About a month ago my daughter's (4 years old) finger tip was cut off in a closing door at a public pool. There followed a very difficult 3 or 4 weeks for her and our family. She's getting better now and mainly concerned with healing enough to go swimming again. I finished my school year today and begin my summer job tomorrow which means catching an early plane to the west coast. I'll be home on the 19th of July and back to regular blogging shortly after that. I've got 2 posts still in draft form and several more in nacent form in my head. This blog will continue to be quiet now but watch for more action towards the end of July.

May you all have an excellent summer and enjoy this wonderful time of year with your families.

All the best!

Darren

The Carnival of Education is being guest hosted here. I've found at least one excellent educational post or blog each week. Check it out.

I can't believe it was two weeks ago that I posted Calculus Food For Thought. Time flies. Anyway, I've had time for some thought and time to talk to some other teachers and my class. Here are some of my thoughts:

I've been working harder than they have; even by their own "calculations".

Their sense of preparedness to write the exam matches their estimated effort. I realize this wasn't a "scientific" data collection, nor is the analysis very scientific but these results provide some small additional evidence to what I have already long believed. Almost anyone, who is willing to try, can do advanced math. Their marks (yes I know, I haven't shared the marks with you -- and I'm not going to .... well .... maybe some averages would be apropos?) are more a reflection of their effort rather than their ability. Why do capable students consistently fail to apply themselves to doing their best work? What's the lack of motivation here? Is it cultural; a failure to appreciate the value of learning? Maybe we don't challenge them enough .... maybe I challenged them too much?

No, they were almost evenly split: Was I too hard or too easy on you? (remember, n = 15, rather small).

I think I have to emphasize more work without the calculator. 40% of the class thought so and while it's not a majority that's too big a percentage for my liking.

The next two questions were interesting (What was the best learning experience you had in this class? What was the worst learning experience you had in this class?) both in the particular answers and in the number of answers. They felt they learned the most from group work and take home assignments. A friend of mine thought the preference for take home assignments was a selfish desire for easy marks but I don't think my assignments are that easy. And, while it is possible they can copy from each other, anecdotally, I got more individual students seeing me for extra help and really learning and understanding the material when they had to do these assignments. Regular take home assignments are also a feature of math courses taught at the university level, so this is a good preparation for post secondary education in mathematics as well.

The variety of answers to the second question I read positively. Some things work best for some folks and not others; everyone learns differently. I had enough variety in the ways I presented and evaluated material so that I managed to aggravate everyone at least once. ;-)

In the class discussion we had of these last few questions, the students were overwhelmingly in favour of more take home assignments.

Right now they are working on their take home exams. (The 6 questions from Form B for you AP Calculus teachers out there.) On the exam they had 90 minutes to do 6 questions like these. I've given them about two weeks.

The standard is: Everyone must get 100% on this exam. Anything less is unacceptable. Here's why: They can get help from me, talk to each other but not show each other any written work (yes, I know, I'm naively optimistic). I'll tell them what they need to fix in order to get that perfect mark. There are no excuses for getting less than 100%. They sure are motivated to get that perfect mark; and I'm very picky about the degree to which they must explain written answers where required.

More than one student has told me this would have been an even better review before the exam. I've decided to test the theory out with my grade 12 precalculus class. I'm giving them their "Go For The Gold" assignment next week. Same conditions. The minimum expectation for everyone is 100%. Anything less is unacceptable. I will send letters home to the parent of any child that gets less than 100% or fails to hand in the assignment. It will explain the assignment (last semester's final exam, it is worth 5% of their class mark), that the child has chosen not to get the 100% mark they could have, and it will have to be signed and returned to me. Whatever mark they get is what will be recorded. And their paper will be returned to them with a single comment; Unacceptable.

I want to try this idea out with the whole department next year. We'll have two of these "Go For The Gold" assignments each semester with the standard set at 100%. I'm hoping that when we do this across the school it will create a bit of a buzz in the community. Every student must get 100% on this assignment which will be handed out on the same day with the same deadline in all our classes. I'm hoping it will change the culture of the school, get the kids focused on learning and help them prepare for and improve their performance on exams. Imagine, every math student in the school gets 100%. What impact will that have on the culture of the school? My grade 12 students are my guinea pigs this semester. Let's see if it works ....

I just finished reading a fairly new blog; Outside [The Cave]. It's fantastic.

Steve is a teacher in Virginia. He's managed to roll a personal reflective/professional growth blog into his classroom blog. The thinking he's sharing with his class (grade 9, many of them are 14 years old) is providing them with excellent modeling of what blogging should look like a la Will Richardson. The impact he's having on them comes across loud and clear in the comments they make to his posts. And the depth of thought they contribute to developing the assessment criteria for their end of year final project is inspiring. This is what blogging should be: a community of learners reflecting on their learning, building authentic assessments of that learning together and growing in the process.

Clarence over at Remote Access a little while back posted about collecting a list of reflective teacher bloggers. I was honoured to be included in his list. I think the educational blogs fall into three, occasionally overlapping, categories:

• »stories, sometimes rants, of things that happen in school with kids or staff, or


• »sharing perspectives and information on the latest news in education, or


• »reflective blogs about teaching and learning.

I'm most interested in that third type of blog. So, taking the lead from Clarence, I've decided to start keeping a links list of those blogs that strike me as most falling into that last category. (I'm still slowly working my way through Clarence's list.) I like lots of different blogs. I read over 70 feeds on a regular basis. I've noticed lots of folks generating long lists of bloggers that they like. But I think over time those lists get awfully long and unwieldy. So, all the stuff I read can be found one click away in my blogroll, but the stuff that moves me the most is in the list of Reflective Edubloggers over there in the column on the right.

I had the good fortune to attend a presentation and briefly chat with Alan November Monday night. After his 90 minute talk he left the entire room breathless.

Some of the themes and issues Alan raised:

The boomerang generation. About 30% (and growing each year) of young people, having left home around the age of majority, return home to live with their parents.

He pointed to Stanford University's Education Program For Gifted Youth (EPGY) website where he showed the curriculum available to the k-2 set for $400US. In math these kids begin algebra in grade 1. Your $400US gets you 3 years of enriched schooling online, 24/7 whenever you want it. Alan said most kids work their way through this curriculum in 6 months! This isn't fair! Education isn't just for the rich! Teachers should collaborate and create high quality, continuously evolving online courses accessible to everyone 24/7. We don't need big software packages like WebCT or Blackboard when something like Moodle is available for free.

He talked about the power of RSS in education. Giving an example of two university students; one with a bloglines account, one without. While the first, RSS educated, student sleeps, his Bloglines account pulls in the latest information from international universities all over the world. He'll use this information to write the various required papers, essays and research summaries in his classes. While the second student sleeps; he sleeps. Which student will have greater academic success? Which will learn more? Which will create, for himself, the best education he can?

Teachers missed the boat with instant messaging. The reaction of the educational community was to keep IM out of school. His 15 year old son, after hearing him talk about IM came home from school one day and told his dad he finished ALL his homework; he typically doesn't do his homework. Alan asked to see it. His son explained: "Well, these two kids are doing the math, those two the English, this group is working on science, another on social studies. When we're done we just IM each other our work." Homework becomes obsolete. (Or does it?) The school thinks this boy should be punished for not doing his homework. Alan suggests he should be rewarded for his social skills, networking ability, intelligence and innovative solution to every students' homework problem. What do you think? How should the education community react to the evolution of blogs, wikis, furl, and other social tools freely available on the internet? He pleads with us not to miss the boat this time.

Alan is advocating a cultural revolution in education. Kids have to learn how to think globally, to manage massive amounts of information and they have to be self-directed in their learning. He's saying that parents need to get their kids globally connected using blogs and wikis. The spur to change the educational system should come from the home. That's a bit of a mouthful. I have trouble getting parents to come out to see me once a semester for parent/teacher interviews.

There was lots more but this is what I'm chewing on for now.

Lots of other folks are chewing on some of these ideas too. Check out these links:

• »Bill Gates recent speech to the National Governor's Association.


• »Clarence, over at Remotre Access, is talking about Globally Competitive Students.


• »Mrs. Ris, over at Mentor Matters, is trying to Strike a Balance.


• »And Will Richardson, at Weblogg-Ed, spins Alan's webcast title, "Fearless Learners, Courageous Teachers," to talk about Fearless Learners, Fearful Schools.

Yeah, an awful lot to chew on ....

Here it is, the long promised podcast Bud and I did. Go get a cup of coffee or tea and sit down for while, we go on for about 30 minutes. ;-)

This was a real experiment for us. We were both experimenting with Skype and it's my first foray into using Audacity. We had a great talk and learned a lot about the technology at the same time.

I'd suggest leaving this window in front of the one that will open for the mp3 file you're about to hear. That way you can follow along with the links below which are arranged in the order they were discussed. I hope you find this as much fun to listen to as Bud and I had making it. Either way, let one of us know your thoughts, questions, concerns, comments, complaints, compliments, confusions, anxieties or any good jokes you've got to share. ;-)

The Blog Pod

Show Notes: The Blog Pod

Blogging on Blogging

Where Have We Heard This Before

The Difference Between Now and When

Seize The Time!

Bouncing Around

Students Wiki, Teacher's Wiki

Mr. K. I Have a Question....(^_^)

Alan November's Webcast

Flickr

Writing HTML

Thanks for listening.....

Bud The Teacher is doing some incredible work with his students in his blogging class, Bud's Blog Experiment. The level of reflection and maturity evinced in their posts is awe inspiring. It just goes to show what kids are capable of when their learning is facilitated by a great teacher who encourages them to take ownership of their education.

Nancy McKeand over at Random Thoughts writes:

Tyr and most of Bud's students get it. I know that Bud has worked hard to make that happen. You have to wonder what would happen if all teachers could educate their students about blogging. I think we would see some pretty incredible thinking and writing.

Anne Davies at EduBlog Insights picks up the thread of Nancy's thoughts and follows it up with a great idea.

I say Amen! I posted "All the Voices Need to Be Heard" a little while back. It was about Tyr and Moe's posts and my students reactions to the discussions. I love having all these student voices in the mix. I think that is crucial but maybe we all need to focus on commenting, in particular on our various student blogs and having our students commenting on other student blogs or our blogs. This is happening but maybe we could step it up.

I think if more of us joined the conversations on blogs with students we could really show the power of blogging. That kind of data could do more to promote blogging than anything else. Nancy has commented to my students' blogs from The Write Weblog group. She makes a difference. I think this aspect of blogging is one that we all need to think more about and make a priority. I know it takes time. I try to do it but need to do much more. I wrote to the students on the "A Look at Bullying" blog. I was astounded at their answers. Sometimes I get carried away and think that I have to comment to all the students, not just one (in a group) so I am going to rethink that and try to make one comment a day to a student who is blogging. It can be one of mine or one of another bloggers' students. One a day..... I like it. So think about it, how about committing to one comment a day to a blogging student? Let's make a difference.

That bullying blog is probably one of my all time favourite educational blogs!

Imagine all of us to working together to educate and encourage all of our students collaboratively. Think of the power available to us through blogging to really make a difference in a different child's life each day. Randomly leave a student blogger a comment each day.

I always end my classes by telling my students to: "go out there and commit random acts of kindness!" That's good advice for me too .... gotta go ....