Photosynthesis Rap Video

Here's a music video I made for a Photosynthesis rap song... It's corniness is undeniable but, hey, maybe it will work

Thanks for Reading,
Mr. Nappen

Quote of the Day

"Remember, only smart people know what they don't know."

http://www.ets.org/perfect_storm

This is an essay I wrote about America's Perfect Storm, if you have some time check out the article or at least the video. It's about 10 minutes long and contains some pretty scary facts...

There are some startling trends noted in the ETS publication, America’s Perfect Storm, 3 Forces Changing Our Nations future. I will address all three.

Divergent skill distributions are concerning because they create very large achievement gaps. These are troubling because it can be very difficult for teachers to plan effective lessons that will help everyone. A teacher must struggle with the concept of making a lesson easy enough for the low achievers to be able to handle it, but still challenging to engage higher level thinkers. The racial gap makes things even harder because it fuels stereotypes and hinders productivity.

Not all is lost though as there are many programs in place to address such concerns. One that comes to mind is the Harlem Children’s Zone in Brooklyn NY. This is a womb to high school program that forces parents to get involved. Parent involvement is the key to closing the racial achievement gap in my opinion.

The economy directly effects education because without proper funding, schools can simply not function at their highest. When teachers and programs get cut, classes get over crowded and do not work to potential. Divergent skill distribution forces graduating students to take menial jobs and end up on unemployment or welfare and fuel the negative cycle we are in. Tech innovation and globalization can also fuel this problem. We must embrace and teach technology to our students and encourage them to live to their potential if we want to change the system.

Funds must be put into education in order to fuel the economy. Fueling education will in turn boost the economy. When we educate our students properly they will be better able to function in our society and will give back. The more successful they are, the more money will be pumped into the economy and the cycle can begin to reverse.

Finally, less education and lower skills create sweeping demographic shifts. The study notes that immigration from South and Central America will account for more then HALF of our population. Though our country was built by immigrants this is startling from an educational standpoint. We must stand strong, and adapt our education system around these individuals while not losing our own.

We need to work on stretching out the middle class so that we do not have such a high amount of poverty. This begins and ends with education. We must embrace change as educators in the midst of this radical shift. We need to figure out the challenges we face and confront them head on.


Thanks For Reading,
Mr. Nappen

I need your help!

Dear Friends,

I am trying to win a scholarship. Please help me out by going to the website below and voting for me... come back everyday if you can!

You can log in with Facebook so there are no annoying forms to fill out.


1. http://footlocker.promo.eprize.com/scholarshipcontest/
2. Click on the search (magnifying glass next to it)
3. Search for me by email: vnappen@gmail.com.. Vote!

Thank you in advance for your support,

Vic AKA Mr. Nappen

Digital Natives

I have many thoughts after watching this video. I attribute the learning gap of teachers to the tech revolution we are currently in. All teachers will not to be able to keep up, but they should try. The need to attend workshops and reach the realization that there is always something new to learn.

As far as I am concerned, I am glad that I use and could incorporate all of the technology mentioned by the students in my classroom. I have been using e-mail, blogging, and texting and consider myself a tech savvy person. Technology does not scare me nor should it. If embraced, tech can help make our jobs and lives easier and more engaging. The key is the have a back up plan. Tech is great but not always reliable.

Thanks for reading,
Mr. Nappen

Prezi

Today I created a Prezi for the first time. Prezi is a PowerPoint-esque program but does some really cool 3d type of effects. You can create a storyboard and jump around your presentation in anyway you like. It is sure to dazzle any audience. I used it to teach a lesson on water rights to ninth graders along with a group project. I used Prezi to teach the background information. Follow the link below to get to the site, it is free to use, you just need to make a user name. You can save all your presentations on the site so you can access them from anywhere without having to email to yourself or carrying a flash drive.

http://prezi.com


Good luck and thanks for reading!
-Mr. Nappen

Cubing

As you may be aware there are many different types of learners. I consider myself to be a "hands on" or kinesthetic learner. Therefore, I like to find techniques that help to allow me to explore this type of learning. One fun learning tool I have come across is Cubing. This technique involves a student literally making a cube out of paper or cardboard and writing about a topic on each of the six sides.

Examples of topics for the six sides of the cube are:

Describing: What are the characteristics?
Comparing: What is it similar to or different from?
Associating: What does it make you think of?
Analyzing: Tell how it is made or what it is composed of.
Translating: What can you do with it? How is it used?
Arguing: Take a stand list reasons for supporting it.

Using this in a science classroom works very well to send a topic home. Check out my example for use with "acid rain"

Describing: Rain with low pH balance
Comparing: Similar to regular rain but different because of acid levels.
Associating: Pollution
Analyzing: Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur combine with water, forming acids (nitric acid and sulfuric acid)
Translating: It destroys building and is bad for plant and animal life
Arguing: Acid rain is harmful to the environment.


There are tons of templates on google images for making a cube, here's how to do it:

Go to google.com/images
Type in "make a cube"
Copy one of the images you find to paint or a word document. Enlarge and print out as many copies as you need for your class... simple as that! You can use this for any class or any topic and make them as simple or complex as you want.

The process of making the cube really helps kinesthetic learners such as myself. The creation of the cube itself can help put the topic deep in our long term memories.

Thanks for reading,
Mr. Nappen

Not all hacking is bad!

So your district doesn't allow you to shell out 3 grand for a smart board... you're totally out of luck, right? Not according to Johnny Lee a tech researcher. He's figured out a way to turn a $40 Wii remote a computer and some free software into some pretty amazing stuff... check out this YouTube video.

Video Games Rule.

I find it interesting how discussions about education sometimes place blame on video games. Video games could be one of our greatest assets in the fight against illiteracy. Innovations such as the Leap Frog gaming system, a hand held device that allows children to play educational games with popular media icons (Shrek, Spiderman, Disney Princesses, etc.) are very positive. This gaming device teaches children math and reading without them even knowing it. If we start children on these types of devices when they are interested in gaming, we can help improve their skills at the same time. The main issue with games is proper monitoring by parents.

We have to realize that no matter what, our children are going to want to play games, and it is up to us to know what our child is playing. My generation was raised with gaming. I have a feeling that when I am a parent, playing games with my child will be a part of our life. The difference is, I will put the subtitles on games and will limit their use if they are non educational.

Recently I purchased an iPad, and it has got me back into reading for fun. I enjoy the accessibility of reading on the go what I want when I want. The future of literacy is in technology and specifically electronics. We need to embrace this change and use it to our advantage, not be scared and place blame where it is not warranted.

Thanks for Reading!
Mr. Nappen

Mentos and Diet Coke

You've all probably seen the famous youtube video by now or know what happens when you drop Mentos into coke.(if you haven't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM)
Believe it or not, this isn't magic, it's science! This week we used this experiment to learn about the scientific method, specifically independent and dependent variables. We attempted to figure out why this phenomenon happens, and tried to change some aspects of the experiments to locate the cause. We tried different types of soda, different types of mentos, temperature of soda, and a few other variations. We learned that when you change factors like this, you are manipulating the independent variable, thus causing an effect on the dependent variable. We had fun and made a mess, but most importantly we had fun with science.

Teachers can use this experiment in just about every field: Physics teachers could use it to make rockets, biology use it to teach the scientific method, chemistry could get to the root of why mentos released the CO2 in coke, the options are endless!!!

A really cool and inexpensive device for delivering the mentos to the Diet Coke can be found @ http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/geyser-tube

Note: We chose Diet Coke because for whatever reason, it tends to have the best reaction.

Thanks for Reading!
Mr. Nappen

First WebQuest!

I have just finished my first WebQuest! For those of you who do not know a WebQuest is a teaching tool that a teacher can use to have their students use the internet to learn about a concept. I look at it as a "scavenger hunt" of sorts. The teacher sets the student in the right direction, but it is up to the student to figure everything out for themselves. Too often students are spoon fed material thus WebQuests are a great way to differentiate instruction. Here is a link to my first WebQuest! It's all about Stem Cell Research!

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=69349

Thanks for reading!
-Mr. Nappen

Science is the poetry of reality!

If you love T-Pain and science then this video is for you!! This song actually plays while you wait to go into the planetarium @ the Franklin Institute. Enjoy! Gotta love the Stephen Hawking part!!

Cool Site!

www.crayon.net

You can create your own newspaper!  I am using this site in a WebQuest I am creating, I will be posting it as soon as I am done.

Thanks for reading!
Mr. Nappen

A Great Webquest

Parents and Friends,

Today I learned how to use WebQuests in the classroom. For those of you who do not know, a WebQuest is an inquery based lesson format in which most of all the information that learners work with comes from the Web. WebQuests are created by educators and are subject specific. The one I found coincides with a lesson on genetics. It gives the students the option to choose a disorder and do research. The grading rubric is right on there, and there is an oral presentation aspect.



 Here is the link:
http://www.rbhs208.org/sterling/genetic%20disorder.htm

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Nappen

First Blog! Ooh-Blek!

I'm new to blogging, and very excited to see how this process works out. I think the best place to start is to talk about my Methods of Teaching Science class since I have not been able to get into the field yet.I have been busy preparing for the Praxis II General and Bio tests.

We did a great lab called Ooh-bleck. Apparently this is a popular lab because I mentioned it to my girlfriend and she said she had done it before. Basically its a really cool way to teach students about the properties of matter (solid/liquid/gas). Ooh-bleck, made popular by Dr. Seuss, is this crazy cool substance that has properties equal to solids and liquids depending on what you do to it. If you tap your finger on it, its solid, if you hold it on there, it's liquid... you can pour it, but if you hit it with a hammer, it sort of shatters... weird I know, you almost have to see it to believe it. I've posted a link to an ooh-bleck lab similar to ours. If you have a kid and want to make ooh-bleck the recipe is really simple. It'll cost you around 2 bucks at the supermarket, and it is very safe (its only corn starch and water w/ food coloring).

http://education.jlab.org/beamsactivity/6thgrade/oobleck/index.html


The cool thing about the ohhbleck lab is that you can use it on just about any age group from 1st grade to high school. It really helps students hone in their skills on the scientific method, and also can help them learn about the properties of matter.

Thanks for reading!!

Mr. Nappen

Test

This is a test blog.