• Ellena Bethea, Chemistry Teacher, Trinity School, Manhattan
• Paul Bianchi, Physics Teacher, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, NY
• Steven Carpenter, Physics/Engineering Teacher,  Queens School of Inquiry
• Seth Guinals-Kupperman, Physics Teacher, HSMSE@CCNY, Manhattan.
• Michael Holmes, Chemistry Teacher, HS of American Studies@Lehman, The Bronx
• Donghong Sun, Chemistry Teacher, Montgomery HS, Skillman, NJ

The Common Core Learning Standards <http://www.corestandards.org/> are here - and the Next Generation Science Standards <http://www.nextgenscience.org/> are coming soon! Who knows how many more? So what to do?! Standards-Based Grading (aka Standards-Based Assessment and Reporting) begins with standards that teachers author/choose/revise and that they apply in their classrooms. Rather than a top-down directive, these standards are a helpful tool that teachers use to make required work and acceptable performance levels transparent.

If you’ve been wondering what all the buzz is about for Standards-Based (Assessment and) Grading, this workshop just can’t be missed! Physics and chemistry teachers who have experience with SBG will explain how it works in their classrooms. There will be separate break-out sessions for chem and physics for questions about actually using SBG, as well as discussion concerning implementation.

Questions should be addressed Fernand Brunschwig <fbrunsch AT gmail.com>.

PhysicsTeachersNYC was originated in summer 2011 by a group of teachers as a teacher-led physics study group. The group members were all practitioners of a curriculum and pedagogy known as Modeling Instruction, developed collaboratively by university and high school physics educators over the past 20 years. The group conducts weekend sessions on topics related to physics teaching during the school year, as well as intensive 3-week Modeling Instruction Workshops in the summer.

Modeling Instruction. The use of the learning cycle and of modeling in teaching physics was pioneered by Robert Karplus in his textbook, Introductory Physics: A Modeling Approach. Modeling Instruction was subsequently developed at Arizona State University by Hestenes, Wells, and Swackhamer, as well as by many others across the country. The best way to learn about Modeling Instruction is to participate in a workshop, but you can get started by studying <modeling.asu.edu> or Chapter 1 of Introductory Physics by Karplus (go to <fernwig.org>; use “guest” for login & password).