Edublog award winners 2007

Week 3 Summary

Sarah Paige Roe — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:23:57 +0000

EDOL 533

This has been a busy, final week at school. Working full time and taking online classes has proven to be a tad bit difficult. I am so ready to actually have a license, but until then, I truck on. This week I learned some valuable information on how to better my classes and keep my students involved in their education and updated in the field of technology. I am excited to say that many of the things I have learned so far have inspired me to "technologically update" the way I had out information in my class. Visual Representation is very important to students. It catches their attention, sparks their interest and creativity, and helps them to remember the information down the road. A great way to do this in the classroom would be with the DTP program. I hope to involve my students by letting them make powerpoint presentations over the vocabulary that they are learning, and show it to other classes. I continue to read and visit resources that say how positive it can be to have students learn from their peers.

As a Spanish teacher, I do not give grades. Therefore I do not send home papers or newsletters with my students. Nor do the students get worksheets for homework that they take home. We do everything in the classroom, and this mostly includes games, songs, and fun activities. On the days that I present the information, I usually have the students write down the vocabulary words and their meanings. Sometimes we draw pictures to go along with them. In the future, i would like to use the power point presentations, videos and blogs that I have seen from some of the resources that we have been researching. However, I would need to ensure that the presentation are not too busy, and would not take away from the material inside, which is most important.

In recent documents that I have translated for the school, I have not done much visual editing. However I think that just because we have to translate something for the hispanic society, does not mean that they should not be just as interesting and fun to read as the English version. One document was to be sent out at the end of the year, concerning the upcoming Kindergarteners in the community. The school will be hosting a 3 day lecture/workshop for the children to come in, see the school system, meet their new friends/classmates to be, and the new teachers. There is also time to sign them up, get all of their medical requirements met, and take a introductory MAP test. Though the original document is very plain and boring compared to the other document that was written in English, I think that I could add some color and different font to it to make it more interesting to the students and parents reading it. I have attached an updated version, that I hope makes the visual effects more interesting to the reader.

Another interesting research that was added to my list of "to-do's" in the classroom came from the technology explorations. There were several sites that hit directly home for me. I love when I can find sites that work in all kinds of languages, specifically Spanish. One great find was Rubistar, which allowed you to make the rubrics for different subjects, grade levels, and classes. I enjoyed this site because I could do all of the same things in Spanish. Though my class does not officially give grades, I still have to mentally document after each lesson, who is understanding he material. I do this so that I can come up with other ways to present the material if there are students who are not quite understanding the material. I never move on from a subject until I have at least 2/3 of the class at an even knowledge of the subject. If this has not been accomplished after a long amount of time, I usually try to change the lesson, and move on, leaving that group of learning assignments for another time.

Another cool site was that in which you could rearrange your classroom setting and architecture online. This was very neat, especially after just learning about how important it is to keep the children's attention, using the format of your classroom. By being able to rearrange desks and chairs online, it saves the hassle of having to move everything hundreds of times before finding something that fits your teaching needs, and the learning needs of your students. However I have found that sometimes the way you set your classroom up at the beginning of the year may change after you meet your new set of students. It depends on the character of your class, as to how to figure out the best way to arrange the class.

Tacklebox was my absolute favorite Tech Exploration for this week. As I have said before, it is hard to find online sites that use the Spanish language in forms of games, and other fun interactive learning environments. This site had plenty of things that I could use in my classroom. I like the fact that it could be used with the Smartboard, which is another step toward suing more technology in my classroom. It was also something that I would feel very comfortable telling other teachers about. It could be used for any subject, and any language. Students can over use some websites sometimes, so we should always be on the look out for new sites that still keep them involved.

Summer%20Registration-%20JRES%20%28spanish%29.doc

Technology Exploration Assignment

7. Assistive Technologies – www.gpat.org

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response - By looking through this resource, I found a lot of information about assisted technology, and what its uses entail. I have seen low assistive technology in some kindergarten classrooms before. These include the special pencil holders and scissor holders. I had not heard or seen of the devices that can read things to the students, or translate for them once spoken in to. Though there is not an immediate need for these in my school system, I think it would be great for specific case.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. _ These devices are particularly directed towards school systems, so their use is prominent. I think that they would be great for students with disabilities who need the extra help to understand in their learning environment, or work as easily as other students can with pencils/scissors.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?- I would definitely recommend this to other educators. Some teachers see the need for these tools without knowing about them, or how to be qualified to use them in their classroom. This site did a great job of explaining the uses, and the process of how to legally be approved to use them in the classroom. It is important to use them the correct way, and have the correct documentation for them so that they will continue to be of help in the future.

Zoho http://www.zoho.com

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. - This website seemed to have absolutely everything that you could possibly need in one place. Everything that could be used to work on a project, lesson plan etc has an app that was on one website to access. Although I do not do many large, complex activities, I could see how useful this site could be.

2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.- The possibilities are endless. The productivity apps had the best variety of things to use in a classroom setting. I also like that you could track progress on some of the apps, watching how children's grades change back and forth. Many of the apps were more business related, but for some people who are involved in PTO and other school groups, this site could be useful to them as well.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I am not quite sure if I would recommend this site to other educators or not. Though there are so many options to use on there, I am not sure if it was set up easily enough to access everything that pertained to the educational field. There were more business apps on there than anything, and I think some of the other sites that I have seen would be a better fit for teachers. This site might be better for businesses, or home life uses.

8. Online Tools for Teachers (select at least 3 from the 4teachers website) - http://www.4teachers.org/tools/

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response - This site was so exciting! I love to find sites that are bilingual. The more sites that incorporate Spanish, the better. This site was a great way to use rubrics in Spanish and English. I would love to be able to send out rubrics to the parents so that they understood what was going on in the classroom, but in Spanish as well for the Hispanic families, and because it is a Spanish class, of course.

How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. I could immediately use this in my classroom. The more papers and lessons that are completely in Spanish, the more the students will have to rely on the Spanish skills I am teaching them. Even better, schools that are completely bilingual could use these in all subjects, for the children to collaborate the two different languages in areas other than just Spanish class.

Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I would recommend this to other teachers with the hope that they would use it in English and Spanish. I dream big, yes I know. The only problem that I had with the site, was the login in process. It was a bit complicated for my taste, and I hate filling all of that stuff out every time, making a new password, etc. I would be much better if you could log in with your Yahoo ID or something of that nature.

http://classroom.4teachers.org/
1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.- What a neat site! I had never even heard of such a thing. Though I do not have my own classroom, I loved being able to play with this site, and make my own layouts. I just had a class that emphasized on the importance of setting up your classroom in a manner that is best suited for the students learning. I can see how useful this site could be to classroom teachers.

2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. _ This site is completely directed towards classroom use. However, I am sure that you could hack it in a way that would let you rearrange any room in your house, ha ha! When you move in to a new classroom, sometimes it can be overwhelming to know how to et up all of the tables and chairs so that the students can focus on the learning at hand.

3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - This would be a great site for all teachers. I love the fact that there is no login necessary, and you can start using it as soon as you find the site. There are all types of different options for the classroom layout, so you do not have to worry about guessing, or estimating if something will really fit or not.

http://tacklebox.4teachers.org/index.jsp?subject=5&theme=5413&topic=5421

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. - Another site that I can use in my Spanish class. HOORAY! This site had tons of information that could be used to help the students become more active in the technology world of Spanish. They use technology for so many things now, it is inevitable that they will have to use it sometime in their life. The more accustomed they can become at an early age, the better. This site was not only geared towards older students, but could be used with younger age groups as well. It has hundreds of links that will take you to informative and cultural sites that can be helpful when learning another language.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. - Students could use this site during their computer lab time, or even in the classroom with the smart board. By looking at the different sites, they can explore the new language on their own, choosing sites and topics that interest them. Not only would it be a great resource to use in my Spanish class, but other classes as well. The site has access to more information about several main subjects that are taught in school.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?- I would tell other educators about this site. It was very helpful to me, almost immediately. Therefore I would feel confident that it could do the same for other teachers. I liked the fact that you did not have to create a login to access any of the information, but to make things easier on you, the option was still there. It was easier to use and I could access what I wanted without getting too confused or having to click too many buttons.

Dimio http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response. _ This site had a lot of information that pertained to recorded voices reading different prompts. The website in general was very interesting, and reminded me of the option on Iphone 5's that let you say something you would like to send as a text. I have used that a couple of times, but it never really works out exactly as it should. This makes me leery of this site as well. It would almost be too good to be true.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. - You could use this resource in a World language class, helping the student to hear an actual native's voice, which is usually only available to students if they were to study abroad. I like this idea because if students hear another person's voice speaking the language before they start to read and write, they will imitate the voice instead of trying to read it as if it were in their original language. It could also be used for students with disabilities.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I don't think that I would recommend this site to others unless I saw an immediate need. I could not navigate it easily, nor did I see a great use for its resources. I think that it could have had a better layout, and have more information about the site, and how it came about, and some comments of those who have used it. It always helps more to be able to read comments from those who have used the resource, it gives the site more stability.

9. FullMeasure http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/

	1.Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response. - This site gave presenters the option of having their power point presentation being read by the computer, instead of doing it themselves. I think the idea is neat, however quite un-useful. It seems that we are getting lazy with a lot of the regular jobs that we do on a normal basis. Something as trivial as reading aloud a presentation should not be replaced by a machine.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. Though I can see how teachers could use this so that they could work on other things during the presentation, I think it is taking the teaching out of the classroom. I do think that it could be used for students with speech disabilities, so that they could participate and present material with the help of this device.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I believe that I would only recommend this site to special education teachers, for the use of their students. I did not like the websites layout. I think that it would have been better organized to have tabs at the top, so you could click on what you wanted to know, instead of having to scroll down through the whole site. This makes it confusing, and hard to find exactly what you want to know about the site and its potential uses.

10. WebQuest –http://www.webquest.org

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.- Web quest is a site that holds a lot of information pertaining to teachers over several different subjects. There are several different ways to search the site, and the case studies are easy to find. Another great feature allows those who enjoy and use the site often to recommend other case studies, and books that help them in the classroom.
	2.How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. - Teachers could definitely use this to help them in the classroom. This is a great resource to perform studies and have the students take note of what happened. More than anything, I think that it would be a great resource for the teachers, to use the information from the case studies in their own classroom.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I would recommend this site to other educators. It is a free educational site that has a lot of information from other educators that can be useful in the classroom. I never had looked at case studies, but have found that they can have some great stats and ideas to improve any problems that you may be having in the classroom. The site was easier to use, and all of the information was accessible.

ReadtheWords http://readthewords.com

Technology Exploration Resource Explored (be sure to differentiate which resource is which for each of the three items:

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.- Now this is a site that actual tells its readers what it is being used for. The tutorials were great on giving viewers the information that they needed to know if the site was good enough for them to use, and what services it provided. At first, I was not sure of the uses of having something read to the students. After looking at the "about us" section, I appreciate this resource much more. I learned how many different languages can be used on the site, and the statistics of how many children it has helped. This is a great resource for those with special needs.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. This could be used in any special education classroom for those students who have auditory or speech problems. Now that I understand its main uses, I feel much more comfortable knowing how to apply it to classrooms. This would be a great resource for students who need more confidence in their reading skills. It would especially help for those ESL, or world language learners.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I would recommend this resource to other educators, as well as parents of those with disabilities that would pertain to this website. I think it would be a great site to help parents at home, when they struggle, helping their child to continue their education. The more a child reads, or listens to someone else reading to them, they can only keep improving. I think that it is easy to get around on the site, it gives some great comments from educators and parents who have seen it work with students of their own.

Open Online Experience

Brendan — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:28:06 +0000

This year has been the year of MOOCs for me, and it seems the rest of the world. I started with DNLE at Stanford, the first MOOC I actually finished. (My first MOOC was edfutures with Dave Cormier in 2010 but I kind of petered out after 6 weeks)

In September I started working with Alec Couros and his many co-conspirator on #etmooc. I learned a lot about designing a connectivist MOOC. I put that learning to work right away in designing the Open Online Experience (#OOE13).

Over the past month or so I and 40 other educators have worked hard to develop OOE13. OOE13 is a 10 month course starting in September 2013 and ending in May 2014. There are two main goals of OOE13. The first is to help educators learn and develop the skills necessary to integrate technology into the classroom. The second is to help educators create and nurture connections that will continue through and beyond the experience.

The experience is specifically designed to parallel the school year. Which at first seems like a very long course, but in reality is a short 9 week course stretched out to allow busy working educators the time necessary to explore each topic without putting undue burden on their lives. We also hope it will become a theme for some groups as they work together during the year. We hope you will join us during the journey.

It isn’t necessary to register for the course, everything should flow through our wiki (http://ooe.wikispaces.com/), but to get the full effect we ask you to register here, or here.

Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Guidelines on Video

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:25:20 +0000

Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media (where I’m a member of the External Advisory Board) just published their social media guidelines in a video.

Contest: Do You Know Blue?

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:11 +0000

a/k/a A Netflix Prize for K-12 Math Students
a/k/a Let Dave Major, Evan Weinberg, and Me Buy Your Class A Pizza Party

Can you teach a computer to recognize the color "blue"? Head to Do You Know Blue? and find out. If you do the best job teaching the computer, we'll send your class a pizza party in appreciation.

Enter the contest as many times as you want. Come back and check out your standing at this page.

You have until Monday 5/27 at 7:00AM Pacific Time.

Disclaimers

Anybody can participate but the winning entrant will need to be a K-12 student in the US.
$100 maximum on the pizza party.
You'll have to include an e-mail address, school name, and teacher name if you want to compete for the pizza party.
If multiple people take the top spot we'll draw the winner randomly

Video Tutorial: Kid Pix Deluxe 4 – Paintzone and Slideshow

tleditor — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

In today's video, learn about the two parts of Kid Pix Deluxe 4—the Paintzone art-making tool and the Slideshow presentation tool.

Math Challenge

tleditor — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Challenge your younger students to use their problem-solving skills with these short problems.

Bio-soustenible proyect: "Seseña, en cauce por la sostenibilidad"

GURIARTE — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:25:33 +0000

I´m a teacher from Spain and with my colleagues of Gabriel´s Uriarte public primary center would like a "bio-soustenible" proyect. We need partners what want colaborate and share experiencies in this wonderful subjet.
You can looking for us in:

http://biosesenaencauce.wordpress.com/

By The Numbers

Karl Fisch — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:29:00 +0000

It's both a fun time of year in high school and a time to reflect. I've had kind of an interesting juxtaposition of a couple of items. We have a couple of students that I know at my school who are graduating and think they want to become teachers (we have a great Teacher Cadet program where they get an opportunity to learn about teaching/learning as well as a mini-student-teaching opportunity).

In many ways I think this is great - we must be doing something right if we have bright, amazing students thinking they want to become educators. But the second item gives me pause, so I thought I'd take just a few minutes to share some numbers that I've come across recently.

From the Colorado School Finance Project:

Colorado’s teachers made $6,400 less per year than the national average.
When adjusted for inflation, Colorado’s teachers made $5,200 less than a Colorado teacher in 1992-93, a 9.6% decrease. During the same time period, the national average teacher salary increased by over 2%.
In 2010-11 Colorado’s teachers were paid at the national average level five years ago.
If Colorado put the same effort toward K-12 as it did in 1992, there would be $1.2 billion more dollars for K-12 per year.
If Colorado put the national average effort toward K-12, there would be $2.248 billion more dollars for K-12 per year.

Okay, so that's not terribly encouraging, but that's Colorado in general. What about my school district? Let's look at beginning teacher salaries.

Let's compare the beginning teacher salary in my district in 1991 with today. When adjusted for inflation (Bureau of Labor Statistics), beginning teacher salaries would have to increase by 9.5% just to break even with 1991.
When you take into consideration the increase in employee contributions for insurance premiums, that changes to an 11.3% increase just to stay even with 1991.

Okay, so that's not terribly encouraging either. But we have a fairly traditional salary schedule in my district (although a committee is about to meet to consider changes to that), so the beginning teacher salary doesn't reflect the built-in raises a teacher that's been in the district since 1991 has received. (By the way, I picked 1991 because that's when I entered the district.) When you look at my salary, I certainly have seen increases that put me comfortably ahead of inflation.

Well, until you look at the last five years, in which case I've lost 6.6%(and even more when you include increases in insurance premiums). This happened at the same time that I, and every other teacher I know, has had their responsibilities and expectations increase dramatically. My case is somewhat different because I wasn't - and am not - a full-time classroom teacher, but I still think it's instructive. Five years ago I was the full-time technology coordinator for my building. Today I am still the full-time technology coordinator for my building, but I also teach one section of Algebra. We have significantly more technology in the building than five years ago, plus that one section of Algebra added at least 15 hours to my work week. All while taking a pay cut.

Now, I want to be clear, this is not about my salary. I've even gone on record in my district with the somewhat blasphemous statement that I think I get paid enough, especially when compared with younger teachers. (Having said that, in case anyone from my district is reading this, that does not mean I would turn down a hefty raise :-). My district has a good relationship with its teachers and, while I don't always agree with the financial decisions they make, they have generally done a good job in a difficult time. What I think this is about reflects a larger issue in America today - the decline of the middle class.

I would say teachers are pretty representative of the middle class in the United States. What the above trends show is that, should those trends continue, teachers will no longer be able to achieve middle class status (unless they marry well). And I wonder what that says about what we value in this country?

Which brings me back to those two graduating seniors I know. They are both about to spend a fair amount of money on a college education. They are both very bright and very successful and could choose careers in a wide variety of areas. I really want them to choose to become teachers. My problem is I'm just not sure I should encourage them to do so.

And that makes me sad.

OK, Teacher

Karl Fisch — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:27:00 +0000

Jeff Utecht has a post worth reading on his Google I/O Reflection:

If you haven’t seen the demonstration of what is coming to the Chrome Browser than you need to watch this. How does this change the classroom?

The entire search presentation starts at 2:03:41 of this video, and it's worth 15 minutes of your time. If 15 minutes is too long, then just watch the 7 minutes of Johanna Wright's part at 2:11:29.

So, "OK, Google" is interesting and, combined with the other announcements by Google, may truly change "search as we know it" as they claim. But, as Jeff asked, I'm particularly interested in how it might change how we look at our classrooms. If our technology is becoming more and more responsive to our individual needs and requests, shouldn't our schools?

"OK, Teacher, I want to know more about . . ."

Is It Safe to Live Near a Volcano?

tleditor — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:35:00 +0000

The primary focus of this excellent interactive site is for users to decide how to plan for evacuation when a volcanic eruption is imminent.

New York Times Book Review: A Literary Map of Manhattan

tleditor — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:33:00 +0000

What an interesting way to explore Manhattan and its place in American literary history.

Uri Treisman’s Magnificent Speech On Equity, Race, And The Opportunity To Learn

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:25:50 +0000

On April 19, 2013, the third day of NCTM's annual meeting in Denver, Uri Treisman gave a forty-minute address on equity that Zal Usiskin, director of the University of Chicago's School Mathematics Project, called the greatest talk he'd ever heard at the conference in any year. Stanford math professor Keith Devlin would later call it our "I have a dream" speech. At least one participant left in tears.

I've personally seen it three times. I got the video feed from NCTM and the slides from Treisman. I then spent some time stitching the two together, resulting in this video. His message is important enough that I'd like to use whatever technical skills I have, whatever time I have, whatever soapbox I can stand on, to help spread it.

You should watch it.

If you're interested in equity, you should watch it.
If you're interested in teacher evaluation, you should watch it.
If you're interested in school reform, you should watch it.
If you're interested in charter schools, you should watch it.
If you're interested in understanding which student outcomes teachers can control and which they can't, you should watch it.
If you're interested in the trajectory of math education in the era of the Common Core State Standards, you should watch it.

If none of those conditions apply to you, well, I can't imagine the series of misclicks that brought you to my blog. Watch it.

Here's a fair enough summary from Treisman himself:

There are two factors that shape inequality in this country and educational achievement inequality. The big one is poverty. But a really big one is opportunity to learn. As citizens, we need to work on poverty and income inequality or our democracy is threatened. As mathematics educators … we need to work on opportunity to learn. It cannot be that the accident of where a child lives or the particulars of their birth determine their mathematics education.

That was his destination and the talk took only three stops along the way:

What did education reform groups like Achieve, the Gates Foundation, et al, recommend in their "Benchmarking for Success" document in 2008?
How does TIMSS and NAEP data contradict or clarify those recommendations?
What should we actually do about equity, as teachers and citizens, if those recommendations prove unfounded?

Highly Quotable

[A]s math people we know that if we're going to work on a problem, we have to formulate it clearly. And as math people are wont, we need to swaddle ourselves in the numbers and the data because that's what gives math people direction, strength, and courage.
Let's look at "Benchmarking for Success" and see its analysis of the problem. Then let's look at the data and see how it actually lines up with what we know today. And then let's see where we need to go to really enact the vision of NCTM for equity.
So the notion was: "Let's focus on teachers as the central driver of reform and rethink how we evaluate teachers." They had the view that teachers were the single most important in-school factor in student achievement. And math people know that was just an artifact of the way they modeled the problem.
I'm now going to show you two graphs that I don't believe anyone in the math community has seen. It's the PISA data disaggregated by child poverty rates.
About one half of students who go from high school to college are referred to remediation and mostly developmental math. Fewer than a quarter of those students will ever get a credential. Those students are more likely to end up with debt than a credential. [..] Those remedial programs are burial grounds for the aspirations of students. And it's mostly math that's the key trigger. 35,000 students in California two years ago repeated a developmental course for the fifth or greater number of times. So no one can say those students don't have persistence.
So states – where you go to school – are a profound influence on what you actually get to know.
Low income student scores in Texas were the top in the country in 2011. It's really good for Texas to be the top of the country. Because whenever Texas does something well, everyone else is positive that they can do better. When Massachusetts is at the top, people go, "Ah, it's just Massachusetts."
Again, two and a half years difference in opportunity depending on where you happen to go to school. This is something that, as a math teaching profession, we can influence. Poverty is something we need to work on as citizens. Opportunity to learn is something we need to work on as math educators. That's a core message for this talk.
So you would think that charters would fix this. Almost all the charters in Texas produced 0% of students who are college-ready. There are a few of them – one KIPP, one YES Prep, one IDEA, one Harmony – that are pretty good. Most of them are well below the public schools. So this theory of Achieve, NGA, CCSSO, Race to the Top, that charters were the answer? Not so clear when you actually climb into the numbers. The reverse looks true.
When you visit most math classrooms it's like you're in a Kafkaesque universe of these degraded social worlds where children are filling in bubbles rather than connecting the dots. It's driven by a compliance mentality on tests that are neither worthy of our children nor worthy of the discipline they purport to reflect. That is the reality. That's something that we as math educators can control.
What this shows is that the current theory about school improvement – that charters, Common Core, value-added measures of teaching are going to solve the problem – is profoundly wrong. That doesn't mean we can't use the Common Core powerfully to reboot our systems but it's not the solution to the basic problems of schooling.
Guess what? Poverty really sucks. It's incredibly hard. All the lifespan studies going back to the 1920s show that poverty and youth is a very hard force. We need to build fault-tolerant schools and systems if we're actually going to address equity.
Just think about it. The great majority of our children finish our schools positive that there's a whole list of things they're not. They come out of schooling believing they're not mathematical, they're not artistic, they're not philosophical, they're not athletic. And these self-imposed beliefs undermine your sense of personal freedom, the font from which all freedoms come.
You have to remember that when the Common Core was created, they didn't come to NCTM. They got David Coleman to write it and he brought his friend Jason Zimba to do the math. They did not come to NCTM. It's time for us now – the professional societies – to talk about what standards should be and how to reshape the Common Core so that it reflects our best practice knowledge of schooling. Hard message, but a necessary message.
What is the determinant of whether you have a high-skill job in the US? Overwhelmingly it's mathematics. It's the single biggest factor in upward social and economic mobility. It's our beloved subject. It would be wonderful if it were music instead of math. Think how great the country would be if everyone were striving to learn to play an instrument instead of factor quadratic equations but the fact is it is our discipline that is the primary determinant.

Featured Comment

Bill McCallum, chair of the CCSS math writing committee, responds:

A beautiful speech by Uri and a great contribution by Dan to put the slides with the video.

However, the quote about how the Common Core was written garbles the history badly. Here is a summary of the process.

CCSSO and NGA appointed a work team of about 50 people—educators, mathematicians, teachers, policy people—and asked me to lead it. They also appointed a writing team of 3 people—Phil Daro, myself, and Jason Zimba—to draft the standards. We solicited progressions documents from selected individuals or groups in the work team. The three lead writers produced a first draft based on these progressions. There was also a feedback group of about 20 people. You can find the pdf with the names of all these people by googling "Common Core State Standards Work Team".

Minor iterations of the standards were circulated to the working team for comment and critique, of which there was an abundance. Major drafts (about 3 or 4) were circulated to the feedback group and the 48 participating states, which also produced a huge amount of commentary. Finally, a public comment period starting in March 2010 elicited about 10,000 comments, of which we looked at every single actionable comment.

There were also numerous organization reviews, including one by NCTM. I spent a weekend in DC with a team from NCTM listening to their concerns, which resulted in significant changes to the standards. Jason and I also spent a weekend with teachers from AFT, one team for each grade band, who gave us detailed feedback that also resulted in changes to the document.

For more context, take a look at Jason's Ed Week interview with Rick Hess.

Kids and Money

tleditor — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

This site, divided into information for five different age groups, provides lessons and activities that teach important lessons about saving, spending, and ways to avoid debt.

“How To Learn Math,” An Online Course From Stanford Math Education Professor Jo Boaler

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:32:01 +0000

Enrollment is open:

The course is a short intervention designed to change students’ relationships with math. I have taught this intervention successfully in the past (in classrooms); it caused students to re-engage successfully with math, taking a new approach to the subject and their learning.

Who else is up for some summer professional development?

RBGz Take on Black on Black Violence-2013 Update

RBG Street Scholar — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:21:00 +0000

Dr. Amos N. Wilson, The Battle Must Be Joined!!! | Prose poetry from RBG Communiversity

RBG Street Scholar’s Take On Black On Black Violence from RBG Communiversity

Learn more: RBG Gang Violence Prevention Edu. 101, w Dr. Amos Wilson

Ninth Grade CCSS Algebra 1 Scope and Sequence

Karl Fisch — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:03:00 +0000

I had some requests on Twitter to share this out, so here goes.

As many of you know, in addition to my tech duties I teach one section of ninth grade Algebra (occasionally some sophomores in there as well). Colorado has adopted the Common Core State Standards so our math curriculum - like most folks' - will be transitioning to match the new standards over the next couple of years.

If you've read this blog before you know I have concerns with the Common Core. Nevertheless, it's what we are tasked with so - while still advocating for something different - I'm attempting to get my head around the scope and sequence for Algebra 1 next year. As I looked into it I was surprised to not find very many examples that have already been created, so I decided to try to take our current scope and sequence and see how well I could "translate" it into CCSS.

Before I link to that document, I think it's important to remember that everyone's school and situation is different. There will be local variables and constraints that will make each school's implementation look different. For example, here is some information about my school that affects what I've done so far.

My algebra class meets for 59 minute periods four days a week (MTWF for me). When all is said and done, I see my students for approximately 126 class periods in a year, with about 110 of those the full 59 minutes and the rest anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes depending on the day (PLC days, assembly days, ACT testing days, state testing days, etc.). Because this is less time than in many Algebra classes, we do not typically cover quite as many of the "advanced" topics that some Algebra classes do. We have a six period day and freshmen (which is the vast majority of students in our Algebra classes) have between one and four unscheduled periods a week.
We are divided into semesters and, while most students have the same Algebra teacher first and second semester, not all do, so we attempt to have a clearly defined break at semester (winter break, we start in August and end in May) and all the Algebra teachers have "covered" the same material by then. So you'll see the year divided up into two 18-week semesters.
Our class sizes in Algebra are typically between 27 and 33. Not saying that's either good or bad, but it gives you information to compare to your classroom. We have 2150 students total in our school and the equivalent of 13 full-time math teachers (plus me teaching one section), and (this year at least) seven of those teachers that teach at least one section of Algebra (with 13 total sections). Whatever we develop has to meet the needs of the district, the school, those seven teachers, and the rest of the math department, and be both "backward" and "forward compatible." (And, oh yeah, it should meet the needs of the kids, but hopefully you get my point.)
We have four middle schools in our district, two of which are our primary feeder schools. They are also transitioning to the Common Core 6-8 Math standards, and should complete that transition next year. But we also have roughly 30% of our students open enrolled - from public schools in surrounding districts and from many private/religious schools (over thirty total feeder schools each year). So while we more-or-less know what the students from our middle schools have experienced in math class, we have about 30% of our students that come from widely varying backgrounds.
We currently use the 2007 edition of McDougal Littell's Algebra book. As we fully transition to the Common Core by fall of 2014, we may be able to purchase new materials (assuming they exist by then) but, until then (at least), we'll be using our existing book. (I'm campaigning not to purchase a new textbook, but that's a discussion for another blog post.)
We are a suburban school serving a primarily middle class clientele. The community values education and our school is generally considered a very good school.

Okay, that's probably more than you wanted, but hopefully it will address some questions that people might have.

So I took our existing scope and sequence, matched it with the ninth grade CCSS Math Standards, and came up with this still very much in draft Google Doc. Feel free to copy, edit, add comments, do whatever (appropriate) things you'd like to that document. It really is rough draft thinking to give us something to build on this summer as we try to translate that into actual lesson plans. I'd love to hear your thoughts (on the doc or in the comments to this post).

Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act Three & Sequel

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:46:23 +0000

Table of Contents

Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act One
Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act Two
Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act Three & Sequel

I taught using a three-act math task in Cambridge last winter. The good folks at NRich posted the video so I'm highlighting some of the pedagogy behind this kind of mathematical modeling. Ask questions and share suggestions.

Act Three & Sequel

[18:36] "This guy wants to make a pyramid out of a billion pennies. And I'm curious how big that would be. Help me with that if you're completely finished here. Or tackle some of the other questions we had up there earlier."
[20:20] "Is that number in between your high and low from earlier? Does it fit in the range of possible numbers for you? If it didn't we should go back and ask ourselves 'do we trust the mathematics here?'"
[20:45] "I'm going to show you the answer here."
[21:00] "Who guessed closest to that? Margaret or Eddie. Let's all give one clap to Eddie."
[21:16] "Who got the closest guess overall? Who is closer? 250,000 or 300,000? One clap for these two."
[21:50] "Let's look at other questions we had back here."
[23:00] "How could we figure out how long it would take?"

Post-Game Analysis

Show the answer. There's the bombastic, visual element, the part that results in students cheering the answer to their math problem. It's hard for me to overvalue that reaction.

But there's another reason why students ought to see the answer to modeling tasks. (I'm not picky about answers to other tasks.) The Common Core's modeling framework asks students to "validate the conclusions" of their models. Showing the answer acknowledges the messiness inherent to mathematical modeling and allows students to discuss possible sources of error and then account for them with newer, better models.

Make good on the promises from act one. Earlier I asked students for numbers they knew were too high and too low so I asked them here to check their answer against those numbers. I said I was curious who had the closest guess so I had to find out who did and show them some appreciation. I said I hoped we would get to everybody's questions by the end of the day so I returned to those questions. If I fail to make good on any of those promises, I know they'll seem awfully insincere the next time I try to make them.

Good sequels are hard to come by. The goals of the sequel task are to a) challenge students who finished quickly so b) I can help students who need my help. It can't feel like punishment for good work. It can't seem like drudgery. It has to entice and activate the imagination.

I have one strategy I'll try on instinct: I flip the known and the unknown of the problem and see if the resulting question is at all interesting. In this case, I originally gave students the dimensions of the pyramid and asked for the number of pennies. So now I'll give them the number of pennies (one billion) and ask for the dimensions. Then I try to activate their imagination around the sequel, asking "Would you be able to build it in this room? Would it punch through the ceiling?" Etc.

In some cases, the initial task just serves to set an imaginative hook for the sequel, which is much more demanding and interesting. Once students have a strong mental image of the pyramid of pennies, I can ask them to manipulate it in some flexible and interesting ways. (Nathan Kraft has written about this recently.)

What's Missing

Formalize the math. Because I'm working with adults, I gave the math a brief treatment here. In general, act three is where the math is formalized and consolidated. Conflicting ideas are brought together and reconciled. Formal mathematical vocabulary is introduced.

Title the lesson. Lately, taking inspiration from this Japanese classroom, I ask students to provide a title that will summarize the entire lesson. Then I offer my own.

All of this happens at the end of the lesson, not the start. I'm not defining vocabulary at the start of the lesson and I'm not greeting students at the start of class with an objective on the board. Those moves make it harder for students to access the lesson, lofting interesting mathematics high up on the ladder of abstraction.

Homework

Here's my best guess how this kind of task would look in a print-based textbook. How does it differ from the task I did in Cambridge? Try to resist easy qualifiers like, "It's more boring," etc. How is it more boring? How is the math different? What are the downsides? What are the upsides? (I can think of at least one.)

Your Analysis

What did you see in that clip that I didn't talk about here? What was missing? What would you add? What would you have done differently?

Featured Comments

a different dave:

As soon as I know I have all the data, the exploring side of my brain just checks out. I go straight to my brains list of formulas and start looking for ones that will fit together to solve the problem. When I don’t have the numbers yet, I can almost feel synapses firing all over my brain.

Steve:

That first sentence is sure a doozy. “A pyramid is made out of layers of stacks of pennies.” If you have a picture of what that means, then sure, it makes sense, but if you don’t, it doesn’t exactly give you a lot of clarification about what it means.

Tech Exploration_Week 2

Sarah Paige Roe — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:14:58 +0000

Sarah Roe
Tech Exploration_Week 2
Name: Sarah Roe Date: 5-11-13

4. Concept mapping programs: http://www.xmind.net
1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
This site was actually kind of weird. It did not help me to understand how this could really be used in a classroom setting, other than the fact that you could do mapping for story lines. Though the site was interesting, it was not something I would think was necessary in a classroom, especially after looking at the prices!
2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
The only thing that I could think this site would be useful for would be planning. Whether or not it was for writing a story, or trying to figure out what you wanted to do with the rest of your life. Those uses would be better fit for a High school setting, or upper level elementary school when they start to work on their writing portfolios.
3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
If I thought it was pertinent information that was useful to someone who would be interested, I would recommend this resource to them. Now that I have been acquainted with the resource, I know that it is there, and if I needed anything that it would serve of use, I would know where to look. However I do not think this is a resource that I would use in my Spanish classes.
http://www.wisemapping.com
1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
This site was a bit more useful than the last. It had a “Visual Thinking Evolution” link that gave a better update of what the site was, their use, and what it hoped to help people accomplish. I learned that what I originally thought was personal information (i.e. life plans for families financial situations etc), people feel free to post those plans on a “map” site for everyone to see. I did find a couple of maps that made more sense to me, after much searching. Some businesses/school systems use the map to let their employees know their goals of the future. It seems that this would be more helpful in an administrational setting rather than educational.
2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
I think that English teachers could find this site useful when helping students to begin writing stories of their own. It is important that a story has flow, and does not scatter all over the place making it hard for the readers to follow. This might also be helpful for students who are trying to plan their lives after school; whether it be college or the real world.
3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
This site could be useful to a range of different types of people. Though I myself do not see a need for it, I think there are plenty of people who could benefit from it. A nice plus is that it is free, no matter how much access to it you need. The sign up was easy, and if you already have access to other well know sites such as Google or Yahoo, AOL, you can sign in without making another ID/Password to remember.
5. Animoto http://animoto.com
1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.

This was a great source! I loved learning about the video process, and all of the great things you can add to make them so fun to watch. I learned how to add music and text to videos, and splice videos together. This is a great site that puts all of these things in one place so that it is easier for students and teachers to use it in the classroom.
2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.

This site would be great to use in the classroom. Its uses are endless. I think the best characteristic that it has is that students can be their own creator, and work in groups to make their own videos. These could also be used for more interactive power points. It would make it more interesting to watch for the teachers and the students, and they would be permitted to be more creative.
3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?

I would definitely recommend this to other teachers in my school system. I think that it is non specific to any subject. It could be used in every classroom, including my spanish class. There are several times when students need to take notes, and I could make a fun interact video with the vocabulary words in it for them to write down, instead of simply writing them on the board or making a powerpoint.
6. Google Docs http://photopeach.com
1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.

This site was more or less the same as animoto. However after logging on, there were more examples that I was immediately able to view. The site also allows you to connect other media sources that you may use on a normal basis to photopeach. This is a great way to keep everything connected! Students could check the blogs, make their own videos, watch the power points, all in the same place.
2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.

In a school setting, teachers could use this site in a number of ways. The best feature is that children can be the creator in their own projects. This gives them more access to use their creativity and make things more interesting. These would be great for presentation purposes, for teachers and students. I could definitely use this in my classroom.
3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?

I would recommend this to other teachers. Sometimes students get bored with the same old power point presentation week after week. This would be a great way to liven up the classroom and make learning more fun. It could be a great resource for not only the teachers, but the students as well. Every subject imaginable could benefit from this resource.

Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act Two

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:54:06 +0000

Table of Contents

Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act One
Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act Two
Teaching With Three-Act Tasks: Act Three & Sequel

Act Two

[07:36] "What information do you need from me? What information will be necessary here?"
[08:36] "I want to go ahead and capitalize 'stack' here. Does everybody know what stack means? Tell me how stacks and layers are related."
[10:10] "Are all the stacks the same?"
[10:30] "Did you use all the same coins?"
[11:00] "What is your estimate of how many coins are in the stack?"
[11:45] "I'm gonna add a question to the list here: 'Why 13?'"
[12:15] "How many on the base layer do you think?"
[12:47] "So what's on the next level up? 38 by 38? 39 by 39? What am I looking for if it's 38 by 38?"
[13:52] "That's everything you said you needed. You asked for this info because you had some kind of fuzzy plan in your head. Might not have been a perfect plan. But you had some need for this information. So I want to see you put that information into play somehow."

Post-Game Analysis

This is the guts of modeling right here. Try to find a framework for modeling in mathematics that doesn't include a line like, students need to "identify variables that represent essential features." If students aren't grappling with the question, "What's important here and how would I get it?" they may be doing lots of valuable mathematics, but they aren't modeling.

We're attending to precision. When students ask me for information, I press them on units or I press them to clarify what they're after, exactly. We coin vocabulary terms like "stack" and "layer" and emphasize that we need those terms to communicate about the task.

Lots of different students get status in these tasks. We've done a great job convincing students that they're good in math class if and only if they're able to memorize operations and perform them quickly and accurately. That's it. That's the sum of mathematical proficiency as we've defined it in the US.

So I love moments when I get to compliment a student for coming up with a useful vocabulary word like "stack." Or for asking an interesting question about the pyramid. And, for totally personal, subjective reasons, my favorite moment of the whole task comes at 10:10 when a student asks, "Are all the stacks the same?" (I explain why here.)

That is a kid who is totally unwelcome under traditional modeling curriculum. With traditional modeling curriculum all the information is given already. The problem is stretched tight. And then along comes this bored kid who amuses herself by poking at the problem, by asking about exceptions and corner cases. That kid has low status, generally. She irritates teachers.

But with actual mathematical modeling, when there isn't any information given, we need that student's input. Her questions about exceptions and corner cases are invaluable. And I get the chance to turn a classroom loser into a classroom hero, to compliment that student on her sharp eye, and to turn my reproachful stare on the other students and say, "Did the rest of you just assume all the stacks were the same size? You can't just assume that stuff!"

Moments like that. What a job, teaching.

Look to the primary sources for answers and ask for guesses first. The students ask me "how many pennies are in each stack?" and "how many stacks are on the base of the bottom layer?" In both cases I could have just said the answer ("Forty stacks along the base. Thirteen pennies per stack.") but instead I direct their attention back to the raw media, taking me out of their relationship to math and the world. I also ask for guesses on both questions. Because guesses are cheap and easy and motivating for a lot of students.

This is where I'd lecture. Because these are teachers and not students, I don't have to do a lot of explanation. But I begin something of a lecture here, as the teachers get blocked up. They've done the creative work of conceptualizing the pyramid as a sum of forty squares. No one wants to crunch those numbers by hand, though.

In the last post, Yaacov asked when these kinds of problems are useful – before or after learning skills. I said they're most valuable to me before learning skills, or rather as the motivation for learning skills. I don't expect that students will just figure everything out on their own, though. Act one helps generate the need for the tools I can offer them here in act two.

Your Analysis

What did you see in that clip that I didn't talk about here? What was missing? What would you add? What would you have done differently? Go ahead and constrain your analysis to the second act of the task.

Chaos Theory, Twitter and the Common Core

Karl Fisch — Sat, 11 May 2013 19:53:00 +0000

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a blog post title that hasn't been used before. And won't ever be again.

I've read a little bit about chaos theory, although I don't pretend to really understand it. My very simplified understanding of it is that very small changes in initial conditions can result in very different outcomes of a dynamic system (often illustrated by "a butterfly flapping its wings in China can change the weather in Denver" - although I don't think that quite captures it). There are other conditions that have to be present (topological mixing - which I sort of get, and its periodic orbit must be dense - which I really don't), but it boils down to

When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.

At some point today a fleeting thought crossed my brain and, as so often happens, I decided to record it here on the blog, even though I know it opens me up to ridicule do to my lack of real understanding of chaos theory. So be it. The thought was something along the lines of

What effect does something like Twitter have on complex, dynamic systems?

Note that it doesn't have to be Twitter, but any of the synchronous and asynchronous ways we have today of communicating, collaborating, and generally "topologically mixing." But Twitter is the one that came to mind, so I'm going with it. If dynamic systems with nearly identical initial conditions can result in very different outcomes, then can these various ways of "mixing" - how they are present and how they are applied - both constitute and amplify a change in initial conditions?

So what in the world does this have to do with Common Core? Probably nothing, but here is the premise of Common Core:

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt.

. . . High standards that are consistent across states provide teachers, parents, and students with a set of clear expectations that are aligned to the expectations in college and careers. The standards promote equity by ensuring all students, no matter where they live, are well prepared with the skills and knowledge necessary to collaborate and compete with their peers in the United States and abroad.

So the follow-up thought that came to my mind today was something like:

By trying to standardize on a common core curriculum to assure equality of preparation, aren't we ignoring what we know about dynamic systems?

Namely, that there's no possible way to standardize enough to prevent wildly different outcomes. We have so many variables in the inputs (background of the students, background of the teachers, the effectiveness of the HVAC system, . . .), and so many variables along the way, that we can't possibly use a controlled curriculum to pre-determine the outcomes.

So if the basic premise of Common Core ignores what we know about complex systems, where does that leave us? Perhaps jumping out of the Core (err, car). (Or maybe just talking to myself, both are possible.)

14-Year-Old Discovers iPad Could Shut Off Implanted Defibrillators

Sat, 11 May 2013 07:14:01 +0000

Do you remember the story of Jack Andraka? It seems this is going to be a trend now. A 14-year-old teenager in the US discovered that the magnets inside an iPad could shut off implanted defibrillators if the device is left on the chest for some time.

Chien’s study found that 30 percent of patients with defibrillators who put iPads on their chest were affected by the device. Most defibrillators will turn back on once the magnet is removed, but some must be reactivated manually causing a potentially life-threatening situation.

2013 Multicultural Calendar

Becky Morales — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:06:33 +0000

2013 Global Diversity Calendar

Use this 2013 Diversity Calendar to identify religious holidays, non-religious celebrations, and multicultural festivals from around the world. This is not an entirely comprehensive list, so please help me add holidays I may have forgotten!:) Add them in the comments below and I will add them into the calendar. Thanks!

http://kidworldcitizen.org/diversity-calendar/

A conversation about digital literacy in medical education: My Interview on the Blog of Stanford

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:41:10 +0000

As I will do a Master Class at Medicine X about teaching social media in health sciences, the Scope blog of Stanford Medicine asked me to do an interview about my course in which I help medical students become better at digital literacy. An excerpt:

The most important thing here is a quote I’ve been using for years: “If you want to teach me, you first have to reach me.” Therefore I love going to the platforms that my students are already using. This semester it was Facebook, and I managed to teach them and test their knowledge on that platform. It was a real win-win situation.

All medical educators should design a new approach in transmitting the knowledge to students by analyzing what they do online. We do the same thing in the offline world by coming up with new textbooks and creating engaging presentations - why would we not do that online as well?

Figure 1: The Flickr of Healthcare Professionals

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:17:19 +0000

There are more and more ways for crowdsourcing clinical questions, and the newest addition to the family of web tools and services is Figure 1, a photo sharing site for healthcare professionals. Registered physicians can share images, learn from others and bookmark useful cases.

I’m not sure this is what the medical community requires right now, but I’m always curious about further developments.

According to the co-founder, Joshua Landy, MD:

“I developed Figure 1 because I wanted a safe way to share medical images with the medical community, while protecting patients’ privacy.”

Focus@Will: Neuroscience Based Service Increasing Your Attention With Music

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:14:38 +0000

I first heard about Focus@Will at Futuremed this February and since then I’ve been following the developments. Today, they published an announcement about the Android application they just released. I worked now for hours listening to the music they provided and it was a great first experience.

It has a three week free full access trial period for new users. After that subscription will cost $3.99 per month.

The focus@will music stream engages your non-focal (background) attention, but not so much that it interferes with your conscious focal attention on the task at hand. This is music you hear but should not be actively listening to. If a track is too bland, your subconscious will start ignoring it, and if too interesting, novel, dynamic or exciting, you will start consciously noticing it, which will distract you. Every track in our exclusive library has been remixed/re-edited and remastered to deliver the precise set of required attributes to keep you in the focus zone.

Algorithm Nation

Karl Fisch — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:43:00 +0000

As many of you are aware, I'm the "Director of Technology" (read, "building level technology coordinator) for my high school, but I also teach one section of Algebra. As a result I often find myself drawn into the math conversations happening on Twitter and on folks' blogs. This weekend I somehow ended up deciding to join a "reading group" around an article (pdf) titled "Standard Algorithms in the Common Core State Standards" from the Fall/Winter issue of the NCSM Journal.

Basically the conversation on Twitter began with some folks describing ways in which algorithms got in the way of learning and understanding mathematics. Then other folks pushed back a bit and asked if perhaps there was some value in algorithms. Christopher Danielson then pointed us toward the article in NCSM and suggested a "reading group" to discuss the issue. Feel free to "join" the group, which basically means you read the article and discuss it on Twitter or blogs using the hashtag #algorithmchat.

I thought I'd take a moment to put down my thoughts about algorithms in mathematics before I've read and begun discussing the article, just so I/we could see if my thoughts change after the discussion. While this is certainly a topic I have thought about, I also have not done a "deep dive" into the research or people's thoughts about algorithms. Right now I think I come down squarely in the middle (if that's possible). I agree that there are many times when algorithms have gotten in the way of learning and understanding mathematics. That we try to get our students to master the algorithms as quickly as possible so that they can be "efficient", even if it's at the expense of understanding. Then later we complain when they don't seem to have what we would consider basic number sense.

On the other hand, I don't see that as an inherent problem with algorithms, just the way that we sometimes deploy them. I do see algorithms as a valuable tool in working with mathematics (and other content and problems, for that matter). I think as long as we focus on understanding before (and while) we use algorithms, they can be very valuable in ways at making our thinking and processing "efficient" in order to then move on to thinking about more advanced mathematics, as well as to apply the mathematics.

So I guess my position right now, before this discussion, is that algorithms, when used as a result and in conjunction with understanding and meaning, can be a good thing, while acknowledging that we have often emphasized the algorithm at the expense of understanding and meaning. Feel free to join our reading group and contribute your own thoughts (on Twitter, on a blog, heck, even face-to-face if you have someone to talk to in your own building).

Assata Shakur in Her Own Words|HANDS OFF ASSATA !!!

RBG Street Scholar — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:04:00 +0000

Assata Shakur in Her Own Words|HANDS OFF ASSATA !!! from RBG Communiversity

READ IN FULL SCREEN

CLOSER TO MY RBG DREAM, f. Goapele-Closer

RBG Street Scholar — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:36:00 +0000

CLOSER TO MY RBG DREAM, f. Goapele-Closer from RBG Communiversity

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