The Ten Minute Writing Blitz

What do you do when you only have ten minutes, you haven't researched to make well informed post, and you want to get a blog post out?

The 10 minute writing blitz. No backspace key, no research, off the  uff comments ( cuff) to just get when... what is in your head out.

Here we go.

1. The black hole picture. There is a great video out from Derick at Veritasium about the black hold picture. More about his prediction of what it would look like when it was released, and why he thought that. Turns out his prediction was ca... acc aur... ugh... accurate. The video is interesting, informative, and well put together as all of his videos are. Go check it out.

2. Testing. We are in the tr... throws of testing weeks at my school. I get it, but I don't. There is nothing else on earth quite like what we put these students through. Testing is high pressure, and low reward for so many students. The teachers feel pressure, the students feel pressure, the administrators feel the pressure, and for what? To get a banner hanging up in the commons area of your school? I guess that's nice, but why is that an incentive for students? So, internet, what do we do about it? What alternatives are out there that would allow students to show what they know and what they cand do without all the anzie... anxit... anxiety? How about student work portfolios? With the adxvent of online storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) why aren't we using something like that for students to be able to assemble a portfolio that shows what they are capable of and what they are learning?

3. Flipgrid. Guess what?!! I am now Flipgrid Certified... Just level 1, but it's a start, right? I wrote a grant to get webcams for my desktop computers in my lab. We have done a few activities in there using the cameras and flipgrid, and the students are taking to it like a duck to water. Sometimes it is a questions that relates to the work we have been doing in class. Sometimes it is a question about what they think we should do to improve the unit we just finished for the nexgt semester's students. Sometimes it's something silly, like "It's national name yourself day. So, what is your name today?" It has been a blast, and I 've enjoyed a new way to interact with my studcents. Sometimes they try to get me in the background of htheir selfies, sometimes I sneak up on them while they are recording. We share, we laugh, we comment, we add emoji to our selfies. It's a good thing all aroiund.

Okay. Not quite 10 minues... and tons of mistakes, but there you go. Almosst 10 minutes of what is on my mind. Take a second to leave a comment (other than "hey man, you messed up") so we can get some dialogue going.

Don't forget to take the time to make the world a better place.