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A November Tradition – Annual Conference Highlights from Rochester

The STANYS 124th Annual Conference, held in Rochester in early November, 2019, paved the way for a memorable weekend. While you never know what you’ll get in terms of dicey weather in Rochester in the middle of Fall, you know you’ll walk away from the Conference with bundles of materials to sort through, and lots of information to process when you arrive home. This year’s highlights, in no particular order, include:

  • Meeting with local Suffolk members on the same flight
  • Dinosaur BBQ!
  • Excellent sessions, run by knowledgeable and energetic NYS science teachers
  • Meeting with NASA educational specialists from Goddard Space Flight Center and Langley Research Center
  • Getting tips on how to assess students in a way that incorporates traditional grading practices with the iterative, rubric-style grading that comes with NYSSLS 3D assessments
  • We saw an amazing group of pre-service teachers from Oneonta State (my alma mater!) present a variety of innovative models to explain more complex topics related to Earth and Space Sciences. Thank you Jim Ebert and Paul Bischoff for bringing a little bit of O-State to Western NY! 
  • Having students use technology on a more regular (and regulated) basis, to conduct guided research projects
  • Gathering resources, listening, absorbing and reflecting on items presented during a marathon weekend… Three days packed with information that we can use or alter for use immediately
  • T-shirt competitions – and inspiration for a new Suffolk (Suff-i-k) shirt for next year!
  • The energy exuded by the Texas Instruments team
  • And… who could forget to mention the consistency of support from Ward’s Science culminating in the memorable raffle to cap off our Sunday

There were Institutes for many major subject areas and levels of science instruction. These and the luncheons for similar groupings of educators were very well-attended. As the days progressed, I heard many complimentary comments regarding the ease-of-use of this year’s new conference Guidebook app. Kudos to Suffolk’s own Matt Christiansen, the Vice President-Elect of STANYS, and “Keeper of the STANYS Conference Apps”. 

This year, for a slightly different experience, I attended several sessions that were not directly related to my subject area of expertise. I attended a workshop led by the Director at Large of Physics, Seth Gunials-Kupperman that was excellent. It led teachers through his assessment process, and the intricacies and successes of allowing students to be regularly re-assessed to check for deeper understanding. The workshop about Soil Science, led by Deb Mabey, from Hoosick Falls, NY, was also excellent. I was excited to see a simple and powerful link between biological and geosciences on display with her building of MudWatt systems, and encouraging students to bring in soils from their own backyards to use as an alternative fuel source for energy production.

I immediately got to work on incorporating paper circuits into a unit on aerospace engineering in my astronomy elective this month. Inspired by education specialists, Dr. Barbie Buckner from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (our NY liaison from NASA Goddard) and Dr. Anne Weiss from NASA’s Langley Research Center, I was able to have my students explore the concept of X-planes, and we made several styles of paper circuits from the templates provided via Dropbox linked in the Guidebook app.

I’ll add a brief note of thanks for all who voted in the STANYS Election this Fall. I’m excited to shift roles from Subject Area Representative for our Suffolk Section to that of Director at Large for Earth Science in the near future! What an exciting time, one that I have to remind myself is more like training for the endurance required as a marathoner, rather than the rapid acceleration and rewards reaped by a sprinter.
 It was nice to connect with like-minded individuals and see all of the excellent science happening statewide in classrooms with STANYS educators at the helm. I am excited to see where STANYS takes us as we work through the organization’s 125th year at the forefront of science education in New York!–Stephanie Burns – Suffok SAR Earth Science, DAL Elect – Earth Science

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A Professional Development Experience with Paul Andersen by Alice Veyvoda

This summer, STANYS leaders, Master Teachers, and educational professionals throughout New York State were invited to experience two days of immersion in NYSSLS and Three-Dimensional Learning and Assessment   Paul Andersen joined us to facilitate the learning activities.

There were three workshop sites around the state: July 29-30 (SUNY Stony Brook); July 31-August 1 (SUNY New Paltz); and August 2-3 (Conference Center at Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES). Each workshop was designed to prepare teacher leaders to begin the work of facilitating workshops on how to transition to NYSSLS. These workshops built on those conducted during the last two summers, and teacher leaders attending this year were provided with multiple ideas and resources to share with other educators in their home schools/regions. Workshop activities included creating storylines for lessons to help further understanding regarding the shifts to the new standards and phenomenon-based learning. Learn more at Paul Andersen’s website, TheWonderOfScience

 

Paul also offered some advice to the STANYS leaders as they looked forward to sharing their understanding and providing workshops for their teacher-colleagues “back home” – a sort of “12 step plan” that began with a reminder that teachers are professionals, not students, and should be treated as such, and closed with “Have Fun !” He stressed not to argue about adoption of the new Standards: it’s done!

Day #1 we worked in groups of two or three to develop a 3D assessment. We first continued work on an assessment already started by participants from another workshop and then we chose a Performance Assessment in our subject area and began the process of developing and honing an assessment we might use in the upcoming year. To help us evaluate the assessment we were developing, Paul provided us with his “Performance Assessment Screening Tool – a “check-list” of items designed to ascertain if the assessment tool we were developing was actually doing what we wanted it to: assess 3-dimensional learning for the selected PE area.

Day #2 was devoted to developing activities for a lesson/unit for which we might utilize the assessment developed the previous day. Workshop participants observed various phenomena for introducing “sample” lessons/units, and then searched for a phenomenon suitable for introducing students to the topic they had chosen. We applied Paul’s “method” (his “ABC’s of Teaching”: Activity Before Content”) to our lesson prep. Paul was ready with help, circulating throughout the groups, asking questions and giving suggestions to further our progress. He provided a “3-Dimensional Screening Tool” with a “check-list” to guide us toward development of a truly 3-dimensional lesson. At the close of Day #2, we all felt that we had a 3-D lesson (or the strong beginning of one…) and a 3-D assessment to provide us with student feedback. Quite an accomplishment!

Some comments from attendees:

“As always, my brain hurts from thinking so much … in a good way! I am excited to take all that I learned about developing lessons and assessments and share it with other teachers. I look forward to seeing how the shift to 3D-instruction and learning helps build deeper understanding for students.” Kathi

“This workshop was particularly rewarding beause there was ample tie for discourse among colleagues and we left with a finished product to take back to my classroom!” Jeff Salerno, STANYS Western Section (JeffreySalerno@LSCSD.or)

“As a new teacher that was extensively trained in the new standards it was an insightful experience to work with other teachers and professionals to learn how to incorporate these standards into the classroom.” Riley McHugh

“Paul Andersen has been a phenomenal resource in explaining all of the information about NGSS. I am looking forward to engaging my students with inquiry based labs. See you next year! Ashley Leung

“Paul and the STANYS crew provided another high quality professional development to support the vital work to implement our new standards. They had a great mix of prompts, productive group work, and good humor.” Doug Schmid

“After participating in all three Paul Andersen workshops –this final hands-on interactive presentation really wrapped the NYSSLS into a nice package I look forward to unwrapping during the school year. My level of understanding of the new standards is finally sinking in and Ifeel like I have material to try this upcoming year. The professional development these two days was excellent and well put together by all involved.”Sonja Anderson

“The authentic scientific practices being implemented in NGSS are invaluable for scientific reasoning for all students.” Peter Rosen

“The opportunity to collaborate with colleagues of all levels of experience and all types of backgrounds made this daunting task of implementing NGSS feel totally attainable!” Seth

Paul Andersen will be a presenter at the Annual Conference November 1-4, 2019, in Rochester NY. Find more information online at STANYS.org/ConferenceMain where the full Conference Program is available.

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#STANYSchat – See What STANYS is All a Twitter About!

Did you know that STANYS has entered the 21st century?  During the school year, STANYS hosts a Twitter chat every Thursday at 8pm called #STANYSchat. Here, teachers from across the state join together to discuss a wide range of issues in science education. Past discussions have examined the implementation of the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS), avoiding teaching burnout, and examining past professional development that STANYS has offered, such as ADI, Paul Andersen’s Deep Dives into NYSSLS, and the annual STANYS conferences. 

You might ask yourself “why should I participate”?  Well, why not? For starters, it is a fabulous way to connect with other science teachers across New York State.  Sometimes as teachers, we can have a hard time finding “our person” – somebody else who is motivated to try new things or eager to discuss the changes in education.  In #STANYSchat, participants are invested in science education. Additionally, the discussions are tailored to New York State science, so participants are aware and familiar to the struggles that New York State teachers face.  Lastly – who doesn’t want to participate in personal professional development that can be done in pajamas? Since these are Twitter chats, there is no reason to leave home – so there is no formal dress code that needs to be followed!

So, how does one participate in #STANYSchat?  It might look complicated, but it’s easier than you might think.  For starters, you will need a Twitter account, which can be made for free at Twitter.com.  After creating your account, be sure to be following STANYS official Twitter account at @STANYSorg.  Each week that a #STANYSchat will be taking place, a discussion topic and questions will be posted the Tuesday before Thursday’s chat. Think about your answers to the questions, and on Thursday at 8pm, join in the discussion.  Make sure that each of your answers to the questions includes the hashtag #STANYSchat – it will allow other participants to follow along with your answers. Don’t worry if you feel overwhelmed – everybody was once a beginner and is willing to help others join in the discussion. 

This year, step outside your comfort zone and try something different. I hope that you can join us!

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Suffolk Spring Conference 2019

Spring has sprung and that means it’s time for the STANYS Spring Conference.  The Conference this year was held on Thursday March 28th at Brookhaven National Lab. Participants were greeted with a light breakfast and time to circulate around at vendors before the Keynote Speaker began.  The Keynote was presented by Dr. Cary Sneider a Professor at Portland State who is a member of the NGSS Engineering Writing Team. His keynote focused on the concept of inquiry and how it has changed within the guise of NGSS.  His talk was engaging and interactive and a great way to start the day. The first session continued with a variety of workshops to choose from, ranging from argument driven inquiry presented by Dr. Victor Sampson himself, author of many Argument Driven resources to escaping the classroom.  Lunch was a nice break to interact and connect with fellow participants and after lunch we continued on with two additional workshop sessions. I was fortunate to sit in a workshop where we explore the chemistry of hot sauce as a phenomena and how well it can clean a penny. The presenters were so well organized prepared it made the transition to NYSSLS seem like something we can all introduce in our own classes.  Participants were engaged throughout the day and were involved with hands on workshops that ranged all content and grade levels. The conference was a success with teachers walking away with lessons that they could use in their own classrooms. I want to thank the STANYS members that put this great conference together and look forward to the next one. The behind the scene effort it takes to pull off a conference of this caliber is nothing short of amazing, and the members of STANYS really work together to provide high quality professional development to the teachers of Suffolk County.  

 

For additional photos of the day click here: STANYS photos

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Moving to NYSSLS Implementation?

Where are you, your department, and your district in transitioning to New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS)?  These are our current science standards, but I totally get the reluctance of some to modify since the state assessments haven’t changed.  Get ready anyway. Teachers, administrators, Boards of Education, professional organizations, NYSED, and NYS Legislators all have priorities but they are often determined by necessity, often the turn in the road ahead.  Each group needs to outline where they hope to be in a few years and then lay out a step by step plan to reach those goals for NYSSLS implementation. District administrators and teachers should plan for changes without waiting to see the new state assessments.  These “Framework based standards” are now adopted by 40 states representing 80% of all student in the US. The standards are about improved science education and preparing our students for this century and not about the summative exams.

District administrators, teachers and community stakeholders need to understand the changes and work towards an implementation plan.  PK-5 are grade banded and development of phenomena-based 3D curriculum resources is challenging so most elementary teachers need support, curriculum materials, and professional learning opportunities.  Middle schools must decide on a course map that includes all the standards (MS PEs) and somehow figure out how to handle acceleration in their HS courses. Once the middle school course map draft is outlined, PEs could be bundled, and curriculum developed.  High school science departments could look at Appendix K, the PEs for their courses, and do a cross walk with the Curriculum Cores and the NYSSLS. As an important note, you must closely look at NYSSLS and not NGSS as you dig into designing curriculum. A concerned teacher recently pointed out that HS-PS2-1 is about Newton’s Second Law of Motion but has a significant difference in the NYSSLS clarification statement … projectile motion, or an object moving in a circular motion), for objects in equilibrium (Newton’s First Law), or for forces describing the interaction between two objects (Newton’s Third Law)…   

I’d like to share some of my positive experiences and observations as we move closer to implementation.  I know student centered instruction, project-based learning, learning through case studies, and problem solving has been part of best practices in science classrooms; now NYSSLS aligns with those practices.  Elementary (K-5) is making progress in local classrooms and teachers are talking about how happy the students are to be doing science. Kids love being up and about figuring out, working in groups and engaged in learning science.  The K-2 and 3-5 progressions represented in the content (DCIs) for each grade removes some of the previously taught recall-based stuff that isn’t inclusive of all students. Some districts are choosing between various elementary BOCES and publisher-based curriculum resources to pilot or adopt.  It won’t be many years before students entering middle school will expect science to be about explaining phenomena, figuring things out, and solving problems. Some middle schools have their draft course maps and shifted entire grade levels to NYSSLS. High school programs seem to be the slowest to shift but there are some that embraced student centered instruction before NYSSLS.  Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGILs), Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI), IB, and the current AP science courses are aligned with the NYSSLS approach. I know cohorts of MS and HS teachers in the NYS Master Teachers program have been working together in transitioning their courses. Teachers collaborating, setting goals, trying new lessons, developing phenomenon based inquiry tasks, working on performance assessments and among the things that will help move us forward.

STANYS is continuing to do what we can to help the science community make a smooth transition to NYSSLS.  Through the NYS Science Education Consortium, we participated in the widely distributed White Paper on Assessment and have lobbied for funding for professional development.  Suffolk STANYS in partnership with BNL will be offering a Spring Conference March 28th.  We have Dr. Cary Sneider (lead writer of NGSS) and Dr. Victor Sampson (ADI) scheduled for workshops along with several your colleagues and folks from BNL.  STANYS is planning more PD opportunities again this summer with Paul Andersen and plans are already underway for our Annual Conference in Rochester.

Best wishes to you and your families for a wonderful year.

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Preparing Students for the Next Generation

How can we best prepare students for the next generation? (The following is based on a TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson.) As science teachers, we are trained to be keen observers of student behaviors. Most of us are naturally good at this. This is a direct development of our science minds. We see natural changes and can make predictions, but predicting the timing and the degree of future changes decades away, is extremely challenging. That being said, the students we are teaching today will live and work in that world. Graduates and students today are facing globalization, a robotic workforce, academic inflation, high-speed travel, rapid population movement, rapid advancements in computer technology, climate change, and a raft of environmental issues. The world is changing at an accelerated pace. Students today need to more creative than ever to compete and be the problem solvers that can take on these challenges successfully.

We as teachers, administrators, and legislators have a large stake in creating curriculum and practices that allow students that are creative to flourish. The problem is that we reward students that excel in less creative courses, and diminish the types of courses that produce creativity. Some teachers that I work with are masters at using teaching crutches that allow a student to get the right answer by reducing the solution and limiting creativity. In the world of hyper testing environments, are students being taught that being wrong is unacceptable? Think about it, we reward students for getting near perfect or perfect scores. In fact we praise them with lavish awards and scholarships. Colleges use SAT scores based on a few dimensions of learning, mathematical aptitude, reading and language skills. In general, students learn that in order to be accepted into a college, they must emphasize the courses that the SAT measures, and de-emphasize other courses that are very creative, including arts. This by nature reduces the creative courses that SAT focused students enroll in. Please, I’m not being disrespectful and I’m certain brilliance can shine in any area, but there are specialized minds and very creative thinkers that are not being developed to their fullest potential.

In New York State, many new educational programs are being implemented. In science we are transitioning into the NYSSLS based on the Next Generation Science Standards. How we teach NYSSLS is an important as the performance expectations themselves. Administrators need to realize that every teaching discipline is different. If a science teacher that tries to set up interesting teaching phenomena for 3D learning is not given adequate time or supplies to accomplish this, then creativity and problem solving will be lost from the start.

In order to teach students to be more creative, as often as possible, we should allow students to fail with less penalty, allow them to realize that real problems and solutions do not always lead to an absolute answer. Many times, solutions lead to unsolved problems and more questions. Reward the journey as well as the end result.  I’ve seen many students reach an impasse in science investigations and simply assume they have failed and stop working. Why? Because the reward system in most schools and higher academia fail to allow creative solutions that don’t fit standard grading. Students are taught that failure is unacceptable, so students stop investigating when things go bad and they probably experience a dose of damaged humility as well. However, it’s at this point that student creativity and grit for reworking the new questions generated needs to be taught and rewarded. We should allow time for these type of open-ended activities and not jump to assigning a grade or a score when a student reaches a predesignated result. Encourage and guide the student with the new problem. Allow them to struggle, and reward them for creating new hypotheses to solve using the information gathered from the previous attempt.

If we all know that an experiment that can’t fail is flawed from the start. Then why do we teach students that failure is not an option? It’s not just above average ability that should be rewarded without failure. If we seek to produce the type of problem solvers for the next generation and well into the future, then we must reward creativity, perseverance in finishing, and the raw ability of tackling unexpected results as the cornerstones of the next generation of problem solvers.

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Beyond Siri

Summer vacation brings us such a fresh time to renew our career and plan new ways to teach. I view it as almost a rebirth a new start. This year was no different except I also get a new point of view from my 5 and 3 year old children. This year we have done a few adventures that included beaches, road trips, Disney, Sesame Place, house projects, and my Fire Department Carnival. These things have not been uncommon in the past but what makes this year different is that I am in the golden age my kids. They ask why for everything. I learned very quickly when they ask why there is so much I need to explain and the attention span doesn’t last for the full scientific explanation. I don’t believe in the thought process that when you have a question you turn to Siri. Today’s youth whenever they have a problem turn directly to the internet for the answers, which I believe is dumbing society down. Not everything on the internet is true!

To overcome all the whys and have my kids actually learn something, I ended up doing open ended experiments when them. Having them figure things out was not the most time efficient but was so much fun to watch them struggle and develop more questions and discover the phenomena. One example was during a beach trip my little princess wanted to wear her heels to the beach instead of her flat crocks. I was watching the fight and potential melt down of the little one. I said let’s do it. My little princess wore her heels and had a really hard time walking in the sand. So of course I tried to have a race between kids. She got so frustrated that she lost. So we looked at her footwear and compared footprint to her brothers. Then had her wear one foot with crocks and one foot with heel. Without getting into the math she figured out that on the sand you need a wider footprint. Then I asked her to figure out a way to make her heels work on the beach. I grew up in the old school days of the original MacGyver where Angus MacGyver was played by Richard Dean Anderson. So I carry a multi-tool knife and duct tape in my truck. We also can’t forget the engineer flow chart, if it moves use WD-40 if it doesn’t move use Duct Tape and if that doesn’t work use more. So giving her duct tape she was able to take a cardboard box that her mother had for the trip turned it into a platform and taped it to the bottom of her heel. She was so proud of herself and my little prince and princess learned to identify a problem and engineer a solution. They did this without asking Siri for help.

Although this summer we have been doing so many of these little inquires with my kids. I got to thinking about how I could get juniors and seniors to use their mind more than just Siri. So how can we get the student to have the same wonder as my kids. That wonder that exists before internet and fortnite™. Also we need to show them their phones are there for more than just gaming. Again, my little gifts had questions about in the pool. They asked why did they need to always wear their floaties. You have to understand my princess yells at you if you go on a amusement park ride without your hands up. She likes to live life more on the edge. Instead of thinking of buoyant force I thought of an activity I could use in AP Physics 2. I gave my kids playdoh and said make 5 different boats with the same amount of play dough and we tested how many marble that they could hold. It was a fun filled competition which trash talk included loser is a “poopy head.” The five year old made one boat that thinner walls and a wider base that displaced more water and in turn held the most marbles. She then made a connection to her high heel sand shoes that she made earlier in the week. This simple activity could be used so our students can take a simple task develop questions and then develop an experiment to answer their questions. After the marble challenge, give the students a marble and have them develop a way to now lift it. You will know the students learned the topic when they develop a way to displace the air to cause the lift on the marble. As a SCUBA instructor we do this experiment and calculations to lift things safely and controlled of the sea floor. As an ex-captain of a volunteer fire department I purposely trained people to find ways to accomplish tasks. I would always show them ways to do tasks according to textbook but sometimes the textbook approach doesn’t work in the changing environments. How you react to the changes makes the difference to saving a life or becoming a victim.

When training or teaching our students we can’t just spoon feed the information to them. They need to think about possible questions and how to figure out the answers to them. Spoon feeding is great when it is the same scenario every time which might be good for some tests, but teaching them how to think ask questions and come up with solutions will be good in everyday life. These students will be better prepared to face the world and challenges in colleges and the workplace.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” Einstein

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Technology Considerations for the Science Classroom

As we plan for the upcoming school year, it’s a good time to reflect and think about goals and the means to implement them in the next few months. Many colleagues have mentioned the desire to incorporate more technology and even go so far as to suggest a “paperless classroom.” It sometimes seems like a race to keep up with the latest advances in technology as they impact learning via animations, simulations, apps, probeware and flipped learning to name a few.  While I too am guilty of falling victim to the allure of any tool that appears to potentially enhance my students’ love of learning science, the replacement of a traditional aspect of a lesson’s design should be performed only if it offers a real and tangible improvement to the lesson. The excessive use of technology simply based on trends should be approached with caution.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) can be the vehicle by which teachers decide if and how a technological application can be incorporated into their classrooms. TPCK more recently coined as TPACK technology, pedagogy and content knowledge incorporates technology into Lee Shulman’s pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) construct (Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J., 2006). PCK is the means by which a teacher takes his/her content knowledge and transforms it into content knowledge for his/her students. Teachers’ PCK includes an understanding of the misconceptions and preconceptions students bring to each specific topic as well as the strategies to assist them in overcoming these barriers to student understanding  such as demonstrations, animations, simulations, analogies, etc. (Shulman, L., 1987). With technology constantly evolving it is important to utilize applications with students if and when they enhance student learning. When deciding if it is appropriate to utilize a particular technology tool, a TPACK lens requires a teacher to think about how the technology could be used as a pedagogical tool or content representation as well as how student learning of the content is impacted by such a tool when considering the context of how it would be used. In other words: it eliminates the thought process of using technology for the sake of technology but rather requires purposeful lesson design where technology is integrated if and only if it aides in students learning of content considering the population of student needs.

It is challenging to integrate technology while at the same time, consider the pedagogy and the content simultaneously through a TPACK framework. Today, most teachers are trained to incorporate technology via one size fits all professional development sessions which typically provide only an introduction to a tool and focus only on the technology itself and not the best practices for integration the tool into student learning.

There is no debating the fact that students need to be technologically savvy and as educators we are responsible for making our students college and career ready for the 21st century. With a wide range of applications available at our fingertips, educators need to determine which tools are the best aligned with content that will enhance the pedagogy for their students. Students have also culturally adapted to the world of smart phones where they can download an app to practice a particular science skill, sketch and rotate molecules, makes mechanisms, etc. (Williams, A., & Pence, H., 2011). While there are many advantages of using such tools, the traditional paper and pencil method should not necessarily be dismissed. For instance, when polled my students preferred assessments on paper over the computer. Even when providing students with the rationale behind computer assessments such as Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and vocational tests now being administered online, they still did not prefer this method and stated they needed to annotate the questions and wanted to interact directly with the text on paper. Additionally, students in my class preferred Lewis dot diagrams and drawing structural formulas in organic chemistry by hand over their technology counterparts. For programs that had the application or functionality to create molecules, often it was more cumbersome than drawing by hand and more time was spent learning how to use the program than the chemistry content itself. When considering this from a TPACK lens, the technology did not enhance student learning and thus the lesson needs revision.

In summary, when trying to incorporate technology into lessons, teachers should consider the content at hand, the pedagogical method that best suits teaching the content and the technology that would aide or be the mechanism of instruction for a particular group learners. As educators, we continue to strive to improve our instruction. It’s beneficial to reflect and think about why a teacher is using a particular piece of technology and ask if it is serving the function the teacher believes it to be. There are many pedagogical techniques available that do not necessarily require technology such as Modeling instruction™, POGIL®, and improvisation to name a few that for which I have been unable to find a technological counterpart that I feel is equally effective for my teaching environment. While the demands for technological applications for certain pedagogical techniques have been met by means such as  zoom meetings with breakout rooms to teach concepts via a POGIL® activity, I would argue that certain populations of students learn better from the face to face interaction. Thus, there is not one singular approach that works but rather a variety of approaches that can be appropriate depending on what the content goal is for a particular group of students and the context.

 

References:

Glaser. R. (1984). Education and thinking: The role of knowledge.  American Psychology, 39(2), 93-104.

Graham, R. C., Burgoyne, N., Cantrell, P., Smith, L., St Clair, L., &  Harris, R. (2009).

Measuring the TPACK confidence of inservice science teachers.    TechTrends, 53(5), 70-79.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2007). Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK): Confronting the wicked problems of teaching with technology. In C. Crawford et   al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2007 (pp.  2214-2226). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for integrating technology in teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.                         

National Research Council. (2000) How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.      

Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.

Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1-22.

Williams, A. J., & Pence, H. E. (2011). Smart phones, a powerful tool in the chemistry classroom. Journal of Chemical Education, 88(6),  683-686.        

 

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We Win Success by Failing.

I’m bored with talking about success. By any metric, I’ve had the good fortune to enjoy a lot of success in my career as an educator. But I also fail a lot. And I know that I’m not alone. Failure is a significant part of educating kids. I don’t mean kids failing (hopefully that’s pretty diminished), I mean teachers failing to do the things they try to do. Things not working as planned. Mistakes being made. This kind of failure is more than just a thing that happens sometimes, it’s a significant part of the job. And it’s totally normal and expected.

So why do we hide it?

If you look at any public collection of educators, you’ll quickly see that discussion of success is much more common than conversations about failure. Any look at the #eduTwitter-scape or any of the Facebook groups for teachers is basically a wall-to-wall display of success. Kids doing amazing work. Teachers trying new things, and being delighted with the results. Everything working out exactly as planned (or even better than that). Which is lovely, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not particularly reflective of the reality of teaching. Teaching is hard creative work, and like all hard creative work, people fail a lot.

The issue is even more glaring in science education, where teachers teach a field of endeavor that proceeds by failing. The central role of falsification in the scientific process is so essential that only presenting success not only warps perceptions of reality; it can distort our very understanding of it. And yet, we still pretend like things succeed in our classes more than they fail.

It’s easy to understand why this is the case. Generally speaking, people want to be perceived at their best, and for most people, their “best” is not when things they are trying to do aren’t working. It takes a degree of confidence to be willing to show one’s posterior on a regular basis. But in my experience, giving failure a public perch leads to a level of improvement in practice and product that is just not possible if all you talk about is success. Learning is nothing if not all about correction.

Assuming you agree with the above, the question becomes how to build a place for failure in your public life. I won’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I do have a few ideas that have worked well for me:

  1. Keep everything in Beta. Beta testing refers to the practice in technology development wherein a working, imperfect, version of a product is turned over to a large group of people to use. This everyday usage then provides the developers with a list of imperfections that would otherwise remain undiscovered if the developers were the only ones doing the product-testing. This philosophy is easily applied to education. The work that teachers do and the materials they create should live in a state of constant beta testing. By taking the default stance that work is imperfect, there is less discomfort when the imperfections in that work are discovered. Of course, this type of thinking is only helped by a willingness to make your work available to a vast professional learning network under pretty open terms of usage. Fortunately, in the modern era of easy-to-build webspace and free to distribute licensing, it’s trivial to set up a system wherein you can be a perennial beta tester. All it requires is a willingness to do it.

  2. Keep a Resume of Failures. I first discovered the concept of the resume of failures when I read this article. The example resumes that it included lead me to put up my own. I think more people should do this, and I hope that doing so on my end leads some of the tens of thousands of people who interact with myself and my digital footprint every year to realize that failing is a large part of why I’ve had the career that I’ve had. Who I am as an educator, and what I do is arguably much more a result of the failures that I’ve had in my career than it is of my successes1.

  3. Reflect on failures (and successes). I am a huge fan of reflective practice. My reflection tends to happen in public spaces. I find a lot of value in thinking aloud if for no other reason than that it invites correctives from a maximal number of wise minds. But even if a public airing of your reflective practice isn’t something that appeals to you, the act of reflecting itself is invaluable for learning from your experiences. There are a variety of tools that you can use to help you reflect, ranging from a notebook, a simple .txt file, or something a little more formal like 750Words or a blog. However you do it, the trick is to make sure that you actually stick to a routine of regularly engaging in reflection on the work that you are doing with the understanding that the purpose of that reflection is not to whinge about imperfection, but instead to think about how to improve.

These are three relatively easy ways to build a space for considering failure into your professional life. As always, it might be too much to try to do all three of the above at the same time. But the point isn’t to do everything that’s suggested (or even anything that’s suggested). Instead, it’s to work to make a space in your working life for acknowledging that however good we are as educators, however fortunate we have been in our work, we still fail a lot.

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The Times They Are A-changing…

“Come gather around people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
And if your breath to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changing”

– Bob Dylan

While the lyrics above may sound a bit ominous, they are also something to consider! It is an exciting time in New York State for science education…but it can also be an overwhelming time! When I started teaching high school science in 1985, communication was much more limited than now. The internet was not readily available, cell phones and text messaging had not yet been developed. For new teachers, developing lessons could be an overwhelming and isolating task. I was fortunate to start my career with a colleague that was more than willing to collaborate and was able to work with her to plan new lessons and work out the “kinks” as I began my teaching career.

As we begin the transition to NYSSLS and three-dimensional teaching and learning, the shifts in our classroom can be difficult to navigate alone. While some districts are actively working to begin the shifts, others are moving forward more slowly. If you are fortunate enough to work closely with a collegial department, you may have the support needed to begin to convert your lessons. For those of us that are the only discipline-specific teacher or work in a less than perfect department, there is a need to find resources and effective means of networking. The internet is a wealth of resources and information, but there is nothing like collaboration with another teacher to ease the burden of lesson-planning and gain professional expertise!

NOW is the perfect time to consider joining STANYS and encouraging your colleagues to join as well! STANYS has been at the forefront of providing professional development opportunities directly related to incorporating the new standards into classroom practice. The annual conference in November is only one of many opportunities. The Suffolk section has also provided local conferences for the past several years and is actively seeking ideas for providing the best possible support and professional development for its members. Membership has its benefits including:

the opportunity to network with science teachers across the state
reduced cost of attendance at conferences a chance to have your voice heard in science education concerns in NYS publications that will increase your awareness of issues concerning science educators reduced joint cost of membership in NSTA

We are looking for your input and feedback! Involvement at the local level of STANYS is an ideal way to learn more about NYSSLS and to increase your professional network of enthusiastic teachers. In this time of change, STANYS can be the support that you are looking for. If you are already a member, try to commit to attending a meeting or a conference to learn more about what we do. Approach your district for funds to attend the state conference. Encourage your colleagues, especially elementary teachers, to consider joining! If you are not a member, follow the link below to join! (Membership in the state level includes membership in the section level.)

Join STANYS Today!