Author: mrvaudrey

Samantha

Samantha (not Sam; do not call her Sam) joined our 5th/6th period a couple weeks into the school year.

Fifth period was math, sixth period was bInterventionb: a full hour where students with learning challenges had iPads, me, and no curriculum.

It was an absolute dream.

I was quite pleased that my principal trusted me enough to give me a full period to do whatever the hell I wanted to help students learn. Had I known it was my last year in the classroom… I probably would’ve done the same stuff.

Some days, webd edit photos for our 20% Projects.

Some days, webd finish up a math activity from 5th period.

Some days, webd stare at Donte, then estimate how many Donte will fit across the width of the classroom.

A la Oliver Smoot.

Samantha didnbt quite know what to do with my class. It became immediately clear that shebd gotten here (an 8th grader with low basic skills stuck into a double-math period) by using the tried-and-true phrase of the struggling student:

bI donbt know.b

IDK.

In Teacher Chemistry, IDK + Teacher Redirection = Student Excused.

Without the reagent of Teacher Redirection, the formula falls apart.

In Vaudreybs class, bI donbt knowb doesnbt excuse you from responding:

Vaudrey: Where did this 3x come from? Samantha?
Samantha: I donbt know.
Vaudrey: Ibll come back to you. Victor?
Victor: Ummb& we subtracted 7x and 4x?
Vaudrey: Lorraine?
Lorraine: We subtracted 7x and 4x.
Vaudrey: Samantha?
Samantha: … um b& we subtractedb& 7x and 4x.

I wasnbt surprised to note that she didnbt actually look at the board until she responded.

A few days later, the bDiscuss with your tableb song was playing, and I swung by Samanthabs desk, knelt down, and whispered,

bIbm going to call on you, and you say, bparallelb, got it?b
Her eyebrows shot up and she pleaded, bNo!b
I gave a comforting smile, bThatbs it. Just say, bparallelb. You can do it.b

The song ended and 28 students returned their focus toward the screen at the front.

bBefore we talk about slope, Samantha. Are these lines perpendicular or parallel?b

All 28 students turned toward the new girl. She stared blankly at the board. Come on, Samantha. You gotB this, I thought, my marker in the air. Like my instructions, the marker did not waver, but pointedB straight at her.

Samantha took a breath.

bParallel,b she said.

No question, no raised tone at the end. She was confident. Those two lines are parallel.

I smiled. bGood. Now if these two lines are parallel, then that tells us something about their slope, and I heard some groups talking about it. Ramiro, tell us what your group noticed.b

After a few dozen of those discussions, Samantha began to blossomB into a confident young mathematician. She persevered, she took risks, B she responded well to the guidance of her classmates to fine-tune her ideas, andB she volunteered answers that were way off (a sure sign of trust).

She also gave a fantastic 20% time projectB and even came to me early on to ask about changing her group. bI donbt think [other student] willB work as hard as me. Shebll just slow me down.b

Alright, Samantha. You can work alone.

~Matt “Small Successes” Vaudrey

December 22, 2014
Year-End Christmas Activities

Younger Students

For elementary teachers, students can email Santa and he’ll write back! (He might have a grumpy Elf or a silly Reindeer answer if he gets too busy).

Visit bit.ly/emailtosanta and check it out.

Older Students

You know those moments when you’re excited for something, and you share that thing with somebody, and they look at you like you just suggested skinning a puppy to make a wallet?

My director gave me that look when I showed her the below slideshow. It’s not going to my district staff, but it’s just too fun to keep to myself.

For older students, this is a good way to pass the time on the last day before break:

In case you can’t see the embedded slideshow, here’s a link to full-screen.

~Matt “If you don’t celebrate Christmas… I got nothing” Vaudrey

December 16, 2014
Google Teacher Academy

or

How the Most Exalted Conference in EdTech Was Exactly What I Expected, But Not In The Way That You Think

Fifty-two of us from all over the continent converged on Austin for two days of … something. We weren’t sure exactly what to expect; the agenda (initially public) had been locked from view sometime that weekend, so we hoped that was a good thing.

My own district treated my acceptance to the academy (a month ago) with more excitement and reverence than I expected. My director, Kris, is likely to thank for that; there’s a very good chance she had conversations with cabinet members explaining why it’s a big deal.

Thanks, Kris.

Here’s why I went:

Thanks to Twitter and blogging, I know of a lot of outstanding teachers. Most of them–the ones equipping students with 21st-century skills–have a little badge on their websiteB that says,

My role models (click here for a list) have this qualification, so I wanted it, too.

The application process (documented here) was stringent, but definitely worth it. I knew my cohort had worked as hard as I to apply.

Near and Far

You probably noticed what I did, so check this out:

This academy was in Texas, which likely contributes to the spike. Regardless, California was well-represented.

With one Canadian subbing.

What Types of People

As you can see below, the average age of attendees was 37, and we stretched from 26 to 49.

Within a few hours of arriving, I was grouped with two teachers who were…B veteran enough to have me as a student 20 years ago. Both showed and/or taught me something cool.

It was a fresh reminder that–as I often insist to my teachers–age does not necessarily correlate to tech ability.

Stevens pointed out that it’s likely people were reluctant to select “Stooge” as their job title.

Stuck on a desert island with one beverage. One member wrote, “Choose between wine and coffee? This is the hardest decision all week.”

The next question asked,B “How stoked were you/your employer for GTAATX and these parts of it?”

What a bummer that 5.02/10 was the average excitement for districts and schools. Doesn’t match the group’s excitement at all.

I can’t relate; my district gave me the time off, covered expenses, and drafted a press release and an article in the paper. It’s a great place to work.

Fun Data

And, in the spirit of silly math, here are some interesting data:

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”presentation/d/15o-BLsrtVutyFgUpGtMFmk5sEwki_umXXqRAo7Qa_aU/embed” query=”start=false&loop=true&delayms=60000″ width=”1440″ height=”300″ /]

Exactly What I Expected

TwoB attendees (separately) pulled me aside and asked if I was underwhelmed. As a lifelong optimist, my expectations rarely match reality, with its rough edges and imperfections. The last 30 years have seasoned me to adjust idealism (Twitter’s perception of GTA) with reality (52 game-changers from across the continent in one room).

I had some fantastic conversations, drank some great local beer, and bowled a 79. Teachers from Ontario to Missouri to Mexico challenged me to rethink my mindset, brainstormed solutions to my Moonshot problem, and encouraged me; B I hope some were encouraged by me, as well.

And some I’ll probably never contact again. That’s the thing about getting big personalities in one room; we’re gonna disagree.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmdaa1QX6TU#t=50]

In high school, I never studied. I showed up, napped, and got a B.

When I went to college, I had to work harder to keep my place in the upper quartile of academics.

Upper Quartile is not a defensive formation for the Steelers.

GTA was like EdTech College; many of us came from schools and districts (even counties) where we were the smartest kid in class. For two days, the bigB fish leftB their small ponds and droppedB into a wading pool…

No, that’s not the analogy I want…

TastyB appetizers from several menus are spread on one table…

Eh, that’s closer…

A bunch of CEOsB start a business. Working together and sharing ideas with each other,B two days would be woefully insufficient to drink up all the great stories and experiences and knowledge in one room.

Drew addresses the temptation to coastB after completing a big project, Rachel expresses thankfulness, and I make dopey charts by cramming math into inappropriate places.

… that sounds about right.

Here’s a list of all the books recommended by the GTAATX cohort. It seems selfish to keep that list to myself.

~Matt “Google Certified Teacher” Vaudrey

December 6, 2014
I Lost My Chops
Read all the way to the end. This is a short post.

Demo Day

Mr.B B Guiles is a fantastic teacher at Lone Hill Middle School. While he and I are fairly matched on our interest in EdTech, we each have our own strongholds of knowledge.

So it’s simultaneously relaxing and intimidating to do a demo in his computer lab.

“Good morning, class! On the wall, you’ll see our agenda for the day.” I point toward the screen opposite the teacher computer, where I’ll be walking them through peer editing on Google Drive. There are three bullet points:
- Log in
- Share Documents & Edit
- Google Form
In a class of 36, all but 5 had no trouble logging in and finding the correct link. Mr. Guiles (in the back of the room) hovered and helped three students who were stuck.

That left two.

“If you’ve already typed up your paper in a Word document, you can upload it by clicking and dragging,” I call as I walk by Karl, who is playing a racing game online. “Hey, um… what’s your name? … Close that, please. We’re … um… we’re working on your papers right now.”

He complies.

Next to the teacher computer, Frankie is looking at racy pictures of women in swimsuits.

Right. by. my. desk.

“Hey, come on, man!” I whine. “Seriously? You have to do that right now?”

“I don’t have internet at home,” Frankie replies, zooming in.

I look over at Guiles,B who raises his eyebrows. “Come sit over here.” I point to a single desk with no computer. Frankie rolls his eyes and moves.

“What do we do once we’re logged in?” asks Jacqueline, a short 8th grader with glasses.

“Hang on,” I reply. “Let’s get everybody logged in first.” She sighs.

“Is everybody… um… is everybody logged in?” I pull on my collar and wonder,B What’s with me today? I don’t feel confident at all, and I did this with adults last week. I’m sweating and nervous. Did I eat breakfast? Dammit, I skipped breakfast.

A suppressed giggle turns my attention toward the door. Karl is texting and giggling.

“Karl, come sit over here.” I point him toward Frankie’s now-empty seat next to my desk.

“No,” says Karl, without looking up.

I take a deep breath, about to put on my sour teacher face, when I hear from the door, “Hey! Are you my kid’s teacher?”

Standing in the door is a dad wearing a blue “Lone Hill Lions” T-shirt. He’s obviously never met Guiles, who has a huge beard and glasses, but I’m thankful for the break from Karl, so I engage him.

“What can I do for you?” I move past him into the hallway and he follows.

“You gave her a C and she’s an A student. I’m getting you firedB right now, and I thought you should know about it.” He pokes me in the chest.

I break eye contact and take a step back. “Sir…” I begin, but I can’t find the words.B
I’m only a tech coach, this isn’t my clsasroom.
My main job is to help teachers use technology in the classroom, but today, it’s not going so well.
Teaching is much easier when I have my own classroom with my own kids. I miss my own classroom.B

The Dad pokes me in the chest again and I lean against the wall behind me, feeling 10 years old again.B What’s wrong with me today?

My eyes snap open. I turn over in bed and see the clock. 4:51 AM.

That was a terrible dream.

~Matt “Gotta stay sharp”B Vaudrey
November 21, 2014
What’s Missing?

This tweet caught my eye last week.

@mr_stadel @robertkaplinsky @Jstevens009 @MrVaudrey do you guys think you would be more effective coaches if you taught one period a day?

b Tim McCaffrey (@timsmccaffrey) November 14, 2014

Three things on that.

1.) I’d be a way better coach

All four people tagged in that tweet can testify that credibility is the most precious commodity for an educational trainer.

Skeptics can smell B a desk jockey the minute they walk into the conference room wearing dress shoes or heels.

THIS is what teachers wear.

I’m guilty of this skepticism, too. B For the last eight years, I’ve attended CMC-South every fall, and some of the presenters are…

well….

professors.

Good… uh…. good afternoon. We… um… we received a grant in 2006…

I’d scoff silently and see if any other–more interesting–sessions were taking place in that time slot. I’m a teacher, I told myself. I’m not going to waste 90 minutes listening to this district stooge talk about “rigor”.

Now I’m the district stooge.

Teaching one period a day would allow me 55 minutes to try out those ideas that Twitter and Voxer find for me: those ideas that sound awesome and I want to immediately try in the classroom.

Teaching, however, is a lot like making fudge.

Photo credit in the link.

Every fall, I make fudge for my students before Winter Break. I buy the ingredients, set up my double boiler, line the cooling tray with wax paper, and chop almonds and walnuts.

When I had 200 students, I made 5 batches of fudge.
When I had 80 students, I made 3 batches of fudge.
This year, I’ll probably make two batches of fudge.¹

All the prep is the same, it’s just repeatingB the steps.

While I daydream about doing both roles, in reality…

2.) I’d be aB wayB worse coach.

If I taught one period of students, I’m still prepping the lesson, entering grades, hanging student work on the wall, developing seating charts, and cutting out colored paper for aB class set of congruentB triangle cards.

All for only one batch of fudge.
Seems like an awful waste of energy.

As a one-period-per-day teacher, I have department meetings, IEPs, back-to-school night, and a heavenly host of other duties that keep me from meeting teachers as a coach.

Many would re-schedule.
Most would just give up trying to get a hold of me.

“Never mind. I’ll make my own overhead transparencies.”

It wouldn’t be just 55 minutes that I’m a teacher, it’d beB closer to half the workday. That’s hoursB each week that I’m not researching 1st grade math apps for the iPads, prepping workshops for getting departments on Google Drive, or giving demo lessons to seniors on QR codes.

A part-time teacher and part-time coach is significantly less profitable for my district than a full-time teacher orB full-time coach.

What’s most likely in this scenario is…

3.) I’d do a mediocre job of both

“Sorry, students. Mr. Vaudrey is unavailable for math tutoring after school, during lunch, before school, or during prep period, andB he also leans heavily on his department and grade-level teams to pull his weight on parent-conferences, student discipline, and late work.”

“Sorry, teachers. Vaudrey understands how busy your schedule is; he’s a teacher, too! His mornings are swamped scrambling through a lesson that he delivers once. But he can’t improve it for secondB period;B there is no second period!B After a 40-minute lunch at his desk answering Tech emails, he eventually settles on supporting a teacher at his school site instead of driving across town. His teammates at the middle school get most of his Ed Tech coaching, while other schools rarely see him.”

For the time being, I must be content to beB justB a coach, and mooch classrooms for demo lessons whenever I can. Those students will never beB my students, but it’ll keep my chops sharp for the next time I present a grant summary at CMC.

While I miss the day-to-day routine of classroom teaching, I’m also thrilled to be building Google Presentations on a Chromebook while listening to SciShow and sitting on an exercise ball.

I wore costumes most of the day on Saturday.

Although… I did sillyB stuff in the classroom, too.
Silly is kinda tough to switch off.

Everyone in this pictureB coaches teachers while in costume. Only one has a mouthful of food.

~Matt “I still miss my running shoes” Vaudrey

P.S. John StevensB also wrote a response to Tim’s tweet.
P.P.S Check out Felix’s response in the comments below.

^{1. It’s not a linear relationship. The 200 students got much smaller pieces than the 80, but here’s a quick model that I’m quite sure can be improved.b)}

November 18, 2014
2>1

One of the many benefits of my new positionB is the exposure toB tons of new perspectives. There are 460+ teachers in Bonita USD, and I follow roughly 160 on TwitterB from around the world.

(The overlap is about seven people. I’m working on that.)

Conferences and trainings expose me to people from other districts I would never have met otherwise.

But there is no substitute for teachers.

Except… a substitute teacher.

At some point on October 20th, I had a conversation with a teacher in my district that led to this:

Today’s Epiphany: 2:1 that promotes student discussion is better than 1:1 that promotes student isolation. #edtechchat #edtech

b Matt Vaudrey (@MrVaudrey) October 20, 2014

That appeared to resonate with some other teachers.

Here’s a theory:

WhenB students are paired up on devices, they’re engaging the material, the technology, and each other. The few occasions where a grabby student bowls over a shy student and hogs the device are rare.

This is probably due because–in a 1:1 environment–the grabby student would be playing Angry Birds in the back row and the shy student wouldn’t have anyone to answer his/her question when s/he got stuck.

Further, a 1:1 class where students are silentlyB working on their device is relationally no different from a class where are diligently working on a packet of worksheets.

As teachers, we’re reaching a tipping point where we must create relational experiences for our students to discuss and wrestle with the material and other perspectives.

If we don’t, then free apps in the app store will replace what we do.

~Matt “2>1, and Cheaper, Too” Vaudrey

November 2, 2014
Good Ideas
Here’s what’s happening.

Music Cues

A teacher, previously averse to new tech tools, installed iTunes and added my collection of Music Cues to it. She’s planning on using a few to start up, then adding more as she gets more comfortable.

That exact story has happened at least 8 times this month and I’m thrilled about it.

EdTech Tip

This video, I’ll be honest, took most of a workday to shoot and edit, but that included Googling color schemes and building a graphic in Keynote (thanks to @jcorippo for that idea).

I sent that to every teacher in the district and got no less than 40 replies (TenB percent of the staff); they all began with “Oh, you’re the new Tech Coach! Can you…”
- Show me how to use SubText?
- Install iTunes on my computer?
- Fix my printer?
- Put the email icon on my desktop?
- Demo a lesson on effective research strategies for my seniors?
Attacking all those questions with the same earnest optimistic kindness is vital for my credibility as a teacher coach.

Sure, I have to differentiate my role from a Computer Technician at least once a day, but every time, the conversation leads to a firmer understanding of what I can do for that teacher.

Subtext and NewsELA Can Hold Hands

A teacher wants to have students use NewsELAB articles in theB SubtextB reader for iPad, but she has a full-time classload and wants somebody to figure it out for her.

Little did she know, that’sB exactly the kind of thing that I do.

Here’s what I told her:
1. Save the NewsELA article as a PDF and put it in your Google Drive. (There’s a Chrome ExtensionB that I use for that.)
2. On the iPad, open Google Drive and open that PDF (like youbre reading it).
3. In the top right, tap the three dots and select OPEN INb&
4. Choose Subtext.
In case any of y’all are interested.

Google Drive Training

After describing cloud storage to one teacher, she insisted I come back and get her whole department on a shared folder. That meeting was helpful for three reasons:
1. I can talk about Google Drive all day, speaking faster and faster with increasingly frantic hand gestures until I’m standing on the desk and shouting, “Real-time collaboration!”
2. They were simultaneously discussing RTIB plans, parent conferences, and the upcoming staff meeting, all while I walked them through how stuff works.
  It reminded me that not all teachers will sit quietly and follow along like we’re at a CUE conference.
  I’m on their prep period on their turf; I’ll be thankful for the time I get.
3. One of my goals for the year is to make “disciples” at each campus; teachers who are willing to try/see new stuff and would be down for me to hijack their class for a period and do a demo. This posse definitely fits that description.
If I’m honest, I do miss the classroom. I chalk that up to the discomfort that one feels inB any new position, especially one like this. I’ve essentially changed fields, but I can still daily look through the window at a job I loved and at which, I performed… better than average.

La Cucina Matematica

John Stevens and I do some Math/Tech consulting on weekends and holidays, and recently launched a website to that end.

We both share a fear of becoming shameless self-promoters who take schools’ tax dollars and don’t actually help students directly. So we’re both careful about how often we self-promote.

Check out the site. If your district has some leftover Title I money that expires this month (as ours does), we’d love to come visit and talk shop with your math teachers about how to build student creativity and problem-solving.

The “Move It!” Chrome Extension

I’m not frantically pacing a classroom anymore, I’m at a desk around 30% of the time. And I don’t wanna get fat.

This pops up everyB n minutes and won’t go away until I click DONE.

My office-mates needed little convincing that I was an odd duck, but declaring “Ten large arm circles! Let’s go, Cheryl!” sealed my fate.

I’ll be the most ripped Tech Coach in the biz… though there isn’t much competition.

~Matt “Wall Squat! Twenty Seconds!” Vaudrey
October 17, 2014
#GTAATX Application
Together with John Stevens and Karl Lindgren-Streicher, I’ve been brainstorming an interesting way to apply for the Google Teacher Academy for months.

As of August, our planB was a rap with a beat we composed, referencing each other in our videos and starring in quick cameos.

We quickly realized threeB things as the deadline for Austin was announced.
1. The beat that we (okay… the beat that I) composed was not very good. Making it good enough would take longer than I wanted to spend, plus there are tons of Creative Commons-licensed songs for free downloadB if you’re a teacher.
2. The rap would limit our creativity, and we’d have three nearly identical videos instead of three that showcased our unique classrooms and educational philosophy.
3. One minute is not very much time at all.
So we made a Voxer channel, made a shared folder in Google Drive and gave each other editing rights, and asked for feedback.

This is from Karl’s doc. He brought some other Edu-ringers in as well.

Let me stress; this is a microcosm of the same attitude that has grown all three of us into the educators that we are today. We ask peers for help and drink it up when we get it.

Between Voxer (where we dropped any and all inspiration we had and bounced ideas off each other) and the shared Docs (which I won’t share with you, so stop asking), we each took the general concepts that the three of usB shared and fine-tuned them to be specific to ourselves.

We encouraged and trimmed ideas in equal measure, and at the end, we had three very different videos that showcase three very similar mindsets.

In short, we actually modeled the collaboration that we promote to our teachers while we made a video about collaboration with teachers.

Here’s mine:

When I showedB my video to Karl and John, they bothB said, “Yep. That’s Vaudrey.”

Here are their videos, too:

The best part? I just wore the fairy costume and went about my regular day as EdTech Coach.

I trained students on Google Forms and URL shorteners.

I met with a teacher to help her utilize web resources for 3rd grade Social Studies.

The only real weird part of the shoot was that I’m still new to the district;

many of these teachers hadn’t met me in person before I was putting on glitter wings in the teacher’s lounge.

“Hi, are you Wendy? I’m Matt; did you email me about iPads? Also, can you zip me?”

Also priceless wereB the student responses to the Google Fairy walking through campus.

Elementary School: “It’s a fairy man! Hi, Fairy Man!”

Middle School: “Oh! It’s… uh… he’s the Google Fairy. Aren’t you hot?”

High School: “I love your costume! [Takes picture]
High School: “What the f***?”

~Matt “Google Fairy” Vaudrey
October 13, 2014
Two Schools of Math Teachers
Today, I witnessed an excellent old-school lesson. The teacher was engaging, funny, and had play-doh on the desks with toothpicks to demonstrate angle relationships to the sophomore Geometry students.

Students inserted a Cloze Notes-Style handout into their plastic dry-erase sleeve and followed along, filling in words to define the vocabulary in sentence frames. By the end of class, all the students were giving the correct hand signalB for Adjacent Angles, Vertical Angles, and more.

But something… just didn’t feel right about it.

No… not right… something didn’t feelB complete about it.

Earlier this week, I was chatting with John Stevens and Jed Butler on Voxer.

Voxer – group texts, but with voice messages instead. It’s awesome.

We had just gotten our issue of CoMmuniCator (the monthly publication of CMC) which featured two-page descriptions of lessons, like visual patternsB and drawing the ideal polygon.

It occurred to me, those are two things that prominent math educators have doneB extensive work with online, yet CMC has no idea, nor do the teachers who are submitting these articles.

We appear to have two schools of math teachers.

The first school is the Math-Twitter-Blog-o-sphere (affectionately and mercifully abbreviated #MTBOS).

Hundreds of math educators across the world weigh in on blogs, twitter feeds, and Voxer channels to inform best practices on teachers thousands of miles away that they’ve never met. The focus is professional growth that helps students learn mathematics in a meaningful way.

The second school is the CoMmuniCator crowd.

They spend hours writing a two-page description of visual patterns in their math classroom, include a worksheet, and submit it to the local Math Education journal, feeling satisfied: that their environment is full of opportunities like this.

To these, I insist; there is so much more than your pond.

Outside the pond, there is a wide large world full of dynamic educators whose students aren’t just learning the standards, they’re learning to wrestle,

to challenge,

to critique,

to debate,

to seek meaning out of chaos.

In short, there is an ocean of educators growing children into little mathematicians while others are makingB really cool photocopies in their pond.

I’m not saying that they’re bad teachers. Not that they’re boring.

Just that they’re missing out.

I’ve had dozens of conversations with math teachers since my recent job change to EdTech Coach. Less than half have heard of Dan Meyer or Desmos.

Evelyn Baracaldo, a representative of NCTM 2015 – Nashville, sent out a few emails to teachers (including me), inviting us to present on “Emerging Technologies”. Some digging on my part revealed:
- The deadline to submit proposals is 15 months before the conference date. (Proposals for a conference on “emerging technologies”.)
- There will be no wireless internet available.
What?

NCTM, the largest group of Math Educators in the nation, is missing the point.

EDIT: Shortly after posting this, I had lunch with Robert Kaplinksy, who convinced me that NCTM reaching out to blogging, tweeting teachers like me is a step in the right direction,B and I should lighten up.

He’s correct. Afterward, I applied toB give a workshopB at NCTM Nashville.

This feels like the keynote addressB at Twitter Math Camp (which I didn’t attend this year, though I heard whispers and elevator summaries). Those of us in the ocean have a vested interest inB theB thousands of ponds across the country.

Some of those ponds are excellent and need no help.

This year, I’m excited to show the pond-fish just how big the ocean is.

UPDATE 3 MARCH 2015: The California Mathematics Council continues to borrow blog posts in print form,B with three-acts and visual patternsB in the March issue. I have mad respect for Brad Fulton, butB surely he’s aware of Dan Meyer’s work on the three acts of a mathematical story.

Also, it’s cringeworthy that CMC appears unaware of Desmos andB still uses Comic Sans.

~Matt “The Sand Shark” Vaudrey
September 25, 2014
On AppleTV in the Classroom
This tweet tagged me (in the responses) this week, and myB response is more than 140 characters long.

Anyone have an AppleTV for their classroom? Apparently I’m getting one and iPad minis. Do I want to use this with or instead of smart board?

b Tina Cardone (@crstn85) August 28, 2014

One of many things I like about the #mtbos is the math conversations that happen one line at a time.

It just so happens, I have a lot of thoughtsB on this particular topic, more than I could share on a tweet.

On SmartBoards

While it’s not the focus of this post, I had one of these. As with most technology, it’s tempting to drop it in someone’s lap with little to no preparation, and be disappointed when the individual doesn’t produce Nobel-Prize winning lessons after a week. Every classroom at my school had a SmartBoard, and I never saw a lesson that did anything more innovative than I did.

And I wasn’t doing much.

Tina, if you can afford both, great. ButB if you’re between the two, spend the money on tech that promotesB student creativity, insteadB teacher creativity. I loved my SmartBoard, but the stuff that my students created in an hour was much more satisfying than anyB cool lesson design.

And speaking of that…

On AppleTV in the Classroom

I had one in my 8th grade Math class for two years. Here’s the quick version:

Loved:
- Students (on the same network as the Apple TV) can quickly and easily share their work with the whole class. My struggling students suddenly became the star as they showcased their problem-solving on the wall and walked the class through their reasoning. Below, you can see two students teaching the class from their iPads duringB Teacher 4 a Day.
- Students who found new apps or iPad tricks can teach the class about it on the big screen wirelessly (from their seat if they’re shy).
Andrew, a timidB 8th grader, wrote his name using computer commands during theB Week of Code and taught his classmates his tricks.
- Since many school districts are throwing piles of money at Apple for iPads, Apple TV (and more importantly, training on how to use it) are helpful additions to the grants.
Didn’t Love:
- I had my AppleTV with open access, no password, no confirmation; anybody could just hop on. The first week of school, Adrian (from his desk) bumped my iPad off the projector during a demo and showed the class a picture of a bunny from his iPad.
Take a moment to think of what he could have shown. I’m glad it was JUST a bunny.

Immediately, I knew it was him (the usual signs of middle-school mischief, furtive glances to classmates, frantic motions to hide what he was doing, chortling, etc.) and pounced on him.

“Adrian. That’sB not okay. If we’re going to work well with iPads in class this year, we have to be respectful of each other, and it’s not your turn right now. You’ll get your turn later. Ask me first.”

He was surprised. I was going forB firm and kind, but he was also surprised about my declaration for the year. I was laying the groundwork for our class and what we would do with these new fancy tools, and he–and, more importantly, the entire class–heard me say, “You will all have a chance to share.”

“But, why not just protect the AppleTV with a password?”

Yup. That would solve the problem, but it would also show students that I am the Chieftain of Class Culture instead of the Guide.

I was confident in theB class culture that wouldn’t need a password, and the openness–I feel–gave the students some autonomy and respect. They would casually ask, “Can I show this to the class?” and my answer was always “Yes” or “In a minute”.

I never had that issue of AppleTV control again, with Adrian¹ or anybody else.

In the Math Classroom
- My class had an unusual situation; the iPads were used as an intervention tool in conjunction with a bonus hour of time with me andB no curriculum.
That’s right. An unsupervised hour with low-performing students and iPads.

That free hour allowed us to explore other pseudo-core-curriculum exploits, such as the 20 Time project, Estimation 180, Visual Patterns, and Would You Rather?. Also, training the students in how to best use web-based tools like Google Drive (with whom, I have an inappropriate infatuation) and introducing them to computer programming with HourB of Code.

In short, the AppleTV provided opportunities for my students to get excited about Mathematics, art integration, and a collaborative learning environment. Yeah, I did those things before, but that little black box provided access and confidence for students who were usually silent, lost, and confused.

Worth it.

~Matt “Not sponsored by Apple, just satisfied” Vaudrey

^{1. Adrian eventually flunked out of 3rd period and joined my 1st period, which did not have iPads. He was surprised by this, after three parent phone calls, two conferences, and three failing report cards.b)}
September 1, 2014