Well, we crawl along! This Friday was the due date for the next round of tutorial videos! The exciting thing for me was that we covered three different chapters, since I broke up the students into smaller groups two weeks ago. The production process took much less time than last time as well! These are some big pluses. In typical fashion, I have about one third of the videos actually in hand... with a lot of promises from other students that they just need until Monday. I'm lenient as usual, well... because most of the videos will come in, and if they are of higher quality because of the delay, that's only a good thing. It's fine, as most students began working the next set of notes, Arrays... this means that I hope to be complete the majority of the course material by December, which would leave us the entire month of January to remix the notes, create exercises, solutions, and Quizlet practice for our Grade 11 Computer Science Wakelet Course! In order to get a better sense of how things are going, I interviewed a student today about what he thought about the new upcoming Wakelet project, and the new rubric and process for making the tutorials. See the quick four minute video below of the interview: It was funny that my dear student forgot about the Wakelet part of the project... in his defense I do believe he was away for Major Production last week when I introduced the idea to the class. And, as usual, if you hate watching videos, the summary: The highlights: -The student discussed how he thought it was neat that we'll make our own exercises and solutions, and quizzes on Quizlet. -We discussed how nobody really complained about how much "extra" work this is in class, say, compared to a 1 hour test. -He thought is that tests are too stressful anyways, require a lot of prep time at home (while we do all our stuff in class for these video tutorials, which he thought was a big plus, leaving his home life free to do what he likes.... currently he is building a "smart" mirror in his spare time) and aren't overly useful in terms of retained knowledge. -He really thinks making the tutorials actually makes him learn the material better. -We also discuss the futility of "homework" when you go home and are stuck anyways... doing everything in class means you'll have more resources like your peers and the teacher in order to get help. Well... that's about it! I'm excited to see how this project evolves over time... I'm sad that it won't be complete until the end of January... but I intend to continue updating my blog, so it's possible some of you may see the finished product! I don't think we'll do this every year... but I will definitely do it over again in Semester 2. I like to do something new every year or two as my own interests evolve, so I actually wonder with starry eyes what I'll be doing with my grade 11 class in two years.... and of course, I'm always getting input from students, prior and present! We'll be having a few guest speakers coming into class, mostly former students of mine who now work in the industry, so that'll be a nice break for my students, and a great opportunity to really hear from people who are "doing" this stuff out there. Until next time, stay curious! Curiously Yours, Matteo
3 Comments
Daniel Dion
11/23/2019 01:35:44 pm
Matteo, I think most people underestimate the time and energy involved in the production of videos. I commend your efforts in keeping this project in line over the past months. I can't imagine undertaking a similar project in my own classroom. Keep up the good work!
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Melinda
11/23/2019 08:34:33 pm
Hi Matteo,
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Amy Holden
11/26/2019 04:46:14 pm
Wow Matteo- I was excited about my little 3 minute first ever youtube video today! Such a good job and obviously the student you interviewed appreciates everything you do. Good work!
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AuthorMy name is Matteo Di Muro, the original Prairie Boy, and I've been teaching since I was 14. I currently teach mathematics and computer science in Brandon. I try to keep on learning things, and I'm getting onboard with sharing with others, hence this site! Archives
March 2020
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