Is the Right Answer Really Wrong?

As educators, we often times have students ask us "Is this right?" and we typically respond with a proud 'yes' or a hesitant 'no' and then progress into showing the child how to do the problem "correctly". In the book of life, there is not always a "right" or "wrong" solution. More often than not, each situation holds a different "answer". Furthermore, solutions usually have to be investigated and validated before they are considered a solution. When educators respond to a student's "Is this right?" question with an immediate yes or no, they are unintentionally reducing the child's critical thinking opportunity.

In Rebecca Alber's November 12, 2010 article, When Teaching the Right Answers Is the Wrong Direction, Alber discusses how students often times learner better by not getting the correct answer the first time out. Alber suggests that educators promote critical thinking skills via open ended questions and by approaching new problems with more of a questioning approach instead of a demonstration approach. Students may find it more beneficial to discover the solution versus being told what the answer is from the beginning.

http://www.edutopia.org/lesson-planning-inquiry-modeling

A Studnet's Responsibility for Success

On December 3, 2010, Heather Wolpert-Garwin posted a blog article titled Equation of Success: Top Ten Responsibilities that Students Must Own
. In her blog, which was one of three, she discussed that although we as educators are doing what we can (or should be doing what we can) to assist students in becoming successful, there is still the critcal element of the student's involvement and what they put forth to be successful. Her list of top ten suggestions include the following items:

Number One: Be your own advocate. Stake a claim in the classroom by making sure the teacher knows who you are...in a good way.

Number Two: Ask lots of questions....and show confusion appropriately.

Number Three: Communicate your struggles to your teachers. What is going on that affects your work?

Number Four: Think of school as your office in training. Are you a good co-worker?

Number Five: Dress for success, but don't panic, you don't have to wear a suit to be taken seriously.

Number Six: At least do the minimum so you aren't creating gaps that are harder to bridge later. Better yet, do more.

Number Seven: Sweat a little. School is your brain gym. You have to work out your muscles, make them a little sore, if you're going to lift a heavier load later on.

Number Eight: Find ways to relate to your reading and writing. What original thoughts and experiences can you bring to the lesson to make it come alive for yourself?

Number Nine: Be in class. Don't jeopardize your own training.

Number Ten: Surround yourself with other students who can help you. You don't have to be best friends with everyone you seek advice from, but find friends or acquaintances that are rooting for you, the best of you.

I could not agree more. Although students are bound to make mistakes and act immature from time to time, they still have to realize that they make their own beds. If they are not willing to put forth the effort or at least try, there isn't much that educators can do to help them be successful. Students must realize that they have to help themselves before they can be helped by someone else. I couldn't agree more with Wolpert-Garwin's top ten list!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-responsibility-academic-success-heather-wolpert-gawron

Kettering University Commencment

I wanted to give Kettering University recognition with regards to how they run their graduation commencement ceremonies. At each of their commencement ceremonies, which take place twice year, they offer an "Honorary Doctorate Degree" in which the university selects someone that has outstanding accomplishments within their field of occupation. For the December 2010 ceremonies, Kettering will be honoring Stanford R. Ovshinsky. Ovshinsky is an American inventor born in Ohio and has produced more than 400 U.S. patents. Some of his patents include an environmentally friendly nickel-metal hydride battery used today in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones and electric and hybrid cars; the flexible thin-film solar energy laminates and panels; flat screen liquid crystal displays and other important industry and technology inventions.

As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates prepare themselves to enter the work force, I think that having these honor degree guests talk at commencement ceremonies is highly motivational. Additionally, it serves as a great example that we can do anything we set our minds to!

http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=3061

Girls and STEM Programs

Suzie Boss' article Got Game: How to Keep Girls Interested in Computer Science published on the Edutopia website on December 9, 2010 was quite interesting. The article discusses how a high school out in Maryland has created an after school program for girls to attend and learn more about computer programming and gaming. This school had been seeing a declining trend in the number of girls that were enrolled in the first computer programming course versus the second course. The teacher started to talk to the girls to see why and he found out that they were not interested in being in a class with "geeky boys". The teacher then tried creating an after school program for girls only to see if this would help and it did. They have since noticed an increase in enrollment for both the first and second level courses offered within their school.

Some of the comments to this article bothered me. I do not see how people can say that this is a "sexist" approach. Whenever there are discrepancies or declines in any type of program or environment, we are generally curious as to why. I think this school did a great thing in investigating the root cause behind the decreasing enrollment and trying to fix the issue. As a female with a mechanical engineering degree and someone that has worked in industry, I can see why some girls may be intimidated by "geeky boys" or not want to take a lot of classes with these kids.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/computer-science-education-girls-increase-interest-suzie-boss

Girls and STEM Programs

Suzie Boss' article Got Game: How to Keep Girls Interested in Computer Science published on the Edutopia website on December 9, 2010 was quite interesting. The article discusses how a high school out in Maryland has created an after school program for girls to attend and learn more about computer programming and gaming. This school had been seeing a declining trend in the number of girls that were enrolled in the first computer programming course versus the second course. The teacher started to talk to the girls to see why and he found out that they were not interested in being in a class with "geeky boys". The teacher then tried creating an after school program for girls only to see if this would help and it did. They have since noticed an increase in enrollment for both the first and second level courses offered within their school.

Some of the comments to this article bothered me. I do not see how people can say that this is a "sexist" approach. Whenever there are discrepencies or declines in any type of program or environment, we are generally curious as to why. I think this school did a great thing in investigating the root cause behind the decreasing enrollment and trying to fix the issue. As a female with a mechanical engineering degree and someone that has worked in industry, I can see why some girls may be intimidated by "geeky boys" or not want to take a lot of classes with these kids.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/computer-science-education-girls-increase-interest-suzie-boss

Parental Assistance with Student Mathematics

J. Michael Shaughnessy, NCTM's president could not have summed it up any better than he did in December's NCTM Summing It Up article called Support for Parents and Families: Helping your Math Students. Shaughnessy's article diiscusses what to tell parents when their child asks them for math help that they are unable to do themselves. The biggest red flag that could be thrown out there is the comment "I don't know. I was never any good at math myself." Shaughnessy actually addressed this type of response and the "math gene" as some people believe they either "have or don't have" in the October issue of Summing It Up.

The three things Shaunessy reecommends that educators tell these parents are as follows:
1) Remember, mathematics is important, and we can all do it.
2) Work together as a team with your child—don’t show (them) how to do it.
3) Investigate the NCTM resources that can provide assistance when helping your children with their math work.

Personally, I think that if you sit down with your child and show them that we do not always know all of the answers to every problem at hand, but we CAN research and utilize valuable resources to investigate a solution, I think this is a very valuable lesson. I don't know about anyone else, but I can tell you that I have had to look some solutions up myself or spend a day or two thinking about it before I can fully explain a particular situation. By making it a learning process for both the child and the parent, I believe the parent is setting a better example than some parents who may know how to do the problem and just give the solution to thier child.

http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=27223

Math Moms

As I was sitting in the doctors office reading through a magazine, I stumbled upon an interesting sounding website. It was called themathmom.com. Being a math teacher, I decided to investigate the website when I returned home. Upon visiting this site, I found some really fun things. There are weekly puzzles for all ages that you can try out (and even submit answers to!), there are at home suggestions of how mathematics tie in with our daily lives (i.e. efficiency in traveling, making the most of storage spaces, etc.), artilces, a store with some math T-shirts, and much more. If you are someone that is interested in mathematics (or you are a parent that has a math phobia and you do not want to show this to your child(ren), visit this website and enjoy!

http://www.themathmom.com/index.html

Re-Engaging Students

In Andrew Marcinek's November 21, 2010 blog titled Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students, I couldn't agree more with him. He begins his blog by talking about how his English 101 class is staring off into space or engaged in another activity (activities that did not pertain to English 101!). Marcinek then goes on to discuss what he was going to do to ensure that his students would be engaged in future lessons. In doing so, he came up with a list of 10 basic ideas. The very first one being to have fun!!! He then looked at open communication with others, constructive criticism, and working with others just to name a few.

I also believe that Marcinek was right on when he stated that we need not be ashamed for having "disconnected moments with our students" as this is part of teaching. As long as we adapt and make changes that will hopefully re-engage or engage for the first time, a majority of the students. An emphasis is put on a majority as we can not always connect with every student 100% of the time.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/reengaging-students-andrew-marcinek

Fun Activities for All Ages

While sitting at Thanksgiving dinner, one one of my husband's relatives had a pile of cartoon-like pictures sitting on the table that she had drawn. Not knowing that she was artistically inclined, I asked her about the pile of drawings. She told me about the website activitytv.tv. She had showed me how she came up with her drawings (according to her, she was NOT artistically inclined, but the website had guided her through the process). Each cartoon begins with a simple shape, number, letter, etc. From there, cartoonist Bruce Blitz describes the steps to creating a fun cartoon.

Upon going to the activity tv website, I found that there were many activities for kids to partake in - even at home. From cartooning and origami to cooking and crafts. Even though quite a bit of the material is geared towards the younger kids, I do believe some of my juniors and seniors would enjoy a few of these activities - especially at the end of a marking period or the day before Christmas break!.

Black Friday Lesson Plan

The Teacher's Curriculum Institute (TCI) website has created an interesting lesson plan that deals with teaching kids how to comparison shop, be a smart credit card user and evaluate the importance of quality product research prior to shopping (especially on Black Friday). The activity begins with having students come up with a list of products they would buy if given the chance to attend a Black Friday shopping event. Each student is given a $300 cash budget and a $500 credit card limit.

The second part of the project has students work in groups of 4 to prepare shoppers for the upcoming shopping season via a news conference. Students must conduct research on products, create resources and present their findings to their peers.

I think this is a neat way to expose students to the concepts of financial management, shopping sales and Black Friday. This is an activity that I will most likely implement this week into my classroom! Thanks for the post!

http://blog.teachtci.com/black-friday-financial-literacy-lesson

Using Technology on Tests and Exams

Edutopia posted a poll wanting to know how subscribers felt about students utilizing technology (IPods, internet, cell phones, etc) on tests and exams. The poll stated that the effective use of digital devices is more important in today's society than rote memorization. I disagree 100%. At least in the K-12 grades, students are still learning basic facts and knowledge. The basics are what build the foundation for future knowledge. If students are not going to be held accountable for remembering foundational facts, (i.e. 1/2=0.5, their-there-they're all have different meanings, mass IS different than weight, etc.) how are we going to expect them to engage in higher level thinking in a timely fashion? If we follow the idea that "rote memorization" of basic facts is not necessary, we may as well extend the school day and school year as students are going to require more time to get through each grade level as they will need to look everything up, both basic facts and the answer to the question being asked, prior to giving their responses.

http://www.edutopia.org/poll-use-technology-tests

Students As Financial Aides

Kudos to Patrick Flannery and Douglas Knight Singer for running a program that allows a group of San Francisco high school juniors and seniors to obtain experience in the world of tax preparation. Not only do these students get certified to prepare taxes for individuals with an annual household income of less than $38,000, they will also become certified in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Students must attend a coaching session from October through December and then a refresher course in December and January prior to taking a certification test in January. Students must be recertified each year.

Not only are students exposed to the reality of tax rules and regulations, they are also receive experience in a small business setting. Within this setting, students must learn to act in a professional manner with a customer clientel, learn to work cooperatively with teammates and discuss questions and issues with peers. All in all, they are obtaining a very valuable real-world experience as a high school student. It also encourages students to take a leading role within their community. What a neat experience!

http://www.edutopia.org/high-school-tax-assistance

Great STEM Resources

Thank you to the Edutopia group "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics" for generating a post with numerous STEM resources. I found these sites to be extremely interesting and I love the fact that they cover K-12 grade levels. The sooner we can expose our students to these concepts and get them "hooked", the better off we will be. I feel that it is extremely important to get kids involved in STEM projects early on and show them how the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics affect EVERYTHING we do on a daily basis. Thanks again for some great information!

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/science-technology-engineering-mathematics-education/6802

Structured Consequences for Missing Assignments

Upon reading Nicole Lemire's Edutopia's post Missing Homework Solutions, I was glad to see that some middle schools are taking a step towards teaching their students that there are consequences for late/missing assignments. Lemire discusses a conference her colleagues attended to help establish a structure for handling missing assignments and making students accountable. Lemire's district found that by making consequences that students could relate to (i.e. enforcing students with missing assignments to attend a study hall during lunch time until all assignments were turned in) helped to make students realize the importance of turning assignments in on-time the first time around.

As a high school teacher, I appreciate this effort coming from a middle school. In my classes, regardless of whether I have freshmen or seniors, I always try to iterate the importance of turning assignments/work in on time. As a class we talk about not only how it can affect a grade, but ultimately, in the work force, we discuss that late/missing tasks could result in a loss of a job.

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/middle-school/33093

Teaching Honors Students

One would assume that if given a choice, teaching honors or gifted children would be much easier than teaching the average or below average student. I too used to fall in this category. However, after going from teaching freshmen algebra to calculus students, I have discovered first hand, that it's not as "easy" as I thought it would be. Edutopia's article The Challenges of Teaching Honors Students by Heather Wolpert-Gawron, discusses some of the differences between teaching the mainstream child and teaching honors students.

One of the biggest things I have noticed and something that the article points out is the honor students ability to accept "failure". Failure meaning, not coming up with the excact answer or getting an A- instead of an A. Honor students appear to have a hard time adjusting to these. Additionally, I have found that when given the opportunity to work in groups, they would much rather work by themselves to ensure that the project is done "right". I have actually had instances where I have had to make the students work together.

Additionally, I have had honor student that get so wrapped up in the academics, that they forget about real-world applications. It's almost as if things exist only in a theoretical and ideal world. When they face a problem with an open-ended answer or worse yet, a problem with mulitple solutions, it's almost as if these students do not know what to do.

On the flip side, I have found that the honors students can be pushed to a higher level of thinking and that they are more than willing to accept new challenges. They are also more responsible when it comes to getting homework and assignments completed in a very timely manner - if not early. Teaching both levels has definitely mad me a more rounded teacher and has taught me quite a lot!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-honors-gifted-students-challenges

Leading By Example

What a fascinating way to demonstrate one’s beliefs for a cause! Edutopia’s article, On a Mission to Link the Body and Brain in Education -- One Push-up at a Time, discusses how one individual has taken a stance and is trying to prove a valid point. Joel Kirsch, a 62 year old former sports psychologist for the San Francisco Giants and president of the Northern California-based American Sports Institute, has chosen to do approximately 50 miles worth of push-ups in California all in the name of promoting the importance of physical education and activity in today’s society. Moving about 1 mile a day, Kirsch is bringing about awareness that in order for students to academically succeed, they need to be fully engaged in physical activity.
Not only will the engagement of physical activity promote learning in education, it also teaches our students how to become healthy individuals, lower their medical costs and get a good night’s sleep without the use of pills or other medications. Who wouldn’t want that? Kudos to Joel Kirsch for actively promoting what he believes in!

http://www.edutopia.org/physical-education-advocacy-push-ups-kirsch

Visual Guided Learning

Fran Smith's The Eyes Have It: Potent Visuals Promote Academic Richness article is an interesting article that discusses how some schools have investigated the use of displaying an image and having their students learn based upon the questions/responses the the students have for the image. The teacher then paraphrases the response and guides the conversation into an educational discussion. I found this article to be a neat way to approach some topics as it really appeals to those students of artistic talents and it teaches other students that pictures really do "say 1000 words". However, like any other strategy, I feel as though this would be great to use in particular situations and probably more so in certain topics. I do not think it is a 'one-size fits all' approach. I still believe that there is a time and place for students to have to sit down and watch/listen to learn regardless of the generation that is being taught.

http://www.edutopia.org/visual-thinking-strategies-art-curriculum

Staying 'Caught Up' with the Curriculum

On November 2, Rebecca Alber wrote an article titled How to Stay Caught Up with the Curriculum. In this article, Alber discusses the pressure teachers feel to either be at a particular point by a certain time which in turn ends up being a "race" with collegues who also teach the same subject. She uses a phrase that I really like. She said "to compare is to despair". How true is this?! One cannot assume that a text book pacing guide (which is not to be mis-interpreted as a set in stone schedule) or a colleague's classroom pace will adequately ensure that your own students are effectively learning the material? Sometimes we as educators need to sacrifice the "extra" day or two and ensure that our students are students are learning the core objectives before we try to build upon them just to keep up.

Abler also discusses the importance of covering in depth vs. in breadth. She points out that sometimes, we need to "slow down to go quickly". It's only common sense that if we as learners understand step one thoroughly, we will have a better chance at understanding step two. However, if we lack the skills to understand the first step, it's even less likely that we will understand the second step.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/curriculum-how-to-stay-caught-up-rebecca-alber

What Teachers Buy Out of Pocket

What a thoughtful parent "Bec" is on the Edutopia group 'Elementary School'. She posted a question and wanted to know what teachers could use in their classrooms that they typically end up purchasing out of pocket. Instead of giving her children's teachers a random gift for Christmas this year, she was going to give a supply basket. This was a great idea!

Even at the secondary level, I know I spend hundreds of dollars a year buying items for my classroom. From the decorative items and project tools to spare pencils, paper and folders for my students, it does not take long to add up to a large sum!

Additionally, as I read through some of the postings, one user suggested going to the Title I office (I did not know this existed) if your school is a title I school and another user suggested going to www.ShopForStudents.com to start a classroom fundraiser. What neat ideas!

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/elementary-school/33690

Application Based Learning

I was very excited to read Edutopia's article Race to Knowledge: Putting Project-Based Learning on the Fast Track by Diane Curtis. As a former mechanical engineer, and Kettering University alumni, I have lived the project-based learning and would not trade it for anything. As a student at Kettering, I also participated on the Society of Automotive Engineer's Clean Snowmobile Challenge (SAE CSC). I whole-heartedly agree with the fact that there are a lot of things to be learned when working in a team environment that one cannot learn in a classroom alone. For me, I think it was the realization that not everything (if anything at all) turns out as one would predict let alone in the timeframe one would hope.
Working on the CSC, we would plan, prepare and work all year long to come up with a robust design, test it out, make modifications as necessary and retest. However, it never failed that we would still be doing quite a bit of tweaking the week leading up to competition. Later on, after I had worked full time in the engineering profession, I found that the job was no different than the competition. Because test data typically produced unpredictable results, our course of thought would often change.
To implement something like project-based learning at the high school level is something I find to be very exciting. What better way to prepare our future leaders than to give them firsthand experience in validating their thoughts and ideas, working within a budget and set timeline and working with individuals you may or may not particularly enjoy being around. Additionally, the students would learn that you do not always come up with a “correct solution” the first time around and that sometimes, failure can lead to a positive outcome!

http://www.edutopia.org/race-knowledge

I AM good at math!

As a teacher of mathematics, I used to hear almost daily "I'm not any good at math" or "My mom/dad wasn't good at math and neither am I". Eye color, height, body build, hair color - these are all things that are hereditary. But since when has the ability to do mathematics become an inherited ability? I now will not allow the above mentioned phrases or similar phrases be used in my class. As soon as one of my students try to bring out the "I can't do math" card, I give them an additional problem to show them that they CAN do math and that they are actually good at it!

I couldn't agree more with NCTM's (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) president J. Michael Shaughnessy's October 2010 Summing It Up article It's Time to Stamp Out the Phrase "I'm Bad at Math". Shaughnessy discusses how many of today’s students proudly announce that they are not good at math. He talks about how parents and educators need to start putting an end to this by demonstrating the importance of mathematics to our kids and students. We need to keep them involved and interested so they too will see the many things that can be done with at mathematics background.