We all make mistakes...

I goofed up. I gave out a set of practice problems that was meant for the second or third day of instruction as the first night's homework.

My students arrived the next morning, concerned about the assignment. Many stated it was difficult, some said they worked for hours getting it done, with help from their text and youtube.

I announced to the class my mistake, and they were relieved.  I gave out the intended work, and we completed it during class. The students jumped right in and steadily worked the entire period. It was nice to see them giving it their best.

I strive to communicate to the students that making mistakes is OK. I don't expect them to be perfect. I talk to them about viewing failure as information needed to guide them to success. Failing to get a correct answer the first time doesn't mean a person is stupid, dumb, a loser, or any sort of thing of that nature. It is simply a step toward success. True failure is when a person gives up, and stops trying.

I will leave you with a Japanese proverb.

Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

Wait... that last post was kinda weird...

Did you notice something about what the 3D model says?

 It says what the student will do, know and how they will think. It did not focus on the teacher. Our new standards tell the teacher what needs to be done, but focuses the learning on the students. 

This is what I meant in my first post about "getting out of the way" of student learning. 

This might mean that parents are going to hear complaints like "Mr. Williams doesn't teach, he makes us learn it all on our own." This is kinda right in the sense that the standards are focused on the student actually taking ownership of the learning process, and moving the teacher into a facilitator mode.

Don't worry, we won't leave your kid to work at frustration level, our job is to be the back up for when things get off track. We will be there to focus the learning.

So.... What is the NGSS?

If you didn't get a chance to read my previous post, you need to know there are new state standards for science in effect this year.

There are some well written parent guides to the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) at the link below:

NGSS Parent Guides

The focus of this post is to share some info about the classroom side of the NGSS. The NGSS standards are broken down into three areas. The people behind the implementation of the NGSS  like to call it 3D learning.

• Science and Engineering Practices
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
• Cross-cutting Concepts

  Let's take a quick look at what these things mean.

Science and Engineering Practices

If you will notice in the graphic, this is a list of some things a student will do in class. These are tasks associated with actual scientific work. Things like investigating, calculating, writing, drawing, and designing. 

Disciplinary Core Ideas

The DCIs are the content the student will know. This is where us older folks go to in our mind when we think of science class. Biology terms, memorizing the Periodic Table of Elements, that sort of stuff. They have new reference codes, but science content is still science content. 

Crosscutting Concepts

This is where the we put the first two together and make connections between them. This is the "how" the students will think. Don't worry we aren't trying to brainwash them. It is more about how to use comcepts to put science work, and content together to construct their understanding.   The graphic lists 7 concepts that are common to all sciences, and can apply to other fields of study as well. Take patterns for example. There are patterns in the ebb and flow of the tides (geological science), patterns in honeycomb (biology), patterns in weather (atmospheric physics), patterns in the elements' properties (chemistry), patterns in art (mandalas), patterns in language (poems), patterns in music (harmonic sequence), and patterns in math (Fibonacci sequence). You probably can think of more right now.

This part of the 3D learning is where students will bloom. The road to get there may be a little tough, but when they start to think using concepts, everything starts to come together, and they will feel accomplished. 

This is what I am looking forward to seeing. 

New year... New Science Standards

The 2018-2019 School year is about to kick off, and with it comes new changes. The NGSS standards, mandated by the State of Arkansas are now in effect.

What does this mean to you? It depends...

If you are a parent, it will mean your student will be doing science differently than what you probably did in high school. The days of lecture/note-taking science classes are over.

If you are a student, you will be learning science content through activities, data collection, analyzing data, and science literacy skills.

In other words, you are going to be doing a lot of critical thinking.

The science department has been undergoing training focused on implementing the new standards which should ease the transition into the student-centered learning model of instruction.

Personally, my biggest struggle will be in taking a step back, and letting the kids learn. I'm a teacher, I like to teach. I like to present information. It is an odd thing for me to actually take a back seat, and let the students take the lead, but that is what I am going to do.

The next few posts will be discussing the NGSS standards in more detail, and I am planning posts on how my classroom operates using the new instructional model.

Feel free to ask questions or comment below.