Day 110: Leap Day

The orbital period of the Earth around the sun is slightly less than 365.25 days.  Those extra digits after the decimal mean that every once in a while, we have to add a day to the calendar in order that make sure that the seasons don't switch every 180 years.

Since it's not EXACTLY 365.25, we can't just add a day every 4 years.  That would put us too far behind after a few centuries.  As a result, we DON'T add the extra day on every 100th year, but we do on the 400th.



It was a PowerPoint day.  I was sitting on tables, and the kids were paying attention and taking notes.  While I've had days that I found more exciting, I've also had MUCH worse days.  I don't like lecturing much, but it keeps the attention of the kids more than assigning them a task and saying "go."

You're not the boss of me, Morpheus!

In Physics, we briefly went over the first part of the test that they took on Friday.  The majority of the students did VERY well and I was pleased.  The take-home portion was another matter.  The questions were a bit more difficult and required them to branch out a bit.

I made myself available (through email) this weekend for students who had questions and only one took advantage.  I'm curious to see how they turn out.


I'm going to go read to children now.

Day 109: Relatively Bright

"We like worksheets!"

While I hate this sentiment, I totally get it.

Worksheet provide tasks in small, discrete and easily digestible packets.  Completing a worksheet means that the task is done.

Many of my students struggle with task completion, especially when it comes in the form of abstract goals, such as "write a paper about..." or "do a presentation on..."

I also suffer from this.  I've written numerous times about how much better I do with tasks when I have a checklist from which to work.  This isn't just in academic pursuits, but also chores around the house and in learning guitar.  The idea of "practice guitar" doesn't work for me.  I need things to practice and task to complete.

So I completely sympathize with my students who only do worksheets.

The activity that I gave on Wednesday, having them find the coordinates of stars and constellations, was a huge success.  Several students asked for more sheets.

Today, I started by talking about perspective.

"Is the car I'm holding up larger or smaller than the one I drew on the window? What about the ones in the parking lot?"

We had a conversation about relative size and how to tell which car is REALLY the largest and which one is just closer.

With this segue, we talked about absolute and apparent brightness of stars followed by **gasp** a worksheet to practice the concepts.

And they did!!

They worked very well and asked good questions.

I think I'll go back to using worksheets for a while...



The Physics kids received the second part of their chapter test today, but I was pulled into a parent meeting and wasn't able to be there to answer their questions.

When I returned, the room was in total chaos.  The kids were upset, frustrated and slap-happy.  This portion of the test had 4 problems on it and most of them had only finished 1.

I turned it into a take-home test.  I hope that the extra time will relieve some of the stress for them.  I'll send a reminder out tonight to let them know that I'll be checking my email if they have questions over the weekend.

I also think that I'm going to try an experiment.  I have become concerned about the stress level of one of my students.  It appears to be reaching a boiling point.  I think the world of him and do whatever I can to help him.

I fully recognize that my teaching methods are not great for everyone.  No teacher is perfect for every student.

I'm going to move back to a more tradition model of teaching for the upcoming unit.  Perhaps doing so will allow this student to regain his confidence in the material.  His work is already excellent, but I can't seem to make that clear.

In any event, I am happy to make this change for him.  If others don't benefit as well, I'll be shocked.


This was a crazy week and I have lots to work on and think about this weekend.

Day 108: Taking Up Space

Today started out a little bit rough.  I had several...tense interactions with students and wished that there could have been a few of my colleagues present as flies on the wall to give me feedback.

With those out of the way, however, I was able to show off some of the terrifying beauty of the universe.

The ESO just completed a survey of the Milky Way and uploaded the pictures to their site for anyone to view.  They are incredibly detailed, high definition photographs of our galaxy.  The image that I downloaded and took to show my students was about the size of a movie (277 MB).  It's stunning!

I started with the full view image which is, admittedly, unimpressive.  In every class, however, as soon as I zoomed in, I heard gasps and their attention was grabbed.

we talked about the scale of the universe again and I reminded them that our galaxy alone has over 100 billion stars and that our is just one of millions of galaxies in the universe.

This is the same region of our galaxy as viewed through multiple wavelengths of light.

We talked more about constellations and I'm left searching for some interesting activities that don't involve computers.


In Physics, we were scheduled to have a test today.  Instead, what I offered to my students was the chance to use the first of our double period to go over the chapter review from yesterday.  They could take the first part of the test during the second period and finish the test tomorrow.

As a class, they agreed.  I think the review session went VERY well.  We managed to clarify a few of the misconceptions and give some much needed pre-test confidence.

It's important for students to feel at ease during assessments.

I often write about Astronomy, but I want to take a minute to talk about the Physics kids.  I often find them frustrating, but they are such a great group of kids.  They are clever, interesting, strange, dynamic, funny and kind.  I don't have their attention all the time, but I know that I'll get it when I NEED it.  They ask good questions and involve me in their lives, including activities and interests.

They are always a great class with which to finish my day.

Day 107: Star Hunt

Twice this week, I have stumbled onto great tasks for my students.

Yesterday, we talked about stars, constellations and the coordinate system that is used to locate them in the sky.  Rather than using X and Y, as we do on most graphs in math, or longitude and latitude, as we do on maps here on Earth, we use the system of Right Ascension and Declination.

To make things slightly MORE difficult, Right Ascension is measured on a scale of 0-24 hours while the units of Declination are degrees.

For today's task, I handed out a sheet with a list of 6 stars and 4 constellations.  The students had to use a star chart to find the coordinates of those objects.

They were also given 7 sets of coordinates and told to tell me what object was there.

And they worked!  They did great work!

I told them from the outset that the hardest part of the task would be actually locating the stars.  The charts that I gave them to use were fairly small and much of the writing was out of focus, but I have a 5 foot star chart taped my classroom window that they could use.

They worked together in small, self-selected groups, helping each to locate stars and double checking their coordinates.  They asked me questions and were actually interested.  In graphing...

I'm sure they had no idea that my ulterior motives were to get them to explore the sky...

In Physics, I had an exam review sheet waiting for them to prepare for the chapter test tomorrow.  They also worked diligently for the period! They worked diligently enough that I MAY postpone the test until Friday and go over the review tomorrow.


This is exactly how I would prefer my classes to go.  I do work ahead of time to prepare, give a very brief introduction at the beginning, and then let them go!  They haven't shown me in the past that this was really possible, but with how well they worked today, I will happily reconsider.  I will start looking for more ways for them to DO science rather than hear about it.


I'm sure the success of today was totally unrelated to the 2 students that I had to kick out and the 9 students who cut my classes...

Nah.  I'm sure it was just a coincidence.

This was a good day!

Day 106: Draco, The Draggin'

At 2 am yesterday, I found myself in the bathroom with extreme...intestinal distress.  I'm a trooper, but by 3, I realized I would have to call off sick.

Since we had not officially started the new section in Astronomy today, I couldn't use the old standby of "keep working on what we've been doing."

Instead, I sent in a file with the mythology of 30 constellations, each one on a separate page.  I asked my students to pick 3 that interested them and write a paragraph summarizing the story.

When I came in today, I asked them to tell me what they had read.  I sat near the back of the room and we talked.

Me: "Tell me the myth behind a constellation."
Student: "So, Aphrodite and some other guy were being chased by this big monster thing and to get away, they turned themselves into fish.  That's Pisces."
Me: "Nice! How did they end up in the sky?"
Student: "The gods wanted to honor how clever they were."

Student: "Zeus turned into a bull and a hot girl got on him and he rode away."
Me: "Her name was Europa and where they ended up, the land is now known as Europe."
Student: "Also, one of the moons of Jupiter is Europa."
Me: "Absolutely.  So Zeus put the bull, Taurus, in the sky to show off how great he was at picking up women.  Literally."

We talked about the importance of constellations to early civilizations as a means of navigation as well as how to pass culture down through the ages.  We discussed how the human brain is hard-wired to see patterns, as we do in clouds or on the sides of buildings.

WHAAAAAAAAT??

Skeptical mountain is skeptical

NO WAY!!!

We also talked about mythology from different religions and cultures, including American myths, such as Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and John Henry.

The most fun revelation for me was telling them that they already knew a constellation from Japanese culture.

This is the Pleiades cluster.  It is a group of stars in the constellation of Taurus.  In Greek mythology, they are the daughters of Atlas.   The Japanese, however, know them by a different name.  The word they use translates to "unite."  In 1953, five Japanese companies came together to form a single company, Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd.  They adopted this cluster, and its Japanese name to be the logo for their line of automobiles.

It also happens to be the cluster that's inside the Mandelbrot tattoo on my leg...

Astronomy may not be vital is the hunter/gatherer sense, but the various aspects of this course are so enmeshed in society that it's impossible to not be touched by them.

It may have been the material, or the fact that since I still felt awful my energy was low, but the students were fairly engaged.  They seemed to enjoy hearing the stories and telling their classmates what they knew.


I'm going to take a nap now.  I'm exhausted.

Day 104: Sock 'Em

My classes were VERY light today.  It was an excellent way to end this week which, while very short, has been very frustrating.

Today was assessment day, which means that students had the option to either take the chapter test or complete another assignment that demonstrates mastery of the concepts.  At this point, the only students who actually take the test are the ones who either forgot to do something else, or have done nothing at all and take it by default.

The majority of the tests that I handed out were returned to me almost blank.

"I did the true and false section."

Many of my students are football players who have been accepted to, and given scholarships for, colleges.  I don't know how to get them to understand that their failing my class will put their graduation in jeopardy.

I worry about them once they leave the school, but ultimately, they have to make their own choices.


I hope that more of them make the choice to wear George Washington socks.

I'm tired and need this weekend.

Day 103: LOUD NOISES!!

I banned phones today.

As I handed back the quizzes from yesterday, I spoke to my students about my concerns over their abilities and/or willingness to complete work of quality.  I expressed my understanding for the idea that Astronomy may have been the last choice available for many of them and they took it because they needed the science credit.

I can appreciate that and try very hard not to take it personally.

What I cannot allow, however, is for a student who is uninterested in the subject to disrupt the environment for everyone else.

I explained to them that I knew that the majority of my students were doing what they needed to do and that the phones weren't an issue.  The problem was that the students who were allowing the phones to be an issue were making them an issue for everyone.

I talked about how I understood that every person in the room would feel it was unfair because they weren't abusing their phones in class, but it's impossible to make a policy that only pertains to a small group of individuals.


I had a mixed reception at this news and change in policy.

The first 10-15 minutes of each class found several students beating their chests, attempting to assert dominance.  The phrase of choice was "Don't be mad at us because you're having a bad day."

I also liked "Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?"

"I am a strong, independent woman who don't need no man. I piss in my own Cheerios, thank you very much."

In each of my Astronomy classes, I had to remove a student for arguing.  I offered all of them to sit in the desk outside of the room until they cooled down and stopped yelling, one of whom took me up on it and came back in later.  Two others continued yelling at me and stormed out, never to be heard from again.

I made very sure to not yell.

We are always told not to get into altercations with students, not to have a power struggle, especially in front of the class.  What they don't tell you about is when that student takes 5 minutes to gather their stuff, cursing at you, calling you names and riling up the class the entire time.  They don't tell you what to do when the student continues to stand in the middle of the room screaming, refusing to either sit down or leave.



It was a rough day.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.  I have a few students in Astronomy whose opinions I trust on matter like this.  They stated that they thought I was being fair.  I asked them to let me know if that ever changed.

"This is how the Astronomy classes are.  Everyone knows it."

I REALLY want to change that perception. It may just take a few years to build up the reputation.