Acadamic Physics Final Post - Wilkes

Keeping up with this blog page has been an challenge. I felt like it was one additional task that I had to undertake in addition to the many other tasks that I was currently doing. I soon realized that I did not have enough hours in my days or weeks to do all that was required of me, so I put those objects in order of importance. What I should have done was give this assignment to any student that needed extra credit. That would have solved the problem.

As far as implementing the grant into the curriculum, I found out that I have a problem with perfectionism. For the first several months, I would create pod-cast lessons using garage band and then start over because I forgot to say something or I just did not like them. I actually slept with that Mac book numerous nights as I attempted to just get them created. That was extremely frustrating. After spending a large portion of my holidays redoing the lessons, I mentioned it to my students. One of them suggested that they video tape the actual lectures and discussions whenever I introduced a new unit. Several flip cameras were position around the class and the students videotape. They then showed me how to piece together the videos to create one video. Now the students were teaching the teacher and they loved it. Now this summer, I can begin editing the videos to begin my collection of pod-cast lessons that will be used for students that are ill, at DAEP or in in-school-suspension. Of course, I will have to repeat the entire process for the first semesters units but I least I know what I am doing now.

The students also used the flip-cameras and I-pods for their electrical project during the second semester. They video taped there progress as the constructed and electrically wired a doll house. They also feft messages for each other on the flip cameras if they were going to be absent. In addition a few groups inputted some of the video- clips into their final slide shows. Throughout their project they used the Dell computers and only used the Mac books to show their finished products. I should have allowed them to use the the Mac books the entire year because they were very good with them. Unfortunately, we only obtained 6 of them which was not enough. However, now I realize that their use of the Macs would have decrease my learning curve. (smile)

Was this grant as useful as I wanted it to be? Yes and No. Yes, because of the flip-cameras and lessons that the students created. They will be used for future students. Yes, because of the I-pod. My students actually did reviews and research on them and not used them just for face book and e-mails. I wish I had made them more assessable to them. I will do that next year. No, because my learning curve was larger than I expected. Also, I did not think creating a pod-cast lesson would take so much time.

Would I suggest that every teacher be given this technology? No! It should be up to the individual teachers to decide when to use this technology and how to use it.

Did my students have fun? YES. They remained focused and completed their work faster because they were trying to get in a few minutes to play on the I-pod and camera for personal use. I actually had several students come in after school to use them for other projects. Will I use this technology in the future? You bet I will. Now, if someone could just invent a way to slow down the clock and give me more hours in day I would be eternally grateful.

Deborah Wilkes
Academic Physics
Spring Woods High School

Flint's final post of 2009-2010

So first
Number of students served by this grant: for my classes 91 students

Summarize how the grant impacted the students it served:
Many of them didn't know how to edit a video or add subtitles and that you could add pictures to a video. By the end of the year they had improved on these skills. When I had to be absent for a couple of days when we were starting a unit my students didn't get behind like they would have due to me podcasting the lesson I was going to teach at home and then coming to school to upload the lesson to the i-pods. When the students would use the devices they would pay more attention since this was a new experience for them.

Briefly share a couple of specific experiences that went well
Using the podcasts for absent students as well as when I was out went very well.
Also when I had the students using the ipods for the flashcard app the students
would always try harder and I believe they learned more when using them.

Your plan for next year – how you plan to take the project forward next year
I plan on making more podcasts during the summer in order to have most of my lessons on the i-pods so I can be more effective at teaching students that are absent as well having my AP chem students watching the notes before hand more often so we can do more hands on activities in class. I would also like to learn more about moodle and see about setting up a site so I can have students possibly use their ipod touches to take self assessment quizzes that I can create. Finally I would like to learn more about google docs to see what I can incorporate into my classroom and how my kids would benefit the most from using them.

digital lab write up

Last week we performed a limiting reactant lab and I had the students video the lab as they were performing it. While their products were in the oven drying they were uploading their videos and editting them on the macbooks as well as using keynote to make a title slide, material slide, data table, and answer some post lab questions. Keynote worked fine, I still do not know how to do everything in it like where subscripts are so we just made due with what we could figure out. We ran into issues on some of the computers because as they would boot them up it would tell us that it was going to have to reboot after installing an update. Imovie thought that it was in use when it wasn't and would not close so I had to force quit and that didn't work so I had to hold down the power button. This caused the computer to go crazy by shutting down and rebooting, shutting down and then rebooting over and over so our Tech had to reimage it in order for it to work. I luckly had a few extra mac books so we continued to work.
The next day I had my 4th period doing the same thing my 1st and 5th did on the previous day. I got their early and made sure everything opened and had it ready to go to make sure I didn't have the same problems but today two of the six computers would not recognize the flipvideos so we could download the student's films, it would work on my computer but not on the macbooks which did recognize the flipvideos the day before. The students just did what they could by making sure their keynote slides were complete.
We waited until the following friday to complete the lab since I needed to try to figure out what was wrong with everything and since I needed a break from the equiptment since I felt out of control since things were not working and I didn't know how to fix it.
The day before we finished I stayed 3 hours after school to set up every computer and make sure they all had the students videos and their keynote presentation ready to go for the next day so we wouldn't have to worry about all of that since I could not afford another day in class working on the lab.
The time I spent was well worth it since there was no issues the next day everytime worked well. Some groups did not finish but they did not break up the work like they were suppose to, some grouops that came very close, and some groups finished. If the groups did not finish they had one week to come in after school to finish their video. Everyone has not finished at this point but they have until Friday.
After this experience I will try making another video lab with the class but hopefully since we have all been though it once it will run much smoother.
Jamie

Helping Others Out

On Thursday January 15, my second period class video taped the simple machine station labs so that absent students may used the videos to observe the labs instead of completing the labs alone. To verify that they had the correct information, the students voluntarily performed the labs first to obtain data. They wanted to verify that they truly understood the concepts that were being investigated. Unfortunately, the sound was very weak and you could hear the background of the other lab groups. Therefore, this class has decided to use the Garage band to re-create the voice on the tapes. On today during the circular motion lab, the class again use the flip cameras to video tape a lab. This lab required everyone to have an active part, so no one was able to just observe. The video taping of the lab allowed them to review the procedures and discuss the outcome of the lab. D. Wilkes

Taping a Lab in Physics

On Tuesday, January 5, I decided to allow one of the lab groups in my 1st period to video tape the lab. I wanted to get a feel for how it would appear, sound quality and the ability of the students. The lab equipment covered a large area, therefore the camera was set further away than I would have like it to be. When one of the students tried holding the camera, he had to rapidly move the camera to keep up with the action; due the the lab itself. Also, the recording student was more involved with videoing the lab instead of learning the concept of the lab. After recording for about 15 minutes, the student and I reviewed the quality and found it to be very poor, due to the noise of the other groups. Therefore, it will be necessary to use Garage Band to describe what is happening during the lab. (AHHH - another task) Another noted fact, which is very important, is to make sure that the students understand the importance of not playing in front of the camera. Overall, I believe that this would be a good process for other students to make-up a lab, but it will require addition time for the teacher

cool sites

So today I made some screen casts before I left school so when I got home I could add sound so my AP students could sync their i-pods tomorrow. After I finished making the screen casts which took about 45 minutes for two lessons I realized I didn't have a flash drive with me and the videos were to big to e-mail so I was pretty upset. I looked on the web to see if their was a website that could help and I found filedropper.com which is a free website that will hold large files for free and you just open the webpage link they give you when you get home or give it to another teacher. This is an easy way to share videos or lessons. I also used zamzar to convert my files from .avi to .mov so they would pay on my macbook so I could add sound to the lessons. This is also a free website that will convert files from one ending to another and then send you the link to download your converted file. I found both of these site to be very easy to use and very helpful today.

Physics I-Pod Review

Using IFlipr, my Academic Physics classes used the I-Pod touches to review their vocabulary, equations and units for equations. This was the first time they were able to used them. Each student was given a worksheet, when a word, equation or unit appeared they were to write their initial thoughts, then check the true meaning of the word, equation or unit. My initial intentions for the I-pods were to provide Pod-cast lessons for students that needed to hear the lecture again, were absent for the original lesson, assigned to ISS or DAEP. Implementing that plan is taking longer than I anticipated due to timing in my schedule. I have now scheduled two days of the holiday break to create several pod-cast lessons. (Let's hope that goes well). As for the review, comments from the students were:
- "I enjoyed using them."
- "I could review at my own pace. Which was easier for me."
- "I prefer the lecture review. However, it did help."
- "Ms. Wilkes, can we take a quiz on the I-Pod touches."
- "It was cool! It was easier than using paper reviews."

Perhaps, my second semester plans will go well. I have several students that are willing to help me create pod-cast lessons using Garage-Band. They are very patient and excited by the chance to help the teacher and the class.