4-4-16

Day 1
Today we made a mind map and 4 students were off task at first. These students
returned to task after prompted. I think because it was the beginning of the week,
students need a lot of direction and reminders. One student requested a printout from
actively learn. I hadnt considered students who may not like digital reading. Actively
Learn was a little rough as I included adding notes and vocab and students were not
familiar with this. I want this information because it helps me to see where students
struggle with vocabulary and to see what they are making sense of. Today we did not
make it all the way through the assignment. I walked around and helped many students
log-in and show them how to highlight and add notes. Otherwise the students knew what
to do and I gave them feedback on their answers as quickly as possible. Only one
student asked for a reset out of 3 who had started to answer the questions. We will
spend at least the first 10 minutes tomorrow finishing this assignment. I wonder if
students need to work in partners or if that would distract them more? If they are having
problems completing the assignment I may have them work with partners tomorrow.
4-5-16
Day 2
Decided no partners because some were done and the ones who werent were just off
task. Today went better than yesterday. Most students were working. However, some of
the students who tend to cause the problems were gone. Students worked on finishing
actively learn and then started ED puzzle. We are a little behind so tomorrow we will
finish ED puzzle and then play a few Kahoot games. I did have to remind students to get
on task but all were very cooperative today and did as asked. I did not get as many
questions today as I did yesterday. Most questions were about how to convert
temperatures. I assisted students by writing the equation on a piece of paper and
helping them to use it. I also graded all responses and left feedback when answers were
not worthy of an advanced score. A few students asked for resets. One student did not
do well but refused to retry. She hates to redo work. She likes to do it as quickly as
possible and be done. Maybe tomorrow I can get her to retry answers because her
answers just did not make sense. For example:
QUESTION: Convert 4.22 K to C.
ANSWER: You have to put butter in the medal and syraphom

4-6-16
Day 3
Today I had about half of my students finish actively learn and ED puzzle. The others
were getting off task and not finishing. It is now their homework to finish what they did
not get to. I graded all responses in class and gave feedback where needed. For the last
25 minutes of class we played 3 Kahoots to see how students are doing. I noticed a
struggle on the difference between heat, temperature, and thermal energy. They are
getting them all mixed up. Tomorrow I will remind students that temperature is how hot
or cold something is, heat is a measure of kinetic energy (how fast the molecules move),
and thermal energy is related to the number of molecules in an object. It also seems that
students forgot that particles move from hot to cold always. Students arent quite sure
what a conductor or insulator is and I have not shown this to them. This will be good for
the lab because students will research and then test out ideas as to what would be a
good insulator. On Kahoot quizzes the correct answers for all 3 were about 60% or better.

We did had a few internet connection issues so the scores would most likely be higher.
On Actively Learn 9 of 17 students are finished. (5 are in the green, 2 yellow, 2 red; there
is a good color coding system to figure out which students may need more assistance.)
Most students are trying to understand the work and are preserving to try again. Only a
few are not. The biggest struggle was #4 why are there 3 different temperature scales? I
think I shouldve worded this better because when I asked them what they would use
each scale for they seemed to get it.
4-7-16
Day 4
I started class by having students make a chart for thermal energy, heat, and
temperature. We wrote out what each is and how they are the same. This seemed to
help students grasp the differences. We are missing 7 of 16 students. The weather is nice
and students are out seal hunting. We are continuing on so that students get to build the
houses and we dont have to just stop with plans and move on. The house is the most
exciting part. Students are working hard and are really interested in their research. Some
are starting to think about how to design their house. Most of my questions today were
how to get the source of their information. Today I am telling them just to copy the web
address on paper or to a Google doc and copy and paste it. Next week I will be sure to
show students how to cite sources and write an introduction to their lab report. Students
even used our notes from the start of class to help answer a question on their research
guide. They seemed really interested and the question guide really helped student focus
on what to research. I am glad I did it. I have tried research in the past with just giving
students one main question to focus on but students did not have the skills to deepen
the research. I would get very short answers or everyones hand at the same time. No
one knew what to do. Today was like a breath of fresh air as all students were on task
and getting the information they needed.
4-8-16
Day 5
More students were here today. Lots of tardies but in the end only 2 were absent. For the
most part students worked well. Most groups decided to have one student write while the
other looked up answers. Some are typing answers into a google doc while others are
just writing on paper. One group was still confused on thermal energy. It is a very
confusing topic. I was explaining to them that it is related to heat but it is not heat only.
Objects that have more particles will keep heat longer. So size matters. They seemed to
understand. Another group came across some type of weather siding. We found that
weather makes cracks near windows and doors so it is important to caulk these areas to
make sure cold air or warm air doesnt come in. Most students were very honest on there
reflection. Most even giving themselves lower grades than I would give them on their last
question of the reflection. Here is what I wrote on the board for how I would grade them:

A-did your work

B-Couldve worked harder
C-did something, but not a lot
F-did about nothing