Blogger-rithems

Of course we all know how literacy across the curriculum is a drum that has been beaten for many years now. Not to say that it isn't important, but how can I bring literacy into my math class that is authentic and engaging to my students?

I can have the students write out procedures in journals, hand out little scraps of paper for students to summarize today's lesson as an exit pass, practice open-ended questions graded by the light of some type of rubric...Yawn...When was the last time you heard a student yell, "Sweet, another math problem where I get to explain the what, how, and why I did each step of some archaic conundrum!" What are these students learning? That they can score a 1 out of 5 when math and literacy cross paths...Do they really digest the red remarks we leave them to help them improve?

We can model the correct outcomes and demonstrate "how its done", but are these students learning how they "solve a problem" or how you "do a problem". Isn’t' literacy about their ability to express their own thoughts and emotions in the written word. Yes, I said emotions. Why can't we bring some emotion into the math class? The question is how?

The reason for all of this ranting is the result of a failure on my part to try to engage students in a way I have never tried before. I asked students to post comments to a written prompt using a blog. It seemed harmless enough, but I don't think I asked a very good question on my first attempt. I asked, "Describe something you really do well. It could be anything from starting up World of Warcraft on your PC to baking your grandma's famous meatloaf; as long as it is a multi-step activity. Not only should you describe each step in detail, but how and why you perform each phase of your activity."

Some of the students did an excellent job. Being located in a very rural community several students posted excellent comments on such items as how saddle their beloved horse; other students gave detailed explanations on how to cook the "World's Greatest Mac and Cheese", how they first learned to swim, etc. I could tell by their enthusiastic comments that some real emotion was exercised.

...but many students missed the point. About half of the comments posted appeared to be stolen out of a cookbook. There was no emotion. The response to "why I did each step" was also missing. How can I classify these "Vulcan-ized" comments to an authentic experience when there were little to no feelings drawn upon? I can see now that an initial failure I presented to the students with was the lack of intrigue or passion I conveyed in my initial posted question. It was dry and boring.

Now I am at a crossroads...Do I bail out now before I invest any more class time into this potentially year-long project, or tough it out? I guess I wouldn't be rambling on and on if I had planned on giving up...but again, what do I do now?

My current thoughts are leading towards replying to each of the student’s comments and asking them to "re-tool" their thoughts and describe some activity they love to do. Hopefully then I can draw some connections between their comments and math literacy. I hesitate to do this until I get responses the students seem to "care" about. What do you think??? What would you do next???

Community Service with Web "to point, oh"

After punching the hell out of my keyboard, I hate Explorer 7.0, a computer miracle occurred. I must have smashed the right keys and a site called Math Is Fun jumped out at me. Come on though; Math is Fun, really? Forgiving such a blatant disregard for a young child's idea of fun, I checked the site out anyway, and behold; the Math Is Fun Help Me Forum.

Before I get any further, I want to bring up the idea of community service for a moment. Beyond being an aweome thing to do, many schools are incorporating community service as a graduation requirement. It is also a necessity to students petitioning and maintaining membership in the National Honor Society. So why not incorporate online collaboration into this.

Any form of tutoring qualifies as community service, but it is usually limited by the buildings the tutors have physical access to. Lets use the strength of a sweet blog to break down these physical barriers, and teach 21st Century skills at the same time. Again, for an example of what this can look like, go to the Math Is Fun Help Me Forum.

Imagine students from your school helping the "mathematically challenged" across the continent creating contacts that could very well last beyond high school. Nice. Think of the number of Facebook/My Space pages kids visit on a regular basis already, and “why” they visit them. The "why" scares me a little bit. Through scholarly pursuits, such as online tutoring, students may change their creepy “why” to more academic/collegial reasons.

I am proposing our district form an online tutoring club with myself in charge of monitorig the web discussions for content accuracy, phishing, bullying, and general nonsense. The biggest problem I foresee at this point is getting the word out to students from other schools once this service becomes available. Any ideas??? Comments welcome…

In the beginning...

Many of the preiminary ideas I plan to post are collected from the myriad of professional development opportunities that have been made available due to the rising demand of Web 2.0 usage in today's school system. My first challenge to all math professionals reading this blog is to begin to investigate and search for as many professional opportunities they can find.

The conundrum here is: much of what I've learned through out the past year was not from the presenters or assignments I had to endure...and trust me using the word endure is being polite. Just view this video to see what I mean...



It was through meeting with other teachers, sharing email addresses, Skype contact info, bitching (a very powerfully underrated collaborative tool...lol), and following up to maintain contact. Throw them questions, share ideas; presentations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to professional development. I just wish presenters would realize this.

Stay tuned for some tips you can use in your math classroom.