Fifth PLN Reflection

Tonight, Twitter seems awash in links to websites discussing how to introduce Google Docs to your classroom.  By awash, I mean that approximately half of Web 2.0 Clasroom's perpetually substantial number of links are to such articles, and Tom Barrett also tweeted a link.  Many excellent ideas, including leveraging some newer (at least to me) features of certain Google products, including the form functionality of Google Spreadsheets.  One of the links discussing how to integrate Google products into education actually goes to a Google Site.  Moreover, the Secondary MATs have actually seen Professors use both  Google Sites and a Blog as course websites this summer.  The Google Site is probably ever so slightly more flexible / conventional.  The attraction to such a novel use of a blog cannot be underestimated. 

I wanted to focus on something a little bit different. Web 2.0 Classroom posted a link to this article,which discusses how to create a customized Google search engine.  Apologies in advance:  I am violating the number one rule of technology, namely writing about a tool before using / playing with / experimenting with it.  Obviously, the theme (background, etc.) of the search engine can be customized.  Moreover, this customized search engine can be embedded in one's website.  However, most interesting, the customized search engine can be set to search only particular domains, and the search results can be customized.  I assume that customizing search results probably just involves the ability to blacklist certain sites.  However, I am not sure how effective such a mechanism would be, as the web is always changing.  I'd be pleasantly surprised to learn that the tool is more customizable / robust than that. 

I can envision a math teacher permanently embedding such a customized search engine on his / her course websites.  It would be set to search the compendium of useful math tutorials, websites, blogs, and other online math resources the teacher had compiled over the years.  Better yet, the math community could begin building one together.  They could post it on the NCTM website, with a list of included domains in text form somewhere else on the NCTM webpage.  Then, any math teacher could use this math search engine, with or without modifications (in particular, I can envision a middle school math teacher excluding college level resources, e.g.)  Moreover, the community could collectively ensure the list remains up-to-date. 

In this way, Google could cut down on some of the overhead of referrals.  Instead of students constantly having to ask their teachers, "I am struggling with [x topic]; can you think of any useful online resources?", and the teacher having to provide the 3 resources they remember using on this topic, the students would know to go to the customized Google search and find approved resources without any explicit intervention from the teacher. 

Finally, I have to geek out for a moment.  Google's search engine was quite a novel concept.  Instead of just looking at the number of times a search term appeared on a page, it thought in terms of the relationship (in terms of the "what links to this page" question) between and overall network of web pages.  If the math community were to create a customized search engine, it may generate data on the useful connections between various topics in mathematics, which would bring us closer to being able to axiomatize the entire field (no pun intended).   That would be awesome. 

Steinmetz Academic Centre High School

For Professor Larson's SEC 525 class, Megan, Adam, Aaron W and myself  examined the current state of Steinmetz Academic Centre High School, looking at its features, challenges, and signs of hope.  We were able to visit the school and were very lucky to have the assistance of Tara Lydon and Perla Ocompo.  We also subjected the school to the usual battery of online research.  Our presentation, in two parts, is below.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

For a literature circle presentation, Professor McKnight assigned a group of us The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, written by Mark Haddon.  One might describe this text as a murder mystery surrounding the death of a black standard poodle.  More importantly, the mystery is told from the perspective of 15 year old Christopher Boone.  Although never labeled explicitly as such, it is very likely that Christopher is a person with autism.  The way he narrates provides much insight into the way people with autism construct the world.  As a literature circle activity, we had to depict a scene in Glogster.  The collage below, primarily a product of Chris Devlin's creativity, illustrates the beach scene. 

Sun Times Notes

Brian Schultz, author of Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, with whom we spoke on Tuesday, mentioned a soft skills test which CPS has used blacklist several applicants who had actually received firm offers from CPS principals. 
According to the Chicago Sun Times, the test is called "TeacherFit."  Developed at a cost of $130,000 to the Chicago Public Schools, Of the 3,900 CPS teacher applicants who have taken TeacherFit since June, 30 percent have scored low enough to be excluded from hiring. 
In the list of poor scorers are "Graduates of the Academy for Urban School Leadership’s teacher training program touted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a winner of a prestigious Golden Apple scholarship, and a special-education major who made the dean’s list at Michigan State University and was described as a 'dream candidate' by a CPS principal who wanted to hire her."  


In other news, the Sun Times has reported that Mayor Emanuel has decided to send his kids to University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, prestigious private institutions.  The move has drawn fire in the context of the Mayor's commitment to strengthen CPS during his campaign. 

Fourth PLN Reflection

I was first exposed to Keith Devlin when Professor Tocci gave me this PDF, an except from Paul Lockhart's A Mathematician's Lament, the introduction to which Dr. Devlin wrote. 

Devlin is National Public Radio's math contributor.

His twitter feed from the past couple of days has been kind of interesting.  I'll isolate two links in particular.  First, he posted a CNN article of which he said, "This is what you get when you elect innumerate people to Congress. They fail Econ 101 and Finance 101 as well." The article examines the problems with "Cut, Cap, and Balance."  CNN argues that the plan distracts from the need to raise the debt ceiling, cuts spending in the middle of a recession which would just further depress the economy, is too vague on what to cut and too demanding in making cuts to a budget comprised of things that are either deemed non-negotiable (defense) OR very politically popular (Social Security, Medicare), and is unwilling to consider increased taxes as a solution.

The tweet is a powerful illustration because it involves a professional mathematician pointing out what happens when policy makers attempt to ignore the rules of mathematics.  Moreover, the particular policy in question is very relevant to our Democracy.  In that regard, it is exactly the kind of example that teacher should use to motivate the math. 

Second, he tweeted his write up on multiplication, in which he fervently distinguishes multiplication from repeated addition.  He isolates several problems with thinking about multiplication in this way.  The details are probably interesting only to math teachers.  Nonetheless, the combination of these two articles yet again illustrates the power of Twitter to find random, classroom applicable tidbits.

Third PLN Reflection

 Mr. Tom Barrett of the EDTE.CH blog recently tweeted a blog post from his own blog in which he listed twenty some different ways in which to get to know your new class.  The ways come in the form of a Google Presentation.

Couple of notes here:  Some of them are not terribly useful to the Secondary MAT crowd.  Some suggestions are for a slightly younger crowd.  Also, some of the suggestions are better for learning about your students (new class bingo was used at the Meet & Greet, e.g.), whereas others are better for learning your students names (Alliterative job titles). 

I'd like to focus on the latter.  I think this material is really relevant to some of the concluding remarks from our 502/504 class, and much of what we do in Teacher Moves.  In order to build an environment of mutual respect (and be that "no-nonsense nurturer"), we basically have to learn the names of 150+ students in a very short period of time.  Much of the discussion of laying down the procedures, rules, and hierarchy of consequences (particularly the demonstration of any of these items) requires immediate access to, at a minimum, student names.  There are several strategies in the presentation that link student names with categorical words beginning with the same name.  Others involve sorting students (by birthday, etc.) in a way that allows you to form an order in which to remember your students, if only initially. 


The other interesting note is that I saw this post early this week, and I believe it was 26 Interesting Ideas.  Which is just to observe that this presentation really is a product of collaboration and includes ideas from teachers all over the world (Barrett is based in the UK) who confront the same issues we will.  Excellent illustration of how twitter / our PLN can enable us to work smarter, not harder.

Second PLN Reflection

Lucy Gray posted this Catalyst article discussing how CPS is behind the technology curve. 

The article discusses the plethora of high level advantages technology confers on schools.   For instance, for kids with behavior issues, OR students in special education programs, technology can level the playing field. Moreover, as immersion in technology is a defining characteristic of this generation of school age children, using technology as a teaching tool has the potential to be much more engaging than straight lecture.  Additionally, technology like blogs and wikis can boost student confidence by empowering them to create content for a broad audience.  Experts agree social media can help "bridge cultural, economic and even geographic gaps to aid learning."

However, CPS seems to be behind in realizing these advantages.  Sites like YouTube are banned by a network filter in the Chicago Public Schools.  (Charters in the city are not subject to the same filter and therefore typically allow access to such sites as YouTube.)  Unlike other cities across the country, CPS has no integrated technology vision.  To the extent that CPS has a technology plan, it is only used for applying for State funding.  It is disjointed and not implemented throughout the district. Finally, more than just having access to the technology, successful implementation also requires teacher training / professional development to explain best ways to implement it.  In particular, CPS is short on technology specialists in its schools. 

But there are signs for hope.  The district is modeling other metropolitan technology initiatives (as part of its fight for state funding), and a new iPad program is enjoying wider implementation.  Hopefully, CPS will be able to close the technology gap quickly, allowing it to best serve its students.