Do the Math

After reading this post, I started re-thinking the way I organize my curriculum.

Organization is the key to completing almost any task. Whether it be planning an event, writing a textbook, creating a new website, or trying to master a new subject, if there is no organization, it is much more difficult to achieve success.When I was brainstorming the issues with creating an online Algebra 1 textbook, one of the first questions that had to be answered was “How should this textbook be organized?” Usually this would be an easy question to answer. First you start with the title, then chapters, and last lessons. But as I was brainstorming, I realized that this organization structure does not fit the new school 2.0 movement.

What fits?

Whether it be a blog post, a wiki page, or a youtube video, members of the school 2.0 community organize their content by categories and tags.

A movie is 1) uploaded 2) categorized 3) tagged so it is easily found on google

A blog post is 1) categorized 2) tagged so it is easily found on google

A wiki page is 1) linked to from a category 2) tagged so it is easily found on google

So I think we should start rethinking the way we organize our classes and curriculum. I teach Algebra 1, which is similarly taught all over the planet. One thing that has always bothered me is that I cannot find free Algebra content on the web that is really really good. It is hard to find good content that fits the concept that I am trying to have my students learn.

What I Propose We Do?

I propose that somehow we universalize the organization of our school 2.0 content. I am starting with the class I teach. You can see my progress at Flat Algebra 1 Classroom Textbook. I also suggest we start universal online experiences and/or online textbooks for subjects that all schools currently teach. That is why I am trying to get a Flat Algebra 1 Classroom Project started for next school year. I figure that if I can get ten school from different areas, we can offer some great learning experiences for our Algebra 1 students.

Any Algebra 1 teachers want to give it a try?

This is a question that I think many math teachers struggle with. Many times, there is not a sufficient way to “poll” the students to find out if the class is “getting it” or if one more explanation is needed.

In this new School 2.0 era, there are many devices coming out to provide instant feedback to teachers that can help answer the question “Are we ready to move on?” Smarttech makes Senteos to use with Smartboards. Promethean makes Activotes, and there are probably countless others that I have failed to learn about.

My middle school team has been begging for a set of instant response handhelds for a year now. Because of our interest, our begging, and our well crafted PTO grant which describes how they can be used to provide formative assessment, we will have the opportunity to test out a set of Senteos next school year. We are excited to test out this technology and find the many uses for improving our practice.

But this is not the reason I write this post.

Two weeks ago, I heard about a new web 2.0 tool called Poll Everywhere which allows students to respond by text message from their cell phone to a poll posted by a teacher. While I am not sure if schools are ready to start allowing cell phones in classrooms, and I am not sure if parents are ready to fork over the money to pay for unlimited text messaging, this new tool got me thinking differently. I wondered if we were wasting our money by buying the Senteos because they will soon be obsolete. The cell phone will soon be a full functioning handheld computer that will allow students to do much more that we can even comprehend yet. I recently watched the apple release of the SDK kit for the apple iphone and it does not seem like it will be long before students can write articles (Literacy), graph functions (Math), videoconference (Social Studies), and instantly share data (Science) all from their wifi enabled phones. It seems like this is the new platform for mobile communication, and it will be the platform for some time to come.

I have started to see that as we think we are working to get closer to the curve, instead we might be falling further behind it. This is one of the countless times that I have thought to myself, “Now we are cutting edge,” only to later find out that we might be farther behind than we thought we originally thought.

As I read a post on Will Richardson’s blog and the discussion that follows it and I realize that my school is in alright shape. I just frustrated because I think that we could be farther. Here is how:

We need to think differently!

We need to start to writing the policies and form the expectations and guidelines now so when this is all possible (two years from now), we are ready to push our students ahead instead of holding them back.

I like to think about what the classroom will look like in ten years, but to tell you the truth no one knows. The best we can do is try to predict and plan ahead. We need to attempt to stay current, applicable, and as worth while as possible.