Math Camtasia

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...

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....!

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.

"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.

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.

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.)

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

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?)