project 52: week 30

What is Project 52? It's a little like Project 365, but instead of the goal of posting a photo each day, I'll post a photo or two each week along with a short update. Really I just need a little push to post something every week. Since I like to keep this space positive, posting every week forces me to look back and find something shiny to talk about (ten points if you get that reference). Some weeks that's a piece of cake. Other weeks it's more of a challenge, and those weeks give this task true meaning.

What's New?
:: took my 6th graders to the Chihuly glass museum
:: passed my ProCert resubmission
:: checked out pretty much every middle-school appropriate genetics book from the library
:: taught evolution with no push-back
:: woke up to the sound of bird-song (welcome, Spring!)

Currently Reading
I decided to peruse the free classics books on my Kindle, and for reasons unknown, started reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson for the first time. I'm not sure what I expected exactly, but this book isn't exactly Pirates of the Caribbean. At least not so far.

On the Needles
Not much has happened in knitting-land lately.

Looking Forward To

1. one more week of school, and then Spring Break!

project 52: week 27

What is Project 52? It's a little like Project 365, but instead of the goal of posting a photo each day, I'll post a photo or two each week along with a short update. Really I just need a little push to post something every week. Since I like to keep this space positive, posting every week forces me to look back and find something shiny to talk about (ten points if you get that reference). Some weeks that's a piece of cake. Other weeks it's more of a challenge, and those weeks give this task true meaning.

So, this happened the other day. I have not been taking pictures at all lately. Gotta fix that.

What's New?
I've been working on my school blog lately. It's nowhere near finished, but I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor, and I think it'll be really great for the next school year. I've been working on making separate pages for each unit with helpful links and resources. I'll also have a calendar page where I can update assignments and due dates. I can easily update it daily (ha! maybe twice weekly - let's be real) with what's happening in the classroom. I've tried to use the district-provided online space, but it's just not intuitive for me, and many parents have expressed similar feelings. I have a good feel for blogger and think that it'll be the best solution for me.

Currently Reading
Last night I finished The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence and cried. Such a sad story! But very well-written and definitely worth the read.

On the Needles
My geology shawl is coming along nicely. I'm on the 4th section, which is very geometric and therefor easy to knit while doing other things, like watching tv. The 3rd section was lace, and I'm not great and memorizing or reading lace patterns. I think I'll be able to finish it in a week or two.

Looking Forward To

1. visiting Portland

project 52: week 18

What is Project 52? It's a little like Project 365, but instead of the goal of posting a photo each day, I'll post a photo or two each week along with a short update. Really I just need a little push to post something every week. Since I like to keep this space positive, posting every week forces me to look back and find something shiny to talk about (ten points if you get that reference). Some weeks that's a piece of cake. Other weeks it's more of a challenge, and those weeks give this task true meaning.

One of these books is not like the other...

Books gathered from three libraries and a handful of teachers.

What's New?
I survived the first week back from winter break, and what a full week it was!

Monday started with the laptops not working. Tuesday was a fabulous science literacy workshop. Wednesday felt like Monday again, due to being out on Tuesday. Thursday morning included a meeting, along with a frantic rush to pull together a completely new lesson inspired by the Tuesday workshop. And Friday started with a morning meeting as well. On top of all of that, I attempted to grade all 150 notebooks this week. In reality I only got through 3 out of 5 classes, which isn't bad. I also rushed around to two public libraries, along with consulting our school librarian and a few teachers in the building to pull together a respectable book collection for our astronomy preview. It was a full week.

Currently Reading

• Lasher by Anne Rice
• On Bicycles by Amy Walker

On the Needles
I did indeed frog my pedestrian cowl and made the Purl Bee's bandana cowl instead. I think it's a better pattern for this particular yarn. I have some leftover yarn and I'm tempted to make another one, but this time I'd like to widen the base and do all the decreases at the top (I was worried it wouldn't fit over my head - I needn't have worried).

Looking Forward To

1. spending time with Joe

project 52: week 6

What is Project 52? It's a little like Project 365, but instead of the goal of posting a photo each day, I'll post a photo or two each week along with a short update. Really I just need a little push to post something every week. Since I like to keep this space positive, posting every week forces me to look back and find something shiny to talk about (ten points if you get that reference). Some weeks that's a piece of cake. Other weeks it's more of a challenge, and those weeks give this task true meaning.

On the shore of Lake Crescent near Port Angeles.

The stretch of the Elwha just across the road from our campsite.

This used to be a lake.

That tree was cut down over 100 years ago before the dam was built.

At the mouth of the Elwha looking out towards the western tip of Washington State.

What's New?
I made it back from my week-long excursion into the Olympic Peninsula with my 8th grade students in one piece! It rained, but not too much. There were some bumps in the plan, but not too many. My students had the opportunity to study the Elwha river up close, including areas that were previously under water due to the dams. They visited an area that used to be a lake, and followed the river to the mouth at the Strait of Juan de Fuca. They also experienced tent camping, pit toilets, and (for some) using the "facilitrees." The whole trip was definitely a life-learning event.

Currently Reading

• The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk

• Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

On the Needles
I've put my Wood Hollow vest on hold, at least until I have the energy to take out a few rows. I missed a cable and didn't realize for awhile. Sometimes when I make a mistake I let it go, but often it bugs me enough that I have to go back and fix it. This is definitely the latter.

So instead, I picked up my Hue Shift Afghan that I started back in November of last year. It consists of four panels that later get seamed together and then a boarder is knit around the whole thing. I have one panel complete, and I'm 80% done with the second panel. It's a good TV knit, but not a good bus knit (too big of a project).

Looking Forward To

1. getting back into my routine

project 52: week 1

What is Project 52? It's a little like Project 365, but instead of the goal of posting a photo each day, I'll post a photo or two each week along with a short update. Really I just need a little push to post something every week. Since I like to keep this space positive, posting every week forces me to look back and find something shiny to talk about (ten points if you get that reference). Some weeks that's a piece of cake. Other weeks it's more of a challenge, and those weeks give this task true meaning.

This crate has helped me stay organized so far. Each class has its own clipboard for seating charts, its own notebook, and a place for collected papers. I think this system is going to be one that I'll repeat every year.

 

While waiting for my second bus in the downtown tunnel, I spied this Link light rail train sporting an add for my college!

What's New?
I've just completed my first full week of the school year. So far I've ridden the bus 6 out of 8 days. My goal is to ride the bus as many days as possible. Partly for the environment, and partly for my afternoon sanity. While the morning commute is much faster by car, the evening commute is slow and aggravating. I've been able to listen to music, knit, and read blog posts on my phone. Next week I'll remember to bring my e-reader so I can finish a book. Last fall I read so many books thanks to the bus.

Currently Reading

• The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge
• Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown
• The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans and Heretics by Elaine Pagels

On the Needles
I've restarted my Wood Hollow Vest so that I could knit it in the round. I also wanted to fix the honeycomb cable part (I was using a short-cut to avoid the cable needle, but it didn't look great). It's always sad to rip out a project (I was 6" into the front piece when I decided to start over), but fixing mistakes and starting fresh is always worth it in my opinion.

Looking Forward To

1. going to the fair
2. celebrating Kristi's birthday
3. hugging Valerie

setting up my new classroom (again)

At my first school I was in the same room for 6 years. When I moved in it wasn't my room - I shared it with another teacher (I also shared another room with two different teachers) since I was split between science and math. So I didn't get to start from scratch. The second year it really was my room, but I was too busy to do much in the way of purging and organizing. After 6 years in that room, circumstances dictated that I move into another room in the building. I LOVED my new room, and I relished the opportunity to start fresh. I spent much time that summer organizing my new classroom. It was perfect. By the end of the year, though, I found myself applying for a job at school #2. During the summer I went back to school, packed up all my things and drove them up to my new school with the help of three amazing friends.

So, you can imagine my dismay when I learned that school #2 would be relocating at the end of the year to a temporary building, and then relocating permanently two years later. This means that I will have moved my classroom three years in a row!

I started packing up my room in March. It was hard to find things that I new for sure that I wouldn't need until next autumn. Luckily the district provided boxes, packing tape, box labels, and a wonderful moving coordinator. She suggested that we make an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of what is in each box (as well as labeling the boxes with numbers), and I am so glad that I took her advice. My TA's helped me pack and offered suggestions - I am always learning from my students!

This time I get to truly start from a blank slate. Our temporary building has been empty for some time, and was remodeled in order to be up to code for our two-year stay. I'm planning on taking advantage of this opportunity to start fresh with more intentional use of my new space.

Unpacking is challenging, to say the least. I arrived in my new room to find my boxes piled willy-nilly in the center of the room. Tables I requested from the old building were propped up on their ends. Boxes appeared to be missing. It was overwhelming.

After staring hopelessly at my things I finally convinced myself to start. But where to start? I decided to put my easel back together. It's the least important thing to do, but also the most obvious place to start since I knew where all of the pieces were and putting it together would allow me to move it out of the way more easily thanks to its wheels.

Student chairs were delivered while I was there, but so far no student desks yet. It makes my room look HUGE, but I know that as soon as those desks arrive it'll be a tight squeeze. My new room is long and narrow (like my old room was) but it's narrower by 2-3 feet.

I expect it'll take quite a bit more work to get my room student-ready. I'm planning on tackling it in small chunks so I don't get overwhelmed. Yesterday, my first unpacking day, I only spent three hours before going home. It wasn't very much time, but I feel pretty accomplished. Along with emptying 5 or 6 boxes, I moved furniture around and figured out how to open those huge, old windows.

the DIG Field School

I cross the Cascades and the Columbia.

Made a stop at Dry Falls.

And the Grand Coulee Dam.

Eventually I entered Tatooine (or Eastern Montana, close enough).

We camped next to Hell Creek and woke up before sunrise every day.

By 7am we had eaten breakfast, packed our bags with tons of water, and headed out to the field in SUV caravans.

Sometimes we couldn't get the SUVs very close to our site. This picture, and the following picture, are taking from roughly the same spot, just facing opposite directions, to show you how far we hiked from where the ferry SUVs were parked (many of the SUVs did not have enough clearance to go all the way out - the roads were very challenging).

This is what the hadrosaur site looked like when we arrived. While we were there we helped jacket three large bones so that they could be removed from the site.

A close-up of some of the hadrosaur bones.

I touched dinosaur bones!

This is what the site looked like after a few bones had been jacketed in plaster.

We visited a site called Nirvana where we saw, and touched, the K-Pg boundary (that's the layer that documents the asteroid impact, and the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs).

I saw many interesting rock formations.

I learned how to surface collect for micro fossils (croc scute, gar scales, bone fragments, turtle shells, etc) 

Someone in my group found a rib bone, which was jacketed in plaster for removal.

We brought back bags of in situ sediment, which were put into screen boxes and set up in the creek.

After soaking all night the screen boxes were brought out to dry in the sun.

And of course there were dino toys at dino camp.

On the way home I saw the wildfires.

All in all, I drove 941 miles each way. It was a long drive, but completely worth it.

One of the coolest things for me about this trip is that every piece of data we collected (sketches of sites, micro fossils, in situ sediments, measurements to determine how far above or below the K-Pg boundary, etc), every piece of data was useful for the DIG team. I helped collect real data that will be used by Greg Wilson and his team back at the UW and the Burke Museum in their research. How cool is that? As a middle school science teacher I don't get that opportunity very often. Most summer teacher programs focus on content and lessons, which are extremely useful, but this program focused first on doing real field work and secondly on lessons. I found it exhilarating. 

I also want to say that it was a pleasure to work with each and every one of the DIG team members. The team members ranged from PhDs, PhD candidates, graduate students, recent grads and undergrads. And everyone had something to bring to the table. And everyone was treated with respect and affection by Greg and co-director Lauren. That's the kind of team everyone strives to be a part of, and it was a treat to spend 4 days with them.

Google Drive

I've had a spurt of learning recently in the realm of technology. My colleague and I, with the expert guidance of our very tech-savvy librarian, recently taught our students how to use Google Drive to save files. They are beginning to work on their science fair projects, and we reasoned that the Google Drive account would result in fewer tears over lost USB drives.

While poking around my own personal Google Drive account (which I had previously never used), it occurred to me that the "Form" option could result in an online test. My 8th graders learned some biology in 6th grade when I wasn't their teacher. In 7th grade we don't teach biology at all, but in 8th grade we do. I know what their 6th grade teacher taught them, but I wanted to see how much they remembered.

With that purpose in mind, I started to design a simple cells pre-assessment. I checked out the school's iPAD cart in order to have all my students take the pre-assessment. I explained to my students that this pre-assessment has two goals: it will show me what they remember from 6th grade, and it'll help me learn how to use the Google Form feature for the future. I'll walk you through the steps I used to create a self-grading pre-assessment using a Google Form so you can try this yourself.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Google Drive allows you to create a variety of files: Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Form and Drawing are the default options. To use Form, click Create, and then choose Form. You'll notice in this picture that I have already made a copy of my original Cells Pre-Assessment and I've begun to modify it to make it better. 

You'll also notice in the picture above that there is a Cells Pre-Assessment Form document, and a Cells Pre-Assessment (Responses) spreadsheet. When you create a new form, there is the option of choosing a "response destination" which is how you make the spreadsheet that collects the responses. Since the name of this new form I made is "Cells Pre-Assessment" the default name of the spreadsheet is "Cells Pre-Assessment (Responses)." I recommend naming your form before choosing a response destination so that they match.

Below you'll see a screen-shot of part of the pre-assessment, as seen in my Google Drive account.

(I added my name and my school's name to the form directly below the title, so that my students would know they were at the correct web-page, but I blurred it for privacy)

This next picture is how it looks to the students when they are taking the test online. I used one of the themes that Google Docs offers.

This next picture shows the Spreadsheet (Google's version of Excel) that collects the results automatically. You'll notice that the cells are rather text heavy, since they display the entire answer that was selected. The tech-savvy math teacher across the hall and I have been brainstorming a way to make it just show A, B, C, D (for a multiple choice question), so that the data is easier to look at in the form. More on that once I figure it out. For now, I can see all of my students' answers, along with their names and class period (since I made the first two questions "name" and "class period"). As a side note, I used the option for each question to make it required, so that I wouldn't have to deal with "Johnny forgot to answer question #6, so I don't have data for that answer".

The next hurdle was how to input a formula that would show me how many of my students chose the correct answer for each question. Since this is a pre-assessment, I wanted to see at a glance if there was anything I didn't need to spend time teaching, or if there were other things that needed more review. 

Notice in the picture below that for the question "what makes plant cells different than animal cells?" there is the number 33 in the cell above. I tested 46 students, and 33 students selected the correct answer. The formula for that is visible in the picture below. That formula is: 

=COUNTIF(D4:D50,"plant cells have a cell wall & chloroplasts, animal cells don't")

What that means is that I'm telling the program to count how many cells between D4 through D50 contain the answer "plant cells have a cell wall & chloroplasts, animal cells don't." When I figure out how to have the form display just A, B, C, or D, I can change the formula to be:

=COUNTIF(D4:D50,"A")

The next picture shows how I used another formula to find out how each student did overall. The first entry is from "Perfect Student" and is my own answer key. Since I was the first person to take this assessment, those answers are shown first (the Timestamp field helps to display the answers in chronological order). The formula compares each students' answers to the "Perfect Student" row. The formula is: 

=IF(D4=$D$3,1,0)+IF(E4=$E$3,1,0)+IF(F4=$F$3,1,0)+IF(G4=$G$3,1,0)+IF(I4=$I$3,1,0)+IF(J4=$J$3,1,0)+IF(K4=$K$3,1,0)+IF(L4=$L$3,1,0))

The formula literally says, if the contents of D4 match D3, give the student 1 point. If the contents don't match, give the student 0 points (and so on for column E, F, G, etc). The $ signs ensure that if the Perfect Student's row changes for some reason (as it did when I inserted a row above to count for each question separately), the document knows that and will adjust accordingly. You can change the point amounts as you see fit.

And lastly, since I was going to need to have each student type in the URL for the pre-assessment, I decided to use TinyURL to make a much shorter URL. That way not only would access be quicker, but there would be fewer problems with students typing in the URL wrong and getting frustrated.

---

So there you have it. There are many disadvantages to this approach. I need the iPAD cart, or a free computer lab if I want to give another online assessment. In order for the automatic scoring to work, the questions need to be multiple-choice. However, there are many advantages as well. I am a terribly slow grader, and as a result it takes me much too long to return an assessment. I see this technology being useful for daily (or weekly) exit tickets. I wonder if I could utilize students' personal cell phones and/or tablets so that I wouldn't encounter the barrier of waiting for the iPAD cart or the computer lab to be free.

If these instructions are helpful, and you end up using Google Form to create an online assessment, please let me know. I'd love to learn from you.

changing leaves

artful leaf arrangement by one of my students

What's New?
Autumn is the season when the Earth slows down, bundles up, and gets ready for a long winter nap. Autumn is also the beginning of school. As a teacher, that means autumn is the time when my work ramps up into high gear and I find myself whizzing through September so fast that I barely realize it's gone until the second week of October. I find this dichotomy fascinating, yet also a bit sad. While my spirit wants to spend lazy evenings tucked in bed under a warm blanket with a good book, my brain tells me I need to work at a frenzied pace.

carrots from my garden

I know this is mainly due to the added stress and work involved in changing schools and districts, but I feel especially sad about this autumn. I missed the fair this year. I fear I missed apple picking as well. If I'm not careful, I'll miss the pumpkin patch. I haven't put up any of my autumn decorations. I'm not Martha Stewart, by far, but I do have a few seasonal decorations that make me happy.

the trees near my home

I do have some bright spots ahead, though, and I try to focus on those. Joe has asked me to knit him some fingerless gloves (something I've been wanting to do for some time now), and we bought yarn for them on his birthday. I'm joining a friend later this month for a Meetup knitting group at a neighborhood coffee shop. And last, but not least, riding the bus (along with walking to and from bus stops) has afforded me much time to gaze and wonder at the beautiful changing leaves.

my 6th graders collecting depth data

I took my 6th graders to the creek across the street to gather data for their first field study. It was a bit exhausting marching them over and back again (and then doing it again for the other two 6th grade classes), but I think we all had fun.

Currently Reading

• The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan - I finished this book this week, and I enjoyed it so much that I've put the 3rd book in the trilogy on my library queue. 
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater - book #2 in the Raven Boys series.

On the Needles
I've picked up my striped Idlewood sweater after many months of neglect. The only thing it needs is sleeves (and one of them was almost finished already), so really there's no excuse not to finish it. After it is done I'll start up again on my Leaflet sweater (which is also almost finished) so that I can start Joe's gloves.

Looking Forward To

1. a beautiful week coming up

foggy

What's New?

This week has been a doozy! We've had a block schedule to accommodate standardized testing, which means that we have our classes for twice the amount of time, but see them every other day. This also means that we only have our prep period every other day. On top of that, Wednesday night was parent night, the book sale fundraiser was going on, we had two unplanned fire drills, and Friday was spirit day complete with an assembly schedule. I got three new-to-the-building students this week, and several others with schedule changes. Work has been tough this week, to say the least. I chose the pictures for this post for two reasons: I've spent much more time than usual at my school this week, and the fog from the top of the hill this morning looked a bit like how my head felt after juggling way too many schedule changes.

Currently Reading

• The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill - Finished this book yesterday. Science, feminism, history, and a beautiful sense of place. I enjoyed this read.
• The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan - this sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth is very good so far.

On the Needles

I finished my new fingerless gloves, and I love them. Now I just need to take a decent picture of them so that I can update my Ravelry project page. I've quite a bit of that yarn left over - what to use it for?

Looking Forward To:

1. a quiet weekend to recharge

noticing the view

What's New?
I survived the second week of school (the first full week). Every day except for this Monday I rode the bus (Monday I had an errand to run after work). There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to riding the bus. The pictures above are one of the advantages. That's the bus stop where I catch the first of two buses home.

Riding the bus has allowed me to notice things that I normally would not see. In the morning I get to stare out the window at Elliott Bay, Mt Rainier, the Duwamish River, and downtown Seattle as I ride my first bus. On my second bus I get to notice the wide variety of shops and storefronts in the U-District, and the HUGE P-Patch garden off of Ravenna. Once I get off my second bus I have a short 3-block walk down the hill where I get to hear the birds sing their morning songs.

Anyone who has ridden a city bus can imagine the disadvantages. I'm sure they are pretty universal: unreliable timetables, obnoxious passengers, and long ride-times. Everything has it's less-desirable facets. Even driving my car does. But I prefer to focus on the positive, and enjoy the aspects that I can.

Currently Reading

• Looking for Alaska by John Green - riding the bus helped me whiz through this touching novel
• Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton - this is my Kindle read, and so far it's entertaining

On the Needles
This week has been around 80* outside, and almost 90* inside my classroom (one downside to a huge wall of south-facing windows and poor air circulation), so I haven't touched my needles all week.

Looking Forward To:

1. seeing the new Riddick movie with friends