PIE Conference

Last week I went to the PIE Conference in Lewiston, ID.  In my opinion, it was great!  At first I was disappointed with the selection, as there weren't very many workshops dealing with mathematics, but my disappointment was quickly alleviated.  This is not the first time I have gone to the PIE conference, but it is the first time I was pleased by most of the workshops.  For those of you who don't know what the PIE conference is, I'll give you some background information.

The PIE conference stands for Partnership In Education and is held every year in October.  It is usually the first Thursday and Friday of the month at Lewiston High School and is sponsored by schools all across Idaho. Presenters are brought in to teach 1.5 hour workshops to teachers, student-teachers, administrators, and substitutes while companies come to sell books or hands-on projects.

I began Thursday by listening to the keynote speaker, Kendra Hughes present on Eliminating Bullying and Harassment: Responsibilities of the School Community.  It felt like she was preaching to the choir.  Kendra didn't say anything that wasn't common knowledge, or should be common knowledge.  She talked about the new laws with regards to harassment and bullying and how to recognize each.  Then, Kendra told us stories of things that has happened in some school districts and I was flabbergasted! There was a school who segregated their students by race and forced them to sign a behavioral contract. Another school ignored the harassment of a student until that student committed suicide.  To me, it seemed like these school districts were smacked with the stupid stick.  It was a good presentation overall.

Next, I went to Art Integration: Strategies, Ideas and Activities to Strengthen Learning in the Classrooms presented by Lisa Nelson. Lisa is a coworker of mine at Troy Jr./Sr. High School and she teaches English, Speech, and Art.  She talked about disciplined doodling and how she uses it as a reward in her classroom for good behavior.  I am not a very art-sy person.  As a kid I was told I couldn't draw with a two-handed crayon. However, this was right up my alley!  I can see why students like this type of drawing.  Lisa had cards that outlined the how-to of about 15 doodles.  Each doodle could be repeated over and over and over to form a tessellation like picture.  Students could get so into their doodle that classroom disruption wouldn't be a problem, and they could work on it if they finished early on their classwork.

The third workshop I went to was the BEST.  Dinah Zike presented Foldables Across the Curriculum.  Dinah showed us how to do more hands-on projects with the students without a lot of prep work.  As a teacher, projects that don't take a lot of prep work are considered gold.  There is always a learning curve when implementing new material into an existing lectures so it will take me and the students a little bit of time to get used to the new style.  I probably won't be able to jump right into doing foldables but hopefully I will be able to start them within the month.

The last workshop on Thursday was about the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts and Math.  Common Core State Standard are being adopted nationwide.  This is so students are taught the same thing each year and when students transfer from schools in different states there isn't going to be a large learning gap.  The presenter implied that the US may be working toward removing individual state tests, like the ISAT (Idaho Standard Achievement Test), CAT/5 (California Achievement Test), and ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills), and begin national standardized testing.  Like always, there are pros and cons to doing so.  The workshop was very informative.

On Friday, I went to the keynote speaker, Dave Shepard, present on All Star Teaching-Making the First Team.  Dave's presentation was about being the best possible teacher you can be all of the time.  He had 5 things teachers could do to be an "All-American Teacher".  1. Accept the plan.  Changes are being made in education so quit whining and deal with it.  2. Learn the playbook.  Make lesson plans, and make them relevant.  3. Use the equipment.  Go to conferences, read teaching journals, share ideas, and collaborate with other teachers across the discipline.  4. Find and listen to a great coach.  Talk to a football, basketball, or other sport coach and ask them how they motivate the kids.  Be willing to make changes in your teaching style.  5. Walk with winners.  Associate yourself with great teachers.  Just like in sports, you can only get better by playing with better players or with players who want to get better.

After Dave Shepard's keynote, I decided to go to his workshop on Avoiding Classroom Comas.  He had some great strategies on getting kids up and moving around in the classroom.  Dave stated that students embrace what they can't screw up.  Instead of only asking right and wrong questions, ask open-ended opinion questions.  Students love to give their opinion and it will start some good classroom discussions.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot of open-ended questions that can be asked in the math classroom.  I have come up with a couple of ideas but will need to think on it more.

The next workshop I went to on Friday was Foldables 102 with Jenny Arlt.  Jenny did not think that anyone was going to show up to her workshop so she didn't really have anything prepared.  It was supposed to be a follow-up to Dinah's Foldable workshop from the day before.  Luckily, another teacher came to the workshop who had been using Dinah's foldables for a couple of years and was able to show us some foldables that Dinah hadn't been able to get to.  It could have been a better workshop, but it was still worth going to.

The last workshop of the conference that I went to was presented by Megan Anderson.  She talked about Montessori Education: Past, Present, Future.  Megan gave us a history of Montessori schools and of Maria Montessori.  She told us Montessori schools focus on more hands-on learning and do-it-yourself techniques while trying to get kids learning out in nature.  Megan opened a Montessori school (Pre-K to K) last year and already has kids on the waiting list. To me it just sounds like a glorified daycare center, but for some kids, that is the only way they are able to learn.

I am very happy I went, and I would recommend that anyone in the teaching profession should go.  You are able to confer with other teachers in your field and learn new techniques to integrate into your classroom and curriculum.

Internet Killed the Teacher

Today's topic reminds me of the song "Video Killed the Radio Star".  Here is a question I pose to you: Should the internet replace classroom teachers?  Recently, a law was passed in Idaho requiring all students to take at least one on-line class to meet the 2016 graduation requirements. 

"The state board of education shall promulgate rules to implement the provisions of this section, including a requirement for online courses needed for graduation beginning with the graduating class of 2016, and the development of digital citizenship standards for students to which this graduation requirement applies."  --Senate Bill No. 1184

Reading each of the bills signed into law (SB1184, SB1108, and SB1110) regarding the "Students Come First" Legislation, in my opinion they read as though the goal is to reduce/eliminate classroom instruction and replace it with on-line classes in addition to replacing real live teachers with computers.  So, let's look at this from both sides of the line.

Pro for new requirements:
1.  There would be more diversity within learning.  Students would be able to take classes not normally offered in their high school.  For example, foreign languages other than french and spanish, high end and low end math classes, wider variety of sciences, as well as classes geared more toward what they are interested in. 
2.  Not all students can learn sitting in a classroom.

Con for for new requirements:
1.  Realistically not all classes should be taught on-line. If a student is taking foreign languages on-line they may learn to read and hear the language well but how are they going to know how to say it with the proper inflections.  What about PE? I understand that the Wii is involved in "teaching" on-line PE courses. Hmmm... Who is doing the monitoring to make sure that they are doing all the "moves" correctly? 
2.  When a student is working on their homework at "home", who is making sure that the student enrolled in the class is doing the homework? If the student doesn't have the necessary equipment to take a class (ie. a graphing calculator) is the school also to supply one that the student can take home?  Where is the money going to come from to purchase this equipment if so? 
3.  When students need help on a question while they are at school, they have to wait until their on-line instructor has office hours.  These office hours usually do not fall within the school day so the student must wait until the instructor has a convenient time to help them.
4.  Not all students can learn sitting in front of a computer.

I find it easier to come up with cons to this situation than it is to come up with pros.  Now I understand that I am a little biased when it comes to the new legislation so, please help me see what is so appealing to on-line courses!

A Mathematics Teacher Attempts Writing

Writing is not a strong suit for me.  In fact, the English language and I often don't see eye to eye.  As a mathematics teacher, I find it is easier to write in abbreviations and symbols and harder to use complete words and full sentences.  My spelling is often atrocious and if I cannot find a word that I am looking for I make one up.  I realize I am giving math teachers a bad rap, not all of them are like me.  Heck, I don't even know if I even fit into the math teacher stereotype. However, I digress.  My point to the rambling is to say: This is completely out of character for me.

So why am I attempting to create a blog in the first place? Honestly, it started as an assignment for a class.  But, I have always been curious about blogs and didn't know how to even get into the blogging world.  When I began the class, I was hoping to gain insight into an area of the internet I had yet to explore.  Instead I was shown an entire universe.  I didn't realize that just anyone could create a blog.  Educators, parents, students, entrepreneurs, nature enthusiasts, etc. Amazing!

I am planning on dedicating this blog to the education aspect of my life. My teaching, my students, and even my own learning are all up for grabs.  I don't know how often I will post or what my topics will be but let's take the journey together!  Thank you for your support and hopefully my grammar won't make you jump out the window.