My Home Office

When I’m not at school, I spend a fair amount of time in my home office. That’s where I do most of my lesson plans for school, write many of my tests and quizzes, and design the lessons I present in class.

I thought I’d take everyone on a brief tour of my home office. 

On the desk, my two computers. You’ve seen my iMac at school. Sometimes it’s just easier to lug it into school, then to try to do what I need to do on the school computers. To the right, not in the picture, are two VHS VCRs, a Betamax tape player and my printer.  I use these in my video business.

To the left, not shown as well, is a table where I try to keep all the paperwork in my life organized. 

On the wall are things that are representative of what I find important. In the upper left is the signed picture from astronaut Chris Cassidy, a Jason Mraz poster that was given to me by my oldest son, and a signed Aztec Two-Step poster that was given to me by my youngest son. 

On the right side is my college diploma and below that, a poster from The Wasp Woman - a really bad science fiction movie. Hanging over that poster is my old badge from Apple.

On the shelf above my iMac are business cards from many of the jobs I’ve held over the past 20 years and an assortment of knick knacks including a rubber brain, two miniature billboards from my days selling radio, a collection of books about video editing software and the complete issues of The National Geographic up to 2007.

Behind my desk is a huge print of a shipwreck - see below.

That’s my home office. 

That’s were I put my lessons together. 

That’s where i am when I figure out how to best stump my students with a ridiculous bonus question on a math test.

Not Yet

I learned something interesting in my graduate class the other night and I think I might adopt it next year.

When a student fails a test or quiz, instead of scoring the work with a numerical or letter grade - ie 56% or F, the idea is to simply write “not yet.”

In other words, to tell the student that they have not mastered the topic - yet. It’s a more positive way of responding to a failing score. It implies that it’s only a matter of time and work before the student understands the material.

The big, red “F” is thought to be so final and depressing that students end up feeling that they’re incapable of understanding the material. 

The theory is that by using “not yet” it encourages students to keep working towards understanding. I usually write “see me” and maybe the students perceive that as a punishment or something, I don’t know.

Using “not yet” makes sense to me. Of course, I’m going to do it in red pen, so I might be damaging their self-esteem anyway.

Have I Harmed My Students’ Psyche?

A school in England has told its teachers to stop using red pens to correct papers and tests. The school’s vice principal told reporters that red is a “very negative color.”

Instead, they are to use green pens, and to make sure they make two or three positive comments on all homework papers. The students can respond to those comments and are instructed to use a purple pen to do so. 

Really?

Seriously?

Is this the silliest thing you’ve ever heard?

I’ve been using a red pen to correct homework, quizzes, tests and projects all year. Have I harmed my students’ psyche?

I use red because it stands out on the papers. I have students who use black, blue, purple and green ink, plus pencil for their work. Red stands out so they can see my comments and corrections.

I can just see it now: in 25 years, after all teachers have been using green ink to correct students’ work, green will be perceived as a “negative color,” and we’ll have to go back to a nice, neutral color like...red.

Failure is the First Step

“Trying is the first step towards failure.” 

– Homer Simpson

It’s a funny line, so typical of Homer’s ridiculously cynical world view. But, it’s an attitude that pops up in the classroom. Sometimes kids don’t want to try something new because they’re afraid they won’t understand it or they’ll fail the test on the new topic.

If you think about it, it kinda makes sense but it is a completely limiting mind set. It’s as if the student is saying:

“I know this stuff really well and everyone thinks I’m really smart, so I’ll just keep doing this stuff. If I try something new, I might not ‘get it,’ and then everyone will know that I’m not as smart as they thought I was.”

I know it sounds a little convoluted, but if you think of it from that student's perspective, you can at least understand where he/she is coming from.

But whether conscious or unconscious, this way of thinking is the antithesis of education. Nobody understands everything all the time. 

Failure is a central part of learning and everyone should feel comfortable with initial failure. It’s how you identify what you need to work on.

When I was studying for my MTEL exams to become a teacher, the first thing I did was to do a sample test. Then, when I scored it, I could identify the areas I needed to review and study. If I’d been all embarrassed about doing poorly on parts of it, I’d have never learned what I needed to learn.

I think Homer has it exactly wrong. He should be saying:

“Failure is the first step towards success.”

We Thought We Had All the Time in the World

Section 60 is not about a troop surge or a war spending bill or whether we should be fighting these wars at all. It is about ordinary people trying to get through something so hard that most of us can’t ever imagine it. Everyone I met that afternoon had a gut-wrenching story to tell.

Mary McHugh is one of those people. She sat in front of the grave of her fiance James “Jimmy” Regan, talking to the stone. She spoke in broken sentences between sobs, gesturing with her hands, sometimes pausing as if she was trying to explain, with so much left needed to say.

Later on, after she spoke with a fellow mourner from a neighboring grave, I went over and introduced myself and told her I was photographing for Getty Images and had brought my family on our own pilgrimage to the site. I told her we had been living in Pakistan for the last few years, how we had come back to the States for a few months for the birth of our second child.

Mary told me about her slain fiance Jimmy Regan. Clearly, she had not only loved him but truly admired him. When he graduated from Duke, he decided to enlist in the Army to serve his country. He chose not to be an officer, though he could have been, because he didn’t want to risk a desk job. Instead, he became an Army Ranger and was sent twice to Aghanistan and Iraq – an incredible four deployments in just three years. He was killed in Iraq this February by a roadside bomb.

I told her how I had spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan, photographing American troops in combat. I told her that earlier this year I was a month in Ramadi and then a few more weeks in a tough spot called Helmand. I told her how I am going back to Iraq sometime this summer and that I was very sorry to see her this Memorial Day in the national cemetery, visiting a grave.

Mary said that they had planned to get married after Jimmy’s four years of service were up next year. “We loved each other so much,” she said. “We thought we had all of the time in the world.”

This is a portion of photographer John Moore's 2007 blog post about his iconic image. It's worthwhile to read the whole thing. 

Please remember all the Jimmy Regans and Mary McHughs this Memorial Day.

Bare Walls

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk correcting papers. I looked up and was struck by how much stuff we have hanging on the walls and displayed around the room.

I thought back to the first day of school where there were just four posters on the wall - the lab safety poster, the periodic table, word problem keywords and the Hellenic mission statement.

Now, I see a room filled with student work. I see Pi stretching across three walls, student presentations about constellations and elements. I see rockets, hand-made globes, a fake clock (smashed, of course), a huge poster about Bernoulli's Principle and  so much more.

It's amazing to think back to the bare walls. 

In just a few short weeks, we'll be wrapping up the year and will be back to those bare walls, ready for another exciting year of math and science at the Hellenic.

Macbeth Project Downloads

Here are the links to download the three parts of the Macbeth Project:


Macbeth Trailer

Macbeth

The Blooper Reel

If you want a higher resolution copy, I'll make DVD of the project. If you do want an actual DVD of the project, please let me know and I’ll be happy to make one for you. I do, however, need to charge $3 for the DVD to cover my out-of-pocket costs.

The Macbeth Project

Yesterday we held our screening of the Macbeth Project. 

After reading Macbeth in Mrs. Minaker’s class, the students ventured to Lowell Telecommunications Corporation studios to film their own version of the Shakespearian drama.

Mrs. Minaker wrote an updated, shortened and simplified script. The students of the 4th through 8th grades chose their parts and began to learn their lines, then they added their own unique twist to the story.

Let me tell you, Monty Python’s got nothing on this crew. 

It was a fun and interesting experience. The student’s learned what it feels like to memorize lines, work together and act out a part in front of the unblinking eye of the camera. They learned what it takes to stage a production, what goes on behind the scenes and the technical wizardry of a modern television production facility.

Something tells me, none of these kids will forget the experience.

We shot more almost four hours of footage and boiled it down to three movies: The Macbeth Trailer, the feature presentation, and a blooper reel. 

Tomorrow I will post links to download each movie.  If you want a higher resolution copy, I'll make DVD of the project.

(If you do want an actual DVD of the project, please let me know and I’ll be happy to make one for you. I do, however, need to charge $3 for the DVD to cover my out-of-pocket costs.)

Science Fair Success

Last Saturday we displayed our 19-step, chain reaction alarm-silencing Rube Goldberg machine at the Pheasant Lane Mall. 

The students set up and ran the machine scores of times and each and every time, something in the chain reaction went wrong. Not once did the machine work as advertised. Every time something, and usually something different, went wrong and the machine needed some sort of human interaction. 

And yet, it was a great success. 

The students had the opportunity to explain what they had learned to scores of people they did not know including students and teachers from other schools. They were supported by their parents and families who came and helped. 

Parents of other Hellenic students came to support their efforts too, and that’s one of the things that makes this school so wonderful.

So, while the machine failed, the students succeeded in every way.

Please Join the 7th & 8th Grades Tomorrow

As many of you know, I have organized a science fair at the Pheasant Lane Mall. A number of schools will be participating and exhibiting a wide variety of science projects.

The students of the Hellenic American Academy have created a Rube Goldberg machine for turning off a buzzing alarm clock. They’ve worked really hard to understand how electricity, magnetism and simple machines can work together to create a complex machine - and, believe me, this is a complex machine.

The Rube Goldberg machine is a nice project for this group. It pulls together a lot of what we’ve studied this year and incorporates a lot of engineering. 

Please join the Hellenic 7th and 8th grades at the Pheasant Lane Mall Science Fair this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We’ll be setting up outside Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Why Rube Goldberg Has Never Been More Relevant

You would think a cartoonist who did his best work in the 1930’s and 40‘s couldn’t possibly have anything to do with this technology-driven society in which we live.

But, he’s never been more relevant. 

Rube Goldberg (1883 - 1970) was best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways such as the self-operating napkin below:

The Next Generation Science Standards is a 26-state effort to create new education standards that are "rich in content and practice, arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students an internationally benchmarked science education." These are the standards science teachers will focus on in the coming years. 

What does this have to do the an old cartoonist and his crazy contraptions? 

Everything.

Building a Rube Goldberg machine is specifically cited in The Next Generation Science Standards as a way of teaching several science and engineering concepts. Rube's grandchildren operate a foundation that sponsors contests nationally.

The machine the 7th and 8th grades are working on does one simple thing: it turns off a buzzing alarm clock. It has about 15 steps in its chain-reaction of mouse traps, marbles, pulleys, magnets and pins. It’s ridiculously complicated. 

It’s also a fantastic science and engineering project. Listed at the bottom are the ways the project aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards. 

We’ve managed to tie in a lot of the work we did this year: potential and kinetic energy, magnetism, electrical circuits, and more. 

And, best of all, the students have worked really hard to make the whole thing work. We’ll be demonstrating it Saturday at the Pheasant Lane Mall.

Next Generation Science Standards:

Engineering Design (MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3)

• Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

• Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

• Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Energy (HS-PS3-3, MS-PS3-2, MS-PS3-5)

• Design, build, and refine a device that works within given constraints to convert one form of energy into another form of energy
• Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions (MS-PS2-5)

• Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact. 

Another Good Night to Go Outside and Look Up

Turn of your phone, iPad, computer or X-Box and go outside and look up tonight. 

There’s a full moon, but that’s not all. Look for the bright “star” to the Moon’s upper right - that’s Saturn. Saturn is noticeably yellow. You can’t see the rings without a good telescope, but you can picture them in your mind’s eye. Saturn is the most beautiful of the planets.

If you imagine a line running from the Moon straight through Saturn and continuing, it will come to a bright red “star.” That’s Mars. At this time, Mars is brilliantly red - it’s brighter than Saturn because of its relative position to Earth. It looks like a brilliant red ruby hanging in the sky.

Next, look toward the West. Low in the sky, you will spy a very bright “star.” This is Jupiter, the largest of all the planets. If you have binoculars, you can spot as many as four of Jupiter’s moons. These are the Galilean moons - name for their discoverer, Galileo Galilei.

Today in History

Georgios Nickolaou Papanicolaou was a Greek-American doctor who studied the structure, function and chemistry of cells.

Papanicolaou was born May 13, 1883 - 131 years ago today. He earned his medical degree from the University of Athens in 1904 and emigrated to the United States with his wife in 1913. 

After arriving in America, Papanicolaou became a medical assistant in New York and turned to research. He discovered that cancer of the cervix can be detected by smearing mucus secretions on a microscope slide, and examining the stained cells for abnormalities.  

He recognized it as a low-cost, easily performed screening test for the early detection of cancer. He announced his technique at a 1928 medical conference. It was initially received with skepticism, but its widespread use began in the early 1950s. 

Today, the Papanicolaou test, or “Pap test,” is a routine screening for cancer in women.

Einstein and Your Phone

Many cars have navigation screens built into the dashboard. Every smart phone has a GPS chip and a maps application.  

Ever think about what makes this whole GPS thing work?

It’s pretty amazing. 

First, there are 24 to 32 satellites in orbit around Earth. Each satellite carries an extremely precise atomic clock. The goal is for any GPS receiver to be able to “see” four satellites at one time - usually receivers can see nine satellites.

These satellites broadcast a lot of information but the parts we’re interested in are: “This is what time is it.” and “This is where I am.” The satellites broadcast this information all the time. 

There are millions of GPS receivers in cars, boats, planes, and phones. The receiver unit listens to four satellites and, by calculating the time delay of their signal and the satellite locations, figures out where the GPS receiver is located on the surface of Earth.

Your phone has access to digital maps. These are maps that are developed and maintained with math. They’re really giant math algorithms continually working to display the map on your screen. That work is called mathematically exact geovisualization.

And here’s the coolest part of the whole GPS system: Einstein’s theories of relativity. 

Because the satellites and their very precise clocks are traveling at 8,700 miles per hour, Einstein’s special theory of relativity tells us time, according to those clocks, is moving slower than time is passing here on Earth. So the clocks run 7 microseconds slow per day. 

But, just to complicate things further, because the satellites and their little precise clocks are 12,427 miles above Earth, Einstein’s special theory of relativity tells us that gravity bends time and space. As a result, the clocks run 45 microseconds fast per day.

The net difference is just 38 microseconds per day. It doesn’t sound like much, but if the GPS chips didn’t take Einstein's relativity into account, the system wouldn’t work at all.

And you thought Einstein’s general and special theories of relativity had nothing to do with your everyday life...

So, Wrong, Wrong Wrong

Finally, we’re into May. We’ve had some nice warm days. We’re all done with cold and snow until, probably, December. That’s what we thought in 1977 too, but we were oh so, wrong, wrong wrong.

In 1977, I was a senior in high school and on the morning of May 10th, I awoke to the most surprising sight - snow. 

We had our last snow day of the year. Unlike most snow days, having one in May is not really welcome. In May, you’re looking forward to nice warm weather. It was time to open up the town beaches, tennis courts and little league diamonds, not shovel.

And, like every family in the region, my family had already put away all the boots, gloves, heavy winter coats and, of course, the snow shovels. But, there it was - six-plus inches of snow and, in some places, people were dealing with a foot or more. 

That was 37 years ago tomorrow. Can you imagine?

The TerraNova Two-Step

This week we’re all doing the TerraNova two-step.

It’s standardized testing season at the Hellenic. This week, we’ll do hours and hours and hours of standardized testing. We’ll do reading, math, social studies, science, vocabulary, spelling, and more. 

Standardized tests break down into two types: norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests.

What’s the difference?

Norm-referenced tests compare test-takers to a representative sample of the test-taker’s peers. The scores rank students as being better or worse than other students. Scores are usually represented as percentile  - as in your score was higher than 93% of other students tested. Norm-referenced test score interpretations are associated with traditional education.

Criterion-referenced tests compare test-takers to a set of content standards. They do not compare the scores of students who took the test. They only measure content the test-taker has mastered.  These may also be described as standard-based assessments. This kind of test is aligned with the standards-based education reform movement.

Many middle-schoolers in Massachusetts are taking the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests, also known as the MCAS tests.

The TerraNovas are a norm-referenced test while the MCAS test is criterion-referenced.

In the past several years the role of standardized tests in the educational system have become a point of friction between teachers, administrators, and officials in the state and federal governments. 

For the students, they can be a point of high stress and/or a week of boring test sessions.

Just Eight More Days of School

The countdown has begun.

With the better part of the school year behind me, I can see the end, the light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s been quite a journey. I’ve learned a lot. It’s been fun and interesting and frustrating and exhausting and enlightening.

Just eight more days of school.

One more course, eight more weeks, 36 more hours of in-class instruction and I’m done for the year. 

July 1st is the last class in the first year of my master’s program. 

I’m counting down the days.

Ununseptium Joins the Periodic Table

The periodic table of the elements just got a new member, unnamed at this point, its existence has been confirmed. Element 117, temporarily named “ununseptium,” was first reported in 2010 by a team of American and Russian scientists. Its confirmation by another group of scientists paves the way for inclusion in the standard periodic table of the elements.

The new element has 117 protons in its nucleus. It’s the latest of the man-made, super-heavy elements. It’s not found naturally in nature and, even when created in the laboratory, exists for only a millisecond.

Uranium, number 92 on the periodic table, is the heaviest element occurring naturally. Everything above that, is man-made.

It’s a pretty cool thing when you think about it. Those 92 elements are the building blocks of every single thing in the world. Everything from yogurt to stainless steel to the fingernail on your index finger and everything else, are all made of different combinations of those elements.

And here’s the most interesting part: 98% of all matter in the universe is comprised of just two elements - hydrogen and helium.