Past projects 3
A Good Place to Sit and Think
Funded Dec 23, 2017Our students LOVE their new cushions. The cushions make the students feel at ease in my classroom. When it is time to work independently, I see them grab a cushion, and a headphone bag, and carve out their own little space in the classroom. When we are not doing independent work, I have seen them grab a cushion and use it to make their chair more comfortable. When students forget their glasses and can't see from the back, they nonchalantly grab a cushion and take a seat in the front of the room. Once, we had a bad weather day and only had a handful of students show up to school so we decided to watch a documentary and the students used the cushions to build a chaise lounge. I like the relaxed and chill vibe that we have in the room.
When my students first saw the materials, they took them out of the wrapping and commented on how colorful and sturdy the cushions were. Then they engaged in silliness by boxing the cushion and pretending to have pillow fights. Some wore them around like hats. Soon we all settled down and they used them to make their chairs more comfortable.
I really like the flexible seating options that our cushions provide. As much as I would love to have couches or ottomans, those items take up a lot of space. Our cushions actually serve double duty, not only do they make chairs more comfortable or provide additional/optional seating, but they also make our classroom look nice. We have them hanging on colorful magnets on the wall. The magnets are color coded to match the cushions. It is almost like having a piece of 3-d artwork in our classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Garcia
Computer Science for All!
Funded Jul 17, 2017This Professional Development was different from so many others that I have taken. To begin, the location which hosted our event was held in an office space provided by a company called WeWork. I have never gone into a PD where the work space amazed me so much that I considered changing my career. My stress melted away and I felt at peace. I wouldn't mind coming back to a space like this. According to a few technology peers that I spoke with after the PD, Technology jobs are often held in very nice spaces with plants, healthy snacks, diverse seating options, open windows, and a variety of technology. There were many nooks and crannies where one could go to work quietly. Whether or not it was intentional, this was our first introduction to Exploring Computer Science. It later dawned on me that instead of extracting myself from my classroom, that I should instead bring this back into my classroom somehow so that both my students and I could feel this way every day.
Other PDs talk about how to have a process-oriented classroom, but they don't show us. In this PD, I started with zero background knowledge and was able to experience what it was like to be a student learning something for the first time. In this PD we also often debriefed on what we were experiencing as both teachers and students, what were potential hangups, and how we could change this activity to improve it. We experienced many "twenty brains are better than one" moments. I felt like part of a group where if I couldn't solve a problem, all of us put together would definitely be able to solve it. This was something else that I wanted to bring back into my classroom.
Many times after we did an activity, we questioned not only how it tackled computer science education, but how the activity provided equity to all students. This was probably the most important concept that I could take away. The PD built these tiny habits into our modes of thinking that after every lesson we needed to reflect on how each lesson had equity built into it and how it introduced students to computer science education. As a teacher, I do reflect, but not as frequently and as immediately as we did then. Also, I realized that I don't stop often enough to make sure that we are observing the activity through a lens provided by the guiding question of the day.
In conclusion, I would like to recapitulate my takeaways. I want to change my classroom environment so that it is more like the type of professional work setting that one would find at a tech startup. This will help put my students at ease and will encourage them to come to school excited everyday to be in this safe, creative, beautiful space. I learned how to lead a process-oriented classroom because I was able to experience that first hand. Also, I want to build my classroom to have more team spirit so that we are all able to collaborate with each other instead of compete with each other. Finally, I feel like I am a more reflective person than I was before and I hope that I can help my students become just as reflective and articulate about their learning as I was in this workshop. Thank you again for this opportunity!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Garcia
This classroom project was brought to life by Infosys Foundation USA and 6 other donors.The Physics of Sound
Funded May 7, 2012Thank you for your donations to my classroom. In previous years I taught the topic of "Waves" in physics without any instruments. Although in previous years, it was convenient to have digital animations with sounds, it wasn't very meaningful to the students.
With your donations, we now have recorders in our classroom. I was able to explain sound waves with much more depth than I have been able to in the past. We studied the different components of a wave and how those relate to sound waves. Many students didn't even know that sound traveled in waves to begin with. We practiced changing different components of waves mathematically and then we practiced with our recorders.
We were able to analyze music note frequencies with our calculators on paper and then actually hear the frequencies with our instruments. When the frequency doubled, the note was the same, except it was higher. That used to be a difficult concept to understand because students had always confused "higher" with "louder" and even playing it on the piano didn't seem to resonate with them too much. It's a beautiful thing to see that being responsible for being able to play "low C" and "high C" makes then better understand that it is the same note, but at a higher frequency.
Some students were a little more curious and even analyzed frequencies between different octaves of music notes. They noticed that the pattern was similar to that of the binary number system from their Engineering class. C1 has double the frequency of C0. C2 has quadruple the frequency of C0. C3 has eight times the frequency of C0. next was 16 times, then 32 times and so on. Because we were learning how to read music as well, we noticed these numbers corresponded to the symbols for music rhythm: whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and thirty-second notes. The same patterns repeat in nature over and over. They were more than a little shocked when I pointed out these patterns on a simple ruler as well.
Students were able to notice that when many of them played the same note, the sound was louder than when any one student played alone. They understood that the amplitudes were adding up and this is what made the sound waves loud. They were tickled when they noticed that the notes weren't changing, the sounds somehow just kept getting louder. They're first description of it was "creepy", but they were all smiles.
We even assigned numbers to the notes and in this way, we noticed that odd numbered notes sound nicer with other odd numbered notes (Example: If C is "1", D is "2", E is "3"; then C and E sound good together) and even numbered notes sounded better with other evens. Some of us were even able to figure out some simple songs like Happy Birthday.
The other day we learned that by changing one frequency slightly will produce a different mood. In music we called this "major" and "minor", and in class we described these simply as "happy" sounds and "sad or scary" sounds.
Some students had played recorders at their schools before. When I wanted everyone to hear examples, I called on these students to play. They took great pride in being able to model for the entire class.
Even the troubles that we had served a purpose. Some students couldn't get the low notes to come out. They made the connection that it was because of how they covered the holes. When they covered the holes, the length of the instrument was different. They noticed that covering all of the holes made lower notes a uncovering holes made higher notes.
Lastly, we learned that when sound frequencies are slightly different, that they make "sour" sounds. We had learned that these sounds were "off pitch" and "out of tune", but it was only after experiencing it, that we decided to call them "sour" sounds.
We have many things to learn since every day we keep discovering new things and making new connections. Every day more teachable moments pop up out of the woodwork. It's really nice to be able to pass along my love of music and physics with the students at the level that I can do so now. Thank you for this opportunity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Garcia
This classroom project was brought to life by Wells Fargo and 7 other donors.