Week 9- How is it going?

A brief update on things:

              For my blended unit, I'm taking a different approach on things then what I originally intended. To begin, my topic has changed from physics to chemistry, I'm trying to incorporate more writing and reading components and I'm also utilizing Edmodo more as I learn how useful it is as a main classroom portal.
            The reason I chose to change my topic is based on the "learn from your mistakes" model of teaching.  This year I did a chemistry unit and was just beginning to utilize some of the tools we are learning in our class. As my unit finished I found myself thinking about what I could have done. So I've decided to redesign this specific unit incorporating  apps I am discovering, more Google docs for collaborative investigations and more writing and reading components.

A new link to my outline in progress (I'm still working on the physics unit if you'd like to keep up with the previous link as well).

Blended Chemistry Unit

I also wanted to update on a blended unit I'm working on for my RTI class. My students are extremely interested in learning about the potentials colonization of Mars. This started as a text based reading exercise for comprehension and vocabulary skills. We read two articles about terraforming Mars and the current Mars missions. Comprehension was impressive because of the interest level.  The questions the students were coming up with after this were wonderful, inspiring, and in some ways overwhelming. We began by typing just a list of research questions. From there, I decided to create an Edmodo site that the students could interact on as they began to research.

SUCCESS!

They were amazed with the live Google Doc that we collaborated on for signing up for our research questions. I've posted different polls that the students have commented on. Students are posting support articles to the research questions.  I feel as if the students are driving the content of the unit which has been challenging but exciting as a teacher to have such an open ended goal.

 I'm posting some snapshots of this specific unit!! Click on the pictures to enlarge!

We've used the polls option for opening discussions.

                    

   These are some of the files we are sharing during our class. 

We used a live document to write our research questions and sign up for research assignments.