Book:
The book I read really taught me about the importance of learning about your students and their lives outside of the classroom. This relationship creates a positive classroom culture and the knowledge of students allows the teacher to create more engaging and dynamic lessons that are relevant to students' lives. Observing other teachers in the building taught me some big ways and small ways about how to foster that relationship in and outside of the classroom.
This year I have instituted a daily journal for my students and it has given me a unique way to connect with students on an individual level. They can ask questions and give feedback to every lesson I give so I am able to see where I can improve and what is already successful. Students also give me so many new ideas! When they tell me that a particular lesson reminds them of something else from outside of class, a lot of times that gives me new instructional ideas. For example, this week students told me that labeling the brain parts and learning the anatomical directions made them think about watching TV shows like Gray's Anatomy. One student also said they really hoped we could look at some actual MRI and CT scans to diagnose a particular patient. This inspired me to either have students design and act out scenes from a TV show, using the vocabulary we have been learning in their dialog or have students work in groups to create a case study for other students to solve- using images they either find or create themselves. What fun applications that I may not have thought of on my own without the input of my students. :)
In terms of implementing the main project, speaking with Jeff Solin gave me some new ideas about my optical illusion project that I will be doing with my neuroscience classes next semester. My deep play group gave me the idea to use the Maker Space at school and with Jeff's guidance I was able to steer students in a new and more creative direction. I created groups based on student feedback about who they would like to work with and then I used those pairs to create larger groups that I thought would work well together based on skillset and personality. They met in those groups today and discussed their individual top three ideas from last week. As a group they were tasked with choosing the top two ideas among those presented.
After meeting with Jeff and thinking more about the project I decided that students should choose an illusion that is 3D and also has movement. In terms of the explanation of the visual processing in the brain of the optical illusion, I want to make sure the illusion is dynamic enough to investigate deeply. I also encouraged an actual three-dimensional object rather than something that only appears to be 3D so that students will all have a chance to use the Maker Lab and design their projects in the appropriate software. Hitting print on the computer would not be as rewarding as designing something to build in the Maker Lab.
Once my students upload their final ideas I will be sending them to Jeff Solin to see if he thinks they are viable options given the materials and tools we have at school. Once the designs are approved, students will meet on a weekly basis to start planning, researching materials, learning about the software, and researching the neural networks involved in their illusions. The hope is that by February students are ready to create their illusions in the Maker Lab with the help of other students who are currently taking computer science and are already trained in using the software and machines.
We are so excited to finally start this process as a class!
The book I read really taught me about the importance of learning about your students and their lives outside of the classroom. This relationship creates a positive classroom culture and the knowledge of students allows the teacher to create more engaging and dynamic lessons that are relevant to students' lives. Observing other teachers in the building taught me some big ways and small ways about how to foster that relationship in and outside of the classroom.
This year I have instituted a daily journal for my students and it has given me a unique way to connect with students on an individual level. They can ask questions and give feedback to every lesson I give so I am able to see where I can improve and what is already successful. Students also give me so many new ideas! When they tell me that a particular lesson reminds them of something else from outside of class, a lot of times that gives me new instructional ideas. For example, this week students told me that labeling the brain parts and learning the anatomical directions made them think about watching TV shows like Gray's Anatomy. One student also said they really hoped we could look at some actual MRI and CT scans to diagnose a particular patient. This inspired me to either have students design and act out scenes from a TV show, using the vocabulary we have been learning in their dialog or have students work in groups to create a case study for other students to solve- using images they either find or create themselves. What fun applications that I may not have thought of on my own without the input of my students. :)
In terms of implementing the main project, speaking with Jeff Solin gave me some new ideas about my optical illusion project that I will be doing with my neuroscience classes next semester. My deep play group gave me the idea to use the Maker Space at school and with Jeff's guidance I was able to steer students in a new and more creative direction. I created groups based on student feedback about who they would like to work with and then I used those pairs to create larger groups that I thought would work well together based on skillset and personality. They met in those groups today and discussed their individual top three ideas from last week. As a group they were tasked with choosing the top two ideas among those presented.
After meeting with Jeff and thinking more about the project I decided that students should choose an illusion that is 3D and also has movement. In terms of the explanation of the visual processing in the brain of the optical illusion, I want to make sure the illusion is dynamic enough to investigate deeply. I also encouraged an actual three-dimensional object rather than something that only appears to be 3D so that students will all have a chance to use the Maker Lab and design their projects in the appropriate software. Hitting print on the computer would not be as rewarding as designing something to build in the Maker Lab.
Once my students upload their final ideas I will be sending them to Jeff Solin to see if he thinks they are viable options given the materials and tools we have at school. Once the designs are approved, students will meet on a weekly basis to start planning, researching materials, learning about the software, and researching the neural networks involved in their illusions. The hope is that by February students are ready to create their illusions in the Maker Lab with the help of other students who are currently taking computer science and are already trained in using the software and machines.
We are so excited to finally start this process as a class!