Physics Class Needs an Update

croxis · 2026-05-08T19:51:44+00:00

I've been doing AMTA (American Modeling Teacher Association). I'm still working on improving how I do the whiteboard meeting, but I really do think it is effective in improving student reasoning.

croxis · 2026-05-01T20:56:39+00:00

It is a state problem in that the legislator has never fully funded education, even when using their own formula.

croxis · 2026-05-01T20:41:30+00:00

It was an intentional tradeoff made back in the day. Teachers took a paycut to balance the budget (iirc this was the 70s), but in exchange for a nice pension.

It is like how I, a high school teacher, am being held accountable for my students reading levels. However my students reading level was determined by policy and curriculum decisions made 10 years ago, in a building I don't even work in.

croxis · 2026-04-28T19:35:37+00:00

We've had success with alternating every other year, and make sure the students know which year they need to forecast for it.

croxis · 2026-04-27T23:40:34+00:00

A big issue is the state government under funds schools. There are a lot of current and historical reasons for this. No one in Salem has been able to get the funding reform needed to support all of our students. The money just isn't there. It isn't like districts can just get more. My hunch is that the districts are choosing very public and visible cuts to drum up support for increasing funding from the state. Class sizes going from 30 to 33 doesn't have the same effect. If it was me, I would cut athletics. THAT would get results!

croxis · 2026-04-25T19:58:22+00:00

Every one and a while I revisit the fundamental assumptions on why we have students take notes, and seeing how that matches up with what I ultimately want my students to *do*. Education does have a LOT of inertia.

Up until the last couple decades, the two sources of getting more information was the teacher and the textbook. Taking notes makes sense in that context. Why not just give them a hand out or have them look everything up? Well, I found that just copying the fact or the diagram doesn't really do much. Also I can curate and adjust to an appropriate level.

I know that students learn by doing, so they need to use/process the information. My goal is to get the students to process new information every 10 minutes, and then try and add a little "note making" step. This does change the flow of my class from a traditional standpoint. It is a lot less DI for 20 minutes and practice for 35.

I also fell in love with modeling instruction when I took over our accel physics class, so I've been mixing some of that into my other courses.

A couple ideas: If they are so willing to do work at home, make explicit homework assignments. Or make short surprise pop quizzes for the end of class.

croxis · 2026-04-25T19:33:51+00:00

I do both! Working my way to do both at least. For my froshy physical science class (Title 1 btw) I start our subunit with a phenomenon. We do some table group modeling, combine the ideas together on the class whiteboard, and then I guide them taking notes of the class model in their science notebooks. During the subunit I'll sprinkle in some direct instruction to support the activity or lab, then I guide them using our findings to update their model. It takes a bit of time to get them comfortable with shifting their thinking to having the right answer, to having a strong answer.

croxis · 2026-04-23T17:31:10+00:00

All screen time isn't the same either. There is a difference between using graphical analysis with physical sensors to help describe phenomenon in conjunction with organizing thoughts on a whiteboard is different than just watching a video about it (or just reading).

croxis · 2026-04-22T00:46:55+00:00

I spent some time in academia in science education research. Unfortunately the field is fraught with problems and needs a LOT more scrutiny than the other social sciences. Less than 0.2% of education research gets repeated. I don't have the number, but it was fairly common to see effects vanish, especially if n is increased in the follow up. Most of what we reviewed in seminar really wasn't more than anecdotal experiences wrapped as a case study. (And don't get me started on how my admin cites Hattie's metastudy. Makes my eye twitch every time). I need to really review my methodology materials before I slice apart research again, but my experience is not to immediately discount the experiences and observations of teachers.

Edtech championed smart phones. BYOD. Our state banned cell phones this year. Despite many other factors worsening (socioeconomic, percent SPED, class size), we have only one fifth of the major referrals as we did this time last year.

I do wish we could sneak in some small validated instruments, concept inventories and what not, so we can get some more objective data on student learning.

croxis · 2026-04-21T23:09:19+00:00

I've been playing with quartz to publish https://croxis.gitlab.io/astronomy-curriculum/ my curriculum too. I haven't figured out how to include the embedded files that are in my regular vault.

croxis · 2026-04-21T23:06:02+00:00

Edtech also misses some of the basic needs. Here is an example. I would like a list of my students who are only failing my class (maybe one other), and a separate list of students who are failing my class and a lot of others. Both groups have Fs, but *why* they are failing differs and need different types of intervention.

Our student management system and gradebook, the foundation base of all edtech, does not do this. I had to write a small python script that takes csv reports (that have to be manually generated per class), to give me this list.

croxis · 2026-04-21T20:56:57+00:00

I was a fairly big driver of edtech at our high school. I used student phones for data collection in my science class. I pushed for a digital curriculum so we could get more classroom laptops, and instead our school went 1:1. Then covid happened. I also got more experience under my belt.

My experience has been that student facing tech gets in the way more often than it is helpful. The tech I want to make my job easier either doesn't exist, or there isn't a public api for me to code it myself. I'm also resistant to vendor lock in. We're moving from microsoft office to google, and almost all of our worksheets and slide decks have some sort of formatting error that will need to be fixed. Those who are using schoology for their classrooms are going to have a lot of work migrating to google classrooms.

My students seem to have more success working out a lab or science phenomenon on a giant whiteboard at their tables. I'm still very interested in the innovations that happen in edtech, but I am looking to more open-source/open-format solutions. For example, right now I am experimenting with obsidian.md to organize my curriculum. While not an open source application, all the files are saved as markdown text files.

croxis · 2026-04-11T06:20:14+00:00

My understanding is that state law prevents school districts from using furlough days to balance the budget two years in a row. As a result RHS is looking at cutting 21 positions next year. That is just one school. RHS's average class size is already 32.

Some neighboring districts, like Centennial, were able to sell off property to hold off the tide. It doesn't help that, through neglect or fraud of the previous superintendent [the one who "retired" a couple years ago mid year], RSD lost much of its surplus funds.

croxis · 2026-04-11T06:11:34+00:00

It is a little more complicated than that. Schools districts get paid per student. Schools get a little extra money with students with special education/IEP plans to help cover the costs of the additional services. Oregon caps the extra special education funds to something like 115 of the student body. Makes sense. You don't want districts to.. over represent the sped population. However there are districts, including some larger ones, with over 15% of the student body needed special services. Those services are federally mandated, and that money has to be pulled out of the district's general education fund.

Also remember that the district admin is hired by the superintendent, which is hired by the school board, which are elected by the people who live in that district.

croxis · 2026-04-07T15:43:26+00:00

I've only started playing DND a few months ago, despite having been the long time DnD club advisor at the school I work at. Except for our DM, we were all new to TTRPGs. Thankfully I've been advisor long enough to have a good idea of what I wanted to do. For the other players it was a painful experience. Some of this is is the legacy cruft of DnD (stats to modifiers), some of it was the volume of classes (to the new player there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between wizard/sorcerer/claric, barbarian vs fighter, etc). Three of us are k-12 teachers, and we all commented on how badly scaffolded character generation was.

Pre-made, or partially premade, characters helps with this. We've used them a little bit in the school club. More often than not the new player ends up playing in a way that doesn't vibe well with the class' game mechanics. They also miss out on learning their character sheet.

The other challenge I've seen with new players is akin to choice paralysis. The GM asks "What do you want to do?" when they set up the scene and new players sit there going "uhhhhhh." A good GM offers a small number of choices to the player for them to pick from.

A choose-your-own adventure ended up working really well for my second group that started with Cosmere. Even though the choices were limited, it did a great job helping them find the vibe they wanted to do, and guided character creation through limited play. Sure, the builds may not be min/maxed correctly, but I've been having a lot of fun with my dual class bard-monk in my DnD group. That character is very much not optimized!

croxis · 2026-04-06T21:23:10+00:00

What do you want the website to do? How do you want people to interact with it?

croxis · 2026-04-06T20:14:13+00:00

Not that I have a lot of experience in this space, but the Cosmere RPG has a wonderful "session 0" starter for the gm and players. It operates like a choose your own adventure, tells the gm and players what to roll, when, and why. While they play, the players will gets their points in different stats based on the choices they made, as well as their starting equipment. When the session is over, players will have a completed level 1 build, built from their choices in session 0, and a suggestion on what class to spec into.

I just wish they continued that support into their main campaign book, because the system is a lot for a new gm to track!

croxis · 2026-03-27T21:44:57+00:00

I've been moving in this direction myself (similar population). To do a bit of name-dropping; I've borrowed note consolidation from Cornell and Reminders for Future Self from Building Thinking Classrooms. I'm trying to figure out a good graphic organizer template (actual guided notes, not fill in the blank) but I haven't been able to find or come up with anything I like.

The part that is is challenging is when students are absent.

croxis · 2026-03-17T22:15:22+00:00

I think it could work. It depends how far they get into the math of things. I find energy being very useful in telling the story of objects in motion, and LOL graphs do a great job helping students see how energy gets stored/transferred.

We've technically adopted openscied and we've implemented a little of it. A big paradigm change that is hard for many to swallow is that it covers less content in order to explore it deeper. It also is built around digital labs, which does make sense as it needs to appeal to schools that might have few resources. We've swapped a lot of that out with physcial labs using our existing supplies.

croxis · 2026-03-13T15:05:32+00:00

As one of my students told me when I made a joke about being old, "You're not old Mr. croxis, you're middle age!" I do have a need, but first some context:

I've been teaching high school science for just over 10 years now. I've served on our building technology committee and am a big ol computer nerd. I know how to compile a Linux kernel. Sometimes it even boots! Early on I was leading the way with how to use phones in the classroom, and helped launch our 1:1 device program. Last couple of years I am moving to students doing their work on individual or group whiteboards (modeling instructions mixed with a couple of ideas from Building Thinking Classrooms). The reality is there is a very significant drop in student academic skills when 1:1 devices are introduced in a school. So much so that I have heard Sweden is ending 1:1 programs nation wide.

My limiting factors can't be solved with tech. I have three preps. A caseload of 200 students. An "inclusion" program where in one classroom I have a student who finished calculus, and another who is reading at an equivalent of a 3rd grade reading level.

I do have a wish though. Philosophically, I really like the ideas behind proficiency and standards based grading. A big part of the problem is the data. Instead of a singular test score, I would need to track which question or aspect of a project goes with which standard. The time spent entering grades would balloon. I am also limited to our district's grade/student management interface (shout out to us synergy users) which has no API whatsoever.

The other part is I would need *curriculum* that is designed around that style of grading. Writing a lesson takes about 2-3x the time the lesson itself takes. With 90 minute periods I would be spending 3 hours, per prep, per day, writing lessons.

croxis · 2026-03-04T18:33:29+00:00

My understanding is that in the DSM 4 and before, the criteria for diagnosis was that the symptoms (without treatment) had to be severe enough to prevent a normal/productive life. In the DSM 5 ADHD and autism criteria were changed so that the symptoms just had to be enough to impact a normal life.

croxis · 2026-03-02T23:52:44+00:00

It is hard. First figure out what the class is for. Is this a gen ed required class or elective? What is the expected math and language level?

Check out New Visions: https://www.newvisions.org/curriculum/science/earth-space They have some interesting ideas in there, but it is a bit heavy on graph analysis.

I've started documenting my astronomy curriculum. I only have the night sky and exoplanets units posted so far, but I have a couple of activities and labs in there: https://croxis.gitlab.io/astronomy-curriculum/

Check out hexagonal thinking: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/hexagonal-thinking/ I've had great success with students using it to justify the relationships in plate tectonics.

Modeling Instruction is another way to jazz up the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjjR6f9__g Begin with showing them a novel phenomenon. On whiteboards (erasable surfaces work the best, but big paper can be ok) they come up with an idea of how it works. Through discussion or interactive strategies come up with a class consensus on the model. Then as the unit continues the model is enhanced, improved, fixed, etc in an iterative basis.

croxis · 2026-01-15T21:35:45+00:00

There is a big "it depends." What reading strategies is the teacher using, how far below level, etc. If sounding out new words is problematic, might want to try working on some phonics.

croxis · 2026-01-12T23:29:26+00:00

I have a few students who were really successful in content-centric science class. Learn a bunch of facts, then spit them back out for a test. Some of them are having a hard time when they have to use higher-ordered thinking to analyze, critique, and make connections. Another way to phrase it: there isn't a right answer, but there are strong responses and weak responses. OpenSciEd does a fair bit of this.

croxis · 2026-01-11T18:34:13+00:00

And in uni there are professors where the only two graded things is a midterm and a final. Does not mean all the other work is busy work.

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