Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

 I am embarrassed to see that the last time I posted on this personal blog was back in February, 2017.  That is quite the long hiatus.  No excuses other than I think I was hiding out until the DeVos era ended. I would love to say I have been hanging out at the beach and enjoying life, but in addition to that I have actually been working hard these last years. Teaching, supporting teachers, doing hundreds of presentations around the country and world (Italy, Germany, Japan, England to name a few), and working on new technologies for math ( ClassPad.net ) and doing webinars and creating lessons and how-to' s to support technology integration. Never a dull moment....with occasional beach days thrown in! Anyway, back in action on the blog. Going to try to be a bit more present in this personal blog. I've been blogging non-stop on the Casio Education blog , but it's time to get back to my individual voice and messages as well. I can do both!!  I am working on a couple ...

Wow - can't believe I haven't posted since May.  Crazy.  Of course, I do post weekly on my other blog, so I am going to plead busy!! It has been busy these last few months.  I have been doing some very diverse things, all related to math education. It's one of the benefits of going out on my own and being "independent" - I get to try new things and do a variety of math and technology related activities which keeps me interested and on my toes.  Here's just a few things I have been doing since May: 1) Working for Casio - so blogging, Tweeting , Facebooking and doing research on technology, BYOD, testing etc. 2) Working for the Dana Center at UT, Texas and DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Activities) as an International Fellow supporting their adoption of College and Career Ready Standards. I went to Austin, Tx for some training and just got back from England, doing training at LakenHeath Air Force Base.  Such a marvelous experience! Heading to...

I read this article the other day by Dana Goldstein , "Down with Algebra II!" , which describes professor Andrew Hackers views on mathematics, and how the push for STEM, higher math like Algebra II, is actually creating a the failure and dropout rates we are seeing because it is pushing students into mathematics that is not necessary for their future endeavors and "destroying a tremendous amount of talent". The math requirements in high school and college are "highly irrational". And then my friend sent me the same exact article via Facebook and asked my opinion. (This is what happens when your friends know you are a math person!). So - what is my opinion? I have to say, I completely agree with Andrew Hacker. In fact - I have written about it before a few times: Math Curriculum - What should we be teaching?;  Financial Literacy - Real-world math, REALLY ; Let's teach probability & Statistics - We need it!   Don't get me wrong - I think Al...

Yes, there is some thinking-differently going on, at least in Florida. There is a bill in the Florida House of Representatives to make in-person and virtual computer-science classes count as Foreign Language credits towards graduation.  THAT. IS. AWESOME! I am all for changing the way we teach and what we teach and where we teach in this country. I would love for us to break out of our traditional classrooms of desks in rows and teachers as sages, and let students have more choice in subjects they, and have more options of courses.  For example, not every student needs calculus, but EVERYONE needs Personal Finance - and yet, it is not an option in most school districts, or if it is, it is often an add on. (See my previous posts on Financial Literacy if interested....1)  Math Curriculum - What Should We Be Teaching 2)  Financial Literacy - Bring It Back to School!  and  3) Financial Literacy -  Real-World Math, Really! ) Math itself is a f...

"Speed ISN'T important in math. What is important is to deeply understand mathematical ideas and connections. Whether you are fast or slow isn't really relevant." - Laurent Schwartz, mathematician If you haven't seen the video by Jo Boaler and some of her Stanford students entitled "How to Learn Math: Four Key Messages", you definitely need to. Besides the four powerful messages (which I will list below), it has some great stories and quotes, one of which is the one I have above.  Jo Boaler has done powerful research and written some terrific books on mathematics and learning math (one of my favorites being "What's Math Got to Do with It?"  and the video about these four key messages in math is so interesting. Here are the four key messages about learning math (I highly recommend you watch the video to clarify and define each message a bit more): Everyone can learn math at high levels Believe in yourself (your beliefs about your ...

I participated in an interesting #edchat this past Tuesday, as I try to do every Tuesday at noon (Eastern time) if it fits into my schedule.  The topic for this hour long chat was: Education should reflect culture of the country, but do politics and religion have too much influence in American education? My immediate reaction and response was yes, religion and politics have way too much influence in  American education. Two prime examples are the current hot-button issues of The Common Core Standards  and whether the word "God" should be included in the Pledge of Allegiance. Here are my personal opinions on both: "God" in schools/Pledge of Allegiance -  First of all, God was not included in the original pledge, written by Francis Bellamy in 1892. "under God" was added in 1954 in response to the Communist threat of the times But, regardless of when "under God" was added, this is just a political & religious ploy to get everyone up in ...

I swore to myself I wouldn't do my next post on the Common Core, but I just get so irritated by the postings I see out there about it, I can't help myself! On Facebook, I see silly things like this: And then the current huge controversy about the math quiz and the teacher grading the problems wrong: Let's not forget the multitude of articles and storylines on the news talking about parents being angry and states opting out. Thank goodness there are some people who are trying to bring reason back to this madness about the Common Core. Great response here to the quiz example above by Andy Kiersz. Or this one in response to a parents obnoxious use of what he calls "Common Core Math".  I have already written my own response to my nieces and sisters hatred of what they perceived as Common Core math in a post last year, Common Core: It's Not the Devil . The problem with all these pictures and stories and examples of problems that are "common c...

In my final in this Common Core Structure series, I want to just spend a little time discussing the three Key Shifts of the Common Core: Focus, Coherence, and Rigor . The CC are standards - states have always had standards. The difference here is a clearer set of aligned standards, throughout K-12, that ensured the standards built on each other within a grade, between the grades, and provided a cohesive set of understandings, skills and application. Hopefully the previous four posts have given a clearer understanding of how the structure of the CC was designed to support these shifts, so now lets actually look at these three shifts in depth. I am going to use some specific standards to exemplify each shift, as I think it helps make sense of them. Focus The CC is really focused on students conceptual understanding of mathematics and their ability to apply these understandings to real-world problems. So, within each grade, there are "less" standards, and more focus to help ...

In my last post , I went in great detail into the structure of the Common Core Math Standards for K-8.  Long story short, the picture at the right is a visual of the structure showing the funnel effect – where the standard itself is the end product of so much more: Introduction, Domain, Cluster. The gist of the last post was that it is important to look at all the components, not just the specific standards themselves, so that you understand how the standard fits into the learning progression. When looking at the high school content, the structure of the standards is the same, with an additional component, the conceptual categories.  There are six conceptual categories at the high school level: Number and Quantity, Algebra, Functions, Modeling, Geometry, and Statistics & Probability. Within these conceptual categories, there are the Introduction, Domains, Clusters and specific standards.  The idea behind the conceptual categories is that students acquire th...

I am tired of the #CommonCore bashing, so I am just going to start writing some posts about things I have learned that have helped me realize how powerful and SUPPORTIVE of student learning these standards and practices can be. Don't get me wrong - I never needed to be convinced that the Common Core State Standards for Math (CCSSM) were a good thing for math education.  I cheered their adoption because to me, these standards supported what I had been practicing and preaching, both as a teacher and a professional development provider. But - even though I have spent the last several years studying and coaching others in implementing the Common Core in a variety of ways, I just recently learned more to solidify, for me, their power. It was sort of an ah-ha moment: if I, who consider myself very familiar with the CCSSM, just learned something new, imagine how those who have spent little, if any, time with these standards (i.e. parents, news reporters, politicians) could benefit fro...

I hadn't really thought about QR code use in educational settings until my recent exposure and personal experience with a new app. EDU + , released by Casio to support their Classwiz scientific calculator . It got me interested in how QR codes are being utilized in classroom settings. In my research I have found some interesting suggestions for using QR codes in education. Steven.Anderson has some great postings and links about QR coding ,which led me to several articles and resources. One in particular, Tom Barrett's slide show on " 40 Interesting Ways to use QR Codes in the Classroom " gave me insight into the possibilities of QR codes for teaching and learning. I particularly liked idea #7 of adding QR codes to word documents for students to check their answers. He has 40, so it's worth a look! Basically, QR codes are information - up to 4000 characters. QR codes can be used to link students to more information (reviews, pictures, graphs). Embedding QR c...

I just read yet another article about the push to lengthen the school day in order to improve student achievement entitled Learning Takes Time: Growing Movement Seeks to Expand the Length of the School Day by Celia Baker. The last paragraph of the article I think highlights the advantage of this idea: "More time and money won't help if they are not well-spent, Gabrieli cautioned. The National Center on Time & Learning report suggests that additional time be used for more engaged interaction in academic classes; broader curricula; enrichment activities that boost school engagement; and more time for teacher collaboration and professional development".  As with anything in education (think technology), if it's done right and planned out and designed to address specific needs, it will have an impact.  If it's done for the sake of being done with no real plan or purpose, it is NOT going to be effective. Adding hours to the school day so that students can ...

Four months since my last posting, which again, points to the turmoil and conflict in my life of late. In my last post I talked about change and three things to consider, since I was in the midst of some major changes in my own life.  To recap: Change is emotional. Resistance/reluctance to change is multidimensional Some changes may not be for everyone I am here to say that I have just about finished my first week of 'unemployment' because I decided to take change by the balls and do something drastic - quit my job. I gave it the old college try - 9 months of trying to adjust to the emotional and cultural changes of going from a small, education, technology driven company who's culture and approach to education I truly believed in and felt empowered by, to a large, educational corporate company, where I did not have this same sense of belief in the mission and felt at best, marginalized and insignificant.  What I learned is I am NOT a corporate girl. I want to be in...

I was catching up on my Graham Norton recordings on Sunday.  If you have never watched this BBC talk show, you are missing one of the most hilarious shows ever.  What they can do and say on BBC talk shows is vastly different from U.S. television, that's for sure! Anyway, one episode had will.i.am as a guest, and I will admit it - I wasn't too excited.  I mean, me and rap...not simpatico, so my thoughts were he wasn't going to have much to say of interest to me. I was however completely wrong and pleasantly surprised. will.i.am is first, an insanely interesting man. A very funny guy. Hilarious in fact. Gracious as well, and a great story teller (watch the show and hear his tale of horse back riding with Michael Jackson....he even tries to curb his use of the word 'like'....really, hilarious).  And, while I am sitting there watching and listening, he went and blew my mind even further by talking about STEM .  Yes...Science, Technology, Engineering and Math....