I used 3 design principles to improve workflow for students in our LMS. The result is clean, helps students focus, and (I hope) is no harder to maintain than last year's iteration. What do you like or dislike about this look? Got any advice for me, Bluesky?

A Few of My LMS Design Principles

Thanks to a school policy change, I've been thinking about Canvas course design that prioritizes student learning. The post is most likely of interest to high school and college instructors.

kalamitykat.com

How can teachers design tasks that ask students to meet implicitly-stated goals? Based on a breakthrough for my student M and a subsequent celebratory chat with my colleague Ben. #ITeachPhysics

Task Design for Achieving Implicitly Stated Goals

Today's story references The Mystery Box, a portion of a popular lab practical I copied from Kelly O'Shea's Puzzle Box. The Mystery Box has helped me understand how a well-designed assignment can encourage students to do fantastic thinking with less scaffolding. The context is an on-level 9th grade Physics course. The assignment is completed at the end of the year.

kalamitykat.com

My pedagogy matured during the golden age of blogging. I'm incredibly thankful to @rhettallain.bsky.social for being central to that work. Congratulations on your Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award! #AAPTWM26 "Everything is a real-world physics problem: for large values of real." --Rhett Allain

Jim Perry and I just finished presenting “Live Action Problems” at #AAPTWM26. We both very much appreciate the community for being incredibly welcoming to us as first time presenters. #ITeachPhysics Examples and a framework for writing your own are at kalamitykat.com/2026/01/19/l....

Say what, Gemini?

Happy Hanukkah from our family to yours!

Man, I love teaching fluids. #ITeachPhysics This pic led to a great discussion that included "why does this problem seem to be trying to get you to draw the wrong conclusion?"

It’s so cold today that there are teenagers wearing coats.

My seven-year-old is writing a book #ITeachMath ♾️

Reading 1.000 g/m^3 as 1000 g/m^3 has got to be the most annoying mistake these international students have made this week. Q: How do you differentiate 1.000 as 1 vs 1000? American school with international students. Sure, they should know the density of water, but I'm thinking more abstractly. 🎢

Do y'all have camera recommendations for physics labs in a no-phone school setting? Must be able to capture objects in freefall and have low-enough distortion for video analysis. #ITeachPhysics 🎢 Maybe something like this? www.amazon.com/dp/B01N3QO9JW/

I found your cardboard boat project, @mrsgphysics.bsky.social in the AMTA projects folder. Am considering a similar one. One big question, tho: were you satisfied with the ratio of physicsing to general project fun? Everyone -- I'd love to hear how I can improve that ratio on projects.

Nothing quite like this message the day grades are due, eh @mathmansam.bsky.social?

When the globe is removed, will the scale reading, go up, down, or stay the same? Great test of Newton’s 3rd. #ITeachPhysics #teach180 days 34 & 37 This was part of the balanced forces lab practical on Tues. We revisited it on Fri for families-visit-class day.

Teachers: You don't have to teach this tool.

Erin Grievances@erinbartram.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I was at my old high school today, for the first time in over twenty years, to talk to the teachers about how their curriculum can better support students. AI came up, and so many teachers were saying "Well it's a tool, they have to know how to use it, it's the future so we have to accept it!"

#ITeachPhysics After too many hours of troubleshooting, I give you The Monkey and the Zookeeper...with a Twist: our monkey has a parachute. The zookeeper needs to deliver a banana to feed the monkey on the fall.

#ITeachPhysics, do you use interaction diagrams (aka system schema) to help students identify interaction pairs? They've never sat well with me because students mistakenly try to apply directional meaning. I give you my modification: the Interaction List. How else are we formalizing ID'ing forces?

Doing the hover puck lab, I finally hit upon language that improves student outcomes, "as smoothly as possible." I still need to work on directions for making a sharp left turn because I want them to see that they need to hit at ~45° to the direction of travel. #teach180 day 22 #iTeachPhysics

#ITeachPhysics Strict no phones policy makes video analysis tricky. Except, I have a dozen or more old Androids from FTC robotics I hope to repurpose. Today, I got video off of one of those phones! This is great because my alternative was the inferior camera on a class set of iPads.

Aug 27 was year 22, day 1. Intro classes for Physics 1 (9th gr), Physics 2 (new course), and accelerated Precalc. Physics 2 opened class by trying to time releasing a marble down a track to hit an X on a rotating disk. #teach180 #iTeachPhysics

Teaching a new course this year that stretches my content knowledge and pedagogical expertise. I’m honored for the opportunity and nervous about the many opportunities to have either exposed. This is my 22nd year teaching; it’s been a decade since I felt this raw. Tell me something to help?

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman may be the design bible for human computer interaction but teachers can take an important lesson from it on errors. Norman says there are 2 types of error, how & when they happen, and how to prevent them. 1/

Grrr, my least favorite verb! Friends don't let friends use a more complicated word when a simpler one will do. I can't think of a case where "utilize" gives more detail than "use."

I appreciated @emmaphys.bsky.social interview on Science Modeling Talks because it was great hearing a fellow Physics Firster talking about why we lean more on graphs and diagrams over equations. #ITeachPhysics

Episode 70 - Dr. Emma Mitchell - "How Modeling Works in My Classroom"

Science Modeling Talks · Episode

open.spotify.com

Terrible news from Harvard. As schools increasingly shut down their inclusion offices, where are our students finding much-needed support? Replacing institutional support with individual support is a system that's designed to fail.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · last yr.

“The dismantling of Harvard’s diversity offices arrived at Harvard College on Wednesday as websites for centers serving minority students, LGBTQ students, and women disappeared suddenly and without fanfare.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

The photo I’m sending to Bluesky for verification.

Andrew Robinson (no, not Garak)@andrewr.bsky.social · last yr.

The photo I'm sending to Bluesky for verification.

@malmeida.bsky.social, @jedediyah.com, and other #ITeachMath and #ITeachPhysics crossovers: I spent last year getting math students to respect the = by using ≈ when approximating. This coming year, I'll have some of those students in physics. Do I need to continue the charade?

When your Insta Bio reads "exploring gravity", like Bastien Dausse's, you're bound to get lots of #ITeachPhysics followers. www.instagram.com/p/C5yaXofM-P...

You are cordially invited to our Anti-Prime Sale, where every purchase will financially support bookstores, NOT billionaires 🥳

Starting off uniform circular motion with the whirling stopper is classic but the data can be inconsistent. How might I make the central force more uniform without spending hundreds on dedicated apparatus? #ITeachPhysics