P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney!

This week I watched a webinar about "Reforming Education Reform" from the Learning 2.0 Conference.  One of the interesting things discussed during the webinar was the notion of assessment and school competition.  In an effort to improve the level of education across the nation there have been major efforts to determine the best way to evaluate teacher and student performance.  One of the simplest and most straightforward methods of evaluating is using assessments like standardized tests.  One of the panelists expressed his dislike for this push towards emphasizing assessments by declaring "To assess means we have to measure which is to say everything can and should be quantified" which he clearly disagreed with and at least on the surface I do too.  One of the issues in the recent Chicago teachers strike was that they didn't want to be evaluated based on the standardized test scores of their students.  To an outsider standardized tests may be a great way to assess teachers’ ability, but when one thinks more deeply and critically it is clear that this is an innately flawed form of measuring teachers' abilities and effectiveness.  After speaking with several current teachers, including my mentor teacher who worked in Chicago public schools for nearly 8 years, it has become clear to me that to the panelist was right it expressing disdain for the belief that everything can be quantified.  Yes I can look at the standardize test scores of students and extrapolate from that data how effective or ineffective a particular teacher may have been, but to do so in unfair to the teachers in question.  Standardized test do not take into effect things like the students knowledge before coming into a teachers classroom, what their home life is like and other potential issues that effect student achievement and occur outside the classroom.  My mentor teacher spoke of how many of his older students worked while in school to help out their families or watched their younger siblings.  He also described how the students had to worry about how to get to and from school and navigate the dangerous parts of the city, issues that many of their peers would never have to deal with so they were inherently behind the 8-ball before ever stepping into his classroom.  One of the results of this focus on assessment is a sense of competition that's becoming increasingly important we have now become obsessed with comparing my school vs. your school, my state vs. another state, America vs. other countries and have begun "conflating excellence with beating people".  Sadly the panelist has come to the conclusion that “as long as we're thinking about who’s beating whom everyone’s losing" so I personally hope this changes to a more effective and accurate form of evaluation, or if we must use this assessment competition heavy model that he is wrong, but what he says makes a lot of sense in my mind.

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: Fish cough.

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

             Our last class of EDUC 504 was an interesting one.  During the first half we spoke with MAC alums and it was really interesting to hear some of the things they said about the array of schools they were working in.  One of the teachers was a Spanish minor and now she's a one-woman department as the only Spanish teacher at her 1,200 student school and to complicate things she doesn't even have a book!  Needless to say I was thoroughly impressed that she managed to figure out how to manage her situation and how she seems genuinely happy with her situation.  One of the teachers was a math teacher and it was refreshing to hear that he still grapples with using technology in class as a lot of the things just aren't applicable in that environment a sentiment that I had been feeling for a while.  He did have some good ideas though about playing music before tests and having students answer with cellphones in a polling type of format.  One of my biggest takeaways from the discussion wasn't actually about technology or their situations, but the fact that they all very strongly suggested that I ask and/or steal (if left in the copy room) material from other teachers that I find interesting or useful.  Not only material from my mentor teacher or other math teachers but also from other disciplines because maybe I'll need material to fill time or new ideas that I can connect to my area.
             The second half of class was well... interesting.  But it was good to hear some different ideas about technology. As this is my final blog post (for now...) I think I'll keep it short and move on to the fun stuff.

Since I'm now on vacation (Title Reference).....

(Things start getting ridiculous around 1:17 so definitely worth a viewing)

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: Fellow MACer Kevin's children taught 6-time Olympic Gold Medalist and 11-time Olympic Medalist Allison Schmitt (she has 3 Silvers and 2 Bronze) how to swim!

(Kevin!!!)

Why Did The Cow Cross The Road?

         The two edublogs I commented on were Dy/Dan by Dan Meyer who conveniently talked about the algebra op-ed article from the NYT that we discussed in Rachel's EDUC 606 class and Speaking of History by Eric Langhorst who laid out his goals for the upcoming school year.  If any of my loyal, awesome, [insert more brown-nosing expressions here] and Person of the Year worthy readers have the time and/or the desire to read more blogs I suggest giving both a look over (if you are one such person I envy you as I find myself with less than no free time this week).

         Dan is a math teacher and unsurprisingly he was not pleased with how the NYT op-ed decided that algebra was not a worthwhile subject.  He did pose an interesting question though "How should we define Algebra in 2012 and how should we teach it?" Sadly, I do not quite know how to answer this question, but it is definitely one worth asking.  One of the commenters spoke of computer programming and science and how they relate to equation manipulation, which got me thinking about how much computer-related activities should be implemented in math classrooms.  It also made me wonder if we schools should begin requiring students to take a technology or computer focused class in high school.  After all computers have invaded most aspects of our lives these days and are probably more applicable than most subject material so should we not try and promote an increase in student competency and mastery in students' computer skills if they will be using them nearly everyday of their lives? I know personally Word, PowerPoint and the limited few other programs I was taught in high school were all only briefly grazed over so that students could do enough to submit an assignment or make a presentation (excluding the Electronic Arts I class I took, by choice, in high school to fulfill my art requirement  as I doubt that is an experience common to most students).
         Eric's piece was interesting to me because one of his goals for the year is to make his class paperless or close thereto.  With 170 students this is not a surprising goal as that is a ton of work to be carrying around regularly but whether access to the technology needed to produce an effective paperless classroom is something we can expect from students I am not quite sure. Though he works in the Liberty School District which looked like a pretty affluent community if I found the right one on Google. What intrigued me most was how would one go about implementing this.  It seems like it might make certain types of assignments more difficult to grade.  Also how would testing take place in this environment? Would you have to go to a computer lab every time? Is that possible? Any thoughts (easy comment possibility for EDUC 504 students aka all my readers ;) )?

Now to the real reason you read my blog (aside from it be required and all)...

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: Based on current population statistics you are more likely to become President of the United States of America if you were born in Vermont than any other state with a 1 in 323,215 chance compared to 1 in 10 million for any US citizen.  Our two Presidents were Chester A. Arthur (1881) of Fairfield and Calvin Coolidge of Plymouth.

Title answer: It was the chicken's day off!

Off to Watch the Olympics

            I found this past class about Diigo, Evernote, Skype and Dropbox rather helpful in terms of how I take notes and organize information, but I am not sure if I will use these services all that often in my teaching.  I did my presentation on Dropbox and it is a tool I will introduce to my students as it seems to eliminate the need to email yourself large files for presentations and such, but when it comes to teaching I don’t anticipate asking for students to turn in such large files (such as videos, mp3s etc.) and if I want them to submit papers online I anticipate Google Docs will work just as well and the students are probably more familiar with and comfortable using Google Docs.  Skype is a great resource to have and one I used extensively while studying abroad in Scotland so it was certainly not new to me.  The primary benefit of Skype is that it allows for a much wider array of class speakers as they can video chat my class rather than physically come into the classroom.  Evernote still confuses me so I don’t think I’m ready to use it either for personal use or in a classroom setting.  Diigo was probably the resource I enjoyed the most learning about and one I will certainly use in the future.  Its a great way to keep track of articles I still want to read, but haven’t gotten around too through its bookmark function.  Diigo also allows for highlighting online articles which I can see being a great tool when having to do online readings.

Smorgasbord Fun Facts:

If the University of Michigan were a country it would rank 19^th all time, ahead of Spain, Denmark, Greece, Brazil and Mexico

There are UM Wolverines representing 9 different countries in the Olympics.

1896 is the only Summer Olympics in which no UM student or alum medaled.

Hoopla and Relegation

EDUC 504 has been an interesting class thus far what with the multitude of things we’ve had to signup of (a blog, a website, aviary, am I missing any?), but it has been a useful class for me as one of the things I am striving to learn in the class is not the way to incorporate technology into my classroom per se rather I have been looking for different forms of representation that I can implement in my classrooms (sadly some of the technology such as podcast I don’t think will be, or can be effectively, implemented in my classes).  As a result the discussion about how Angry Birds to teach students about parametric equation was intriguing and immensely helpful as it was a clear illustration of the potential math offers for fun and creative forms of representation outside of “chalk-and-talk”.  I don’t know if I will use such an activity, but I would certainly like to use something similar in my classrooms as it got students who were normally distant in class to participate and take part in the learning experience.  Additionally, using Angry Birds made math fun and I hope that I am to instill in my students that math can yes be a fun and enjoyable experience, something that is lots on the vast majority of students. 

However, whilst the discussion was enlightening it left me with a somewhat disheartened feeling much as the previous class’s lesson plan activity did.  One of the takeaways I got from the class was about the amount of time and effort that goes into making such an engaging activity happen in the classroom.  The speaker spoke of how when he was coaching he often left with very little time to prepare for classes and as a result often found himself lecturing to students rather than engaging them, this concerns me as I hope to be active in my school community, but I don’t want my classes to suffer so severely that I strictly lecture to students.  Also disconcerting was the amount of time the Angry Birds activity took.  If I recall correctly the activity took at least three days, but if he had the ability to do it again it would have been a weeklong.  While this is great for students to fully engage with the activity it came at a price and in that case the price was any coverage of polar coordinates.  It is unfortunate that for such an amazing activity to take place a notable unit in the course has to be dropped entirely.  Fortunately for his students he made a reasoned decision to drop a unit that would not be necessary to students not advancing and math and one that would be reviewed, or in the case of his students learned for the first time, in future classes for those who would go further into math.  Dropping such material is not something that I am looking forward to, but I suppose sacrifice will be necessary to some extent if I wish to give such an experience to my future students.

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: The University of Michigan is the only school in the world with a charter of their Alumni Club established on the Moon!

Clearly Colbert has never been to Ohio:

“Twenty-two astronauts were born in Ohio. What is it about your state that makes people want to flee the Earth?"
- Stephen Colbert to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones,"The Colbert Report," November 3, 2005”

All Your Education Are Belong To Us!

           The problem I see with academics in connection to video games is that there is a sizable contrast in the sense of achievement between the two.  For some people tests can be an achievement akin to surviving a level or unlocking a power up, but for many the sense of achievement comes during graduation or the final days and weeks of senior year as pressure is lifted and there is a more enjoyable and fun atmosphere in the school.  One might suggest that perhaps reaching summer vacation is like beating a level in a game, i.e. freshman year of high school = level one of the 'game' of high school, and yet this has not been my experience or the impression I have gleaned from talking to students about summer and school.  Instead, it has been my experience, that summer vacation is seen as a reprieve from school and more along the lines of a much need pause and bathroom break during game play than the finish line of a game.  As Jane McGonigal (not to be confused with Minerva McGonagall of Harry Potter fame) mentioned in her TED talk the notion of “epic win” is a strong motivation for gamers and I see few opportunities for most students to experience this in school (as things are currently situated) with any frequency, perhaps once or twice a year a student may experience an "epic win", but that is over the course of an entire year, hardly comparable to the more frequent rewards and sense accomplishment provided by video games over a more limited time frame.

           Perhaps Ms. McGonigal is too close to the making of games for her outlook on games seems overly simplistic and widely exaggerated.  “In real life when we face failure, when we confront obstacles we often don’t feel that way (referencing the way we feel in games).  We feel overcome, we feel overwhelmed, we feel anxious maybe depressed, frustrated or cynical.  We never have those feelings when were playing games, they just don’t exist in games.”   Clearly, Ms. McGonigal has never played FIFA or experienced lag on Halo or tried playing Contra without using the Konami Code (famous video game code that in Contra gives 30 extra lives and is the only way to beat the game without being a freak at video games).  I also sincerely hope that Ms. McGonigal is misguided when she says we are the best versions of ourselves in games or else the world truly is doomed (Warning: Link may or may not contain salty language).  Video games can be immensely frustrating and aggravating, sometimes to the point that one gives up or abandons the game, but gaming is by choice school on the other hand is not.  Technically school becomes optional sometime between 16 and 18 depending on the state and before that it is possible to dorp out if parental permission is gotten, but in reality there is intense social pressure for youths to finish high school so many do not truly view this as an option.  In contrast when I play a video game I get to pick the game, I get to pick who I play against (computer, friend, random dude on the internet etc.), I usually can pick the difficulty (easy, hard, insane or against a noob, 1337 etc.) and when I choose these things I, and many others like me, prefer a challenge, but I also like to win so the level of game play is adjusted accordingly so that I can win while still having to put forth noticeable effort.  Again here is a situation that education cannot feasibly match.  I cannot possible adjust the “sliders” on the classroom to perfectly match each individual student, in my classroom as there will typically only be one of me to 20-30 students and those students will all have different preferences and abilities even in AP and advanced classes where a certain amount of prior knowledge is required.

In response to some of Mr. Gee’s paper:
           He asks "Why should the identity of being and doing science be less appealing (in comparison to video games)?" My response to that is one's “identity of being” in biology typically starts off being not so good to awful at biology and unlike Elder Scrolls you’re not slaying skeletons or dragons to improve your “identity” rather you’re reading dozens upon dozens of dense pages out of a biology textbook.  Between the two slaying dragons is generally seen as more fun.
           I generally agree with Mr. Gee’s assessment of interaction and comparing schools to video games, but he forgets that they’re no bullies that you don’t conquer in video games, you don’t get swirly’s and embarrassed in front of all your peers in video games, but for some students this is a very real part of their academic experience and the type of interaction they frequently experience in school.           
           Again I agree by-in-large with Mr. Gee, but when he says “in school, they should help “write” the domain and the curriculum they study” he is taking an overly simplistic view that would be amazing if it were more frequently realized.
           I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Gee when it comes to risk taking.  Risk taking and the potential repercussions that come with failure in the school are much greater than those in video games and as a result the willingness to take risks is higher in video games.  Mr. Gee asked earlier “How do you get someone to learn something long, hard, and complex and yet enjoy it” and in my opinion one of the biggest aspects that is preventing more kids from enjoying the challenges presented by school is these intense repercussions that can come with risk, though they do not always come and often come to a lesser degree than students anticipate.
           I spoke to customization earlier and I would love for more customization to take place I just believe that limited resources and time means that there is only so much customization that can feasibly take place.  That being said I do plan on attempting to tailor my lesson plans to meet the needs of as many students as feasible and I am currently grappling with the notion of giving different amounts of work to different students, as we have mentioned in class which should hopefully allow for some customization by students (I am currently leaning in favor of this notion).
           Agency is important if students are going to enjoy school and sadly Mr. Gee is right that “such ownership [as found in video games] is rarer in school.”

           I suppose I shall stop here as this post is already far too long and I do not wish to scare off the few poor souls who read my blog.  I will leave you with the most important takeaway I got from Ms. McGonigal's talk "Gamers always believe an epic win is possible" and this, to me, is the feeling we need to cultivate and make students believe is possible in schools.

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: Peanuts are an ingredient in dynamite!

or more accurately:

Obligatory Title Reference:

Alright Stop! Collaborate and Listen!

In our last class we devised a lesson plan for a class, or series of classes, around the New York soda ban and examined how we could potentially incorporated into our individual disciples.  Breaking off by teaching fields left me in a precarious and unusual place as I was assigned to the History/Social Studies group rather than the Math group I had used to.  As an undergrad I developed a passion for and eventually majored in Comparative Religious Studies and in hopes of putting the degree to some use I am attempting to pursue a teaching ‘minor’ in History, but with that being said my focus and coursework has been on teaching math.  Consequently, I was left unprepared for a discussion on utilizing the soda ban in a history setting.  Whilst this focus on math may have put me behind the eight ball in comparison to my comrades it also gave me a different perspective on the ban.  My initial thought about how I would use the ban in a social studies setting was to utilize it as a gateway into a discussion on government and what my students think its purpose should be, is this sort of social legislation something we want our government to be doing?  What sort of government is ideal a small or big government?

As a group after a not-quite-heated but enthusiastic debate on the merits of the ban and our different interpretations on how to use it we settled on a classroom debate centered around its not only its merits, but its historical connections as well.  From here we then continued to repeatedly expand our lesson plan to incorporate more and more information and detail when it could conceivably be used in a history class.  After a lengthy discussion we eventually settled on using the ban when talking about the 1920s and 1930s as a way to discuss Prohibition and how it was not a historical blip or a unique occurrence, but rather part of a historical trend.  After introducing the topic of Prohibition and providing some background information we would then question the class something along the lines of: Do you think this sort of legislation could ever happen today or was this a one time occurrence?  After a brief period of class discussion/thoughts we would tell them about the proposed soda ban and end the class with a 5 minute YouTube video of Mayor Bloomberg defending the ban in a television interview.  On day two we would have a discussion about propaganda along with primary and secondary sources as we have the students compare side-by-side propaganda for and against Prohibition with the correlating propaganda for the soda ban.  During the second half of the class we would divide the class into groups of 5-6 students and assign them a role/perspective that will have a certain outlook on the ban, for instance construction works would likely be opposed to the ban as getting one large drink to last an entire day is easier than multiple small ones while another group might be Bloomberg’s health advisors.  The students would then in their groups begin researching their perspectives and how to defend their support or opposition to the ban.  Our librarian who guided our discussion suggested we have the librarian create some sort of document or webpage with a list of potential sources or sites for the students to utilize in their research so they would not be bogged down in the process.  Finally, on the third day we planned for each group to give a brief 2-3 sentence explanation of who they represent and their view of the ban.  After all the groups have shared they would be grouped by those for the ban and those against and a teacher guided debate would ensue.  As part of the evaluation of their understanding the groups would also have to write a short op-ed piece from the viewpoint of their assigned role utilizing the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and 2 additional sources.

The most enlightening and somewhat depressing part of developing a class plan as a group is that it forced me to realize that my default teaching method is a predominantly lecture-centric approach or a general discussion of topics.  Hopefully this unconscious trend toward lecturing will be altered before I begin teaching classes myself for while it might have been effective for me when I was a student many people find it boring and unengaging (an opinion with which I would generally agree).  The fact that our lesson plan turned out significantly better than what I probably would’ve planned had I been doing this project alone made crystal clear how effective collaboration can be, but it also left me a little unsettled as to how much weaker my solo lesson plan was.  I want to give my students the best classroom experience possible and this project illustrated that I still have a ways to go.  Fortunately, judging by some of the responses from my peers I was not the only one with this sentiment.

Smorgasbord Fun Fact: The only member of ZZ Top without a beard is Frank Beard!

Obligatory Title Citation: