#MERIT18 – Page 3 – Learning with Ms. Medrano

Teacher Appreciation 2020

It’s Day 51 of shelter-in-place here in the Bay Area. Traffic has reduced travel time from my home to work by about 30 minutes. We line up to go to get inside the grocery store. The bottom half of everyone’s faces are covered. People are losing their jobs….and… Teachers are teaching…or not. I’ve definitely heardContinue reading “Teacher Appreciation 2020”

Distance Learning Week 4 & 5

We had practice Distance Learning days scheduled for March 11-12, but then the rest of the Bay Area went into Shelter-in-Place around March 16th. The week before Easter Break, the wonderful Mrs. F and I discovered SlidesMania templates. We both thought of using it somehow, but then forgot to tell each other. I thought I’d tryContinue reading “Distance Learning Week 4 & 5”

4th Quarter- First Day of School

It is the fourth quarter it should be our last sprint towards the finish line. But it isn’t. I’m finding myself making new material in this last quarter. There were assumptions I made about student knowledge, which in retrospect, I really shouldn’t have made any assumptions. This is great practice for me moving forward. Now,Continue reading “4th Quarter- First Day of School”

Python Programming Unit (2019)

Day 1- What is Hacking? In our Making, Hacking, Tinkering class, we have to Hack. I spent my Christmas vacation trying to figure out how to teach programming/come up with activities that suit the gamete of no programming skills all the way to lots of programming skills. To start, I thought it would be kindContinue reading “Python Programming Unit (2019)”

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!”