Triple Header

I've been so busy here at Indy that I've neglected my blog! We're going into the last day as I wake up this morning, so let's re-cap what's happened!


Wednesday

Things really came into form on Thursday. For people that want to come down to the New Tech teaching training and get a ton of work done, you may get frustrated. I came down here expecting to be pounding out projects, really pushing the envelope to get as much done in one week as we can. I couldn't have been more wrong. The New Tech training staff is entirely interested in shifting our way of thinking, of changing our perspective of the way our classroom is run. For the most part it has worked. I'm pretty fortunate that I've been a PBL teacher on my own for quite some time, and I've already done most of what we do for New Tech to some degree. The differences however, are significant and I see why they are going to change my classroom.

On a more personal note, June 23rd was my wedding anniversary and Kari and the kids came down a surprised me for the evening! They came down to Indy and spent the night with me! We went out to TGIF for dinner and then returned to the hotel for swimming and fun! It was nice to see them, I didn't want them to leave on Thursday!

Thursday

The picture came into even clearer view as we worked on rubrics and norms. Part of changing any working culture is changing the vocabulary that is used, and to a certain degree I've been tracking that this week.

New Tech words list:
push back
authenticity
work ethic rubric
working calendar
agenda
pacing
production
feedback
task

For those you that are reading this, let me sum up New Tech in my words. New Tech is a PBL (problem based learning) program that allows you students to develop their own problem solving and critical thinking skills. The student is confronted with a situation and a driving question. This happens all the time in real life: A problem with no simply answer. The student then needs to develop an answer for this driving question, and along the way the teacher provides scaffolding (homework, discussion, assignments and resources) to cover and master the information. The student is expected to develop a final product of some sort (poster, movie, picture, power point, speech, and more) that answers the initial driving question. Along the way the students will work in groups, sign group projects, write journal entries, and generally hold each other accountable for work to be done. The end work is graded by a state standard's based rubric (answering the question, did the student learn what we intended for them to learn?). The key to all this is that the projects are developed to be interesting, professional, and real world based. We as teacher's will be expected to reach out to the professional public to get real professionals involved. Here are the projects that June and I have so far for the BioHealth class. These are in various forms of completion as of this morning:

Organelles by Monet - The students are expected to learn about cell types, parts, and what the parts do and what keeps them healthy. They will then develop an analogy to teach 6th grade student's about Organelles using the simplified analogy in terms that a middle school student could understand.

Microbes - The student will play the part of restaurant manager. This manager is responsible for creating new norms in their restaurant that determines the regulations that the workers will follow while transporting, storing, and preparing food products. The end product may include posters, power points, and/or a video that a restaurant could show new employees to encourage proper ways to handle and prepare food that follow Indiana Department of Health guidelines.

Baby no Baby - The student will study genetics and act as a Genetic Counselor. They will explore how Genetic Counseling is used to look at hereditary issues and what disorders and prenatal issues can be determined prior to or just after birth. The student will learn about different disorders, how they are checked, and the physical, mental, and social challenges the off spring may have in front of them.

DNA in the Courtroom - The student is working for a Jury Education Committee to educate a jury on how DNA can be used in crime scenes to determine the outcome of a case. They will look at various DNA tests, how accurate they are, how to determine accuracy, and how the jury should look at the results when they are presented.

Cancer - This is still being fleshed out, but this will explore various forms of cancer, what is happening to the body, and current practices to fight cancer in the U.S. and abroad.

Genetically Modified Foods - Students will explore ways that the U.S. is currently modifiying certain foods to develop specific traits. Student's will contemplate the moral, values, and health concerns and benefits of the public being presented with Genetically Modified Foods and these foods being present in our everyday menus.

That's it for now, but those projects alone will take a semester to complete. These projects will take anywhere from 1 - 4 weeks to complete.