Michael Lerner

Yes! And, tell them that. The explanatory power of energy is not great, but the applicability is huge. All tools have strengths and weaknesses. I understand the pedagogical goal of understanding, but I adore the thinking-like-a-physicist that comes from actively ignoring with energy.

Offer to host a study group at the house so the kid can practice explaining and to make sure the goal is everyone gets better at all the parts of physics

Day 27: Giving Back the Test and Learning from Mistakes I didn't write a blog for Friday; it was a test day. Today, I passed back the test. I wanted to point out a particular problem that almost every student missed. The problem didn't look like a...

Day 27: Pictures are the Answer. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-27-givin...

Day 25: Starting the Wave Model of Light. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-25-start...

Day 24: Reviewing Mechanical Wave Model In one class, I finally said why I called this unit the mechanical wave model, since mechanical waves cannot use a vacuum as its medium. (I always mention that a vacuum is not a vacuum cleaner, as...

Day 24: Reviewing the Mechanical Wave Model. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-24-revie...

And now today's #teach180, for Monday. We did two sound labs today with basically the same equipment! lerner180.posthaven.com/day-23-two-l...

OK, this is my #teach180 for day 23, which was Friday. But writing it today made me realize that I'm trying to be the adult that can help by making teachers' lives easier. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-22-sprea...

Days 21 and 22: Three Types of Standing Waves Yesterday, after a quick review of homework, we looked at a string vibrator and the different standing waves we could get on the string. The ability for students to touch it, and realize that it...

Days 21 and 22: Writing a blog every day is hard! lerner180.posthaven.com/days-21-and-...

Day 20: Clever Hans & Problem Solving We did one of my favorite introductory problems today in AP Physics 2. It's a series of two problems that lulls them into complacency: Oh, you're asking how the wavelength will...

Day 20: Two great problems to ask your students about mechanical waves, which honestly explains why proportional reasoning needs to be explicit about what stays constant. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-20-cleve...

Day 19: How Waves Reflect, and how a college visit disrupted AP Physics C. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-19-how-w...

Join any time. A bit of reflection every day helps. But I will admit it's best to start at the beginning of the year, because then, at the end, you have an even better record (and understanding) of how the year went.

Day 18: Teaching Waves in a Different Order I embraced concept, then definition today in a slightly new way today. We had already learned beats, but we had no way to explain it. After a bit on the Doppler Effect, we went into the hallway and...

Day 18 of #teach180 #iteachphysics: Getting the students to explain beats on their own. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-18-teach...

Day 17: Playing with Tuning Forks I am forgetting to take pictures! Aargh! We started by playing with tuning forks, seeing them splash in the water, and how the tines feel very weird when you touch it to your nose. I showed them...

Day 17 of #teach180: We played with tuning forks! I used Desmos to show the Doppler Effect! I had fun with students! lerner180.posthaven.com/day-17-playi...

Days 15 and 16 of #teach180: It's OK to have boring days, and we can learn a lot on those days. lerner180.posthaven.com/days-15-and-... #iteachphysics

Day 14 of #teach180: Reviewing for the ray model of light, and two things about reviewing that I do that their other teachers might not do. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-14-revie...

All Standards | Notion Made with Notion, the all-in-one connected workspace with publishing capabilities.

If you want to see my standards, and my (not perfect) cut-and-paste of the CED to match each standard, look here: www.notion.so/lernerphysic... You may have to change the filter to see AP2, APC Mech, and APC E&M.

Bree, I've been doing SBG for APC for the past 10 years, I think? I took the last CEDs for AP2 and both APCs and broke them down into standards that work for me. (My APC students have taken AP1 and AP2, so those standards might be too big for other teachers).

Thanks for the catch! It works now for me. I hope it works for you.

Day 13 of #teach180 #iteachphysics: ALERT ALERT! If you use standards-based grading, and you can't use an outside grading program due to weird state laws, I can help! lerner180.posthaven.com/day-13-my-da...

Day 12: I'm a little grumpy. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-12-white...

Day 11 of #teach180 #iteachphysics: We do ray diagrams for convex lenses, which bored me, but the kids loved. Plus we burned paper. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-11-drawi...

Day 10: Convex Lenses Lab I just threw the students into the lenses lab. I didn't tell them where the screen should go, so it was great to watch students try to figure that out. They were sure it would act like a mirror,...

Day 10 of #teach180: The wonder my students have for something I find commonplace, and how they are willing to see the same pattern again and understand that it has some, but not a lot, of differences. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-10-conve...

Day 9: Whiteboarding & Total Internal Reflection Today, we whiteboarded problems on curved mirror and refraction. And, in both classes, the whiteboarding went quick. And, in both classes, the sticky points were the same—what if we cover half the...

Day 9 of #teach180: Whiteboarding. When is it no longer worth it? lerner180.posthaven.com/day-9-whiteb...

Day 8 of #teach180: I am tired. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-8-law-of...

Day 7: Finishing Mirrors and The Three Things Light Does at a Boundary We took a few notes today. I just told them about the difference between concave and convex mirrors and what that means about the sign convention we use in the lens equation. It's kinda boring, and...

Day 7 of #teach180: Getting to Refraction. I muse on how I save time by telling and how drawing one line changes the conversations that happen in class. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-7-finish...

Day 6: Drawing Ray Diagrams I have been using this sheet to teach students how to draw the principal rays for concave and convex mirrors forever, as in before my current students were born. I think it might be time to redraw...

#teach180 Day 6: Drawing Principal Rays and Thinking Back to How Old Some of My Materials Are. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-6-drawin...

Day 5: Finishing the Curved Mirror Lab Today we finished the curved mirror lab. We looked at the ratio of si/so and hi/ho. We also graphed 1/si and 1/so. We now have a few equations, but we're not sure why they work or how we can use...

Day 5: Finishing the Curved Mirror Lab. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-5-finish...

Day 4: Mr. Eye Foot & Curved Mirrors Today, we started by going over reflections in plane mirrors, and saw how Mr. Eye-Foot can help us figure out how big a mirror we need. Then we collected data on the images we could form from our...

Day 4: Mr. Eye Foot! Plane Mirrors & Being a Teacher is Hard
lerner180.posthaven.com/day-4-mr-eye...

Day 3: Pinochle To give students an idea about sensemaking in physics, I took a page from Kathy Harper and used pinochle as a way for students to experience what it's like to try to understand the rules of a game...

Day 3: Pinochle! As an example of seeing patterns! If you want to do something other than the cubes! Thank you, Kathy Harper! lerner180.posthaven.com/day-3-pinochle

Day 2: Experimenting with Reflection We did our first whiteboarding today, which was really more about getting used to presenting your ideas rather than getting deeper with our understanding. I then talked about the two types of...

Day 2 of #teach180 #iteachphysics: Where we do a lab on reflection after two lines of notes. lerner180.posthaven.com/day-2-experi...