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Five Weeks with Inquiry-Based Learning

I have been looking forward to this week. In Week 5 of my Inquiry-Based Learning grad class, we discussed Web 2.0 tools. Technology is something I am very interested in, and I always try to learn as much as I can about technology and its potential impact on the classroom. I am beginning to see how an Inquiry-Based classroom utilizes Web 2.0 tools to move students towards their goals.

This week, we learned about the different categories of Web 2.0 tools. There are video tools, presentation tools, community tools, and mobile tools. Most of these options are self-explanatory, but creativity lies in the functions of these types of tools.

Video tools allow students to showcase their learning in a visual format. Making a video requires more skill than YouTubers make it seem. Large amounts of thought and preparation go into each video. Students begin to peek behind the curtain to see how online visual content is created.

Female scientist giving a lecture on Leukaemia
(image courtesy of Discovery Education)

Presentation tools are related to video tools in that they are both visual elements. However, presentation tools can sometimes encompass video tools and will overlap very seamlessly when properly used.

Community tools are very exciting because these tools allow learning to extend beyond the classroom. Students begin connecting with other students in the shared pursuit of knowledge. The classroom is no longer defined by four walls, and students begin to find new understanding in ways they could not previously. Experts and community members are more accessible with Web 2.0 community tools, and students are more free to track down answers to their inquiry questions.

Mobile device showing augmented reality
( *Image courtesy of Discovery Education* )

Mobile tools, the final category, is crucial in today’s world. Students have the ability to reach beyond the classroom, like I said before. Now, with mobile devices, the learning can happen any place and any time. Students can learn at their convenience, so to speak. Inspiration can strike at any time. With mobile devices, students are afforded freedom to catch that inspiration and guide their own instruction.

In closing, these tools greatly contribute to the inquiry-based learning classroom. They push the walls of the classroom in both time and space. These tools also bleed into the students’ personal lives. Most middle school and high school students have an internet-connected phone, can text, watch videos, and consume online content. These tools allow students to invite learning into their everyday lives as well as contribute content and share ideas across a vast information grid. Students truly become 21st Century learners, prepared to learn for the rest of their lives. I still have plenty of questions, mostly related to how this all looks in a classroom and how to get started, but I am interested and looking forward to learning more as we push towards the end.

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Inquiry-Based Learning

This week, I began my journey of discovering Inquiry-Based Learning with an online course though Wilkes University. Before beginning this course, I knew nothing for certain about inquiry-based learning. Judging from the name and my own background knowledge, I assumed it involved a learning style where students are motivated by their curiosity about a subject of their choice. The ‘inquiry’ is the question they are striving to answer. If that wasn’t right, then I knew nothing.

Image used courtesy of Discovery Education

Through our readings and research this week, I have developed a base knowledge of inquiry-based learning and have confirmed refined my previous assumptions. Inquiry-Based learning is centered around stoking students’ natural curiosity and transforming them into their own vehicles for discovery. A fantastic definition of inquiry-based learning is provided from the readings this week: “Inquiry-based learning, if front-loaded well, generates such excitement in students that neurons begin to fire, curiosity is triggered, and they can’t wait to become experts in answering their own questions” (Wolpert-Gowron, 2016).

The idea of inquiry-based education is very exciting. I have always dreamed of a class that takes control of their learning, that values class time, and has a strong desire to gain as much education as possible. Motivation (or lack thereof) has always been an issue in eighth grade classrooms, and other classrooms as well. I am most familiar with the struggle in eighth grade as that is the grade I teach. I truly believe that if students could understand why learning is important, there would be next to no behavior or attendance concerns in the classroom. Students would become discerning consumers of education in the same way they are discerning consumers of footwear. I can see the promised land, but I don’t know how to get there. Perhaps inquiry-based learning is the way?

My burning questions all revolve around application. How can I use inquiry-based learning to inspire, motivate, and encourage learning and learners in my eighth grade language arts classroom? Apathy is a killer in my classroom right now; it’s shocking to me how many students get intimidated by a five-page story and quit, or just refuse to read the story, and then act shocked when they fail the quiz. How can inquiry-based learning help propel these students forward? I also want to know if curriculum based on inquiry will even be supported in my urban, Title 1 school. I may be forced to rely on tried-and-true methods of instruction before doing something risky. How would I square meeting content standards with student-focused activities? My school expects at least two grades per week. How can I do that with an inquiry-based learning style? Will inquiry-based learning conform to fit my school, or the other way around? If I wanted to use inquiry-based learning in my classroom, I would need as much information as possible to sell my administrators and colleagues. I think it is possible, and it’s what is going on in the back of my mind for the next six weeks of this class (and beyond).

References

Wolpert-Gowron, H. (2016, August 11). What the heck is inquiry-based learning? Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-inquiry-based-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron

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Commonalities Among PBL Projects

I have spent time this week reading up on a few teachers and how they utilize project-based learning (PBL) in their classrooms. These are my findings:

Worms – In this project, students investigated the life cycles of worms and a variety of other projects including a class mate’s real life struggle with cystic fibrosis to learn through doing. In the article, the process for creating the projects has three phases, and I think that is helpful for teachers like me who want to use PBL but don’t know where to start. Phase 1 allows the students to brainstorm ideas and develop a curiosity on their own. This is crucial for moving forward. Students begin exploring their curiosity in Phase 2. They complete field research as well as discovering their own sources of information. The majority of the time is spent in Phase 2. The last phase, Phase 3, has students presenting their information to a broad audience, not unlike a science fair. The student is the originator of the idea, the executor of research, and the presenter of polished ideas and discoveries. The teacher’s role seems to be mitigated to guide or facilitator. The role for teachers was not completely fleshed out. The focus is on the students, and their learning. The principal of the elementary school reported overhearing students speaking excitedly about the project during transitions to class and during lunch (Curtis, 2001). Additionally, he also boasted a reduction in absenteeism and behavior problems (Curtis, 2001). Students are too busy to miss school or be distracted! Students are engaged with projects to which they personally feel connected. They are researching the disease of a classmate or responding to actions in real time, like in the stock market project. Technology is used as a research tool and to create presentations. The article did not directly reference any applications or devices.

Geometry – To help apply their learning in geometry class, high school students collaborate and compete to design a school for the year 2050. Students are in control of the project. The teacher provides the parameters and guidance when necessary. Students are competing for an architecture contract and their designs are judged by real architects. This increases engagement because students are working towards something real. Students create the timeline for work and delegate responsibilities on their own. This project evokes student desire to create something that will be recognized by authority figures. The competition aspect drives them to do their best work. Students use CAD software and become quite proficient at it; one student became a guru that helped other students.

Monarchs – Elementary students participate in a multi-continental project and collaborate with organizations and other schools to track the migration of the monarch butterfly. Just like the other projects, the students are responsible for carrying out the tasks of the project and preparing the results. The teacher appears to function to model correct discourse and application of the scientific method. Students are excited to learn about the monarchs and seeing one allows them to participate in a project that is bigger than just their class. The students’ world view has no choice but to widen as they explore different areas of the world like Mexico and other locations along the Monarchs’ migration path. Students begin to see how big the world is and the importance of communication and connection. Students use all types of technology such as cameras to catch images of the butterflies hatching from the chrysalis to Microsoft PowerPoint for their presentations.

Works Cited

Armstrong, S. (2002, February 11). Geometry students angle into architecture through project learning. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/mountlake-terrace-geometry-design

Curtis, D. (2001, October 1). More fun than a barrel of . . . worms?! Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2002, June 6). March of the monarchs: students follow the butterflies’ migration. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

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My Passion is Writing

When it comes to education, I always wanted to increase my students’ love of writing.

When I was in college, I felt like my professors #1 complaint was that incoming freshmen could not write. The professors bemoaned the students’ basic ignorance on how to construct an effective argument and support or defend it clearly or logically. One motivation I had for becoming a teacher was to help students become better writers, and I discovered I would have to go to the middle school level to truly help change the course for students.

I love writing. Writing is something that separates us from the animals. When humans developed written language, they developed a method for (something like) time travel. Major innovations in printing have always had incredible influences on the world. The printing press helped establish the first major newspaper. Before that, information was elusive and protected. Recently, advents in digital printing such as blogs and social media have allowed constant, instantaneous connection across the globe. Even 3-D printing presents new challenges.

Advances in writing have always led to advances in the world. I need my students to understand that their words have power, and they can use those words to built up or tear down, to support or destroy. If students realize the power in their words, they may begin to work on their writing skills in the same way they might work on a jump shot or that perfect spiral. Writing shouldn’t be a chore or a punishment. It should be viewed as a celebration of all we’ve accomplished. Writing with the full knowledge of the events that lead to it is something incredible indeed.

What say ye, reader? Am I over the top with my evaluation of reading, or have you just never thought of it that way? Your comments are always welcome.

Seven Weeks with Inquiry-Based Learning

My learning over these past seven weeks with Inquiry-Based Learning has been quite an adventure. At first, coming from the perspective of a language arts teacher, I was wondering how my content fit with inquiry. Inquiry seemed like a science- or math-related field. Even social studies was getting in on the action. I struggled at first to see the connection to language arts.

My Inquiry In a very serendipitous way, I discovered that my personal inquiry for Inquiry-Based Learning was “How does Inquiry-Based Learning support a language arts classroom?” or in other words “How does Inquiry-Based Learning look in a language arts classroom?” I was very curious about this topic, so everything that I found each week was seen through this lens of language arts. I discovered that there are many connections and ways to implement Inquiry-Based Learning in a language arts classroom. I just needed to connect with my curiosity.

Trekking through the red woods.
(*Image courtesy of Discovery Education*)

Breaking Through The first major breakthrough I had involved my thinking about how I might use inquiry as the vehicle for learning in one of my current units. The Novel Study seemed like a natural fit because students are exploring a novel of their choice, and their pathway of discovery is very organic and unique to the individuals reading each book. Re-imagining the Novel Study Unit as an Inquiry-Based Learning Unit was a huge paradigm shift for me. Now I had a basis and an application area for all the Inquiry-Based strategies I was learning.

There are many lessons I will take away from this course. For one, I have developed a deeper appreciation for reflective writing. I suppose I did not value reflective writing as a high-level academic writing assignment, so I dismissed it. Now, I see that having students write them regularly has many benefits. For starters, students will begin to develop a ‘meta-cognition’ or a thinking about thinking. They start to consider their beliefs and perceptions, and approach them skeptically. Do their initial thoughts hold up under scrutiny, or are their beliefs perhaps based on a lack of knowledge? Students develop an analytical mind to help them dissect their own thinking and therefore allow themselves to become smart evaluators of outside thought. This can have a developmental effect as well, as students establish empathy for the thoughts of others by looking at themselves. Furthermore, these reflective writings function as formative assessments for the instructor. I can read the students’ blogs or other reflective assignments like Exit Tickets to get a glimpse at their thought process. This data can help guide my decisions going forward: Should I speed up or slow down? Should I explain this topic differently? What misconceptions still remain?

Young woman sprinting through winners tape in stadium
*Image courtesy of Discovery Education*

Conclusion In all honesty, during the early weeks of this class, I found little connection with Inquiry-Based Learning, but perhaps that was because I was not looking hard enough. Upon closer inspection and attempts at application to language arts, I found that this approach to learning is not limited to just math and science. I have come to more strongly appreciate this method of teaching. I see it, along with Project-Based Learning, as the best chance to encourage lifelong learning and dispel boredom in the classroom forever!

Six Weeks with Inquiry-Based Learning

The 5E’s

This week in my EDIM 513 course, we learned about the 5E’s, an instructional model developed by the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS). The process for designing lessons allows teachers to plan units with the end result in mind. Teachers identify what skills the students should learn, then how can they demonstrate that they learned these skills. Once the target is set and the goal established, anything that does not head in that direction is a distraction. The process for learning is easy to remember; all the phases start with the letter E.

Engagement – It can not be overstated how important the Engagement step of this process is. Just like a good essay, an introduction that hooks the reader and keeps them interested is key. In this way, Engagement needs to be just that: engaging. The point is to connect and activate each student’s innate desire to track down answers and satisfy their curiosity. Engagement can take many forms (anticipation guides, videos, short readings and discussions, etc.), but teachers should choose activities that are thought-provoking and get students asking questions.

Exploration – Once students have their questions, they begin exploring them. This phase of the process can take many forms, just like Engagement, but this exploration is more student-focused and student-directed. Students are given simple instructions, and set loose to investigate their topics. This is one of the most exciting parts of the 5E’s because students are working at different things, but they are all motivated to satisfy their own curiosity. This phase can culminate with a presentation of the raw material in a Google Slides presentation or perhaps a blog entry that summarizes the new information and understanding.

Explanation – After the Exploration period ends, the students have copious amounts of raw material. They have possibly started to synthesize it and making it fit into their current understanding. Some explanation or guidance is often needed here to help students formulate accurate perceptions of the new understanding. Group sharing can be effective as well, and students can use this time to peer review each other’s presentations from the Exploration phase. Dialogue always seems present in this phase as well as an exchange of ideas.

Elaboration – Elaboration is the application of the new learning. During this phase, students create a tangible representation of their learning. This marries together the preconceptions of the students along with their new learning. This process allows for new information to more easily be assimilated and retained. The creative products can range from an essay to a multimedia presentation encompassing multiple Web 2.0 tools.

Evaluation – The final step in the process is actually not the final step, but rather a constant touch base with students. Evaluation refers to monitoring and guiding students along their pathway of discovery. Just like the boy in the image above, students know where they want to go, and they can check their process through Evaluation at all stages. After engagement, for instance, the teacher will review the answers given for an anticipation guide to decide on appropriate next steps based on current student understanding. Students are evaluating the sources they use to gather information during the Exploration step. Students are also peer reviewing each other’s work. Evaluation during the Explanation step is a more traditional style of evaluation where the teacher is listening and critiquing student understanding to properly guide it. Similarly, Elaboration is evaluated like a summative assessment, and students are also encouraged to peer evaluate and self-evaluate throughout each step of the process. The reflective aspects of this process are the most important because students develop a meta-cognition, or a ‘thinking about their own thinking,’ that will help them to be life-long learners.

Conclusion – This week and the prior weeks have been very good. This past week in particular really helped shape my understanding of how Inquiry-Based Learning looks in a classroom at the lesson level. These design aspects will be easy to follow and will help me create engaging units for my students.

Three Weeks with Inquiry-Based Learning

As Week 3 comes to a close, it is time to reflect on the recent new understandings related to Inquiry-Based Learning. Inquiry-Based Learning is a slippery idea; it is hard to define completely what Inquiry-Based Learning actually is. It takes a different shape in each classroom, so it is easier to define my its identifying characteristics.

Open Book with Question Mark — Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

One large fixture of Inquiry-Based Learning has been the Understandings About Inquiry. These seven indicators identify what classrooms and lessons driven by inquiry ought to have. Investigations are emphasized as well as advancing through inquiry in a rational, pragmatic way. Students are encouraged to incorporate various technologies to gather information and analyze results under close scrutiny. Although Inquiry-Based Learning is beyond a concise definition, it is good enough to have these observables. I am beginning to understand the start of Inquiry-Based Learning and the things the students should be doing.

Another idea that I learned is the Abilities Necessary to do Inquiry. This is a similar list to the Understandings About Inquiry, but instead of a list of what the students should be doing, it functions more like a list of attributes that each student needs to have in order to be successful at inquiry-based learning. Each ability begins with an action word like ‘recognize’, ‘design’, ‘think’, and ‘communicate.’ The Abilities Necessary to do Inquiry are a great roadmap for what students should be doing while they are doing inquiry.

I still wonder how I am supposed to do Inquiry-Based Learning in my language arts classroom. So many of the activities I see are concerned with making a hypothesis and testing it, having a curiosity and tracking down the answer. It is very difficult for my to see how this looks in a language arts classroom. The lack of a solid definition for Inquiry-Based Learning really made me nervous. I am more positive now, however. I recognize that there is a lack of language arts materials related to Inquiry-Based learning, but I cannot be the only person who desires these resources. Identifying a need and fulfilling it is a great feeling, and I think that is what I will attempt to do. Lean in wholeheartedly to revolutionary ideas like Inquiry-Based Learning in a language arts classroom and boldly explore where little work is being done now. My new outlook is quite exciting.

I have two burning questions going forward:

1) Establishing a community for Inquiry-Based Learning is a key to success. How can I establish an environment for inquiry in my own classroom? Is it just helping the students to feel comfortable with each other so they can work and share together? My students seem to really flounder without a clear structure or pathway. I am afraid some of my students will falter because they get overwhelmed so easily. Learned helplessness is an epidemic where I teach, and I wonder how difficult that will be to break.

2) Most of the readings and videos I am seeing are focused on math and science classrooms. How can Inquiry-Based Learning work in a language arts classroom? I hear it can be done, but I have not found many concrete examples.

PBL and SAMR

PBL stands for Project-Based Learning. Project-Based Learning is a theory of learning that asserts students learn best when they are engaged in using a variety of new and practiced skills to create something that demonstrates their learning. SAMR is an acronym (substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition) for a scaled model to help teachers leverage use of technology in the classroom. Combining both of these ideas together can lead to electric innovations and impactful discoveries in the classroom.

PBL is all about giving students the opportunities to apply skills directly and create something unique with new learning. There is a discovery aspect involved with PBL because the students must grapple with new skills and fit them into their own lives. Taking notes and reading about things can only provide a surface understanding. PBL helps students truly meld new understanding into their own personal perspectives, thus taking ownership of the learning. There is an increased value in students discovering new things as opposed to having new things shown to them.

Technologies have always helped push our ability to discover. As the technologies our students have access to get better, the discoveries students are able to make become much more expansive. In conjunction with that, the range of student expression also evolves. The SAMR model, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, is a simple model that helps teachers evaluate their approaches to learning and the inclusion of technology to enhance or transform the lesson.

One of the easiest connections between SAMR and PBL is that both encourage application. Through the project-based nature of PBL, students are compelled to use new skills to demonstrate learning. These kinds of authentic assessments have much more gravity than a test or quiz. Students directly apply their learning; they are working new skills and making them fit with their own previous understanding. The upper levels of the SAMR model (modification and redefinition) show a complete transformation of the learning as well. Technology takes the learning experience and makes it new and unique to the student expression. Redefinition in particular allows technology to push the bounds of learning to a place that could not be reached otherwise.

PBL and SAMR also encourage collaboration. The very nature of a project evokes small group activities, constant contact, and high levels of targeted communication. PBL projects are not small endeavors, but rather multifaceted and often complex. They require groups of students to work together to create something that they could not do individually . Similarly, the highest level of SAMR (redefinition) cannot be attained without strong levels of collaboration. Often times, redefinition involves including another community that, without technology, could not be contacted. Technology’s most impactful advancement has been its ability to connect groups (like schools from different countries) together in real time.

The final connection between PBL and SAMR is how the technologies and the projects require students to rely on higher order thinking skills. This is how learning becomes incorporated into a student’s mind and increases retention. Students are making choices about what shape their learning takes, and they have agency in those decisions. The likelihood that students will maintain their understanding and have a solid foundation upon which to build more understanding is much greater when using PBL and SAMR together.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is another acronym that represents a range of content that relates most strongly with creating new products. This field of study most easily engages students with the application of new skills. Students learning about physical and chemical changes, for instance, can perform experiments in the lab to truly get a hands-on experience. STEM connects directly to SAMR as a learning pedagogy; they both share technology and are focused on the use of it to push boundaries.

My Thoughts If I Were a Parent

My name is Jeff Baughman, and I’m responding to some questions about a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-uOO6O9uus) from the perspective of a parent.

The main idea of this video is that the very best in technology and other emerging industries can only be envisioned by young people. Their untrammeled creativity and optimism are precisely the origin of new ideas. Young people need to be exposed to and encouraged to use technology to experiment with how it can improve our lives in the future. The world will be theirs eventually, and we adults sometimes just need to listen to their dreams and help guide them. It’s a real team effort.

As an advertisement, this message is intended for adults because they would be the ones to purchase the phone. However, because the video has a very old style to it (early 20th century), some adults may make connections to their own young lives and recollect experiences where they had great, game-changing ideas, but instead did not act on them. Beyond my own childhood, this video also conjures up thoughts of my own children. Perhaps I should listen more closely to them when they share their thoughts with me. Admittedly, the technology advances on which the little girl in the video speaks are several generations away from her, she still possesses the foresight to see the possibilities. Perhaps my own children could benefit from a closer ear.

The video was effective for me as a parent. The message about children being the future really struck home, especially when I think of my own children. It helped me see their young, naïve ideas as something to mind closer. The video’s ability to make me buy the phone for the child is much weaker, but I do see the benefits of exposing my child to technology to at least help them acclimate to it. After some exposure, maybe they have some ideas on how to make it better.

The second video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEnRLudDI0Q) I respond to will also be from the perspective of a parent.

The main idea or point of this video is clearly the negative effects of addiction, specifically addition to technology. It is a tragic illness that effects people when they probably have no idea. Most parents probably are not thinking about an addiction to technology as a problem, but it is a real thing and, as shown in the video, can have extremely negative consequences.

This video seems to be targeting parents, mothers specifically. Although the victim of addiction is the video is a woman, I do not believe that this is a gender-specific problem. When it comes to technology, the benefits are social connectivity. It becomes possible to share thoughts, feelings, experiences, tragedies and successes with a global community, helping to support the idea that we are not alone in this world. However, some people can become overwhelmed by the opportunity to richly connect with people far away that they ignore and neglect people around them (the mother’s children and her husband in the video). Hopefully, people see this video and examine their own lives and their dependence on technology. Is it hurting or helping the people you love?

The methods employed by this video make it mostly effective. They present a clear example of technology addiction as well as the negative impacts on the family. It makes me think about my own family and how much time each of us spends in front of a screen, even when we are in the same room with our each other. Can I say for certain that I am 100% present when my child or spouse is speaking? Conversely, is my child addicted to technology? When given free time, what does he choose to do? Go outside and play, or hop on an interactive video game? Furthermore, when my child is struggling with a problem, do they come talk to me, or do they instead turn to technology to solve their problems? This is terrifying to me because the internet is full of misinformation and people who prey on weak individuals. I would not want my child to fall victim to people like this.

Infographics

Infographics are an interesting technology-driven assessment model that can be used in the classroom. I am particularly excited about using these infographics as a way to extend an essay, for instance. Once a student completes their essay, they can create an infographic to help display information. One big project that my eighth-grade students complete each year is an argumentative essay centered around whether or not scientists have the right to use human beings as experimental test subjects for new medical procedures. Requesting that students create an infographic at the end of the process that shows all the benefits or damage (depending the position of the paper) of the proposed idea would be an excellent way to take a traditional essay and really extend it up the SAMR scale.

Padlet Vs. Adobe Spark Video

I was very pleased when I saw that my assignment was to make a Padlet presentation. I used to use Padlet with my students in previous years. I wish the program was more reliable from year to year; I felt like I was learning how to use the program right along with the students every single year. Also, with given the choice of using Padlet or another presentation tool, my students always picked something like Google Slides. I have not tried Padlet since then. However, I was pleased with the ease of creating this Padlet on my PC. I am thinking that students were struggling to create great Padlets previously because they were limited on their mobile devices (iPads). Stepping into a computer lab might help the project run more smoothly for them like it did for me. The process for making the Padlet was incredibly easy, and I am quite satisfied with the Padlet I created. Here is a link: https://padlet.com/jeffreymbaughman/qsnq49qnajvx

The other online presentation tool I used this week was Adobe Spark Video. I was intrigued to see we were assigned to use this tool because I had my students use this tool as well. They reported that out of the three Adobe tools (Page, Post, and Video), they liked Video the best and saw interesting ways to use it. I was excited as well because the program is very user-friendly, especially on the iPad. Whenever I am evaluating an app or program, I always look at how it performs on the iPad. My students are 1:1 with iPads, so I want to make the most of my school’s investment.

Here is a link to my Adobe Spark Video on Hyphens: https://spark.adobe.com/video/6PIlzGAVZx2uL

Going forward, I am more inclined to use Adobe Spark Video over Padlet. I like both, but Padlet has let me down in the past, my students have disliked it, and Adobe Spark Video is new and interesting. One significant upside to Padlet is that students can share their Padlets with each other and work collaboratively inside the same Padlet with their own devices. I am not sure that Adobe Spark Video allows this freedom. I do not see access to technology or time to complete the assignment as issues that could prevent my students from completing the assignment because they have 24/7 access to their iPads and I have weekly due dates.