Day 63: Guilt and Belief

Well, that didn't work out for most of my students.

Or maybe it did, depending on the perspective.

One of the physic students earned an A and almost all of the rest failed.  We had a nice long conversation and went over all of the problems.  I congratulated them on having such an awesome learning opportunity.

I pointed to specific times in class when I was covering a topic and people were playing on their phones.  We talked about priorities and choices.

I didn't yell and I didn't shame them.  I am in no position to judge anyone who gets distracted by technology or shiny objects.

They took excellent notes and asked very good questions as we were going over the problems.  I hope that this was a wake-up call to the student who think they can skate by without paying attention and I think it might be.

At the end, I reminded them that I care about their learning and, as long as they can demonstrate that they know the material, I'll happily change the grades.  I gave an alternate assignment for them to do if they wished.

"When's it due?"
"Whenever you finish it."

They worked very hard for the remainder of the period.  I hope I can keep this momentum up.



And then I kept replaying the near-tears of one of my students.  I couldn't get them out of my head and I began to feel guilt and doubt.

This didn't come from her reaction, but my reaction to her reaction.  I immediately began to ask myself if the test had been fair.  Had I taught all of the material?  Had I taught it correctly?  Had I done enough to make sure they understood?  She is a hard worker and I automatically think that if she didn't do well on the test, that the failing was mine.

At the same time, there were several students who did MUCH worse and invoked no such remorse from me.  It was easy for me to look at their scores and say "they weren't paying attention. I covered this material and they talked over me."

I'm deeply bothered by how I am able to hold both of these thoughts in my head at the same time.  I recognize that they aren't mutually exclusive, but it makes me wonder why I feel doubt and guilt for the low scores of one student, but not another.

Clearly, there are students who are the makers of their own demise.  They make choices that aren't beneficial to their grades and I don't hold that against them.

When I first started teaching, I hated giving out bad grades because I didn't want the kids to hate me.

Now I worry that I haven't properly taught the material.


One of the students went to the guidance department to get his schedule changed.  He sat in my room under a palpable cloud of despair before he left.

I caught up with him later and urged him not to drop the course.  I told him that I believed in him and his ability to learn the material.

He said he didn't.

I told him that I would do whatever I needed to do to help him be successful.  This class is a stretch for him.  I worry, however, that if he drops it, he'll see his quitting as a character flaw.  I truly believe that he will get more from struggling in my class than from coasting through an easier one.

So why didn't I object when two other students dropped my course earlier?

Why don't I offer the same advice to the rest of my students?


I don't offer it because I don't believe it.

But why not?

Day 62: More Testing

We had a 3 hour delay today so that 75 kids could retake their standardized tests.  Since I wasn't proctoring, I got a ton of work done.

My 6th period Astronomy class is the only one I have when we do testing so I thought it would be nice to have them watch the episode of Cosmos that deals with Venus, the next planet we'll be examining.

Then my projector crapped out.

Instead, we had random discussions.  I expect tomorrow will be similar.

Not my best day as a teacher, but certainly not my worst.

The physics class received a quiz with all of the answers on it.  It took them several questions to realize what was going on.  When one student began looking comically confused, my statement to him was "maybe that's not what I'm testing."

I've been telling them for a while that I care more about the process than the result, so I was hoping that by giving them the answers, they would know where they were supposed to end and could focus more on the journey.

We will see what happens when I grade them.

Day 61: Mercurial

After our introductions to the new assignment structure, we started our section on the inner planets in earnest today, starting with Mercury.

This student also wears pink poodle shoes...

"Sorry, Mr. Aion," he said with his actions and body language.  "I won't be paying attention in class today.  I'm going to be putting in my headphones and working on the vocabulary assignment that's due this week."

This is the part where it pays to know your students.  I know there are tons of teachers out there who would tell him to put his phone away and pay attention: homework is for home.

I might be one of them, but not this time and not with this kid.

This student is highly intelligent but lacks the motivation to complete assignment or be a productive member of the classroom.  He doesn't actively destroy, but has trouble seeing why he should do anything more than 60%.  "All I have to do is pass."

I've spoken with him several times about how bright he is and the incredible thing he could do if he would apply himself, but it doesn't interest him.  His friends are also quite bright and in similar situations.

I saw a spark of change on Friday when I handed out the assignment menu and he was actively asking questions and making plans.

The first assignment on the menu, a selection of vocabulary assignments, is due on Thursday.  Normally, this young man spend my class either with his head down, or talking to the people around him.  Today, he put in his headphones, pulled out the textbook and starting doing an assignment.

Would I rather he be paying attention to the class and do the work elsewhere? Absolutely!

Am I going to stop him from being productive? Absolutely not!

Rock on, Mr. Fahrenheit!

Productivity looks different for each student.  Part of being a teacher is remembering that and being able to treat students and behaviors as they need.

Day 60: Choice and Buy-In

In a surprising turn of events, it turns out that students are human beings!

Human being get deeply invested in the things that interest them.  If left to their own devices, people work hard for the thing they care about.  This is the whole philosophy behind Passion Projects and Genius Hour.

A major objection that many teachers (including myself) have to the "let them explore and play" philosophy is that we teach specific subjects with specific content requirements.  If given free reign, how many students would choose to study the reproductive cycles of trees or properties of exponential functions?  A few, but not many.

Some might argue that it's a reason why we need to re-examine the purpose of school in general and content specifically.

Since I am just a lowly grunt on the front lines, I don't get to have a loud voice in those policy decisions and I don't get to choose content.

I DO get to choose how I present and assess that content.

Up to this point, I've had minimal buy-in for my assessments, no matter what they were.  The closest I have come was the sun model project.

So I'm taking a page from one of my colleagues.  I am offering a menu of choices for assessment.  Today, I went through the list with them, explaining how it works and answering whatever questions they had.  Students who have been checked out, or actively indifferent, were asking great questions and making plans for which assignments they wanted to work on.


This is going to be a stupid amount of grading for me, and I'm probably going to hate myself, but if it gets the kids interested and even excited, I'll take that hit.

Naturally, I'm concerned about follow-through, but I think if I set deadlines and regularly check in with them, it SHOULD be alright.

I'll end this post with drawings from my students.  Apparently, they believe that Hitler could teach physics to a manatee.

Or perhaps it was the other way around...

I want this one as my ID badge.

Day 59: FIGHT TO THE DEATH!

My standardized testing duty assignment today was to hang out with the kids who showed up to school when they weren't supposed to.  I spent the time talking with my colleague about gun control, education and comic books.

I truly enjoy my new department.

I handed out the science activity menu to the 1 astronomy class that I saw today.  We had a discussion about differentiation and they seemed to be fairly excited about the options.  I posted the menu and the vocabulary list (which I made up on the spot) onto the class web page and most of them got started working on the first assignment.


I am also VERY much enjoying the discussions and debates that we are having in physics around inertia and force application.  There are so many aspect that seem counterintuitive and provide great fodder for class discussion.

More than previous topics, this one seems to interesting and engaging, which is appreciated all around.

I'm doing a better job of forcing students to justify there reasoning than I have been.  Instead of saying "good" or "you couldn't be more wrong" I'm asking them to explain, asking other students to restate their points and argue over theory.

I also received a new student and we are being very welcoming, but he seems a bit overwhelmed by the dynamic that we've developed.  I think he will fit in well.



Standing around for 3 hours in exhausting. I'm going home to practice guitar.

Day 58: Keystones & Golf

Standardized testing this morning.  8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grader took a statewide graduation test that will not be used for graduation, apparently.

I actively monitored the CRAP out of that test.  The kids in my testing group were awesome and worked very hard.

Due to the testing schedule, I only saw two of my classes today: one section of Astronomy and Physics.

In Astronomy, I'm taking a page from one of the other teachers and using a menu of options for assessment.  Students will get to pick whatever they want to do as long as they A) pick one assignment from each category and B) have a total assignment value of at least 50 points.

Science Contract - Inner Planets

Since I didn't want my one section to get too far ahead of the others, I used class time today to explain the concept to them and we had a discussion about what assignment options they should have.  Giving them a choice will, hopefully, increase buy-in and keep them from getting bored with the same types of assessments.

There some truly clever ideas from the students and several went onto the menu.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.


The physics class continued our discussion of Newton's First Law.  Yesterday, I gave them a worksheet with some scenarios, but no numbers.  They were to be thinking about inertia and force in a more conceptual way.

Some of the questions sparked some pretty fascinating discussions.  The one in particular that jumped out for us was based on Mini Golf.

A golf ball follows a circular metal rim through a 3/4 turn.  At the end of the rim, will the ball curve away from the turn, shoot straight out from the curve, or continue along the circular path?

We had advocates for each position and a very friendly debate among the students, each arguing their points.  The reasoning for all three was very sound, but we quickly discarded the "keeps moving in a circle" claim.

The students who said that it would curve away from the rim argued that throughout the journey, the ball is exerting a force against the metal.  When the metal stops pushing back, the ball would move outwards.

Thankfully, I have Hotwheels tracks in my room so we set up an experiment, got out a golf ball and tried it!  I was very impressed with their reasoning.  When they asked about whether speed was a factor, we tried it at different speeds.

I want them to be designing their own experiments and this was a great move in that direction.

Next up: THE SUPER LOOPER!

Day 57: We Are Star Stuff

In the beginning, there was the singularity.

All of the mass in the universe was condensed into a single point, hotter and more dense than we can imagine.  This point couldn't contain that mass and it exploded.

This explosion filled the universe with elementary particles that fuse into elements.  3 minutes into the universe, all of the mass has been fused into either hydrogen or helium.  Mass attracts mass and, over time, hydrogen atoms and helium atoms coalesce into more and more dense clouds.

As the mass increases, so does gravity, pulling the clouds closer and closer together, driving up the density even further until the hydrogen atoms begin to fuse together.  The process of hydrogen fusion produces helium, and energy.  That energy pushes against the gravity that is pulling the particles back in and sets the star into a state of equilibrium.  As long as there is hydrogen to fuse, gravity and expelled energy hold each other at bay.

Much like all reactions, this one eventually runs out of fuel.  Eventually, there is no more hydrogen to fuse.  Without the fusion, there is no energy holding back gravity and the star begins to collapse.  The first generation of stars were so massive that when gravity took over and collapsed the star, the pressure and density was enough to star the process again.  This time, instead of fusing hydrogen into helium, the star is fusing helium into lithium.

When it runs out of helium, it collapses again and begins fusing lithium in beryllium.  With a star massive enough, it will continue to work it's way up the periodic table, fusing lighter elements into heavier ones, releasing energy...

And then it gets to iron, element 26.

Iron is an incredibly stable element.  It is the first element where fusion doesn't give off energy, but requires it.

Without the energy being radiated by the fusion reaction, there is nothing holding gravity at bay.  The outer edges of the star collapse further and further, increasing pressure until the mass can no longer handle it and the star explodes!

While the gravity and pressure aren't enough to fuse iron, the explosion is and in the death throws of this dying star, heavier elements are forged.  These elements, along with the remaining hydrogen, helium, lithium, etc, get flung out into space.

Since mass attracts mass, those far flung particles will be slowly drawn back to each other.  Hydrogen and helium coalesce again into a giant cloud of increasing density, eventually starting the fusion process over.

In the meantime, the far flung particles of nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, etc. also start pulling together.  Single particles become small rocks, small rocks become large rocks.  As they grow in size, gravity begins to take over, squeezing every object larger than 100 km into a spherical shape. large rocks become planetoids which become planets.

On one of those spheres, the conditions are right for some of those carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen atoms to come together and form amino acids.  As time passes, those amino acids combine to become single-cell organisms that swan through the primordial oceans, eating, reproducing and trying not to die.

Eventually, one of those organisms, through  a genetic aberration, develops flagella.  These tiny, finger-like hairs allow the organism to swim faster, obtain more food and escape predators.  The organism thrives and grows, eventually developing eye spots for sensing differences between light and dark.

As the eons pass, that organism climb out of the water, learns to use tools and hunt.  These complex piles of simple atoms discover that working in a small group maximizes results while minimizing risk.

Working together, they begin to specialize, leaving some members back to care to for the young while some go out in search of food.  They eventually realize that they can stay where they are, raise crops and domesticate animals.  The collection of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen atoms create more permanent structures out of collections of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms.

Mass attracts mass, so these permanent communities grow, attracting new members.  Villages grow into towns which grow into cities.  Now they that don't have to constantly worry about food, shelter and harm on a regular basis, these organisms are able to do something they haven't been able to do before.

They look up.

They look up, they notice lights in the sky and begin to wonder.  That wonder sets off a chain reaction because wondering is simply not enough.

These collections of atoms need to KNOW.  They need to know the journey that they took from the heart of a star.

I don't like to lecture, but when I do, I make it a story.