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Here is my latest article to be published in a forthcoming edition of The Creative Educator magazine.
Vanity Fair writer and widow of Tom Russert, Maureen Orth, wrote a charming article about a small school she built in the Colombian Andes while a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s. Last week she returned to the school to present the school named for her by the local villagers with 230 XO laptops from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation.
From Orth's article, The Long-Term Dividends of Volunteering:
Today, seeing how excited the children are about their small, green-and-white computers, which they are allowed to take home every night, is one of the greatest rewards I have ever had. I walked into the first grade classroom and had never seen kids so eager to learn. Their teacher, who had pooh-poohed the whole idea of computers and was on her way to retirement, was plunging right in.
I have long been fascinated by experts, expertise and the commonalities between them. I have learned much about learning by being in the presence of people who are great at what they do. In fact, I believe that reality TV is a manifestation for our basic human desire to engage in apprenticeship experiences.
In my humble opinion, Jo Boaler's, recent Education Week column, Where Has All the Knowledge Gone?
The Movement to Keep Americans at the Bottom of the Class in Math, is one of the most important pieces of education journalism in some time.
Is this just a coincidence? Can President Bush really have been so badly advised as to ignore almost all of the research that could have informed the report, or was there something more deliberate at work? How acceptable is it for a government to control the forms of knowledge that are released to the public?
Dr. Boaler is a former Stanford University Mathematics Professor who clearly and succinctly documents how "science" and "research" are used as a blunt weapon by the United States Department of Education. Boaler describes how the President's National Mathematics Advisory Panel was constrained from publishing the best advice for improving mathematics education. Such ideological interference in mathematics education is consistent with the Reading First mess at the center of No Child Left Behind.
Over the past six months I've discovered the BBC television phenomena, Top Gear. I first heard about it when Jay Leno publicly criticized NBC's desire to produce an American version. Top Gear is hosted by three blokes who love cars, build insane contraptions, challenge one another to drive across the English Channel and tease one another mercilessly.
Top Gear is an enormous international hit with its own magazine, children's books, DVDs and international editions, such as Top Gear Australia.
I've watched a couple of dozen episodes of Top Gear and have my DVR programmed to record new ones, not because I love cars or am even interested in them. I hate cars and would be pleased to never drive again. I watch the show for the hijinks, witty repartee between the hosts and because it is fantastic observing expertise.
The primary host of Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, is also a columnist for England's The Sunday Times and The Sun. Clarkson's co-hosts, Richard Hammon and James May also write entertaining columns for British newspapers.
During a recent trip to Australia, I thumbed through Clarkson's most recent anthology of columns and found a stunning piece of writing about education, Schools are Trying to Break Children.
All of us wrap up our children when it’s cold. We put them on booster seats in the car and make them wear helmets when they’re on a bicycle. We strive constantly to keep them out of harm’s way, and then we send them off to school so they can be tortured and killed.
Apparently, schools the world over are a lot more similar than the international comparison wielding politicians would like us to believe.
Read Jay Leno's review of and affection for Top Gear.
Dr. David Thornburg will lead two workshops at Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge January 22, 2009 in Philadelphia prior to Educon 2.1.
Read more and register here
Is this a precursor to Wednesday night's debate?
For all you mashup fans...
Gotta love Qantas!
I love Apple and their products, but this is beyond crass. Field trips to the Apple Store for your class! Parents with their American Express cards are also welcome.
When I first saw this advertised in the Sydney Apple Store last week, I chalked it up to the novelty of there only being one or two Apple stores on the entire continent of Australia. However, in an age where you have to dig for fossilized remains of field trips gone by, bussing kids to the mall to look at Apple products seems distasteful. Of course, all of this is at the school (or parents') expense with Apple contributing nothing, but Skippy, the minimum wage sub-genius, to supervise the proceedings.
The real tragedy here is that educational computing in schools remains so immature and unsophisticated, that many schools will rightfully view this (commercial) opportunity as a way of enhancing their students' education.
I'm sure ISTE is scrambling to figure out a way to make a buck off these field trips. Perhaps they'll publish guide books, post-mall quizzes or standards for visiting the Apple Store.
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Read my recent article related to ridiculous field trips, Enrichment Programs: The winners win more at the expense of their classmates.
For the past month or so, I've been the big old meanie who could love the messenger, but hate the shallow superficial condescending message of the wonderful Dallas Independent School District 5th grader and web video star burning up the YouTube charts.
You can read my concerns and see me flamed by educators deeply moved by the performance despite it having been created by the school district's cynical desire to exploit a talented young child for central office propaganda purposes here. Can anyone else recall a school district writing a script for a kid in which he admonishes professional educators, rehearsing him for months and then placing the video on the district's web site along with a calculated public relations campaign?
I wonder if Dalton Sherman's appearance on the Ellen Show was an approved school absence?
Well, guess what? Young Dalton's performance was indeed - dare I say? - lipstick on a pig.
While I still receive emails telling me that I MUST watch this amazing video on YouTube, the Dallas Independent School District is laying off 1,100 employees, including 400 teachers lectured by the fifth grader.
According to Education Week:
More than 400 of the lost jobs include teachers in the core subject areas of math, science, social studies and English.
Perhaps the school district would be well-advised to focus on fiscal management and education, rather than stagecraft. At the very least, Dalton's next speech could be to the legislature asking why his teachers are prohibited from union organizing.
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- The father of a measurement known as the "Smoot" returned Saturday to be honored at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the school where he and his fraternity brothers invented it 50 years ago.
Read the rest of the story at
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/10/04/smoot.day.ap/index.html
Kids LOVE this story!
So sad... school field trip to the Apple Store
Microsoft's "I'm a PC' campaign created with Macs and Adobe software.
However, not even Microsoft itself can wean itself off the Mac, as the metadata discovered by Flickr user LuisDS points out. Microsoft was not only using Macs but also Adobe's software in place of its own Expressions Studio, which the company bills as software that "takes your creative possibilities to a new level."
Read about this and other Microsoft marketing problems difficulties here.
BrainPop gives me a headache.
I have long tried to make sense of BrainPop, a web-based library of short cartoons covering "hundreds of standards-aligned topics within science, social studies, english, math, arts and music, and technology; all supported with engaging movies and interactive assessment tools. Web-delivered and searchable by state standards,"
For quite some time I've wondered what a teacher would actually do with BrainPop or BrainPop Jr. Why would you show cartoons in the classroom? Who is the author of the content? How do you know that the information is unbiased, valid, factual or interesting? Shouldn't "Internet Age," learners engage with primary sources from a variety of experts with differing perspectives. How can complex issues and concepts from every discipline be reduced to a short cartoon? What do students do after watching one of the cartoons?
My ambivalence regarding BrainPop got more confusing this week after I received a press release announcing SEPTEMBER 11TH IN THE CLASSROOM: BRAINPOP RELEASES FREE MOVIE THAT HELPS ANSWER CHILDREN’S DIFFICULT QUESTIONS. BrainPop is giving away access to a 5:44 minute cartoon explaining the attacks of 9/11/2001. I'll take the company at its word that it is not exploiting the national tragedy for cynical commercial reasons, but "help teachers communicate with students" about a "sensitive topic."
With much trepidation I hit the play button. The simple 2-D cartoon features Moby the BrainPop robot and his human friend telling the story of 9/11 in a chronological narrative about the attacks and a bit of background information on the terrorists. The cartoon sticks to the facts with little nuance and one politically-correct perspective. The content was not particularly objective even if you think that children should relive 9/11 even in cartoon form.
My viewing of BrainPop cartoons suggests that too many topics are addressed in too little time, with complex issues, stories or concepts reduced to the most trivial level of education - vocabulary development. The excessive volume of vocabulary introduced in the short 9/11 cartoon almost guarantees a trivial handling of complex and potentially controversial issues. Front-loading vocabulary without context, relevance, and most importantly, experience with the underlying ideas is one of the biggest pedagogical error made by educators. Knowing the names of types of angles without experience working with angles is not mathematics -it's memorization.
The 9/11 cartoon covers the chronology of the attacks, Al Quaeda, the Pentagon, terrorism, the Department of Defense, Osama Bin Laden, Islam, religious fundamentalism and more in just five minutes! In such scenarios, understanding is unlikely or purely accidental.
Fans of products like BrainPop justify its use by saying, "The kids love it!" By that peculiar standard, why not let the kids go home early or fill them with candy while in class? They love it compared to what? Given the choice between thinking, working or watching TV, most kids will choose the cartoon. The fact that the delivery of BrainPop cartoons is via the Web is inconsequential. This is TV cartoons without the artistry, storytelling or whimsy of great animation.
It is disingenuous to suggest that BrainPop cartoons are just tasty appetizers used to introduce a topic or inspire student interest. In order to justify the annual school subscription of $700-$1,400/year requires the company to make outlandish claims about state standards alignment and that the cartoons meet "the needs of multiple learning styles." How many learning styles are supported by watching a cartoon?
Like most shallow easily pitched curriculum products, part of BrainPop's appeal is based on its built-in assessment scheme.
That's right! You guessed it! If you enjoyed the cartoon about the horrific tragedy of 9/11 you will love the multiple choice quiz that follows.
Turning 9/11 into a game of trivial pursuit in the name of standards alignment or assessment is most vulgar. Asking students to select the first World Trade Series that collapsed first is not a measure of understanding. It is a test of recall and nothing more.
Reducing a recent national nightmare to a cartoon may be in bad taste, but the multiple-choice test that follows reveals our real priorities.
Check out this fabulous bit of video of Daily Show "reporter," Steve Carell following John McCain's last campaign for President.
It's well worth watching through to the end.
From New Yorker's "Annals of Entertainment: Is It Funny Yet?" by Tad Friend, from February 11, 2002:
"In late 1999, one of the show's correspondents, Steve Carell, boarded Senator McCain's campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, and asked the candidate to name his favorite movie and his favorite book. Then, with no change in his expression, he asked McCain how he could reconcile his criticism of pork-barrel politics with the fact that "while you were chairman of the Commerce Committee, that committee set a record for unauthorized appropriations." For a long moment, McCain was speechless. Carell started laughing. "I'm just kidding!" he said. "I don't even know what that means!""That's a true fact, that question," [then-head writer Ben] Karlin said. "And McCain was caught in the headlights. But we punctured it with a joke, so all you're left with is funny and awkward. It's bittersweet."
Thanks to this article in the Huffington Post for calling my attention to this video gem.
Genius game designer Will Wright's new computer game, Spore, is available today. Will Wrights it the inventor of SimCity and The Sims.
According to the fascinating description in Wikipedia,
[Spore] allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation.
The flexibility, customization and extensibility of Spore may make it truly worthy of the "edugaming" hype touted by many educators. Spore benefits from the efforts of a singular vision. It's many forms of gameplay may be attractive to a wide range of users.
Take a look at Spore here.
Joe Lieberman... Change You Can Believe In!
"I was for Barack Obama before I was against him..."
Click the graphic above to learn more about this exciting Educon 2.1 preconference event!
In 2004, I had the great privilege of being hired to consult and lead professional development in India. One of the highlights of the trip was being on a panel discussion with Dr. Sugata Mitra and a billionaire high-tech exec. The purpose of the day was a school convening it's community and experts to discuss the future of education. (How many of your schools have that sort of event on its calendar?)
Dr. Mitra and his work were damn impressive. Upon returning home I wrote the following article: Let Them Eat Tech Standards - A hole in the wall as science and public policy
The "Hole in the Wall" project is a testament to the competency and capacity of children to construct their own knowledge in a community of practice. Internet access can connect children to each other and the 21st century.
The fabulous TED Conference has just posted a new TED Talk by Dr. Sugata Mitra. It is worthy of the attention of every teacher concerned about learning and every coordinator with "technology" in their job description.
Note: The TED Talk site has better video quality, but Blogger would not allow the Embed to work properly.
Also read Sylvia Martinez's blog about Dr. Mitra's work, Hole in the Wall - Can kids learn computer literacy by themselves?
Mission Accomplished!
Although much of what recently elected and newly minted Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin says in her education plan for Alaska reads like an undergraduate homework assignment, she does express support for something called ABC Schools.
While parents are an integral part of the student experience, students bear the lion’s share of the effort. ABC students have nightly homework, back to basics curriculum, patriotism, ethics and citizenship training. Each of these is a key ingredient to providing a child a consistent education that meets the values of their parents while keeping them challenged in class.
Parent reviews of one of the ABC Schools reveals much of what I suspected and feared:
Birchwood ABC is a wonderful magnet type school. This school teaches Kindergarten students phonograms and how to read in the first half of the year and spelling rules and how to write during the second half. My child has already read 40 16-page phonis readers. They are using the Riggs-Spalding methods for reading and Scott Foresman for math. The students will be doing timed addition and subtraction test by the end of the year. I cannot say enough about this school. The teachers are really great and the parents are very involved. The students have gym class and music class twice a week, art class and library time once a week, and recess every day. The school also stresses academics, citizenship, patriotism, responsibility, respect, and courtesy.
Another parent gushes...
I have been involved in this school for 7 years and every moment of it has been pure blyss! The staff members are a joy and the children are wonderful also! The school offers amazing physical and mental chalenges. It hosts a class for gifted children and for even more gifted children. Over all the school deserves 20/10 stars!
I left the spelling errors in to demonstrate just how well their commitment to phonics is paying off!
The good news is that the school has a segregated class for gifted children and even more gifted children!
Here is a review of another Alaska ABC School by another satisfied phonics customer, a student:
this school is so focused on how u behave and the teachers really want to motvate u to get a good grade in every class. ive been at northern lights abc since a 2nd grade and they have really helped me in a lot of things, evn when im struggling really bad in grades.
Also from Palin's education plan:
The private sector will be integrated into the education system. I am looking for a dramatic change in this area in particular. Employers know what is needed for the workplace. They can provide curriculum and expectations for students to ensure they have all the skills that will invest them in success later in life.
Due to Sarah Palin's incredibly short time in office, I have been unable to find much more information regarding ABC Schools or her relationship with teachers or her education policies as Governor. Please share any info you have with me via this blog.
Hey, check it out!
There is a school district in Florida that has no apparent connection to the past century or common decency.
It's like finding one of those Japanese soldiers who never got the memo World War II is over, but instead of of living in the jungle he's buying 30 pounds of Twizzlers at Wal-Mart.
Read Florida town backs principal witch hunt
I don't think we are that different from a lot of districts, at least in the Panhandle, that have beliefs that maybe are different from societal changes," the schools superintendent said.
"I guess I didn't realize we were this bad," Scott (school board member) said after the district lost in court.
Others flatly hail Davis (the bigoted principal) as a hero.
At least you can count on an 11th grader to do the right thing when the educators around her have lost their minds.
Related links:
AP Story (Girl blamed for hurting her town)
Confederate flag? Oui! Rainbow? No! (too suggestive)
Here is a blog with info about the case.
My latest magazine column for District Administration Magazine is now online.
Who Ya Gonna Believe?
The ongoing battle between facts and mythology.
Other professions have a term for when you put your personal belief ahead of facts-malpractice.
Read the entire article here.
Read this fascinating article about Senator Joe Biden's foreign policy leadership and knowledge.
On September 10, 2001, Senator Biden, then (as now) chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, prophetically warned of the new Bush administration's exclusive focus on missile defenses in a speech at the National Press Club. He said, "We will have diverted all that money to address the least likely threat while the real threats come into this country in the hold of a ship, or the belly of a plane, or are smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial in a backpack."
While you're at it, check out this video clip of Biden reminding John Ashcroft of American values.
This article from The Hill suggests that the Obama campaign wants all speakers to stress a "rags-to-riches" narrative. The article also states that only one sentence was struck from Congressman Kucinich's Tuesday speech.
They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.
Regardless of your politics, the Congressman's DNC speech was entertaining and energetic - well worth watching!
Required books
1. Experience and Education by John Dewey. ISBN: 0020136609
2. The Children’s Machine - Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer -by Seymour Papert. ISBN: 0465010636
3. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second Edition by Edward R. Tufte. ISBN: 0961392169
4. Choose one of the following: (K-12 teachers MAY choose one of the other books if the subject interests them, rather than The Hundred Languages of Children which at first blush looks like it's geared for early-childhood education, but its ideas are universal and profound)
(K-12 educators) The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach Advanced Reflections, Second Edition by Carolyn P. Edwards (Editor) - Ablex Pub Corp; ISBN: 156750311X
or
(Non K-12 educators)
Thinking in Jazz - The Infinite Art of Improvisation by Paul Berliner - University of Chicago Press (Trd); ISBN: 0226043819
or
The Long Haul: An Autobiography by Myles Horton - Teachers College Pr; ISBN: 080773700
5. One more book will be selected and named shortly. It will not be used until November so there will be plenty of time to order it once I confirm availability.
Strongly recommended optional books:
Radio: An Illustrated Guide by Jessica Abel and Ira Glass. ISBN: 0967967104
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. ISBN: 1412959721
Optional optional books:
Painting Chinese: A Lifelong Teacher Gains the Wisdom of Youth by Herbert Kohl. ISBN: 1596910526
Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol. ISBN: 0307393712
Strongly recommended DVD rental or purchase:
We will also watch Comedian, a fascinating documentary with Jerry Seinfeld, later in the semester. In the past, some students have had a virtual film festival and agreed to chat while watching the film at the same time. You may rent or purchase the film during the week I will announce later in the term. Warning: There is adult language, even a bit of profanity in the film. Therefore, nobody is required to view it, especially if you are offended by R-Rated films. There is no nudity or violence whatsoever. The educational value of the film and it's ability to generate serious discussion contextualizing the theories we learn in OMAET makes Comedian a worthy modern text. Students year-after-year have profited from the experience.
Again, you are not required to watch the film if you have moral objections to it, but it is well worthwhile. The R-Rating may be overkill and is based on the language used by professional comedians when they hang out with one another socially.
Software requirement:
There will be a requirement to purchase a copy of MicroWorlds EX software. It will shortly be available via a special web site I have spent several months arranging. The software will cost $40, instead of the normal >$100. The download instructions will be provided.
All of the other software we use will be open-source or freeware.
MicroWorlds EX offers a rich environment for thinking about thinking and learning in a constructionist context. The experiences should be fun, challenging and in some cases nothing whatsoever to do with your job. It will however help you think, develop some technological fluency and set the stage for thinking about constructing knowledge with computers. Even if you do not teach children, the software will help you think about the big ideas of the course. You may of course work with your own children, neighbors or relatives on the MicroWorlds adventures. If you have no use for the software after the term, I am sure that one of your teaching classmates would appreciate an additional license.
The political conventions are like a four-day Superbowl for me. I can't get enough. I am however concerned about the stagecraft and the political calculus that requires the Obama campaign to distance themselves from the proud traditions of the Democratic Party
President Carter, one of two living Democratic Presidents, was met with thunderous applause as he and Mrs. Carter walked across the convention stage, waved and then fled. That's right a former President and Nobel Prize Winner was used as a prop and then made to disappear. The in-house band should have played Ray Stevens' 70s classic, The Streak during his minute in the spotlight.
What was the Obama campaign afraid of? Were they afraid President Carter would call for peace, not war? Were they concerned that he would call for economic justice, racial equality, disease eradication, civil rights, human rights or an end to torture?
Soon after President Carter was whisked off to an undisclosed secure location, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. took the stage.
He got to speak as a reward for throwing his father, Jesse Jackson, Sr. under the bus. How shameful it was when he publicly chastised his father for personal political gain. Congressman Jackson invoked the bloody battle for voting rights in Selma, Alabama and the heroic leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while expecting the audience to forget that his father worked tirelessly and risked his life for decades in order to help America "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." Reverend Jackson was in Selma and with Dr. King on that fateful balcony 
Jesse Jackson, Sr. endorsed Barack Obama for President nearly two years ago. The reward for his loyalty is that neither he, Congressman Charles Rangel or Congressman John Lewis were invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention. 
In fact, Senator Obama can't seem to be photographed in the same room with the civil rights leaders on whose shoulders he stands. Without the heroism and sacrifice of this greatest generation, Obama's presidential nomination would have been impossible. Without Jesse Jackson's historic presidential campaigns and the millions of new voters he registered, Barack Obama would not be a viable nominee.
While the Obama campaign pretends that racism is a prehistoric memory, they cannot be associated with leading African American leaders who risked life and limb to make racial equality possible.
It's all very sad. This denial of history, elders and expertise is reminiscent of the edublogosphere and so much of our culture where youth and immediacy are over-valued.
I have contributed to the Obama campaign and I will vote for him in November. However, I won't be half as proud as when I puled the lever for Jesse Jackson, Sr. in 1984 - the first time I was old enough to vote in a presidential primary election.
At least Ted Kennedy got the attention and respect he deserves. It was glorious to see the enormous smile on Senator Biden's face as Senator Kennedy spoke and delighted the delegates in the arena.
A wise (OK, wiseguy) old Australian friend of mine just sent the following email...
The McCain campaign keeps emphasizing that McCain was a prisoner in Vietnam, as proof of his qualification for the Presidency.
Well, so was Gary Glitter, and I'm not voting for him either.
As I watch the last day of the Summer Olympics, I just heard the TV host tell the American audience that China increased their medal count by 59% over the haul from the Athens Games of 2004.
Uh oh!
I wonder how long it will take before a conference speaker or professional development consultant tosses out that useless Olympic statistic to demonstrate how American teachers conspire against excellence, American students are videogame-addicted zombie slackers and principals all recite from "The World is Fat," the next pop-business BS written by the physical education equivalent of Dan Pink or Thomas Friedman.
Wake up America! World dominance in rhythmic gymnastics is at stake!
My summer institute, Constructing Modern Knowledge, was one of the most rewarding efforts of my career. I'm already working on how to make next year's event even bigger and better.
Soon, more multimedia from CMK08 will be posted on the the web, but in the meantime a number of thoughtful reflections have been shared via the blogosphere.
Check out the blogs here.
| www.flickr.com |
Watch Senator Barack Obama introduce Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running-mate. Both inspirational speeches are in the video below.
Dan Meyer's blog, dy/dan shares the thoughts, insecurities and efforts of a terrific young urban educator via words and remarkable videos. His blog is worthy of your attention.
Dan should me commended for making his thinking public and discussing issues rarely explored in public. A recent blog started out by wondering if Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee's tactics and hostility towards teachers would be fruitful in the public schools of the nation's capitol.
Along the way, Dan asked a serious question about how to improve his students' geometry test scores, regardless of how each of us might feel about the value or use of standardized testing.
Here is my first, albeit incomplete, set of recommendations.
Dear Dan:
First of all, I wish to share my admiration for the sincerity and courage inherent in your question.
I got my 07-08 Geometry results back yesterday and they were not acceptable. Too many kids listing along at Basic levels, not enough kids rising to Proficiency.
My question to so many commenters here: what would you have me do with that data?
Asking this question is critically important. You can't be good at anything, much less teaching, without being reflective.
First, let's assume that the test actually attempts to assess "geometry." Many standardized tests give kids a score for something like "algebraic reasoning" when the test only included one question on the topic. It would also be nice if you continued to work with the same students tested. Having test results after the kids move on to another teacher is hardly useful as a corrective instrument.
Since you can't cure poverty or the other socioeconomic and cultural obstacles experienced by your students, solutions will need to be relegated to what you do in your classroom.
One mistake frequently made when confronting such issues as your geometry scores is to assume that blame lies with either a) the teacher or b) the student. There is a third player at work here - the curriculum. Why don't we ever challenge the assumptions underlying the curriculum?
While I realize you have a limited ability to replace or abandon the curriculum, it is equally true that doing the same thing louder will not achieve a different result.
But both of your responses dodge the question. From the perspective of someone opposed to the accountability measures of NCLB and skeptical of standardized tests, what would you have me do with the knowledge that (e.g.) four out of ten students I taught last year couldn’t find the volume of a unique swimming pool?
Why should students be able to find the volume of a swimming pool? How often do you have to do that? I never calculate unique swimming pool volume.
How many of your students have access to a swimming pool or even swim? (Oh, I know. Tests are supposed to be culturally neutral.)
It's worth asking yourself the question Seymour Papert used to challenge my own teaching and curriculum planning. "What can they DO with that?"
Such a question goes well beyond matters of relevance. Knowledge is constructed as a consequence of experience. What sorts of experiences do your students have?
I'm not a Utopian. I know that you have to "teach" the kids "math." However, you may need to ensure understanding before covering the curriculum. Perhaps you can change the order of the curriculum. Perhaps you can supplement the curriculum with more imaginative texts (including trade books written by experts). Perhaps you can use Logo with kids - still for my money the richest environment for developing geometric reasoning. Perhaps you can find a way for students to be less hostile to the curriculum being shoveled in their direction. In any event, you need to take the kids from where they are and help them move forward.
You may need to change everything, just to "catch-up!"
The research of Constance Kamii and others, plus your own common sense indicates that "practicing" more pool volume problems is unlikely to help students improve their scores, or more importantly understand volume. Check out Kamii's books here. Her videos are available from Teachers College Press.
In that spirit, here are some resources and practical ideas you might consider:
- The concrete inquiry model presented in How Big is the Moon? should be adaptable to your circumstances to great effect.
- Civil Rights hero Bob Moses' Algebra Project may have resources to help. His book, Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights, may be a source of inspiration to you as well.
- I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE an out-of-print book, entitled Build-a-Book Geometry. Get yourself a copy and try the author's approach to kids owning and inventing geometric knowledge.
- Visit the Constructivist Consortium's Online Bookstore for additional book recommendations.
- Use Logo (not Scratch) and find ways to integrate turtle geometry and programming into your required curriculum.
- Use activities from Harold Jacobs' brilliant textbooks Mathematics: A Human Endeavor or Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding
- Use the strategies of Think, Write, Talk proposed by Marilyn Burns.
- Use Geometer's Sketchpad and the books and manipulatives provided by Key Curriculum Press.
- Use MicroWorlds to have kids construct their own "Sketchpad" as described on my site.
- Borrow activities from more progressive texts like "Connected Math"
- Identify real projects requiring geometry outside of the classroom.
- Plaster your classroom walls with interesting posters of geometric art like these.
- Remember that less is more!
As Papert and Harel teach us, "It's OK to worry about what to teach Monday, as long as what you do points to what you want to do someday." Don't get distracted by the immediacy of the curriculum or tests. I hope this helps.
Here are just two articles about how the Chinese Government has refused to honor their deal to allow press freedom and abide by common principles of human rights during the Olympics. They lied, NBC who has spent billions on the games and is reported to earn over $100 million has done little to report on Chinese atrocities and the International Olympic Committee says, "Oops."
Not a single permit was awarded for the "official protest areas" set up as a Potemkin Village by the Chinese tyrants. iTunes was shut-down because athletes were able to download "Songs for Tibet." Journalists have been arrested and old ladies were sentenced to "reeducation" for being upset about their houses being taken from them to make way for the Olympics.
China's PR Fiascos: Blocking iTunes Just the Latest in Ongoing Olympics PR Disaster
China Sentences 2 Elderly Women To Labor Camp For Protest Plans
Kevin Carey, of the "independent" and "innovative" Education Sector, didn't have the decency to defame me by name when he attacked the cover story, School Wars, I wrote for the current issue of Good Magazine.
It's ironic to be accused of "policy juvenalia" in a blog oh so cleverly entitled "Bad Magazine."
In a time when smart people of good faith occupy both sides of many heated and complex education debates, it makes sense occasionally to pause, take a deep breath, and denounce things like the incoherent mishmash of policy juvenalia, useless sentiment, and blatant lies found in this article, published by GOOD Magazine, in which we are told that NCLB "requires all of the nation’s schoolchildren to be above the mean on standardized tests," Bill Gates and Eli Broad are spearheading the corporate conspiracy to privatize K-12 education, and standardized tests come with instructions about what to do if students throw up on them. It's sort of a perfect distillation of woolly-minded HuffPost-type conventional education wisdom, and in that sense is oddly valuable, because you can read it and know everything that a not-inconsequential percentage of people know (or rather, don't know) about education.
It's not "useless sentiment" to care about children.
Ever since President Bush told me to "use the Google," I have found it to be an indispensable tool for learning all sorts of interesting things. One thing I learned when I clicked on the "Who We Are" link on the Education Sector web site was that the "independent" and "innovative" Education Sector is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Eli Broad.
It is awfully refreshing to see such "independent" and "innovative" analysts strenuously defending their sugar daddies. It's kind of sweet.
For the record, my article was carefully fact-checked by Good Magazine. In fact, a good deal of my juiciest stuff about Eli Broad was left on the cutting-room floor. Stay tuned, keep reading and don't forget to follow the money!
Extend your PBD (personal beverage democracy) and order bottles of Cola featuring your favorite Presidential candidate. Now, thanks to the wisdom of the crowds, you - lonely blogger, can also be a candidate for POTUS, if only virtually via soda bottles.
The web truly does change everything in revolutionary ways.
Give me liberty or give me root beer
- Lawrence Lessig