Famous ‘soccer’ coach Sven-Goran Eriksson once said “The greatest barrier to success is fear of failure”.

It’s getting to be that time of year where I see the start of the next school year and panic. Am I going to fail? Be far worse than I was last year? Be able to learn 150 new names in a week? Actually teach? It’s frightening if I let it be, but I keep in mind what has always alleviated the fear: goal-setting. Each year I make a small list of attainable, measurable goals that I strive to meet independent of what is expected of me from the administration. This year, at the top of this this is to include a blogging exercise that runs all year for my AP Statistics courses. It will be detailed here on this blog in a few days, but I do have long term aspirations or this project. I want to have a blogging exercise that students buy in to, believe in, and work to build on as the year progresses. It will be weekly, measured, and hopefully valuable to their futures. This goal then serves as the antidote to the “fear of the upcoming school year” I start to feel, easing the panic, and recreating the necessary passion for me to deliver at the highest level I can. Anyone else use goals to mentally prepare for the imminent August return?

I’ve been teaching a financial literacy course for about 8 years now, always on the hunt for more resources and ideas to help spread the knowledge of living within America’s monetary system. One of my favorite resources I found over the years is BizKid$, a program that airs on public television intended for age 12-18. It tries to present toppics that individuals will face in their lives in a fashion that any teenager would at the very least appreciate, if not outright enjoy. It’s quite slick, well though out, and very entertaining. I cannot recomment it enough as something the financial literacy teacher uses as a short segue into a new topic (they pretty much cover them all), and the website includes lesson plans for each of their topics. Here’s a promo for the latest season. You’ll see pop culture references and quality acting and impressive costume designing here, along with how they present financial literacy topics.

There’s a survey in the sidebar for your thinking pleasure. Go ahead and take a few minutes and answer the questions. I’ll post the results by August 4th. Thanks!

I’ve always felt like I, as the show says, “think like a freak”. Freakonomics radio is a wondeful listen for me as a stats teacher, giving me thoughts on projects and discussions. This one verified that I indeed am a good parent! Bribery! Well, at least I think I am good. Kinda. Enjoy! Subscribe to these guys! It’s always worth the 20-ish mnutes.

http://freakonomics.com/2014/07/17/why-you-should-bribe-your-kids-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

A bit back, oh I’d say it was March, H&R Block held a contest challenging students to detail exactly what a billion dollars is. I had a few students put together an entry, and here was what they did:

Seemed cool to us, so it was entered, and lo and behold… it won second place!! And to top it off, the two students that entered it never really had a positive thing happen for them in a math classroom in pretty much their entire lives, so yeah, cool. Good fun it was.

When examining generational differences, one cannot ignore the idea of expectations. Digital nativists fully expect information to be passed on to them through technology. The very idea of unattainable information, or ‘lost’ events, songs, or moments are completely foreign to today’s digital youth. “Let’s look it up” is always an option to them in our minds, but to them it’s not an option; it is the way things are. They just do that, almost instinctively. We digital immigrants have unlearned (kinda) a previous behavior in order to norm this new behavior. We were taught to sit in a large group and listen to the instructor, and there was no other way to obtain this knowledge they were offering. We knew that, so therefore we acclimated to the situation necessarily. Today’s student is no different. They will acclimate to the classroom instruction as will be proven to be necessary. The basic means of the classroom instruction needs to continue to challenge the student to invest heart, mind, and body, but the instruction itself should shift and utilize this technology we now have. They expect it as such. It’s the world they know, the one that’s been modeled by… us (digital immigrants)! They only have this technology through our providing it to them.

So what to do? We as the instructors are unwilling (and rightfully so) to allow the student dictate the terms of what happens in the classroom (well, at least through the eyes of the student), but we do indeed have to allow these nativists the access to the technology that we have provided to them from the get-go.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants – Part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6). Retrieved fromhttp://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

McKenzie, J. (2007). Digital nativism: Digital delusions and digital deprivation. From Now On, 17(2). Retrieved fromhttp://fno.org/nov07/nativism.html

Reeves, T.C. (2008). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Online discussion presentation to Instructional Technology Forum from January 22-25, 2008 at http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf

In a previous blog post here, I advocated for American high schools to reconsider how they go about a school day, leaving behind the “go to class A, then class B, then C, etc…” to a more varied approach that utilizes today’s technological advancements, allowing for a greater capacity to spread knowledge. Along with that idea, the classroom itself needs to go through a major overhaul as well. Ever sat in one of those desks these kids sit in for approximately 25 hours a week? If you’re a teacher, surely you have. And they’re awful. They really are the most uncomfortable seats you can design and not give the impression it is for a prison. But.. oh well, because it would costs millions (!) to replace them all, and that’s just one district. How many school districts are there? What to do?

Prioritize it. It does matter. Extensive studies have been done to determine if students learn better while seated in ‘comfort’, and the emphatic, statistically significant answer is “absolutely.” Prakash Nair, a modern school designer and major advocate for refurbishing all schools across America (and beyond) states in his essay, “The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills.” I’m not saying we should go all Google workplace or anything, but raising the level of comfort up from absolute cheapest possible chair wouldn’t be the worst decision we ever made. Create a classroom that invites discussion, creativity, and comfort, and I believe our students will respond with improved skills and execution

I’ve been incorporating flipped videos into my chemistry classroom for the past two years with quite a bit of success, though I do think there are a few reasons why one might want to resist the urge to “flip” every unit of instruction throughout the year.  If you’re not familiar with the Flipped Classroom Model, here it is in a nutshell: teachers flip what is traditionally considered homework (practice/application problems) with what is traditionally considered classwork (lecture notes) by utilizing online instructional videos.  The most obvious benefit of flipping: because the application phase of learning is invariably more challenging than the initial note-taking, the teacher is present when students need him or her the most.  Rather than spending their class time lecturing, teachers “troubleshoot,” moving from student-to-student, providing individualized feedback and guidance.

In general, I’ve found flipping works best during the math-intensive units of chemistry such as mole conversations and stoichiometry.  It’s allowed me to target those students for whom math is not intuitive, and therefore a major roadblock to success in chemistry.  Flipping has vastly expanded my opportunities for providing one-on-one instruction; few other teaching strategies have allowed me to meet individual students’ needs without slowing down the pace of the class or cutting the curriculum.  In addition, students appreciate the ability to return to lectures for review or reinforcement and comment frequently on how helpful it’s been to “pause and rewind” as needed (something not all students are comfortable doing with their teachers).

While flipping has certainly been a positive addition to my classes, there are definite challenges to overcome in order for it to be successful.  Poor access to technology or the Internet at home will negatively impact students’ ability to watch instructional videos; teacher flexibility in this area is needed, as is ample before- and after-school access to computers on your campus.   For those students who struggle with completing homework regardless of accessibility issues, one or two computers or iPads in your classroom are needed to help them get caught up and into the application phase.  Finally, as a proponent of inquiry-based and constructivist approaches to learning, I remind myself frequently: regardless of their efficacy, flipped videos are just a different vehicle for teacher-delivered content.  Because of this, I use flipped videos strategically and sparingly to ensure that each student has ample opportunities to construct his or her own knowledge base by collecting and analyzing data about the natural world.   These are skills and opportunities not so easily taught or provided remotely through videos.

– Kurt Schaefer

editor’s note: Mr. Kurt Schaefer is an award-winning chemistry teacher at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, Colorado. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Educational Technology at Boise State University.

I’ve been enrolled in the Boise State Edtech program since spring ’13 (not too long), but the year and a half has been transformative in how I see the future of education in America. The introduction of hand-held technology to our youth has created not just a new opportunity for the methodology of lesson planning to change, but also the methodology of how the students want to learn/be taught. Students send me charts and stats before I see them, I show the class because I also find it interesting, and the majority of the other students tell me they’ve seen this too. Kids tell me they’ve done things like tile a bathroom because they watched a youtube video explaining how to. They learn at bus stops, waiting in line at a fast food restaraunt, laying in bed preparing to go to sleep, anywhere and everywhere. I’m wondering if this slow evolution where kids are more connected to the greater world than the teacher should change how we view a typical school day.

As it stands right now, a student shows up at his or her school at a prescibed time, attends a specific order of classes that for the most part does not change, and leaves at the exact same time every day. Five days a week. 39 weeks a year. It’s just what we/they do. Pretty much always has been. But now that this incredible level of connected-ness is prevalent, should we reconsider how this school day transpires? Should all lessons be recorded, turned in to protected mp4s (or something), some class sessions streamed, tests done electronically, writings submitted digitally, entire courses presented up front for self-driven students to work on at their own (accelerated) pace? I feel like what we’re doing here with Boise State has potential to be what is done in the U.S. on a day-to-day basis. Or am I crazy?

Personal Financial Literacy is a new standard across the country that schools are going to have to attend to from now, and there’s not going to be any avoiding it. Good! Sounds useful to me. Let’s explore a few websites/organizations that could really help in making sure this standard is not only met, but we all thrive in this particular topic:

The Council For Economic Education These guys are the authority on this topic. Be sure to investigate their”Gen I Revolution” game. It’s been used in my classrooms these past few years.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis An awesome tool that allows the user to create any graph imaginable using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Wise Money! This group has a collection of games where the student can learn PFL concepts through trial and error.

BizKids This is/was a program on public television that fancied itself a PFL lesson device for older students (mostly) using ‘hip’ techniques. I found it quite engaging, and well worth the 20-minute videos. Be sure to play the games as well!

There’s plenty more out there to explore. This is just a taste, but a good one.