Happy New Year blog entry - a new rendition of the Christmas/end of year letter.

As the year winds down, there are so many things that we can reflect on...

This year started out very good with alot of planning and hard work to create the best Science Fair ever at Villa Augustina. The kids outdid themselves with amazing projects, which included the Marble Roller Coaster challenge by the 8th grade,

Also at the Science Fair was the Stop the Invasion - disease and cancer projects by the 7th grade, and an extremely large scale model of the human body showing all of the different body systems by the 6th grade.
The Villa kids excelled with all of these projects and presentations.

Over the winter and spring, I had a blast snowshoeing on Thursdays with the PE class and then coaching spring track with Carl Foley and Dee Angwin. We had a great track team this year and all who participated made huge improvements in their overall track abilities and self confidence, me included. I even started running about two miles a day, or every other day during track season and after. Toots came with me on my runs, and occasionally Blue, but he is a bit crazy running so not as often.

All of the different schools that we went to for track meets were wonderful and very supportive of all of the kids, regardless of school or school size. I will say that Amherst wins the award for the coldest track meets, even into late May, we brought our warm winter jackets to keep muscles warmed up between events. I was impressed by the perseverance of our students to jump higher, longer and to run faster at each event, some records were made and some personal bests were achieved at each meet.


The end of the school year met with sadness at the closing of the Villa Augustina School 97 years of Catholic education in Goffstown. All of the kids went on to new schools both private/Catholic or public and the teachers and staff to new positions. We are still in contact with everyone, and maintain our weekly email chat, check up and check in, which helps keep our Villa family close.

Below are two photos from the top of the tower on the last day of school. The first one is facing the back of the school, the second the front with the cross at the top of the tower on the left margin.
 

The week after school got out, I went in for an ICD replacement since my generator battery had finally reached the point where it needed to be replaced.  The surgery was quick since my cardiologist checked my lead, and only the generator needed to be replaced.  At that time I received a new wireless monitor, that would download from the ICD all of the information that I had previously had to download through the phone every month or so. The new monitor downloads overnight, no more sitting next to the phone waiting for the download to end, while the dog sniffs the monitor or the cat walks all  over it. The new monitor just sits on the night stand and does its thing whenever, no need to touch or mess with it. We did have to cover the 'power on' light, since it lit up the bedroom in an eery green glow, but that is all. The surgery healed up quickly and I was back to running in the evenings with in a few weeks.

Weather wise this summer, it was cooler than usual, but barely rained all summer. Watering the garden and plants became a common occurrence, and even the dog stopped digging holes in the yard because the ground became hard and compact due to lack of moisture in the top layer. This didn't stop Blue from being a crazy outdoor all day dog, for most of the summer. He just loves to talk to the neighbors and to get the local dogs all wound up...woof, woof, woof.
Blue won his GRC this year racing with his siblings and other greyhound buddies.

During the summer I attended the Constructing Modern Knowledge 2014, summer institute on project based learning and using different developing technologies. This was my second summer at this conference that takes place right in Manchester, NH and is attended by people from all over the world.

This year I wanted to make something on then 3-D printer, and spent the four days making some wheels and gears to create a wind up toy. I eventually got something made that worked for a bit, and was pretty successful for my efforts. The wind-up toy worked for a bit, next time I may try to build my own vehicle and all of the parts. What I really need is a donor who would fund a nice Cube 3-D printer for me to use with my classes.

During July Mark and I but the dogs in the greyhound kennel for a week and drove up to Bar Harbor for our vacation away from home. We had a great time biking, hiking and visiting the shops in town. One thing that we did was to climb The Behive, one of the hills on the island. For future reference, when the sign says in essence 'not for those who have height issues, nor those who may have trouble on narrow iron rungs', it should not be taken lightly. This was  probably one of the most grueling short hikes I have ever done, including the major adrenal rush. Below are a few photos, but only the experience will let you know how this really is.          

    

Another place we went to on the island was the Thuya Gardens, this spot is a little out of the way but well worth the hunt and walk to find. The gardens were in full bloom and the old 'cottage' is well maintained. Makes one appreciate how rich the folks were who built these gardens and houses.

After this, the summer went fast, I started work at St John's Regional School in Concord on Aug. 20th for a two day retreat and workshop. School started on Aug. 25th with a full week of science introduction and chrome book practice using some scienc articles and activities. The kids did really well with this, then we broke for the long labor day weekend.

After I returned home from school the Tuesday after labor day, I had a phone call from the New England Heart Institute to call as soon as possible. I called and they told me that the download from my ICD a monitor was reading a faulty lead and that I needed to come in right away to have it checked, including being prepared to stay to have it replaced. They wanted me to come in that day, but I said, wait, let me go to work tomorrow, set up lesson plans for the week, and come in tomorrow afternoon. So I called my principal and gave him the information, and he said that he would take care of the substitute since I was so new to the school, and to leave the lesson plans with him the next day.

I did all of that, rushed around and completed everything for the substitute as well as taught my six classes for the day. Then I drove to Manchester, to CMC where the New England Heart institute is and saw the ICD technician. She also had the rep. Form St. Jude medical there as well since I have a St. Jude device. Within a few minutes the device rep. saw the flaw in my lead and was able to have me reproduce it by pushing my hands together. She let the tech know that I needed to stay for a replacement and she called upstairs for a room for me. I had to stay overnight because they were turning off the ICD and had to put a monitor and external defibrillator on until surgery the next day.

I had to call school and let them know, and Mark too. He came in after work and taking the dogs out,and stayed while the doctor said what they would do for surgery the next day. He said that since they had seen some arrhythmia on the monitor that it would be best if I not only got a new lead but also a new device with a second lead to pace with. He said the second lead would go in the atrium since that is the natural pacing of the heart with then ICD lead in the ventrical as back up or for defibrillating if needed.

So I spent the night in the hospital waiting for surgery. The next morning I got up early enough to wash up before surgery, and when Mark arrived to visit before work, the surgery team showed up and took me for the first surgery of the day. All went well, I had six hours of bed rest after surgery, then they let me get up and use the facilities, but I had to stay overnight so the hospital could monitor the first 24 hours as the leads settled in. The next morning I was able to go home with orders to go back to work in seven days.

After a small issue with a reaction to the surgical glue, all has healed up well. Now I am paced at 60 bpm, and rarely drop below that. In the past I would drop down into the 40s hence the arrhythmia issues and need for the pacing.  

With a week away from school which just started, I decided to send in lesson plans using the school Google network. This ended up working very well, I was able to keep daily contact with all of the kids, give them feedback on what they were working on, and answer questions. Not that I would prefer to work from outside the classroom, but it was a great tool for an unplanned and unexpected time away.

When I returned to school the following week we got into full gear, finishing cell projects and the first round of physical and earth science projects.

And for some reason I can not up load more of my photos here, so I will keep writing.

We continued with many differnt science activities including a giant periodic table of elements, geologic timelines and some very interesting and creative stories of meiosis and the rock cycle.

At home we are in the middle of some home improvement activies. We put in new windows in the front of the house. First we took out the large picture window in the living room and put in three windows for more air in the summer and easier cleaning. I the other front room, a bedroom/office, we added a window and then the same at the basement level to match. 

Currently we are in the process of making a large window between the kitchen and living room though the adjoining wall. We had to reinforce the floor below, and then move a bit of wiring. This is our project for the new year weekend. Followed by a visit from the building inspector in the new year.

Here's to 2014, a great adventure..... Happy New Year 2015, with better things to come... Alons-y

Time issues in a project based classroom ...

Last winter, Dec 13 and Jan 14, I had my Middle School classes working on a weater and water unit, which included many different weather and atmosphere related activities.

One activity that I decided to spend more time on, was the collection and use of weather data.

Students collected weather data over a two week period just before the Christmas break. Those who were in New Hampshire last winter will agree when I say, it was very cold for a long time.

The kids braved the weather everyday, went outside and waited while the thermometer dropped from the warm 68 degrees of our classroom to 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Students also collected data on cloud cover, precipitation and windspeed, using basic weather tools. 

The most difficult tool was the anemometer, since it had to be held properly to allow air flow over the holes in the top. When using this tool, students quickly noticed that the school flag would be out straight in the breeze and the clouds were flying past at rapid speed, but only gusts were registering on the anemometer. The kids were quick to state that wind speed probably changes due to trees and buildings blocking the flow, and that it is probably very different at higher elevations than on the front lawn of our school.

When I planned this exercise, I scheduled in two weeks from start to completion, but due to the interest of the kids to learn how to use a new technology, and apply their weather data to it, we ended up going on for four weeks.

The most difficult thing for the kids was, to stick with their own movie, and not run around to see what their friends had accomplished so far. We had very few behavior issues during these sessions, no "I'm bored", "I'm done", "What do I do now?" "This is dumb" "When will I ever use this?" etc., out of any of the kids. When I finally declared a deadline for completion, most of the kids were ready, but many asked for more time, or to be able to complete the videos at home. 

Results of this activity were interesting, we had some amazing, and humorous weather reports, some very dry in content, but colorful reports, some animal reporters and some incomplete projects. When asked to evaluate the activity, the students all said that it was fun and that they learned how complex it really is to make the nightly TV weather report, and keep it interesting enough that people view it.

In order to allow students the time to complete this activity, I chose to skip some of the lessons in the unit. I believe that it was a worthwhile choice, all students learned something new, something about themselves and the value of coming to class prepared to work on the project.

When we worked on projects later in the year, more students arrived with all of the materials that they thought they would need, or asked to borrow them, and had a plan of action for the completion of the project. Overall, the extended time on this project payed off for all students in my classes this year.

Below is a stop motion video of my 6th grade students creating their stop motion weather videos.

cmk14

I had a wonderful experience this week at the Constructing Modern Knowledge Summer Institute (CMK14) in Manchester, NH.

This event has been happening in at the same location for the past 7 years, but I only heard about it two years ago. I was lucky enough to go for the first time last summer and loved it so much that I went back this year and probably will again next year.

CMK14 was an amazing four day event with hosts Gary Stager and Sylvia Libow Martinez of California.     http://constructingmodernknowledge.com/cmk08/

A symposium that is made up of "appointments, not schedules" with no formal structure to the activities that attendees can participate in, it can be overwhelming on the first day where all participants gathered and brainstormed ideas of what they were interested in making, inventing, or trying to accomplish over the course of four days, the ideas were posted on close to 50 different pieces of chart paper around the front of the main event room. After the brainstorming session participants wrote their names under the ideas that they were interested in, then chose the idea that they wanted to work on, some as large groups, small groups and some individuals.

I chose to work as an individual on an idea to make a wind up toy with the 3D printer. My idea stemmed out of my love for toys and especially the small tin wind up toys that my grandfather used to give us when we were really little. My father told me at one time that his father made those toys, but I was never able to ask my grandfather how, since he died when I was eight. What I learned was that it is more complicated than I thought, but I did get a working model by the end of the four days, learned a ton about how to design for 3D printing, and the limitations of the 3D printer that was available.

My goal in this was to learn enough about 3D printing, to help word grant writing for fundraising, in order to purchase a 3D printer to use in my science classes. While I was making my parts, I had many discussions with other teachers there, and one mentioned  that it would be cool if we could make a scale model of the solar system with the 3D printer. Just imagine how large that would be!!

Other awesome projects included a large Rube Goldberg machine, which used a large variety of recycled materials, electronics, water and bubbles to pull a sign open. This was an amazing problem solving activity, with so many different parts that had to work together to solve one problem.

 Another great aspect of CMK14, was the field trip to the MIT Media lab where we met Mitchel Resnick, one of the people involved in the making of the Scratch programing language for kids (and adults). I loved his take on the 'hour of code' that happened last winter, he mentioned that only an hour isn't long enough, and the kids (and adults) should be doing real coding, instead of playing code games, which were part of the 'hour'. Mr. Resnick explained how Scratch was developed and the new development of Scratch Jr. for younger kids.

Also at MIT, about half of us stayed for a fireside chat with Marvin Minsky one of the founders of the Media Lab, who was also one of the developers of the Logo Programing language for kids. He has quite the insight on teaching and learning, this year I took away from his chat this: "when they say, don't do it, don't listen", "currently the US is in a science desert", "Fortran is a much better programing language, it can do anything" and "never worry about a problem, find the right person."  

Mr. Minsky this year received, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category. He is regarded as the founding father of artificial intelligence and the author of key theoretical and practical contributions in mathematics, cognitive science, robotics and philosophy. Not only that, he is willing to sit down with a group of educators and say that he stopped lecturing and decided to allow students to ask the questions that they wanted to learn about. 

An amazing man, and my hero! Mr. Minsky is also my inspiration to be a better teacher, by giving kids opportunities to learn, rather than spending time listening to me lecture.

 This is a Makey Makey sound garden

Below is an interactive heart beat, using a MakeyMakey and a sound program.

And one of my favorite projects, a light sensing chicken coop.





On Thursday we met Cam Perron, who pretty much single handedly from the age of 12 to now (he's about 19) has found more Negro League Baseball players than he, or anyone thought possible. Not only that, he has also found enough information on many of the former players to prove to Major League Baseball that they played the four years required in the Negro League, to earn a MLB pension. Check out this video on him. In my humble opinion, this young man deserves a Nobel Prize for all of his volunteer efforts on behalf of the Negro League players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paoOpWzY-P8&index=2&list=FLf7k68NC_uo148DA92uOwmg

We also met tree house builder Pete Nelson and learned how he started building and continues to build tree houses all over the country. He was quite interesting and down to Earth about his methods, willing to share is ideas and plans, especially how to care for the trees that are used in construction.

I plan to bring the CMK14 energy to my classroom this year and look forward to seeing what my students will WOW me with.

Why projects are important to learning.

After the recent science fair at my school, one held a discussion of how the science fair went, what they liked and what they would do differently next time. This group of 7th graders asked if they would be assigned a project similar to what the 8th grade made for this year's science fair, next year.
I told them that they would be assigned almost the same project with some stricter rules about what could or could not be used for materials, especially given that one student this year went ahead and used the templates that I had put on the forbidden materials list from day one.

As the discussion went on, one of the kids mentioned a project and said that they expected something far better from the student who made it, stating "that student is so smart, we thought their project would be far better than all of the others". This lead to a discussion of how some people are more mechanically inclined than others regardless of what we consider as 'smarts'.

Later I got to thinking about this and looking back over the past year of project based activities in my classroom, how they evolved and improved over time with some students and how some students have totally balked at the idea of ever making another project, asking rather to have tests that they can study for and pass easily.
Maybe this is a reflection of our society, maybe not... In general, we have students who work very hard in class, study and prep for tests, and then pass the tests with flying colors, provided the test is straightforward question and answer. What I am finding is that when I go the next step and ask students to show their actual understanding of the concepts by creating a project, this is where those who can study and pass, often fail. The application of information is not internalized and these students have a harder time taking information and making use of it in any form or media.

In this particular 7th grade class this year, there have been students who fit both categories, those who would rather study for a test and just answer the questions and move on, and those who have gained higher understanding of the concepts by completing some unique and amazing projects. Project activities such as exponents and prime factorization in math class are an example, we had projects that were very simplistic showing a list of numbers and how they increase exponentially (kids who prefer tests) and then we had projects that took actual items such as a grain of rice and showed how that would increase with each exponent to the extent of how much the final pile of rice would weigh after 30 exponential increases. Other students used beads, straws, paper towel tubes, and pieces of string to show each change in the size of the number with each change in the exponent used. This group of students came to a clearer understanding of the concept than those who just did the calculations and showed the numbers. Similar projects were produced for prime factorization, once again with simple lists of a number being factored. Other students created tactile presentations using playing cards, groups of corn kernels, and a stop motion video of a tube that decreased in size each time it was divided in half. Several Scratch programs were created for this as well. My favorite project in math this year was made by one of the sixth graders, she titled it 'The sounds of Math'. It was her trimester project and she used musical notes for each required part of the project, making the connection between musical notes being factored from a whole note, to half notes, etc; patterns that make up a song and more. A photo of the project is below.

Yes, this is a flat, non-electronic project, but it shows an amazing connection of the concepts to real life applications in Music. This same student made her first project a stop motion animation of how patterns can change by color, number and size and ended with this nice combination of all of the concepts.

In science, many students produced projects related to the water cycle and the distribution of water over the Earth. The goal for this project was to go well beyond a simple water cycle diagram or presentation and to take it the next step to include how water is distributed around the Earth, and connected to all of the different Earth systems. Once again, we had students who only took this to the extent of making simple posters, with simplistic explainations of the water cycle. Then we had projects such as the one below, which were amazingly interactive (unfortunately the video didn't save) but below you can see students showing how snow falls on the ground, they also used water, and how the water soaks in and/or runs of the ground into ground water, eventually returning to the oceans.

Another group chose to show their understanding of the water cycle in game format. Below you can see some of the kids in this class playing the game, it followed a Chutes and Ladders format.

Other projects that kids did this year included stop motion animated videos of weather reports, I have not been able to upload all of the videos as of yet from the school iPads. Many of the videos were amazingly well done, with humor and attention grabbers that kept the audience interested. Once again though, a large portion of the projects were basic regurgitation of the data collected without any real analysis or though to what the overall project would look like. I will admit that this was indeed the first time many of the children have used the stop motion animation software, myself included, most students did in the end state that given more time, that the projects could have been better (I guess three weeks wasn't long enough for some of the kids).

I have also included tests in both my math and science classes this year, and in those tests were sections to apply data, or to create a lab report based on data. This continued to be a struggle for the kids who where more inclined to multiple choice preference, though students who were excelling in the project based activities did very well in this area of the tests.

This keeps me wondering why we test so much, and allow authentic learning so little. I am blessed to work in a school that supports my project based approach. I only wish that it could be implemented into all levels of education, starting in the early grades and at home. The more kids make and create with a large variety of materials and tools, the better they are able to understand the world around them. I am thankful for my parents who gave us more than enought opportunities to learn by doing, either by playing outside, building treehouses, helping dad with projects or learning how to knit, we were never without something to do or make. More of this type of learning would be so benifitial to all students... I will keep working in my small area of the world, to create learning possibilities... for all.

Blustery Day

I haven't posted on my personal blog for a while, and haven't added as much as last year onto my classroom blog, other than photos of the kids as we work on and complete projects in math and science this year.

Some of the things have happened since last summer. Mom moved out of her house into elderly apartments in Dover. She found a great place almost all on her own and made the decision to move to avoid another winter worrying about the house that we all grew up in. I miss my visits to the old neighborhood but am very happy that Mom made the move and doesn't have to be concerned with shoveling her porch or worrying about the ice in her driveway.
It was time for her to move anyway, most of the old families have passed on and only a few of her original neighbors are still in the area. She feels safer at her new apartment, and the best thing about it for her is that it is attached to a Catholic nursing home that has a chapel where they have daily Mass and Rosary.
The apartment building that Mom moved into, also allows cats; so Mom was able to bring her fuzzy black kitty Salem with her to her new home. Salem still spends most of her time under the bed covers or in a closet, pretty much like she did at Mom's old house. The kitty does come out to visit occasionally, if she likes the visitor. She doesn't like loud noises and will head back to her closet if she hears something, but she is great company for Mom and even lays at Mom's feet in the morning while the two of them say their morning Rosary together.

The house was sold this Fall to a young man who is currently working on upgrading the siding, finishing the upstairs and putting in new circuit breakers. He is probably doing a bit of living space renovation, possibly refinishing the floors and replacing the bathroom. He told Mom that he would invite her over for an open house once the remodeling is done.  Mom and I drove over one day before Christmas and they were busy working. It will be nice to see what changes are made, and how he remodeled.

There are alot of memories in that old house, and the young man who bought it did so with the words; "this house has obviously been well loved, and will be again."

On this blustery day, January 26, 2014; I look back on some of those memories, one in particular that came to me this past summer when a friend published her book Twelve Kinds of Ice. Once scene in this book is about field ice and I can remember a few winters, when we were kids, that Crosby's field down the road from our house on Richardson Drive froze into a gigantic skating park after a bit of freezing rain and very cold temperatures.

......

I put off finishing this for a while and now on March 12, 2014 I am finishing it. It is raining outside and the weatherman is saying that there is a good to very good chance this will all change to ice and snow overnight, so I may want to get my ice skates out because my back yard is currently a gigantic puddle that will freeze overnight.  Will make for good skating, though the dogs may complain a bit about the struggle to do their business without sliding around.