When Will I Use This? Why Math Education Needs to Adapt to the Real World

Excerpt by Education Editor, Liz Dwyer, of GOOD...

:::Sol Garfunkel, executive director of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications and David Mumford, emeritus professor of mathematics at Brown, argue that instead of teaching each student the same sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus courses, those should be replaced with practical, skills-based math classes in finance, data and basic engineering. "In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages," they offer as an example.

So does that mean students should be put on two different kinds of math education tracks—one for students that plan to enter STEM fields, and one for everyone else? Not necessarily; all students need to learn some of the more abstract mathematical concepts too. There needs to be a place for both "useable knowledge and abstract skills," the authors conclude.

If our math curricula actually creatively connected students to the "why" through project-based learning or teaching real-life applications (for example, using taxes to teach calculus), students would remember much more of what they learned in class. Everyone—including students who go on to become scientists, engineers and mathematicians—would gain a deeper understanding of how math applies to the world, while also being able to comprehend the federal budget.::: (((read the full article here...)))

Cool Classroom Presentation Resource

This beats Power Point! 

<website

ecHo on Prezi

Thiel Fellows

Following this post, there is a post with a video titled, College Conspiracy. The two posts are closely related. 

Want Success in Silicon Valley? Drop Out of School

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER (excerpt of) Article from NY Times

Bloomberg NewsPeter Thiel

Parents, do you hope that your children have the chance to become like Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder, Facebook investor and hedge fund manager? If so, Mr. Thiel suggests that you encourage them to drop out of school. In fact, he will help by paying them to do it.

On Wednesday, the Thiel Foundation, funded by Mr. Thiel, announced the first group of Thiel Fellows, 24 people under 20 who have agreed to drop out of school in exchange for a $100,000 grant and mentorship to start a tech company.

More than 400 people applied. The winners include Laura Deming, 17, who is developing anti-aging therapies; Faheem Zaman, 18, who is building mobile payment systems for developing countries; and John Burnham, 18, who is working on extracting minerals from asteroids and comets.

The fellowship addresses two of the country’s most pressing problems, Mr. Thiel says: a bubble in higher education and a dearth of Americans developing breakthrough technologies.

Much of the technological talent these days is going into Web sites and apps. Mr. Thiel says he has no problem with those — Facebook has made him a billionaire. But “there’s a more urgent need for innovation” in other areas, he said, like biomedical technology, nanotechnology, transportation and energy.

Mr. Thiel, a contrarian investor and libertarian known for his controversial views, knows that suggesting education is not always worth it strikes at the core of many Americans’ beliefs. But that is exactly why is he doing it.

“We’re not saying that everybody should drop out of college,” he said. The fellows agree to stop getting a formal education for two years but can always go back to school. The problem, he said, is that “in our society the default assumption is that everybody has to go to college.”.....Continue the article here~

(Hopefully in the near future,  the diversity grows to include more people of color and women. Spread the word) Thiel Foundation Website

College Conspiracy

I am very grateful for the education I received, undergraduate and graduate. This video is incredibly insightful, and proves the need to determine whether the cost of college and/or applying for student loans is worth it.

I don't know the answer to that. Education is very valuable to me....however, I also believe education can be attained without college walls. Takes more planning, but well worth the time and thought. Of course, this does not apply to science and medicine, a few other majors. There are creative ways to gain an education however, if one approaches the time frame within the traditional 4-6 year degree path.

Years ago I probably would have never encouraged education outside of college, but everything has changed: the expense is unbelievable, college graduates and Master's program students graduate and cannot spell or construct a grammatically correct sentence, and work is no longer guaranteed. College can be crucial for one's development and intelligence, but so can a well-planned experience where one learns discipline and perseverance through travel; the supplement and augment of weak areas with research and a few online classes; service work that personally feeds the individual; and an apprenticeship path. There is also the philosophy that the invention brainstorming process is cultivated in middle school, whereby students are empowered to solve problems and enhance humanity through contributions of invention. This is what teenagers did before school, and before capitalism.

KHAN ACADEMY~ I LOVE THIS MATH RESOURCE!

"I teach the way that I wish I was taught. 

The lectures are coming from me, an actual human being 

who is fascinated by the world around him."

—Sal

This is a super resource! Any math concept you do not understand, just look for a video and you will be instructed on the concept! Over 2000 videos are included on the website, ranging from basic Arithmatic to Physics and Trigonometry. There are also test prep sections for SAT math and the GMAT, as well as Science videos that include Astronomy, Chemistry and Biology! Your instructor...

...is Salman Khan and he is revolutionizing education. 

Here is a sample video from YouTube, 
but it is also listed/available on the Khan Academy website:

Text Lingo Appearing in Schoolwork?

Source: KomoNews.com


VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - i luv Romeo & Juliet cuz u get to c how in luv the 2 caractrz r :p

Beginning sentences with lower case letters. Substituting single letters for whole words. Using an ampersand instead of spelling out the word "and." Adding letters and punctuation to make those cute little emoticons.

Clark County teachers have seen it all.

While it's become typical to see "LOL" and "JK" pop up in text messages and Internet chat sessions, teachers are also finding text slang seeping into their students' written work.

"OMG it's everywhere," quipped Mike Kleiner, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Chief Umtuch Middle School in Battle Ground.

With preteens and teens relying on their thumbs to communicate, Kleiner said it's no surprise that text lingo is appearing in students' schoolwork.

"I don't think it's a question of they don't know any better," he said. "The thing is, they don't practice any better. They're doing what they practice."

Based on observations from area teachers, many teens appear to be spending quite a bit of their time abbreviating and leaving vowels out of words. read the full article...

Fate of the World Trailer 1

From the concept, to the music and soft visuals, this video game feels right!

fateoftheworld.net

ADHD News

National Survey: 

Pediatric Therapists Report Sensory Issues 

Commonly Mistaken for ADHD

RECOMMENDED TREATMENT IS THERAPY, NOT MEDICATION

CHICAGO, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from Pathways Awareness of more than 500 pediatric occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech-language pathologists reports that more than two-thirds (68 percent) evaluated or treated children between 3 and 8 years old who had been previously misidentified with learning disabilities or behavioral issues.  Of that two-thirds, an overwhelming majority (90 percent) reported they had seen children with deficits processing and integrating sensory information who had been misidentified as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  

Members of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Pediatric Section of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association (NDTA) participated in the survey.  

"Knowing that sensory processing and integration deficits may be expressed in ways similar to ADHD, it is understandable that mistakes can occur," said Angelica Barraza, OTR/L, an advisor to Pathways Awareness and an occupational therapist trained in sensory integration.   "It's critical for parents, teachers and health professionals to consider sensory processing and integration deficits before labeling a child with behavioral issues."  

In the survey, sensory difficulties emerged the top issue therapists saw increasing, with 82 percent of survey respondents reporting a rise in treating children with sensory difficulties.  Sensory processing and integration issues, sometimes referred to as dysfunction of sensory integration (DSI) or sensory processing disorder (SPD), become a concern when the inability to discriminate, organize, and interpret the myriad of sensory input hinders participation in everyday activities.

In school-age children, sensory processing and integration issues can translate into having delays with coordination, balance, focus, organization, and fine motor skills. At times, children displaying deficits in these areas may look like they have behavioral issues.  Although not as well known as ADD or ADHD, sensory issues affect millions of children: a recent study estimates one in 20 children have sensory difficulties.(1)

The survey was conducted by Pathways Awareness, a national not-for-profit that educates parents and medical professionals about the benefits of early intervention for children with delays in sensory, communication, and motor development.  Conducted between May 2009 and Nov. 2010 with assistance from the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association (NDTA) and the Pediatric Section of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), more than 500 occupational, speech and physical therapists who regularly work with pediatric clients and average more than 17 years of experience participated in the survey.  Members of the American Occupational Association (AOTA) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) also participated in the survey.

Sensory Integration: Hard to Identify, Effectively Treated

Fidgeting, frustration, clumsiness, inability to focus…these are common issues for children when children are in a classroom setting for the first time. When teachers and classroom specialists have concerns about these behaviors, a common course of action is to suggest that the child be evaluated for ADD or ADHD.  However, pediatric therapists across the country believe that other possibilities must be investigated, particularly sensory processing and integration issues.

The behaviors of a child with sensory processing and integration differences are extremely varied, which also can make them hard to detect by health professionals who are not familiar with the condition.  Some children may be overwhelmed by everyday sensations; others may seek out more.  Some may seem aggressive, others extremely withdrawn.  An evaluation by a qualified therapist who has received post-graduate training on using a sensory integrative approach, can help parents determine whether their child can benefit from therapy.  

Therapy for sensory processing and integrative dysfunction can vary greatly depending on the needs of the child.  Sessions are fun for children, incorporating intrinsically motivating activities that provide rich sensory experiences, such as finger painting and wall climbing. Therapy builds skills to help improve a child's ability to organize, modulate and discriminate sensory input.   When they are not confused by their senses, children may experience improved behavior, better coordination and lower anxiety.  Kids can be simply kids, working and playing alongside friends at school, and participating more fully in life.

"I Have My Son Back:" One Mother's Story....(Read the full article)

~how many a man has dated a new era in his life 

from the reading of a book~ 

henry david thoreau

book sculpture artist

Su Blackwell

~A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting~

Henry David Thoreau

Students achieving higher grades, higher levels of concentration, sense of peace and respect as a result of their schools bringing Transcendental Meditation into the classroom. The forward thinking and proactive spirit of the school staff in both cases warms my heart...

see more funny videos

Learn the homonyms and homophones...

ad/add allowed/aloud ant/aunt ate/eight ball/bawl band/banned bear/bare be/bee billed/build blew/blue board/bored boy/buoy brake/break by/bye/buy beach/beech bolder/boulder bread/bred brouse/brows capital/capitol caret/carrot/carat/karat cell/sell cent/scent/sent census/senses cereal/serial chews/choose choral/coral chute/shoot clothes/close colonel/kernel creak/creek crews/cruise cymbal/symbol days/daze dear/deer dew/do/due die/dye disc/disk discreet/discrete discussed/disgust doe/dough

doughs/doze earn/urn ewe/you eye/I fare/fair feat/feet find/fined fir/fur flea/flee flew/flu/flue flower/flour for/four/fore forth/fourth foul/fowl frees/freeze gneiss/nice gnu/knew/new gored/gourd gorilla/guerrilla grays/graze grate/great guessed/guest gym/Jim hale/hail hall/haul hare/hair heal/heel/he'll heard/herd hew/hue hi/high higher/hire him/hymm hair/hare hoarse/horse hole/whole hour/our idle/idol idle/idol/idyl in/inn incite/insight

its/it's jam/jamb jeans/genes knead/need/kneed knight/night knows/nose/no's lead/led leased/least lessen/lesson lie/lye links/lynx load/lode/lowed loan/lone locks/lox loot/lute maid/made mail/male maize/maze meet/meat medal/meddle mince/mints miner/minor missed/mist mooed/mood morning/mourning muscle/mussel mussed/must nays/neighs no/know none/nun nose/knows/no's not/knot/naught one/won or/oar/ore overdo/overdue paced/paste pail/pale pain/pane pair/pare/pear pain/pane

Please learn the homonyms and homophones.

(this list was taken from here, and there are also quizzes to test your knowledge!)

passed/past patience/patients pause/paws peace/piece peak/peek/pique peal/peel pedal/peddle peer/pier pi/pie plain/plane plum/plumb praise/prays/preys presence/presents principal/principle prince/prints quarts/quartz quince/quints rain/reign/rein raise/rays/raze rap/wrap read/reed read/red real/reel reek/wreak rest/wrest review/revue right/rite/write ring/wring road/rode/rowed roe/row role/roll root/route rose/rows rote/wrote roux/rue rye/wry sacks/sax sail/sale sawed/sod scene/seen

sea/see seam/seem seas/sees/seize serf/surf serge/surge sew/so/sow shoe/shoo side/sighed sighs/size sign/sine sight/site/cite slay/sleigh soar/sore soared/sword sole/soul son/sun some/sum spade/spayed staid/stayed stair/stare stake/steak stationary/stationery steal/steel straight/strait suede/swayed summary/summery sundae/Sunday tacks/tax tail/tale taut/taught tea/tee teas/tease/tees tents/tense tern/turn there/their/they're threw/through throne/thrown thyme/time tide/tied tighten/titan

to/too/two toad/toed/towed toe/tow told/tolled tracked/tract trussed/trust use/ewes vein/vane verses/versus vial/vile vice/vise wade/weighed wail/whale waist/waste wait/weight waive/wave Wales/whales war/wore ware/wear/where warn/worn wax/whacks way/weigh/whey we/wee weather/whether we'd/weed weld/welled we'll/wheel wen/when we've/weave weak/week which/witch whirled/world whirred/word whine/wine whoa/woe who's/whose wood/would worst/wurst yoke/yolk you'll/yule your/you're/yore

On Homework Coaching...

 Excerpt from an article of the New York Times:

“I think it really came about as a result of very, very busy parents who needed some additional care given for their children after school and saw the opportunity to meld that with some academic support,” said Robert Lauder, the principal of Friends Seminary, a Manhattan private school. read the full article here...

Report Finds New College Admissions Trends, Including More Early Decision Acceptances

An insightful read on the reasons behind the increase of Early Decision Admits... 


:::Perhaps the most useful piece of information for applicants is the rise of an additional criteria. While the usual factors remain important--grades and overall GPA, strength of high school curriculum and admissions test scores--more schools are now looking at "demonstrated interest in enrolling". In 2003, just seven percent of colleges considered interest in enrolling "considerably important". In recent years, however, approximately 21 percent of colleges have given it more weight in the decision process. Many colleges believe that demonstrated interest, such as campus visits and contact with admissions offices, is an indication that students are more likely to enroll.:::..read the entire article here.

~I dream of making academic excellence 

as important to American schools 

as varsity athletics~ 

Will Fitzhugh, of The Concord Review, a quarterly journal dedicated to showcasing the best history papers written by high school students..  

The Twilight Generation Can't Read

National Association of Scholars article:::

October 18, 2010 By Sandra Stotsky

This press release comes from the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW), an organization in whose founding many NAS members were involved, and in which they continue to participate. It was created in many ways to be an alternative to the Modern Language Association. The ALSCW has completed an interesting report on the state of the American high school English curriculum. One observation it makes is that the top books read by high school students are young adult fantasies. The ALSCW identifies this as a potential source of the decline in reading achievement among young Americans. Below are ALSCW's other findings and recommendations. 

Boston, Mass., October, 2010. A newly released study by the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW) strongly suggests that two factors—a fragmented English curriculum and a neglect of close reading—may explain why the reading skills of American high school students have shown little or no improvement in several decades despite...:::read the entire article here:::

*may the force be with you*

Setting Goals for oneself is key to life. Engage you should, as students, in some form of goal setting quarterly. Very important it is, to prepare first: journal, writing tool, solitude, honesty.


Keep a goal journal

• Reflection:::

Revisit goals from your last goal setting session
Which goals did you achieve and why?
Which goals were not achieved/ did not work and why? How will you push through the threshold next time to beat the obstacle that faced you?

• Forward:::

Develop a list of goals that are most immediately reasonable and a list of reach goals
Develop a list of three to five short-term (one week to one academic quarter) goals 
Develop a list of two to four longterm (academic quarter to a year) goals

• Writing your goals down is just the beginning.

• Each goal deserves a few questions that you honestly and thoroughly answer until you thoughtfully create a very clear road map of how to arrive at the goal:

  For example:

1. What is the goal? (To eliminate procrastination on homework)
2. How will I accomplish this goal? (I will do my homework on time)
3. How? (By eliminating distractions and by time management)
4. What are my distractions and how will I eliminate them?...
5. What will have to change? What works for me and what doesn't? 
6. Who can help me accomplish this goal?
7. What are the rewards of the goal?
8. Who can I share (some of) my goals with in order to help me persevere through to the end result?

Midway through the lifeline of your goals, assess their status.

ACT Study Shows Little Progress in Preparing High School Graduates for College and Careers

After so many years of research in education, experience in and out of the classroom with students, and multiple discussions with them of how they feel education should change, this is a read that speaks to my heart. It does address most of the teacher to student gaps, pragmatically. There is acknowledgement that historically, many of the factors that have caused students to be so dreadful of class time, are models that were put in place in the late 1800s in order to carry out social engineering and conforming goals of the elite through schooling. I have often said that education reform may not happen because it is students and society that want reform, not necessarily those in charge of education policies.

This is an excerpt that is posted on EducationNews.org; the link to the entire article is posted below the following excerpt- a worthwhile read!!

...:::Turned Off Younger Teachers 
 The factory model high school is also turning off our younger teachers who must replace the huge cohort of “Baby Boom” teachers who have already begun to retire. Too many become discouraged by the isolation from colleagues they feel in these schools. These younger teachers also perceive that bonding and sustainable healthy relationships among and between students and teachers occurs all too infrequently in such schools. From the Facebook and Twitter generation, they correctly intuit that you can’t achieve academic rigor in schools without these relationships and for that matter relevance of the curriculum to the career and life challenges that await students. Additionally, compared to how work is organized in non-school settings, they see that the factory model school is a huge time waster with time lost transitioning between classrooms, achieving order, taking attendance, reviewing previous day's lesson, and continual interruptions and school announcements. No wonder 1/3 of new teachers quit in 3 years; 1/2 within 5 years.

No Academic Rigor without Relationships and Relevance What should replace the industrial era factory model high school? That is, which curricula and school structures would best help American teenagers re-engage in school and meet the higher and better standards we’ve been developing for the last 20 years? Answering such questions should claim most of our investment dollars for K-12 education. Yet we continue to divert our energies and resources to more and better tests and other strategies that have questionable payoff such as closing failed schools or re-opening them under new management or with a different staff. Another questionable strategy is to provide huge amounts of professional development without fundamentally changing the curriculum. 

Opinions abound on which curricular innovations make sense, and a fairly sophisticated evaluation industry is developing to determine which ones produce the best results. Opinion seems to be coalescing around a few principles that point the direction for future change. First and foremost, is that a high school is unlikely to establish academic rigor without strong interpersonal relationships and relevance of the curricula to employment and life challenges.

Relationships require a nurturing environment where faculty and students are together long enough to be able get to know and bond with one another. To provide such an environment, a growing number of high schools are assigning students to the same homeroom and/or the same counselor for all four years. Other schools use the house system in which teachers go to where the students are and students remain in the same group for all or most of their classes. This is in stark contrast to the factory model high school where students typically change work groups, supervisors (viz. teachers) and classrooms 5-6 times a day. This traditional model is particularly dysfunctional for students in poverty and those from single parent homes, many of whom have an emotional-psychological mindset that will not allow them to learn and establish in their minds a compelling vision of success. 

Relationships and bonding among students and teachers is also enhanced through smaller schools or breaking down larger schools into smaller theme-oriented schools or academies that have a fair amount of operational independence.::: ...read the full piece here.

:::Education must be more than a rat race for university places:::

A study by London University’s Institute of Education published this week found that the relentless pursuit of top grades at GCSE and A-level "compromised" independent schools’ abilities to deliver an all-round education such as sport, drama and trips.

By James Priory

Published: 8:00AM BST 01 Oct 2010

Telegraph.co.uk

Some schools are forced to cut sport and official outings for final year students in favour of exam cramming, the report found. Photo: PA

The only time pupils spend outside the classroom, it seems, is queuing to get into the examination hall.

But the report’s authors also found that “anti-modular sentiment was more widespread than anti-modular action” because of the continued support for more regular assessment among students.

Though the voices in the wilderness might be getting louder, the road to league table success remains a devastatingly straight and narrow one.

Two years ago when A-level was re-launched nationwide, the heads of department at my own school, Portsmouth Grammar, saw an opportunity to make A-levels work for us rather than the other way round.

If we wanted our students to care about the subject and not the qualification we knew we had to create a public-examination-free year between GCSE and A-level.

Students would no longer therefore sit AS modules in Year 12 but would wait until January in Year 13.

We also wanted to encourage more students to complete their fourth subject as an A-level, rather than leaving it dangling at the end of Year 12. The reduction in most subjects from six to four modules made us feel that it here at last was a possibility to develop a broader, and at the same time more mature approach to sixth-form study.

Some students were understandably anxious; they knew they would be competing with students from other schools and colleges who would re-sit AS-level modules more often.

Some worried about applying for competitive university places without AS-level module scores to rely on.

And why should they study four subjects when most universities only showed interest in three?

Parents, however, were supportive and trusted that the school would not wish to jettison a proud track record by turning their children into unsuspecting guinea-pigs.

So how did we get on two years later?  ...read the rest of the article here.