February 2012
143 posts
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Friday - Chemistry Day 119!
Plan an experiment to: Using boiling point, identify an unknown liquid. The probable unknowns are ethyl alcohol - BP 87 oC and acetone - BP 57 oC.
Equipment is available to set up this apparatus.
Plan your procedures and set up the apparatus today. Begin the procedures as soon as you walk into class Monday. The formal lab report and evaluation rubric will be due at the end of...
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Mike Jack Writes: Video Game Logic - In-class... →
mikejackwrites:
My youngest students work through these basic literacy packets which are quite charming and seem reasonably effective. Sometimes they have ‘Pick the next sentence’ problems, like “The sun is bright.” and they choose from “(It shines./I brush my teeth.)”
A favorite of mine goes like so: “The oil…
THIS! It brings up two things: (1) Objective test, like MC & TF, are...
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Thursday - Chemistry Day 118!
This was the graded in-class assignment today.
Calculate the heat needed to raise the temperature of a pound of gold by 50 Co?
Calculate the heat needed to change 100 grams of lead from a solid to a liquid?
Calculate the heat needed to convert 125 grams of ice at −30 oC to steam at 200 oC?
Human-Centered Schools: What are examples of... →
humanscaleschools:
IDEA sees democratic education as a spectrum that includes many types of learning environments. They incorporate elements such as authentic assessment, inconvenient youth voice, participatory decision making, and youth-adult advisories.
Here are a few forms that democratic education can take:
* Schools, those that label themselves “democratic” as well as those that embody...
“When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a...”
– If I Were President… - Neil deGrasse Tyson (via photosynthesizinghappiness)
THIS describes my political world view!
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
– Frederick Douglass (via whb2)
Exactly why TODAY’S power brokers are trying to destroy public education!
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Caffeine Mantra: Teaching Woes →
nvanderp:
I particularly hate it when teachers complain about students. It’s very easy to put all of the blame on them, or, alternatively, when we aren’t trying to point fingers, it’s very easy to defer responsibility to them for what we haven’t been doing well. After all, teaching is difficult: especially…
This is the ONE question every public school teacher must come to grips with. ...
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Wednesday - Chemistry Day 117!
As we have discussed, when heat energy is added to matter its temperature (average energy of particles) increases. q = m ΔT C.
During a phase change, all the added heat is used to convert from one phase to another - NOT to increase the temperature of the matter involved.
For solid/liquid (melting) - Heat of fusion, ΔHfus.
For liquid/vapor (boiling) - Heat of vaporization, ΔHvap.
To calculate...
If Common Sense Was Used in Government and the...
Citizen: I don't believe in abortion.
Government: Then don't get one.
Citizen: I don't believe in birth control.
Government: You don't have to use it.
Citizen: I think gay marriage is a sin.
Government: Don't marry the same sex then.
Citizen: I want my kids to learn about creationism.
Government: Take them to church.
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“The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation; that away, men...”
– William Shakespeare (via eloquentandhonest)
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World of E's: What is webmaking? →
worldofe:
Mozilla is building a generation of webmakers. We are defining webmaker literacies. We are building pathways for people to learn webmaking by webmaking. But what the heck is webmaking? What is our vision really all about?
The initial list of webmaker skills starts to pave the way for our…
For classroom teachers considering moving to a personalized Web-based curriculum for...
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Monday - Chemistry Day 115!
Changes in the heat content of matter.
q = m ΔT Cp Use the class online Periodic Table for specific heats of elements.
Go over the three curriculum practice problems.
Assign: Work the rest of the practice problems in class tomorrow.
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Harvard Seeks to Jolt University Teaching -... →
thenewclassroom:
“A growing body of evidence from the classroom, coupled with emerging research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, is lending insight into how people learn, but teaching on most college campuses has not changed much, several speakers said here at Harvard University at a daylong conference dedicated to teaching and learning. …”
Harvard uses a $40 million grant to find...
A New Dark Age →
Most scientists, on achieving high office, keep their public remarks to the bland and reassuring. Last week Nina Fedoroff, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), broke ranks in a spectacular manner.
She confessed that she was now “scared to death” by the anti-science movement that was spreading, uncontrolled, across the US and the rest of the western...
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Only Teachers Can Understand Teachers!
Humans are impatient. We have so little time to make our mark on the world that we need immediate gratification for our efforts. Not so with classroom teachers! Classroom teachers see the world, and their impact on it, in terms of generations. Teachers do hope to see their efforts produce small changes quickly in individual students, but true gratification comes years in the future when an...
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Common Core Sample: Plumbing the Dark Mysteries of... →
girlwithalessonplan:
breatheinsolitude:
Common Core… it’s coming. (would be so much better with spooky music playing in the background!)
Can I offer this .gif?
But really: Good read.
As a high school teacher, I’m far from an expert on elementary education. But I do work with elementary teachers in a staff development role related to the application of technology in the classroom....
“There’s an education bubble, which is, like the others, psychosocial. There’s a...”
– Paul Higgins: This is a big issue for something which is seen as a long term investment. As career changes and job changes have become more frequent the value of the initial piece of paper has reduced. I think that value for fundamental skills education with a bit of paper on the end of it will...
Statement from U.S. Secretary of Education on New... →
Yep! New York is a real leader in education! Like just about everyone else, they will do whatever Fed Ed says to keep the Fed’s money! Some leader!
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Friday - Chemistry Day 114!
Class was short today because of a student assembly.
Most students were able to finish the assignment that asked them to find basic terms and information about The Kinetic Theory. The material from the class online curriculum was easy to find. Finding the value for Boltzmann’s constant and describing the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution curve was somewhat more difficult. I’m such a...
Libérate.: Arizona Republican Introduces Bill That... →
nonplussedbyreligion:
Five GOP Senators in Arizona have introduced a bill in Arizona that would make the lives of teachers and professors a living hell inside and outside of school. Senator Al Melvin, Senator Andy Biggs, Senator Don Shooter, Senator Lori Klein, and Senator…
Legislating morality is a slippery slope that we are already on! Once you begin sliding down that slope, the only...
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Study: Common Standards Will Not Affect Student... →
girlwithalessonplan:
creative-education:
Yet another study showing no connection between Standards and Student Achievement! How many negative reports, with almost no positive reports, will it take to stop wasting Billions of education dollars on policies that produce little or no positive results?
GWALP adds: Standards are also vague in language asking oddly specific traits, instead of...
“Strong reasons make strong actions.”
– William Shakespeare (via eloquentandhonest)