I am typing this a bit facetiously…I have not posted a blog in many, many, let’s just say an extremely long time. Chat GPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have sprung up for public consumption since my last post. This is my declaration that I will not be using AI to write posts on this blog.
I make this declaration since I have read online at Business Insider that many books are showing up on Amazon that have been written by AI. As a once-inspiring author, that does depress me a bit. I like the concept of the human mind and imagination firing up stories that excite and hold our attention. I may just be getting old and falling behind the times, or I may be a bit bitter that someone with a sentence or two into a website has completed a manuscript that I haven’t been able to complete as of yet. The jury is out on where I fall.
In the meantime, I want to reassure my dedicated readers, thank you Mom, that the words that appear here and on my personal podcasts will be my own and not those of any Artificial Intelligence entity.
This past week in class I had my students begin preparing for a Discussion Board assignment: straightforward, direct, rather basic discussion board assignment: they were going to respond to a classmates’ initial discussion board post.
There was one catch…they had to get approval from me as to whose post they would be responding to. As I suspected, they all wanted to respond to their best friend’s initial post. I shot that idea down and made them choose another student’s post to respond to. That is when CHAOS reared it’s mischievous head. Students asked for the same friend a couple of times, others asked for their “other BFF” from class, several tried to argue/debate the reasons why they should be allowed to respond to their friend, others inquired repeatedly as to why they could not respond to their friend, and other students went back to their seats and sulked.
The purpose for my not letting them respond to their “BFF’s” initial discussion board post was to get them out of their comfort zone and to have the interact with other students. Being able to comfortably, confidently, and appropriately interact and respond to others is a necessary skill. And in my not so humble opinion, it is becoming a lost art. I attempted to explain this to the classes, unfortunately my message was not making much headway.
A number of students then wanted me to pick the post they were to respond to. That was also something I did not want to do. The students were encouraged to read over the initial posts again and choose a post that they connected with. Just not a connection based upon being friends with the student. They were to focus on the message, not the author. It took some coaxing, but eventually they came around and chose another post to respond to, even if it was only grudgingly.
In the end the students overcame their angst and the CHAOS settled down. Students used this GUIDELINE to form their responses and overall did a great job for their first attempt at responding to others in a discussion board format.
I recorded and uploaded this video before the District-wide announcement went out via email and phone…the written update is posted below the video, it is missing the weather forecast for today…
Good morning, I have a couple of updates for you today. First off, if you responded to the first assignment, thank you. I was receiving replies through yesterday. If you haven’t responded to the first assignment, you still can respond, there are only a couple of people I have not heard from yet.
Yesterday I pushed out the second assignment…almost immediately people started responding. I have mixed responses from the group and that is okay. Some of you are ready to move on, some are a bit hesitant. Again, that is okay. If you haven’t responded, you have plenty of time, no need to worry.
I want to address some of your concerns, especially the big one…a number of people are uncertain about starting back up, because they are unsure of where we left off. Consider the new assignments as Day 1 of the course. I will not throw old material at you on a quiz or test, unless we cover from this day forward. So not being fully confident about the old material should not be an issue, please do not worry about it. We are pretty much starting over…the only material you need to worry about is what will be coming out.
Also, I will not be quizzing you right away, we will be doing other various activities…not everyone has the same access to technology, which will make quizzes non-standard. When we get to that stage, they will probably be open note writings, or something along those lines, but we are far from going down that path yet.
Back to technology, those of you that followed up with me, I passed that information on to Mr. Yates and Mr. Budacki. If anyone’s situation changes or you start having technology issues, please let me or any of your other teachers know ASAP. If you lose access, let a friend know and have them contact a staff member so we can address the situation.
Another concern was difficulty with topics or technology…once again, please do not worry. We are going slowly for a reason, and we will continue to move at a comfortable pace until we are sure everyone can move forward without difficulty. I will be posting video tutorials to help you remember how to use the various tools we use in class. I will also be posting tutorials and audio/video notes on the class content to help explain the topics. It is important for you to give me feedback if you need more or different assistance. We have been doing that all year with the self-reflections, so you should be good and letting me know if we have to adjust things…zip me an email or message me in Edmodo, I am monitoring both. Communication is important especially since we are no longer in the same room, but together we can successfully make this adjustment.
Staff is working on other forms of feedback to use with students, I will let you know about those once we have approval.
Thank you for the YouTube links, I am going through those and making playlists to share out. Keep responding to the assignments, I am keeping track so we can use the information later. If we have any important updates in today’s virtual staff meeting, I will pass in forward to you. If you have any questions, please email them to me or another one of your teachers.
So, during this quarantine I have been doing work for school, attending virtual staff meetings, working on family crafts, reading books, watching movies and shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and getting outside when the weather allows.. Today I came across an offer for THREE MONTHS OF FREE GUITAR LESSONS, I happened across this on Social Distortion’s Instagram page. I will chronicle my travails here, please do not judge…I do not play well, but I play LOUD! Self taught to play loud…now I will try to play well. Stay tuned…we’ll see if I can even tune my guitar…
Hello, this is an optional extra credit assignment for my students. The video below gives them a general overview of the assignment. I will give them specific details later on each task. Those details will be posted here on my blog as we move forward.
This post was originally written many moons ago, but somehow got stuck in the iPad and I never noticed it was not published. Well, better late than never…
My Period Four US History and Government II students have a test on Friday, it is based upon their presentations to the class on the 1950’s and vocabulary from the Civil Rights Unit. Actually all four of my US II classes have a test on Friday.
We created a Padlet from questions the student generated based upon their presentations. Student projects were posted on the class wiki and all of this information was wrapped up nicely and neatly in Edmodo for student access. Students were encouraged to use class time to collaborate and see if they could use their notes to answer the review questions. I used this method to study in college, I dislike studying in isolation.
As students worked together, I floated about to see if there were any questions they were having trouble with and if they were staying on task. We had mixed results, most students were on task and few had questions they could not answer. There were some students who were off task, redirected when I came by, and then went off task once I left. That happens, I did the same at their age.
Today, a couple of students started playing Hangman on the Interactive WhiteBoard in the front of the room. A number of other students jumped in and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I made a suggestion, which seemed to catch them a bit off guard. I did not tell them to get away from the board and study, I suggested that instead of playing Hangman with random words, why don’t they use the information from the class and use the game as a review.
They seemed to enjoy the effort, the majority of the class worked together and played in a large group. They assisted each other with the terms being asked and what some words meant as they were guessed. I had a few students who are not as social in class continue to study on their own. Overall, it seemed like a productive class. Students worked on their reviews, seemed to enjoy themselves, and it broke up the monotony of conducting the usual reviews. Sometimes going off the beaten path can be a good thing.
We had a “pop” quiz in my regular US History and Government II classes today, there are four sections for that course. I usually change the quizzes in some fashion, either rearrange answer choices, vary the questions, change essay topics, there is USUALLY some difference between the classes. Today was no different, I once again shifted questions between classes.
A student from one of my earlier classes came into a later class to collect homework for a friend who was absent. From across the room I hear the comment, “You lied about that.” Taken aback, I looked around the room to see what precipitated the comments and to whom they were directed. The comment came across again, “You lied about that.” The student from the earlier class responded promptly, “No, I didn’t.”
Part of the situation was was now clear, I knew who had issues, but did not know what the issues were or why they existed. I stepped in verbally with a comment. “It was ‘Axis’.” came from across the room. “No, it was Allies.” replied the student standing next to me.
The picture snapped into focus and I relaxed and let the students “argue” for the next minute or so, with my sudden smile almost turning into laughter. The quiz questions had been shared, either in person or through social media, and the difference had thrown students off. This was the point of contention between the students.
I asked a few questions of the class and was amazed to find out that the students have been taking quizzes, tests, and answering open-note writing prompts since early September and had no idea that all of those exercises have been tweaked and adjusted between class periods. I explained how the items are changed and saw many students with incredulous looks upon their faces. Many seemed truly surprised that I would do such a thing.
I explained that way back in the dark ages of the 1970’s and 1980’s, my friends and I also exchanged information about tests, quizzes, and other random assignments, however we did not have social media to spread the word. I also explained that switching up items on assignments is not new, I am fairly certain my teachers did it back in the dark ages, as did many teachers before them. It was an interesting scene to watch and even more interesting fact to learn about my students.
My Period 4 US History and Government has a test on Friday, it is based upon their presentations to the class and vocabulary on Civil Rights. Actually all four of my US II classes have a test this Friday.
A couple of students were in front of my room when I came in from hall duty. They were attempting to write on the Interactive WhiteBoard, (IWB),but were having difficulty. Other students attempted to explain what to do, but there was still some difficulty and disbelief in what to do on the part of the students at the IWB. I confirmed and re-explained the student directions on how to write on the board.
I was curious as to their intent, it just happened to be a game of Hangman on the IWB. They started off and I just watched as the students became excited to play the game. I made one suggestion after the second game; why not incorporate words from the class review into the game. They seemed a bit surprised that I did not shut their game down.
They converted the game of Hangman into an animated class review. Students continued to collaborate during the games, assisting with guessing letters and explaining what some of the words were. Students used presentation topics, important people and terms for the game.
A few students did not play, but reviewed on their own. That was fine, they have that freedom of choice to work in the way they are most comfortable with.
Overall the period flew by, most students engaged on the task They needed to focus on. It was nice to be reminded that we can go off the beaten path and still reach our goal.