Wasted Time

All my plans of course went out the window for the week with the strike. Most classes were at 5-10 kids all week, so I let them catch up on missing work or do some regents review work from one of the review books we have at the school. Today is anybody's guess - strike is off but it's Friday after 3 days of no school and the day before holiday break - will the kids be bored from staying at home and all show up today, or will they say screw it, it's Friday, and stay home again?

Either way, Friday Random 10 goes on. Here's my list from the week, this time actually taken from my mp3 player (portable), so it's newerish stuff that I actually listen to, but again it's getting time to download some newerer material.

Artist Track

1.U2......Beautiful Day

2.Pixies......Gigantic

3.Pearl Jam......Light Years

4.Snow Patrol......Raze the City

5.Ocean Blue......Between Something & Nothing

6.Interpol......NYC

7.Weezer......Island in the Sun

8.Radiohead......My Iron Lung

9.The Arcade Fire.....Une Anee Sans Lumiere

10.World Leader Pretend......New Voices

Intelligent Smackdown

(edited - 3:15pm)

Judge rules against 'intelligent design'

Sorry for the juvenile reaction, but honestly I'm pretty disgusted by the ID crowd, and seeing their little masquerade exposed is just too satisfying not to revel a bit:

We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom...

I grew up with a pretty strong religious belief, and the unethical tactics used by these people would have appalled me even back then - the lying and subterfuge are below the ethical teachings of most religions - that I know about anyway.

via Pharyngula

Strike!

So the Transit Transport Workers Union is on strike. NYC subways & buses are shut down. I have no idea how I will get to work - the city seems intent on making the situation worse, clearly with the intent of making everyone angry and then pointing the finger at the union. Schools are in session in spite of the fact that vast numbers of students and teachers will be unable to get to work today. I work downtown, but driving is not an option - 4 passengers per vehicle are required to drive below 96th street. At 5:00 AM the highways are already backed up as the police literally stop and check every vehicle for the occupancy minimum. It's fricking cold - "mad brick," so riding my bike could be hazardous to my health with icy spots still on the ground from the recent snow & rain.

But I support the union. The press is totally biased, the commentary of the anchors and reporters is laced with subtle and not-so-subtle stabs at the union. The MTA has billion dollar surpluses and is giving away money to the riders, then they want to screw new workers coming into the system - I can tell you that creates a lot of animosity among membership. As a teacher I am still pissed at my union for negotiating contracts in the past that set up "tiers" within the teacher ranks and some tiers have benefits that I'll never get and in some cases teachers had teaching loads lighter than mine - think about that: Inexperienced and overwhelmed new teachers working side-by-side with experienced teachers who have fewer teaching periods per day. It is unconscionable for a union to sell out it's new members to maintain a level of income and working conditions for it's existing members.

Another consequence of the strike is that our lesson study has been cancelled. I don't know at this point if or when it will be rescheduled. Since it is content specific and part of unit study, it would be impossible to just postpone the lesson that we've now spent so much time planning.

UPDATE (9:30AM)


I took a chance on the bike, and arrived at 8:30 to work without incident. I thought I might have gotten frostbite on my toes as the frigid west wind (in my face, more or less) kicked in hard at about 96th street, but an hour later and the pain is gone - worst case of cold feet I've ever had. Temperature around 22F with wind chills in the teens/single digits and worse with bike speeds factored in.

Friday Random 10

OK. A little late, but I did post the list in my classroom on Friday. For the first time in my teaching career I have a good number of students whose musical taste overlaps at least somewhat with my own.

I don't know the origins of the FR10, but I got the idea from Pharyngula, but he hasn't done it in a while. One student in particular keeps recommending tunes to me, and I return the favor, so I though it might be a good tradition to start. The basic idea is to hit the shuffle button on your iPod and list the first 10 songs that come up. I don't have iPod, but most other digital music players will have a similar function. I just went into my laptop's library of songs and created a random 10-song playlist. Here's what I got.

1.Belle & Sebastian....Family Tree

2.Ben Folds Five.......Selfless, Cold, & Composed

3.Bryan Ferry..........Heart on My Sleeve

4.Pearl Jam............Elderly Woman Behind the Curtain in a Small Town

5.Smashing Pumpkins....Tonite (Reprise)

6.9 Inch Nails.........Head Like a Hole

7.Belle & Sebastian....Boy with the Arab Strap

8.Nirvana..............You Know You’re Right

9.Breeders.............Divine Hammer

10.Looper...............The Spider Man

Most of this is older music that I don't actually listen to so much any more - I like it, but I've heard some of this too much and haven't had time since summer to add to my library. I load a smaller number of songs onto the mp3 player, which I listen to almost exclusively while exercising, so I'm looking for a particular sound in that context.

Original Ideas

I don't believe I've had a single original idea this year. Mind you, I think original ideas are overrated in the first place and it should not be the job of science teachers to come up with an original idea every week for instructional purposes (it's called re-inventing the wheel, and we do it anyway in the absence of a legitimate curriculum from those whose responsibility it is to produce such things), however I do at least like to create or find an interesting new activity or project every now & then to supplement or improve my existing "repertoire." But honestly, I'm still working - and here it is December - at least 10 hours a day at school and just keeping my head above water, and no time left over to dream up new material. When I do have a few moments available lately I've been totally vegging out, unable to focus, which a sure sign of burn-out. So what's up?

Firstly, my school takes PD pretty seriously and right now we are engaged in a science "lesson study." If you aren't familiar with lesson study, here is a short primer. Basically as the name implies, it is the study of a lesson, created in this case by our science team, and implemented by one of the science teachers while a group of other teachers observes. In our situation, the lesson will be presented, we will debrief and revise as need, then the lesson is presented again with a second class, then we debrief again. We have spent numerous hours after school working on the project, and I will have more to say about it after we go through the presentation next week.

Secondly, my school produces 6 report cards per year - that's one every 5 weeks as I've already lamented. I like giving students and parents feedback, but the formality of report cards and the ridiculous bubbling process take their toll on me and I usually need practically the entire week that they are due to get them done. I realize this is partially a problem I've got to solve by streamlining my grading policies and getting the kids work in on time before the panic sets in.

Thirdly, we have an "academic probation" program with after school tutoring for those kids in danger of failing a particular subject. It's another 2 hours of after school activity. I prefer to think of it as "academic intervention," and I hope the school adopts a more friendly term in the near future, but for now that's what it's called. We also have the option of providing an additional 2 hours per week of after school tutoring for students regardless of their probationary status, and I use those two hours from time to time as well to help kids get caught up on missing work.

Combine all this with the day-to-day preparation and checking papers and it adds up to too much work and not enough play.

Enough excuses. I do have a lab that I developed last year with Mathew Davies from Columbia University's GK-12 program. It is a computer modeling lab using NetLogo. Mathew deserves all the credit for leading me to netlogo and helping me figure out how to use it. He also developed a couple of models himself for use in our classroom last year, which I will link below. We worked together on developing a lab for students that involves the wolf-sheep predation model. I never had a chance to use the lab last year due to the difficulty of getting access to computers, but I plan to use it next week and will report back on how it goes. In the meantime, you can go yourself and play around with the NetLogo models. If you like it, you can download and use my lab worksheets.

Wolf Sheep Predation Model

Homeostasis Model. A simplified negative feedback loop based on temperature regulation.

Mealworms Model. A population dynamics model involving only the mealworms and a food source. Several variables that can be manipulated in an attempt to produce a more stable outcome.

Instructions on using NetLogo with Wolf-sheep Predation

Student Labsheets for Wolf-Sheep Predation

PDF Versions:

NetLogo Instructions.pdf

NetLogo Student Lab Sheets.pdf

You will probably want to print out the instructions and go through it with the program running. Also do some kind of whole class demo with the kids before turning them loose with the lab.

Ecology Simulations

I spent most of last weekend trying to refine a hands-on, predator-prey population dynamics simulation for a lab this week. It is, I believe, a "classic" simulation that demonstrates the boom & bust cycle of a predator - prey interaction similar to the real cycles observed over long periods of time in the lynx-hare populations of Canada.

Making the game simple enough for students to understand and still get the desired result continues to elude me. If you aren't familiar with the game, a good detailed description can be found here, or try the version that I copied and pasted into word and modified (slightly) into lab worksheets, which I've posted here. I hope the originators aren't too upset, since I do give them credit and encourage everyone to visit their site and look at other stuff they have created - that's all I would ask of anyone who found something useful on my site, adapted it, and wanted to share it - link and give credit. The idea is that students are given a large sheet of paper (11x17), which represents their meadow, several small squares of paper that represent the prey, and several larger squares of paper that represent the predators. Start with three prey spread around the meadow. Toss one predator onto the meadow. If the predator manages to capture (fall on) 3 prey in one toss, the predator lives and reproduces. If the predator fails to capture three, it dies. Next generation a "new" predator moves in if none survive, so that there's always at least one predator to start the new generation. If done properly, students will see through about 20 generations, two population explosions and 2 crashes. The predator population lags a little behind the prey in both directions (explosion & crash).

Ideally there would be no other variable in the model, just predator & prey with unlimited resources for the prey, but I just don't have enough materials for unlimited growth, and the potential for error among the students is too great so I limit the rabbit population to 75, explaining to students that the meadow simply won't support any more and anything above 75 moves somewhere else.

Problems students have had with the game:

--Forgetting to double the populations.

--Forgetting to remove prey that have been killed.

--Tossing all the predators at once before removing killed rabbits - I've revised that rule.

--Stopping before 20 generations - How to tell them why we need 20 generations without telling them what will happen?

--Just keeping track of the numbers - requires some concentration that they have trouble mustering in groups of 4.

I'm getting to the point where I'm seeing the need for some formal group roles, so the next class that does the simulation will have a designated recorder and rules enforcer - I just have to pick the right people who will be obsessive about doing things the right way - hope I can find 7 such people in one class!

UPDATE 12/11/05


I've just devised some roles for my groups. It's a little incongruous in that I'm using more or less courtroom analogies, but I think it will work for this particular class. I have judges who will know and transmit the rules or procedures of the game (or other activities in the future), a sheriff who works with the judge to enforce the rules and keep the peace, to the point of having the power to issue tickets if necessary, a bailiff who is essentially the materials manager, and a stenographer whose role should be self evident. For this class I have 29 students, which leaves an odd man out in groups of 4, so I have created a special role for this person - Devil's Advocate. The devil's advocate will be assigned a home group, but will roam around to other groups to play the role for all groups. I already know who will get this role!

I have personally selected the judges. I will send them to a private place in the school (an empty classroom or the AP's office) with a list of recommended sheriffs. They will select their own sheriffs and are free to suggest alternatives to the ones I've recommended. Then together with their sheriffs, they will select the remaining roles for their groups. I hope that giving them this responsibility and freedom will create a more positive environment. I do have a lot of faith in the judges I've selected.

I've created role cards that you can download here.