Course Policies

Redo 'til Mastery

Remember that most assignments can be redone over and over and over and over again until the assignment has earned an 85 or better. However there is a catch, if the original grade is a 70 or better, I will not remind students to redo that assignment. It's their choice, their personal investment, ownership of their job - to learn. If the original grade is below a 70, I will speak with them, reminding them that they do have the opportunity to improve. 

The goal here is for students to understand that in the real world, regardless of profession, there are expectations. If these expectations are not met, they usually have two choices; (a) do it over and get it right or; (b) get fired. For whatever reason, most students do not make this connection between the real world and their first job - to learn. They do not necessarily see the intrinsic value of "the redo" other than "being forced to do it again". 

The analogy I like to ask: How many times does one fall before they mastered riding a bike? Skiing? Snowboarding? Why didn't they give up? Why didn't they settle? 

Class procedure

Typically, everyday, there is a warm-up and a cool-down question. The warm-up's purpose is two-fold; it either reviews a concept/topic discussed in a previous class period or presents a new concept/topic in a critical thinking question format. The cool-down's purpose is to always review a concept discussed that class period. Think of them as the daily two-question journal entry. They are worth 10% of the quarter's overall grade. 

After answering the warm-up question, we review that question and start that day's activities. These activities range greatly from direct instruction, self-instruction, lab work, formal and informal assessments, and basically lots of FUN. 

With about ten minutes of class left, the cool-down question is posted which gives just enough time to review it before the end of class. 

Side Note: The warm-up and cool-down questions are one attempt only; and, if you don't do either of them while in class - bummer. If absent, yes, you may do missing questions. NO, you can redo questions, it's immediate feedback (duh). Yet, you can utilize the program to help you puzzle out the answers. 

Flipped Classroom

What's a flipped classroom? 

Typically, a course can be broken down into two parts: instruction and homework. Instruction is done in the classroom with the teacher doing the instructing, while homework is the doing, demonstrating actually what was "learned", which is done independently e.g. without support, at home. Ugh, have you ever thought you were doing the homework awesomely only to find out it's completely W R O N G? AND then you have to battle with yourself which way is the right way. Think - road construction - you always go to work a certain way ... now they detour you an illogical way (you know there's a better way) but you continue - out of habit - to go the original way - the first way instead of taking the better way and thus keep getting caught in construction. 

NOW, flip it. You will do the instruction independently either by watching instructional videos or reading specific materials, then when you are in the classroom - you do, demonstrate comprehension. You use all the gathering of raw data and put it to work with the teacher there as support. NO more learning something wrong! 

There's numerous ways to accomplish this flipped classroom. I use Moodle. 

Moodle is our online classroom environment, so once you've logged in you have complete access to everything you need to complete most, if not all, assignments. Lab activities and major projects typically require specific software to be available which is available for free. Just look at carefully at the top of Moodle in the General Resource Section and there'll be a download link for the required software. 

It is expected that students do the required work outside of class time, so when they come into class they are ready to dig in and get to work. There are lots of literacy assignments to check to see whether or not the student has done the required work before class. Accountability.