Best and Worst of Tech and Topics

My favorite part of Tech and Topics was when Jaime and I were working on our videos and they made us sound like chipmunks! But really, I loved how laid back the environment was. I learned so much during this semester, but never felt stressed about the work load or dreaded coming to class. I will definitely take what I have learned here and apply it in my classroom.
My least favorite part was the time of day. By the time 7:00 PM rolls around on a Thursday, I'm pretty tired and ready for the weekend. However, this class was definitely exciting enough that it didn't put me to sleep! While I would have preferred to take it at a different time, I am still glad that I was part of this section. Mr. Becksfort did a great job with the class and I benefitted from being here each week.

Movie Review

            Stand and Deliver tells the inspiring story of Julio Escalante, a teacher who had a significant impact on a high school in East Los Angeles. Escalante was originally hired to teach computer science, but learns on his first day on the job that the school does not have computers. As a result, he has been asked to teach a math class instead. However, he is not just given any math class, but a class full of students that the other teachers have given up on. He is very hard on these students because he wants them to show everyone who has given up on them that they are capable of succeeding. After teaching these students for a year, he approaches the math department and tells them that he wants to teach his students AP Calculus. The rest of the department told him he was crazy, but he ignored their comments and was determined to prove them wrong.

            Before Escalante began teaching AP Calculus, he made his students sign a contract that included the following rules: (1) they would arrive at school before the school day started and stay after the day ended, and (2) they would come to school on Saturdays, holidays and during the summer. Surprisingly, all of the students agreed to his terms. After about a year of hard work, all of the students took and passed the AP test. However, since they were from such a low performing school, they were accused of cheating. Escalante was furious. After putting up a fight with the people who issued the test, the students all took the test again, but were only given one day to study for it. Despite this, all of Escalante’s students passed once again.

            Lean on Me tells the story of Joe Clark and how he transformed a low performing high school in Paterson, New Jersey. After being fired from the school twenty years earlier, the mayor of Paterson rehired Clark as principal of a school that has turned into a den of drugs and violence. Clark’s job was to keep the school open and bring their test scores up to 75%. In order to do this, Clark added security to the entire school, told his teachers what they were doing wrong and expelled the lowest performers. This final action infuriated many parents.

            One mother in particular made it her goal to rid the school of Clark. She got her chance when she found out that he put chains on the school doors to keep drug dealers out. Claiming this was a safety hazard, the mother pressed charges and had Clark put in jail. Despite this mother’s position, the students protested while Clark was in jail, as they wanted him back in school. Clark was eventually released and managed to bring up the students’ test scores and keep the school open.

            Julio Escalante and Joe Clark are similar in a number of ways. First, they both more or less single-handedly turned their respective schools around. They had a number of coworkers who were not supportive of their initiatives, yet they rose to the challenge and did not give up. Additionally, they both developed great relationships with their students. While they were still seen as the authority figure in the classroom and school, it was clear that their students truly admired and respected them.

            Despite their similarities, Escalante and Clark had a number of differences too. First, since Escalante has left his school, the students there have continued to flourish. At the end of the movie, the statistics of the number of students who passed the AP Calculus test since that first year were shown. The results were incredible – they continued to increase every year. However, when Clark left his school, it quickly returned to its previous ways. Drugs, violence and test scores are still an issue and they are known for being a low performing school.  Additionally, these two men had very different approaches of how to turn a school around. Escalante began with the students who other teachers had given up on. He showed them that he believed in them and upon their passing the AP test, showed the rest of the school that if the lowest performers could succeed, then so could they. Clark, however, began by eliminating the lowest performers. He thought that if he got rid of the students who were causing problems or simply not succeeding, he would then have an easier time raising the schools’ scores as a whole.

            Julio Escalante and Joe Clark were two incredible individuals and serve as great role models for current teachers and administrators. Through their example, educators can be reminded how important it is to believe in and encourage their students. When I finally become a teacher, I hope to emulate Escalante and Clark in the way that they treated their students.

Personal Learning Networks

The following is a list of Personal Learning Networks that will benefit me as a math teacher:

Khan Academy - This website has instructional videos for math classes beginning with pre-algebra and going beyond the high school level. It will be a good resource for students who need extra help or for me if I need help coming up with a lesson on a certain topic. Additionally, if I feel that I need to review a concept before I teach it, these videos will serve as a nice refresher.

Classroom 2.0 - Classroom 2.0 is another great resource. It offers math lessons, as well as advice on different topics such as technology, online education, dealing with gifted and special needs students, etc.

Pinterest - Pinterest is an online bulletin board that has tons of different ideas for high school teachers. Whether I am looking for a lesson, ideas for classroom management or a new way to decorate my classroom, Pinterest is bound to have plenty of options.

Cell Phones in the Classroom, On or Off? Go!

When I was in high school, there was a very strict no cell phone policy. If you were caught with one that wasn't in your locker, you were issued a violation. After three "cell phone offenses," you were required to turn in your phone to the office every morning for the remainder of the year. As high school students who seemed to have their phones glued to their hands at all times, that seemed pretty harsh.

Knowing that I will be in a position where I will have to enforce some type of cell phone policy, I have been thinking about their role in my classroom. Part of me says that they should always be turned off because the students need to be focused on the task at hand and not texting people across the room or scrolling through Faceboook/Twitter/Pinterest etc. However, cell phones are a reality in our schools today, so another part of me wants to embrace them and put them to use. Plus, how many students expect their teachers to tell them to take out their cell phones for a lesson? That in and of itself is engaging. Smart phones offer endless possibilities for classroom activities that have the potential to be extremely beneficial. Therefore, while there is a time and place for everything, I don't think having cell phones in the classroom is always a bad thing.

21st Century Students

One word comes to mind when I think of what to teach my students about living in the 21st century: technology. At the rate technology is evolving in our society, it is vital that they are able to understand and utilize it. Assuming I am in a school that has access to laptops, tablets, iPads, etc., I will be able to incorporate technology in a number of ways. First, I am a big fan of FluidMath, a program that can be installed on tablets, and would love to regularly incorporate it into my lessons. Next, it is important for students to have at least a basic understanding of Microsoft Excel, so I will be sure to make mine use it in certain assignments. This will be especially applicable in a Probability and Statistics class. Finally, my students will be required to use Power Point, Prezi, Windows Movie Maker, etc. when giving presentations to the class. I will set the example by using this kind of technology on a regular basis, however, I will hold my students to a high standard when it comes to them using it too.

Web 2.0

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a great website that contains a variety of games and teaching tools for all levels of mathematics. One of my favorite games is Turtle Geometry. This would be a fun game for students to play in a Geometry class after learning about degrees and rotations. The object of the game is to get the turtle through a maze. However, in order for the turtle to move, the user must give it directions including how many degrees it should turn and how many steps it should take. This is a fun, interactive and somewhat competitive way to apply what the students have learned.

Mathway is another great online tool for students and teachers and could be used in the classroom a number of ways. First, if students forgot or didn't have their graphing calculator with them, this site can serve as a replacement. It provides all of the functions of a typical graphing calculator and then some. It allows students to evaluate integrals, find derivatives, calculate probabilities using normal distributions, etc. Additionally, a teacher is able to click on a topic and have a worksheet of similar problems immediately generated. Finally, it is a good resource for students who need extra help. In addition to calculating answers, the student has the option of viewing the process step by step.

Technology Troubles

While technology is usually a great thing, sometimes it can cause more of a headache than it's worth. Unfortunately, we've probably all been in a situation where we are counting on our technology to work, yet it let's us down. This happened to me just a few weeks ago.

Part of my job as a Club Softball officer at Xavier is keeping our website up to date. This includes posting our game schedule and results, pictures, stats, current information, etc. A few weeks ago, I had an account set up for me and was told that I could edit the website from any computer. However, when I tried on my Mac, it was ridiculously slow and wouldn't let me upload any pictures. (My computer usually isn't.) Since I was sitting with another officer at the time, I asked her to try on her Mac. Same problem. I decided that since I had a lot to do that night, I'd just try again later in the week. But of course, a few days later, nothing had changed. As a result, I went to the Club Sports office and tried to use the Mac there. This time, however, it worked perfectly. I'm still not sure why I had such problems on my personal computer, but now I know where to go when I need to update the website.