TXESS Revolution

Attached is an older CV/resume from our first cohort. I will update it when I return home where I have a current version on my PC at home.

The task of describing my teaching philosophy has weighed heavy on me. I could explain it in a short statement, like the quote that concludes this proclamation and is found at the end of all of my emails. I have always felt that I was a good writer, but for some reason, placing these particular visions in my mind onto paper in a lengthy discourse seems almost unobtainable.

I finished my grad credit work and sent off everything today. I was not sure which assignments to post here, so I thought my PowerPoint presentation for the movie The Core would be the most interesting. Slides 2 and 3 have video clips. Hope you enjoy it. If anyone has any questions about any of the other assignments and you would like to see what I did just let me know and I will attach them.

Take care, Michael

Just in from STAT, after three years of hard work by professional teachers, the SBOE just rejected the Texas English TEKS revisions. Instead, they submitted and approved a substitute document that was prepared by a few board members. The science TEKS revisions are coming before the board on July 17. Please write to your SBOE representative and urge them to approve the science revisions. I was one of the teachers who sat on the TEKS writing committee and this greatly greives me about the possible fate of our hard work and the future of science teaching in Texas!!!

There was a 7.5 earthquake today in the Sea of Okhotsk.....NW of Russia (July 5 for over there). The depth of the quake was 605.4 km (WOW!!!). Remember the lecture during PDA #2 and the discussion about the rarity of deep earthquakes with significant magnitudes?

This is the rough draft of the second of two rubrics for my Earthquakes and Seismology lesson. This rubric scores the PowerPoint presentation.

This is a very rough draft of the first of two rubrics for my Earthquakes and Siesmology lesson. This rubric scores the plotting of earthquakes onto a world map.

1) The facet that I have not used on a regular basis, outside of discussing environmental issues, is empathy. Will it be difficult to apply this to all content? How can you apply empathy to Earth's composition and structure or continental drift? I believe empathy "worldviews" can give a greater and deeper understanding to any concept if you can find a fitting way to do so.

2) I have not really struggled with any main understandings or ideas today, but I feel it will only just be a matter of time.

3) None that I can think of a this time, but I am sure that I will have plenty of feedback as the week goes.