Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

So, I spent some of this weekend catching up on "The Daily Show" episodes with Jon Stewart (thank goodness for DVR!). I finally had time to watch the Arne Duncan/Jon Stewart interview from February 16. And...have to say, not impressed. With Arne that is. Jon of course was his usual hilarious, well-versed self, trying to get a answers from someone who clearly wanted to just spout political-speak but not really provide any real solution or answers. Here is the 7-minute clip that aired. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Exclusive - Arne Duncan Extended Interview Pt. 1 www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook The more interesting conversation occurred after, in the 'extended interview' not aired on TV, but available online. Here is a link that will take you to the full episode, where from 20:35-32:00 you can catch the 'rest of the story', to quote Paul Harvey: http:

I am in the third online unit of my hybrid/blended PD so wanted to give some feedback and updates on how things are going online.  For those of you who have been following my hybrid/blended professional development series on integrating technology into math instruction (see a listing of all posts in the series at the bottom of this blog), you will remember that we just finished our third face-to-face meeting a couple weeks ago. My focus for this third unit (both f2f & online) is relevancy: Lesson Three: Make the activities and learning relevant to the teachers every-day teaching practice. By providing activities that focus on learning the skills, how to integrate technology appropriately, and also cohere to the specific content and curriculum the teachers must follow, it is more likely that they will begin to change their own practice. If they can see the relevancy to their own daily experience, they are going to be more willing to implement new tools and strategies. Thi

UPDATE T O POST 2/19/12:  Michael O'hara's talk can be viewed at http://bit.ly/w7nQcS or via iTunes http://bit.ly/LWFiTunes    Thanks Graham Brown-Martin for the updated links!) It's been a few weeks since I attended the Learning Without Frontiers conference in Olympia, UK.  I wrote a previous reflection piece on Noam Chomsky' s talk right after I returned.  I was revisiting my notes on other speakers and re-watching some of the talks at the LWF website trying to come up with my blog post for the day.  In my notes, the one that stuck out as relevant to me this week was Michael O'hara's talk about the mobile industry and education called " Learning While Mobile ".  Imagine my disappointment when I went to re-watch the talk to find that it had been blocked due to potential copyright issues, apparently because of some materials mentioned in his talk.  Sigh. I have decided to still focus on O'hara's talk, even though I can't share the vi

I am currently overwhelmed right now because there is so much I want to say in response to many articles I have read this week ( What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About Math Education Again and Again , The 'Mathlash' to Silicon Valley's Move Into Education , U.S. Lag in Science, Math A Disaster Waiting to Happen , Seven Misconceptions About How Students Learn ) as well as an #edchat twitter forum I participated in yesterday on whether the current hierarchical structure of our education system should be changed, and if so, how. Unfortunately, much of what I want to say would require me to do some research to back up my thoughts.  Honestly, I don't know that my providing evidence that pedagogy and teacher training is more important than the type of technology initiatives implemented, or STEM education is being hindered by funding, classroom size, lack of teacher support and training, or that standardized testing is a major factor in why mathematics education in this country

I just spent last week with the teachers I have been working with for the last three months on my hybrid/blended PD (my most recent post in the series was Feedback (Part 3) on Hybrid PD ).  I also spent the last part of the week at the Texas Computer Education Association 2012 conference in Austin, TX, where I met with myriad of teachers from all different disciplines and talked about technology and mathematics. In both experiences, I was surrounded by teachers excited about technology, excited about using technology, and teachers who were so excited to engage and provide opportunities for their students to get their hands on learning, whether it be mathematics, science, social studies or English. But...what I also heard was frustration about their ability and access to provide those experiences to their students due to such mundane things as the software not being downloaded on the computers, or the sites they want to go to being blocked by the school firewalls. This had me thinking

In my most recent post in my hybrid/blended PD series, Planning for Hybrid PD (part 3) - Make it Relevant , I was about to embark on my 3rd face-to-face meeting with the teachers. I have met with the groups and have to say, I think relevancy was definitely the thing to focus on, for two reasons. 1) After almost 3 months working together, with 2 previous face-to-face meetings and 2 online components, the teachers are feeling comfortable with each other and really willing to voice their frustrations, ask for help or ideas, and share strategies. 2) They feel much more comfortable with the software themselves and are actually thinking of how it could work with their students, so they are want lessons that fit what they teach, since that's an easier stretch as they try something new. How did these two reasons fit into my goal for this third face-to-face meeting of making it relevant?  As I said previously Lesson Three: Make the activities and learning relevant to the teachers every-d

This week is my third face-to-face set of meetings with the two groups of teachers I have been embarking with in the hybrid, or blended, professional development journey. We are focused on learning and integrating dynamic mathematics into math instruction using The Geometer's Sketchpad . We are just coming off our 2nd online unit, about to start our 3rd cycle.  This particular online unit was significantly shorter (3 weeks) compared to the first one (5 weeks), so a much quicker turn-around (my feedback on that can be found in my last online community posting). In my first two parts of this series on blended learning, I went into each face-to-face workshop with specific lesson or goal to focus on: From Planning for Hybrid PD (Part 1): Lesson One: Begin a professional development experience assessing the background skills of participants.Ensure they are given the necessary tools, starting points, and resources to feel comfortable with what they are going to be doing, see the

I recently attended the Learning without Frontiers conference in Olympia, UK, as I mentioned last post.  There were so many great speakers, and I took a lot of notes as I listened (love my Goodnotes app !) With so much information to digest, I realize I can't do justice to it in one post. What I thought I would do is post once or twice a week about my personal reflections connected to each speaker.  Sort of a LWF12 reflection series you might say.  I know at some point, LWF will be posting the talks in their entirety, so I can then link my reflections to the actual talks.  Thankfully, Noam Chomsky 's talk is already posted.  Take some time to watch it: There is a lot of great stuff in here, most of which I agree with, some of which I do not, but I want to focus on one point Chomsky makes - that 'technology is neutral' - we must know what we are looking for and how to use it. This resonates with me, since I am so immersed in technology education, both in my professi