Math, technology, education, and beyond

This year’s camp is already a lot more fun than last year’s (not that I’m trying to badmouth last year’s camp).  We got to make a video where a character is at a door, hears a sound, and reacts.  We made one that dealt with a coach hearing voices of his teachers in his head.  He starts to get overwhelmed by the demands of his staff, so he turns into SUPER COACH!!  It was a lot of fun to make, along with Jeff (Warwick), Laurie (West Shore), Sue (Central York), Colette (Manheim Township), and Fred (Warwick).  It was a blast!

Here I am at Boot Camp for Year 2 of the Classrooms for the Future initiative here in Pennsylvania.  I was unable to attend last night’s session, which is somewhat disappointing, as David Warlick was speaking.  Luckily, he is still here today so I still get to hear him talk.  If you have never read his blog, you need to, as well as his books Classroom Blogging (there’s a lot more to the title, but I’m not going to put it all down here) and Redefining Literacy.  They are both excellent books.

This morning began with Dr. Zahorchak greeting us.  It is nice to see that he can take time out of his hectic schedule to come speak with us.

Also, when I arrived this morning, I was greeting by so many of my colleagues.  I even had a colleague from Palmerton who practically came running to me, letting me know how impressed her district had been with me.  I can’t recall what I did that was so impressive, but if I did something well, I guess I can be proud of it.  It is nice to know that I had an impact on other districts, but it is probably just something that I always do that I don’t view as impressive because I always do it.  That is one of the things that we need to be aware of: Just because it is second nature to us does not mean that it is second nature to someone else.

We are about to split into Cohort 1 and Cohort 2, so I will be continuing this later…

I still find it so amazing that there are students of mine that worry more about how to do something than why it is they are doing it. Case in point: I have recently introduced a lesson on variance and standard deviation. The students did well and following the process to find the standard deviation. They were even able to remember the formula for it. However, when it came to questions that asked which set of data had the most variation or what a range of scores were when we knew the mean and standard deviation, not many knew what to do. All it took for me to get the idea through to them was to ask what standard deviation is.

Unfortunately, most gave the answer, “The square root of the variance!”

I responded, “That’s how you find it, but what is it?” Blank stares. “Okay, look at your notes.”

Ten seconds later, 15 hands shot up. “It’s tells how far scores deviate from the mean.”

Now, they had an understanding of what was being asked in these questions. This brings me to the fact that it is still so difficult to get students to think about why something is, not just how to do it. One way I try to get students to think about math is to ask them how to get to Harrisburg. Some say to take 422. Others send you out to Interstate 81. Others will choose back roads. I ask them why they chose that way, and whether one way is more correct. The students say that they’re all correct, as we end up in Harrisburg each time. However, one will usually point out that depending on how quickly you want to get there and what time of day it is, you might want to choose one way over another. If it is in the height of rush hour, traffic moves more slowly on 422, and when it merges into 322 and then I-83, it gets even more backed up. But if you go to I-81, traffic tends to move better.

Now we have an understanding about how to get to Harrisburg, not just directions. I can now relate to my students that math is the same. If you only know a process, you don’t get any of the understanding for it. We now take a look at the formula for finding standard deviation and take it apart. Using the order of operations, you can go through the process step-by-step to see how it works. Understanding of the individual parts leads to an understanding of the whole. Those that take the time to look at all the pieces will have a much better understanding of mathematics as a whole.

eSchool News had an article on funding educational technology today.  The two main points in the article talk about assisting disadvantaged schools with purchasing the technology and ensuring that teachers have the proper training.

I have two problems with that:

1. What about schools that are not listed as “disadvantaged” yet still do not have the funds to purchase the equipment?
2. When will the teachers be trained?

The teachers in our district have such a hard time finding the time to do what it is they need to do, from keeping up with grades, creating new lessons, calling/emailing parents, updating old lessons, attempting to integrate more technology into their classes, organize paperwork, take graduate courses, coaching, etc.  This is a problem in ALL school districts.  There are also in-service days that are district directed where certain things must get done.  And, let’s be honest, it takes quite a bit of time to become efficient in new technologies.  Not just anyone can sit down with a new application, open it, and learn it.

Eventually, these are all problems that will be taken care of.  It will take time until they are met head on and dealt with, though.  This is one of the reasons why you will often hear that NCLB does not work: lack of funding and proper training.  Either the funding and training needs to be fixed, or maybe we need something other than NCLB.