Great Teachers are Constantly Improving

       The best teachers are constantly improving.  "Good enough" isn't good enough for them.  The world is changing and teachers need to change as well.  The traditional classroom that your parents had when they were in school should not be the classroom of today.

       Here is a short list of characteristics of teachers that work to be their best for their students:

• The student is the center of the learning experience; not the teacher.
• We want students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do.  It's not enough for students to merely sit and listen and take notes.
• Learning new tech resources for use as instructional tools in the classroom and as learning tools for students.
• Less paper and more use of digital resources
• Using Twitter to connect with other educators and to learn with other educators.
• Learning about and implementing student engagement strategies in the classroom.

       The need to improve is necessary because students learn differently.  Teaching in a single style may be OK for some students, but it is not sufficient to reach all of our students.  When students struggle to learn, teachers need to use different strategies to help them.  We often joke that repeating the same information SLOWER and LOUDER is not an effective strategy for students who didn't "get it" the first time.  Part of the journey toward being an effective teacher is learning about your students and discovering better ways to help them to learn.

       Teachers learn from a variety of sources.  Over 50% of teachers earn a Master's degree at some point in their teaching career.  Teachers take online courses, teachers read journals.  But most of all, teachers talk with other teachers--online and in person--to learn from their experiences and improve their skills.  Teachers who strive to improve are better teachers for their students.

Learning and Thinking - (getting the right answer isn't good enough anymore)

       Learning and thinking have always been closely linked.  But sometimes, in our schools, we only achieve the appearance of learning--often accompanied by very little thinking.  This problem has been recognized by educators for a long time.  In recent years, however, we have been addressing this issue on various fronts.

       Let me begin by explaining what I mean by the term Appearance of Learning.  This is when students get good grades, but their actual learning is very low.  The grade to the students and to their parents makes it appear as if they have learned a lot, but the attainment of those grades may have been based partly on non-academic measures such as good behavior or mere compliance with rules such as turning in homework on time.  This is a problem because when students move on to more complicated coursework that requires previous knowledge, they struggle due to never actually learning the earlier content in the first place.

     Over the past few years, there has been a stronger attempt to balance the need for teaching skills (such as solving an equation) with the need for teaching conceptual understanding (such as using an equation to solve a problem).  This sort of "teaching" is different from when our students' parents were in school--a time in which just-getting-the-answer might have seemed good enough.  Today we know that this isn't good enough.  Students going to college and students going to work need skills and knowledge beyond merely doing what they are told to do.  Today's world demands more from our citizens.

       Our schools recognize this need and we are trying to make changes to address this challenge.  It's hard to change a system of 100,000 schools, 50,000,000 students, and 3,000,000 teachers.  But (indeed) this change is already happening.  What we used to call a "computer room" is now just about any classroom in the building.  Classrooms with students sitting in nice, neat, straight rows that discouraged collaboration among students have been replaced with classrooms with tables or desks arranged in groups to encourage students to work together and ask questions of each other and learn together.  Grades for non-academic behaviors (mentioned above) are strongly discouraged so that a student's grade can more accurately reflect his/her ability in the content.  Finally, student engagement strategies and growth mindset strategies are constantly being discussed and implemented.  These reflect our knowledge of the best way that students learn.  No longer do we expect everyone to learn strictly by listening to the teacher and taking notes.

       Indeed, the change to an educational system that requires more from our high school graduates is well underway.  The past is in the past and we're not going back.  Those that choose not to change risk creating a generation that is ill prepared for the challenges that they will face.  Learning, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving will be more and more integrated into our schools.

       You're welcome.

A Tale of Two Classrooms -- One Size Fits Each

This is the ninth in a ten-part series based on the poster: A Tale of Two Classrooms.

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One Size Fits EACH

       School is for learning.

       But students learn in different ways.  Some are quick to answer teacher questions, but slow to see connections between yesterday's lesson and today's lesson.  Other students take time to digest new content and (perhaps) need some quiet time to reflect on notes and classwork before they are ready to ask questions about the new learning.  Some students are eager to be pushed beyond their limits and they don't mind if they have to struggle a little bit to understand.  They like the challenge.  Other students feel like they are not smart if they don't "get it" right away.  They don't like to study (or don't know how to study) and they want to understand the new content right away with relatively no effort.

     

       When possible, we want the learning, the content, and the level of rigor to fit each student.  When this happens you never have students who are bored because they "get it" faster than everyone else; and you never have students who are frustrated because the class moves too fast for them.  Everyone is learning at their speed and at their level.

       This sounds impossible.  In practice, however, teachers accomplish this feat by teaching one lesson to the whole class, and then separating the class into three or four groups that receive slightly different classwork assignments that meet the students' level of ability.  This can also be accomplished by employing online tools that can provide additional instruction or support to students as they complete an assignment.  Or they can provide a high level of rigor to students who seek a challenge.

       This certainly requires an experienced and well trained teacher.  And it takes some effort and trial and error to find the best way to reach all students all of the time.  But it can be done and it certainly has great benefits for students.

              

A Tale of Two Classrooms -- The Goal is Learning

This is the sixth in a ten-part series based on the poster: A Tale of Two Classrooms.

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Goal is Learning

       Don't get me started.

       The idea that the goal of schools is "Learning" is a major theme of mine.  Last year I wrote a piece called Are Your Students Obsessed with Grades.  In this post I included a list of things that students do that suggest they are more concerned about grades than then are about learning.  Some of these include:

• They are constantly asking, "Is this going to be graded?"
• They refuse to do anything if it is not being graded.
• They ask for "extra credit" or make-up work at the end of the marking term to raise their grade to the next letter grade.

These sort of behaviors from students suggest that we have created what I have called The Grading Monster in our schools.  Grades and grading and Grade Point Averages (GPAs) have grown to oversized importance in the minds of students (and sometimes in the minds of parents) to the point that many have forgotten that the goal of school is learning.

       Of course, we need a way to measure the degree or the level at which students are learning.  But that method of measuring is not the goal of schooling.  It is the result of schooling.  I wrote a piece called Learning vs. The Appearance of Learning last year.  In this post I talked about the problem of seeking grades over seeking learning.  You might think that they are the same:  If I get a good grade, than I must be learning.  But this isn't always the case.  Grades can sometimes be manipulated to be artificially high--which would give the student (and the parent) the appearance of learning.  And I'm not talking about grade inflation--which is the purposeful and unearned raising of grade.  I'm talking about students who (perhaps) always do their homework and always participate in class and (perhaps) don't do very well on tests and quizzes; but the way the final grade is calculated causes them to end up with a decent grade even though they didn't actually learn very much.

       For many people, the idea of viewing schools as having the goal of learning will require a major shift in their thinking.  However, for individual classrooms and individual teachers this can be accomplished through relatively minor steps.

• Encourage student discourse - Allow students to ask questions and offer ideas and solutions without judging the "correctness" of these ideas right away.  Allow other students to question these ideas and suggestions.
• Formative assessments - Exit passes, classwork assignments, activities that provide feedback to students that is not a grade.  Instead the feedback could be teacher (or student) comments relative to the thinking that they have expressed in the assignment and (perhaps) suggestions for going further with that thinking.
• Allow a little productive struggle and recognize students who tried and didn't get it the first time and tried again.  Help students to see that effort is important in the learning process.  Everything isn't "a grade".  No one expects students to "get it" the first time they are learning something new.

       There is a movement to abolish grades altogether in the effort to help students (and parents) to see the importance of learning.  I don't think that this will come to pass in my career, but if we truly want schools to be viewed as a place of learning, we will see the importance of grades and grading diminish.  This is important in the classrooms that we want to have in the 21st century.

       Learning is key.  Learning is everything.  If we aren't in school for learning, than why are we there?

Deeper Learning

What - 

Deeper learning is simply what highly effective educators have always provided: the delivery of rich core content to students in innovative ways that allow them to learn and then apply what they have learned. 

More -

Rigorous core content is at the heart of the learning process; true deeper learning is developing competencies that enable graduating high school students to be college and career ready and then make maximum use of their knowledge in life and work.

The basic concepts of deeper learning are not new to education; indeed, they are routine educational practice for many accomplished individual teachers and educators and some high-performing schools. These successful practices are now being confirmed by increasing bodies of evidence underscoring the necessity for deeper learning as an integral part of the education process.

Deeper learning prepares students to

• know and master core academic content;
• think critically and solve complex problems;
• work collaboratively;
• communicate effectively; and
• be self-directed and able to incorporate feedback.

Why -

Trends in the economy mean that the fastest-growing jobs are those that require problem solving and critical thinking, while those that require only routine manual skills will be in decline.

A 2012 report by the National Research Council concluded that deeper learning competencies—the ability to apply knowledge to new situations—are associated with better life and work outcomes. (source)

More information -

While economic data suggests that individuals will benefit from developing deeper learning abilities, the nation as a whole will only succeed if large numbers of individuals—particularly those from traditionally underserved groups—learn deeply. Making deeper learning opportunities more equitable is imperative from both a moral perspective and an economic perspective.

Read more about Deeper Learning.  

Creating a Better High School - Part 3

       This is the third in a three-part series that will look at the structures in place in our current high schools that don't make sense or are not needed anymore.  I want to think about the best way that students learn and create a high school that will serve these learners.  I also want to think about the true purpose of high schools in our time.  My goal isn't to imagine a "High School of the Future", but instead to consider what can realistically be done today.  As always, I encourage my readers to add their thoughts and ideas.  Together we can create the high school that our students want and need today.

Create a Better High School

Part 1 - Current school structures that aren't necessary anymore.

Part 2 - How students learn and how schools can react to these learners.

Part 3 - The purpose of high school

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The Purpose of High School

       This could be a short post because all I really want to say is that the purpose of high school is "Learning".  That's it.

       Indeed, the purpose of schooling in general is learning.  However sometimes it seems that the purpose of high schools is "getting-a-good-grade".  This can be stated in many ways:

• Getting a grade
• Doing what your told
• Compliance
• Grade Point Average (GPA)
• Test scores

But this is not the intention of high school.  The purpose of high school is learning.  We want students to learn.  In fact its more than that...We want students to learn how to learn.  Our current system is all about doing stuff to get a good grade.  Learning might take place; and we (as educators) certainly want learning to take place.  But many students are stuck in the rut that says, "I just have to do what I'm told to get the grade; to get the credit."  For many students, "Learning" comes in second or third place (if rated at all) in their list of priorities.

       So how do we create a better high school that emphasizes "Learning" over "getting-a-good-grade"?  We know that when students are interested and excited about what they are doing, they are more likely to try their best and more likely explore, to ask questions, and engage in the effort to complete the task.  Therefore, we need high school to include more project-based tasks.  We also need students to engage in tasks in small groups so that they have the chance to debate ideas with fellow students and allow their peers to evaluate their ideas and suggestions.

       I believe that we (also) need high school to include instructional techniques that encourage a growth mindset in our high school students.  Part of the reason that students sometimes show such a small amount of motivation is because they believe that no amount of effort will enable them to learn.  We want students to understand the value of effort.  Growth mindset teaching helps students to understand this.  But growth mindset is not well understood by our current teachers.

       Our better high school will evaluate learning in different ways.  Rubrics, peer evaluation, presentations, portfolios.  We already use a lot of these methods.  This is not futuristic; this is today.

       We have to separate the "Learning" of high school from the "Grading" of high school.

Creating a Better High School - Part 2

       This is the second in a three-part series that will look at the structures in place in our current high schools that don't make sense or are not needed anymore.  I want to think about the best way that students learn and create a high school that will serve these learners.  I also want to think about the true purpose of high schools in our time.  My goal isn't to imagine a "High School of the Future", but instead to consider what can realistically be done today.  As always, I encourage my readers to add their thoughts and ideas.  Together we can create the high school that our students want and need today.

Create a Better High School

Part 1 - Current school structures that aren't necessary anymore.

Part 2 - How students learn and how schools can react to these learners.

Part 3 - The purpose of high school

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How students learn and how schools can react to these learners

        When I think about creating a new high school, I'm really thinking about all of the traditional structures of our current high schools that don't respond to the way students learn.  The typical high school class still consists of a teacher in the front of the room who does most of the talking while students sit in rows facing the front of the room and take notes.  Students generally only talk to answer a question; to which the teacher confirms or denies its correctness.  This sort of learning (generally) falls in the "Lecture" category which is the least effective strategy for helping students to learn.

       The organization Jobs for the Future has recently published a series of papers titled Students at the Center.  In this series, they list four principles of student-centered learning.  These are:

• Learning is personalized
• Learning is competency based
• Learning takes place anytime, anywhere
• Students exert ownership over their learning

These four principals lead to deeper learning which is the sort of learning that gets students exited about what they are learning and encourages retention of their learning.  Deeper learning prepares students for both college and careers because it teaches them how to solve problems, how to work with other people, and how to think critically.

       The "changes" needed in our current high schools are changes that respond to these four principles and respond to the best ways that students learn.  This will require changes for teachers as well as changes in the expectations for schools from our parents.  Part of the struggle of changing high schools is that every adult has had the same basic schooling experience.  We are comfortable with it.  Teachers teach the way they were taught--they didn't devise these structures, they just mimic from their high school teachers and the only changes are additions of what they thought their teachers should have done and subtractions of what they thought their teachers did wrong.

       We need our high schools to be the places in which students are still learning to write and read and do math and understand history and make and appreciate art and learn about physical fitness.  But all of this has to be done in a way that encourages learning as opposed to encouraging "getting-a-good-grade" and encouraging competition with other students.  Students need to actually solve problems, to work with each other, to talk and learn how to argue their point.  The college-bound students should be able to master the beginnings of Physics and Calculus; but should also be to experience the work of the field they aspire to enter.  They should be able to more than just what they are told to do.  They should be thinkers and reasoners and creators and doers.  The career-bound students should master the art of expressing themselves in written and oral forms; they (too) should experience the workplace before leaving high school.  They should know how to build on the basic skills of any job and seek ways to make it better.

       We want students to learn; we want them to learn how to learn; and we want them to learn in abundance.  Because learning doesn't stop when you receive your high school diploma.

Creating a Better High School - Part 1

       This is the first in a three-part series that will look at the structures in place in our current high schools that don't make sense or are not needed anymore.  I want to think about the best way that students learn and create a high school that will serve these learners.  I also want to think about the true purpose of high schools in our time.  My goal isn't to imagine a "High School of the Future", but instead to consider what can realistically be done today.  As always, I encourage my readers to add their thoughts and ideas.  Together we can create the high school that our students want and need today.

Create a Better High School

Part 1 - Current school structures that aren't necessary anymore.

Part 2 - How students learn and how schools can react to these learners.

Part 3 - The purpose of high school

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Current School Structures that Aren't Necessary Anymore

       There's this "joke" about schools that educators don't find funny at all.  The joke says that Rip Van Winkle sleeps for 100 years.  When he wakes up, he walks around town and notices everything is different.  The grocery store, the cars, the roads, the clothes people wear,...everything.  Then he comes to a school and walks in and sees a classroom and he smiles and says, "Finally, something that looks familiar to me."  (Don't laugh.  Not funny.)

       People like "familiar".  People tend to resist change.  But do you really want a doctor who only uses medical knowledge from 1920?  Do you want an ice box instead of a refrigerator?  Do you want a rotary phone instead of a smart phone?  Why do we welcome these changes and resist changes to our schools?  

       Mr. Van Winkle recognized the student desks in neat rows and the teacher's desk in the front of the room.  He recognized the chalkboard on the front wall.  If he happened to visit while school was in session, he would see all students arrive at school at the same time and leave at the same time.  He might have recognized the students moving from class to class every 45 minutes; carrying textbooks and pencils and notebooks.  During classes, he might have recognized the teacher verbally teaching--doing most or all of the talking--while the students took notes and listened to the teacher.  If he stayed for a few days or a few weeks, he might see the teacher giving written tests and returning assignments with grades on them.  He would see report cards.

       I want to think about basic school structures and think about if they are still the best way to conduct a high school in the 21st century.  Here's my short list:

• Why does high school have to start at 7:30am?
• Why do all classrooms have a "front"?
• Why do teachers do most of the talking?
• Why are desks in rows and pointing in the same direction?
• Why do we use individual students desks?
• Why do we use grades to measure knowledge?
• Why do all students learn the same thing at the same time?
• Why do textbooks constitute the "primary source" of content?
• Why four years?

       Do these structures produce the results we want?  Do these structures "work" for most of our students?  It's not that I don't like structure.  We have a lot of students and a lot of instruction in a lot of content areas to provide to them.  Structure of some sort is probably necessary.  But does it have to be these structures--the same basic structures that we've had in high schools for a hundred years?  Is there a better way to use the tools of education that we have today to help our students of today to prepare for their futures of tomorrow?

       Most or all of the items on my list are not part of SOME high schools (or some classes in some high schools) today.  So this isn't a futuristic view of what high schools could be--these things are happening today in some small way in many of our high schools.  But should these structures change for all of our high schools?  And what will be the new structures for high schools?

Education that REALLY Prepares Our Students

 
       This week I've had the great fortune of attending the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting.  Many subject areas hold these types of large, national conferences to help teachers and supervisors and school board members and principals to grow professionally and help students to achieve.

       I attended one particular session that discussed the need for our schools to examine the needs of the world that we live in and to make appropriate changes to the education that we provide to our students--the adults and workforce of the next generation.  The speaker was Diane Briars; President of NCTM.  She referenced the book Education for Life and Work (2012) that discussed the sort of competencies that will increase in the near future.  These include:

• non-routine analytic skills
• non-routine interactive skills
• thinking
• reasoning
• expressing information to others
• interpreting information and responding appropriately

       Math teachers know that we teach reasoning and problem solving and analytic thinking.  But we currently teach these skills under the guise of Algebra and Geometry courses.  Is there a better way?  Would it be better to teach these skills within a context rather than strictly in the abstract?  And what about the actual teaching strategies that are employed when presenting such content to students?  Ms. Briars cited a study from 2014 that stated students learn better in active learning classrooms than they do in the traditional lecture-type classrooms.  Active-learning classrooms would use strategies such as: (i) Occasional group problem solving, (ii) Tutorials completed during class, (iii) Use of personal response systems, and (iv) Increased emphasis on student discourse including student-to-student discourse and teacher-to-student discourse.

       Finally, in the report titled, A Common Vision , the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) states that the status quo of teaching mathematics to our undergraduate students is no longer acceptable given that so many students struggle to complete the first one or two mathematics classes offered to them.  We need to see cooperation between the P-12 system and the collegiate system to create courses and course pathways that help students to learn the skills they need to learn to be successful in the world they will inherit.  One possible solution is to offer math courses that are not based on Algebra or Calculus--considering that the content learned in these classes is not necessary for the majors that some of our students seek.  For instance, Journalism may not need to know Calculus, but they will need to know statistics and how to interpret data.  

       From time to time, great institutions need to examine their work in light of the goals that they seek to achieve.  Education is one of those great institutions.  Such change should not be rare but (indeed) should be ongoing.  We no longer live in the 1920s or the 1960s or even in the 2000s.  We have an obligation to prepare our students for their world.  

Encouraging a Growth Mindset for your Students

       Growth Mindset is an understanding that you can learn and achieve anything if you are willing to work and practice and study and try.  A student's ability to learn is not predetermined from birth.


       This is an important concept for teachers who seem to always have some students who believe that they are not born with the skills necessary to learn.  A common saying among some students is, "I don't have a math brain.", meaning, "I don't have the ability to learn math regardless of the extent of my efforts."  We know now that this is not true.  But teachers are often faced with the prospects of needing to convince some of their students that this is not true.

       This chart is filled with suggestions for helping students to view their perceived obstacles in a different way.  Part of a teacher's job is to motivate their students to do their best everyday.  The more that we can convince students and then demonstrated to students that effort leads to (at least some level of) success, the more we are able to create a learning atmosphere in which students believe that they can learn.

       Growth Mindset is for weak and strong students alike.  We also have students who have been successful in the traditional school setting who don't have a growth mindset.  These students may have been praised for their "smarts" and they may be afraid to try something new for fear of not succeeding.  This limits their ability to grow.  Hence, encouraging a growth mindset is for all students and not just for a few.  Our best teachers have always been encouraging a growth mindset.  We have all had teachers who were able to convince us to try and to work hard in the belief that we would eventually succeed.  We need to see this occurring much more often in our classrooms.





Blended Learning - 21st Century Schools

       For the past two decades we (in education) have been talking about 21st century schools.  I've read books about it; I've attended lectures; I've read articles; I've had numerous conversations.  The crucial need to end our 19th century, factory-model schools and begin to give our students the school experience that will (best) prepare them for the world that they will inherit has been upon us for a long time.

       When I look at the trend toward Blended Learning, I see the 21st century school that I've always imagined.

• Students are learning at their own pace.
• Teachers can give better individual feedback.
• Students have choices of how they learn best.
• More student-to-student discussion
• More emphasis on learning and less emphasis on grading
• More student engagement
• Less discipline issues because less students being bored in class
• Better preparation for college and career
• Research skills
• Personal responsibility for learning
• Working in teams and working individually

       Change is always hard.  But change that helps students to be better learners is change that is necessary.  Blended Learning should become the norm in our public schools.  The traditional classroom of sitting in rows and listening to lectures is not the best way to learn anymore.

       Take some time and learn about Blended Learning.  It is the right thing for our students for today and for tomorrow.

We Do Something Important Every Day

       Education is important business.

       Once in a while, a student needs to be somewhere else in the school during the time that she should be in my classroom.  Club meetings, picture day, sporting events, ... lots of activity going on in a typical high school.  So this mature and responsible student comes to me a day or two before and asks, "Are we doing anything important tomorrow?"

       My answer is always the same:  We do something important Every Day.  Bell-to-bell learning; every minute, every day; valuable instructional time....  Call it what you will, the stuff that goes on in the classroom--in every classroom--is valuable and important.

       Sometimes it is hard to see the importance of something we do everyday.  It becomes commonplace; and without an engaging teacher it can become boring.  The best learning occurs when the teacher understands the importance of every minute and communicates this to the students via thoughtful, engaging lessons.

       Education is important; everyday, every minute.

It's Time for Our Schools to Leave the 20th Century

       You know the old joke about Rip Van Winkle and schools?  He falls asleep for a hundred years and upon waking up he sees everything he used to know has changed dramatically.  The houses look so different.  The clothes that people wear are very different.  And the cars...wow.  Then he finds a school and walks inside.  He goes into a classroom and he is comforted to see that schools and classrooms haven't changed a bit.

       We educators don't think this is very funny.

       In fact, it is embarrassing for us carry out the important work of education today in the same way that we did this work 50 or 30 or even 20 years ago.  Doing so ignores the research about learning that has been done over the past few decades.  It ignores the research about how the brain reacts to the stimuli that occurs in classrooms.

       For instance, we know that most students can't learn to the best of their ability strictly by sitting in class for a whole class period and listening to the teacher talking (and taking notes).  We know that students are more engaged when they have the opportunity to participate verbally and when they have a chance to get up out of their seat and participate physically in some way.  We have technology that we didn't have (even 20) years ago that can be tapped to help our students to prepare for the information world that they will enter after high school.

        We are not preparing our students by merely teaching them to read, write, and do arithmetic.  These things are important, but they are not enough.  Memorizing facts long enough to get a good test grade will not prepare our children for the world that they will inherit.  Our schools have the responsibility to mirror the society that our students will experience.

       Twentieth Century schooling is not what our students need.  Most of them have never even lived in the 20th century.  I believe that our current education leaders understand this need for our schools to change.  Part of the responsibility of our public schools is to explain this need for change to our parents and to our communities.  Staying the same is easy; change is hard.  Schools often face opposition from communities who tend to say that "The old way was good enough for me and it's good enough for our kids."  We need to make the case against this sort of thinking.

       Someone needs to speak for our students and for their futures.

Group work is a Necessity for Students

       Our school district recently had an essay contest in which students were asked to describe their Ideal Math Class.  Submissions came in from students in grades 4 to 12.  Nearly every student said that they wanted to work in groups for at least a portion of the class time.  Students want to have the opportunity to ask each other questions and to share their ideas with a small group of peers.

       In fact, the benefits of group work in the classroom are well known.  The Center for Innovation in the Research and Teaching has compiled the following list of benefits of group work:

• Students able to take ownership of the subject matter.

• Students develop communication and teamwork skills.

• Content is reinforced as students work together and "teach" each other.  This improves understanding through additional discussion and explanation.

• Content may be broken down into parts.  This allows students to tackle larger and more complex problems and assignments than they would be able to do individually.

• Students can work together to pool their expertise, knowledge and skills.

• Students hold one another responsible and accountable.

• Teaches students to plan more effectively and manage their time.

• Instructors benefit by seeing students approach problems in novel and unique ways. This can improve the instructor's perspective and make their future teaching more effective.

• Instructors are able to have the content reinforced by giving the students ways to apply what they have learned in a collaborative setting.

       As teachers, we want students to have different learning experiences.  We know that all students do not learn best by merely listening to the teacher and taking notes.  We want students to learn how to learn and one way to do that is to give them these opportunities in the controlled atmosphere of the classroom.

       "Group work" is a general term that can be implemented in many ways in the classroom.  The Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence has suggested many ways for teachers to incorporate group work into their lessons.  Marzano lists cooperative learning as one of his Nine High Yield Instructional Strategies.  

       Group work breaks the mold of the traditional teaching model that keeps the teacher in the front of the room all the time and the students in neat rows of desks and (usually) not talking very much.  Group work requires planning and preparation on the teacher's part.  It also requires teachers to allow some productive, learning noise to be part of their typical class on a regular basis.

       As we prepare our students for the world of work, we need to give them opportunities to work and to learn with their peers as this will (very likely) be a part of their own professional experiences as adults.

Motivated to Learn

       I often say to new teachers that it may not be your job to entertain your students, but it is certainly part of your job to motivate your students.

       We know that actual "teaching" is only a part of a teachers job.  The most major part of the job is ensuring that students are learning.  Our best teachers know that most students don't learn strictly by listening.  Learning requires doing, talking, asking questions, making mistakes, and doing some more.  Teachers plan lessons that keep their students engaged.

       Strategies to keep students motivated include lots of basic things such as:

1. Calling on students every class (preferably at least three times each class),
2. Allowing opportunities for students to get out of their seats during every class,
3. Playing games that require students to understand the objective for the day to do well in the game, 
4. Asking a lot of "Why" questions that require students to think and to explain their thinking,
5. Allowing students choices to demonstrate their learning.

       Students can't learn if they are not motivated to learn.  Requiring students to sit still and listen to the teacher for 45 minutes or 50 minutes or 90 minutes is not an effective way to instill true learning.

       What do you do to motivate your students to do their best everyday?

Teachers Who Make Learning Exciting

       There is a secret that every teacher knows...and every teacher hopes that students never find out about this secret.  The secret is...we can't force anyone to learn anything.

       There is no physical way that a teacher (or anyone else) can actually force a student to learn.  It can't be done.  The best we can do is convince students that learning has a practical purpose and that everyone is capable of being able to learn.

       Fortunately, most students "get it" that school is the place where they are taught things, and school is the place where they are assessed to determine the quality of their learning.  So most of the time, teachers don't have to do too much convincing of the purpose of learning.

       Still, there comes a time in every student's life in which they struggle to learn things easily.  When this happens, it is the skill of the teacher to motivate students; to convince students of their (continued) ability to be able to learn; and to engage students in the process of learning that keeps students on the learning path.

       All of us have had teachers like this.  They make learning fun.  You don't even know that you are learning; you don't care about your grade.  You just love going to her class because the teacher treats you like a real person; is glad to see you everyday; and makes a point to have every student feel part of the community of the classroom.

       Our best teachers strive to improve their skills every year.  Increasing these "skills" do not involve strengthening their content skills, but instead involve adding to their skill set the ability to engage their students in the process of learning.  Every students wants all of their teachers to be this sort of teacher and every parent wants this sort of teacher for their child.

       Thank you to all of these teachers who find a way to reach all of your students.  You make learning what it should be...an exciting adventure!

Make Math Meaningful: Math Tasks

       The days of the boring worksheets in math class and the word problems about the train leaving New York are over.

       Well...actually, they're not over.  But they should be over.

       We already know that most students (and adults) do not learn new things very well just by listening to someone explaining it; after which the teacher often says something like, "Does anyone have any questions?"  This is when the students want to say, "How can we have any questions about this?  You just taught it to us one minute ago.  (And then they get a worksheet.)

       This is passive learning.  This learning promotes adherence to procedures and getting-the-right-answer over true learning and understanding.  Some students do fine and some students do not; and it is simply not acceptable to engage in teaching strategies that don't help all of our students.

       Math classes should be places where students are actively engaged in their learning.  Students are presented with a problem or a task and they work in groups to brainstorm ideas based on the objectives that they have been recently learning.  The final answer can be reached via multiple solution methods and (most importantly) the students are using and learning mathematics simultaneously.  Finally, students are able to explain what they are doing (teaching others) which is a way for students to demonstrate their understanding.

       Math Tasks are written to be activities that students can do in small groups in their math classrooms under the direction and supervision of their math teacher.  Math Tasks are meant to take the place of the old 20-problem-worksheets during class time.  Instead of students working quietly and independently, they are working together with other students: learning from each other and sharing their ideas.

       There are many online resources that have wonderful math tasks.  Some of my favorites are:

• Illustrative Mathematics
• Go to Content Standards, then chose a Grade, then chose a Domain, then chose a cluster, then chose a standard and you'll see a list of Math Tasks.
• Mathematics Assessment Project (MAP)
• Click on Tasks and see a list of middle school and high school Math Tasks.
• Inside Mathematics
• Click on Performance Assessment Tasks and chose a grade or course to see a list of Math Tasks

      Math Tasks model the way math is done in the real world.  That's where you are presented with a problem and you have to decide which resources to use to find a path to the answer.  There is more than one way to get the answer and sometimes there is more than one possible answer.  Math Tasks help our students to understand mathematics.

Why Do You Teach?

       The school year ended four days ago and I am thinking about welcoming my teachers to the next school year.  (Wow.  That was a short summer vacation.)

       Every year in our school district the teachers return to school one week before the students return.  On one of the days of that first-week-back, all of the secondary teachers in the district meet in their subject areas for a full day of professional development before the school year begins.  This is a time to learn about new resources, to network with other teachers in other schools, and to energize teachers to get excited about the new school year.

       We know that an effective teaching strategy for student understanding is to ask a lot of questions that encourage students to think about what they are learning.  If students can explain what they are doing and why they are doing it, they must understand it pretty well.  It also reinforces the idea that we want students to understand underlining concepts and not just to get-the-right-answer.

       In that vein, I am going to ask our teachers some questions in an effort to encourage them to think about what they do and why they do it.  These question will challenge the teachers to consider different possibilities.  They will be questions that defy simple answers.

       I'm in the beginning stages of preparing this presentation and I am certainly open to suggestions.  Feel free share (in the comment section below) other questions that you feel would be good questions for teachers in the beginning of the school year.

Questions:
(1) Why do you teach?
(2) What are your goals this year?
(3) What will you do differently this year?
(4) How will you make a difference?
(5) What do you want to learn this year?
(6) Why is mathematics difficult for some of your students?
(7) How will you help students who don't ask questions?
(8) How will you engage your students in their learning this year?
(9) How do you help your students to value "learning" over "getting-grades"?
(10) Why do you teach?

       We ask (or should be asking) our students difficult questions every day.  As such, we need to ask ourselves difficult questions.  Teaching students who are willing and able and ready to learn is easy.  But trying to reach the unwilling, the struggling, and the distracted student takes time and effort and expertise.

       Why do you teach?

We Should Value Good Thinking More Than We Value Good Memorizing

       Stanford professor, Dr. Jo Boaler, recently published an article titled, "Memorizers are the lowest achievers...".  In it she makes the point that some students are really good at memorizing math facts and memorizing math procedures, but (sometimes) these same students are very poor at understanding the concepts connected to these math procedures.  To those who believe that "mathematics" is nothing more than adding and multiplying, it may seem odd that we (educators) view this issue of memorizing as a bad thing.  It may also seem untrue that these memorizers are low achievers.

       Dr. Boaler goes on say that here in the United States, we (often times) reward students for being good at memorizing math facts, but offer very few compliments and rewards for being good thinkers and reasoners.  She says that, "We need students who can ask good questions, map out pathways, reason about complex solutions, set up models, and communicate in different forms."  These are the skills that help students to be good and successful learners, as well as helping them to understand the abstract, higher-math skills taught in upper Algebra classes and Calculus.

       The same thinking that favors memorization (often) also believes that students who are able to come up with answers quickly must be smarter than those who are slower to answer questions.  This, too, is not true but (sadly) is often the message that is given to students in school.  Former NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) President, Cathy Seeley, wrote a great book titled, Faster Is Not Smarter.  In this book, Ms. Seeley stresses the importance of teaching mathematics for understanding and not just for "getting the right answer".

       High school mathematics teachers will tell you that it is a common situation to have students in (say) an Algebra 2 class or a Pre-Calculus class that were consider great "math students" in elementary and (maybe) in middle school, but then suddenly began to struggle in mathematics in high school because they never really "learned" and understood the mathematics; instead, they just did their best to memorize facts and procedures.  This sort of "learning" is not permanent.  The basic skills of (say) operations with fractions and integers (positive and negative numbers) are quickly forgotten because they were never really learned in the first place.

       But this situation can be changed.  For some it is a huge change from the way we were taught and from the trainers we received as teachers.  For others, it is a very welcome change to the way mathematics teaching needs to be.

       It isn't about grades.  It's about learning.  We need to have a good balance between procedural knowledge and conceptual knowledge.  If we intend to truly prepare our students the best we can for their futures, we need to equip them with the tools to success.  It isn't fair to give students (and their parents) the false impression that they are highly-able just because they are good at memorizing or getting the answers fast.

Top Five Posts of 2014

       As I complete my first full year of blogging, here is a look at the top five posts of 2014.

#5) This is our finest hour

       This was published on November 21st.  This post recalled the Apollo 13 moving scene when the Ed Harris character said, "This is our finest hour".  I compared this to educators today that view the exciting things happening in the world of education today.  I said that today's educators do amazing things in (sometimes) difficult situations.

       I do believe that is our finest hour and we are fortunate to be teaching in this exciting time!

#4) Everyone has value

       I was inspired to write this post after seeing a middle school student in my district give a speech titled, "Everyone has value."  She told a story of a one-hundred dollar bill.  She said, if she asked anyone of they would like to have a one-hundred dollar bill, people would say, "Yes" because everyone recognizes its value.  And if she were to take that one-hundred dollar bill and crumple it up and step on it and then ask people if they wanted it, people would still take it because we still understand and appreciate its value.

       Then she said that everyone has value and we should appreciate ourselves for who we are.  It doesn't matter how we look or the clothes we wear because all of us have value.  

       What a joy it was to listen to this middle school student talking to other middle school students about self worth.  This post really touched a soft spot in many of my readers.  She is a beautiful example of the many great things that take place in our public schools everyday.

#3)  The middle school principal everyone wants to have

       This post was a reprinting of an essay written by my daughter's middle school principal in the school newsletter.  In it, he talked about looking back at his life and wishing he spent more time telling his children how special they are to him.  The essay talked about appreciating every day and all of the people around you.  It talked about something we all want--no regrets in our later life.

       He said that we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously.  He said that we should do our best everyday and not worry if we make mistakes sometimes.  It was a bit of a tear-jerker essay and my readers real enjoyed reading his words.  I first published this post in May, but republished it recently and (once again) it got a good response.

       Principals are the most visible leaders in our public school system.  They have a huge responsibility.  This is the principal that everyone wants because he cares so much about his students. 

#2)  We must do better - part 1

       This was the first of a three part series that I wrote in November of this year.  And it was the most popular of the three parts.  The series talked about the three things (in my opinion) that public schools must improve upon if we are to move forward with higher student achievement in the future.

       This part talked about the achievement of poor students in our public schools.  We know that poor students often have lower achievement than middle class and upper class students.  This has been the case for most of the history of public schooling in America, and we continue to struggle to improve this situation.  Still, we must do better by our poor students if we truly wish to see student achievement (overall) to rise.  Also, we have a moral obligation to help these most vulnerable of our student populations.

#1)  This is how we learn in the 21st century

       After a successful Google Hangout session in front our our Mid-Maryland Mathematics Specialist Group back in March, I wrote this post about professional learning among educators today. No longer do we need to see people face-to-face to learn and to improve professionally.  Today we have so many options from journals to books to online courses to social media to learn from others.

       This was the most popular blog post in 2014 for my blog.  My readers really responded to this idea of using the tools available to us today to learn from educators and others from all over the world--especially via online tools such as Google Hangout.

       It has been a great learning year for me and a great year to talk about the great things that are happening in our public schools.  Thank you for the feedback from my readers and I look forward to more learning and more positive stories about our schools and our educational system in 2015!