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Unsilence Students’ Voices

by Suzanne Alejandre
October 3rd, 2012

When I decided to write an article with the title Unsilence Students’ Voices I thought long and hard about using “Unsilence”! Every time I typed that word the text editor underlined it in red reminding me that it was not a “real” word. Was I rebelling against that red underlining? Maybe! I decided that it expressed what I wanted to communicate and so I went with it. I’ve now had the article published in the journal of the California Mathematics Council, the CMC ComMuniCator:

Unsilence Students’ Voices, September 2012, CMC ComMuniCator

I’ve presented these sessions with the title, Unsilence Students’ Voices:

November 2-3, 2012, in Palm Springs, CA
California Mathematics Council – Southern Section (CMC-South)
Suzanne Alejandre and Marie Hogan
Session 120: Friday 8:30 – 10:00
November 8-10, 2012, in Rye Brook, NY
Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State (AMTNYS)
Suzanne Alejandre and Bushra Makiya
Session 42: Thursday 3:00 – 4:00
November 30 – December 2, 2012, in Asilomar, CA
California Mathematics Council – Northern Section (CMC-North)
Suzanne Alejandre and Marie Hogan
Session 335: Saturday 11:00 -12:00
Ignite!: Saturday 7:30 – 9:00 (link to video coming soon on Key Curriculum’s YouTube page)

As you read the ComMuniCator article and/or view the resources linked from the sessions, please comment here. How are you helping your students make their mathematical voices heard?

Categories CCSS Mathematical Practices
Comments (0)

An iPad in Class, Part 2

by Suzanne Alejandre
September 9th, 2012

True confession — I had an Original iPad for over a year and while I thought it was cool, I really didn’t use it as much as I had thought I would. When the iPad2 came out I coveted it thinking that I would love the video capability … but … when I finally thought that I might buy one, there was rumor of a new model and I was patient. At the end of July, I made my purchase. And now I’ve been thinking about

  • the one iPad classroom
  • best uses of my iPad as compared to my computer
  • best uses of my iPad as compared to my iPhone

Second true confession — I’ve heard and read about folks who use readers and this and that to keep track of things and I know that @maxmathforum and others will think … good grief, Suzanne … but I’ve just not been at a point where it seemed like I needed to use anything. I wasn’t ready. I continued using my old ways of organizing myself to try to get in tune with some of the new ways that I was trying to learn about. (Yes, my mind makes an analogy immediately to the classroom. Kids who still count on their fingers. Kids who still use tables. I’ve been counting on my fingers but my “teachers” have been patient with me and believed that I would take another step.)

Why am I confessing, you might wonder? This morning I decided it’s finally time for me to get something to organize the blogs I’ve now found myself gravitating to and instead of just having extra tabs open all the time on my browser or depending on a tweet to remind me of a new post I might want to read, I downloaded Pulse. As soon as I started interacting with that app on my iPad, I knew I had made a good choice. It just seemed so intuitive to me. Here are a few things I did as I set things up:

I made two “pages” – the first one is news, sports news, and general things like that. The second page has blogs that I’m starting to follow. As I get into using this, I may add more pages but, for my purposes at the moment, this is enough. I’ve connected it to Twitter and that feature I find very cool:

(left) The tweets of folks I follow that have included a link to a URL in a recent tweet are included in my scrolling list.
(right) If I click on one of those blocks in the scrolling list, the URL opens to the right.

Often I found myself roaming through tweets thinking that I’ll look at the URLs when I have more time. This way, they’re all gathered in one place. And, if I want to save anything on any of this, I just click the “star” icon in the lower left corner.

My husband brought my morning latte upstairs as I was setting up Pulse on my iPad. I showed him and his reaction told me that this was worth sharing on my blog! As he went downstairs, I heard him say to our son, “Lee, go up and see what your mother found!” We all have third generation iPads and we each use them for different purposes.

With my true confessions this morning I’m hoping it helps some folks who are new to using an iPad, find a way to make things more manageable without getting overwhelmed. As I mentioned in An iPad in Class, Part 1, “easy” is key to making sure that you REALLY use it!

Categories iPads
Comments (0)

Symmetry Anyone? #wcydwt

by Suzanne Alejandre
September 7th, 2012

When I saw this (photo above) I suddenly saw symmetry. I’m taking @joshuazucker’s advice and not saying much more than that. Once I took the first photo this morning I continued walking to work and took these photos with that same theme in mind. What do you notice?

click on each photo to view a larger one

click on each photo to view a larger one

click on each photo to view a larger one

Categories wcydwt
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An iPad in Class, Part 1

by Suzanne Alejandre
September 4th, 2012

Once I read “The iPad” section on one of Fawn Nguyen’s August blog posts I became curious about Air Sketch. I tried the Free version and 5 minutes later purchased the full version. The reason that the app caught my eye in the first place is that I’ve been thinking of  easy ways to use an iPad in a classroom. My definition of easy includes:

  • as soon as I download it, I can make it do some of what it’s advertised to do
  • when I try it the second time I can do even more things
  • because of all that I can do (without reading directions) I actually take time to read (scan, at least) the directions and I quickly learn even more features

The best part, however, is how I’m thinking Air Sketch can help make the most of an iPad. It reminds me of when I tried to make the most of one computer in a classroom. Air Sketch lets you display on your computer screen what you draw on your iPad – so if we take that one more step, it allows you to display whatever you project from your computer! Fun. Here are some photos I just took at my desk showing my iPad and my computer screen (imagine that my computer is connected to a video projector instead of my monitor):

Step 1: opened Air Sketch on my iPad and a web page in Safari

Step 2: touched the tiny icon in the lower left corner of my iPad screen to open the controls and typed that URL in Safari

Step 3: whatever I draw on my iPad is “mirrored” on my computer screen

Drawing with my finger is fun … but … I’m focused on how to use this in a mathematics classroom and I consider,

  • calculations — kinds of things that you might write on a whiteboard — instead you walk around with your iPad and students write on it
  • take photos of student work and display
  • display PDFs (or photos of papers)
  • annotate

With the full version I can access my “camera roll”

Another cool feature is that you can save pages.

So, you could save things from one class to use the next day or you could prepare some pages ahead of time and make them visible when ready.

Categories iPads
Comments (2)

Computer Lab Ideas

by Suzanne Alejandre
August 11th, 2012

A post on Fawn Nguyen’s site reminded me that in one of my other lives I was just a middle school computer teacher! And then following those few years when I only taught computers, I taught math in a computer lab. Even though it’s pretty much ancient history, I thought it might be fun to share some of the ideas — if you are a math teacher with access to a lab (portable or another room you can use) or if you are a computer lab teacher who wants to support math teachers maybe you can adapt some of these ideas to 2012!

Tessellation Tutorials
http://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/tess.intro.html
I developed this idea (namely, this HyperCard tutorial: http://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/tess.html ) for my computer elective students. At that time (1995) HyperCard was the only software on the Macs in my lab! Between 1995 and 2000 I added other tutorials for other software programs. I’ve not added anything lately but there’s probably enough there to figure out how to adapt the idea to a paint program that your students have access to on their computers.
CCSSM: developing understanding of transformations (translation, reflection, rotation) in middle school would support what’s expected of students in High School: Geometry
Locker Problem Activity
http://mathforum.org/alejandre/frisbie/locker.html
(includes a link to Nathalie Sinclair’s applet)
Traffic Jam Activity
http://mathforum.org/alejandre/frisbie/jam.html
(includes a link to Mike Morton’s applet – he wrote for me in 1996 and amazingly it still works!)
Ask Dr. Math “Link” pages
I used to write web pages with a focused number of Ask Dr. Math threads. I had students work in pairs and take “Cornell Notes”
http://mathforum.org/workshops/sum2000/link/cornell.html
These are the pages I wrote:
http://mathforum.org/workshops/sum2000/link/
But you could also use some of the Ask Dr. Math: Selected Answers pages:
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/sets/select/
Software I used in my lab (or similar new ones!) that are available for free:
KaleidoTile – http://geometrygames.org/KaleidoTile/index.html
KaleidoPaint – http://geometrygames.org/KaleidoPaint/index.html
Torus Games - http://geometrygames.org/TorusGames/index.html
Curved Spaces - http://geometrygames.org/CurvedSpaces/index.html
Categories technology as a tool
Comments (2)

My View of the World on Thursday #wcydwt

by Suzanne Alejandre
July 27th, 2012

Yesterday when we left the house I had planned to look for “math” on our trip to New York City. I have a tendency to spot symmetrical objects/scenes and tessellations as I view the world and I just thought that Thursday would not be any different than other days. The first leg of our journey was on SEPTA from Morton to 30th Street in Philadelphia. I noticed the floor runner between the aisles of seats. I didn’t take a photo of it but when I got off the train, I took this photo:

It took me some time to fully realize what the dominant mathematical theme for the day would be. Once I got over the fact that tessellations were not going to dominate, I took these photos:

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stripedshirt
relectivepool
trainside

I should have had a clue when I chose what to wear in the morning!

Categories wcydwt
Comments (3)

Connections

by Suzanne Alejandre
June 3rd, 2012

For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed having thoughts and tasks and projects overlap and connect. One overlap that happened recently was because of the work Annie and I were doing at Universal Bluford Charter School. The videotapes we made connected with work I was doing to support the Mathlanding project (a grant with Maryland Public Television) and, in turn, connected with having examples of work that we’re doing in classrooms to show to potential publishers of a book we’re drafting about problem solving and communication. Having those connections encourages reflection and deepened purpose. I think one reason I’ve always enjoyed recognizing connections and taking advantage of them is that whatever I’m working on seems to get better each step of the way — it lengthens into a process instead of an isolated event or task.

In 1995 when I first connected to the Math Forum, Steve Weimar introduced me to Connections. It was how we started each morning of the Summer Institute. I had a feeling that there might be residue from one of the institutes and I just found Steve Means description online:

connections webpage explanation

Do you use some idea of Connections in your work? How might a teacher use the idea? How might a school use the idea?

Categories CCSS Mathematical Practices
Comments (2)

Charlie’s Gumballs Scenario Video

by Suzanne Alejandre
April 6th, 2012

Max Ray acted out what is happening in Charlie’s Gumballs, a problem at the Primary level from the Math Forum’s Problems of the Week (PoWs). We encourage teachers to use the “Notice/Wonder” activity with students as they watch the video and/or listen to or read the Scenario.

Video link: Gumballs

Provided here are freely accessible* links to Charlie’s Gumballs’ teacher resources:

Scenario [pdf]
to handout or display
Primary PoW Packet [pdf]
CCSSM alignment, possible solutions, teaching suggestions
Primary Problem of the Week Scoring Rubric for Students [pdf]
focused on problem solving [interpretation, strategy, accuracy] and communication [completeness, clarity, reflection]
Notice/Wonder [pdf]
student handout or use to get ideas for question prompts

The “Notice/Wonder” activity is designed to help students develop and strengthen CCSS Mathematical Practice #1, Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. ["Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution."]

* These free resources are drawn from the Math Forum’s Problems of the Week program which otherwise requires a subscription. Resources are available at all levels from counting and arithmetic through calculus. See this page for more information.

Categories Videos
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An Opportunity

by Suzanne Alejandre
March 25th, 2012

On Friday, March 16, I had the opportunity to hear John Ewing’s keynote “Who Owns the Common Core Standards?” at this year’s Long Island Mathematics Conference, Limaçon 2012.

His message resonated with me for several points that he made:

  • describing the standards as having a focus on the practices as well as understanding mathematics
  • there are dangers if we only focus on data driven education because student achievement cannot only be measured in test score data
  • education is complicated with many goals intertwined (facts and skills, understanding, creativity, attitude, curiosity, lifelong learning) and it is that broad view of education that is important to us as teachers/students

He ended on a positive note:

“This is your opportunity to show…
…that teaching is a profession
…and that teachers are in charge of that profession.”

He encouraged us not to miss this opportunity.

On the blog The Opportunity Equation, you can read a post by John Ewing on this topic: The Common Core Math Standards: Implications for Teacher Preparation.

If you agree with Dr. Ewing and you are looking for opportunities — I offer you this one if you are a Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade teacher or if you work with teachers working with students at that level. Visit the Math Forum’s new blog:

Elementary Mathematics Practices

What do you notice? (leave a comment) What do you wonder? (leave a comment with a question). Don’t miss the opportunity!

Categories CCSS Mathematical Practices, announcement
Comments (1)

Tips on Managing Mentoring

by Suzanne Alejandre
February 25th, 2012

As a middle school teacher I know that it’s difficult to make time to individually connect with each of your students since you may be dealing with 130 to 180 students (depending on how many classes and how many in each class). Elementary teachers usually don’t have the volume of students that middle or high school teachers have but because mathematics is usually just one of the subjects they are responsible for delivering to their students, their time is similarly precious when considering adding yet another task to their never-ending list of things to do.

Often I ask teachers who think that using the Math Forum’s online feedback/mentoring functionality, what writing their students are already doing. For example,

* do you have students keep journals? How often do you collect them? How often do you comment on them?
* do you have students write responses to problem solving prompts on paper? as classwork? as homework? as projects? How often do you collect them? How often do you comment on them?
* do you have students reflect on feedback and revise?

Another thing I ask teachers who are contemplating this is, how organized are your students? If they start writing in your class on one day, do they have the paper with them the next day? Do you keep their papers in folders and they stay in the classroom? Do they keep their papers in their own notebooks?

The reason that I ask these questions is that it’s possible that using an online system just might save time in the long run.

My main tip, however, is in how you provide feedback. I recommend that teachers make only two comments per student following the format:

I notice ….
I wonder ….

The “I notice” statement notes one thing that you value in the student’s solution. In other words, a sentence of praise. The “I wonder” statement is a question with the intention that as a result the student will reflect on their draft, revisit it and add more. Along with this, I recommend that teachers check these two boxes in our system so that they bypass using the full rubric:

    Choose not to score this submission.
    Hide the scoring grid from students.

I suggest this abbreviated method for several reasons, including

* it doesn’t take very long per student
* it reinforces problem solving as a process
* … but … most importantly, the student’s thinking and problem solving remain in THEIR possession and is not transferred to the teacher

Recently I’ve realized that when a teacher repeats everything a student says or when they give detailed feedback, in some way they are taking over the student’s thinking. If the student is to embrace the Mathematical Practices of …

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

… they have to continue to own their work. They have to reflect and revise!

Thoughts?

What does this really have to do with my blog post? Nothing! I just love the photo. This is a sea dragon that I saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (Click on the small photo to view a larger version.) I just love dragons!

Categories problem solving
Comments (7)
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