Paradoxes In Teaching

The other day, I stumbled across an article that addressed the issue of what is good teaching designed to raise scores versus good teaching designed to engage students and they are not the same.  Many people thing the best teachers are the ones who have students whose achievement scores go up every year, while others think a good teacher is able to fully engage their student but are either ones really the best?

To address the issue two researchers addressed the issue by examining 53 teachers in fourth and fifth grade classrooms across four districts along the East Coast. They looked at student achievement scores in math and compared them with the results of surveys filled out by the students. 

Students were asked to fill out a survey which asked them how satisfied they were with the class much like consumers do when they fill out surveys on their satisfaction. Students indicated if they enjoyed the class, found it a place that made them fill sad or angry, whether they enjoyed the teacher or the math class.  In other words how satisfied they were with the class itself.

Researchers discovered there was an interesting dichotomy with the results.  The teachers who helped students raise their achievement scores received lower student evaluations while the teachers who received high student evaluations were not able to raise student achievement scores.  So basically, the teaching methods that raise student scores are not the same ones used to engage students in the classroom.

No one is sure why this is. The people who studied this question, watched hours of videotaped lessons of these elementary teachers.  What they discovered is that the teachers who prepared and delivered lessons that were more cognitively demanding had students who had better results.  These cognitively demand lessons pushed students beyond processes into complex understanding results in higher achievement scores.  Unfortunately, many feel that the more cognitively demanding lessons often results in students who are not as engaged in learning.

Learning is hard work because students don't always like making mistakes and trying to figure out where they made the mistake. They are frustrated at the times when they are doing the most learning.  Few of the 53 teachers who participated in the study were able to combine cognitively demanding lessons with high student engagement.  These teachers had certain things in common.  They incorporated a lot of hands on activities with students often working together in collaborative groups of two or four. They also had students use tactile objects to help solve problems or play games.

In addition, their classrooms were filled with routines.  They set clear cut rules of behavior and expectations at the beginning of class, while using routines to maintain efficiency and order. Most of the time teachers did spend on misbehavior involved simple redirections which did not interrupt the flow of learning. Furthermore, they were able to pace the lesson while understanding the attention span of their students. 

This experiment took place in 2012 but they tracked students afterwards to see how they did in upper grades.  The students who had teachers who were able to engage them while raising achievement scores  did well much later in their educational career with fewer absences.  Those who had teachers who were less engaging but helped raise their scores also did well in the upper grades but the long term benefits faded more. 

I found this article really interesting because I've always wondered how to teach the way I want while engaging students and this article gave me some solid suggestions.  Let me know what you think and I hope you have a great weekend.

What Works In Teaching

  The other day, I came across this great article from the government which summarizes nine ways to improve student learning.  Some of the nine we've seen before if you follow Josh Fisher or the Learning Scientists.  Some you may never have seen before.

1.  Space learning over time.  This includes reviewing key concepts several weeks to several months later so students retain the material better.

2. Weave worked examples complete with solutions among the problems so they can refer to examples while trying to solve new problems on their own.

3. Combine illustrations or graphical representations of key processes with verbal descriptions.

4. Create a connection between abstract and concrete representations of the concept.

5. Integrate more quizzes to help promote learning and use pre-questions when introducing new material.  In addition, use quizzes to expose students to already taught material.

6. Teach students to allocate study time and allocate the material to increase student learning.  In addition, teach students to use the results of the quizzes to determine what to study.

7. It is recommended that both teachers use deep-level questions which require students to respond with explanations that support deep learning.

Numbers five and six actually have two interrelated parts but still it works out to 9 different suggestions.  All of these help students learn the material better and do well.  I like the part about helping students analyze their own quiz and test results to determine what areas they need to work on.

In addition, this site provides a 63 page guide on Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning with some very good ideas and information to implement these suggestions in your classroom.  Furthermore, the guide offers possible roadblocks and solutions for each roadblock for each suggestion along with a checklist for implementing each suggestion.

I have already downloaded this guide which I plan to read over the holidays. I like a lot of the suggestions I've seen in it.  Let me know what you think.



Sometimes I think that as teachers we spend so much time trying to find the best ways to work with our students

Two Classes in One Period.

I will have to teach two different classes in one period so I can teach a science class.  Over the summer, I ended up in a talk by a lady who has to teach two math classes in one period so it helped me figure out what I'm doing.  I will have a combined Pre-Alegebra and College Prep Math class.  I had a combined class last year but it didn't go as well as I hoped but this year I think I'm going to follow her method.

I think on Monday's and Wednesday's I will teach the lesson in Pre-Algebra while I have the college prep math on line at a website watching videos and going through the examples.  On Tuesday and Thursdays, I will reverse the groups so I teach the college prep lesson  and have the pre-algebra watch a video, work on their assignment and use apps to reinforce learning.  Friday will be the day, they all work on work and I will answer questions etc.

I plan to post all answers so they can check their answers but they must show the work between the question and the answer or they will not get credit.  I am requiring them to only turn in completed assignments.  No more half assignments or barely done.  In addition, I will give a choice of say 10 out of 15 problems.  That way they feel they have some control. 

I feel good about trying it this way.  I"ll let you know how it goes.

QR Codes and student work.

I was looking at ways to use QR codes in my classroom.  After reading about putting a QR code on the homework that has the answers in the code, I wondered if the iPad had an app that would allow a person to create a QR code on the iPad.  I found one that will allow text.  This got me to thinking, why can't I have students create QR codes with answers to reading for meaning questions, mastery quizzes and other types of activities that needs short answers.  That way I can scan their QR codes on my iPad and read the answers.  This might cut down on the assignments that some of my students forget to turn in.  I do not know how it will work but it is worth a try. 
I hate using half a sheet of paper for things.  I have been thinking of what method I will have the students use to share completed work such as presentations, etc.  That is one thing I will be working on over the summer.

Correction, observation and announcment.

I've have been increasing the amount of time I have the students on the iPads this week.  After the warmup, I send the students to a website to do something such as read or do practice problems.  They are much quieter than when I try to officially teach a lesson and they are more focused.  I feel they get even more work done.  I also show a video or two during the week instead of lecturing and they seem to pay more attention to the video than a lecture.  I still assign the study notes worksheet so they read the section but I first assign four reading for meaning statements so they preread the section.  I do not actually assign the study notes until mid week when they have had a chance to build a foundation.
The correction is that at cool math, not all lessons show up on the iPad, only some of them. It turns out the lesson on the sieve of Eratosthenes works on coolmath.com but the one on algebraic fractions does not.  So I need to check ahead of time.
The announcement is I published a short e-book on Amazon titled "Teaching math using the iPad".  It has general suggestions or types of programs, specific recommendations for how to use those apps and recommendations or suggestions for apps themselves. I give reasons for many of the recommendations.
 I will be choosing one day to offer it for free in the very near future.  I will post the date here so you all may take advantage of it being free as a thank you for reading my blog.

Logs and Lns and reading the textbook.

We have a short teaching week so I am going to have my college prep class do some research.  They will find out how logs and lns are used in real life, prepare a report on it using any app on the iPads. They have to find one for logs and one for natural logs, include the specific situation, a graph and write an explanation of who is using the function and why.  This may help them make the real world connection they miss in the book.
 The textbook we use has real world examples but the students try hard to avoid reading the textbook.  I've started using a reading for meaning exercise where I make a table with three columns and four rows.  In the center column, I write four things out of the chapter.  The left column is for agree and the right most column is for disagree.  The student reads the chapter and decides if the statement is true or false and writes the sentence out of the book that proves the statement is true or false.  They have to include the page number with the information. 
I find students read much more carefully, especially if I tell them that I will  not help them.  The may help each other.  The next time I do this exercise which will be next Monday, I am going to try it using the iPad.  I just have to decide what will be the best app to use to share the form.
I do this type of exercise because most of my students are classified ELL (English Language Learners) and they hate to read.  So this helps them read the material and get a chance to understand it.  They help each other.

A first

Today the students in my College Prep math class asked me to stop the video I was showing on the properties of logs so they could take notes.  I show the videos using the smart board because I have limited bandwidth and we don't have the serious stuttering problem that often happens if everyone is trying to watch a video at once.
I am going to explore the showme and Educreation apps over the summer.  I am thinking of using the learning menu idea where I give them the menu at the beginning of the unit and let them choose a couple projects that are due at the end of the unit right before the test.  I hope that I can have the students use either of those apps for one of the projects on the menu.
I have so much to do this summer as I plan my units.  I am going to try to have more integrated technology but it also depends on what changes they make over the summer.

After spending the past couple of days, I set up an opening activity with my 9th grade class using the QR codes.  The first code simply told them the order of things we were going to do on the iPad.  The code showed up on the notepad app.  It worked better than I expected.  The second QR code sent them to testmoz.com to take a pretest quiz on scientific notation.  I like this site as it allows me to set up the type of question and I set this quiz up as a multiple choice.  Once they finished, I can go back to the site and look at the report on the results.  It gives me the name of the student, their scores and the time it took them to take the quiz.  Below that is a grid that shows me how each student did on each question.  Both charts can be exported in CVS format so I can carefully analyze the results to help me design the unit better.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.  I am going to try this method in other classes and will use this as one of my regular assessments.  This can help me monitor how well the students are learning the material so I do not have to retest.
Next step is to use the QR code on a homework assignment which I think I"ll try in a couple of weeks.  Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions on QR codes.

Quizzes and such

I spoke to the school board president this morning about math and the students and ways to help the students who are not college bound prepare for life after school.  Since I am piloting the iPad program for our school,  I told the president that it is a process of my learning how to use the iPad effectively during instruction while helping the kids learn to use it as a tool so that when they leave school, they can work in a technologically heavy world.  He understands that to really integrate the iPads it will take more than one year because I am learning as I go. 
Tomorrow I"ll show him some apps on my iPad for both elementary and high school so he has an idea of what can be accomplished especially with free apps for the  iPads and mini iPads.  The elementary school will be getting mini iPads and I will be overseeing that program. 
I think for the younger elementary I'll be recommending Doodle Buddy for math and reading, the math app from SAS which has a variety of units that are great for K to about 3.  I think the Doodle Buddy will be good for students learning letters, numbers, writing words, and sentences. 
For the high school, I found a test making site  with fewer bells and whistles to use on the ipads.  I can design my own questions, decide the type (multiple choice, fill in the blank, true or false) and then get information on how the students did.  I am trying a short 10 question true or false quiz for my 9th grade Algebra class as a way to see what they already know about scientific notation.  Once done, they will go to a website to read up on the topic and take another short quiz that will give them instant feedback.  I am going to try a fill in the blank exercise from the book with the questions spread around the room (perhaps done with QR codes) and they have to find the answer in the book. 
I'll let everyone know how that goes. 
The reason for the last activity is that my students do not want to read and they need to learn to read for comprehension. 

Balancing technology with knowledge.

This post is coming out of something I"ve been thinking about for a while and since the standardized testing for my state is in its second day, I thought I would address this issue.  I've noticed that many of my students need their calculator to do a simple problem such as 27-32.  If they do not use the calculator, they often answer this as -15 not -5.  They tend to switch digits so the bigger one is on top.  When I have students graph functions, they do not recognize they didn't graph it correctly, even though we've studied how the graphs should look. When I taught college math, my students had the same problem on graphs.  The attitude was simply "I entered the problem in and the calculator gave me the answer so its right."  I don't think students even stop to check to see if the answer seems reasonable.
I wonder what I can do to help them make this connectivity that they are lacking.  At this point in time, the students are not allowed to use calculators on the state mandated tests so they struggle many times to find the correct answer.  I am working to find ways to help students use technology while learning the material so they can find their mistakes.
I would love suggestions on this.
On the other hand, I finally got to watch the three videos on using SAS gloss.  It showed how to download pdf files with math problems so the students can do the work right on the iPad and e-mail it to the teacher when done.  The app has graph paper so students can practice graphing and it has lined paper so students can write out explanations or journal.  So far I am impressed with everything this does.  I am going to put it on my classroom set of iPads next week and use it for the remainder of the year.  I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Which is first, the lesson plan or the technology in planning?

I just read an article on edtechreview.in about technology and pedagogy in which they discussed teaching and technology.  Do you choose the technology and then write the lesson plan or do you write the lesson plan and choose the technology?  Personally, I don't think it is either.
From my perspective of teaching math, it is more important to choose the concept first, decide how you want the concept to be understood by the students and then look at where in the process the technology is best used.  Technology is a tool to help students learn the material.
One item taught during transformations is tessellations.  I introduced this section by showing pictures of tesselations on my smartboard. I asked questions about what they saw and how they think these were made.  We reviewed types of transformations and discussed  how they were used to produce certain pictures.  This was followed by a video on tessellations and I asked them to design their own tessellation on the geoboard app on the iPad.  Once they had their tessellation created, they transferred the design onto graph paper and colored it in.  This took about two 55 min periods to complete.  The students stayed engaged and we used technology to further the lesson.

Too much to do and not enough time

With high stakes testing coming up, I've been focusing more on the mathematics they need to pass the tests.  Unfortunately, I know I should be incorporating my technology into this more but due to pressure I end up resorting to standard teaching methods.  I was realizing today, that I could have taken the practice tests in PDF form, sent them to my students one page at a time, had to work on the problems, create explanations and mark up the forms with the information.  They could have sent the forms back so I could look at the responses to monitor their knowledge and understanding. 
I stumbled across a website today where the author of the article discussed having students create the questions for use with the clickers.  It was noted that many of the students created low level questions.  When I say low level, I am referring to Blooms Taxonomy.   Anyway,  this person gave up but I'm wondering if this could be done with my students.  I am wondering if I can have them create the answers and questions for a Jeopardy game using my SmartBoard. 
I have a few other outlets such as Quizlet and Survey Monkey to check out to create quick quizzes my students could take on-line.  I've read of one technique where you set up three or four quizzes for the week.  If the student passes the first time, they are done, if not they can try it a second time to see if they pass.  Its a mastery learning technique.  I know it uses a lot of paper and the kids like to "loose" it so I don't get them back. This might work better.  I plan to try it in two weeks due to testing happening next week.

I have an app on the iPad called Free graphing calculator.  I have not been using it much but I had my students in the College Prep math class use it today because it allows you to enter in a log with a base other than 10 to graph without going through the change of base formula.  That will make things so much easier teaching logs and natural logs. 
This application does more than just graphing in that it has a calculator, a table window much like the handheld graphing calculators with the x and y values,  the graphing window and the window to enter equations.  It is really nice and combines both calculator and graphing functions.  Just like a TI-82.  I am finding it is quite handy to use without having to juggle a classroom set of graphing calculators.
I am still exploring all the functions it has.  I think I"ll be spending the weekend checking it out more so that I can report back on everything it does.
I think putting enough apps on the iPad to do the job without being addicted to the apps is important.  As a teacher I need to stay at least one step ahead of my students and show them ways the iPad can be effectively used as a tool and not a toy. 
I know many of my students would rather go on the internet to play games rather than doing their work simply because most of my student's parents do not work where a computer is used for its productivity.

Beginnings

This blog is coming about due to having to integrate more technology into my classroom and the desire to share my thoughts, ideas, experiences and other things that come to mind.  Just to give a bit of background.  I teach high school math in a small school. I know that school budgets are being cut and the expectations we as teachers face is increasing.  I hope to write about technology I stumble across for all grades and subjects but my main focus will be on math.

The technology I use in the classroom consist of a dual page SmartBoard, a classroom set of iPads and I have access to a cart of computers should I need them.   So I've done quite a bit with iPads including figuring what websites work with the iPad.  iPads themselves do not have flash or use java so many of the interactive websites cannot be used on the iPad.  This just means you find other means to share the information with the students.

Enough for the first entry.  Perhaps more tomorrow.