Through the eyes of a student

Asbury Park High School, NJ, where my father used to teach.

I am excited about this article on Grant Wiggins’ blog entitled, A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days – a sobering lesson learned.

The first sentence is “I have made a terrible mistake.”

The reason the author made this statement is that shadowing students for a few days was an eye-opening experience. Her regret is that she didn’t do this early in her teaching career.

“...I wish I could go back to every class of students I ever had right now and change a minimum of ten things – the layout, the lesson plan, the checks for understanding. Most of it!”

This article is a heartbreaking read. Typical students at this high school sit passively in their classes for almost the entire day, an activity that left the author feeling “drained” and “icky”. Doing any kind of homework felt impossible.

“I was so tired by the end of the day, I wasn’t absorbing most of the content, so I am not sure my previous method of making kids sit through hour-long, sit-down discussions of the texts was all that effective.”

Gosh. More educators should shadow students for a few days.

NYT: How to Fall in Love With Math

From WolframMathWorld

From yesterday’s New York Times Opinion Pages piece by mathematics professor Manil Suri.

Despite what most people suppose, many profound mathematical ideas don’t require advanced skills to appreciate. One can develop a fairly good understanding of the power and elegance of calculus, say, without actually being able to use it to solve scientific or engineering problems.

Think of it this way: you can appreciate art without acquiring the ability to paint, or enjoy a symphony without being able to read music. Math also deserves to be enjoyed for its own sake, without being constantly subjected to the question, “When will I use this?”

NCSM Denver - Brilliant Minds

Penny Stearns and I flew to Denver for the NCSM 2013 conference. NCSM is an organization focused on mathematics education leadership. They have resources on their website. The powerpoint presentations from the conference presenters aren’t posted yet but I hope they will be soon.

We’ve seen some incredible speakers over the last 3 days. These include the following:

Cathy Seeley

Marilyn Burns

Kati Haycock

Jo Boaler

Steve Leinwand

Cheryl Adeyami

Greg Tang

Deborah Ball

Heather Hill

These are folks you will want to look up. I will definitely get their entire presentations when they become available.

Steve Leinwand is my new hero. He yells, which I appreciate. Speak truth to power, Steve says. He talked about how he helped turn around a middle school in Missouri. His stories and learning from that process are fascinating. Steve keeps teachers and students at the center of his school reform work. At the end of his compelling talk, he showed a slide listing the names of the teachers at the Missouri school. He thanked them and dedicated the talk to them.

Steve shared 9 research affirmed practices for improving a school.

Number one is that effective teachers respond to most student answers with Why? How do you know that? or Can you explain your thinking?

Instruction is everything, says Steve.

Regarding the Standards of Mathematical Practice: Practice #3 is where it’s at. Those 9 words are the most important words in the entire Common Core standards. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

Finally, Steve said we probably shouldn’t be talking about an achievement gap. This makes it sound like it is the students’ fault. We should instead be talking about an instruction gap. Wow.

I was going to write something about these other speakers as well, but I wrote so much about Steve that I think I will postpone. More to come.

Here is Steve today. I took this with my phone. Go Steve!