resource room

Movin' on out...

2010-03-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

... I was only leaving this bad boy with google blogs because I could house it on my server. Since it seems that option is departing, so am I. I shall endeavor to update my website in non-bloggy ways (um, shouldn't be that hard). http://resourceroomblog.wordpress.com is the address...

Oh, well....

2010-03-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

... This will be a Blog That NEver Takes Off.

Google doesn't want to do the FTP thing any more, and if I"m going to migrate something, it'll be out of google blogs, which have a few too many annoyances.

I'll decide whether to go with Wordpress or not... (

Math Camtasia

2010-01-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

Lent out my Making Math Real video :) Still no details on where the overview training will be held in June "in Chicago." I'm thinking of a train-bike combination, of course, to defy the parking expenses, even if it's paid for. I dislike extortion, even when it's legal.
Now I'm off to hte office to put together a Camtasia for the Order of Operations. Methinks I'm going to do it in two stages.
WHat do I *want* to do? Learn more Flash so I can really animate this stuff. First to get this "rough stuff" put together... and a few miles on the bicycle to get there :) Happily the roads are clear enough to leave the studs at home...

2010-01-27T10:50:00.001-08:00

Here's one for the books: there's a lawsuit over the math curriculum in Washington State.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Lawsuit-filed-over-Seattle-schools-math-curriculum-82711412.html

Camtasia Grrr....!

2010-01-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

So, before I go ask 'em to upgrade my Camtasia, I want to show that I'm using it.
Of course, none of the support online has anything useful.
I make a lovely recording... save it... produce it as an .avi file.
Well, that won't pull up on any other computer but this one.
Okay, I'll take that same project and try another format.
First have to go find it... on the Jump Drive...
So I drag it onto the time line and it seems to want to go on there infinite times. Do What Now? I just want one. Why on earth?

... Okay, so I cut out the extra ones (there were three) and have it as a wonderful Flash file that even works on other 'puters.

Can I get Contribute to upload it for me? No. I am allowed to browse for files on my computer, but if I actually select one... it ignores it. No, you really can't do that, even though it's an option on the menu.

2010-01-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

"Non traditional" students, doing hours of Math on a Friday afternoon. The youngest has gotten through 094 and 095, and now it's 098. He's already defying the odds a bit 'cause he didn't have to repeat any of 'em. One of the older guys, new this semester, in 094, sees the stuff on his paper. He asks what he's doing and notes that it's more advanced than what they're doing. "It's 098." I explain the course sequence. Then the kicker: "I started where you are."
"I started in 072."
"So did I."

So the (relative) youngster was getting admired for his academic prowess ... and the older students were seeing that yes, you *could* get there from here. I have a feeling that moment did more than all the help with the math problems that day.

2010-01-22T11:57:00.001-08:00

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/nj_measure_will_benefit_readin.html

what?? no posts this year???

Back in the saddle I shall hop.

2009-12-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

Read my _American Educator_ and was again impressed with how much it jives with my experience and training. More interesting reading on Math - including a very (very) glowing description of Singapore's Math programs... but I really liked the "Ask the Cognitive Scientist" section on "Is It True That Some People Just Can't Do Math?" (Yes, but YOU are almost certainly not one of them.)

2009-12-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

I got a reply to my request for online stories, and a link to a good one - which had google or a competitor's ads on the right hand margin. So, I thought I'd ponder doing my own little reading about online ads at sites and where they come from. So, I googled - no surprise that "the hazards of adsense" sites didn't come up, eh? -- and found an "about" page about work at home ads and how they're generally not from legit companies.

Of course, on the right hand margine of that page, what do you think you find? Yup, exactly those ads.

Now to use google docs to outline my plan for spelling pages...

www.graphicorganizers.com

2009-12-29T08:54:00.001-08:00

Happy day, this site has been updated and has *lots* of really good outlines and downloads.
http://www.graphicorganizers.com
The article "Watering up the Curriculum for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities" is, IMHO, one of the best explanations that, why and how curriculum can and should be made more accessible to diverse learners without reducing it to the likes of word searches and one-time-through painful regurgitation or copying rituals that leave a student with little or no foundation knowledge except that school is stupid. If you're forced to Get Students Through a curriculum. but it bugs you taht you know they won't carry it over, please, pick something you would like to make sure they remember for the rest of their lives (I remember making darned sure my kiddos knew enough about the Revolutionary War so they didn't think it was when slavery ended - when I asked 'em "what do we celebrate on the Fourth of July?" they could all say "our freedom!" but... that was about it. Freedom from what? Um.. Slavery?)

and...

2009-12-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

"it's really more effective to get it right on the front end...even if it takes more time.. having to undo..."

No kidding. Doc McNelis knew that.

algebra project

2009-12-28T18:33:00.001-08:00

In my assorted cleanings I have *not* successfully located my copy of the algebra project book, which I am confident would have my father grinning in his grave. So, I've googled instead. An amen moment from one of 'em: "one group might have got that answer using an approach that's not mathematically sound... we need to make students understand... the reason a rule work is because it's tried and true...and it works every time in that situation." And then, that it's the teacher's job to figure out when a student has applied their non-valid reasoning to get the right answer. Oh, *please,* can I hear an amen?
Note that she didn't say the student used an approach different from the one that the teacher presented, but one that was **not** **mathematically** **valid.**
Now... to have teachers who know the difference!!!!

My students believe sometimes that it's all a complete mystery -- the rules work when they work, but there are exceptions and really only those other people -- the elite Smart People Who Know Math -- who know when.

2009-12-28T15:38:00.000-08:00

I just looked for a book on social justice and mathematics at teh Parkland Library. No, it isn't there, but how about working through I-Share?
I go through some steps, to be asked for my BARCODE.

How user-friendly can you be? Um, no indication what taht would be. Are some colleges tattooing barcodes on our skin? Hey, with our education system in another half generation, nobody will find that a problem. Maybe not even now. I betcha if you did it for entry in the right HOllywood party, you'd get 'em going for it.

But hey, my ID number worked. Unfortunately, that book is "not available for request." Gosh, I wonder if it's too far left.

why blog into the void?

2009-12-24T12:08:00.001-08:00

because I *want* the google in the cloud to hear the words reading and direct instruction and those things I care about a few more times. Hope it isn't a waste of time for wandering surfers.

Direct Instruction Works

2009-12-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

http://teacheffectively.com/2009/12/21/go-for-di-and-sfa/#more-1118

Basically, a summary of research that says "Direct INstruction Works."

Of course, those with their hearts and/or wallets in other camps will search until they find a way to consider this dismissable. Sometimes it's because "well, numbers just don't tell the whole story!" They don't -- but that doesn't mean to ignore the story they tell.

(And sometimes the rest of the story is important, too... if you go to the LM_NET archives and search for SFA you'll see good, bad and ugly. Shoving anything down peoples' throats is a bad idea. Oh, and then the politics with the "research based" programs -- corruption doesn't help your arguments, either. And I'm pretty sure the name the whole language folks will shrug and say "of course that's what *Slavin* will say.")

times tables practice online

2009-12-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

times tables practice online

"motivation"

2009-12-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

The student who was falling asleep at the tutoring table for the third time in an hour. He had the work in front of him; he had the book in front of him. Brain, however, was clearly not engaged.
On impulse, I told him that he could move to a computer and use our software with math lessons. Often the response to this is no, because the motivation is to get the homework done, and this is "extra." Not this time: I'd estimate there's been 4 hours of sustained engagement with that program (in the last 24), with questions and scribbles all over paper and all the other signs that the student is genuinelyl trying to learn the stuff. The motivation was there -- the accessible instruction wasn't.
Yes, the whoel "responsibility for learning" issue looms large - students need to learn to identify when learning isn't happening, and change the plan. Our job is to enable them to learn that.

2009-11-24T08:41:00.001-08:00

When a student is using a calculator to figure out what 100 + 6 is, it's a pretty sure thing she's not using number sense. WHen she needs a calculator to figure out what x is in this situation:

6 / 100 = x / 100

... I do rather extremely strongly suspect a little too much dependence on that thing with the buttons.

Just sayin'.

2009-11-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have a theory... and I'm putting it into practice, since it's better than any other strategy for dealing with the "I'm completely freaking out because this is math" scenario.
When the person is CFO, and attempts to shine the flashlight down the mathematical path yet still make them tread it are failing, and the test is in three hours or three minutes, then I'm going to walk them through the problem with the "and of course you know that you should multiply by x" approach.
This is totally bogus for teaching, of course, because it could very well be a bald-faced lie. For getting the CFO brain ready for a test, though, welp, we'll see. It beats "so what do you do next?" and getting 'I don't know, I don't know any of this, I can't remember, I don't know." My strategy will be to hypnotize them into being sucked along the process.

2009-11-06T10:53:00.001-08:00

Glad to say that today's gone gobs better. This is due in part to a certain student who inspired me weeks back, personally, with her displays of courage in the face of confusion and derision. Saw her again and that reminded me... so when the crank bug showed up, I had foam insulation ready ;)

Read and Write Gold 9 is on the 'puters and we're trying to work out some "new version" issues with scanning.

BUSY.

2009-11-05T09:47:00.001-08:00

Where did my patience go?
Theories in no particular order:
Theory A: engaging in plot development for nanowrimo put me in "accelerated muse" mode, and even though I barely touched that mental space yesterday, it takes serious time to adjust from "manic creativity" to patient tutoring mode.

Theory B: The gap between student knowledge and what they're supposed to know is wider this semester for some reason.

Theory C: The gap appears wider and is rendered thus by the increased stressors of the year, which are pervasive. (Supporting evidence: the student who didn't know how to subtract 48 from 50 missed last week because of an all-over-the-news gut-wrenching nightmare that was real.)

I don't know, but desperately seeking cures. My first attempt -- be really, really, really, really patient -- can't do it without that little edge that says all too loudly "I HAVE TO GO THIS SLOWLY ?!?!?!? YOU DON"T KNOW THIS ?!?!?" and, um, that is exactly the worst thing to do. Succeeded a bit angling at the "gonna find a way to do this" approach... and good old fashioned prayer.

Theory D: it's not patience at all, but that I'm following the "if they don't get it just slow down" recipe which denies an awful lot of training and experience. Do I need to go find a way to hang out with other multisensory instructors for a while?

2009-11-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

THeory: the reason students seem to be struggling more this semester is that there is more stress because of the state of the economy, and more are missing time because of the stupid flu and they just don't have that margin for "error."
I know that the wiring could make this stuff work, but there are fundamental issues with how probelms are approached. How to teach those executive function or metacognitive or whatever other jargon you want to call the skills? I know there's a way. If you can teach reading comprehension, you can teach problem solving and following directions and ... welp, except I'm not sure what it is. It has to do with where in the brain a situation goes and what parts you use to decide what to do next.

2009-11-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Nifty article about voice recognition. He talks about the latest and greatest speculations, and qualifies the "these things are in sight" by saying it's in sight in the same way he can see the moon outside his windwo ;_)
You did FINE in the algebra stuff -- it's not that the capability isn't there -- but 42 - 36 should be achievable without a calculator. SOmetimes calculators *have* been abused, and soemtimes expectations ahve been too *($#@ low.

2009-10-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

A: Must remember that just because a student's baggage is completely precluding successful expression of knowledge, it doesn't mean to stop attempting to put it in.

B: I ahve a plan :)

2009-10-21T11:03:00.001-07:00

My heart's a bit gladdened... yea, there's an oral quiz happening here. So I'm hoping no LDs that impinge... and then teach says "Oh, __, you need a hard copy?" and "anybody else need a hard copy..." -- and not in a tone connoting "any dweebs need something SPECIAL?"