Flexibility - Changing Plans With Short Notice

I have a friend whose favorite saying is "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken."

I live in North Carolina, and this week, all the talk has been about Hurricane Florence.  While Raleigh is far enough inland to rarely be dramatically affected, that doesn't stop everyone from preparing.  Stores were quickly out of bread and bottled water.  People who have never grilled before rushed to Home Depot for grills and propane tanks in case we were without power for a few days.  The entire shelf of charcoal at Harris Teeter was empty.

I am single and content with the peanut butter and crackers in my house.  I filled a few pitchers with water and tea.  My preparation issues were almost entirely related to school.  On Tuesday afternoon, it was announced that we should have a half-day on Thursday and no school on Friday.  We were in the midst of achievement testing, so that required some reconfiguring.  I had also planned to tape some physics students to an outside door on Wednesday, but the rain delayed that for a week.

What do you do with 1 and a half days and a long weekend you hadn't planned for?  Think about what is essential.  Is there something you have planned that would have been good but isn't really needed?  You can delete that from your plan?  Is there something that is marginally better if it takes a whole class period but can be compressed into a half period without much loss?  Do that.    Is there something you could assign them to read for homework?  That'll make your use of class time upon returning to class more effective.  Is there something you planned to teach in a time-consuming way that could be handled more efficiently with direct instruction or a video?  That'll work.

None of these is the ideal because there isn't a way to make a sudden time cut ideal.  (Your original plan probably was the best way.)  They are, however, the best way to move forward and not waste time just because you weren't expecting the change.

If you work in a school longer than a month, you will encounter unexpected schedule changes.  Even the best thought out plans get changed by weather, a guest speaker who gets scheduled or dropped at the last minute, changes to standardized testing, or a pep rally you forgot was coming.  If you don't have in your mind what is most essential, you will either end up overloading your students or wasting their time, neither of which is acceptable.

Learning Styles Aren't What You've Been Told

Disclaimer:  I am a classroom teacher, not a lab researcher.  I have done my best to represent the research I have found, but I do not claim to have found every study or conclusion.  

Just in case you have lived under an educational rock for the last thirty years, here's a quick rundown of learning style theory.  The idea was that each child is born with a particular predisposition for the method in which curriculum is presented.  Visual learners would do better if the information was presented visually.  Auditory learners did well by listening carefully but would find visual aids a distraction.  Tactile and kinesthetic learners need to manipulate or perform labs in order to learn.  Teachers have been trained for the past three decades to find the learning style of each student and try to reach them using that style.  It sounded good.  It sounded logical.  It seemed virtuous to reach each student in the way their brain was designed.

Teachers always want to do what is best for kids, but we need to be careful that it is research-based, not just something that sounds good in a workshop.  The idea of individual learning styles sounded right, and we taught kids to find theirs for two generations.  The problem is that research doesn't back up what we have been telling them.  In fact, there are multiple studies that show potential harm from buying too much into the concept.

MRI's have been quite instructive on the function of the brain, but it is taking time for the findings to make their way into instructional practice.  Brain imagery has revealed that while the brains of different people will show activity differences based on academic disciplines (showing support for the theory of multiple intelligences), it does not behave differently if the same information is presented in different formats.  The conclusion of these researchers is that the presentation style is a preference, in the same vein as a favorite color or preferred musical style. 

It is difficult to let go of the "matching" approach to learning styles even when we know differently.  So, what's a teacher to do?  Instead of trying to match individual students, controlled experiments are now showing that it is best to match the style to the material being presented.  If we think about it for a moment, this just makes sense.  No geometry teacher would ever think that they should teach in an auditory only way, even if every student in the room was an "auditory learner."  No one who teaches poetry would think that they needed a kinesthetic approach, no matter what the preference of the students because that just doesn't make sense with the material.

As a teacher, think deeply about the material you are presenting and the best method for presenting it rather than trying to work in circles around all your student preferences.  Allow them to process according to their own preference.  It may actually be helpful for a student who has heard you teach material in an auditory method to draw visualizations of what they have heard or summarize it to themselves out loud as their method of internalizing material may be useful, but that simply requires that you as a teacher give them a bit of time for individual reflection.

Backwards Planning

Our school has summer assignments for teachers.  We read a couple of professional development books and do discussion boards.  This year, we watched Oscar worthy safety videos (don't touch blood or stand on unstable surfaces, that sort of thing) and do an activity called "Backwards Planning."  This is the one thing I have not yet completed.  I've thought a lot about it, but I just haven't gotten in down on paper yet.

I casually said to a few people last week, "Isn't that what all teachers do anyway?  It only makes sense to figure out what you want to do and then figure out how to get there."  Those people looked at me like it was cute that I thought that.  Apparently, some teachers just start teaching and see where it goes; I didn't know that.

Whether by training or personality, I have always been that way.  The yearbook really couldn't happen if I didn't think that way.  You have to see an end and then take the photos or gather the materials it takes to get that result.  Our professional development coach tells me that I can do my assignment as a blog post, so here goes.

As a means of learning about rotational motion, I have my students design and 3D print spinning tops.  We then hold a contest to see who can spin the longest time.  The first time I did this was last year and, while it was fun, I'm not sure how much physics they learned from it.  When it comes down to it, I think I presented things in the wrong order.  They started designing before learning the concepts behind rotation, so they just did it based on other tops they had seen.  To make that better, I'd like to make some adjustments for this year.  The questions we were asked to address in our planning are answered below.

1) What are the desired outcomes?

Answer: Students should be able to explain the relationship between shape, mass, radius, etc. on angular momentum.

2) What evidence shows progress and mastery of the outcome?

Answer: The design of the top will be accompanied by a grid in which students describe the shape, mass, radius, etc. and explain their thinking from a physics standpoint.

3) What activities will effectively get students to the outcome?

Answer: Spend the first day going through the design thinking steps and research online. Spend the next few days designing and refining in the 3D print program and filling out the thinking grid.

4) What is your essential guiding question for the unit?

Answer: What factors influence the angular momentum of a rotating object?

5) Is there an opportunity to connect with another teacher/subject? How could you collaborate to bring your class experiences together?

Answer: While I do that with other challenges, I'm not sure it makes sense here. That said, if our math teachers can think of a way to join in, I'm thrilled to do it.

6) What is the Biblical Integration?

Answer: The creation mandate instructs mankind to subdue the earth. All technology is part of that mandate as we take advantage of the laws of physics and materials from creation to create culture and helpful devices.

7) Add technology last. Where is it appropriate? Where does it provide differentiation?

Answer: We add technology last to make sure we aren't just doing tech for tech's sake. This particular activity benefits from the 3D printer. Although, if a student told me they wanted to carve a top from wood or mold metal rather than design in the 3D design program, I would be thrilled with that - built in differentiation. Their designs also provide differentiation as there is more than one way to be right.