There is some talk on the blogersphere about Pseudoteaching. I like the topic and the questions it raises. Check out Dan Meyer's blog and follow his links for more discussion.
In related news, this got me thinking more about a discussion I had with some of my students today. They were asking why I make their life so difficult and how I like to "torture" them. This is referring to how I don't answer questions, but I make the students answer their own questions. Those conversations and then reading about PT got me thinking, "am I PT?"
I thought I liked the comment and "complaints," but now I have to think about them more.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
I apologize for this rant.
Yes, Christina Aguilera muffed the National Anthem at the Super Bowl and the internet lit up with rips, complaints, and outcries. As someone who loves this country and the National Anthem, I understand the mistake. As a former member of MENC and agreeing with the National Anthem Project, I understand her mistake.
My question to all of these people ripping on Ms. Aguilera is, why don't you try to sing the Anthem in front of millions of people, in a huge stadium, without anyone else leading you with the words? Can you sing all of the words right now without anyone leading you? I highly doubt it. (And I won't even get into the performing and live music...) However, I still expect a near perfect performance and words should not be messed up (please see below about Wayne Messmer and Jim Cornelison, they would have not messed up the words as that is their job.)
I am not a fan of Christina Aguilera's music. I don't own any of her albums or singles. I could not name any of her songs beyond "Genie in a Bottle," but I can tell you that for a (not so) teenie-bopper, she has a pretty outstanding voice. However, I did question when she was walking up to sing, "why must we Americans have 'pop' stars sing America the Beautiful and The National Anthem?" Why can't we actually have true musicians? I will admit, I am spoiled being a Chicago sports fan. We have the best Anthems in the entire country. Wayne Messmer and Jim Cornelison are simply amazing. The feeling from their anthems will bring a grown man to tears.(See Here for NHL All Star Game 20 years ago with Wayne Messmer).
These men have a job to sing the National Anthem and they do it really well. Why would we bring in someone who does not normally sing the Anthem to sing the Anthem at a HUGE event? Poor planning, and poor musical knowledge. Unprofessional, all around.
Additionally, during the "Pre-Kick" show (Whatever that might be.), we had a rendition of Taps being played. Who was playing it? A synth. You could not have found a college trumpet student to donate their time? Or how about the dozens of free recordings that the military bands offer? They could have called me and payed my a mere $150 dollars, with no rights to my name and I would have done it.
My problem with American's and their music choices is how they are so willing to accept everything less than the best and the best is looked down upon. When will the schools, parents, and Americans demand better of their music? What can we, as educators, do differently to have students question their music and open up? To expect and find the best?
My question to all of these people ripping on Ms. Aguilera is, why don't you try to sing the Anthem in front of millions of people, in a huge stadium, without anyone else leading you with the words? Can you sing all of the words right now without anyone leading you? I highly doubt it. (And I won't even get into the performing and live music...) However, I still expect a near perfect performance and words should not be messed up (please see below about Wayne Messmer and Jim Cornelison, they would have not messed up the words as that is their job.)
I am not a fan of Christina Aguilera's music. I don't own any of her albums or singles. I could not name any of her songs beyond "Genie in a Bottle," but I can tell you that for a (not so) teenie-bopper, she has a pretty outstanding voice. However, I did question when she was walking up to sing, "why must we Americans have 'pop' stars sing America the Beautiful and The National Anthem?" Why can't we actually have true musicians? I will admit, I am spoiled being a Chicago sports fan. We have the best Anthems in the entire country. Wayne Messmer and Jim Cornelison are simply amazing. The feeling from their anthems will bring a grown man to tears.(See Here for NHL All Star Game 20 years ago with Wayne Messmer).
These men have a job to sing the National Anthem and they do it really well. Why would we bring in someone who does not normally sing the Anthem to sing the Anthem at a HUGE event? Poor planning, and poor musical knowledge. Unprofessional, all around.
Additionally, during the "Pre-Kick" show (Whatever that might be.), we had a rendition of Taps being played. Who was playing it? A synth. You could not have found a college trumpet student to donate their time? Or how about the dozens of free recordings that the military bands offer? They could have called me and payed my a mere $150 dollars, with no rights to my name and I would have done it.
My problem with American's and their music choices is how they are so willing to accept everything less than the best and the best is looked down upon. When will the schools, parents, and Americans demand better of their music? What can we, as educators, do differently to have students question their music and open up? To expect and find the best?
Monday, January 24, 2011
Recent thoughts about math education
When we were young, we learned and studied patterns. When we start learning arithmetic and higher math, we (tradtionally) learn sets of instructions. I find this to be 99% wrong. There is a time and place for learning a set of instructions, but not that often.
Math (and/or nature?) is nothing but patterns. We, as humans, learn from patterns. Why not present all math as patterns and let the students discover the "instructions?"
Many of my lessons are progressed by asking, "What is the pattern?" I set my students up with the pattern. They do the work, they look back at the work, and should come to a conclusion about at least one pattern from their work. For example:
Multiply:
a. (x + 3)(x - 4) b. (y -5) (y + 7) etc...
What patterns do you notice? How can we use this info to work backwards, or to factor?
The students come up with the rules/patterns/steps/etc. for factoring.
I have found my students are more engaged and excited about math since I have been teaching this way. Let me know what you think or find out.
And I cannot leave this post without sharing a short clip from one of my favorite movies and directors. Daren Aronofsky's "Pi" is an outstanding movie, especially for a first full length film. Enjoy!
Watch a short clip here
Math (and/or nature?) is nothing but patterns. We, as humans, learn from patterns. Why not present all math as patterns and let the students discover the "instructions?"
Many of my lessons are progressed by asking, "What is the pattern?" I set my students up with the pattern. They do the work, they look back at the work, and should come to a conclusion about at least one pattern from their work. For example:
Multiply:
a. (x + 3)(x - 4) b. (y -5) (y + 7) etc...
What patterns do you notice? How can we use this info to work backwards, or to factor?
The students come up with the rules/patterns/steps/etc. for factoring.
I have found my students are more engaged and excited about math since I have been teaching this way. Let me know what you think or find out.
And I cannot leave this post without sharing a short clip from one of my favorite movies and directors. Daren Aronofsky's "Pi" is an outstanding movie, especially for a first full length film. Enjoy!
Watch a short clip here
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Listening
Much of school, learning, and life we depend on our listening skills, but do we ever teach the skill? From birth we read to our children, we play music for them, and we ask them to listen to adults, but when do we teach them the skill of listening? Sean Layne talks about how we need to teach the skill of concentration and he has a great method of doing so. His method breaks it down to a simple game, that only uses concentration. How can we do this with listening? How can we show students what it is to listen?
I know that people still play the game telephone and that students can repeat things back to the teacher to "prove" they were listening, but I do not believe that is teaching or proving they are listening. A quick search on yahoo did not pull up much about teaching the skill. And the articles that were there were talking about reading or ESL. This confines listening to just language.
How can we teach listening? This is the question I want to tackle.
I know that people still play the game telephone and that students can repeat things back to the teacher to "prove" they were listening, but I do not believe that is teaching or proving they are listening. A quick search on yahoo did not pull up much about teaching the skill. And the articles that were there were talking about reading or ESL. This confines listening to just language.
How can we teach listening? This is the question I want to tackle.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Professional days and the Arts
Yesterday was a half day for students and the afternoon was a professional day for the staff. I was excited about this day. I had worked with our arts integration teacher to bring in Sean Layne. What an amazing and powerful day.
I have already taken a handful of classes with Sean and knew that he would be teaching nothing new to me. However, I still learned a metric boatload. We were fortunate to have Sean work with three different grade levels of kids. Seeing him work with students is awesome for many reasons. The first is you validate much of what you have seen in your class (behavior) and the second is you see the potential of your students.
However, I feel as if I need to apologize after seeing Sean work with this group of eighth grade girls. I told Sean that they have all had Tableau with me and should be able to get through the skill building more quickly than the younger grades that haven't had Tableau. Boy, was I wrong. He was not set up for success due to the day. However, there is no excuse for students to act the way they did. If you ever read this Sean, I apologize.
Enough about that. I just have to say. Read, see, take a class about and with Sean. Your teaching will be changed forever.
I have already taken a handful of classes with Sean and knew that he would be teaching nothing new to me. However, I still learned a metric boatload. We were fortunate to have Sean work with three different grade levels of kids. Seeing him work with students is awesome for many reasons. The first is you validate much of what you have seen in your class (behavior) and the second is you see the potential of your students.
However, I feel as if I need to apologize after seeing Sean work with this group of eighth grade girls. I told Sean that they have all had Tableau with me and should be able to get through the skill building more quickly than the younger grades that haven't had Tableau. Boy, was I wrong. He was not set up for success due to the day. However, there is no excuse for students to act the way they did. If you ever read this Sean, I apologize.
Enough about that. I just have to say. Read, see, take a class about and with Sean. Your teaching will be changed forever.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
My trial in Standard Based Grading
I have jumped into the deep end with Standard Based Grading. I was am new to this. It has been about 4 weeks and here are my thoughts:
1. You and your students need to be organized (big mess for middle school students)
2. Students struggle to grasp the concept of SBG until we start taking quizzes
3. I don't know how to make this easy and quick for grading and record keeping (so far, I have printed out a chart with student's names and skill numbers, separate of my grade book. Then I will put one grade in for the chapter)
4. My students have not taken advantage of learning on their own. Although we have discussed, introduced, and practiced all the skills in class, they refuse to take an extra step outside of class after taking the quiz.
5. I am not sure how I want to work retakes. So far, I have made new quizzes for retakes. This, my friend, is a lot of work.
6. Quizstar (do a search for it) can be a useful tool though can be difficult for math. You can use html for the questions (meaning you can write fractions and exponents) but not for answers if you choose to use multiple choice (which I did for some because the site grades them for you! I just always add a "none of the above" answer for each one).
7. Only two students asked for time outside of class. This makes me sad.
Feel free to give your advice.
1. You and your students need to be organized (big mess for middle school students)
2. Students struggle to grasp the concept of SBG until we start taking quizzes
3. I don't know how to make this easy and quick for grading and record keeping (so far, I have printed out a chart with student's names and skill numbers, separate of my grade book. Then I will put one grade in for the chapter)
4. My students have not taken advantage of learning on their own. Although we have discussed, introduced, and practiced all the skills in class, they refuse to take an extra step outside of class after taking the quiz.
5. I am not sure how I want to work retakes. So far, I have made new quizzes for retakes. This, my friend, is a lot of work.
6. Quizstar (do a search for it) can be a useful tool though can be difficult for math. You can use html for the questions (meaning you can write fractions and exponents) but not for answers if you choose to use multiple choice (which I did for some because the site grades them for you! I just always add a "none of the above" answer for each one).
7. Only two students asked for time outside of class. This makes me sad.
Feel free to give your advice.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Checking and/or correcting homework
Checking homework can be a painful experience. It can waste time and get the class off to a slow start. However, I have a few different ways that I think are useful and present student-centered learning opportunities.
I will share one way with you today.
1. Using the cooperation challenge from Sean Layne's Tableau, I split the class into two equal halves.
2. Split the homework problems in half and assign them to specific halves.
3. Each group is responsible for correcting their assigned problems. Everyone in the group must be able to explain how to come to the correct answer. (I continue to use Layne's Tableau ideas throughout this lesson. About how you are responsible for the person next to you, etc.)
4. Walk around during this discussion time. Ask good questions and check their final answers.
5. Once each group is ready, I go back to the cooperation challenge and have the students partner up with someone from the opposite group.
6. Check the other half of your homework with student's new partner.
This activity allows students to move, talk, and most importantly explain. Conversation is so important in our learning, yet we hardly practice this in school. This also puts the pressure on students to do their homework because if they did not do it, they let their group down. It is also quick to see who did not do their homework from their discussion in their groups.
I will share one way with you today.
1. Using the cooperation challenge from Sean Layne's Tableau, I split the class into two equal halves.
2. Split the homework problems in half and assign them to specific halves.
3. Each group is responsible for correcting their assigned problems. Everyone in the group must be able to explain how to come to the correct answer. (I continue to use Layne's Tableau ideas throughout this lesson. About how you are responsible for the person next to you, etc.)
4. Walk around during this discussion time. Ask good questions and check their final answers.
5. Once each group is ready, I go back to the cooperation challenge and have the students partner up with someone from the opposite group.
6. Check the other half of your homework with student's new partner.
This activity allows students to move, talk, and most importantly explain. Conversation is so important in our learning, yet we hardly practice this in school. This also puts the pressure on students to do their homework because if they did not do it, they let their group down. It is also quick to see who did not do their homework from their discussion in their groups.
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