projects per unit). So here's what the four-week units now look life:
Week 1:
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Math Dren Quiz
Friday -- Science Lesson
Week 2:
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project/Lab
Thursday -- Math Content Quiz
Friday -- Finish Science Project/Lab
Week 3:
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Science Test
Week 4:
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project/Lab
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Finish Science Project/Lab
And as I've also mentioned in previous posts, interactive notebooks would be used, not just to keep the students organized, but to help me enforce this plan. As the students glue notes into pages, the left pages are labeled 1M, 2M, 3M (for 1 math, 2 math, 3 math) while the right pages are labeled 1S, 2S, 3S (1 science, 2 science, 3 science). Now the students see that I'm committed to teaching both of my subjects properly.
During that actual year, I often used BruinCorps (UCLA students who volunteer to help out) or Green Team (a special environmental project) as substitutes for real science lessons. Under the plan that I'm posting today, BruinCorps and Green Team only supplement the science curriculum, instead of my being dependent on them.
And I ask my support staff member for more assistance with these projects, especially when it comes to helping me gather all the materials used for each project. I suspect that she'd be more willing to help me out with labs if I lifted some of the classroom management burden from her shoulders. I'm hoping here that the use of notebooks helps me out with my management -- "When the notebooks are open, your mouths are closed."
I'm done discussing my personal calendar and associated resolutions for now, but I can't help but bring up the tenth rule on not being done until we have achieved excellence. In particular, students who think they're "done" with all their work in one subject (math or science) should check to make sure that they don't have anything else to do in the other subject before declaring that they're done.
(I will bring up the Usher Calendar again right now -- the NFL players union has just agreed to the 17-game schedule. It's the first step in the decades-long process of implementing the Usher Calendar.)
Science 8 at the Beginning of the Year
Let's now see what the first few weeks of the school year might have looked like. Our focus will be on eighth grade science, since what I found was the Illinois State Physical Science text. But we won't just ignore science for Grades 6-7 here (as I basically did in real life).
Just like the Illinois State math texts, the science texts are organized by standard, so let's look at the standards from the NGSS website itself:
https://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards?keys=&tid%5B%5D=106
There are 19 standards for middle school physical science. If we assume that each standard takes two weeks to cover (including one project/lab -- two standards per four-week "unit"), then it would take 38 weeks to cover all 19 standards. But 38 weeks is the entire school year -- including the first week of school, last week of school, and short three-day weeks leading up to holidays (particularly winter break, President's Day, and Cesar Chavez Day).
The dates in this plan refer to the 2016-2017 school year, my year of teaching at the old charter. This plan can also be used for my putative second year, 2017-2018, when Grades 6-7 get the Preferred Integrated Model, leaving only eighth grade grandfathered into the old standards.
First Week (August 16-19th):
Tuesday -- Math Opening Lesson (Bridges)
Wednesday -- Science Rules Poster
Thursday -- Math Opening Lesson (Sequences)
Friday -- Science Opening Lesson (Buildings)
This week isn't much different from my first week in real life, except that even here, Wednesday and Friday are clearly labeled as science. The rules poster on Wednesday will now include special rules for safety in a science lab, which is what I want my classroom to become. Friday's opening activity includes making simple buildings using blocks and drawing them. Since it involves some moving parts, I don't mind counting it as "science" for this first week only.
In order to get as much science taught as possible, even the first four weeks of school should follow the unit pattern stated above, so this counts as Unit 1. According to the unit plan given above, the first week of the unit should be a Dren Quiz. (In real life, I didn't give the first Dren Quiz until Weeks 3-5, but now it's given the first week instead.)
The Dren Quiz should ordinarily match the unit number. But for Week 1, it might be better to give a 10's Dren Quiz rather than 1's (as I did for the first Dren Quiz in real life). If I do give a 1's Dren Quiz, I do so as a "pop quiz" -- explain to the students that they suddenly have a quiz on the third day of school, and then they become relieved to see that it's just multiplying by 1.
Second Week (August 22nd-26th):
Monday/Tuesday -- Math Benchmark Test
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Fraction Fever
Friday -- Science Project
For Unit 1 Week 2, the unit plan says to give a math Content Quiz (that is, an ordinary quiz rather than a Dren Quiz). Here we'll let the Benchmark Tests take the place of that quiz, and it's given earlier in the week. This opens up Thursday for Fraction Fever (just as I did in real life, though it's one day earlier according to this plan).
Notice that this is the first week that there is seventh grade music on Wednesday. Coding Monday doesn't begin until Week 3.
So now let's see what this means for science. Week 2 on our plan is a science project. We could try giving a project for standard MS-PS1-1, the first eighth grade science standard.
But this was what worried me at the time -- I'd never given science projects before, and so I lacked the confidence to give them. In the past, I suggested starting out by giving the same project to all three grades -- even if it's for the first project only -- rather than attempt to start the year with three different projects for the three grades. Once I gain confidence, then I can do the right thing for each grade, with a project appropriate for each grade.
In previous posts, I suggested returning to the math STEM text and doing mousetrap cars for this critical first project. But in today's post I wish to focus on actual science projects.
Since I have the Physical Science text in front of me, it's tempting for me just to start with MS-PS1-1 for all three grades. But there are several reasons why it's probably better to begin with a Life Science project than Physical Science:
- There are more Life Science standards (21) than Physical Science standards (19). So it's more important to start Life Science right away to get through as many standards as possible.
- Even though sixth grade is following the Integrated Model, I believe that nonetheless sixth grade has more Life Science than Physical Science standards. Thus if I want a project that works for both sixth and seventh grade, a Life Science project is better.
- The first Physical Science standard, MS-PS1-1 (molecule models), has more in common with the second Life Science standard, MS-LS1-2 (cell models) than MS-LS1-1. Thus by giving MS-LS1-1 in Weeks 1 and 2, I can give the similar projects MS-LS1-2 to seventh grade and MS-PS1-1 to eighth grade at the same time, Weeks 3 and 4.
So that settles it -- the first Illinois State science project should be from the Life Sciences text. Let's see what exactly that standard is:
Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
Unfortunately, Life Science is my weakest science, and I never received a printed copy of even the Teachers Edition of the Life Science text (that is, I would have had to look up the text online). So I have no idea how to conduct the investigation listed in the above standard.
I do suspect, though, that the investigation would have involved microscopes, since we can't see most cells without one. Three years ago, many students were itching to use the microscopes that they saw around the classroom. Under this plan, we scratch that itch right away and allow them to use the microscopes in Week 2.
Our plan schedules two days (Wednesday and Friday) for each project. It would be a great idea to use Wednesday to learn how to use a microscope, and then actually use them on Friday.
Unfortunately, seventh grade music on Wednesdays blocks their science lesson. Sometimes it might be possible to squeeze in science lessons during the so-called "Advisory" after music -- these 30 minutes should be sufficient to teach the seventh graders about microscopes.
Third Week (August 29th-September 1st):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Test
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Admissions Day (no school)
This week is the first coding Monday. Because of this, I won't bother to list Monday in the weekly plan -- we already know what it is.
But this is a tricky week due to the holiday on Friday, especially for seventh grade. The only day that they truly get science is on Friday, so if it's a holiday, then they get no science. (I'm not even sure how much they would get after music on Wednesday, because there's a monthly assembly that day.)
As for sixth and eighth grades, the "Science Test" they get this week isn't a real test -- instead, it's the science "Pretest" for the year that's available on Study Island. This will be their first introduction to the Study Island software. Sixth graders see me once on Wednesdays so they get Study Island only, while eighth graders see me twice on such days. One of the blocks is for Study Island and the other is on the traditional lesson, MS-PS1-1.
This is the week when the interactive notebooks begin. One reason that I didn't use them in real life was my fear that some students will refuse to buy them, and those who buy them won't bring them to school regularly. But notebooks are a great idea -- and even the teachers who regularly use them have to deal with such students. I shouldn't have let the possibility of lazy students stop me from doing something that will help their hardworking classmates.
One idea would be to have some students buy notebooks, and give them some extra participation (or extra credit) points for bringing them by, say, the end of Week 2. This lets me know how many notebooks I need to purchase for the remaining kids so that all will have one by Week 3 Tuesday.
Fourth Week (September 6th-9th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Science Project
This week the first true math test. It covers mostly the math that was taught Week 3 with perhaps a little of the math taught during Week 4.
But our focus is on the science project. Each of the three grades gets its own project. The eighth grade project covers the following standard:
Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
Let's actually look at the MS-PS1-1 pages in the Illinois State text that I found:
Pages 1-8 -- Activity: "What Is the Structure of an Atom"
Pages 9-12 -- Traditional Lesson
Pages 13-16 -- Investigation: "Molecular Models"
(Pages 17-29 -- Teacher Keys, teachers edition only)
Pages 30-33 -- Test Yourself/Bonus Material
This is typical for most standards in this text -- there are actually two labs here. Both of them are edible models -- in the first, the candy represents protons and neutrons in an atom, and in the second, it represents different atoms in a molecule. This is where my support staff aide comes in -- she can help me choose projects to do in both grades based on the materials needed. In this case it doesn't make much difference as both of them require mainly candy, but for subsequent projects, one of them may require materials that are much more difficult to find.
While this is going on, seventh graders get their MS-LS1-2 lesson on cell models, which I assume are edible cell models. This is why I want to give MS-PS1-1 to eighth grade and MS-LS1-2 to seventh grade at the same time -- I can purchase candy for both of them.
Recall that this is also the project that the "special cousin" -- an eighth grade girl who transfers to our school -- complains about in December. She recalls doing an edible cell model the previous year, and she wants to know why there aren't any similar projects in my "science" class. I finally do this project in my own class in January.
Anyway, to follow the unit plan given above, we start with the traditional lesson in Week 3 and then do the projects in Week 4. For both of them, students can go to the Illinois State website to learn more, but they ultimately copy what they see online into their interactive notebooks.
What is sixth grade working on at this point? Well, it all depends on what Study Island is teaching. It is likely that I'll just give the edible cell project anyway and then follow the units as given on the Study Island website. I don't have access to that website so I don't know exactly what is to be taught, but I do recall that the Pretest is in Unit 1 and the first real lessons are in Unit 2. Thus we can give the cell project in Week 4, since Unit 2 doesn't begin until Week 5.
Fifth Week (September 12th-16th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Dren Quiz
Friday -- LA County Fair Trip
This is the start of Unit 2. Thus the Dren Quiz this week is on the 2's.
This week is different because of the field trip on Friday. For seventh grade, this week is a bit like Week 3 -- the only day devoted to science is blocked by the field trip. Of course, in real life I treated the LA County Fair visit as a science field trip, and it's likely that I'll still do this for seventh grade, as it's the only science they're getting that week. At least the animals that they'll see at the fair are related to Life Science, although there won't be much discussion about animal cells on the field trip.
Sixth Week (September 19th-23rd):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Content Quiz
Friday -- Science Project
For eighth grade, the science project that they get is on the following standard:
Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
One of the two projects for this standard involves mystery substances -- the second project that I gave in real life in February. Unlike what I did in real life, I should take this project seriously. Let's look at the list of materials needed for this project:
- goggles
- test tubes
- magnet
- magnifying glass
- water source
- 6 Different samples of mystery matter for testing
- petri dishes * 6
- straws * 6
In real life, I didn't have petri dishes for the students to place their substances -- which meant that adding water to them caused a real mess. Unless I take the project seriously, the kids won't either. I should have my aide make sure that all materials are available.
The other project for this standard is an arts project. Some of the art projects for math involve the die cut machine, which I'm required to use. But the art projects in this text aren't die cuts. Instead, let's see on page 57 what the arts project for science is:
MUSIC G8
"Students develop a song, jungle or rap to describe the atomic composition of a simple molecule and its extended structure OR a song describing properties of a substance before and after a chemical reaction demonstrating their understanding of atomic composition or properties and the effect of chemical reactions."
As I'm a teacher who has a daily music break (and still sings songs when subbing to this day), doing this project should be a no-brainer. I could have created some random tunes in advance, or let the students just do raps where only the rhythm is significant.
Notice that Wednesday of Week 6 is Back to School Night. Thus I could have had the students compose the songs in class that day, and then I perform them for their parents that night. If the student is present with the parent, then he or she might even perform the song together. Then the mystery substance project can wait for Friday.
Recall when I subbed for a science class on the day of the "showcases" (Open House), where the teacher had some projects prepared for the parents. The mystery substances project might be nice to show the parents (having them guess what some of the materials are), but it all depends on what the projects for Grades 6-7 are. It might be better to set up Grades 6-7 as projects for parent night and then just keep the songs for eighth grade.
This is likely the first week where the three grades get different projects. Once again, it's possible that sixth and seventh grade get the same project. It all depends on what Unit 2 is on Study Island for sixth grade science (which, once again, I can't check now).
By the way, I should place things like math die cuts and Learning Centers on the schedule. Since I'm so busy with science, there's no way I can do these every week, but let's at least try to do them at least one per unit.
If we're assuming that we're doing the math standards once per week in order, starting in Week 3 after the Benchmarks, then the three NS (number sense) standards for eighth grade are Weeks 3-5. The middle school math texts don't make the arts projects obvious, but there is one eighth grade project that fits in the NS section -- the "square roots" die cut that I've previously described on the blog.
It might be a good idea to do this with Learning Centers on the day of the Dren Quiz in Week 5. This is good because there's no science project this week. It shouldn't be too difficult just to invent math arts projects for Grades 6-7. The art that the students create can be posted on the walls in time for parents to see them on Back to School Night.
If we're to be consistent throughout the units, then there should have been an arts project on the day of the 10's Dren Quiz in Week 1 as well. It's a good idea just to keep the sequences opening activity that day, but perhaps Fraction Fever in Week 2 can include DIDAX fraction manipulatives. But for subsequent units, Learning Centers (including die cut and DIDAX) should occur on the day of the Dren Quiz.
Let's do one more standard for the beginning of the year. That way, we'll complete Unit 2 -- and we'll see what the plan looks like when Friday isn't blocked by a holiday or field trip.
Seventh Week (September 26th-30th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Science Test
Now there is a full slate of science lessons. There are true science lessons this week, not just on sixth and eighth grades, but even for seventh grade (because the music teacher unexpectedly doesn't show up that day). Students take notes from their respective websites (Illinois State or Study Island) and record this information in their notebooks. Thus all three grades should be well-prepared for the science test on Friday.
Eighth Week (October 4th-7th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Science Project
For eighth grade, the science project that they get is on the following standard:
Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
The first science project for this standard is all about chemical vs. physical changes. In real life, I taught this to my students in February, but recall that this what my counterpart was teaching at the sister charter school in November, when my car broke down (conveniently near the sister charter) and I ended up filling in for her instead (because she was out sick that day). These projects involve just cutting out pictures of things changing and separating them into chemical and physical changes.
There is also an arts project here, which can be worth doing because the main science project is relatively simple. Students must develop an advertisement for a new synthetic material describing the natural resources which were used and the impact of your new material on humans.
In real life, this was the week of Rosh Hashanah, and so I decided to teach a science lesson on the earth, moon, and sun (as in lunar calendars) to all three grades. Ironically, if I really follow the curriculum, I probably never teach astronomy at all. This is because astronomy is considered part of the grandfathered sixth grade course (the full name is "Earth and Space Science") and the NGSS 8th grade course (according to the eighth grade science class that I was subbing for recently). But this is the exact opposite of what I should be teaching -- NGSS in sixth grade, grandfathered science in eighth grade. Therefore I should avoid space science completely.
Science 8 in the Middle of the Year
Let's skip ahead in the year. I never wished to discuss all the projects for the entire year in this post, so I will describe only the three projects that occur at critical points in the trimester.
Week 15 (November 28th-December 2nd):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Science Test
Week 16 (December 5th-9th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Science Project
This stretch is significant because it marks the start of the second Physical Science strand. The first strand (MS-PS1-x) was all about chemistry, and the second strand is geared more towards physics.
It's also a key stretch because this is when the "special cousin" transfers to our charter school. In real life, she criticizes my teaching and asks for the edible model projects. But on this plan, the edible model projects already occur long before her arrival. Instead, her first week consists of a traditional lesson followed by the Unit 4 Science Test -- from which she might be excused anyway, if the test covers chemistry that she hasn't been learning at her old school.
Then the following week (my birthday, by the way), the special cousin gets her first science project on the following standard:
Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.*
The two possible projects for this standard both sound interesting. The first is "Water Bottle Rocket Creation," and the other is "Egg Crash Box Creation." It will be up to the support aide to decide which one is more feasible for our classroom.
If the water bottles are chosen, the text states that the goal height for the rockets is 15 feet. Since my classroom that year is on the second floor, I can stand outside my room while the students are launching the rockets from the ground, and the idea is to get the rockets to reach me.
If instead, the egg boxes are chosen, the eggs are to withstand being dropped two meters from inside the classroom. It might be interesting to see whether they can survive being dropped from the second floor outside my room as well.
Both of these projects require research, so Wednesday can be for this research while Friday is for the actual construction and launching. The tricky part is that the text doesn't state what materials are required for either project (besides the obvious water bottles and egg cartons). The students might look something up and come up with an excellent design, only to find out that neither they nor I can obtain the needed materials by Friday.
Some research might involve YouTube -- surely previous students have tried similar projects and posted their ideas online. The LAUSD -- where our charter was co-located -- partially blocked YouTube on its computers. At the time, I assume that it was a completely blocked, but one day, I accidentally discovered that some YouTube videos are playable -- and interestingly enough, it was on the Tuesday of this very Week 16. This is perfect timing for this project.
Week 19 (January 17th-20th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Hidden Figures Field Trip
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Science Test
Week 20 (January 23rd-27th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Science Project
This stretch is critical not only because there is a field trip on Wednesday of Week 19, but the next week is when the administration replaces Study Island and IXL with SBAC Prep time.
Here is the standard for this project:
Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
The only actual science project requires the following materials (since the rest of the lesson is all about graphing data):
- 50 cm of wire
- 1 iron nail
- 1 C or D battery
- 1 box of paperclips
- Doorbell
- Generator
- Motor
- Earphones
These items might be tricky for me to obtain (especially doorbell, generator, and motor). But there's no alternative project for me to give during this unit.
What might end up happening is that only sixth or seventh grade gets a project. The tough thing about teaching math and science for three grades (almost like having six preps) is that it's hard to do everything right for every grade. But as long as at least one of the three grades gets a science project, there's something to photograph and submit to Illinois State as required. Once again, my aide is there to help me decide which project to give.
Week 19 is a tricky stretch for sixth grade science. They ordinarily get science lessons on Wednesday and Friday, but both are blocked this week -- Wednesday by the field trip and Friday by Inauguration Day (January 20th at noon ET/9AM PT is during the sixth grade class). The Unit 5 Test scheduled for that week might need to be shortened to one or two questions. The project during Week 20 can still occur as scheduled.
In Week 20, SBAC Prep replaces Study Island for eighth graders. But Illinois State, not Study Island, is the main online text for eighth grade. On the other hand, sixth grade will continue to use Study Island, the cornerstone text for their science curriculum.
Week 25 (February 27th-March 3rd):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Dren Quiz
Friday -- Science Lesson
Week 26 (March 6th-10th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Project
Thursday -- Math Content Quiz
Friday -- Science Project
This is the start of Unit 7, and so the Dren Quiz for that week will be 7's.
Several things happen at the old charter school during this stretch. First, the curriculum developers fly in (all the way from England) for an observation during Week 25. Second, these are the last two weeks of the trimester, so there might be Benchmark Tests at this point. Finally, the Green Team is starting to heat up, with activities about to begin.
Here is the standard for this project -- the first standard of the third strand:
Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
How I deal with the three issues above (observation, end of tri, Green Team) is tricky to speculate, but let me do so anyway. First of all, the Illinois State observation happens on the day of a traditional science lesson. I know that the observers don't wish to see a traditional lesson -- they want to see either a project or something different (DIDAX, die cuts, and so on).
Thus it's possible that I move up the science project one week. But then we notice that the project scheduled for this week on the above standard is all about drawing tables and graphs. This doesn't exactly sound like much of a lab -- indeed, if all the students are working on are graphs, we might as well just do a traditional lesson.
In the end, it's most likely that I just have the students do the graphs -- and if the observers complain, I just show them that MS-PS3-1 happens to be the next scheduled lesson in order. (They also end up observing the SBAC Prep time for science -- once again, I point out that according to the schedule, this is what the eighth graders are supposed to be working on!)
The observers are also supposed to show me some more DIDAX manipulatives. This is just in time for me to use DIDAX on the same day as the 7's Dren Quiz.
I do point out that in real life, this is right around the time I left the school. So I can only guess exactly what was going on at the time.
For example, the first trimester ends with Benchmark Tests, but I don't hear much about second tri Benchmarks at the time I leave. If Benchmarks are necessary, then once again I replace the Week 26 Math Quiz with the Math Benchmarks.
If there are no Benchmarks, then it's possible that I might have the students do something similar to what I saw at a school I subbed at recently -- end the tri with a science writing assignment. There are "Literacy Connections" throughout the Illinois State text. The ones for MS-PS3-1 are on reading comprehension -- there is a reading passage and the following questions:
1. How fast can a cheetah run?
2. How does the cheetah use its ability to run at high speeds?
Try it: Suppose that you are lucky enough to observe a cheetah in the wild. Write a paragraph describing what you would see.
Meanwhile, I believe that this is around the time that the Green Team begins. If this is the case, then MS-PS3-1 is the last Physical Science standard taught to eighth graders, as we immediately switch to the environmental-related projects in all three grades.
According to Study Island, one unit taught to all three grades is on Human Interactions, which is similar to Green Team. For sixth grade, it might even be Unit 7 (though I don't know for sure). Even though only sixth grade follows the Study Island curriculum, I follow it for all three grades as soon as Green Team begins. It's possible that I might need to squeeze in at least one more Illinois State project for the sake of submitting the photos (but I can still try to find one related to the environment in any of the Illinois State texts).
Once again, the science curriculum isn't dependent on Green Team (or Bruin Corps). If Green Team doesn't begin at this time, then I continue with standard MS-PS3-2. I act as if there is no Green Team until I'm told that it's truly beginning.
I must apologize here -- I keep throwing around terms like "Green Team," "Bruin Corps," and "Study Island" over and over again. But some readers aren't familiar with these terms, especially those who just stumbled upon my blog recently and haven't been with me in 2016 and 2017. If you're really curious, you can go back to my posts from those years.
But let me briefly describe them here. In short, all of these are mandates from the administration that I'm supposed to include in the curriculum. Sometimes I only have a vague idea of exactly when I'm supposed to implement them:
- Illinois State is the main science (and math) text. The science component is online (though there are printed teachers editions). It includes traditional lessons, labs, and other components.
- Study Island is supplemental software. It has lessons for several subjects, including science.
- Bruin Corps consists of UCLA students who grew up in our neighborhood. They volunteer to return to our classrooms on certain days to help the current middle school students. The Bruin Corps students who visit my classroom are science majors.
- Green Team is a special program that started the year I was at the old school. The plan is for the students to present a science fair project in time for Earth Day (the one in April), and of course the project is ultimately related to the environment. Even though it's supposed to end around Earth Day, I never know exactly when it's supposed to start.
Today's post is all about how I should have implemented all of these mandates correctly in order to have a coherent science curriculum.
Once again, in real life, I ended up leaving the old charter around Week 25-26. A huge reason why is the stress I was under for not teaching science correctly -- and the implications this had on my classroom management. (Why should we listen to you, teacher, if you won't even teach science the way you're supposed to?) The main idea of this post is that if I'd taught science properly as described in this post, I wouldn't have needed to leave the school.
Science 8 at the End of the Year
Figuring out what science might have looked like at the end of the year is tricky. First of all, I'm not quite sure how long Green Team lasts -- if we assume that it spans from Earth Day in March (the 21st) until Earth Day in April (the 22nd), that's Weeks 28-31 (essentially Unit 8).
The other factor to consider is the SBAC (and the first ever California Science Test). I do know that after I left, our charter delayed the SBAC until as late as possible -- just before eighth grade graduation. So let's take these factors into consideration as we look at the end of the year.
For this, we'll continue with the fourth strand as if there is never a Green Team project:
Week 35 (May 15th-19th):
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Science Test
Week 36 (May 22nd-26th):
Monday/Tuesday -- ELA SBAC
Wednesday -- California Science Test
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Science Project
For this plan, I'm assuming that the SBAC schedule is similar to the schedule that my high school observed last week. So Monday and Tuesday are ELA and Wednesday is science. (There's no need for an ELPAC on Thursday, since our school already took the CELDT earlier in the year.)
Here is the standard for this project:
Tuesday -- Math Lesson
Wednesday -- Science Lesson
Thursday -- Math Lesson
Friday -- Science Test
Week 36 (May 22nd-26th):
Monday/Tuesday -- ELA SBAC
Wednesday -- California Science Test
Thursday -- Math Test
Friday -- Science Project
For this plan, I'm assuming that the SBAC schedule is similar to the schedule that my high school observed last week. So Monday and Tuesday are ELA and Wednesday is science. (There's no need for an ELPAC on Thursday, since our school already took the CELDT earlier in the year.)
Here is the standard for this project:
Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
This is what I suspect Week 35 would actually look like -- the final Unit 9 Science Test would actually be the Post-Test on Study Island. This (plus the usual SBAC Prep on Wednesday) would constitute the last chances to review for the state science test.
Likewise, the Math Test for Week 36 is also review for the Math SBAC the following week. The review is on the SBAC website (as I assume that regular SBAC Prep on Wednesday for math is replaced by the Science Test).
This does leave room for a science project on Friday Week 36. If it's for MS-PS4-1, then there's a wave project in the Illinois State text involving Slinkies -- it certainly looks like fun!
Likewise, the Math Test for Week 36 is also review for the Math SBAC the following week. The review is on the SBAC website (as I assume that regular SBAC Prep on Wednesday for math is replaced by the Science Test).
This does leave room for a science project on Friday Week 36. If it's for MS-PS4-1, then there's a wave project in the Illinois State text involving Slinkies -- it certainly looks like fun!
Week 37 (May 30th-June 2nd):
Monday -- Memorial Day Holiday
Tuesday/Thursday -- Math SBAC
Wednesday -- Dren Quiz
Friday -- Eighth Grade Graduation
Week 38 (June 5th-9th):
Week of Service
When I was actually at the school, I told the eighth graders that there would be a "practice final" (that is, practice for high school) at the end of the year. This was before I knew that the SBAC would be pushed back to the end of the year. Now I no longer believe that a practice final is appropriate.
For this chart, I assume that the Math SBAC is on Tuesday and Thursday, since there is no school on Monday and seventh grade doesn't meet on Wednesday. This leaves one day left to be covered -- Wednesday for sixth and eighth grades.
This week, a Dren Quiz is scheduled. Since the 9's Dren Quiz is given during Week 33, this would be the 10's Dren Quiz. If the Week 1 Dren Quiz is also 10's, then we end up going full circle.
It's also possible that we might replace this last day with a science project:
Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
We might just leave out science altogether, but I might want to be able to say that we made it all the way to MS-PS4-2 (failing only to reach MS-PS4-3). There are several projects in this section that are possible on the final day, including one on using Legos to code secret messages. ("Knock Knock, Who's There" is the name of this project.)
Depending on how Green Team goes and how long it lasts, we might be wrapping us MS-PS3-5 on this day instead of MS-PS4-2. If it's 3-5, a possible project is a "grab bag" of objects using different types of kinetic energy.
In any case there is no final, but there also could be Benchmark Tests at the end of the year. In real life, only know that there was SBAC at the end of the year -- nothing about Benchmarks and what happened to them.
After the eighth graders graduate, they don't attend school during Week 38. Thus the "Week of Service" listed above is only for Grades K-7.
These last few standards on waves would have been tricky for me, since back when I was a young middle school student, waves weren't really taught. Yes, I know that I didn't fare well back in eighth grade science with a grade of C-, but even if my grade had been an A+, these middle school lessons on waves would still be new to me.
Cosmos Episode 3: "Lost City of Life"
Since this is my big science post, let me bring up a few other science-related issues.
Six years ago, FOX aired a science-related program called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. That was just before I started this blog.
I wasn't sure whether I was going to watch his successor series Cosmos: Possible Worlds this year. So on March 9th -- the night when it premiered on National Geographic -- I decided that I would wait until it airs this summer on FOX to watch it. After all, I was busy with subbing, blogging about subbing, and possibly watching some sports. I figured I'd be less busy during the summer.
But then, of course, the coronavirus cancellations occurred just a few days later. Suddenly, the reasons for not watching it now in March all disappeared. And so I changed my mind -- and not only am I watching the series now, but I'll even summarize the episodes here on the blog.
Two episodes air each week -- and unfortunately, the first two episodes had already aired by the time I decided to watch the series. I used to have National Geographic on demand, but now can only watch the linear channel. Thus there's no way for me to access the first two episodes -- that is, until the air on FOX this summer. And so my blog descriptions will begin with Episodes 3-4, airing last Monday.
The original series -- Cosmos: A Personal Voyage -- was hosted by Carl Sagan. This was right around the time I was born. Indeed, one Sagan episode, "The Persistence of Memory," aired on the very night of my birth. (And since my birth was in the evening and Cosmos likely aired during prime time, I was probably born during the episode.)
But that's enough about Sagan's series -- let's go onward with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. And I'm creating a new Tyson blog label for these episodes.
Here is a summary of Cosmos Episode 3: "Lost City of Life."
- Long long ago, before life on earth, there was a rocky olivine "city" at the bottom of the ocean.
- "Serpentinization" is the process by rocks formed the materials needed for life.
- On the "Cosmic Calendar," our galaxy began on March 15th and the sun at the end of August.
- The earth was formed on the 21st of September (and probably wind and fire, too).
- The first life forms -- anaerobes and cyanobacteria -- turned the sky blue in late October.
- After the Cambrian explosion, life became more complex.
- Christian Friedrich Schoenbein, a chemist, accidentally discovered TNT in his experiments.
- His successor, Victor Goldschmidt, formed the modern Periodic Table.
- Goldschmidt developed a new field, cosmochemistry, to explore the origins of life.
- During Hitler's regime, he tricked the Germans into searching for nonexistent minerals.
- After the Holocaust, he suspected that life began in olivine pools in the deep sea.
- As cosmic citizens, we must worry about not contaminating the worlds we visit.
- Our moon is a completely lifeless Category 1 world.
- Mars is a Category 5 world where life may be possible, at least at one point in the past.
- Jupiter is Category 2, but its moon Europa is Category 5 -- attempt no landings there.
- The young John Herschel learned much about astronomy from his father and aunt in 1802.
- He first named Enceladus, a Category 5 moon of Saturn filled with water and methane.
- Scientists speculate that its oceans, like our early seas, are filled with olivine, and hence life.
The entire existence of our species is squeezed into New Year's Eve on the Cosmic Calendar. Even dinosaurs didn't appear until Christmas Day! The reason Sagan and Tyson use the analogy of the Cosmic Calendar is to demonstrate how short our lifetimes are compared to the age of the universe.
Cosmos Episode 4: "Vavilov"
Here is a summary of Cosmos Episode 4: "Vavilov."
- For hundreds of thousands of years, humans were wanderers, hunters, and gatherers.
- On the Cosmic Calendar, agriculture started less than half a minute ago.
- From then until the 19th century, there has been a famine somewhere in the world.
- Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection still draws opposition to this day.
- Gregor Mendel and William Bateson discovered genetics, dominant, and recessive traits.
- Nikolai Vavilov was a young scientist who worked in Bateson's laboratory.
- In Peru in the year 1600, a volcano blast blocked the sun's rays, leading to freezing in Russia.
- In the late 19th century, another famine led to massive revolts and the Russian Revolution.
- Vavilov, who grew up in a poor Russian family of scientists, became interested in botany.
- He proposed that all plants have a common ancestor and proposed collecting a seed bank.
- He traveled to Ethiopia and asked Emperor Haile Selassie to study the coffee beans there.
- He proposed that the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East, where the first apples grew.
- Stalin and his follower Lysenko opposed Vavilov and his genetic theories.
- Instead, Lysenko believed in Lamarckian adaptation and that he could make plants grow in ice.
- Vavilov's wife urged her husband to stop his work, yet he continued, inciting Stalin's wrath.
- Holodomor was an official policy that led to famine and starvation.
- On Christmas Day 1941, thousands starved in Leningrad during World War II.
- Although Vavilov starved to death in prison, his seed bank still feeds many of us to this day.
As I watch these episodes, I can't help but think about whether anything that Tyson discusses in these episodes related to topics that I could have taught for science at the old charter school.
In particular, genetics and evolution are the third and fourth strands for Life Science. But this means it's likely that Green Team would have swallowed up this strands. Instead, only the first two strands, on cells and ecosystems, are likely to be taught.
Once again, it doesn't help that seventh grade meets one fewer day per week, with only one day -- Friday -- devoted to science. But then again, they would have received much more science than I ended up giving them in real life.
On this Earth Day, some people point out that some suggestions for taking care of the environment (for example, reusing plastic cups) are at odds with suggestions for taking care of they body during the coronavirus outbreak (for example, throwing cups away to get rid of the germs).
This is indeed a tricky one. Today, I purchased some drinks from Circle K in Styrofoam cups. A quick Google search reveals conflicting information regarding whether Styrofoam is better than or worse than plastic.
Hopefully this debate will be settled by April Earth Day. What option should we use for food and drink containers, so that both very very little waste is generated so that our ecosystem can last for 1000 years and beyond, and very very little germs are spread so that our species can survive the virus for 1000 years and beyond?
But this just goes to show how much the world has changed since the start of the outbreak. When I first arrived at school on Friday the 13th, I thought of it as the last day of school before Pi Day. My main concern was getting enough pie and pizza to feed the classes that earned the rewards.
By the end of the day, I realized that it wasn't just the last day of school before Pi Day -- it had suddenly become the last day of school before spring break. Yes, my new district did announced this week that, as I suspected, it will close for a third week, thus making spring break the fourth week of the closure.
And now, it's possible that last Friday will turn out to be the last day of school, period. Our California Governor Gavin Newsom has stated that he doesn't expect schools to reopen this year at all.
Conclusion
Back when I was a young high school student, I earned A's and B's in all classes. But there were times when my grade for one class at the first quaver was a D or F. Often, this happened because I was missing one or two early assignments -- and since it was so early in the semester, there wasn't much else so far to balance those missing assignments.
This happened to me in my sophomore science class. I still remember my science teacher saying, "Imagine if some emergency happens, the schools shut down, and I have to give you a grade. Then that F will be your permanent semester grade."
But despite this warning, it happened to me again the following year. My junior English teacher became sick and had to miss six weeks, starting on the fifth day of school. During this time, there was a series of subs, one per week. Most of those teachers didn't assign homework, but one did -- we were to write our own love poem, based on one of Emily Dickinson's poems. But I was so used to not having English homework that I only completed assignments for my other classes and forgot that I even had an English assignment. On the day it was due, the sub made it very clear that no late work was to be accepted. There was nothing I could do about it!
The regular teacher returned just before the first quarter grades were due. And since there weren't very many assignments during her absence, the love poem made up the bulk of our grades. I also remember what she said to me upon her return: "It's not my fault if you can't meet deadlines."
My first quarter percentage was around 55%, an F. Actually, she explains that in her non-honors class, 60-80% is a C and 50-60% is a D, but since I was in the honors class, my grade was an F. ("Me fail English? That's unpossible!") What made it untimely was that this was right around the time when I was being recommended by my science teacher for the magnet program (as I've explained in previous posts), and that low English grade was surely making her second-guess herself.
In the end, a D appeared on my first quarter report card for English, not an F. Perhaps my English teacher softened up because her long absence was an extenuating circumstance (and besides, my grade was 55%, not 5%). Or maybe it was because I was transferring from my honors English class to the magnet program, where my English class was considered normal, not honors -- so she ended up using the non-honors grading scale.
Still, this was the deepest in the semester that I ever had a D or F in any class. My new magnet teacher told me that she must include my first quarter grade in the semester grade, but she wouldn't weigh it very much. And so I ended up raising it to a B by the end of the semester, keeping my stretch of getting only A's and B's in high school intact.
But now imagine this -- suppose that a coronavirus outbreak had occurred right at the end of the first quarter my junior year. School gets canceled the entire second quarter -- but since the Internet was still in its infancy at the time, there are no online assignments, and the first quarter grades become our final semester grades. I would have been stuck with that D as my semester grade -- just as my science teacher had warned me the previous year. I would have jeopardized my chances of getting into UCLA or another college -- all because I didn't listen to a sub one day.
Why am I telling you this story? If Newsom is correct that the schools won't reopen this year, then this makes me fear for the students I taught on that last Wednesday-Friday. Yes, online education will be set up for the students to finish the year. But it's possible that this won't work for those special ed classes I taught that week, because those students have accommodations. If it's impossible for the online classes to meet the accommodations, then it's illegal for any of that work to be graded. And this could mean that whatever grade the students were earning at the time of the closure, that's their final semester grade -- and for the seniors, if that grade happens to be an F, they won't graduate.
As I wrote last week, many of the students entered the classroom, saw that I was a sub, and right then decided that they would do no work, play on phones or with games, and just ignore me. And I worry that the assignment I gave them and they ignored might make the difference in their final grade -- the difference between graduating and not graduating.
Here's one thing I could have done -- I could have told the students to get out their phones and check their current grades online. Then I ask, suppose the coronavirus cancels school the rest of the year and those are your final grades -- would you graduate?
Technically, I can't tell the students not to do the current assignment, even though there's a chance that it wouldn't be graded before the closure. (If the teacher tried to include it in the grade and then disqualify a student from graduating because of it, it could then be challenged that I, the sub, didn't give the accommodations either -- since I wasn't directed to. So in the end, the assignment I gave that day wouldn't count either.)
But instead, I could tell them to make up any missing assignments (assuming that this English teacher, unlike my own from my days as a student, accepts late work). And if they don't have any missing assignments for English, try making them up for other classes that they are failing. The incentive for pie and pizza could be determined just by behavior -- not by the number of completed assignments I see, since only some students will have assignments to make up. Those who are satisfied that their grades are good enough to graduate can have free time on phones or games. If I had said this last week, it might make the difference between graduating and not graduating for at least one student.
Of course, one reason I didn't say this was that at the time, I thought that school closures were still a long shot. On my first day in the classroom, the NBA was still playing games, after all. (That night would be the last night of sports.)
Returning to the present, the school closures aren't just a long shot -- they are reality. At least for gen ed classes, the students in my new district picked up Chromebooks (if they don't own a computer), and the online lessons begin next week. My old district had online lessons last week -- this upcoming week would have been its spring break anyway.
And I don't know what the future will bring as a sub without work. Throughout today's post, I can't help but think back to my days at the old charter school and what would have happened if only I had taught science properly. Perhaps I wouldn't have felt the need to leave the school. Perhaps I would have stayed the three years until the charter itself closed down. Perhaps I would have had to go back to subbing anyway because of the closure -- or maybe, with three successful years of teaching on my resume, I would have been hired as a regular teacher at another charter or public school this year. I would now be scrambling to set up an online class with the virus closure -- which means that I would still be getting a paycheck.
Instead, I'm now a sub without a paycheck. My career is now at a crossroads -- and I think I'll discuss this more in my next post. Expect that post to be about a week or so from now.
Before I end this post, here's something I've been meaning to post for a while -- and now I finally have the luxury of time to post. I've been posting so many Square One TV songs and I'll always wanted to add a song from its contemporary PBS show, Ghostwriter:
The music video plays from 22:30 to 25:00. Not only do I transcribe the lyrics here (to the best of my ability, as usual), but I added a new third verse for me to sing in a classroom -- whenever I return to a classroom, that is. Originally, my new verse mentioned "math class," but I changed my mind and just made it a generic class (and history class is already mentioned in the original first verse). The new verse is based on my first three rules/resolutions.
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE
Intro:
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
First Verse:
There are too many kids with too few choices,
No one to listen when they raise their voices.
Too often told, be seen and not a word,
Absurd, kick the nice ones to the curb.
Got something on your mind, it can be so much,
Just clear the air, then you can prove you've the right touch,
Gotta know where you're going, gotta know where you've been,
Learn your history in History, know your who, what, where, why, when.
Be proud, stand tall, hold your head up high,
Be a friend to your friends, don't be afraid to cry.
Learn as much as you can, and each one, teach one,
Share your knowledge with your friends, so that you can reach one.
And to those that try to tell you that you never, don't, can't, won't,
Flip the script and prove them wrong.
Believe in yourself and you'll find enough respect,
You know, just keep on keepin' on!
Refrain:
You gotta believe and reach for the sky,
You gotta believe and lift your spirit so high.
You gotta believe, let no one stand in your way,
And your dream will be reality someday.
Second Verse:
When obstacles appear that you can't step around,
Then climb up on over and cruise on down.
When the going gets tough and you're knocked of track,
Another two steps forward, for every one back.
No one said it would be easy, you gotta work with what you've got,
Then when you're seen, you either have to or have not.
It's not what you hold, it's what you've got on the inside,
Knowledge, dignity, self-respect, pride!
(To Refrain)
Third Verse (Walker original, not on video):
So when you're in class and then work seems hard,
Just know that all of you are either smart or almost smart.
But if you slack off, you'll pay the price,
Unless you work a whole lot and make a real sacrifice.
To be a huge success in any class you like,
Just remember, make it easy as riding a bike.
And when it comes time for you to take the big test,
You'll get what you want in life when you always do your best!
(To Refrain)
Outro:
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
On this Earth Day, some people point out that some suggestions for taking care of the environment (for example, reusing plastic cups) are at odds with suggestions for taking care of they body during the coronavirus outbreak (for example, throwing cups away to get rid of the germs).
This is indeed a tricky one. Today, I purchased some drinks from Circle K in Styrofoam cups. A quick Google search reveals conflicting information regarding whether Styrofoam is better than or worse than plastic.
Hopefully this debate will be settled by April Earth Day. What option should we use for food and drink containers, so that both very very little waste is generated so that our ecosystem can last for 1000 years and beyond, and very very little germs are spread so that our species can survive the virus for 1000 years and beyond?
But this just goes to show how much the world has changed since the start of the outbreak. When I first arrived at school on Friday the 13th, I thought of it as the last day of school before Pi Day. My main concern was getting enough pie and pizza to feed the classes that earned the rewards.
By the end of the day, I realized that it wasn't just the last day of school before Pi Day -- it had suddenly become the last day of school before spring break. Yes, my new district did announced this week that, as I suspected, it will close for a third week, thus making spring break the fourth week of the closure.
And now, it's possible that last Friday will turn out to be the last day of school, period. Our California Governor Gavin Newsom has stated that he doesn't expect schools to reopen this year at all.
Conclusion
Back when I was a young high school student, I earned A's and B's in all classes. But there were times when my grade for one class at the first quaver was a D or F. Often, this happened because I was missing one or two early assignments -- and since it was so early in the semester, there wasn't much else so far to balance those missing assignments.
This happened to me in my sophomore science class. I still remember my science teacher saying, "Imagine if some emergency happens, the schools shut down, and I have to give you a grade. Then that F will be your permanent semester grade."
But despite this warning, it happened to me again the following year. My junior English teacher became sick and had to miss six weeks, starting on the fifth day of school. During this time, there was a series of subs, one per week. Most of those teachers didn't assign homework, but one did -- we were to write our own love poem, based on one of Emily Dickinson's poems. But I was so used to not having English homework that I only completed assignments for my other classes and forgot that I even had an English assignment. On the day it was due, the sub made it very clear that no late work was to be accepted. There was nothing I could do about it!
The regular teacher returned just before the first quarter grades were due. And since there weren't very many assignments during her absence, the love poem made up the bulk of our grades. I also remember what she said to me upon her return: "It's not my fault if you can't meet deadlines."
My first quarter percentage was around 55%, an F. Actually, she explains that in her non-honors class, 60-80% is a C and 50-60% is a D, but since I was in the honors class, my grade was an F. ("Me fail English? That's unpossible!") What made it untimely was that this was right around the time when I was being recommended by my science teacher for the magnet program (as I've explained in previous posts), and that low English grade was surely making her second-guess herself.
In the end, a D appeared on my first quarter report card for English, not an F. Perhaps my English teacher softened up because her long absence was an extenuating circumstance (and besides, my grade was 55%, not 5%). Or maybe it was because I was transferring from my honors English class to the magnet program, where my English class was considered normal, not honors -- so she ended up using the non-honors grading scale.
Still, this was the deepest in the semester that I ever had a D or F in any class. My new magnet teacher told me that she must include my first quarter grade in the semester grade, but she wouldn't weigh it very much. And so I ended up raising it to a B by the end of the semester, keeping my stretch of getting only A's and B's in high school intact.
But now imagine this -- suppose that a coronavirus outbreak had occurred right at the end of the first quarter my junior year. School gets canceled the entire second quarter -- but since the Internet was still in its infancy at the time, there are no online assignments, and the first quarter grades become our final semester grades. I would have been stuck with that D as my semester grade -- just as my science teacher had warned me the previous year. I would have jeopardized my chances of getting into UCLA or another college -- all because I didn't listen to a sub one day.
Why am I telling you this story? If Newsom is correct that the schools won't reopen this year, then this makes me fear for the students I taught on that last Wednesday-Friday. Yes, online education will be set up for the students to finish the year. But it's possible that this won't work for those special ed classes I taught that week, because those students have accommodations. If it's impossible for the online classes to meet the accommodations, then it's illegal for any of that work to be graded. And this could mean that whatever grade the students were earning at the time of the closure, that's their final semester grade -- and for the seniors, if that grade happens to be an F, they won't graduate.
Here's one thing I could have done -- I could have told the students to get out their phones and check their current grades online. Then I ask, suppose the coronavirus cancels school the rest of the year and those are your final grades -- would you graduate?
Technically, I can't tell the students not to do the current assignment, even though there's a chance that it wouldn't be graded before the closure. (If the teacher tried to include it in the grade and then disqualify a student from graduating because of it, it could then be challenged that I, the sub, didn't give the accommodations either -- since I wasn't directed to. So in the end, the assignment I gave that day wouldn't count either.)
But instead, I could tell them to make up any missing assignments (assuming that this English teacher, unlike my own from my days as a student, accepts late work). And if they don't have any missing assignments for English, try making them up for other classes that they are failing. The incentive for pie and pizza could be determined just by behavior -- not by the number of completed assignments I see, since only some students will have assignments to make up. Those who are satisfied that their grades are good enough to graduate can have free time on phones or games. If I had said this last week, it might make the difference between graduating and not graduating for at least one student.
Of course, one reason I didn't say this was that at the time, I thought that school closures were still a long shot. On my first day in the classroom, the NBA was still playing games, after all. (That night would be the last night of sports.)
Returning to the present, the school closures aren't just a long shot -- they are reality. At least for gen ed classes, the students in my new district picked up Chromebooks (if they don't own a computer), and the online lessons begin next week. My old district had online lessons last week -- this upcoming week would have been its spring break anyway.
And I don't know what the future will bring as a sub without work. Throughout today's post, I can't help but think back to my days at the old charter school and what would have happened if only I had taught science properly. Perhaps I wouldn't have felt the need to leave the school. Perhaps I would have stayed the three years until the charter itself closed down. Perhaps I would have had to go back to subbing anyway because of the closure -- or maybe, with three successful years of teaching on my resume, I would have been hired as a regular teacher at another charter or public school this year. I would now be scrambling to set up an online class with the virus closure -- which means that I would still be getting a paycheck.
Instead, I'm now a sub without a paycheck. My career is now at a crossroads -- and I think I'll discuss this more in my next post. Expect that post to be about a week or so from now.
Before I end this post, here's something I've been meaning to post for a while -- and now I finally have the luxury of time to post. I've been posting so many Square One TV songs and I'll always wanted to add a song from its contemporary PBS show, Ghostwriter:
The music video plays from 22:30 to 25:00. Not only do I transcribe the lyrics here (to the best of my ability, as usual), but I added a new third verse for me to sing in a classroom -- whenever I return to a classroom, that is. Originally, my new verse mentioned "math class," but I changed my mind and just made it a generic class (and history class is already mentioned in the original first verse). The new verse is based on my first three rules/resolutions.
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE
Intro:
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
First Verse:
There are too many kids with too few choices,
No one to listen when they raise their voices.
Too often told, be seen and not a word,
Absurd, kick the nice ones to the curb.
Got something on your mind, it can be so much,
Just clear the air, then you can prove you've the right touch,
Gotta know where you're going, gotta know where you've been,
Learn your history in History, know your who, what, where, why, when.
Be proud, stand tall, hold your head up high,
Be a friend to your friends, don't be afraid to cry.
Learn as much as you can, and each one, teach one,
Share your knowledge with your friends, so that you can reach one.
And to those that try to tell you that you never, don't, can't, won't,
Flip the script and prove them wrong.
Believe in yourself and you'll find enough respect,
You know, just keep on keepin' on!
Refrain:
You gotta believe and reach for the sky,
You gotta believe and lift your spirit so high.
You gotta believe, let no one stand in your way,
And your dream will be reality someday.
Second Verse:
When obstacles appear that you can't step around,
Then climb up on over and cruise on down.
When the going gets tough and you're knocked of track,
Another two steps forward, for every one back.
No one said it would be easy, you gotta work with what you've got,
Then when you're seen, you either have to or have not.
It's not what you hold, it's what you've got on the inside,
Knowledge, dignity, self-respect, pride!
(To Refrain)
Third Verse (Walker original, not on video):
So when you're in class and then work seems hard,
Just know that all of you are either smart or almost smart.
But if you slack off, you'll pay the price,
Unless you work a whole lot and make a real sacrifice.
To be a huge success in any class you like,
Just remember, make it easy as riding a bike.
And when it comes time for you to take the big test,
You'll get what you want in life when you always do your best!
(To Refrain)
Outro:
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
Oh yeah, oh, yeah, you gotta believe!
No comments:
Post a Comment