I enjoyed exploring Google Classroom this week. I saw it being widely used by teachers at Link2Practice at Belmont and was intrigued to learn more about the platform. I set up my own mock classroom and created sample assignments and announcements. Overall, Google Classroom seems like an extremely useful tool for teachers to streamline their coursework, grading, and communication with students and their guardians. I think the ability to create differentiated learning opportunities by creating small groups of students or personalized assignments for individuals in a subtle way that doesn’t single anyone out in front of their peers is an excellent tool. I also appreciate having the ability to pre-upload and schedule assignments to become active in advance. I observed a teacher at Belmont use this strategy to keep his classes organized and well-prepared. My only worry for Google Classroom is becoming too reliant on the digital platform which might have a negative impact on students and guardians that aren’t very tech-literate or find tech in general to be inaccessible for financial reasons or otherwise.
I had never heard of Google Keep before this lesson and I had a lot of fun trying it out. I think out of all the content curation tools listed, Google Keep makes the most sense for me because I already use the Google suite for virtually all personal and professional tasks. It makes sense then to keep things consistent, and utilize the most compatible tool. I appreciate that multiple tabs can be created to categorize different types of resources or topics. The one flaw I might predict, knowing myself, is this risk of becoming too focussed on the building and curation of the collection, and neglecting to effectively use the resources I’ve gathered.
This webpage describes some interesting tips for getting the most out of Google Keep.
Upon initial inspection of the bike, it’s clear even to a complete amateur such as myself that both wheels need new tubes. My first course of action was to reach out to my cousin, Evan, an avid mountain biker who conveniently lives a block away from me. He said he’d be happy to help me put new tubes in. Excellent.
The next order of business was acquiring new tubes. I call up Oak Bay Bikes. “So I need two new tubes for my bike, what information do I need to bring to the shop to make sure I get the right ones?” I’m informed about a string of numbers that can be found on the edge of my tire that convey the wheel dimensions. Bringing these numbers to the bike shop, the proper tubes are bestowed upon me for $13.50 apiece.
I wheel my bike over to Evan’s along with my new tubes, tire pump, and some fresh baked biscotti as an expression of my gratitude. Evan did a great job of going step by step through the process of replacing the tubes.
Remove the bike wheels from the frame.
Pry the tire from the rim using a tire lever and remove the old tube.
Inspect the old tube and inside of the tire for sharp objects that may have caused the deflation.
Insert the tube valve into the rim and line up the new tube along the rim.
Work the tire over the rim and tube using one or two tire levers. This part takes the longest because you have to make sure the tube isn’t pinched or twisted and that the tire is completely flush against the rim.
Reattach the wheels to the frame.
Pump up the tires and you’re good to go!
Evan using a tire lever to fit the tire over the new tube
If you don’t have an Evan available, this video is a decent replacement.
Evan also fixed my wobbly handlebars by tightening a specific screw with an allen key. So simple. He recommended I look into buying a bike multitool so I can do minor repairs and tuneups myself, although he assured me I’m always welcome to bring the bike back to his place if there’s anything I need help with.
After this intro to bike repairs, I’m feeling a lot more confident in my ability to take care of my bike and I’m very grateful for Evan and the OBB guys for their support.
I used ChatGPT to “create a lesson plan for a one-hour lesson about fermentation and its real-world applications, including a 30-minute activity to help students remember what they learned and sources.” ChaptGPT provided an in-depth overview of a lesson plan that met all the requested parameters. Including learning objectives, assessment ideas, and a wrap-up activity. The sources it listed were mainly from Britannica, Wikipedia, and Chemistry LibreTexts, and from my general understanding of fermentation processes, the science described is accurate. The classroom activity involved setting up station for students to rotate through, each station focuses on a specific type and application of fermentation (Bread and alcoholic fermentation; yogurt and lactic acid fermentation; and ethanol as biofuel). I would need to do some research into the validity of these topics but they feel like solid jumping-off points at least.
I asked perplexity.ai to outline the differences between resident, Biggs, and off-shore killer whales. The response included accurate information from verifiable sources and even summarized the information into a really concise overview in a table format for easy comparison. I noticed, that many of the sources were relatively old (2+ years) and very few were peer-reviewed research articles. When I asked the AI to only use peer-reviewed sources, it responded saying it wouldn’t be able to do so reliably.
I created an infographic of my Week 1 Reflection blog post using NotebookLM. I specifically asked for it to “use neutral, earthy colours and a watercolour style, and focus the infographic on the currency of learning concept.” I haven’t spotted any glaring spelling errors in the graphic and I think the overall summarization and organization is pretty decent.
As a science teacher, I personally plan on using AI to help create rubrics (I’ve been recommended magicschool.ai) and for brainstorming engaging in-class activities and demonstrations.
In my own education experience, I’ve mainly used AI to help summarize long articles and create study guides for exams.
From my perspective, multimedia learning is a framework that sounds simple and intuitive but is much harder than expected to execute effectively. Watching and listening to Dr. Pastore, I reflected on the countless zoom classes, educational videos, and in-person presentations I’ve experienced in which the presenter misused multimedia learning tools. Of course, good intention was always there, I think the general understanding is that if you throw as many different modalities into your lesson as possible it’ll be beneficial to students of all learning types because every possible method of information delivery is present. I remember getting frustrated with myself for losing focus or failing to process the lesson. It was all right in front of me, in text, visual and audio format, why wasn’t any of it actually engaging me? Now I understand that there’s a lot more to consider when designing a multimedia lesson. It has as much to do with learning psychology as it does with technology. I think this goes to show that less is more sometimes, although students do appreciate opportunities to process information through diverse modalities, bombarding their senses with excess information is incredibly counterproductive. Looking forward into my future role as an educator, I’m going to be mindful of the way I design my lesson so that multimedia learning tools are incorporated mindfully and logically.
This is a tutorial I created for iNaturalist using screen record on my iPad. I incorporated some interactive elements including a multiple choice question, a true/false question, and a summary question.
Thinking of how I might incorporate H5P tools into secondary science classrooms, I like the idea of creating interactive videos to be posted on a platform like Google Classroom in case a student misses an in-person lesson. Compared to just passively watching a video of a lesson, having interactive elements like multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-blanks provide opportunities for meaningful student engagement. I’m sure there are more H5P tools that are applicable for a science classrooms, but I’ll need to spend some more time exploring these tools first.
I adopted my mom’s bike 3 years ago and have used it approximately 6 times since. Partially because cycling in Victoria makes me fear for my corporal safety, partially because I don’t like showing up places sweaty so biking doesn’t really fit as a convenient mode of everyday transportation, and partially because the tires are chrononically flat and the handlebars move up and down of their own volition. So this bike has sat, stagnant as pond water, in my apartment’s bike room for 2.5 years. I walk past it everyday, feeling a sharp stab of guilt in my heart as I avert my gaze from that dark corner of the bike room.
But things are going to change now. Over the next couple months I’m going to get my bike in adequate riding condition and establish a weekly bike ride routine with the ultimate goal of biking to class one day toward the end of the semester and hopefully not be too egregiously sweaty or full of terror upon arrival. With this blog, I’ll document the tune-up process, my weekly bike ride adventures, and the lead-up to my bike-to-school experience. Through this journey, I endeavour to gain confidence in road cycling, build skills in bike mechanics, and develop a passion for cycling that has laid dormant in a musty bike room for the past 2.5 years.
The bike, neglected no longer.
I plan on taking advantage of a diverse toolbox of resources for this project. Including my personal connections to amateur bike experts, the services of my neighbourhood bike shop, the ParkTool Youtube channel, and the Strava app.
The film “Most Likely to Succeed” is about High Tech High and its alternative education model that focuses on developing soft skills and cross-curricular student-led projects as opposed to teaching curricular content in a traditional classroom setting. I appreciated the brief history lesson on the creation of the modern education system because I think that it’s a topic that we don’t formally address in this program despite it being so indicative as to why education is currently structured the way it is and as a reminder that this structure is not set in stone and isn’t a sacred rule by any means.
I believe that education does need to be reimagined. Like the documentary describes, the “role” of the human has changed drastically since our current education model was introduced and the way children and adolescents prepare to enter professional society should change as well. I appreciate High Tech High’s focus on developing soft skills like collaboration, time management, and creativity that are much more universally applicable to the “real world” than rote memorization and regurgitation of facts.
While watching the documentary and listening to class discussion, I’ve been comparing education to currency. From my understanding, modern currency systems are based on collective trust in the value of a particular token or symbol. This collective trust isn’t easy to establish because it requires a significant amount of confidence and acceptance across a large group of people. Education works similarly in that there is long established collective trust in the current system. Regardless of how intrinsically valuable the actual education is for its students, post-secondary institutions and employers continue to perpetuate a certain value for this education system. Therefore, similar to how hard it is to introduce a brand new currency into an already-established economy, it’s extremely difficult for alternative education models to gain traction when the majority of universities and employers are still backing the traditional system.
High Tech High’s education model is inspiring, but can’t necessarily be the blueprint that all schools aspire to become. It just isn’t feasible. And with High Tech High still being relatively new, there is very little information available with regard to the system’s long term sustainability and alumni success. Until more data becomes available and more collective trust can be established, smaller shifts can be made within the current model in order to better prepare students for the current age. As a science teacher, I’m excited by the prospect of developing holistic, project-based assignments for my students that incorporate a blend of hard and soft skills (similar to High Tech High’s projects), and address post-secondary science expectations as well as real world applications.
This video outlines some key components of successful project-based learning at a secondary school level.
Learning Plans are a set of individualized, learner-centred goals and strategies used to reach a desired learning outcome. In contrast to a Lesson Plan (a teacher-led script designed for an entire class to follow), Learning Plans provide an opportunity for students to engage with their learning on a deeper level as they have agency in the creation of their personalized goals and desired outcomes. I found this info sheet created for the UBC Med program. Although some of the information and the activity on the second page is specific to medical students, I think the overall description and advice is applicable to high school teachers as well. This speaks to the versatility of a Learning Plan. They can be just as effective for kindergarteners as they are for medical students and the essence stays consistent. Co-created Learning Plans allow students to take an active role in their educational goal-setting and these goals can be incredibly specific to that student’s interests, needs, and potential.
