Sketchpad and websites and purplemath are all fine, but at the end of the day, you need to come to class with a pencil.

We shouldn’t exclude the “stuff” on principle, nor should we use it just to use it.

Which brings me back to pencil, chalk, blackboard, paper, almost every day.

I just avoid worksheets, mostly, since they have such a bad rap. (but when I write my own, they ‘develop’ a topic in a really engaging sort of way. Figure it’s the same idea as your equations work sheet.)

Could your kids craft “Graphing Stories” (for example) problems and story board concepts based on the math being studied? Could they vote for which one that they would like you to take a swing at behind the camera away from school? Could they then see the visual/video fruits of their inspiration/labor and your vision/solution as one of the opening class moments soon after? Could their passion for the subject matter be positively influenced without time lost in developing the tangible skills needed at the end of the day?

If so, it would seem that they would be doing the mental & practice work inside the classroom — honoring both the systemic standards and legit time constraints — and still have a direct influence on what you create on new playing field. At the end of the process, both teacher and students would have tested whether their ideas/solutions have actual merit (beyond the answer key). No need for a trip to the computer lab, nor shelling the 2nd half of Algebra I, nor putting future teachers at risk by sending incomplete students.

Again, the “Graphing Stories” model is being used as an example, not as the literal must-do suggestion. Given what you come up with on a daily business for your kids (and this blog), you are certainly not going to be drinking from a dry well anytime soon.

Undoubtedly, Dan, you are due NO reprimand for pushing hard on the 24-hour clock. You are relentless with your timepiece and clearly in love with both discovery and the teaching alike. And your relentless desire to bring a modest sampling of that big-bad-emerging world of tools/media into the classroom is to be commended. Heck, followed. Regardless of subject or experience.

And to that, keep on keepin’ on…

I can claim these principles:

I don’t want to bore my kids. I ask them questions that I want them to eventually ask themselves without my help. I want them engaged. I want them working in a rigorous place for as long as I’ve got ’em.

But I can’t stand on principles I don’t have:

eg. I know there are skills I’m obligated to teach but I don’t know how much I want to poke at that. (I’m not so selfish I can’t see that choices I make about curriculum affect my colleagues.) I know that tech skills and media literacy are crucial but I don’t know how much business math has leading that charge.

At this point I’m trying to find the 21^st-century fun that won’t interfere with the breadth, a feat which requires a lot of one-to-one translations, a one-hour 20^th-century activity swapped for a one-hour 21^th-century activity.

It’d be easy to blow off the second half of Algebra 1 and build math games online or reflect on interesting problems with kids in Bangalore. I find it very difficult to walk the beat I’m walking now. But, to your last directive, I am having fun.

It seems that last night, as you were composing your response, I was reading (and re-reading) Christian’s text.

You say that

time will always be my first reality check and that what Christian describes would require

a complete reinvention of the curriculum, particularly at the lower levels.

To which I ask: would this help students learn more effectively?

If time is an obstacle, then what are the factors placing demands on your time? If these factors are things that impede learning (and I’m talking the life-long variety, not the pick-the-right-bubble variety) how can they be overcome?

And yes, if that requires a complete re-write of the curriculum, so be it. If that requires policy advocacy to effect change within state standards, so be it. From what I hear you saying, you are caught between the

sheer breadth of material the state asks me to cover

and

a lot of 21st century fun.

While I’m not going to address the inherent misnomer of “21st century fun” there does seem to be a tension here. Blogs can be used as a reflective tool, a presentation tool, a way of tracking time spent working on a problem, a way of asking questions, etc, etc, etc — all skills that are useful in math, lit, and, oh, yeah — life — the thing they are going to school for in the first place.

If the time required to cover a curriculum put in place by people who have likely never set foot in your class, your school, or even your ESD impairs your ability to deliver lessons that would be of educational value, then something is wrong.

Break some rules, Dan. Have some fun.

Cheers,

Bill

And I’ve read it like four times.

Very nice.

Cheers,

Bill

It’s obvious to me that the capital-C conversation could only benefit from more empathy from all over the content areas.

For my part, I’m glad to know that the ELA content standards (wait, you said ELA has standards, right?) extend past finger painting and color-by-numbers. (Thanks, everyone, for correcting my pedagogical chauvinism.)

But I’m still convinced that, at least as the tools exist now, language & tech courses enjoy easier access, more one-to-one 21^st-century substitutions, a fact which has gotta receive more than lip service on a blogosphere dominated by language & tech teachers.

To anyone suggesting these tools can revolutionize the lives of math teachers, if not their students: absolutely, yes, I agree. Emphatically. I’d like to believe, given the time I invest to make my practice public, that my commitment to that ideal is beyond question.

Cherrypicking a few of Christian’s comments:

There was a moment, back when I was investigating Moodle for my school, when I thought I’d be the salesman you describe, the skeptic entering the fold.

Excepting material constraints (the fact that we don’t have a class set of camcorders, much less a class camcorder in the singular) inasmuch as I’d like to have my kids make their own Graphing Story videos, produce a DVD compliation, organize a mailing, invite another school to an online screening with regional specific events, etc etc etc etc, I have to contend with time. Constantly.

The sheer breadth of material the state asks me to cover (and I don’t begrudge ’em that goal) prevents a lot of 21^st century fun.

The class you describe, where students share in the teaching as much as you’d like, would have to integrate tech in more than just microscopic instances. Two hours in the lab every other week kills too much time (in a state of perpetual introduction) for us math teachers.

You’re talking, instead, about a complete reinvention of the curriculum, particularly at the lower levels.

I saw potential in information design earlier this semester. I accomplished a lot of the instructional goals I had last year only with more student engagement and without letting an hour slide off my bottom line.

I’m uncertain where to take it next but time will always be my first reality check.

Question 1:

What would it take to have your current students craft acceptable (merit based on intention and preparation at first…) set of math-oriented, video-based “Graphing Stories” (which, of your work, still has me returning over and over to think through the possibilities: /?p=213) as a small-toe-in-the-water 2.0 move?

Question 2:

Could a series of student-developed “Graphing Stories” videos be placed within the context of a collaborative class blog where students defend the thinking-process of both mathematical concept and audience-driven execution, all tied together via a student developed (and teacher-mentored) wiki, for instance?

Would there be value?

I am learning to appreciate the challenge (or at least value-question) of using blogs (et al) in the day-to-day instruction of math (at all levels). I am beginning to appreciate how direct instruction, overheads, etc are vital elements in the teaching arsenal in a profoundly skill-driven pedagogy. And I am definitely at peace with the idea that Language Arts (which pays my teaching salary) is more aligned with the default assumptions/benefits of 2.0 tools at this point in time?

But I am really curious what happens when we do not limit — on either side — the conversation to ‘teachers teaching’ vs. ‘students studenting’ (forgive that) to define or defend the practical uses of any tool (including emerging 2.0 elements).

At the end of the day, every subject needs both practice and performance to justify that a student did indeed ‘learn’. And inevitably the highest form of teaching is based on expertise and a rigorous commitment to “by any means necessary” to engage/launch our students to be both competent (skills/knowledge) and further interested (vision/application).

If such a premise offers enough leeway to connect Language Arts (et al) and Math (et al) at the purpose level, what happens when we concentrate our shared efforts on merging tools of all shapes and possibilities across a spectrum of experience with our kids complete success in mind? (Ours, too)

What would a Math classroom ‘look’ like that employed handouts (well-designed), overheads, problem sets, continual practice, and skill-leads-to-skill expectations WITH the opportunity for students to be brought into the PRESENTATION game as well, using a myriad of classic and 2.0 tools to help them a) defend their thinking, b) interact with a larger audience, and c) engage their long-term interests?

And what would it look like if — and here’s where I diverge into a crazy little wonderland of probably-ain’t-possible since guys like this don’t exist, right? — a guy like DAN MEYER led a classroom with the absolute commitment to the best of classic instruction and assessment merged with an vision for helping his own students (along with educators of all stripes paying attention to his blog) demonstrate their emerging knowledge to a wide array of audiences with a wide array of tools and a designer’s instinct for presentation?

Instead of an either/or, is there an and/and proposition that sits somewhere ahead of the classic curve (or parabola)?

’cause if there were — and I’m only daydreaming here — a teacher like a Dan Meyer who actually ‘got it’ on both ends of the classic and emerging line, a guy who could demonstrate what it looked like in a real-live Math classroom with real limits of time/space/resources, a guy who had an audience and a vision, it might be liable to spark a profound shift in both the larger edu-conversation and get-r’done execution case study set as the rest of us try to figure out how to live up to such a model in whatever classroom or discipline we call home.

I know I don’t come here for math-based instruction, per se. But I also know that I’m stealing ideas like mad from you for my decidedly English/Language Arts curriculum at every possible turn.

What is missing for me — and maybe for others — is the ability to learn from a guy who gets both the rigor of instruction/knowledge and design vision while ALSO demonstrating how to bring the kids into the possibility fold as far as presentation, demonstration, and audience engagement.

Perhaps its a foolish, quirky wish, but what I wouldn’t give for a guy like you to be a pied piper in terms of bringing it all together — with our kids working in concert with us — so that ALL classrooms, subjects, and teachers were employing the full range of tools to both a) instruct based on our expertise and b) challenge their kids to engage a larger audience when defending ‘how they got there’ themselves.

For what it’s worth, I’m curious what such a math classroom would look like. And also what it might do in terms of inspiring the rest of us to stop arguing the either/or coin flip until time stands still.

Following your lead here —
Christian

BTW, have you considered sending Stanford a letter at some point in the next few years?

If I were you, and explained to the good folks at Wallenberg Hall (the education school gem) and the d.school (oh, you know what I’m talking about here, my friend!) explaining what a dual masters degree would look like if given the freedom to combine programs, I can’t imagine that the likes of Tom Kelly (IDEO) and Diego Rodriguez don’t hand-walk your application to the “Accept!” line.

Just a thought.

“When I was teaching in a regular classroom last year, the one subject I still used an overhead projector for was mathematics. I just couldn’t get the visuals correct on slides, and didn’t want to take the time to learn Latex. I hate sending kids to some math programs because there is nothing more ridiculous than have a child at a computer station trying to add/subtract/multiply numbers greater than 100 and having to get a sheet of paper and a pencil to do it.”

My school purchased Interwrite Schoolpads for Math teachers this year. It took a little getting used to, but I haven’t turned on my overhead since September. It requires a data projector connected to a computer, but costs a lot less than a notebook. I love it because I can give examples to the class from any location in the room. I’m no longer chained to the front of the class. I think there are plenty of similar products on the market. Thought you might want to investigate this option for your school. (Students can also present their solutions without leaving their desks)

For Erin Remple:
I’m in the same camp regarding how to use web 2.0 tools in Math. My first attempt is a blog that I’ve started (only recently) offering extra credit to students who post homework questions as a comment for the given week. I also offer extra credit to the student that correctly answers someone else’s question. I’m spending a lot of time promoting it in my classes, but it’s not taking off like I had hoped. I’m hoping that more students will use it as they become more accustomed to posting comments. I may need to schedule lab time to teach the students how to post comments and what the process involves. You are welcome to visit my classroom blogs to see how I’ve set it up.

Executives Math Web Page click on Algebra Blog, Pre-Algebra Blog, or Integrated Math Blog to visit the various Blogs. (No students have posted to the Pre-Algebra Blog yet)