Mariflor Medrano

Distance Learning Days 1,2,3

Day 1: What To Do… The day before we went to Distance Learning, I was definitely the one freaking out about what we’re going to do. The other members of the Physics Learning Team kept trying to talk me off the ledge to tell me that it’s just for one class period. I’m thinking thatContinue reading “Distance Learning Days 1,2,3”

Day 25 Physics: Bowling Balls Day!

Day 1-ish of Forces and Newton’s Laws, Part 1: Last week, we went to the newly refinished gym to do bowling balls. I told the students how nervous I was to take them up to the gym because I did not want to get this privilege revoked due to us ruining the newly refinished floors.Continue reading “Day 25 Physics: Bowling Balls Day!”

Physics Day 17- Race to Tie

During our planning conversations last year, we talked about adding more lab-based assessments. This year, we added a Buggy Lab quiz, which is a paper and pencil quiz AND we brought back the Constant Velocity Challenge. Most of the team did the Dueling Buggies, which we did when I first started teaching Physics at SHC.Continue reading “Physics Day 17- Race to Tie”

2019-20 School Year Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉 This year, I’m teaching THREE classes: Physics, Making Hacking & Tinkering (MHT), and AP Computer Science Principles (APCSP). I’m looking forward to learning about teaching a new course. The last couple of years, teaching MHT rekindled my joy for programming. I remember enjoying the coding classes during high school and undergrad. I thoughtContinue reading “2019-20 School Year Resolutions”

Physics Camp Days 1-5

Whew! What a week! We learned so much about each other and Physics. The campers were excited about what the day would bring them. I wish I had done a better job of writing about what we did, but hope you enjoy the day’s recap videos! Here are all the videos! [Day 5- Coming soon…]Continue reading “Physics Camp Days 1-5”

Physics Camp: Things that Crash!

Today, I used a lot of material from Mrs. Freudenberg’s friend, Griff Jones, who is also a modeler. His IIHS-HLDI website has a lot of fun lesson plans for Physics and Biology. (Note to self: This might be a really great entry point for social justice learning in Physics…not sure how yet, but could be…) I created a littleContinue reading “Physics Camp: Things that Crash!”

Physics Summer Camp- Things that Go!

I’m 3-4 years removed from middle school, and today, I was reminded of life before high school. Middle school students are energetic, creative, and curious about everything around them. Our Human Bingo card was a little challenging. I tried to make it as specific as possible to our local culture, and for it to takeContinue reading “Physics Summer Camp- Things that Go!”

Day 2 @CUE19

Shifting Math Culture Admittedly, I only attended this session because I was fangirling over @edcampOSjr stickers. Tech + hip-hop, what’s not to love? After the session, I’m realizing that the entire school culture is developed for learners to dislike math and critical thinking. There aren’t many opportunities for students to get up, walk around, takeContinue reading “Day 2 @CUE19”

Pi Day @Spring Cue 2019

Registration #CUE19 is going green! There wasn’t a lot of paper involved (thank goodness!). I really like the Sched app used to keep track of all the sessions I’m interested in. I also thought it worked much better than whatever NSTA was using last year. I’m sure that the use of an app for conferencesContinue reading “Pi Day @Spring Cue 2019”

Tech PD

Presented this slideshow at a PD for elementary school in San Leandro. This was so much fun putting this information together. I really enjoyed showing teachers how to use Scratch in their classroom. After leaving the site, it made me realize that this should have been a workshop series and not an hour long session.