Connie Knodt and Grit

My friend Suzy texted me last week to tell me she was listening to a wonderful piece on NPR’s TED Radio Hour about “grit”. Here’s the link to the story, entitled Is Having Grit the Key to Success?
The concept of grit or perseverance keeps coming up in my work, because the first math practice standard in the Common Core is “Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them”...and, more importantly, because teachers and parents know that determination and the ability to cope with failure is paramount to student success.
Last night I had the pleasure of speaking with Connie Knodt, a relatively new member of my family. She was featured recently on WCAX’s Super Senior series. Connie is 79 years old and still works 28 hours a week at Fletcher Allen Hospital in the pediatric ward. Here’s the link to her story. Connie and I had a great conversation about how she was able to transcend a difficult childhood to become an IBM engineer when few women did such a thing. I asked if she could remember anyone who was an important role model for her when she was young. Without hesitating, she told me about two top-notch high school teachers who inspired her to become to lifelong learner she is today. She remembered their names and talked in detail about how her geometry teacher asked the students to build structures rather than assigning pages in a textbook.
Connie’s story reminds us that teachers are so important. One great teacher can turn a life around.
Connie is also a living testament to grit. She’s interested in solving tough problems and never being finished with her own learning. She told me that at work if there’s a new computer system, medical device, or scheduling conundrum, they bring it to her. She’s happy to take on the challenge.

What Google has learned about hiring

A few days ago, the New York Times published an interview by Adam Bryant entitled “In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal”. Bryant interviewed Lazslo Bock, a Google executive, about what Google has learned about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to hiring new employees.

Google has the resources to crunch numbers on employee performance or success and match that to hiring criteria. Most of the rest of us don’t, so this is worth reading. Here are a few things that stood out for me, as someone who participates on hiring committees and tends to wonder how good I am at judging applicants.

“Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at Google is particularly good at hiring. We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship.”

“On the hiring side, we found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time...What works well are structured behavioral interviews, where you have a consistent rubric for how you assess people, rather than having each interviewer just make stuff up...[also] where you’re not giving someone a hypothetical, but you’re starting with a question like, “Give me an example of a time when you solved an analytically difficult problem.”

“Twice a year, anybody who has a manager is surveyed on the manager’s qualities...We then share that with the manager, and we track improvement across the whole company. Over the last three years, we’ve significantly improved the quality of people management at Google, measured by how happy people are with their managers...for most [managers], just knowing that information causes them to change their conduct.”

Lastly, this is my favorite bit from the article:

“...G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless...We found that they don’t predict anything...the proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time...academic environments are artificial environments. People who succeed there are...conditioned to succeed in that environment. One of my own frustrations when I was in college and grad school is that you knew the professor was looking for a specific answer...You want people who like figuring out stuff where there is no obvious answer.”

These insights have far-reaching implications for teachers, not just members of hiring committees.

Marjorie on Math Munch

There’s a great blog called Math Munch. I mentioned it in a previous post, but I have to revisit it here. I’ve signed up to receive new posts from Math Munch via email, something I don’t usually do. But I’ve found that this is worth the space in my inbox. Each post has a few different topics, everything from cool paper folding projects to high quality videos and online games. You must check it out!

The current Math Munch post includes a piece about a woman named Marjorie Rice who became interested in tesselations and discovered some new ones on her own. These pictures are from her website. What’s great about this story is that a) she’s a woman, b) she didn’t have a math background beyond high school, and c) she was curious, worked at something, and found enjoyment and success.

I won’t go on and on here, but the other two stories with Marjorie’s in this issue of Math Munch are equally worth reading.

The pictures I’ve included here are some of Marjorie’s tesselations.

Visit from a future pilot

Kim Kast, amazing afterschool math teacher at John J. Flynn Elementary, contributed this piece. Thank you, Kim!
 
Last week, third grade math mania students enjoyed a visit from a special guest, University of Vermont student Sylvia Stevens-Goodnight. Sylvia just completed her sophomore year of study in the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Her concentration is mechanical engineering, and she told the students she is one of only seven women in her program; she encouraged the students in their studies of math, and wanted to especially encourage girls to consider pursuing a career involving the study of math and science. Sylvia described some career-related experiences, such as trying on a pilot's suit, sitting at the controls of a jet plane, and even being ejected from the seat of the plane. Sylvia explained to the students that engineers sometimes design new products, invent new machines, and innovate new ideas. The students were surprised to learn that engineers could even design video games.

All of the students had many questions about engineering, and of course, about college life in general. The third graders couldn't believe that a student could have seconds, or even thirds, on ice cream for dessert... every night! Sylvia assured them (speaking from experience) that after a few days of all-you-can-eat ice cream, they would know why their mothers wisely told them, "Eat your vegetables!"

Student Conferences

From The city and country builder's and workman's treasury of design, Langley, Batty (1696-1751). NYPL

Many teachers are in the practice of holding individual conferences with students during literacy blocks. Teachers sit with students to converse about the book they are reading, asking questions like “Is this a just-right book for you?”, “Have you made any connections to the book?”, “What questions came up while you were reading?”, etc. Leah Mermelstein, a literacy consultant, suggests regular, one-on-one writing conferences with students.

 
What about math conferences? Over the last year, I have used an assessment tool called the Primary Number and Operations Assessment to help me interview students about mathematics concepts. I enjoy the opportunity to sit with a single student and spend time listening as they perform various math tasks and explain their thinking. I always learn important things about the student’s strengths and I gain insight about appropriate next steps for instruction.

Here is an email from my colleague, Sally Hayes, fourth grade teacher extraordinaire, in which she shares her experience conferring with students during math class:

Karyn,

I have to tell you about something I tried recently. It came to me several years ago when I was correcting one of our Bridges unit math assessments. I asked myself, "What is the most important outcome of this assessment?" The answer, of course, is student learning.  As a teacher, I must figure out where each child is on the continuum of learning for a domain so I can help them move forward. Grading the assessments and entering scores into the database is only part of the work. For years I had gone over assessments with the entire class, but it never seemed very efficient or terribly useful for individuals. I realized I should try going over the assessment with each student individually. This would allow both me and the student to gain a clearer understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement as a mathematician.

So, last Friday, the day after correcting our Unit 2 math assessments, I decided to try conferring with each student. After lunch, I gave the class some options for independent work during the next hour, which included practicing math skills, writing in writer's notebooks, and reading. While the class was quietly working, I met with each student to discuss their math assessment. First we looked at strengths and then areas that needed work. Amazing! The conferences were so much better for the student and incredible for me; I finally felt like I was getting something really useful out of a unit assessment. I only wish I had allotted an hour and a half, which is a lot of time, but would be well worth it. I need to refine the way I spend time with the students, but I think it will get better and easier each time that I do it. I was thinking that it would be nice to create small groups of 2 or 3 students that had similar challenges with certain problems. I am glad I finally tried math assessment conferences!

Sally