Turn homework on its head

I am toying with the idea of turning homework on its head in the next year or two. What if students did homework at school and listened to lectures at home?

DougPete at Off the Record wrote about students analyzing their wiki usage trends. He asks

why not turn the tables around. Issue students a textbook if you must, on the first day of school and have them take it home and leave it there. Change the day so that homework is done at school and students do their reading for the next day at home. In terms of technology, that way you could even the playing field with everyone having access to the same level of access. More importantly, the students would have access to each other for collaboration and for work.

For a variety of reasons, I don't use a textbook (and sometime I'll write about them. I'm sure you're breathlessly awaiting that post). I do spend an unfortunate amount of time talking to the students, though. And repeating myself, when a student (a) stopped paying attention (b) interrupted me so I lost my train of thought (c) was absent.

Last year, I linked to a bunch of Atomic Learning screencasts for Flash. I still taught my students what I wanted them to know, but the screencasts were there to remind them and to help students who missed class.

My students did not love Atomic Learning. They couldn't articulate why, but I have a couple of theories:

1. They're used to my voice and my style, and they didn't like being taught by someone else
2. When I teach them, I reinforce only the things I want them to know. The Atomic Learning screencasts where more hit and miss. They include information I consider irrelevant and don't always include information I consider important
3. They found them dry and boring, because it's very hard to be as enthusiastic while recording a screencast as it is in person, and a person provides extra visuals to overcome the periods where they're not talking because they're concentrating on clicking or whatever.
4. Some topics aren't covered by Atomic Learning at all. There's no Flash section. Many of the Flash topics I cover are too advanced.

Now, #1 is the kind of thing that makes me say, "get over it" except that if the kids aren't watching the videos, then we're not achieving any goals. And #3 would affect me just as much as anyone else. But #4, #2 and #1 combine to be pretty compelling. Especially since, as mentioned, most of the kids aren't watching the videos.

We are a 1:1 laptop school and my students have the internet available outside of school. If they don't have it at home (and nearly all do) they can stay for "homework club" and do internet-needed homework then.

So I am thinking of either recording my lectures live this year or creating screencasts of my lessons. I will then make watching the screencasts the required homework. Assignments will be completed in class rather than as homework, meaning that students will have me available to help them when they run into problems, rather than toiling away at home. It's a lot of work up front, but I think the payoff could be huge.

Some of my favorite rants

We didn't have enough caffeinated coffee in the house, so we had half caf. I can tell, and not in the good way. Instead of focusing on grading, I'm surfing the web. As soon as I post this, I'm going to make more coffee (I'm at work now, I can do that) and go back to grading. Really.

In the meantime, I will leave you with my two current favorite end-of-year rants. Siobhan Curious lists 10 reasons I hate grading your assignment and Walter's generic progress report is a perennial favorite. (Well, a biennial favorite, anyway.)

Ugh. I really don't want to do the grading.

Online economy and perceived value

Last week was my last week with my students. As you might imagine, I've worked very hard to grade as much work as possible before they go. I am also responsible for our school schedule and have been working VERY hard for the past two weeks trying to make next year's schedule work. (Although we're keeping substantially the same schedule, we have some staffing changes that necessitate some deft maneuvering.)

With all this stress, I've found myself needing to blow off steam. Fortunately, @mml suggested the game Plants vs. Zombies, so I downloaded it and ran through the trial hour in a couple of days. It costs $20 to buy. This presented a dilemma. $20 felt like a lot to spend on a game; I always think carefully before I do, though I've spent that much on downloaded games before.

Then I went to the grocery store and spent $25 on odds and ends without thinking twice about it. And wondered, why is it that $25 at the grocery or a restaurant is no big deal, when $20 on a computer game or movie at the theatre seems like a lot? Now, this is the place where the psychologists would start talking about perceived value, and of course they'd be right. But instead, I'm going to marvel at the synchronicity that Ian Bogost was thinking about the exact same thing.

His article is really good, so you should go read it.

Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're out to get you

I have a student, S, who is, shall we say, "a handful". I really like her, but she is Difficult with a capital D.

Example: we've had a three-year power struggle over whether or not she is going to spend every class tipped back in her chair. This is a pet peeve of mine and the rule is "four on the floor." She will keep her feet and two chair legs on the floor and tell me "that IS four on the floor!" We finally resolved the power struggle when I began bribing her to sit up straight. I told her I'd give her a cookie if she behaved one day, and she did. I have inconsistently rewarded good behavior since then and what do you know? She CAN behave.

I was reminiscing today that she reminds me of another student, Lydia. Lydia and Evelyn were best friends and were incredibly disruptive. In seventh grade, they got on a barking kick. They would randomly and frequently bark like dogs. They could not be enticed to stop. (I was a new teacher; I didn't have a lot of tricks to try.) They mostly only did it in my class. Every period with them was a trial.

Finally, I had a talk with Lydia and the guidance counselor had a talk with Evelyn, where we told them how awful it was. They were flabbergasted. Truly shocked. I said, "Lydia, I yell at you guys to stop all the time!" She told me, "but we love joking around with you! You never get mad, you just laugh." I told her, "I hate it. I get so frustrated. Every day when I leave your class, I'm in a terrible mood. It isn't funny to me." They stopped after that.

Lydia is my touchstone to not take student behavior personally. Even when I think they couldn't possibly be unaware how irritating they are, chances are much better that they have no idea than that they do. (Disclaimer: this may not be true in other schools.) I can't think of one time when I've tracked down even truly shocking behavior and had the kid have any malicious intent.

It's one of the reasons I love kids - they're so self-absorbed and it's completely developmentally appropriate. If adults behaved this way, I would either be mad because it was intentional or I would be mad because they ought to predict the impact of their behavior. With kids, once I stop being mad, I just laugh. (Barking? Really?) I guess Lydia had a point.

Reflection

Today I am giving the students a "final quiz". It is not comprehensive, as it covers only programming we've done this semester. Their final project was due on Tuesday; we've been working on it since February.

This semester there have been a chorus of complaints about how awful Python is. I have a number of students who are very far behind - like the one I made stay in at lunch on Tuesday and got her caught up to the end of March. They all miss Flash - which I think is funny, since they hated Flash while we were doing it.

At the end of the quiz, I asked them how the quiz was. The quiz this semester was on paper; last semester it was online. They thought the quiz was straightforward, which was my goal - no trick questions. They told me they thought it was easier because it was on paper instead of online, which I thought was interesting. They're much more practiced at taking quizzes and tests on paper than online, so navigating how to answer the computerized questions was a little challenge. Finally, by a two-to-one margin, they preferred programming in python to working with Flash. They found it much more straightforward.

I also asked them to do a final reflection on "Why study computer science?" They answered the same question at the beginning of the year, so it will be interesting to see how their answers change.

Stories from the Week

1. A student has not handed in the past several assignments. (The beauty/horror of this statement is that it is completely anonymous because so many students are in the same boat.) I let the parents know. The parents e-mail me back and say, "she has uploaded them." I check. She has not uploaded them to the assignment spaces in Moodle for my class. I e-mail the parents back and let them know. They respond "perhaps there is some misunderstanding. She told us she finished the work. Can you show her how to turn the work in correctly?" I write back and say, "yes, I can show her how to turn work in, but we have used the same process all year and she was able to turn work in as recently as five weeks ago, when she last turned in anything."

2. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday, with a doctor whose office annoys me. They are not as flexible as I would like and frequently want me to come in when I need to be teaching. (There are many examples and yes, I realize that their appointment schedule does not revolve around my personal needs.) I convince another teacher to sub. When my sub calls in sick and needs me to cover her classes, I do so and find a substitute sub to cover for both of us. During the appointment, the doctor says, "I'll be quick so you can get back to school." I responded, "no need, my class is going on right now and it's only 50 minutes long." She replied, "oh, so did you just reschedule it?" Seriously? I now understand why they're inflexible if they really don't understand that you can't reschedule eighth grade classes.

3. I got to hang out on Friday night with two friends who are also teachers, and who I haven't seen in a year. Swapping war stories is always entertaining. I miss them and wish it could conspire that we could see each other more frequently.

Masters degree

Jane (of See Jane Compute) and ScienceWoman have both posted stories about pursuing masters degrees that kind of make my hair stand on end. Especially Jane's. I don't have a terrible advisor story, but I thought I'd post about my masters anyway.

My masters experience was just weird. I thought about getting a masters for a long time. After I got two bachelors, I started working for the university. Eventually I moved out of the $7/hour job and into one with benefits, including fee remission. I couldn't decide between nutrition or information science, and for a long time it didn't matter since I was busy planning a wedding.

The week after I got back from my honeymoon, I was at lunch with a group. Our best man announced, "my class starts tonight. I don't want to take it alone. Who will go with me?" I wasn't doing anything that night, so I signed up. It was kind of boring, but kind of fun. I learned about flowcharting the operations of a hamburger stand. It was relevant to my work. The next semester, I took another class with my friend. I couldn't get any more credit after that if I didn't apply to the information science program, so I did. I convinced my boss and a colleague to write me letters of recommendation. I kept taking a class at a time in addition to working full time. It was fun. I learned really interesting things, like how to plan a library building and that it is a warning sign someone is embezzling if they refuse to ever take time off from work. I learned how to program in Perl. I learned about the history of magazines in the US and speculated about how Borders.com, B&N.com, and Amazon.com would work out.

Eventually, I joined some kind of leadership group for my program and started making friends. I found out that other people had researched different programs and chosen mine. It had never occurred to me to think critically about grad school, it was just there. Oh, and did I mention that my program didn't require the GRE? That helped.

If you want gossip, I will let you know that I became friends with my husband's ex-girlfriend. THE ex-girlfriend. The one who practically ruined his life. I became friends with her before I knew who she was. I remember the day I figured it out. "Huh, that's the same name as the ex. And she's from the same place. And has other similar features. What a funny coincidence. Honey, what's the ex's last name?" I was shocked that she didn't have horns, she was really nice. He was all, "um yeah, that's why I loved her so much."

Because I was just taking a class or two at a time and wasn't on a Quest for Employability, I didn't really interact with my advisor. I took a class from him my last semester and it was great. I went to a party he was at and after I turned in my final paper, he took me (and others) out for a beer. But otherwise, I can't say we really interacted. I was much closer to another professor. My program also didn't require a thesis or research, just classes. I took what I wanted, when I wanted (or more accurately, when classes were offered in the evening and weekends.)

In the end I graduated about two years earlier than I'd hoped. We decided to move across the country for a Great Opportunity and so I stayed in town six months in order to go to school full time so I could get the degree. It was not optimal, especially since I was also working full time since I needed the salary and benefits. The very last month of school, I quit my job. It was GREAT. I would never work full time while I was in school again - the opportunity to think deeply, research more, collaborate with classmates, and just experience school was something I missed. But I couldn't have gotten my degree if I hadn't done it the way I did, so I don't regret my experience either.

I told a friend about this recently. She'd like a masters but isn't sure in what. I told her to just try it! Everyone she knows has a Big Plan for grad school and she doesn't. I'm the poster child for not having a plan doesn't mean you won't have a great experience.