You might be thinking to yourself, an innovative database? What the heck is this guy talking about? Or, dude, your nuts!
What I am talking about is building a database of innovative lesson plans. Before we broke for winter holiday, and last week, I asked a number of teachers to write down 2 or 3 of their most innovative lesson plans. I asked them to do this, because I would like to have a database of innovative lesson plans to reference when a teacher who may not be familiar with what innovation is, comes to me and asks what is innovative? Do you have an example? With this, I will have examples.
Over the past year and half, I have worked with the teachers to move up the SAMR scale, to create more lesson plans that are in at the very least Augmentation. It would be phenomenal if the majority of their lessons are at the Modification level, really make the students think outside the box and challenge them mentally as much as possible. I realize that Redefinition, by it's own accord is hard to attain; however, it would be great to have at least 1 lesson per year that Redefine what has been done previously. Realistically, I think that this is attainable. Simply because a Redefined lesson will take much effort, much time, and probably many resources to complete, but for the students, they should be getting the most return from these, sort of a high return-on-investment (ROI), if you will.
I am excited that the teachers I asked to do this, were very enthusiastic about helping me get this done. I believe that this will only help us move to be more innovative in the future. Whether technology is used or not, innovation is key, getting students to think in new ways, breaking from the mold and not just hammering home content, content, content, BUT getting students to apply the knowledge they have gained.
Ultimately, application of concepts to a new situation will show mastery of the material. Simple regurgitation of facts really doesn't show mastery of a subject. If a student can take a set of concepts, apply them to a new or novel set of conditions or situation and come up with the correct answer, mastery has been achieved.
An innovative database, I'm looking forward to building it with my teachers!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Friday, January 9, 2015
Nutrition Bite of the Week: Avocados...So Good for You, Now Science Backs It Up!
Fats have long been considered the enemy in many circles of individuals who want to lose weight and lose it fast. It is understandable why many people want to have a low fat diet, fat is the most energy dense of the macro nutrients, carrying a whopping 9 kcals (Calories) per gram, compared to 4 kcals per gram for carbohydrates and protein. The only other food that comes close to fat in energy density is alcohol which packs 7 kcals per gram.
However, the one thing that people do not realize is that in order to lose/burn fat, you need to consume fat in your diet. But we need this fat to be 'good fat.' Yes, there are differences between good fats and bad fats, and your body can distinguish, and processes them differently. Also, your body burns fat for fuel, especially during aerobic conditions. I won't bore y'all with the aerobic or oxidative phosphorylation process of how we turn fat into fuel, but just know, we burn it as fuel when doing aerobic activities. I've had many people ask me, 'well, if my body burns fat as fuel, why doesn't it take it from the stores in my body, where I want to lose it from and why do I need to consume it?" To which I respond, that no matter what, you need calories. If you go for long periods of time without calorie consumption, your body will turn on starvation mode, and then start storing just about anything it takes in versus burning it for fuel. Your body needs fat intake to burn fat off. Your body will burn fat from its internal stores when you put yourself into caloric deficit, but not from not eating! When you put yourself into caloric deficit, you want to do this by burning off more than you are taking in, moving more, exercise!
I realize I am not including a lot of physiological processes and details here, but the main point, you need fat in your diet, and I'm happy that science is now backing these things up.
Recently, an article published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that a diet rich in avocados, led to a decrease in LDL or bad cholesterol. Woohoo! Follow the link for the Abstract.
Avocados are a tasty way to add flavor and color to just about any dish. Whether you enjoy guacamole or a slice or to of avocado on a taco or with some salmon, there are just so many different ways to enjoy them!
However, the one thing that people do not realize is that in order to lose/burn fat, you need to consume fat in your diet. But we need this fat to be 'good fat.' Yes, there are differences between good fats and bad fats, and your body can distinguish, and processes them differently. Also, your body burns fat for fuel, especially during aerobic conditions. I won't bore y'all with the aerobic or oxidative phosphorylation process of how we turn fat into fuel, but just know, we burn it as fuel when doing aerobic activities. I've had many people ask me, 'well, if my body burns fat as fuel, why doesn't it take it from the stores in my body, where I want to lose it from and why do I need to consume it?" To which I respond, that no matter what, you need calories. If you go for long periods of time without calorie consumption, your body will turn on starvation mode, and then start storing just about anything it takes in versus burning it for fuel. Your body needs fat intake to burn fat off. Your body will burn fat from its internal stores when you put yourself into caloric deficit, but not from not eating! When you put yourself into caloric deficit, you want to do this by burning off more than you are taking in, moving more, exercise!
I realize I am not including a lot of physiological processes and details here, but the main point, you need fat in your diet, and I'm happy that science is now backing these things up.
Recently, an article published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that a diet rich in avocados, led to a decrease in LDL or bad cholesterol. Woohoo! Follow the link for the Abstract.
Avocados are a tasty way to add flavor and color to just about any dish. Whether you enjoy guacamole or a slice or to of avocado on a taco or with some salmon, there are just so many different ways to enjoy them!
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Back at it! With a little review......
After a two week winter break, we are back at it! Students returned on Tuesday and it has been busy!
I'm looking forward to what the spring semester has in store. I think many new, great innovations are in store for us. There should be some great building upon the foundations that were laid in the fall semester.
With that, I'll do a little review of the SAMR model that we are integrating.
The SAMR model was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura and much can be found about this model on his blog: http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/. This is something that I have shared with my teachers and something that I want them to strive for in their lessons. I delivered the SAMR model in a series of workshops with the teachers.
In a nutshell, SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, and can be seen by this representation here:
First, we discussed how technology could be substituted for what we already do, and whether or not it is advantageous to use the technology if it is just a simple substitution for what we are already doing. The consensus from our discussion was that unless the technology was enhancing the learning experience even by just substituting, then it is worth the time and effort to do, but if not, continue on as usual.
Next, we ventured into augmentation, and I asked the teachers to think about any ways that they were currently augmenting a lesson plan using technology. There were a few good ones. One of my science teachers had the students using Google Chrome books and going to the University of Cincinnati's website: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/geneprob.htm to practice genetic crossing problems. We felt that this was more than just substitution because all the students were able to practice problems that were not otherwise available to them and they could collaborate on the harder problems. It also allowed the teacher to more freely roam about the classroom and see how students were doing.
Getting into modification, the transformation level of SAMR, seemed to be a bit harder for the discussion to crack open. However, once we did, the ideas started flowing. One of the better ideas came from one of my English teachers. He has an assignment that he has three classes all complete (3 different sections of the same class). We talked about ways to not only use technology, but use it to the fullest advantage. We figured out that for this assignment, students could create a Google Document instead of hand writing it out on paper. Once created, students from all the sections of the class could make comments on or edit the document, and everyone can see the results. In this way, using technology will allow the students from different class periods to collaborate and communicate on the same assignment, at different times. This would not have been possible without technology! We would have had to have all the students in the same room, at the same time, and all have copies of the document and present their ideas one by one for everyone to see. Not only does technology provide a great medium for this lesson to happen, but it makes it much easier for the teacher and students to see the results.
Redefinition, this was indeed the hardest, because I wanted the teachers to know that this is simply not using the technology for creation of new things formerly that would have been impossible without it. It is doing something previously inconceivable, and I wanted them to think of this more as an innovation, rather than technology integration. The example that I gave: for AP stats classes, how cool would it be for the classes to use technology to gather information and statistics about something affecting the community, and then create a report (using technology like in the modification example, so students can see what each other is writing) that they could submit to a local alder person or city council member? This would allow the students to use statistics to back up any claims that they are making regarding an issue, submit a report to local government, and then hopefully hear back from that local government official. The students have just applied their knowledge of statistics to a real world situation, something that takes learning to a whole new level.
So all in all, I wanted the teachers to realize that SAMR is not simply integrating technology, but using the technology to help achieve new innovations in the classroom to foster even more engagement and active learning that was previously inconceivable!
I'm looking forward to what the spring semester has in store. I think many new, great innovations are in store for us. There should be some great building upon the foundations that were laid in the fall semester.
With that, I'll do a little review of the SAMR model that we are integrating.
The SAMR model was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura and much can be found about this model on his blog: http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/. This is something that I have shared with my teachers and something that I want them to strive for in their lessons. I delivered the SAMR model in a series of workshops with the teachers.
In a nutshell, SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, and can be seen by this representation here:
First, we discussed how technology could be substituted for what we already do, and whether or not it is advantageous to use the technology if it is just a simple substitution for what we are already doing. The consensus from our discussion was that unless the technology was enhancing the learning experience even by just substituting, then it is worth the time and effort to do, but if not, continue on as usual.
Next, we ventured into augmentation, and I asked the teachers to think about any ways that they were currently augmenting a lesson plan using technology. There were a few good ones. One of my science teachers had the students using Google Chrome books and going to the University of Cincinnati's website: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/geneprob.htm to practice genetic crossing problems. We felt that this was more than just substitution because all the students were able to practice problems that were not otherwise available to them and they could collaborate on the harder problems. It also allowed the teacher to more freely roam about the classroom and see how students were doing.
Getting into modification, the transformation level of SAMR, seemed to be a bit harder for the discussion to crack open. However, once we did, the ideas started flowing. One of the better ideas came from one of my English teachers. He has an assignment that he has three classes all complete (3 different sections of the same class). We talked about ways to not only use technology, but use it to the fullest advantage. We figured out that for this assignment, students could create a Google Document instead of hand writing it out on paper. Once created, students from all the sections of the class could make comments on or edit the document, and everyone can see the results. In this way, using technology will allow the students from different class periods to collaborate and communicate on the same assignment, at different times. This would not have been possible without technology! We would have had to have all the students in the same room, at the same time, and all have copies of the document and present their ideas one by one for everyone to see. Not only does technology provide a great medium for this lesson to happen, but it makes it much easier for the teacher and students to see the results.
Redefinition, this was indeed the hardest, because I wanted the teachers to know that this is simply not using the technology for creation of new things formerly that would have been impossible without it. It is doing something previously inconceivable, and I wanted them to think of this more as an innovation, rather than technology integration. The example that I gave: for AP stats classes, how cool would it be for the classes to use technology to gather information and statistics about something affecting the community, and then create a report (using technology like in the modification example, so students can see what each other is writing) that they could submit to a local alder person or city council member? This would allow the students to use statistics to back up any claims that they are making regarding an issue, submit a report to local government, and then hopefully hear back from that local government official. The students have just applied their knowledge of statistics to a real world situation, something that takes learning to a whole new level.
So all in all, I wanted the teachers to realize that SAMR is not simply integrating technology, but using the technology to help achieve new innovations in the classroom to foster even more engagement and active learning that was previously inconceivable!
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