Great Moments in Mathematics Invention

I just read an article by Dan Meyer titled "Great Moments in Mathematics Invention." The article discussed cylinder volume problem and a solution that one person stumbled upon. For the problem that was given this solution worked, however it was not correct for every problem. There are many common misconceptions like this in mathematics and I'm sure almost every day in my classroom or classroom across the world students are trying to come up with shortcuts to mathematics problems that are incorrect. Just because it works for one problem doesn't mean it will always work. This is one reason why I make students explain the steps they take or give an explanation as to why they did what they did. This helps get rid of  some problems, but definitely not all of them.

Snail Mail

As I was reading through my RSS feed, I stumbled upon an article titled "My Son Does Not Know How to Write a Letter, and I Blame Technology." It was interested and not very surprising that a high school senior was unable to address a letter. This did not shock me. Addressing an envelope was something that was probably taught in elementary school, those students more than likely have never had to actually write a letter.  If they needed to contact someone they would use some type of online media such as email, facebook, or twitter. They have cell phones that are capable of just about anything, why would they send a letter that costs money and takes a couple days. Honestly, I rarely ever have the need to address a letter, bills are paid online and anytime I need to contact someone it is done either online or with my phone. Even though it is something that is rarely done these days, I hope addressing an envelope is a task that is still taught.

Bring Your Own Device

One of my previous posts was about schools cellphone use policy.  I had a comment about BYOD. I just read an article titled "Bring Your Own Device Saves Companies Money - But Could Cost Users Big." I never really thought about this idea in the business world or in the school environment. However, I think it is a pretty good idea. I think bringing your own device to school is an interesting idea. I think it could be hard to monitor, but if students did not take advantage of the idea it could really help to low technology costs. Of the school that are doing this "BYOD," how are you monitoring it and is it working well?

Rethinking How We Use Calculators

I read a very interesting article this week about the use of calculators in the classroom. It basically discussed the "old school" vs. the "new school" ideas of using a calculator. Being a math teacher, I can understand the ideas of both sides. I feel like there is a time and a place for the use of calculators. If students are caught up on ideas such as multiplication and division, they will never be able to move onto algebra ideas. They will continue to get problems wrong because of computation errors. If you let a student use a calculator they may be able to understand an algebra concept and be able to come up with the correct computation using the calculator. Another benefit of a calculator is students can get the point of a problem rather than just plugging in numbers. For example, when doing a graphing problem on a calculator you can easily manipulate the slope of an equation to determine exactly what is changing the shape of the graph. If you were to this by hand it might take student an entire class period to determine how the slope has changed. So, seeing the multiple graphs helps students make algebraic connections much quicker. Again, I don't think students should rely on using a calculator, however there are many benefits to using a calculator. What are your thoughts?

Smartphones in the Classroom

As I was looking through my RSS feed today, I came across an article titled "Smartphones in the Classroom: Working Smarter Not Harder." This article caught my attention and was very interesting. It discussed how the use of smartphones could benefit the classroom. My school has a phone policy and students are not allowed to have their cell phone on them. This is truly a hard task to monitor. I know students keep their phones on them, I typically go with the rule "I do not want to see it in my classroom." However, I think this policy is out of touch with reality. In my mathematics classroom, it is strongly recommended that students have a graphing calculator. I have a classroom set of TI-Nspire graphing calculators that students can use. However, many buy their own. Just recently I found out that you can buy a TI-Nspire app for your Ipad or smart phone. This app costs about thirty dollars compared to the $115 handheld calculator. If a student has a smartphone, I will definitely try to save them some money and push them to buy the app. It is so user friendly, actually it is way easier to manipulate. Overall, I'm beginning to think my schools cell phone policy is out of date. There are so many uses of smartphones in the classroom that can help student achievement; like the article states, we need to work smarter not harder. I am curious, what are other schools cell phone policies?

I read an article "10 Pros and Cons of Looping in the Classroom," from my google reader. This was the first time I have heard of "Looping" in the classroom. It was an interesting article. It talked about the strengths and weaknesses of having the same teacher for multiple years in a row. Initially, I thought this was kind of a terrible idea. My initial reaction was that students need to experience different types of teaching throughout their experience in school, and I still do think that. However, after reading the article I began to notice a few benefits of having the same teacher for multiple years in a row. I'm not an elementary teacher, and I was curious what some elementary teachers thought about "Looping?" Let me know your thoughts and if your districts are starting to use this strategy!

What's All This Talk About Rigor

On the NCTM website there is an article discussing how a group of mathematics teachers discussed how they were going to implement the Common Core Standards into their classroom. The discussion turned to how teachers need to teach with rigor. There was an interesting chart comparing experiences when teacher teach with rigor compared to teaching without rigor. The list definitely makes you think about how you teach with or without rigor. I hope that, for the most part, I am teaching with rigor everyday. Some experience that caught my attention were making connection among mathematics ideas, focusing on quality not quantity, develop flexible thinking not rote procedures, and expect students to be actively engaged in their own learning. 

Facebook Vs. Yahoo!

This week I read an article from the Read/Write web "Will Facebook Go Out With A Bang?" I feel like the article was discussing how "they" feel like Yahoo! was the company that started the whole social media craze and how Yahoo! is going to take over the social media scene again. Personally, if anything is going to take over the internet it will be twitter. Twitter wasn't even mentioned anywhere in the article.Facebook is still popular, however twitter seems to be the "new" facebook.  In school, that is all the kids are talking about. Hashtags are all over the internet, tv commercials, billboards, and any type of advertising. #watchoutworldtwitteristakingover