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!