Science Education Leadership - a superb example

During the week of July 22-25, I had the pleasure to attend an AP Summer Institute program sponsored by A+ College Ready in Birmingham. For full disclosure I also work for A+ College Ready as an AP Biology Saturday Study Session teacher where I review key AP biology concepts to a rotating group of students on Saturdays from January to May in preparation for the AP biology exam. A recent job change however, put me in the position of teaching AP biology at one of the schools that I worked with on Saturdays. This in turn allowed me to attend the A+ workshops at University of Alabama-Tucscaloosa.

Wow! What a week! Great colleagues all there to help their students succeed next year and two wonderful instructors that were taking teacher leadership to the next level by their enthusiasm, content and pedagogical knowledge. I have been an AP biology teacher for 13 years and was basically dumped into that position with no preparation, no materials and no support. That first year was hell! The second was not much better as I was at a small private school that did not really partner with other schools nor did it have the money at the time to pay for professional development. By the third year I was getting my content down (by the way - I had both BS and MS in biology and conservation science and a Med in secondary science education) and working on the Pedagogical skills. I think one of my students got a 5 on the AP that year (Thanks Dr. Nicholson!) and the others were mostly 3's and 4's. By the 5th year my scores were averaging about a 4.2 and by the time I left they were in the 4.6 to 4.7 range. Needless to say I feel that I have done a pretty good job with my AP biology course and knew how to teach it.

Then I go to the APSI program led by Robert Summers of A+ College Ready (http://www.apluscollegeready.org/).... Inspiring to say the least! I love the way the Robert dispenses with the 'facts' of science and focuses on the process of science. How he minimizes jargon so that students can 'see' the science through manipulatives and role play. I have taught in a similar method but not to the extent that Robert modeled. His demonstrations were both informative and inspiring at the same time. I know the content but the pedagogy can always be tweaked and I got tweaked in all of the the right places so I am now entering the 2013-14 school year enthused and ready to get my kids fired up to ALL get passing scores on the 2014 AP biology exam.

Again, Roberts ability to transmit knowledge and enthusiasm to a diverse group of learners was a true example of science teacher leadership. Thank you Robert and A+ for doing what y'all do!

How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader - a review

I recently read the book "How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader" by John G. Gabriel for one of my EDS classes. I found this book to be a wonderful source of information for ALL teachers as well as present and future teacher leaders. For me, as I start on my road to an EDS in science leadership, this book described the many ways in which one can be a teacher leader. From being a technology mentor to department chair and beyond. After 16 years of teaching I can now say that I have already fulfilled many of the different teacher leader roles that Mr. Gabriel describes in his book.

All teachers will find this book helpful in that it identifies many of the pitfalls that new teachers, and veterans, can make simply because they are not aware of the implications their actions may have on the next administrative level. As I read this book I became acutely aware of the many mistakes that I have made in my professional career which could have been avoided if I had had a resource such as this book. This book is divided into six chapters plus an extensive (54 pages) resource section. The text is easy to read, relatively light-hearted and free of a lot of jargon. The first chapter describes what teacher leadership is and how to encourage it (all teachers should read this chapter!) followed by a chapter aimed more at department chairs in that it describes how to assemble an effective team. I highly recommend both chapter three and four as they deal with communication and how to adjust goals and objectives in light of difficult situations. 

Chapter five describes many different ways to increase teacher motivation and morale through staff development, incentives and team-building exercises. Again, this chapter is aimed more at the department chair versus the other types of leaders described in chapter one. What I discovered as I read through this chapter is the degree to which I have been a part of a successful team for the majority of my career and how, in a more recent position, I was part of an extremely dysfunctional team. I could not put my finger on why this team was dysfunctional at the time but after reading this book I could now point out the multiple areas where administration, department chairs, teachers and myself all contributed to a negative attitude. For this insight alone, this book was an eyeopener for me and another reason why I want to put this one on my reference shelf.

The last chapter is a great one for the classroom teacher as it deals with teacher-student interactions. The author describes practices used in an effective classroom and various remediation strategies for those classes that are not meeting objectives. I also like the way the author discusses high-stakes testing and how departments should analyze the results of these tests by comparing student classroom grades with standardized test grades. This comparison can help to elucidate both strengths and weaknesses within a department and hopefully lead to strategies to either spread good pedagogy or strengthen weak pedagogy before too much damage is inflicted on students. Once again I highly recommend Mr. Gabriel's book for all teachers and especially those who are currently in the role of a teacher leader or who want to start climbing this ladder. Good luck! 

For an extended (6 page) review of this text go here: Kurt Kristensen's Review of "How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader" 

Purdue online writing lab for ESL

I have been a fan of Purdue's OWL website since I first discovered it several years ago for both my students and myself. "Do I use a colon, semicolon or comma?" are questions that can be quickly answered by a side trip to OWL (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/). Today, however, I just discovered that OWL also has a whole site dedicated to ESL teachers and students! This is a great resource and one that I will be coming back to often - bookmark it and enjoy! Purdue OWL for ESL can be found here:   http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/

Science and Math Podcasts

One of the assignments in our Math and Science for English Learners class is to locate 2 math and 2 science podcasts for our classmates to view and review/make comments on. I have posted several videos on my wikispaces page (http://kurtsedsjourney.wikispaces.com/) but in order to ensure that I have met the requirements for this class I am posting again. 

Science Podcast 1: The Chemistry of Love - This short videocast is a short introduction to three neurotransmitters that play a role in emotions: Serotonin, Dopamine and Adrenalin. This would work great for most levels of science from grades 5-12. You just need to tailor how you use it - as an introduction to class discussion (advanced) or simply a brief explanation of how chemistry affects emotions (less advanced). Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYDZNUzbUcg

Science Podcast 2: Light Reaction of Photosynthesis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj_WKgnL6MI
This videocast is for AP-level biology only but could be shown to honors level students for those who want to know the biochemical reasons for the capture of electromagnetic energy by plants. The academic, content-specific language in this video is advanced but the narrator speaks slowly, uses great animations along with key terms appearing on-screen. This can be used as both an introduction and final review. 

Math Podcast 1: Basic Sampling Techniques - Estimating deer populations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nr9rQpm2A4&list=PL5BRja99NkXlF5CU0TILV1IKzidCTs2Uh
 This videocast would be a great introduction to a unit on on how scientists use math to estimate animal numbers. This would work for a middle school science unit where you would follow up with an activity using some sort of ‘mark/recapture’ technique with some sort of inanimate object (skittles for example – i.e., how many red skittles are in the population? See the following link for an example of an activity: (http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/estimating_population_size.html#.UeKsAtLCaM4)

In a more advanced class students could sample a ‘wild’ population such as pill bugs, snails or lizards such as anoles. Have Fun! 

Math Podcast 2: Estimating a Population: the Lincoln Index

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcQZerdIdE  In this videocast the mark-recapture method is explained using snails as an example. The narrator speaks very slowly and uses simple English and graphics to explain this technique. I think that this would be better suited for older students that can work independently. 

Free Technology For Teachers

Just came across this blog (http://www.freetech4teachers.com/) and found many of the articles really useful. I want to start a class blog this coming school year where I can post things related to my class such as interesting readings, videos, RSS feeds etc. This site has some great discussions and tutorials about using google docs, reviews of different software and apps (many of them free!). Technology, for me at least, can be a real headache because it isw changing so fast! That and the fact that there is just too many choices - I don't know about you, but personally, I can get paralyzed by choice - to me, having so many choices actually limits my freedom because I spend so much time worrying about if I am making the right choice! This site has done a lot of that preliminary agonizing for me so I can spend more time tending to my family, garden, bees and chickens...

EOL: Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life is an ambitious effort to create a web page on each and every species on Earth! In addition to basic information and lots of pictures there are podcasts that focus on highlighted species. Check out this link to see some background info on how to use these podcasts:  http://education.eol.org/sites/default/files/EOL_Podcast_Guide_%20for_Educators_0.pdf

If you like cats (and who does not like cats?) check out this podcast on Scottish Wildcats or 'Highland Tigers' as they are affectionately known: http://education.eol.org/podcast/scottish-wildcat . I love this site not only for the podcasts but also for everything else that it offers: interviews with scientists, photos, range maps, additional resources,  citizen science links, downloadable transcripts, resources just for classroom teachers - whew! A LOT OF STUFF!

For an overview of what you can do with EOL visit their 'Discover' page: http://eol.org/info/discover.

Great Interactive Notebook Wiki

Thanks to one of my fellow classmates in EESL 650 I came across a wiki (by following several links) that deals specifically with Interactive Student Notebooks (ISNs). This is a great site for teachers who want to start using ISNs as it has numerous 'How-To" sections, diagrams, examples, downloadables and links/resources to other sites. If you have an interest in ISNs or plan on implementing them or are just looking for some new ideas then this site is for you! http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/Home

Final Week and Poster Presentations

The final week of my pre-AP biology summer class was a blast! Groups of students teamed up to design their own experiments, conduct background research, carry out their experiments, interpret their results and then present their findings using a mini-posters and their newly discovered public speaking skills. Take a look at the pictures below and let me know what you think.

1. Students working on a lab on enzyme catalysis and rates of reaction

2. Setting up a paper chromatography experiment on leaf pigments

3. Discussing results with a college mentor

4. Writing in their ISN's

5. How is heart rate affected by exercise?

6. Counting stomata in different types of leaves from plants that come from different climates

7. Hmmmm?

8. Stilllife and Students...

9. Successful completion of an experiment involving crickets and respiration rates

10. Mouse awaiting experimentation on top of a ISN!

11. Our lab at UAB

12. Students researching and analyzing their results

13. Analyzing experimental results with their college mentor

14. Working on mini-posters

15. Graphing

16. Chillin....

17. Mini-poster success!

18 Nice mini-poster!

19. Another mini-poster  and 19. College mentors with Impact Alabama staff.

Pre- vs. Post- test scores....

I have spent the last two weeks teaching relatively high-level cellular energetics (enzymes, cell respiration and photosynthesis) for 1.5 hours (M-Th) followed by a 1.5 hour lab on the same subjects to a group of Birmingham city and Jefferson county students. In my lessons I incorporated a variety of new methods that I picked up in my EESL 650 class - teaching math/science to English learners. I had my students keep interactive notebooks which they filled with notes, graphical organizers, and 3.8 paragraph answers to practice short essays and writing in science. Vocabulary exercises such as repeating back scientific terms as a group so that students would not be 'afraid' of stumbling over the pronunciation of words were included to help alleviate anxiety when speaking in public. Lots of new methods for both myself and my students!

So... the moment of truth arrives with the results of the post-test (a 15 item test encompassing the material we had been studying) - 50% of the class gets a 50% or less (range: 2-7) and 50% gets > 50% (range: 8-14). I was feeling pretty grim but then I had not been privy to the pre-test scores, hmmmm... So I talk with the Impact Alabama staff and find out that the highest pre-test score was a 6 and most were in the 0-2 range. So now I am feeling a bit better as I did not 'teach to the test' but rather emphasized general concepts. All-in-all feeling that I and my college-age mentors had a positive impact on these students. Now for the upcoming week where they will design and carry out their own experiments and present them in a mini-poster format (http://www.nabt.org/blog/2010/05/04/mini-posters-authentic-peer-review-in-the-classroom/). Results later!

Summer teaching and EESL 650

Wednesday morning... Finishing my unit on photosynthesis with my Impact Alabama students at UAB. These  are students from Birmingham city and Jefferson county schools are are going to be taking AP biology next year. My purpose? Give them a head start on some of the more difficult subjects and expose them to student-conducted research. Over the last two weeks we have covered cellular energetics - enzymes, cell respiration and photosynthesis and have conducted four labs each lasting 2+ hours. Next week the students will be working in groups to manipulate one of the labs that they have done in order to ask a new question.

I am happy to report that my EESL 650 class that I am currently enrolled in (teaching math/science to English learners) has drastically changed my teaching methodology compared to last summer. My students are keeping interactive notebooks and I have seen a dramatic increase in student participation and attention span with this simple addition. I have also incorporated a lot of the vocabulary exercises such as reading the vocab words aloud and having the students repeat them back. Graphic organizers have also been a popular addition along with colored pencils!

Starting the trip....

Hey all!
Glad that Ronald sent an e-mail about his blog - I have been waiting for Cynthia to send us something and then it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe the information that I needed regarding the class assignments are in the syllabus! Lo and behold they were....Got some catching up to do! I am going to use this blog as a dual purpose one: for talking about EESL 650 and for my independent study with Dr. Lee Meadows dealing with teacher leadership - I hope this is ok Cynthia! I actually have two other blogs - one for my science class and one for my apiary - Buzzin' Belles Apiary. Unfortunately I have not done much with those so I am hoping to jumpstart all three of my blogs with this assignment! Can't wait to see what everyone else is doing...