This really is exemplary mathematics writing. The graphics are minimal. The effectiveness of the writing is what makes it Hall of Fame worthy.


The thing is, all my classes have decided that scribe posts need to be voted into the Hall of Fame. A minimum of 5 votes are required, 8 in the grade 11 class. And tonight, the grade 11 and the grade 12 pre-calculus classes have also outdone themselves. Take a look and see what I mean. ;-)

Over the last week I've been talking to my classes about The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame and what it means to be inducted. The Hall Of Fame is being linked to from a couple of online magazines and being talked about at various PD sessions arround the world. Getting inducted means global recognition of student's work.


The dilemma I've had is that it's becoming harder and harder to determine which posts really belong in the Hall Of Fame. In the past, classes haven't reached this level of excellence this early in the semester. I'm also feeling that students should take more responsibility for evaluating each other's work.


The solution we came up with, in my classes anyway, is that induction into the Hall Of Fame must be the result of accumulating a number of votes. We also discussed who is allowed to vote? Just students in our class or anyone in the world? What about teachers? Do their votes count? The answers to these questions are: Anyone can vote, teachers or students, from anywhere in the world. However one class said that the post must recieve a majority of student votes -- i.e. teachers can vote but teacher votes alone are not enough to get inducted into the Hall Of Fame.


I discussed this individually with each class and each of them came up with slightly different parameters for induction into the Hall Of Fame. To be inducted a post needs:

• » Pre-Cal 30S (Fall 06): 8 votes from anyone.


• » Pre-Cal 40S (Fall 06): 5 votes from anyone.


• » AP Calculus AB (2006-2007): 5 votes from anyone; maximum of 2 votes from teachers.

The class discussion was really interesting. I only thought to turn on Audacity for the last discussion which was with my AP Calculus class. You can listen to it here ... at least you'll WILL be able to listen to it once I get posted ... it's a long weekend in Canada (Thanksgiving) and I forgot to bring the audio file home! ;-)

I've just done some reorganizing of The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame Wiki. I've archived last year's Hall of Famers and have two inductees already for the new school year. I know there are some other teachers out there using scribes in their classes. I hope you'll tell them about the Hall Of Fame, add yourself as a contributor (including of an email link is optional) and start inducting each other's students into this year's Hall Of Fame.


Last year I had talked about designing a badge for the inductees. I've designed two different badges, available in two different sizes. I've already pasted one into one of my student's posts. Mind you, so many of them are doing such great work so early on in the semester, I expect to see a prolifferation of Hall Of Fame inductees.


The HTML code for the badges is on the wiki. Just copy and paste it in right at the begining of your student's Hall Of Fame worthy posts ... and feel free to add your own badge designs; the more the merrier. ;-)

Chris Harbeck teaches grade 8 math in one of our feeder schools. Normally, high school teachers don't really know or work with their feeder school colleagues on a regular basis. Chris has been working with me and my students almost daily. He's been commenting on our blogs and inducting students into The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame; his and mine.


Chris liked the idea of a Hall Of Fame so much that he has created The Growing Post Hall Of Fame. What's a Growing Post?

A Growing Post is a cumulative assignment that allows the students to have a review document of the unit they are taking. Students are given a set time period to complete their post. They are encouraged to include pictures and links as well as text to explain the questions being asked.


If a student is unable to complete their work online a paper version of the assignment is accepted.

Chris has posted what it is and how to orchestrate it with your classes. You should see what some of his kids can do with this idea. This one completely blew me away. (She's in grade 8! What will she be capable of in grade 12 ... and beyond?)


When Chris created the Growing Post Hall Of Fame he included a column called Reason for Induction. I liked this idea so much that I've just done the same in The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame. This is what's great about collaborating and sharing our ideas. Chris likes what I do, develops the idea further which pushes me and I learn from him. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.


In my recent podcast with Dean, he asked me "How do you get into the Hall Of Fame?" I didn't give a very clear answer. I'm still working out exactly what the criteria are for a post to be inducted. Looking at Chris' list of reasons for inducting students has started to give my thinking some focus. When all the posts listed have reasons I'll be able to articulate a better answer to Dean's question.


One of the things I'm struggling with now is the increasing volume of student scribes that are being inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Shouldn't induction be a rare occurrence? Shouldn't it require significant effort on the part of the inductee to be considered? But the students are doing increasingly excellent work, don't all students making this sort of effort deserve the recognition associated with being in the Hall Of Fame? Maybe we should just keep inducting the incredible work students are doing; generate a comprehensive list of outstanding work and follow up in June with The Scribe Post Awards. Maybe have a short voting period and give special awards to the top three (gold, silver and bronze badges). We'll let the students and their audiences do the voting. It's probably best if I stay out of it. I'm feeling less and less qualified to judge the work done at this level. How do you choose who is best when it's all so well done?


I'm feeling increased pressure to get some kind of badge for the Hall Of Famers. ;-)


(Audio comments are welcomed.)

The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame has grown into an incredible resource in a very short time. (Take a look.) And there's a palpable excitement about it in the Pre-Cal 40S class. There has been a six day string of the most outstanding scribe posts ever written. I'm looking forward to seeing how this week unfolds.


Chris Harbeck has added students from his grade 8 classes and a few others from other teacher's classes. The impact this will have on the students will be immeasurable; inducted into the Hall Of Fame by someone they don't know. How would you feel if this happened to you?


A couple of my students have started working on creating a graphic (badge) for The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame. It would be really wonderful if kids everywhere submitted badges they had created. All the submissions will be posted to the wiki and we'll have a short voting period. The winning badge will be used to brand the Hall Of Fame and appear on every scribe post inducted with a link back to the Hall Of Fame page. The winning designer will recieve credit on the wiki. Please encourage your students to join in the competition. ;-)


There is a page on the wiki that is really for teachers. I've put together a bit of a "how to" page for teachers that would like to explore the use of scribe posts in their classes.


(You can leave an audio comment on this post.)

Thanks go out to Chris Harbeck, Lani Ritter-Hall and Graham Wegner for leaving postivie comments on Michael's, Janet's and Jefferson's scribe posts. The impact has been dramatic.


Marc was scribe today. I didn't think it possible, but he raised an incredibly high bar up another notch.


In her comments to Jefferson Lani suggested:

Just a thought: I wondered about a Scribing Hall of Fame to which everyone could aspire. It seems to me that you, Janet and Michael should be the initial inductees. You have set such high standards!! Maybe the members of the Hall of Fame could even have mention of their membership in their profile image.

I think this is a great idea. So I built a wiki. The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame. (password: iscribe) The wiki has information to help you orchestrate student scribes in your classes. If you already have student scribes in your classes please populate the wiki with their best work. Then we can all use the space to:

• »encourage other students to excel


• »recognize outstanding work done by students


• »build students self-esteem by using this forum to generate widespread public recognition


• »grow the scribe idea and Hall of Fame in any constructive way you can think of

Lani also suggests there should be some way to mention student's membership in the hall of fame on their profiles. This made me think of a badge. We could brand the wiki with a large one and each student's post entered in the hall of fame could have a smaller version pasted into their winning post. A simple but elegant graphic, in conjunction with the wiki, can achieve all the goals outlined above. I'm not much of an artist. How about you? Then again, maybe we should have a student graphic design competition ... hmm ... I'm going to suggest it to the graphic arts teacher at my school. If you do the same in yours we might really get something going here. What do you think?


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