Trying some new things

Well this blog has lain fallow for long enough!

This semester I am trying a pile of new things. I am kicking myself, but if it was easy then it would be the same old thing!! I have been worried about pseudo teaching ever since coming across Frank Noschese's blog post about the subject.  I wonder and question whether the things I have been doing were really useful for the students or just useful entertainment.

So, this semester, I am trying two things, Genius Hour or some variation of it, and Modeling Instruction.   I dont know how well they will go.... I am going to use this space a a public way to keep me honest with the world and not slink back into lecturing at the students.  The curricular work I have seen for modeling is for high school mostly and I dont think I can restructure the class in a short enough time frame to build ideas from the historical context and the lab is separate and everyone in the class is not the same as in the lab.  Still...  such promise...

Well maybe I should quit writing about what I am doing and just do it. ;)