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Recent Retirees: Rise Up and Un-Fuck the World!

Leading from kids taking action to us, particularly recent and near-retirement teachers. What to do, why and how...

I was circulating amongst my 7th grade class, checking that each group of kids were doing okay with calculating their carbon footprints — it’s a lead in to the big, end of the year Take Action Project. I see a new piece of graffiti in blue crayon on one of the desks “Odio el proyecto de tomar acción”. “Anyone know about this?” I ask, expecting the usual blank stares. But Vicki (not her real name)…

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A Self-Contained Class Hybrid to Keep Us Safe, Kids Learning & Looked After

A Self-Contained Class Hybrid to Keep Us Safe, Kids Learning & Looked After. It's a seriously good idea. Seriously better than other hybrid school reopening ideas.

These should be the priorities for our beautiful, lively, seriously social middle school students and my dear colleagues:

Physical health of students and staff. 

Mental and social/emotional health of students and staff.

Students’ academic progress.

Family needs for child care.

But these priorities have been lost in the furious stakeholder battles. Let me be clear – everyone has a point and there…

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The Science of COVID-19 Prevention for Teachers.

The Science of COVID-19 Prevention for Teachers: An evolving list of urgent questions and some answers. Masks? Distancing? Face shields? What works? What's the latest science? Please add more in comments.

An evolving list of questions and some answers.  Updated 6.26.2020

I’m about to go back into the classroom, a science lab in a beautiful middle school in the San Francisco Bay Area. A school in such a lovely setting I thought I’d fallen into paradise when I interviewed there almost thirty years ago. 

Distance learning using Zoom and Google Classroom, has not been a disaster in my district. We are…

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How to get an ‘A’ for Anti-Racism in Science Class…

How to get an ‘A’ for Anti-Racism in Science Class…

How to get an ‘A’ for Anti-Racism in Science Class…

I’m a science teacher, for heaven’s sake. Why do I have to take time from a packed curriculum to what? Include a lesson or two on black scientists? Shoehorn in a lesson on astrophysics by Neil DeGrass Tyson for some added color?

You can see from my pre-woke attitude how dismissive I was toward the idea when it’s that dismissal ITSELF that is…

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Reopening School Without Dangerous, Expensive Chaos.

Reopening School Without Dangerous, Expensive Chaos: Maybe wait for testing and vaccine, and prioritize outside classes?

There are all kinds of ideas out there – pretty pics of good children in rows with masks at 6ft spaced desks, with screens around them. Children lining up on 6ft marks outside classrooms, washing their hands in sinks outside of classrooms. In Denmark, in South Korea and beyond. There is rhetoric flying around about de-crowding classrooms by having half the school population attend school while…

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COVID-19 Online Science to Steal From...

COVID-19 Online Science to Steal From…

Just in case this would be helpful to you, here is a link to my 7th grade science class website with activities, links etc. that you are so welcome to use if it will help you weather this with your classes or your own children at home. Or both. Start from Monday, March 16th, 2020, the first day of our school closure and the ‘Shelter in Place’ order by Bay Area counties.

Topics so far are…

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The New, Improved "Take Action Project" Starts!

The New, Improved "Take Action Project" Starts!

World Wildlife Living Planet 2018 Report says that there has been a 60% decline in all animal species since 1970, 50% of corals have gone in the past 30 years. It’s terrifying and unfit for middle school consumption unless… it’s tied to something kids can do– that’s the reason for the Take Action Project, going now since 2007. This years feels like the best yet. The biggest change is the addition…

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What are your hopes and fears, solutions and New Years resolutions?

What are your hopes and fears, solutions and New Years resolutions?

Here’s what 12 year olds feel will most help the future of nature

 Environmental Solutions Slide Show

Here’s what they are most worried about:

Problems for the Future slide show

I’d like to put together something similar from adults – What do you most fear for the future of nature? What do you see as a particularly hopeful solution? Not that any one thing will do it of course. And as the new…

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Schooled! The Podcast

Schooled! The Podcast: Teachers tell ‘war stories’ and share their hard-won wisdom from the classroom. Our guests are educators who tell incredible transformative tales of how they ‘schooled’ themselves.

Shaina Tantuico and I have been working hard on Schooled! It’s a podcast where teachers tell ‘war stories’ and share their hard-won wisdom from the classroom. Our guests are educators who tell incredible transformative tales of how they ‘schooled’ themselves.

I’ve struggled as a teacher, like most of us: a kid having threw a book at me the day and was bounced straight back by an ineffective…

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I heard a snippet of Maria Popova’s “The Universe in Verse” and was inspired to do something for Earth Day this year.

Students were challenged to find a photograph of nature that made them feel happy and one that made them feel sad, and then to write a poem about one or other photo: Nature Light and Dark. I suggested they start with a descriptive phrase and go from there. Here’s the example I shared.

Why something so art-y and subjective/imaginative in science class? Because what you feel is what you remember and what you care about. And the world desperately needs young people who care about the state of the planet, who care to learn about it and do something, and know how to get others to do so too. It’s a lead-in to a unit on environmental science coming up.

They were free to use photos from their phones. They could also do a Google image search from a growing list of science terms that have something to do with nature. For the happy photos, they looked up images of places that they love. They picked an issue that they were especially concerned about as a search term to find a photo that made them sad. Here is the slide template I shared with them via Google Classroom.

It was lovely to watch them so completely absorbed, showing each other pictures on their phones, had to set a few boundaries – no selfies, or pics primarily of their pets. Resort pictures are not really wild ‘nature’ and that’s an important consideration these days where the wealthy get this manicured view of nature inside giant resort enclosures where the surroundings are often seriously impacted – Cancun springs to mind.

A bit of counseling to avoid the first image that pops up so we don’t see the same thing over and over. But also a lovely opportunity to roll the chair around to each group and listen in, encourage, help and coach. What IS a ‘good’ photo? – one that makes you feel something. In sharp focus, with ONE main thing that it’s about. But other than that, you sort of know when you see it. Some students are so schooled in ‘the right answer’ that it’s hard for them to know and trust their gut when it’s appropriate. And what is ‘good’ poetry? Another huge question but for the purposes of today, I suggested the following: It’s what is true for you. Write first whatever comes up from the photo that you feel most strongly about. THEN edit. Don’t worry about rhyme unless it comes easily. Consider the sound and rhythm, the meter of the words and the punctuation. Read it aloud. Does it sound right? Edit.

Students wrote their poem on the third slide and then copied and pasted their work onto a slide set for the class so it automatically made a slide show. Today, they read out their poems with the picture that inspired it behind them.

Here are the best poems and pictures in a Google Slideshow.  Kids would love it if you commented and said where you are writing from!

Earth in Verse: Students express their feelings about nature light and dark with poetry and photos as motivation to learn more about the environment. I heard a snippet of Maria Popova's "The Universe in Verse" and was inspired to do something for Earth Day this year.

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is central to success. ?!

Leading the lesson with that caused looks of confusion in my somewhat stressed students as we near the end of a major project. It’s important for me to realized too. I have to allow students to choose to fail. If there is no possibility that anyone will fail, success has no real meaning. And I am making myself responsible for all student work and taking on the onus. Plus it would make me super-stressed and really (even more) annoying, nagging them to death and um, treating them like I didn’t trust them.

Of course I’m going to support students, check in with them, break down tasks and deadlines and most importantly, talk to each individual group in this last project-work lesson. “How are you?” “What’s your panic level?” “What is next on your check list?” “Want me to look over your written section for suggestions?” (note NOT to re-grade stuff, that entirely changes the vibe.) “What are your plans to get this done with each other at home?” I also go round and distribute the rubric for the finished project to keep them focussed on what is required. Having kids share documents for color printing is a good way for me to give a last look at their work too.

We had a bit of a laugh looking at Tim Urban’s TED talk “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator” too.

I thought they would be tempted to spend way too much time decorating their poster board or to stick on random pictures just to make it look pretty. But in fact it was more like they didn’t want me to bug them – too busy getting it done.

It is SO hard to resist the urge to nag, require, boss and take over their decisions. I feel like a bad teacher if they are just standing about chatting when they could be working. Especially students who have been struggling. But when I think of how I learned not to procrastinate, I had to really feel the pain to make a change worthwhile.

I used to let grading pile up by the end of each quarter and then have a last-minute, late night frenzy, giving kids grades based on what was bad because I was too tired to notice what was good and give encouragement. Then they’d get their work back weeks after they did it, and would only look at the grade and not pay any attention to the other feedback. It was all long past. So it damaged relationships with my students which then resulted in tense parent exchanges too. It was ultimately enough pain to start to challenge the urge to procrastinate.

But the other piece was more positive: Barbara Nagle, a former chemistry teacher and mentor said that she was really curious to know how her students had done on an assignment right after they handed it in, and I noticed that’s when I was most motivated too. So I tried it after a particularly brutal end-of-term grading thrash. There’s also when I started to made more careful decisions for what to grade and not to grade. I write rubrics and/or a model answer for most pieces of work now. But I also just get on with it, (the mantra of – British psychotherapists 🙂 grading work often during seat work time in class, which allows me to give students one-on-one verbal feedback to save me the time of writing it down. Plus tone of voice can soften criticism to become coaching, and if I lead with curious questions, I often uncover what was going on with a child who’s done a horrible piece of work. Saves accidentally smacking a kid down when their dog has just died etc.  I know. It was sometimes horrifying how close I’d come to doing that in the press of work and hurry and stress.

I do have one student who is driving me crazy right now – bright, friendly guy but does nothing. Nothing. Just hangs out and shoots the breeze with anyone who will listen. I keep talking to him – checking he gets the big picture and try to help him feel how great it would be to have a project to show his parents etc. Come to think of it, I have two more who will probably end up with nothing much. Worked with them all today trying to structure tasks with them, one piece at a time. One did quite a bit and gave me a hug at the end. The other drew a picture of an eagle instead… But would nagging them make any real difference other than window-dressing with a ‘project’ that was basically done by me/parents/special ed colleagues? And would it do actual harm – helping to form entitled, lazy and ultimately unhappy young adults?

I do feel that it’s a genuine gift – the freedom for my students to feel the pain, visualize and to choose to avoid it, or learn from it. It’s good for me to remind myself that I’m in it for the bigger goal of preparing them for their adult lives, and it’s good for me to grip the controls a little more lightly – like riding a mountain bike over rough ground.  It’s not a free-for-all, it’s not chaos. My feet are definitely not up on the desk. And there are boundaries – no distracting other groups for example. And no chopping worms in half. But that’s another story.

    The Freedom to Fail... is central to students engaging and succeeding with project work as a deadline approaches! is central to success. ?! Leading the lesson with that caused looks of confusion in my somewhat stressed students as we near the end of a major project.

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We’ve been trying to make the timeline of the Earth riveting for ages for our 7th grade scientists. Geologic ages. Finally, we called on our local 4th and 5th graders to the rescue.  Here’s what we did, ‘learning opportunities’ and all, so you could try something similar to get an authentic audience for your next PBL project.

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Developing teaching materials to engage younger students is very motivating for our students and at 7th grade, it’s wonderful to get them outside of their heads and their dramatic social lives.

We probably should have checked with the principal of the elementary school BEFORE launching the project challenge with students – “Write a story in a geological setting to be read out loud to elementary students. Then make a slide show to show the science behind it.” Here’s the overview of Rock a Story Set in Stone including links to examples, templates and rubrics.

We had a second project we wanted to share at the same time “Teach the timeline of the Earth using an interactive model or game that will engage elementary students.” Here’s an overview of the Timeline of Earth Project.

We were lucky that both the principal of our school, and of the local elementary school agreed um, in principle. With the proviso that the experience be interactive and not just a show-and-tell.

We made a little slide show of kids making the exhibits (open with QuickTime), plus links to a couple of the best projects to send out as an invitation to our elementary colleagues teaching 4th and 5th grade classes. We were also lucky to have a 6th grade colleague who agreed to bring her students in to fill in the gaps when we couldn’t find enough elementary classes to come in. Ideally, you need one class of ‘audience’ to one class of ‘teachers’ to have the classroom feel vibrant and to minimize the number of students standing around without an audience.

We set up a Doodle for teachers to sign up and amazingly, some did, walking their classes over the mile or so in the threatening rain, taking a valuable hour and a half from their busy curriculum. We invited admin and counselors too.

Here’s the lesson plan we used. A 45 minute class was a perfect amount of time. 5 minutes intro, 30 minutes for kids to share stories (in 3 little ‘pods’ around the edge of the room), share their exhibit or play their timeline board game. The board games were the big hit by the way. I was not expecting that. Then at the end, we ran a Kahoot where 7th graders each found a younger student or two to pair with. That was super fun and a great way to end the class – the last question asked what they’d liked best about the day and all the alternatives were right. Here’s a link to the Kahoot we used.

Next year, we will re-do the schedule so that elementary classes can visit all our classes – 7th graders felt much more comfortable reading to children a couple of years younger rather than 6th graders. Younger students asked more questions and were more visibly thrilled to be there too. Also great to connect with our elementary colleagues who seemed to think it was so wonderful that they will tell their colleagues at our other elementary schools to build momentum for next year when we’ll invite all elementary schools (this was a trial with our nearest elementary school). We might also move the story telling circles to one classroom so it’s easier to here. But otherwise, we are tired but pretty happy at the end of this slightly crazy day.

      Welcome to the Earth Exhibition! We've been trying to make the timeline of the Earth riveting for ages for our 7th grade scientists.

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Model the Formation and Structure of the Earth. In one easy lab.

Model the Formation and Structure of the Earth. In one easy lab.

I used to think that geology was basically memorizing the layers of the Earth, and boring collections of rocks. Like most middle school science teachers, I’m a biologist by training and now I have to teach it with the integrated NGSS courses mandated in California. I’m getting more and more excited about the subject matter as I learn more, and hopefully passing that on to my classes.

I dreamed up…

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How cool would it be if a 12 year old could make her granny a plate of hot beans after the devastation of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico? Eating cold beans from the can just reeks of desperate times. So we tweaked the solar oven project to challenge students to engineer a solar oven out of household items that 7th graders could easily find and assemble.

We started with a do-anything, make-any-old solar oven with no guidance. They got the hang of it, and some experiences to link the physics of solar ovens to. The challenge was to heat 60ml of water the most in 2 minutes. I provided boxes, pizza boxes, mylar survival blankets, masking tape, magnifiers, scissors, cling film and other office supplies I had lying around as they asked. This playing around piece might sound like a waste of valuable academic time but it really does make the rest of the learning and the engineering go MUCH more smoothly. It’s also straight up more fun for me – I hate having to over explain stuff and boss around kids who don’t quite get the instructions. Obviously, I keep an eye on safety and circulate all the time to answer questions and give encouragement/re direct. The level of engagement is so high that there are very few discipline issues – the chaos that seems to be implied is way less than you’d think.

2. Then we studied some physics on a need-to-know basis:

  a. Energy transformations in appliances, toys, pets and cars to review concepts they learned in earlier grades.

  b. We had to review the definitions of energy and matter with a card sort, this time on a continuum, rather than one or the other. Much easier this way.

c. Light and optics lab to learn about reflection and refraction using light boxes.

  c. Students researched ideas from other solar ovens being used in the world – in developing countries, by off-the-grid homesteaders, by campers and even by The Chef in his solar oven episode.

3. They put together their knowledge of physics and already-invented solar ovens and designed new solar ovens to fit the challenge with a second build day.

4. All the ovens were tested for effectiveness (temperature change of 60ml of water in a bean can).  Good to repeat the test to iron out data collection issues. I have kids put the ovens by temperature rise rank on the black top so we can easily compare and contrast them.

5. We evaluated the ovens on the use of easily available materials, and on ease of assembly and use. Then we combined the best ideas – what do you think? Think, pair, share. Each class came up with a design that was based on one of the top two or three

6. Apply for a job in the How-2K2K Video Production Company. Here’s the list of jobs. The application was a half page for them to say why they wanted the job and why they would be good at it. 

7. Review and test on the science concepts we have been applying – optics, spectrum green house effect, energy transformations. Students see the test and use it to guide their review – I’ll use different solar ovens and energy transformers for the real thing.

Here’s the test and answer sheets.

8. Make the How-To video.

This was harder than saying ‘Hey kids, now you know your jobs, make a video.’ Who knew? After some false starts (chaos 🙂 I grouped kids by their jobs and briefed each group on what I expected. The director(s) were only in charge of the filming.

It’s a good idea to let the ‘how to’ group re-assembling the solar oven rehearse first with the camera people. Maybe one to record a time-lapse, one to videotape and one to take stills.

Props was the hardest job in the end. Students had a really hard time getting past ‘we don’t have a steel bowl at home.’ end of story. Went over how to solve a problem like that and one mom did go out in the evening to actually buy something. Ugh, not what I intended. I used the props people as floaters to fill in for other jobs that arose.

We talked about ‘finding something useful to do’ if they had spaces of time when their job was not immediately needed. What a great life skill.

It was really hard for the directors to assert themselves with their peers, as it is for most of us.

I allowed a catch-up day for editors, script writers and any other crews to finish off their jobs. Much better than a rubbish end product.

9. The Kid 2 Kid Solar Oven How-To Movie Premiere!

Here is the link with the videos and the winners.

        Kids in Orinda make, test, research and improve solar ovens then make a How-To video for PR. How cool would it be if a 12 year old could make her granny a plate of hot beans after the devastation of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico?

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Who knew that THREE huge hurricanes would ravage the lives of so many Americans this fall? Along with other horrible news, this was something that perhaps we could do something about, so I threw together this project with my trusty colleague Marshall and with the blessing of our long suffering administration who support us through risky new projects all the time.

Our 300 7th graders raised a total of $4,472.15 in six days.

It was a quick (as in 3 lessons) and engaging way of responding to world news that tied in to many academic standards (listed at the bottom of this blog), important life skills AND was really fun (and manageable) for all of us. Thank you to Keli, our school secretary, for counting up piles of crumpled up pocket-money ones and piles of change from jam jars around the house.

There were some incredibly sweet journal entries reflecting on what they learned – got all teary-eyed with this one in particular:

So how? Here’s the summary as a picture:

Here are  pictures of kids from each stage of the project:

And here are the detailed LESSON PLANS:

Day 1: Hurry Hurricane Help – what’s the situation in the aftermath of Irma and Harvey?

1. See the latest hurricane news: New York Times, Newsela, Time Magazine and CNN – “Out of the Spotlight Harveys Victims Struggle to Recover” inc video clips. Local news sources will be the best for the aftermath and recovery: The Miami Herald, The Virgin Island Daily News and The Houston Chronicle. What is happening? Walk pictures and maps around the room.

2. Which non-profit should we support? Intro

See Charity Navigator for Hurricane Harvey and then navigate to the non-profit websites.

Day 2: Hurry-cane Help! Project: Pick what to do and how.

1. Make your case – a whiteboard poster and a website. Participate in a poster session. Use at least some QUANTITATIVE DATA.

2. Vote with pennies. Agree on a non-profit for our class to support.

3. Make a plan for how.

– How will you advertise and inspire people to donate money?

– How will you collect the money?

4. Your challenge: Raise as much money as you can in ONE WEEK for our class charity! Who will raise the most in our class?  Which class will raise the most per person? How much can we help?!

  3. HOMEWORK: Fundraising for Hurry-cane Help

This is NOT for credit of course, just feeling good about doing something real for all the people affected by natural disasters right now.

You have ONE week to raise as much money as you can for the charity your class voted for.

Period 2: The Houston Food Bank

Period 3: International Medical Corps

Period 4: Convoy of Hope

Period 5: Americares

Period 6: Heart to Heart International and All Hands

Period 7: Global Giving

To count to our class total, bring in (in order of preference)

1. Print outs of a donation receipts from online donations to the charity itself. (You could ask donors to forward their e mail receipt when they make a donation).

2. A check made out to the charity. (I will send your checks to the charity.)

3. Cash.

Day 4:  Hurry Hurricane Help – Totaling and Debrief

The latest news from Puerto Rico

1. Bring in the funds you raised – cash, checks payable to the organization or printed receipts from online donations to our class’s hurricane relief non-profit.

2.  Interview teams who went outside their own families to fundraise (lemonade stands, bake sales, door to door etc.) for what the best parts and hardest parts were, and what they learned.  What are the secrets of successful fundraising?

3. Write what you learned from this whole experience.

And finally, does this project address any academic standards? Why, yes it does!

From the Next Generation Science Standards:

Asking Questions and Defining Problems

Asking questions and defining problems in grades 6–8 builds on grades K–5 experiences and progresses to specifying relationships between variables, clarify arguments and models.

Define a design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process or system and includes multiple criteria and constraints, including scientific knowledge that may limit possible solutions. (MS-ETS1-1)

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Engaging in argument from evidence in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to constructing a convincing argument that supports or refutes claims for either explanations or solutions about the natural and designed world.

Evaluate competing design solutions based on jointly developed and agreed-upon design criteria. (MS-ETS1-2)

From the Common Core State Standards

RST.6–8.1                 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. (MS-ETS1-1),(MS-ETS1-2),(MS-ETS1-3)

RST.6–8.7                 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table). (MS-ETS1-3)

RST.6–8.9                 Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic. (MS-ETS1-2),(MS-ETS1-3)

WHST.6–8.7             Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. (MS-ETS1-1),(MS-ETS1-1)

WHST.6–8.8             Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources (primary and secondary), using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. CA (MS-ETS1-1)

WHST.6–8.9             Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. (MS-ETS1-2)

The Hurry-cane Help Project Who knew that THREE huge hurricanes would ravage the lives of so many Americans this fall? Along with other horrible news, this was something that perhaps we could do something about, so I threw together this project with my trusty colleague Marshall and with the blessing of our long suffering administration who support us through risky new projects all the time.

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So what IS the effect of the new Chrome books we’ve acquired this school year? In contrast to iPads we had last year and to the occasional use of computer labs before that?  Lots of people weighing in after the New York Times published “How Google Took Over the Classroom” with letters to the editor.

I’m going on record with an “A” for Google, for it’s ease of sharing, organizing and commenting on student work with it’s Google Classroom app and the seamless way the Chrome books work with this app after struggling with iPads to access it.

In some senses, it makes my job easier, but not in a feet-on-the-desk, ‘get on with it kids’ kind of way. It makes it easier to give specific comments that students can use to revise their work. It allows me to quickly see that they did with the ‘resolve’ button.

It means that my space-y students don’t lose their work and it’s automatically handed in. So I actually get something to comment on from all students. Getting a 0 for no work in is yes, a natural consequence of a student’s choice but the effect is to harden their anti-school attitude. Getting something in, even if it’s just a little bit, gives a starting place to see what they can do (and for them to see that too) and build on it.

Accountability within working groups of students is improved: I can monitor the ‘history’ of who did what when. It’s more difficult for a student to free-load or to do everything. Both extremes more common than I like to think.

I’m using Google Classroom with Chrome Books for the first time with the “History and Hazards of the Hills: Teach It!” project. The atmosphere in the classroom is absolutely intent. I’m at my desk, giving feedback to students in the comfy chair, both verbally and with comments on their Google document. The instant feedback is not just because of the app – I would have to do that via written and verbal comments on paper-and-pencil work too. But it makes it just that much easier  that I can spool through a whole class within a block period and I think that that specific, timely and frequent feedback is really helping to up the standard of writing and science.

Typing is easier for most students than hand writing, the ease of editing makes that aspect less onerous too. And the finding, curating and citing of information is easier, although this remains a real push on my part – we all love to take the first thing that pops up, and it’s my tiring job to push students to do much better than that. Our democracy depends on it…

The other reason student are so intent is nothing to do with technology – 7th graders are excited about going back to their favorite elementary teacher’s classroom and teaching a lesson about land forms to their class.

There is no substitute for an energizing driving question for a project, there is no substitute for a friendly, encouraging flesh-and-blood teacher that students want to please. This effect is more pronounced at younger ages but persists powerfully through college and beyond. I can manage the flesh and blood part, working on the others obvs.

And there is no way ANY class should be just computers all the time. Variety and pacing is central to an engaging curriculum, and these cool Chrome Books can be used in so many more ways than just a word processor. Here’s a load of examples:

Pairs of students research their selected part of the plastic life cycle using Netbooks. The Google Docs intro is TOMORROW, so they get research done before fooling around with pics and formats.

‘Technology’ is just a fancy word for a tool. Computers and Google are no more answers to education than a hammer and nails will build a house by themselves.

Weighing in on Google and Chrome books So what IS the effect of the new Chrome books we've acquired this school year? In contrast to iPads we had last year and to the occasional use of computer labs before that?  

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Well finally, a new mini-project in geology that has that magic mix of student engagement and academic focus, after the usual false starts and the backdrop of mild panic because sshh, I took my last geology class at age 16. Not saying how long ago that was, although you could walk to London from New York back then.

What’s your favorite ‘thing’? – the kick-off question. We started with the coolness and positive benefits of their favorite product. Instant chatter about cell phone brands and features, their favorite kinds of cars, bikes, consoles, some jewelry they were wearing and art supplies. Thinking about the benefits, the convenience and the pleasure their favorite things bring them.

The high energy opener motivated them to dig deeper: Where does it come from?  What is the ‘true cost’ of your thing?

‘True cost” can be so preachy: Conflict minerals and the awfulness of mining Tantalum in the Congo, the rape of poor countries by large corporations (the ‘resource curse’), the crazy harsh and beautiful pictures of open pit gold mining by Salvador Salgado, Appalachian mountain top removal and on and on. I feel really strongly about all of this.  It’s a fresh surprise every time I watch their faces close down as I try to preach to them. Dang, self-righteousness is so satisfying and yet not motivating. So I have to make myself let them discover these ideas for themselves, even if not at the depth and horror that I might feel.

I set up a slide show template that guided them through, trying hard to keep it fairly simple and focussed. Here it is. We used the beautiful new Chrome books that can stand by themselves. So excited to have these. Easier to use with Google than the iPads.

Framed the research as detective work and sat with students as they figured out how to phrase search terms and decide which resources online were relevant, reliable and understandable.  It’s such a vital skill for them to develop so I did not provide too many curated sites to start with, and why most of this was done in class, not for homework.

The final product was an electronic ‘poster session’ modeled on what adults do at conferences. Students got 10 minutes to suggest improvements on a neighbors slides, 10 minutes to polish up their presentation and then they organized the computers around similar products and circulated – watch a show then write one thing they learned from it.

  At the end, what did they notice coming up over and over? That metal extraction and refining is a dangerous process for people and the environment, that any manufactured product has parts from all over the world and that trade and political relationships with distant countries can have real effects on our most prized possessions.

Here are the detailed lesson plans if you are interested in trying this yourself. Go to April 2017 calendar.

Ore to Store Slide Show Poster Session Well finally, a new mini-project in geology that has that magic mix of student engagement and academic focus, after the usual false starts and the backdrop of mild panic because sshh, I took my last geology class at age 16.