Common Core

The Common Core State Standards freak me out. Really. Taking some of the math practice problems online and looking at the guidelines that go along with the test gave me anxiety. How am I going to ensure that my students can be successful on this test? How can I avoid "teaching for the test"? We discussed some of these issues in class yesterday, but I really didn't find any comfort in a solution.

One of the major things I'm going to have to incorporate into my math class is not only teaching students the math, but teaching them to be explicit in their explanations of how they got to their answers. On the Common Core Assessment, part of the math section is to explain how the student got to a certain answer. This isn't intuitive, especially in the younger grades, and it's a skill that has to be taught and cultivated. I can't just show students how to do a story problem and expect them to be able to explicitly list the steps and thought process they had about it. I'm going to have to consciously think about it.

What scares me even more about the test, is the fact that they have to take this test online. The test related to the Common Core is actually called the Smarter Balance Assessment. This means that I'll have to teach my students not only how to write exponents on paper like they'll usually see them, but also how to write them on a computer (2^7). I guarantee there will be a handful, if not majority, of my students who have never seen that exponent computer symbol before. This test also assumes that they are comfortable using the numbers on a keyboard and typing in general. Hopefully, if I'm teaching high school, they will have some of these skills, but I know that I will need to teach some of them as well.

Furthermore, I am graded on how well my students do on this test! This means that even if I have brilliant students, who just enter their answers wrong on the computer or have difficulty with typing and other keyboard entries, they could get much lower scores than they deserve, and I could get punished for it. How then, do they expect us not to spend our time teaching directly to the test in order to attempt to "guarantee" their success on it? I suppose this comes down to a moral issue, of me knowing that it's more important to teach them the math material and make sure they understand the concepts that will help them in the future, rather than focusing on how to type equations exactly how the assessment wants them. What's even better, is that this test will be enacted during my first year of teaching!

Can you say stressed?

Cool Cat Teacher

When looking at different Edubloggers, "Cool Cat Teacher" immediately caught me eye. Not only is it a random/funny title, but she actually blogs about something that I find to be really important - technology. She also blogs about other teaching related topics, one of which I will talk about in this blog, but her technology blogs are really informative.

After majoring in Computer Science and Economics in undergrad, I knew how important technology was and what a growing field it continues to be. Now more than ever, students can be instantaneously connected to the world of knowledge that was unreachable in the past. They have every fact they've ever wanted to know right at their fingertips. This can be both wonderful and scary, but I choose to see it as wonderful. The Cool Cat Teacher recently wrote a blog about the Kindle and all of the features that it has. I wasn't even aware of everything that it could do, so her blog was really helpful. She writes in an interesting, but simplistic, format that almost anyone can follow. She even talks about how she organizes the books on her Kindle (I'm an organization freak, so I was thrilled about this) and the different categories she uses. Her blog would be beneficial for students to read to get an understanding of what some of the different technology tools that are available to them can be used for outside of just "reading books".

Cool Cat Teacher also blogs about other education related topics that don't center on technology. One of my favorites is her blog titled "Navigating the Rough Water of Teaching," which is complete with numerous pictures that look like this:

The pictures are actually from one of her family rafting trips, and she narrates how scary it was to watch her kids navigate the waters (her son falls out of the boat at one point). The point of the blog, though, is not to tell about her family's rafting experiences. Rather, she uses the metaphor to describe how teachers should think of themselves as guides that help students maneuver these crazy experiences. I think this is a great metaphor for teaching, and it really stuck with me. I remember how important some of my teachers and mentors were in helping me make rocky decisions when it came to my education, and I aim to do the same for my future students.

In her blog, Cool Cat Teacher says something that has been on my mind a lot:

"I've heard that teaching is the most impossible job everyone thinks they can do."

Nearing the end of our summer term, I have come to realize that teaching is NOT something everyone can do. I will admit that I, too, once thought that teaching was a common knowledge task that just took effort, but I was very wrong. Teaching takes time, effort, dedication, and hard work. It is difficult, but it is rewarding. It is not impossible, despite sometimes feeling that way. The best way to work through the difficult times is by looking to other, more experienced teachers for guidance and support, and I think Cool Cat Teacher's blog is a great resource.

Follow her here to get in on all of her insights: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com

The Real Life Math Game

In class yesterday, we talked about a lot of different topics including research, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and connecting across disciplines. However, the most catching part of the class for me occurred within the last 5 minutes. Rory, one of our teachers, posed a question asking what a class that's based on acting out a game might look like. At my high school, the AP History class played some sort of game for the last couple months of the school year that involved them taking on the roles of different country - similar to the board game "Risk". I really have no details about the technicalities of the game, because I was (and am) awful at history, so I wasn't actually in the class. If you're interested, though, and want to find out more and possibly use it in your own classroom, I can definitely find out the information from someone who took it.

However, this isn't the kind of game-like class Rory is talking about. The AP History class played the game as an "outside of the curriculum" activity. If I remember correctly, it is how they spent their class time once the AP test was over, therefore the game, while probably having some meaningful learning experience, was played at almost a no-stakes level. Their AP test score wasn't dependent at all on how they did in this game. What Rory is talking about, is a game that IS the curriculum. A game that encompasses the entire school year, not just a portion after all the "important" tests are done. This got me to wonder - how could I turn my math classroom into a game that makes students excited and eager to come to school?

For some reason, my first thought was Candyland. Let's be honest, who doesn't love candy, chocolate, and bright colors? I envision an awesomely decorated classroom, with areas designated to represent each of the "lands" in Candyland. Since this is a hypothetical classroom, I also want those really cool Node Desks from Steelcase. They come in 12 different colors, and they're amazing. There's one classroom in the School of Ed (that I know of) that has them, but they're just grey. Here's a picture:

So, I want my math game classroom to have these chairs, coordinating with the colors of the Candyland decorations. Then, I would decorate the entire floor like a giant game board, with the different colored spaces and a winding path all around the classroom. The idea is this: Students get to design a game piece during the first week of school. The game pieces with somehow adhere to the game board on the floor. Each student will start at the beginning on the first day of school. Then, everyday, there will be opportunities to move your game piece forward in the game. Turning in your homework, getting above a certain grade on a test, etc. are all examples of things that can move your game piece. Because the chairs above are on wheels, it will be really easy to move them around in order to access all parts of the game board. It's my hope that this game would inspire students to do their work and try to achieve the goals needed to get to move their piece forward. There would also be little incentives on the board along the way, such as free homework or bathroom passes. I'm not sure how feasible this idea actually is, but in my head it's definitely a math class environment that I would want to teach and learn in!

Video Games in the Classroom

We were prompted to talk about a video game and whether or not we can incorporate it into our classrooms. I'm not a big video game fanatic like many people, but I do LOVE my Wii. So, when we were told to think of a video game, the games I have for the Wii immediately came to mind. Specifically, Wii Fit. If you aren't familiar with it, the Wii Fit comes with a board that you can stand on, and the Wii has a sensor, so it detects body movement when you're holding the controller. The Wii board can also detect balance, jumping, weight, etc. Basically, it's a low intensity fitness video game.

At first, I wasn't sure how to incorporate this game into my math classroom. Then it hit me - calories. One of the cool features about Wii Fit is its ability to tell you how many calories the activity you're doing burn. I think it would be great to have a lesson that talks about how many calories are in each pound of fat and muscle, set goal weights, and then determine the number of calories you would need to burn in order to hit this goal weight. I could also incorporate calories in food and how to balance the food and exercising to hit the right number of calories.

The only problem I see with this, is the potential for students to be criticized or feel embarrassed about their weights. For this reason, I would have them choose hypothetical people and make up current and goal weights for them.

Not only would incorporating the Wii Fit game into my math classroom be a beneficial math lesson for determining numbers of calories to reach goals and daily food calorie intakes, but it would also be a great way to promote healthy eating and a healthy, active lifestyle. Maybe my teacher this fall will even let me try this out in my student teaching classroom!

Online Organization and 20 Questions

Yesterday in class, we met with our groups and discussed the handouts that I talked about in my last blog. I thought my website (Diigo) was actually the most boring of the three, or the least useful, at least in my own teaching discipline. Catherine talked about the site Gooru, which will actually be really helpful for my math classrooms. It's a tool that allows you to search by subject, and it has lesson plans for a multitude of math topics. Destiney had Evernote as her assignment. Evernote is a really awesome tool. It allows you to save your notes, pictures, websites, etc., all in the same spot, and they are accessible from all of your different devices (laptops, iPads, iPhones, etc.). In the end, I was actually sort of sad that I was assigned Diigo to research, because it's not the one I'm most familiar with, yet the one I'm least likely to use. I am, however, really excited to use some of the other tools I learned about in class!

Later on in class, we played 20 questions. Yes, the same 20 questions game that you probably played when you were a child. If you never played (that's a shame), the rules for the game in class were as follows:

• The teacher thought of a person, and kept this person secret from us
• The class gets to ask 20 questions
• The questions MUST be yes/no questions - they cannot be open ended
• The teacher can lie twice during the game, and in the end he has to say whether or not he lied, but doesn't have to say which question(s) he lied on

The real point of having us play this game was not for fun. Rather, it was to get us to understand the important of questions and how to structure questions. For example, the best method (we found) was to ask binary questions first, because the eliminate the most possibilities. For example, asking "is this person a male?" and eliminating an entire gender of possibilities is much more productive than asking "does this person live in Michigan?" There was a much bigger struggle in coming to a consensus on which questions to ask and when than I had anticipated there would be. I wonder if this would be a beneficial "game" to play with our students at the secondary level. The younger kids might not understand the strategy behind it, but I would think it would be good for the older grades.

By the way, in case you were wondering, the person that our teacher was thinking of in the 20 questions game was Sarah Palin.

Happy Tuesday!

Downsizing

For class this week, we were told to make a two page handout over a website that they assigned us in class. My website was called Diigo, which I had never heard of. It turns out, Diigo is an online tool that has many uses. You can go to websites and highlight, annotate, save anything you see. Then, whenever you return to that website, the same things will be highlighted, annotated, etc. This assignment is for a project called "Organize Your Life", where we learn about different websites that can help us get organized. And, as anyone in the MAC program can tell you, organization is crucial to success.

At first, I was sad that I didn't get Pinterest or another website that I know of, because it would be really easy to create a handout and explain it to my small group. When I started researching Diigo, though, I was glad that I got a site I didn't know about, because it was exciting to learn about a new tool!

Creating a two page handout proved to be much more difficult than I originally thought it would be. There is SO much information on how to use Diigo, that downsizing it to fit in two pages was hard. Also, we were told that screen shots would be helpful, which take up a lot of space on the page. I started by watching the video tutorials on the Diigo site and taking notes on what I thought were the most important aspects. I found three major functions of the website, and three major benefits. The functions include adding networks (users), creating groups, and creating a library of documents. The benefits are research, collaboration, and sharing.

In the end, I decided to structure my handout by putting a few steps in the beginning to get the user started, followed by listening the three benefits and how the are useful to the tool, and then outlining the three major functions and what they do. This quickly took up my two allotted pages! I also used the background knowledge that I knew my peers would have, such as how to create an account in Diigo, to save space. So, instead of detailing exactly how to enter all your information to create an account, I was able to just write that step 1 was to create an account. I'm excited to hear about the websites that my group members researched so I can learn even more tools to organize my online life!

The Social Dilemma

For many students, school is a social environment. It’s where they see their friends, make plans for the weekend, and catch up on all the latest gossip. For some, they are so busy with extracurricular activities and family functions that school is the only place to visit with friends. Ask almost any student what his or her favorite part of school is, and if “hanging out with my friends” isn’t mentioned explicitly, I can almost guarantee that he or she will name a social subject such as lunch or recess. While the social nature might be a reality of schools today, a big question comes to mind: should it be?

In class this week, a question was posed in class:

What is/should be the social function of school? Should it even HAVE such a function?

I believe that the social aspect of school is an integral function of it, as long as some limitations are in place. Without the social aspect of school, students wouldn’t grow in their communication and collaboration skills. They would miss out on the lifelong lessons of making friends, getting along with people you don’t like, and sticking up for yourself when gossip ensues.

While eliminating the social function of schools might seem like it would lead to a more academic setting, it would be nearly impossible to implement. How would you stop kids from talking to their friends in the hallways and making plans together for after school? Trying to eliminate the social function would simply create resentment and a further want, by the students, for social interaction.

Instead, I believe schools should embrace the social setting they cultivate and use it to their advantage. It can be great for learning the essential communication skills and a great lesson for how poor communication and social skills can backfire. Furthermore, group work and collaboration, while sometimes including unnecessary gossip talk, is a great way for students to expand their knowledge and learn from their peers. A non-social environment may be sought after by some school administrators, but I believe they need to accept its existence and realize it’s here to stay.

Education and Living

For class today, we read an article by John Dewey called "My Pedagogic Creed." In it, he wrote something that really stuck with me. He said, "I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. I think this is a vitally important lesson that I, as a teacher, can aim to instill in my students.

Many people consider education a way of preparing for the future. They see education as a way to get a good job and make a good living. Even I was victim to this idea that what we learn in school is only preparing us for ACTs, SATs, and college admissions interviews. But, the truth it, we should be actively participating in life every single day. We should be taking the knowledge we learn and using it in the world. Experimenting. Exploring. We should wait until we've graduated and moved on to the "real world" to take advantage of it.

Dewey also says that, "I believe that, as such simplified social life, the school life should grow gradually out of the home life; that it should take up and continue the activities with which the child is already familiar in the home." I feel as though this is also an extremely important point for teachers to grasp. Without trying to understand students' home life and experiences, we cannot form our classes in a way that will be most beneficial to our students.

It is also important, though, that parents try to actively participate with teachers in order to create a mutual understanding and foster a positive educational environment for the students. When teachers and parents work together, the parents can try to emulate some of the social and academic concepts that the students are learning in their classrooms. Similarly, if teachers work with parents to understand the student's home life, they can try to create a classroom that is understanding of the student's needs.

While it might be a stretch to assume that we can create a close bond between teachers and parents, it is worth trying for and worth working at. If we can accomplish that, I believe we will be able to accomplish many of the tasks that Dewey hints towards in his Pedagogic Creed.

The New Beginning

Two months ago, I was flying in and out of Detroit every single week, working 12 hours a day, and was at the beck and call of grumpy clients who ran the corporate world. Now, I go to school, work with kids, and have homework every night. While many of my friends and family members questioned my decision to quit the "Big Four" lifestyle and become a teacher, I know I made the right decision.

We were asked to create blogs in our Education 504 class: Teaching with Technology. I am so excited for this class, because one of my majors in undergrad was Computer Science, so I feel at home in the technology world. The first thing our teachers asked us to do, was draw a picture of our "ideal" classroom, focusing on the inclusion of technology.

Ignoring my extreme lack of artistic ability, my drawing was also problematic for a few other reasons. First, I only drew 16 desks in my classroom. While this might be wishful thinking, the reality is that I could have twice as many students in my actual class. Also, I included so many technology items in my classroom, that it would only be feasible if I worked at an incredibly rich and technological advanced school. Since I am a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow (WWTF), I will be working in a low-income school upon graduation from this program, so chances are technology in my classroom will be scarce.

I think that teaching kids the importance of technology and all of the great things it can do for them is extremely important, so I am interested in learning how I can incorporate technology into an urban classroom with a strict budget. The classroom I'm in might not have textbooks, let alone smart boards and projectors. Furthermore, teaching urban students about technology is even more important at school, because chances are they aren't exposed to it at home. I'm excited for what this class will offer, and I can't wait to learn more about technology in the classroom and how I can incorporate it into my low-income schools.