NFL Picks ~ Week Seventeen

Hello and welcome to a special Friday edition of Tuesdays. It's the last week of the regular season in the NFL, and if I can pick up some wins this week, I'm poised to enter the playoffs with a decent record for the season. I'm currently 14 games over .500, at 122-108-10.

Here are this week’s picks…

Philadelphia giving 8.5 to Washington
WIN
Philadelphia 34 - Washington 10

Atlanta giving 11 to Tampa Bay
WIN
Atlanta 45 - Tampa Bay 24

San Francisco giving 10.5 to St.
LOSS
San Francisco 34 - St. Louis 27

Minnesota giving 1.5 to Chicago
LOSS
Chicago 17 - Minnesota 13

Detroit giving 3 to Green Bay
LOSS
Green Bay 45 - Detroit 21

Dallas getting 3 from NY Giants
LOSS
NY Giants 31 - Dallas 14

New Orleans giving 7.5 to Carolina
WIN
New Orleans 45 - Carolina 17

Tennessee giving 2.5 to Houston
LOSS
Tennessee 23 - Houston 22

Cincinnati getting 2 from Baltimore
LOSS
Baltimore 24 - Cincinnati 16

Pittsburgh giving 7 to Cleveland
LOSS
Pittsburgh 13 - Cleveland 6

Indianapolis getting 3.5 from Jacksonville
LOSS
Jacksonville 19 - Indianapolis 13

NY Jets getting 3 from Miami
WIN
Miami 19 - NY Jets 17

New England giving 10 to Buffalo
WIN
New England 45 - Buffalo 21

Oakland giving 3 to San Diego
LOSS
San Diego 38 - Oakland 26

Denver giving 3 to Kansas City
LOSS
Kansas City 7 - Denver 3

Seattle getting 3 from Arizona
PUSH
Arizona 23 - Seattle 20


WEEK SEVENTEEN RECORD: 5-10-1

2011 - 2012 Record: 127-118-11
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

NFL Picks ~ Week Sixteen

Hello and welcome to a special Thursday edition of Tuesdays. It's week 16 in the NFL, the Eagles are still alive, and I'm up to 12 games over .500, at 113-101-10. Here are this week’s picks…

Indianapolis getting 6.5 from Houston
WIN
Indianapolis 19 - Houston 16

Kansas City giving 2.5 to Oakland
LOSS
Oakland 16 - Kansas City 13

Denver giving 3 to Buffalo
LOSS
Buffalo 40 - Denver 14

Tennessee giving 7.5 to Jacksonville
LOSS
Tennessee 23 - Jacksonville 17

Cincinnati giving 4 to Arizona
WIN
Cincinnati 23 - Arizona 16

New England giving 9.5 to Miami
LOSS
New England 27 - Miami 24

Baltimore giving 12.5 to Cleveland
LOSS
Baltimore 20 - Cleveland 14

NY Jets giving 3 to NY Giants
LOSS
NY Giants 29 - NY Jets 14

Minnesota getting 6.5 from Washington
WIN
Minnesota 33 - Washington 26

Carolina giving 7.5 from Tampa Bay
WIN
Carolina 48 - Tampa Bay 16

Pittsburgh giving 14 to St. Louis
WIN
Pittsburgh 27 - St. Louis 0

Detroit giving 2.5 to San Diego
WIN
Detroit 38 - San Diego 10

San Francisco giving 2.5 to Seattle
LOSS
San Francisco 19 - Seattle 17

Philadelphia getting 1.5 from Dallas
WIN
Philadelphia 20 - Dallas 7

Green Bay giving 12 to Chicago
WIN
Green Bay 35 - Chicago 21

New Orleans giving 6.5 to Atlanta
WIN
New Orleans 45 -Atlanta 16

WEEK SIXTEEN RECORD: 9-7-0

2011 - 2012 Record: 122-108-10
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

The iPad Cart

Hello and welcome to Tuesdays with Swindy.

Our district is in the process of purchasing iPads, which I've only used or seen used in classrooms as personal mobile devices. However, to get them in the hands of more students, there is a plan to use them on carts, which will be shared by multiple students throughout a day.

Many apps are geared toward a single user. I track my diet and excercise with MyFitnessPal, designed for one user. My Google Reader is populated by my specific RSS feeds, and I've trained my own Dragon speech recognition app. Even the app I'm using to write this blog post (BlogBooster) is associated with my individual Google account, and linked specifically with this Blogspot account.

So how can the iPad serve multiple students effectively? We are tasked with finding the right apps to put on the image to work best in an environment with multiple users.

What suggestions do you have?

NFL Picks ~ Week Fifteen

Hello and welcome to a special Thursday edition of Tuesdays. After a huge week (at least in the 1 p.m. games; for some reason I tailed off in the afternoon), I’m coming down the homestretch 11 games over .500, at 105-94-9. While I won’t reach those 150-win seasons I used to get in the early 2000s, I should outperform the last three years by just going 33 – 23 from here on out. Here are this week’s picks…

Atlanta giving 13.5 to Jacksonville
WIN
Atlanta 41 – Jacksonville 14

Tampa Bay getting 6.5 from Dallas
LOSS
Dallas 31 - Tampa Bay 15

Washington getting 6.5 from NY Giants
WIN
Washington 23 - NY Giants 10

Green Bay giving 13.5 to Kansas City
LOSS
Kansas City 19 - Green Bay 14

New Orleans giving 6.5 to Minnesota
WIN
New Orleans 42 - Minnesota 20

Chicago giving 3.5 to Seattle
LOSS
Seattle 38 - Chicago 14

Miami to beat Buffalo
WIN
Miami 30 - Buffalo 23

Carolina getting 6 from Houston
WIN
Carolina 28 - Houston 13

Tennessee giving 6.5 to Indianapolis
LOSS
Indianapolis 27 - Tennessee 13

Cincinnati giving 6.5 to St. Louis
WIN
Cincinnati 20 - St. Louis 13

Detroit giving 1 to Oakland
PUSH
Detroit 28 - Oakland 27

Denver getting 7 from New England
LOSS
New England 41 - Denver 23

Philadelphia giving 3 to NY Jets
WIN
Philadelphia 45 - NY Jets 19

Arizona giving 6.5 to Cleveland
LOSS
Arizona 20 - Cleveland 17

Baltimore giving 2.5 to San Diego
LOSS
San Diego 34 - Baltimore 14

San Francisco giving 3 to Pittsburgh
WIN
San Francisco 20 - Pittsburgh 3

WEEK FIFTEEN RECORD: 8-7-1

2011 - 2012 Record: 113-101-10
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

My Ideal Grading Policy

I've been thinking more and more lately about returning to the classroom after working in several different positions in the technology, curriculum and learning departments for what will be 5 years this Spring. Something I am excited to try, while at the same time intimidates me (because I know how much work it will take to carry out) is to go completely S.B.G.

If I were handing out a standards-based grading policy in the Fall, what would it look like?

This is going to be a recurring post where I start to outline my policy little by little, and I will invite the department chair and an assistant principal to give me feedback on these blog posts, if they are willing, so I may continue to revise it, just as I would do if I were conferencing with them at the beginning of a school year (but with a lot more time to plan and get it right before sending it to parents).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear students, parents and guardians,

Welcome to English "X." I look forward to working with you this year, discovering and learning content and skills in a subject that fascinates me. Our district's curriculum for grade "X," level "Y" includes "#Z" clearly stated Key Concepts and Essential Skills (KCES) with which students must become proficient by year's end. We also have the guidance of "#N" state standards for students of this grade and level, to which our KCES have been carefully aligned. The curriculum also includes several novels, poems, plays, and works of nonfiction, as well as standardized benchmark assessments and writing assignments, which our English teaching faculty and district administrators have carefully reviewed, aligned, and often paced out for our students. Most teachers progress through the content of the curriculum in a specific order, and due to the nature of our four-quarter grading system, must assign grades to each student at given dates throughout the year.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer the three essential reasons why I will not be doing that last part.

1) First and foremost, students do not all learn at the same pace. If our state standards tell us a student should be proficient with a given skill by the end of the year, and I teach it in the first quarter, some students will master it quickly while others will not. Under the typical grading system, the students who have not performed well when the quarter ends will earn lower grades than those who learned more quickly. So what happens when those same students who did not "get it" right away eventually discover the learning or master the skills later in the year? Why shouldn't their grades from the beginning of the year be changed to reflect the skills or learning they acquired? In my class, those grades will be changed... up or down. Otherwise, we would be rewarding students who learned quickly, instead of rewarding students who learned, retained, and put to use the skills they developed.

2) The world for which we are preparing our students has changed, yet much of our educational system is still based on preparing students for work in jobs and systems that no longer exist. Our students will hold many jobs in their lifetimes, and those jobs will require 21st Century Skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Our students will need to face new, unforeseen challenges and adapt to find creative solutions. Memorizing facts, figures, dates, and rules is no longer a way to prepare students for a world where they can access all this information from a device that fits in their hand, but need to instead know how to effectively find and use this information.

3) I am a believer in project-based learning and discovery learning. I do not want my students to tell me what I taught them by simply answering questions on a multiple-choice test or "writing my own words back to me" in an essay or research paper. I want my students to apply the skills we are given by state standards and our KCES to solve a real problem in our community, or in working with their peers to think critically about an issue or topic that is important to them. My students will instead build an electronic portfolio that can serve almost like a checklist, and they will need to demonstrate proficiency or mastery of all the skills and standards expected of them throughout the year.

There are many educators around the state and nation who are making the shift to this standards-based grading, and I am one of them. In an ideal world, we would not need grades, as students who are engaged in the content will learn what they know is important to them and will benefit them throughout their lives. However, we must function within a system (considering class rank, GPA, college admissions, etc.) that requires us to give quarterly grades. Therefore, your student will have a grade for English "X" at report card time, just like any other class. The main difference is that those grades will be fluid, and can go up as skills and standards are mastered.

Our high school's grades are broken down like this:

Grading Scale for Marking Periods

A+ 97 – 100%

A 90 – 96%

B+ 87 – 89%

B 80 – 86%

C+ 77 – 79%

C 70 – 76%

D 65 – 69%

E 50 – 64%

F Below 50%

E 50 – 64% (Remediation permitted)
F Below 50% (Remediation not permitted)
All numeric averages will be rounded to the nearest whole number.

Therefore, in order to have an A for the first quarter, students will need to have demonstrated proficiency in at least 90% of "1/4 #N" state standards and 90% of "1/4 #Z" KCES, as well as read and aligned projects to 90% of 1/4 of assigned readings and vocabulary words. Grades will be issued accordingly based on students' electronic portfolios at the close of the first marking period, but if performance improves in the second marking period, the grade for the first will be raised. For example, a student whose portfolio only demonstrated proficiency with 50% of the 1/4 "#Z+N" at the close of the first marking period, but now has demonstrated proficiency with 75% of the 1/2 "#Z+N" at the close of the second quarter, should now have a C for both quarters instead of an F and a C.

Students can demonstrate proficiency or mastery of skills by submitting a project that requires them to use those skills in their own use, connected to their own interests, ideal future career, or experiences. Along with each project, students must submit a few sentences that explain why their project proves they have become proficient with the skill or standard. Proficiency for each will be determined by ongoing mini conferences in which the student and I both come to a "pass/fail" consensus on whether the skill was mastered. If this sounds arbitrary or subjective, please understand that is not. It may seem that way because we are all so used to an educational system where students answer questions on a test, and their percentage "correct" determines their grades. To me, that process is subjective and arbitrary. After all, the tests are man made. What I'm after is the students' ability to take what they have learned and apply it, much as they will need to do throughout life with the skills they develop in school and thereafter.

Throughout the year, I will suggest ideas for projects that tie-in skills and standards that align with the works in our curriculum. It will be expected that every student completes every reading that is included in the curriculum, but students will be permitted to do so at their own pace. Students who wish to follow my suggested pacing will have the benefit of suggested projects that allow them to demonstrate mastery of state standards and KCES as they align easily with each assigned reading. Students who do not follow my suggested pacing for reading assignments will have the benefit of reading at their own pace, and making their own connections between the readings and projects that demonstrate their acquired skills.

Several times throughout the year I will take a more traditional approach to a reading, writing, vocabulary or grammar assignment and have the class working together at the same time. This will enable class discussions and shared discovery learning, but the grading policy will still be in effect. If a student can show mastery in April of the KCES associated with a novel from the first marking period, that student's first marking period grade can be changed to reflect this progress.

During the first week of school, I will provide instruction and class time for students to log in to their accounts with North Penn's Google Docs domain, where they will share their portfolio documents with me throughout the year. I will be able to read, comment, suggest changes, recommend different approaches to projects, and offer guidance. During every class, the environment will be such that students will work independently on their mastery projects, while each having a few minutes face-to-face to conference with me. I firmly believe that this will enable me to offer more 1:1 instruction over the course of a year than any other approach that exists in education outside of private tutoring!

Students who are unable to use this preferred electronic portfolio will be permitted to do on paper everything their classmates do online.

I am always available to discuss your students' progress and can be reached via email (email) or phone (phone). I encourage this communication as one of the most important keys to a student's success, so please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

I look forward to helping guide our students to long-term mastery of the content in our curriculum as they become lifelong learners in English.

Sincerely,
Scott Swindells

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow! This became a MUCH longer post than I originally intended. This is only a starting point. There are going to be countless obstacles to implementing this type of grading policy, and I will need YOU to help me see what I will need to change, re-think, or fix. For starters, I already know I'll need to seriously cut this down to it's most essential information for the sake of these parents' eyesight and patience!

I will continue to revisit this grading policy as I request the feedback from the department chair, administration, and any other readers who are willing to share in the comments below!

Thank you for reading and helping with the foundation of my big plan.
See you next Tuesday!

NFL Picks ~ Week Fourteen

Welcome to a special Thursday edition of Tuesdays. It’s week 14 in the NFL, and after an 8-8 week last week kept me afloat, I’m looking to rebound with a huge week to get my winning percentage back up high. As I’ve done every week for nearly 20 years, here are my picks against the spread for every NFL game this week…

Cleveland getting 14 from Pittsburgh
WIN
Pittsburgh 14 - Cleveland 3

Indianapolis getting 16.5 from Baltimore
WIN
Baltimore 24 - Indianapolis 10

Houston getting 3 from Cincinnati
WIN
Houston 20 - Cincinnati 19

Green Bay giving 11 to Oakland
WIN
Green Bay 46 - Oakland 16

NY Jets giving 10.5 to Kansas City
WIN
NY Jets 37 - Kansas City 10

Detroit giving 10 to Minnesota
LOSS
Detroit 34 - Minnesota 28

New Orleans giving 3.5 to Tennessee
WIN
New Orleans 22 - Tennessee 17

Philadelphia getting 3 from Miami
WIN
Philadelphia 26 - Miami 10

New England giving 8 to Washington
LOSS
New England 34 - Washington 27

Carolina getting 2.5 from Atlanta
LOSS
Atlanta 31 - Carolina 23

Tampa Bay giving 2 to Jacksonville
LOSS
Jacksonville 41 - Tampa Bay 14

San Francisco giving 4 to Arizona
LOSS
Arizona 21 - San Francisco 19

Denver giving 3.5 to Chicago
LOSS
Denver 13 - Chicago 10

San Diego giving 7 to Buffalo
WIN
San Diego 37 - Buffalo 10

NY Giants getting 3.5 from Dallas
WIN
NY Giants 37 - Dallas 34

Seattle giving 5.5 to St. Louis
WIN
Seattle 30 - St. Louis 13

WEEK FOURTEEN RECORD: 10-6-0

2011 - 2012 Record: 105-94-9
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

5 Reasons Your Students Should Make Stop-Motion Videos

1) The technology involved the process can be very simple. Students can take pictures with a digital camera, put them into Windows Movie Maker, add a few captions and some audio, and have a finished product.

2) The technology involved the process can be very challenging. Or anywhere in between. There's really something for students of all tech abilities here. While the basic users might take fewer pictures and spend more time learning how to import them, or change the length of each picture in the timeline, more advanced users could make more fluid productions, taking more pictures, and saving time in the editing and production, where they have more familiarity. These students should not be hemmed in to using a specific program, but could be free to choose other editing programs based on experience or preference.

3) Students can't avoid the writing! In order to make this work, all students will need to carefully plan their scripts in advance. They will have to have an idea of the complete story arc before they start moving pieces around to make them appear to move on screen. They will need a clear picture of the beginning, middle, and end of their narrative. They will need dialogue and text, and they'll need to make it match with imagery. Before they can do any of this, they'll need a clear understanding of their topic and the message(s) they want to convey. As with any video project, the planning and the writing are keys to a successful production, and even the less tech-savvy educators can design rubrics that grade on these key skills instead of the "bells and whistles" of the performance aspects.

4) Students get to showcase their humor and other personal skills and interests. The videos can be lighthearted and funny because... well, it's hard to avoid humor when making a stop-motion video! There's just something about the way it moves that reminds us of a 1980s BBC production. But it's not just a sense of humor that will shine through these productions. Your actors will do great voices. Your singers and musicians will find a way to get their musicality involved. Your techie kids will showcase their editing skills. Your photography enthusiasts will set up great angles in the perfect light. See what I'm getting at here? There is a "hook" to engage everyone in the classroom that will keep them excited about the project and drive them to do all the work it takes to learn the content and master the skills they need to tell their stories.

5) We're talking long-term memory. These projects don't let students simply cram facts and figures to pass a test and forget them ten minutes later. When students combine imagery, audio, music, and text, to tell a story in their own words based on content they've learned, there are countless stimuli at work that build mental connections that become retrieval cues for later recollection. Don't believe me? How did you learn the alphabet? State capitals? What grammar rules can you remember? Do they rhyme? The more senses we can involve in the learning process, the better connections we make to the content. For example, I saw a student last weekend whom I'd taught six or seven years ago. At first, we recognized each other, but had trouble placing names. Then we started talking about the different students in that particular English class, the different novels and plays we read (I had an advantage there, having taught the same works for so many years, but I was impressed with how much he remembered!). One of us had a fuzzy memory about whether or not I'd chaperoned a trip to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C., which I swore I hadn't and he swore I had done (I'm pretty sure I was right about this one), but when it came to the topic of Julius Caesar, it was clear he could remember the plot from this tenth grade play better than the ones he'd read in the subsequent grades. This is because he remembered Caesar as the student who'd sat next to him, Calpurnia as another (who'd dated the director), and Mark Antony and Brutus as the guys who played on the football team with him. They didn't read the play, they re-wrote it, acted it, and made the play into a movie. Years later, or even just on the final exam, students remember much better the content that they re-mixed, re-wrote, critically analyzed, or somehow made "their own" than they could possibly recall the facts they read. Or skimmed. Or crammed and forgot.

Go do this! Get started with a simple stop-motion video project in your classroom. You can even contact an Academic Integration Coach to come help you connect the project to your curriculum and put it all together . We're just a click away!

NFL Picks ~ Week Thirteen

Welcome to a special Thursday edition of Tuesdays. As the NFL season rolls into week 13, I’m trying to bounce back from a dismal 6-10 record last week to stay afloat and above .500 for the season with my NFL picks. Here they are…

Philadelphia giving 3 to Seattle
LOSS
Seattle 31 – Philadelphia 14

Tennessee getting 1.5 from Buffalo
WIN
Tennessee 23 - Buffalo 17

Chicago giving 7 to Kansas City
LOSS
Kansas City 10 - Chicago 3

Oakland getting 3 from Miami
LOSS
Miami 34 - Oakland 14

Cincinnati getting 6.5 from Pittsburgh
LOSS
Pittsburgh 35 - Cincinnati 7

Baltimore giving 6.5 to Cleveland
WIN
Baltimore 24 - Cleveland 10

NY Jets giving 3 to Washington
WIN
NY Jets 34 - Washington 19

Houston getting 2.5 from Atlanta
WIN
Houston 17 - Atlanta 10

Tampa Bay giving 3 to Carolina
LOSS
Carolina 38 - Tampa Bay 19

Denver getting 1.5 from Minnesota
WIN
Denver 35 - Minnesota 32

San Francisco giving 13 to St. Louis
WIN
San Francisco 26 - St. Louis 0

Dallas giving 4.5 to Arizona
LOSS
Arizona 19 - Dallas 13

Green Bay giving 6.5 to NY Giants
LOSS
Green Bay 38 - NY Giants 35

New England giving 20 to Indianapolis
LOSS
New England 31 - Indianapolis 24

New Orleans giving 9 to Detroit

WIN

New Orleans 31 - Detroit 17

San Diego giving 3 to Jacksonville
WIN
San Diego 38 - Jacksonville 14


WEEK THIRTEEN RECORD: 8-8-0

2011 - 2012 Record: 95-88-9
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8