The Future of Education

Ever since I started my college career in math education, I have probably been told literally a hundred times that I will have lots of job security and it will be easy finding a job. Now I am in danger of getting laid off after my first year of teaching. Several years ago I knew this was coming when I watched the news and saw a black cloud that was going to sweep the value of education under the rug: the economy. Like everything else, education is being effected by budget cuts, layoffs, and reduced funding for increasingly important programs. I have seen it in my own school. We have a roof in desperate need of repair, classrooms are too loud due to outdated heating units and inadequate, temporary walls, and technology is hard to find in the average classroom, except in the hand of individual students with cell phones and iPod touches (which the school tries so hard to get out of the classroom). Indeed, the biggest piece of technology I have regular access to is an overhead projector, which is used for little more than projecting daily problems and grids to practice graphing. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has voiced his opinions about education, and while I am not a huge fan of him (he has as much education as I do and has never been a teacher), he does make some good points. He talks about where we should take education, and a few ways we could achieve this. At this time he is sparse on the details, which leads me to think he is just another idealist wanting a major reform in education that will never happen. Indeed, he has talked about getting more math and science teachers in the classroom. Leaders in education have been saying that for years, and yet I am probably going to be laid off from a school being a math teacher. He talks about longer school years, improving technology in the classroom, and providing incentives for effective teachers. Where are we going to get the funding for this? Furthermore, how do we tell whether a teacher is "effective." I completely agree that good teachers should be rewarded, and bad teachers should find another line of work, but if this decision of effectiveness is based on test scores like the flawed NCLB, then we will be unfairly setting good teachers up for failure. If all a "good" teacher has to do is teach classes where students are already willing, capable, and motivated, who will teach the students who desperately need the good teachers? I fear this will lead to the fall of taking on difficult classes the same way a doctor will not take a risky case for fear of lowering his or her rating. If we are to reform education, we must take a look at other countries where education is working, fin out why it is working, and find out how we can make it work here. I know I am biased, but it really does start with the state of education. If we don't improve our schools, and bring them into the 21st century, how can we expect tomorrow's leaders to fix today's and tomorrow problems. I guarantee that this will not fix itself, and that we must have a better place for education in this country if we expect any of this to get better.

Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation

This morning I attended a conference on education at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado. I went in my pajamas, and I didn't shower for the event either. In fact, I never left my bedroom. I guess I am still getter over this web conferencing thing. It was a great experience because I got to collaborate with educators and others from all over the country (CO, PA, VA, SC, etc.) and the world, with one person talking to us from Australia. I attended two sessions: Classroom 2.0, learning about, well, learning 2.0, and how we can use it effectively in the classroom, and How to Teach a Remix Generation, which dealt with how we can foster responsible learning in a time when anybody can take and edit information.

Classroom 2.0
What types of interactive, internet-based applications/tools are you using to positively impact student achievement?
I use an online quiz generator through the Indiana Department of Education website called High Achiever to better prepare my students for the End of Course Assessment. It works some, although it has its bugs. I also have my students use Geometer's Sketchpad to investigate geometric properties of topics learned in class. However I do not think this is enough for my students. How are they creating new things and sharing them to others in a way that fosters collaboration? I feel like I need to catch up myself on this 2.0 thing, as my knowledge of what is available. I want to create an environment where students can apply and share what they know in a way that is real and helpful, not just simulated, like webquests (as much as I like them, they are kinda artificial and too linear). I want to explore blogging and web-publishing as a way of sharing new information.



How to Teach a Remix Generation

What am I doing to promote healthy and responsible web practices while at the same time not restricting information sharing and remixing?
This session was interesting because there is so much information out their, but so much of it is reposted, remixed, and transformed into new information without the original poster knowing. Information nowadays is so transient and current that it is essential that people take it and update it. Wikipedia for example is a great and dangerous resource because it is so current yet anybody can update/change/delete/improve/vandalize the content. Copyright laws have not been able to keep up with the speed of change, and as a result, there has been an ever growing "grey area" as far as what is plagiarism, and what is taking and improving.


As far as what I am doing to promote this, not much at the moment. I think that giving students a chance to create their own original content will allow them to take ownership and responsibility for their creations. Seeing this, they can see how important it is to be responsible when taking others' creations. At the same time, they should take others' creations, use it, reflect on it, and make it better. This is what learning 2.0 is to me.


I have much more to reflect on. I am ver excited about the dialogue I had today with the people.

Let's try this out.

I've never kept a diary or journal. I am not one to write down my thoughts because I feel I am neither a deep thinker nor a talented writer, and frankly I don't think I have much interesting to say. I guess I will sell out and say I did it because "everyone else is doing it."

I do wish to get a few things out of my archived musings. First, as a first year teacher I am learning more than in all four years in college. It will be interesting to see how my attitudes about teaching, math, and education change over time. Second, if I am going to be the best teacher I can be, I will need to reflect on my strategies. It was forced upon me in student teaching, and though I hated it then, I know that it is the only thing keeping me from falling into complacency. I know many teachers who were decent teachers at one time, but because they are stuck in teaching 20 years ago, they are no longer effective educators. Third, I will be putting my other interests on this site as well. I have many interests and hobbies, and I am not sure what will come of many of them. I hope that putting my life down I can see who I am. Being able to step back and view a mapping of my life might enable me to draw some connections that will lead me to more interests and opportunities.

if I keep it up...