EDIM 514 Week 3_Discovering Something New

In this week's larger project we were tasked to research websites that were new to us from a list provided. Within the websites, we were to find different apps / websites to explore and experience. I liked this assignment, because having the freedom to explore is always more fun than being "placed in a box" of one website. The last grad class I took, I actually had Kathy Schrock as my professor, so I already have used her website. I have known about eduteacher.net, but I have never really looked into it. I finally did just that, and I thought it is a really cool site. The first thing i noticed about the site is that it is very easy to navigate and filter to a subject area you are looking for. While looking through eduteacher.net, I filtered through the different areas and found two website that relate to what I teach. The first was 3Dtin.com.

I teach an engineering class where the students 3D model / 3D print designs to problems solving challenges for a big portion of year. The students mainly use my classroom set of computers because of the software that I need to teach cannot be installed on the one-to-one devices (Google Chromebooks) my school provides the students. Although the students mainly use Autodesk Inventor to do their 3D modeling, I try to find free online 3D modeling websites and apps for the students to use for extra practice. I am sorry to say this, but 3Dtin.com will not be on that list. Before even trying it out, I noticed that it got a rating of 2/5 stars. Most people would skip right over it with a bad rating like that, but I wanted to try it because I figured it may have been too difficult to grasp for some people who may have rated it, hence the bad rating. That may have been the case, but I still would give it a bad rating.

Positives About 3Dtin.com:

1. Online tutorial videos to explain how aspects of the website work.
2. They provide a community forum, feed, and chat room.
3. You can create and account using your already excising Google, Twitter, or Facebook account, login easily, and save files online.
4. Templates of 3D geometric shapes are provide.
5. You can browse other people's designs and edit them on your own account.

Negatives About 3Dtin.com:

1. The tools seem easy to use, but they aren't.
2. Rotating your view to actually work within the space is difficult to do.
3. The community forum, feed, and chat room tends to not work. I tried it in 3 different browsers. Never worked for me.
4. The 3D objects you can make are nothing more than a visual or fun model to make. They couldn't easily be exported, detailed enough to use, or 3D printed.

Next I looked into Software I could use. I found Blender! This software is awesome. Blender is another 3D creation source that also works with image editing, animation, and video editing. It cannot be used on my Student's Chromebooks because it needs to be installed, but I can use it within my Graphics Design class. Currently I teach an introductory level of Graphics design. I used to teach 2 levels of it, but my engineering enrollment numbers went way up and I lost the graphics classes. Now that I have them back, they are decimated and under enrolled. I am trying to grow the class back up and create a new and exciting outlet for my engineering students who liked the 3D modeling, but isn't up for all of the high level math and hands on application the engineering classes require. Blender is exactly that. It not only is an open source website, there are also thousands of step-by-step tutorials online that provides a teacher and student curriculum to design and create what they want. As far as how I look to use it within this year, I plan on using it as a visual art form. I found that the introductory tutorials, allow the users to create a simple 3D scene and position the camera in an interesting point of view. From there my students, can export a jpg (image file). Since my graphics class has transitioned into more of a visual design class dealing with digital photography, Photoshop, and Illustrator, this work perfectly.

Evaluating the website some more, I think it looks like a typical software website with tabs to learn about the features of the software, information about the company, a support system, and About tab, etc.  Although there are tons of free tutorials online, the website also provides a store where you can purchase books, movies, etc. for additional training from a Blender professional. Overall, the website and software look very promising for teachers and students. Check out a cool video below of its capabilities.

Finally, we were to choose a website from Untangling the Web to analyse. I chose to analyse Sumopaint.com. I chose this because once again my graphics design students cannot install Adobe Photoshop on their Chromebooks. Since the students save their work to their school Google Drive account, it uploads it to Google's Cloud storage. That means, although the students cannot install software on their Chromebooks, they can however open and edit their Photoshop files with some online apps that attach to or work with Google. I was hoping Sumopaint would have been one of them. From my experience with Sumopaint it won't let you open Photoshop files, even if you download and install Sumopaint as a program. It will let you open image files, but only certain resolution files. In order to open images that are higher memory due to having a hire resolution, you must purchase the pro version. Without actually purchasing the pro version, I personally can only tell you what I saw in YouTube videos and what I read on their website about the pro version. To be honest, I don't really feel that it is even worth purchasing. The free version and pro version really lack features and tools that are needed for high school or beyond designing within a class like I teach. It almost reminds me of KidPix from back in the day. That's how outdated this website is. 

Looking further into the website though instead of just Sumo Paint itself, the website is linked to the Sumo company. The company itself is not amazing at anything, but it is good at its account information. As a user, you have the ability to create an account that links with some of your other already created accounts like Google and save your work online. The account tracking the website provides keeps track of everything from inquiries, help tickets, and purchases. Would this be relevant though if the programs worked that well? The answer is no. At best, Sumo Paint could be used within a normal class for a normal visual, but not in a graphics design class that focuses on outputting a quality product that could be marketed. There are much better free online apps like Pixlr Editor that have many more tools and features like Photoshop and allow you to open up Photoshop or Corel Draw files. For that reason, I decided to choose this website to be the website I emailed with suggestions.

"Dear Sumo Paint Customer Service Rep,

I am a high school teacher in a graduate course that was tasked with analyzing a website app. I chose to analyze Sumopaint because I was hoping my students could use it within the class I teach. After playing around with it, I came up with a few suggestions and or questions if I am wrong. The first suggestion would be to include an ad banner to make some additional income. This income would offset the more that you are getting from the purchasing of the pro version. I say offset it because I feel that you should provide the features of the pro version on the free version and drop the purchasing all together. This may sound harsh, but its realistic. There are many more  all free online websites and apps that have more tools and features than your pro version even provides. Correct me if I am wrong, but as a user I cannot open Photoshop files or higher resolution images because of the memory limit? I know your pro version lets the user open higher quality images. If you incorporate the pro version updates to the free version, more people would use it because of this. Last, but not least, condense some of the brushes into 1 brush tool that has all of those options. This will allow you to create and install more tools within the tool bar.

Please do not take any of my suggestions as negative criticism. It is nice that you even provide a free version in general. I only make these suggestions because I see the capability is there for more. Please feel free to respond with your thoughts. Thank you.

Jon Jarrett" 

If the company responds, I will be sure to post it to this blog!

References:

 3DTin. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.3dtin.com/ 

 Blender Demo Reel 2013. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XZGulDxz9o 

 Photoshopping in your browser. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.sumopaint.com/home/# 

EDIM 514 Week 3_Fill Up Your Toolbox

I hate to sound pompous, but this week's small activity were a blast from the past for me. We were tasked with learning / applying URL shorteners, QR codes, and Bookmarklets. I was first introduced to QR codes in 9th grade (they were established in 1994). I used QR codes with a cardboard robot I built in high school. Our teacher placed QR codes on the wall of a maze he built for our robots. The robots used the QR codes as programming knowledge. Basically we created small websites that acted as coding (turn right 90 degrees or turn left 90 degrees). The robot was programmed to continue straight until it was told otherwise. It rolled down the track of the maze until it got close enough to read the QR code. Then turned right or left depending on the QR code, all the way until the end of the maze.

Coming back from that tangent, QR codes are extremely helpful and unique still today. The problem is, our youngsters don't use them too much. I use them within my class for several things. The first is a digital scavenger hunt that I set up the first week of school for them to learn about different aspects of the class / where things are in the room. I also use them for quick links to bits of information on my website like homework postings, interesting article, competitions, etc. An example of this can be seen in the picture below. Another really cool way to use them that my wife does with her Elementary students is called Plickers. Basically, she programs the app, prints out a QR code for each of her students that reads "A" when it is rotated one way, "B" the next, "C" the next, and "D" the last way, and gives it to the students. She then plays a review game with them that they hold up the QR code in with it rotated to what they think the answer is. While they are doing this, she stands up front and quickly scans the room with her iPad's camera to collect all of their answers. Talk about a cool way to use them in school.

Another tangent, but awesome enrichment project I tried to do with a group of gifted students the other year. They not only were smart kids, they also were the type of kids that wanted to give back to their peers. Coming from Middle School to High School can be very overwhelming, especially when you have to travel between two buildings like my students do at the High School. The project I tasked them with was figuring out some way of helping students who were lost in the building, new to the district or school navigate their way from where they are to where they want to go. This was a tough one for them to tackle for a while. Finally, they figured that most students have a cell phone with our Wifi on it. How could they use that to their advantage? I introduced them to QR codes. So what they did was found the fire escape routes of the building online, placed markers or checkpoints within the map, and boundaries where the walls were. They then created a QR code for each checkpoint, printed it, and hung it on the wall at that location in the school. Once you scanned a QR code, it would open up the Google Maps map they created of our school with your location as the start point. There was an option then for the destination  being the room or hallway you wanted to get to. The person would enter that room or hallway, and it would navigate them to it. Awesome concept right? Well the students got half way done and then senioritis kicked in. They graduated without it finished.

As far as URL Shorteners go, I use them all the time. I use them for 3 main reasons. The first being that any website I make for school has the URL of site.google.com/share.wilsonsd.__________. It is way too long to have written or posted somewhere. The second is when I teach in-service meetings to other teachers. I project the shortened URL as they walk in so they can get to the presentation or resource I am showing them. For this I use Google's shortener because you can set a time frame for the shortener to work for. Last but more important, I use URL shorteners for my online tests that I give through Google Forms. This way students can access the test quickly without many directions and it isn't emailed to them. Of course they can bookmark it, but nothing is perfect.

The Bookmarklet that I added was Keepvid so I can "borrow" YouTube videos. It's funny that we had a project about Creative Commons and correct sharing, yet this was a recommended thing to try out. Kind of ironic, but useful non-the-less. I liked the Bookmarklet because it allowed me get the segments of a video I wanted while keeping the quality. The old app I used for this stopped working with the new HTML coding Google Chrome uses, so this is helpful.

Below is a picture of how I use / have posted on a whiteboard in my classroom, my URL shortner and QR codes for one of my classes.

EDIM 514 Week 2 _Dig Deeper Into the Mainstays

In this posting assignment, I was tasked with evaluating 3 websites, one from each of the following category; social, creative, and curation. The websites I chose were Twitter, Prezi, and Symbaloo. Since I use all three of these sites within my classroom, I asked a few other teachers if they use any of the websites to see how they use them differently.

Twitter: I feel that many people scared to use Twitter in the classroom or crisis it for not being an "educational tool". I look at Twitter a different way. If our society and how people interact has changed, Twitter being a huge part of that, than the way I interact with my students needs to change as well. Obviously there are implications with Twitter that I need to be aware of as a teacher not to step over any bounds. I myself and the other teachers I talked to like to use Twitter for 3 simple means. The first is communicating reminders, due dates, interesting information, and additional resources to the students. The second is to document what is going on in the classroom by having the students tweet pictures of fun events. Last, the other teachers and myself use Twitter as a resource to link to other professionals, companies, and teaching aids.

As far as the website itself goes, it is pretty easy to navigate around. The built in search engine is extremely helpful for finding what you want. Following people, companies, etc. is also a really easy way for students to keep updated on sources they want to know more about. Twitter is also an easy way for teachers to quickly blast out link to all the students. Overall, Twitter feels a little uneasy to get started at first, but is a great website after started.

Prezi: Prezi has been around for a while now. It makes presenting information much more fun than the typical PowerPoint presentation. It allows for users to explore their creative minds while still having all of the features PowerPoint has. Teachers and myself use Prezi to find information on a topic, create presentations on a topic, or have their students to do the same. Through its unique zooming motion, colors, and freedom of how and what is displayed, Prezi has taken the presentation market by storm. It grabs the student's or viewer's attention much more, it can be used to engage students more than a PowerPoint does. It has preloaded templates that allow you to create cool looking presentations with minimal work. Prezi can also be used as a way of organizing information in a large chart form. I have had my students do this to document their brainstorming / planning process of a problem solving challenge assignment.

Here are two unique Prezi examples that I made:

• https://prezi.com/zfvtilksw0m3/video-storyboarding/
• https://prezi.com/urxtzr7tkk3i/determining-density/ 

Symbaloo: This is a website for all, teachers, students, or the normal internet user. Symabloo is extremely easy to sign up for, create a board, and use on a daily basis. Basically, Symbaloo is a way of making a digital bookmarking landing page. As a user, you can search and find premade Symballoo boards or website links to add to your board. Talking to other teachers who use Symbaloo much more than I do have said that the nicest aspect about it is finding website resources that you would never find by just doing a Google search on a topic. The teachers told me that they search Symballoo's website for a topic they teach. They are able to find premade boards that people have made and shared. On those boards, there are website links to tons of wonderful resources. Overall Symbaloo is a unique way of creating a "launchpad" website for all users. Its also an easy way of sending out a large number of resources to students for a project in different way than in a Google Doc, Word doc, email, etc. Below is an example of a Symbaloo I made for the STEM students I teach.

• https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/i-beemteacher

EDIM 514 Week 2_Using New Technologies

For this assignment, we were posed to interview someone who is using a new technology with students that we weren't familiar with. I have decided to rewrite all of my curriculum this year so that it is more fun, covers more advanced topics, and allows for better collaboration with the other teachers in my STEM program. One of the new topics I am trying to incorporate into my class is robotics and programming. I was able to secure over 50 robots from an upper level engineering teacher in my department. He no longer needed them because his curriculum changed and now demands a different type of robot. This worked out perfectly for me!

BoeBot. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://www.robotika.sk/holls/2008/images/BoeBotFamily.jpg

The robots are called BoeBots and SumoBots. They require a week or so of class periods of building and program testing until they can do what you want. Since I have no background knowledge on writing code, reading code, or problem solving with code I need to learn it myself. For that reason and this assignment, I reached out to a different engineering teacher in my department today to talk about coding. This teacher teaches Honor Computer Science and AP Computer Science. He also actively participates in the national "hour of coding" each year. Obviously this is a good person to talk to about a new technology that I don't use that could help me out.

He informed me that his students latched onto coding pretty quickly and enjoyed it. That was good to know, but his students are also that type of student who would like to learn code. They signed up for a coding class...He then told me about this website / free program called Scratch. Scratch is a coding program that is as basic as drag and drop preset codes onto a timeline. For instance, if I was trying to make a character I drew move across the page, there is a move command that allows me to pick the direction and distance. Pretty simple if you as me...There is more to Scratch though. You can look at the actual coding and understand why characters are written certain ways and what they do because it is all color coded / highlights the action when you move your cursor over that sentence of code.

Scratch. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://news.mit.edu/sites/mit.edu.newsoffice/files/images/2013/20130514110054-1_0_0.jpg

So after I started playing with Scratch some more, I asked him more difficult questions about it. One in which was what obstacles he needed to overcome with the technology. He told me that since it is free and the students don't need to register, the only obstacle is the installation process onto their computers (my students don't have the administrative powers to install programs on their computers). He then explained some ways around the IT problems that relate to my district for me.

Finally, he expressed that I cannot just give the students the program and expect them to learn coding. I need to figure out some unique way to walk them through a simple activity to learn basic coding before getting into the robotics project. That's when I came up with the idea of creating a basic maze that all of the students would have to solve individually using the basic coding techniques I teach them. Then from their, they will have to use coding to create their own maze, switch maze files with a classmate, and use coding to solve the classmate's maze. This is a great lead into my robotic project because they will be building a BoeBots that will need to navigate its own way through a maze that uses different navigational coding aspects.

Couldn't be happier I had to interview someone about technology today!

EDIM 514 Creative Commons Licensing Justification

I have learned about Creative Commons several times now in different graduate courses I have taken. Every time I am instructed to read up on it though, I learn so much more! I had to take a certification class to teach the engineering class that I teach. By getting certified to teach the course, I also was entered into a huge network of other teachers around the US that were certified to teach the same course. This network allows myself to post questions, resources, documents, etc. as well as download, edit, and use what I download with barely any restrictions. I also am a very active member of a website called Thingiverse.com, which is an awesome 3D modeling website where people upload 3D files for sharing use. The files are free to download and edit without a problem as well.

Since I do download, edit, and reuse materials all the time, I felt that it is only right to pass the favor on. That is why I chose the Creative Commons License that I did. By choosing the Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike license, I am letting people use my work, make sure the credit is given where credit is due, but not make money off of my hard work.

• Side note: I do some freelance graphic designing on the side as a hobby. I didn't protect a few of my randomly made logos. There was a rather pricey restaurant that opened up near where I lived at the time, that decided to use my logo for above their bar with their name on it. Not having any money to back my argument or hard proof other than the computer files to prove I made it, they got to make money off of my logo. It literally was sold on shirts behind their bar. Nothing makes me more angry than when someone benefits from someone else's hard work and acts like they did it all.

EDIM 513 Week 7_Final Blog

Wow! I can't believe this amazing journey has come to an end. This course has been not only an eye opening experience, but also a time for reassurance and growth as a teacher. I have learned so much during this time. It was a pleasure hearing other teacher's experiences and seeing an Inquiry Lesson in action through a video. Before this class my only experience with Inquiry Based Learning was a training program that my school paid for several teachers to go through that was not that great. I ended the course not understanding the purpose, never seeing a lesson in action, and with a lot of weight on my shoulders to perform often and in excess. The students were unprepared and left in the dark with their learning. The lessons wound up being more of a waste of time than anything. Through this course, I was able to slowly break down the importance of inquiry, its different styles, and stages of learning.

Being a Technology Education teacher, I barely ever do not use technology in my lessons. After going through this course though, I have gotten the time and experience to reflect upon my practices enough to realize that yes I may have been using technology, but not as efficiently as I could have been for the sake of my student's learning. Understanding how and when to use different Web 2.0 tools to effectively allow my students to master concepts at each stage of the 5E's is key to their learning process.

In the near future, I foresee myself using inquiry often and in excess, but in an effective manner. Knowing when to use and mix up the different styles of inquiry will help aid me in this process. I will alter my current lessons and teaching practices to take less of the learning off of my shoulders and respectfully place the responsibility of learning in the students hands by providing them the opportunity to explore the content either guided, in groups, or on their own.

EDIM 513 Week 6_Thoughts of Inquiry After Week 6

It has only been a week since I last posted, so not much has changed. The main thing we focused our learning on this week was the 5E's of instruction. They consist of:

• Engage
• Explore
• Explain
• Elaborate
• Evaluate

Bybee, R., Taylor, J. A., Gardner, A., Van Scotter, P., Carlson, J., Westbrook, A., Landes, N. (2006). The BSCS 5E Instructional Model: Origins and Effectiveness. Colorado Springs, CO: BSCS.

Although it may seem obvious that every lesson should have all of these stages within it, it is easy for students and teachers to either look past one or not connect them together. So often students go through the motions of school and just getting things done, but don't ever stop to smell the roses. As teachers, it is our job to allow our students to understand that school and learning is a process. Yes at times it can be unfair, not that much fun, and involving topics not in our field of interest, but these are the moments that make us better. Using the 5E's to drive all of our lessons are key to breach this gap for students. If you can get them to be excited and engaged in what they are learning, then the exploration will come natural to them. Guiding them to connect their exploration to facts and then go beyond is the explain and elaborate stage. Finally, we must reflect, review, and evaluate our learning. I feel that this final stage is often lost in the lack of time the school day / year provides.

I look at the practices of reflection, review, and evaluation for the brain like a meadow of knee high grass. If we complete a task or learn something new, it is like walking through the meadow one time and one time only. When you stop walking through it and look back, your path is shortly covered back up or forgotten. If you walk back over that path again to the starting point and turn back to see what is left this time, some of the grass is matted down. Repeating your path over and over, each time going a little further, mats down all of the grass, making it a definite path. Now relate that to your brain and the process of learning. Without reflection, review, and evaluation we are only subject to learning bits of information (blades of grass) that we stored (matted down) during our first time we experienced it (the first walk across the meadow). 

EDIM 513 Week 5_Thoughts On Inquiry After Week 5

These past few weeks were like the icing on the cake. The course so far has built a great foundation for learning what inquiry is and why it is important. Now we have added how it can be used to engage and enhance student learning through questioning, facts / concepts, and technology tools. I am left wondering what is next?

Reflecting a bit more on the past two weeks, the course itself demonstrated student (me) - teacher sharing practices. The resources may have been provided for me to learn and find new things, but the opportunity to grasp those concepts and apply them to my own content area was all on me. I am enjoying the fact that we are building our own inquiry units that we can actually use within our classes that we teach. The requirements have not been restricting to the point that I am doing more for the grad course than actually helping myself and in turn my students. I have not found this too often with a content area like mine and the projects that have been assigned throughout my time within this masters program. It is refreshing.

Through our readings and reflection, I have realized that this is part of inquiry. In my understanding so far of inquiry, it doesn't matter so much of how you arrive upon your understanding and conclusion, just that you actually arrive with an understanding of the journey you have taken and why or why it was not beneficial in learning the content. I have also realized through experience that it can be frustrating to grasp this concept, especially for students who are extremely fixated on the importance of the numeric grade they achieve. I have a very hard time explaining that enjoying and reflecting upon an experience allows the good grades to come naturally.

I only have one burning question that I posted in week one and has not yet been answered in my learning. This question deals with the amount of time large inquiry lessons take / the lack of time provided for the year. Leaving me wondering how teachers and a district balance the time it takes to achieve what the states are now assessing their teachers on with the lack of time that we have to cover the amount of material that we need to? I think I may post this to the discussion board of the class soon to see others opinions.

EDIM 513 Week 3_Thoughts On IBL After 3 Weeks

So far this has been a great three weeks of class on Inquiry Based Learning. I previously stated in my last post that I went through an IBL training with an outside company my district hired and I didn't have that great of an experience with it. Within the first three weeks I have become much more excited and motivated to try new forms of inquiry. My previous training and administrators kept idolizing the idea of inquiry so much that they both made it a point for it to be used all the time, large projects, and making the lessons extremely student-directed. This was not only frustrating, but put a great deal of pressure on the students and teachers to perform well so it wasn't a waste of valuable class time. This pressure really disrupts trust and the community within your classroom. Inquiry lessons are hard enough at first for students to grasp not only the concept, but reason why the teacher is doing it this way as well. Not to mention the internal struggle it brings the teacher to hold back the answers from the students.

Last week's discussion about creating a sense of community within the classroom was a helpful discussion. Although I feel that I am fortunate enough to have pretty mature / respectful students for their age and a well establish sense of community within my classroom, I find it to always be beneficial to hear other teacher's methods, ideas, and experiences. I especially enjoy listening to more seasoned teacher's words of advice because they have experienced a great deal more than I have with all of the changes our society has gone through within the past decade or so. The technology boom has really changed schooling and can make or break the classroom environment. Just last week, my school went 1 to 1 with all of the freshman as a pilot. Within one week, so teachers were so stressed out from trying to manage the new environment that was created that they couldn't even teach a lesson. Last week's discussion also heavy touched upon the abilities and understanding of inquiry as well as backing inquiry with the importance of enhancing our student's processing skills. Although I already have been well versed on processing skills and their importance, it was refreshing to read up on more information regarding the necessity of acquiring them.

I think the best week of them all so far though was this week (week 3). This week entailed the reading and analyzing of three different case study classroom lessons. I found it intriguing and interesting to see the difference of opinions between myself and others within the class. It either means that both of us are correct with shades of grey, I am completely wrong or right, or that we all still have more learning to do to really understand inquiry. I have a feeling it is the last one of these three though...Besides the case studies, we were given a documentary style video of an IBL classroom activity. At first I was a little distraught that I had to sit through a 52 minute long video, but once I started to watch it, I loved it. I thought the lesson, the video, and how the students learned was the utmost best inquiry lesson I have witnessed yet. The physics teacher that I co-teach with is doing optics in a few weeks. He normally uses lasers and other things to teach it. He explained to me that most of the students are excited to do the experiments but have a hard time grasping the concepts. I think that instilling or replicating a similar conversation that the teacher in the video had at the beginning of the lesson with his students, would greatly increase the seriousness and synthesis of past knowledge to the experiments.

All in all, I am excited to learn more and be able to expand my current lessons. The only burning question that I still have is the same that I posted about in my first blog. I stated earlier in this posting the podium that my administration has sometimes put on our inquiry lessons. I also mentioned in my previous blog the amount of time large inquiry lessons take / the lack of time provided for the year. This still leaves me with the burning question of how can teachers and a district balance the time it takes to achieve what the states are now assessing their teachers on with the lack of time that we have to cover the amount of material that we need to?

EDIM 513 Week 1_ Inquiry Based Learning

This past year, a select few of us at my High School were chosen to go through a training on Inquiry Based Learning. The training in my opinion was a primarily a large waste of time. I'm not trying to say that what we learned wasn't valuable, but how the training itself was run was very counter productive. 75% of it consisted of us being in small groups and writing on large paper tablets describing what we thought was Inquiry. We even did a 3 hour long experiment that ended with the instructors telling us that the project we just did wasn't actually Inquiry (well then why did we do it?). In just a few hours of reading about what it truly is, obstacles that the students and teachers will have to overcome, and how to effective carry out an Inquiry lesson, I feel so thankful that I took this course.

I currently teach an Honors level Introduction To Engineering and Design course that consists of several math, problem solving, and 3D computer modeling units. Through my past experiences of Inquiry training, I have altered the majority of the curriculum's projects into guided Inquiry Based Learning projects. Before, my lessons and assignments were very straight forward with what needs to be taught and accomplished. The majority of thinking was based on reading directions. Now my lessons rely more on applying and expanding upon past knowledge or demonstrations. My assignments have become more student based with them learning the content on their own prior to demonstrations, working at their own pace, and searching the answers to their own questions.

Introducing Inquiry Based Learning for the first time though is new for all. I will definitely have to agree with this week's readings though when it discusses the feeling of being uncomfortable for both the students and teachers. What the reading doesn't mention though is the discomfort and lack of understanding it brings the parents and guardians of the students. Not only did I feel this discomfort because of the constant push back from the students, but also the non-stop emails and complaint calls I received from the parents and guardians. With the correct amount of preparation and understanding on the teacher's side of where the students are at in their learning, expectations of the students for the assignment, and what the benefit of Inquiry Based Learning will bring the assignment, the results will speak for themselves.

My main concern though is a mixture of assessment and time. The new teacher effectiveness model heavily relies on a teacher teaching his or her lesson in Inquiry Based Learning format. We all as teachers have curriculum that we must get through. Teaching in this style takes time, sometimes a lot more than it would if the content was taught in a straightforward fashion. How can we as teachers and a district balance the time it takes to achieve what the states are now assessing their teachers on with the lack of time that we have to cover the amount of material that we need to?