Teaching math in a problem-based manner pays dividends…

So end-of-grade test scores have come back. I’ve spent this year co-planning mathematics lessons with a 3rd grade teacher, Laura, at a school near my university in Charlotte. Laura is a 2nd year teacher and graduated from here (UNC Charlotte) 2 years ago. At the beginning of the year we committed to doing things right– planning a balanced math curriculum that was heavily standards-based and very focused on problem solving.

At the beginning of the year her students ranged from Level II to Level III….all students have to reach Level III by the end of the year in order to move to 3rd grade. 22 of her 23 students passed the first time and all of them showed growth from the pre-test score. The one student who retested passed on the retest…giving her a 100% pass rate!!

For me, the commitment that we made to teach problem solving and use a standards-based approach was not a risk. I was confident in it. But for Laura it was a risk. While we had planned and worked together the year before, teaching nearly the whole year from a standards-based approach was a risk that she was willing to step and take.

During the year we knew the kids were learning. When they were able to solve tasks like the classic 8 + 4 = __ + 5 or multi-step, multi-operational tasks, we had a hunch they were moving in the right direction. They talked about mathematics and reasoned at a high level. Still, we were uncertain how it would carry over into a standardized testing situation. It is refreshing to know that in this case, the commimtent paid off and there was evidence of student learning, not only in students’ communication and reasoning, but also on the state mathematics exam.

Twitter for Teacher Professional Development

Here is a google docs spreadsheet sharing ideas about how teachers use twitter for professional development.

Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS)- why bother?

As we spent time in class this week unpacking the North Carolina standards in light of the revised Blooms taxonomy I was left with the question- “why do we care about students’ higher-level thinking skills?” I’m sure my students had the same question.

The last few years, articles, policy documents and experts (e.g., ISTE Standards, 21st Century Skills, and  Metiri Group) have talked about the need to prepare K-12 students to have 21st century skills. In some cases that means preparing our teachers and students to work in environments that don’t currently exist. Whether its virtual worlds, online classrooms, or face-to-face classrooms in which every student has a hand-held computing device, there is no doubt that in the next 2 decades, access to technology and the potential for schools will continue to shift for the better.

In that spirit, if we end up teaching students only content with no process or HOTS, then our students will eventually become the kings of weekday night trivia at the local pub, but expendable in the work force. Whether teachers are situated in a technology-rich environment or a rural school in Mbita, Kenya, teachers must stretch their students by designing complex activities, asking the how and why questions, and developing students’ reasoning skills. Sure, resources- curriculum, technology and other materials- matter, but it’s amazing what can happen even without those resources with a teacher willing to challenge their students and students with an elastic mentality, willing to be stretched.

Why we do what we do….

As I introduced my students to blogs last night, their first post was why they are interested in becoming a teacher. That and a few events in the past few weeks have caused me to reflect on my own experiences as well.

Facebook has led to a lot of connections with former students and soccer players that I have taught and coached in the past ten years. There are students I’ve worked with that have fought incredible obstacles- lack of home support, parent illnesses, divorces, low socio-economic status, disabilities. Hearing stories about their high school graduation, their pursuit of careers in college, and their ambitions to impact people in their life has been emotionally touching, to say the least.

I ended up falling into teaching- a pre-med/pre-phyiscal therapy student at William & Mary who had slacked off in some biology courses, was faced with a few options after my sophomore year- youth ministry or journalism. I went away to Kanakuk, a Christian sports camp, to serve two months, and got the call from my Mom in mid-June that my grades weren’t very good, and my parents were encouraging me to look at other career options. It just so happened that I was in week #2 of being a camp counselor for 5-6 yr old kids at an overnight camp, and while others seemed bothered by wet beds, crying campers and having to eat standing up while serving food to young kids, I had latched onto it.  Working with kids was fun, and more than that, it was rewarding to make an impact on their lives for only a short time.

Fast forward twelve years later, into a career where I currently get to impact students in a few classroom, work with lots of teachers, and impact those aspiring to be classroom teachers. We’re in a climate, where those that I work closely with in schools are facing layoffs, furloughs, budget crunches and tough times. Teacher morale is low in many places, as they are ready for the year to end and get a much needed summer break. But, the seed has been planted, and while the rewards of teaching isn’t necessarily tangible, it’s something that I’ve learned to appreciate. In some cases we never see the impact we have on those we teach and interact with. In some cases we are blessed to. EoG scores,while the gold standard according to the Dept of Ed, are only part of the puzzle. If you ask my former students a decade later what they remember about our time together, the test is nowhere near the top of the list. Rather, I would suspect, the fun projects, the discussions and community we had is more central in their memory.

Teaching is a joy. As a colleague of mine says, “I don’t go to work, I go to school.” Regardless of the trials and issues that we as educators face,  I count it nothing but pure joy to be blessed to be able to help and support those wanting to learn how to effectively teach the youth of tommorrow. Now back to work!

Revised Blooms’: A technology-based hierarchy

Back in February, Mike Fisher posted on his blog a technology-based hierarchy for the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.

There was some discussion about the application (or misapplication) of Blooms with this hierarchy. Here was my response that I posted also on Mike’s blog.

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Blooms, former and revised, are used as a framework for cognitive levels of tasks- test questions, performance-based tasks, etc.

What is interesting is not the misapplication, probably not an accurate term in my opinion, but more so a morphing of Bloom’s. What this hierarchy that Mike has created now seems to pigeon hole specific technologies in various levels of cognitive difficulty.

Last week when I was talking to my undergraduate preservice teachers about the Revised Bloom’s and technology one point that they kept coming back to was a technology (alone) does not constitute a higher level or lower level task. Blogs can be used (and are commonly used by K-12 students) for lower level knowledge, just as YouTube could be used as a springboard for a higher level task or a lower level task as Mike has characterized it.

I think that Mike’s hierarchy helps push the conversation forward– how do we utilize these high-leverage technologies (wikis, blogs, multimedia creation tools) and ensure that students are engaging in high quality tasks that develop their higher-order thinking skills?

Andrew Church provided us with some ideas on this in 2007 that help me think about how I prepare future and current teachers to use these technologies themselves or with their students.

PDS Presentation: Technology Integration to enhance school collaboration

Oliver Dreon and Nanette Dietrich from Millersvile University provided a showcase of technology integration tools that could be used to foster collaboration and communication among PDS stakeholders- mainly K-12 faculty, teacher candidates and university faculty. Among the tools they showed:

Google Forms

Wikis- Wikispaces

Blogs- WordPress

Ning- social networks for specific topics

As more and more communication and collaboration tools permeate the world of education, I find it mission critical for people to identify tools that meet their specific needs and focus on a few. Especially with K-12 teachers and teacher candidates, I am finding it more and more difficult to keep them squared away on which tools are best suited for specific types of communication and collaboration.

This presentation was definitely useful for the PDS conference, as many teachers attended and were able to check out some of the tools that are commonly used in university settings and consider how they could be adapted to meet their own professional needs.

Reexamining our work through data-driven planning: PDS Presentation

Ball State University, one of the leading universities in professional development school work shared with conference attenders their resources that they have used to collect data from multiple stakeholders to inform and reshape their program. Materials are available freely on their website.

Specifically, their PDS leaders surveyed K-12 faculty who work with student teachers, K-12 administrators and university faculty about how well the Ball State PDS network aligned with the NCATE PDS Standards and the NAPDS Nine Essentials of PDS‘. Summaries of their survey data and other demographic data is featured on their website.

One of the questions that struck me as very potent was the idea of, “in 10 years what do we want this PDS partnership to look like?” I think so quickly in education we are quite short-term minded, but rather need to focus on the longer-range, more long-term goals and how we can incrementally get there.

PDS Conference Friday Keynote: Author and educator LouAnne Johnson

Author and educator LouAnne Johnson talked on Friday morning about a few key issues that were entertaining, educational and informative.

1) meeting the needs of high-need stdents

2) test scores don’t equal success in life– her class feature in the movie Dangerous Minds- all of living above the poverty line and have had successful lives despite failing typical standardized tests.

3) health needs of Americans and students– the harsh impacts of sugar and diets

4) literacy and dyslexic issues with students

Resources are on her website

PDS Keynote: It Takes two to Tango

The first keynote of the National Association of Professional Development Schools conference was Donna Cullen from Howard County Schools (MD). Donna focused on the nine essentials of Professional Development Schools and debriefed them with examples from her own work between Howard County and 5 universities…yes 5 universities!

The work shared by her focused really on the reciprocity between stakeholders: university faculty, k-12 faculty, university students, k-12 students. The need to meet everyone’s needs and come to a common agreement or consensus is “mission critical.”

From an instructional design background, my thoughts immediately come to a needs analysis, where schools and universities come together, identify needs, and then choose which needs or gaps they are going to address with a partnership. This is an ongoing process that needs to be revisited– it’s not enough for a needs analysis to happen once, do years or decades of work and then much later on revisit it. Rather, the need for constantly analyzing and evaluating progress is definitely needed!

Presentation: Supporting mathematics teaching and learning

Here are the slides from my presentation with 2nd grade teacher Torrieann Dooley about our collaboration to support mathematics teaching and learning.