It’s a Lesson…It’s a Study Guide…No, it’s a Moodle Quiz!
That’s right! Ever thought about using a quiz for a lesson? Or how about as a study guide? It’s easy, and it’s all in how you set it up. Instead of an assessment tool, re-purpose as an active learning activity where students can: Watch a video clip. Go to websites...
Thinking Inside The Box
Thinking Inside The Box By Brian Sweeney I spent two years in Germany with the U.S. Army, providing bomb disposal support to highly classified missions. I would get a call telling me to get to an airfield within usually 6 hours, without being told where I was going...
Lifetime Writing Prompt & Order of Magnitude
Instead of telling the students what the concept of order of magnitude is, I let them discover its meaning through a writing prompt. Following is the prompt statement (derived from a Just-In-Time physics question), the students' results, & the lead up to the...
An Argument Against Averaging Student Grades & Using the Killer Zero
Averaging student grades is an inaccurate way of measuring what they've achieved in class. At the end of the semester, do you add up all the points a student has earned throughout the term and then divide that number by the total amount of points possible to determine...
Own It: Learn How to Learn
When I look back on my college education I see class time spent listening to lectures and watching instructors work math problems on the board. Seldom, if ever, were we students given class time to think something through or work something out for ourselves. If...
In Search of the Somatic
My writings involve movement descriptions taken from my classroom. I am trying to bring the reader into a dance classroom to catch a glimpse of movement education. "We will start with an inhaling breath. On the exhale, bring both knees to the chest. Feel the flexion...
Active Learning: More Than Just Busy
Many of our classrooms have been active for years, maybe decades. In a typical CIT course, for example, students interact with hardware and/or software almost every time they meet. But is doing enough to guarantee learning? Are students forming synapses - or are they...
Video Games and the Learning Process
When I first learned to play Monopoly, we had the pressed cardboard game area, the small pieces (I always wanted the car), and the rulebook near in case we needed to check if someone was playing fair. We read the book, set up the board, dealt the money, and began to...
Audio Recording Feedback to Students
Often there are time constraints in providing detailed and individualized feedback to a large number of students regarding their class participation or a particular assignment. An audio recording can facilitate your provision of this feedback and allow you to explore...
Covering All The Bases for Student Success: Beyond Early Feedback
Amjad Khan and Tracy Russo Given the recent pennant race with many ups and downs for Tigers fans, a baseball metaphor seemed appropriate to frame strategies helping students score in school. Bring home the run Over the many years of my teaching experience, I have...