"I had fun in your class today."

"I had fun in your class today. I think MO Physics is a good idea," a student told me as I was leaving school today.

Students often tell me my class is fun, but I was surprised to hear it today. We didn't do a lab. We didn't play an educational game. We didn't watch a video. We didn't go outside. We did worksheets and bookwork! Since when did that become fun? Since she took charge of her own learning by doing MO Physics!

Following the lesson plan I publish online, she and her teammates assigned themselves bookwork to learn the next physics skill in the sequence and prepare themselves to demonstrate mastery of it to me. I watched them in class and I thought to myself that I'd never seen students dig in like this. They really were poring over the textbook, taking notes, discussing the concepts, calling me over occasionally to answer a question. Looking on, I would have characterized it as hard work, but not fun. I'm delighted that she had fun at such hard work as learning physics.

MO Physics is a program I introduced to my high school physics classes this week. I'm piloting it this year to work out the kinks and to determine whether I will continue with it next year or pull back from it. It is aimed at differentiating instruction toward the high-performing end of the class population, providing a way for them to move at a faster pace than the class, and freeing up my time to work more with the low-performing end. I've been surprised at the high level of enthusiasm it has elicited so far from the students.

Working with teens, I'm well aware that they will enthusiastically jump into something new and then let it quickly peter out. I'm eager to see how student engagement looks a few weeks from now, after the newness has worn off. The students are aware that this is a pilot program, and right now we are enjoying together the excitement of trying something unconventional.