Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

In two previous postings, What Should We Be Teaching? and Financial Literacy - Bring It Back To School I brought up the fact that we are doing our students a disservice by NOT teaching financial literacy.  Well...it appears that there is some movement on that front, which is exciting for me to see.  I am hoping this economy crisis we are in has perhaps opened the eyes of many our education system needs to better prepare students for reality, not just standardized tests. Great that you can pass a test to get into a college, but not so great when you can't figure out how to save for that college. In the article, High Schools, Colleges Push Financial Literacy by Caralee Adams , the focus is on student-loan debt and helping students understand debt and earnings starting in high school in order to hopefully prevent future problems. Helping students realize what debt is, how payment of loans works, and how to start saving and planning for the future is a skill that our students...

Well...it was a wild and crazy night in St. Louis last night. I was right down the street from the stadium and the streets were packed for hours with screaming, dancing, high-fiving Cardinals fans. Insane!! But, hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm. My palms hurt from all the high-fiving and my throat is sore and I can't talk... Anyway, with all the excitement I totally forgot to post yesterday...what I was going to post  from the math conference was how the baseball fever had permeated the booth. St. Louis Cardinals shirts, signs, feather boas were all over the exhibit hall. In our booth, we had a Sketchpad tessellation done by a college student that was the cardinal, and using TinkerPlots, we did a quick statistical analysis of the two teams. They were so close in comparisons that predicting the winner was hard....obviously home team advantage and Freese made a difference! Just wanted to share a picture of the team comparison.

So, I am here in St. Louis for the NCTM Regional math conference starting tomorrow.  But...it also happens to be the site of the World Series - St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers . I am not a baseball fan...much more of a football fan...but I feel the need, in the spirit of the game, to maybe be prepared for tomorrow at the booth with some baseball 'stuff' to show. And, as I look at some baseball statistics , I am just amazed at the sheer amount of mathematics that surrounds baseball.  It just has me thinking that any math teacher who is worried about the how to explore statistics with students using relevant data need look no further than baseball. More later - hopefully some interesting data explorations using TinkerPlots ....will keep you posted.

Taking a quick side trip away from 'education' directly to give a shout out to Facebook as a powerful communication tool and to an unknown Texas A&M student who has reaffirmed my faith in humanity and honesty. First - little background - in the last three months my credit card number was stolen twice (while I still had the credit card....) and my entire wallet, with ID, credit cards, ATM card, was stolen right out of my purse while I was sitting eating at a restaurant.  So, needless to say, I am a little down on humanity in general and dishonest slimy thieves specifically.  After hundreds of dollars lost, hours wasted getting new id's and cards, I have not been feeling too kindly about our society in general.  So when my daughter called me from college yesterday to inform me she lost her wallet with her id and all her cards, school id, dorm keys, etc., panic mode set in and there was an immediate call made to the bank and the credit card company cancelling the ca...

Clearly, the loss of Steve Jobs has many people wondering where are the next innovative technology ideas going to come from, what's going to happen to Apple, who is the NEXT Steve Jobs?  There are articles galore on Jobs impact, so I was not surprised to run across one connecting Steve Jobs to education entitled " If we don't let our children play, who will be the next Steve Jobs?" by Darell Hammond . I really loved the idea of this article - that schools need to let kids PLAY in order to foster their creativity, curiosity, and imagination.  It's something we have lost with the emphasis on standardized testing and assessment.  Time is short in schools, so the play (i.e. recess, music, art, etc.) is being eliminated for more time spent on practicing, testing, reviewing, and memorizing.  Check out the article - there are some great anecdotes  from Steve Jobs about the value of playing and creating.  The message here - let kids get out there, play, tinker, ...

Okay, just wanted to report back on my 'gambling adventure' on my 21st anniversary while at the NCTM Regional Math Conference in Atlantic City .  In my post , I believe I referenced the idea that I would put 21 dollars down on 21 at the roulette table. So, with my good friends and colleagues at the casino, after a lovely dinner, I went right up to the roulette table to get my chips.  Apparently, lots of etiquette rules on how to get the chips and place the bet - thank goodness the nice gentlemen next to me filled me in!  I shared the anniversary story and the man next to me suggested that instead of placing my 21 dollars on 21, to place my bet at the bottom of the column where the 21 resided, where I would get 2-to-1 odds if it landed on any number in that column, which included the 21.  I would have more likelihood of winning....it's all about the odds. And here is where I believe math teachers are at a disadvantage in gambling - we know the odds and we know th...

Had a lovely morning with some terrific teachers yesterday morning at the AMTOPV ( Association of Teachers of Mathematics of Philadelphia and Vicinity) at Germantown Academy in Plymouth Meeting, PA.  First, what an absolutely beautiful town and school.  Second, what a great group of teachers, dedicating their Saturday to learning more about how to improve math education for their students.  Met some wonderful teachers and the presentations that were going on were so exciting.  It's a shame that the media can't capture things like this conference, where dedicated teachers are giving up their day off to do something to help students learn.  Might bring to light that there are amazing teachers out there working hard to educate our students. Anyway, just wanted to mention what a great time I had doing my short little presentation - I learned some new things about whiteboards and Sketchpad from the teachers and hopefully they got some ideas and help from me as we...