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AP Physics B End-of-Year Survey Results
Before I start planning for the new AP Physics 2 class in detail, I first reviewed the end-of-year feedback from my AP Physics B students. I made very few changes in this course last year since two...
View ArticleStandards for AP Physics 2
I floated this idea on Twitter a couple of weeks ago and have decided to give it a try. Historically, I’ve grouped my assessment standards into unit-centric categories. In an attempt to emphasize the...
View Article2013-2014 in Numbers
The 2013-2014 school year by the numbers: 88 students in the fall; 86 students in the spring 71 recommendation letters for 36 different students 30 standards in AP Physics B; 80, in Honors Physics; 20...
View ArticleA Different Kind of Computer Science Literacy: Reading, Writing, Debate
I want my AP Computer Science course to be more than a programming class. I want my students to read, think, write, and debate issues at the intersection of technology, society, and ethics. I suppose...
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AP Computer Science Summative Labs
I have selected the summative labs for next year’s AP Computer Science course. Students complete a huge number of practice programming activities as a whole class, through pair programming, or on their...
View ArticleAP Physics 2 Syllabus, Units, Labs, and Pacing
I previously shared how I will be using the AP Physics 2 Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings as the standards for my flavor of standards-based assessment and reporting for AP Physics 2. Since then,...
View ArticleChromebook Toolchain for AP Physics
This fall, my AP Physics 2 classes will be using Chromebooks as part of my school district’s 1:1 pilot. Chromebooks were new to me; so, it took some time this summer to find the apps to support the...
View ArticleSummer Reading
A good summer of reading. I didn’t read quite as much as I had hoped, but more than I feared I would. My focus this summer was influenced by my work on my district’s Science Curriculum Team who is...
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Student Evolution of Descriptions of Learning and Grades
I found this post accidentally saved as a draft from last December! The year referenced is the 2013-2014 school year. I should check this year’s student information survey and see if these patterns...
View ArticleFluids Paradigm Lab
I taught a one-semester Advanced Physics class that cumulated in the AP Physics B exam my first five years of teaching. For the past two years, I taught an official AP Physics B course. Both of these...
View ArticleGitHub, Canvas, and Computer Science
There are certain software development techniques or tools that are not strictly part of the AP Computer Science curriculum that I think are valuable for students to learn about and practice in my...
View ArticleReflection on This Year’s Learning Experiences
My school district has a new system for how teachers’ professional development earns them credit on the salary schedule. In addition to the traditional approaches of taking graduate courses or...
View ArticleFormative Assessment Tools for Peer Instruction and Peer Critque of Written...
This past year, as my AP Physics 2 cases piloted Chromebooks, we used a couple of formative assessment tools frequently in class. For Peer Instruction, we used InfuseLearning. InfuseLearning’s...
View ArticleSelling Our Colleagues Short with SAMR
I’ve been seeing more and more references to SAMR. Maybe it’s because ISTE is starting, or maybe it’s because my district is promoting it as a tool for teachers embarking on our Digital Learning...
View ArticleAP Physics 2 Reflection
On the eve of the first day of school, I felt that I better capture my thoughts on AP Physics 2 last year. My perspective may be different than other’s (at least different than the vocal minority(?) on...
View ArticleAAPTWM16: Blueprints for Accessible and Affordable High-Altitude Ballooning
Mark Rowzee and I spoke at the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) 2016 Winter meeting as part of Session EI: Quadcopters, Drones and High Altitude Balloons. Our talk was “Blueprints for...
View ArticleMy AP Computer Science 2016 Solutions
I shared these with my students and thought that others may be interested as well. I typed up solutions to the 2016 AP Computer Science free response questions. The zip file includes a BlueJ project...
View Article2015 Summer Reading List
As I was preparing my stack of books for this summer, I realized that I never published my summer 2015 books read. It wasn’t a great summer of reading, but there are a several good books that I want to...
View ArticleNew Software Engineering Course
[Updated 6/7/2016, 8:08 PM: Added additional security and web app concepts based on feedback.] After a few years of effort, I’m thrilled to announce that my school district will be offering a new...
View ArticleElectronic Lab Portfolios Aligned to AP Physics Science Practices
[Updated 15/7/2016, 10:54 PM: added links to two student lab portfolios.] As I mentioned briefly in my reflection of the 2014-2015 school year, this past year, students created electronic lab...
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