Category: Education

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
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
Why I Let Students Use Calculators All The Time
“Sure! I’d B loveB to have you demo a lesson!” Ms. B’s eyes widened as a smile grew on her face. I was surprised and thankful that she was so open to the idea.

“Great!” I replied. “What unit are you doing right now?”

“Well, we just finished Quadratics and we’re about to start Volume and Surface Area.” Ms. B replied, pointing to the standards list on her wall.

“Okay, so how about I introduce Circumference and Area of circles?”

“That’s fine. What do you need for that?” Ms. B asked, ever eager to help.

“Do you have graph paper, calculators, rulers, that sort of thing?” I asked.

“Calculators? You let your students use calculators?” Ms. B countered, incredulous.

“You what?”

Yes.
Yes, I do let my students use calculators.

Here’s why:

Lifelong Need

My wife doesn’t know her times tables. She’s a university professor and will regularly grade freshman Theology papers sitting on the couch. She’ll call out while I’m cooking or playing with the baby.

“What’s eight times six?”
“What’s 27 plus 18?”
“What’s 85 divided by 15?”

I’m a walking, smiling, calculator in the Vaudrey household.

When I’m not home, she has a calculator in her pocketB all the time. Even if her phone is in the other room, she can Google it.

My wife doesn’tB need computational skills.

Reasoning

…but she needs the reasoning.

She needs to know what the average means, when toB find the sum of a row and give the total student points, and how to explain to her college freshmenB what it means to have 6 quizzes, each worth 10% of their grade.

“But what if I miss one? Can I still get a C?”

The students in Ms. B’sB classroomB also have calculators in their pockets. I want them to know how to use it effectively, which is a much better use of their time than memorizing their 12s tables.

Diane Kinch, former president of CMC and board member ofB TODOS, gaveB this truth bomb at a recent workshop:

Students have had 15 years to learn their times tables and theyB still don’t know them. At a certain point, I have to stop boring them, give them a calculator, and say “Let’s do some math”.

In my own classroom, we use TI-83+ calculators nearly every day, which I like for a few reasons:
- TI-83sB keep a record of the last 8 or 10 calculations, so if students clear accidentally, they can recall it.
- There are tons of other buttons that do weird math stuff that we won’t use this year. This (f0r some) serves to build creativity about what’s coming next. About 2/3 of the students found the Stats Generator application and did coin-flipping trialsB four months before our unit on probability.
- They could easily show their neighbor the order of steps and describe the reasoning that led them there.
Let’s work backwards

Students who focus on reasoning instead of computation are better prepared for college and career in the US.

(It’s notable that most of the grunt work for my CPA buddy’s tax clients comes from the western coast of peninsular India. Computation is a high value there.)

That’s why I use calculators in the classroom all the time; because I think that reasoning is more important than computation.

For more on that idea, watch this by Dan Pink.

~Matt “Which one is the minusB sign?” Vaudrey
July 26, 2014
Open Letter to Tom Torlakson, California Superintendent
Mr. Torlakson,

Good morning, you’ve no doubt heard that theB existing tenure situation was ruled unconstitutional yesterday.

I myself was tearing up as I read the brief. For my entire career, I’ve felt what the court realized yesterday, and my relief and joy nearly made me weep during my meeting.

Mr. Torlakson, you’reB currently “farther up” in the education chain of command than I–a lowly teacher–so it’s been a while since you’ve sat in a staff meeting or observed stinky teaching by a tenured “permanent” teacher.

It’s probably been even longer since you watched a stinky teacher make more money than you. For me, that memory is fresh.

Anyway, let’s talk about education.

In the court briefing:

“… teachers themselves do not want grossly ineffective colleagues in the classroom.” (page 13, line 1)

If I were in your position, posed for reelection,B I would be tempted to please the California Teacher’s Association (one of my biggest supporters) in order to secure my seat in November.

I’m asking that you focus on the students instead. Our students deserve great teachers, and as State Superintendent, you’ll have the proper pull toB drive the design of a system where great teaching is rewarded. This would helpB flush out the dummies and keep the hard-working professionals.

I hope you see that, by encouraging teachers to be our best, we place the students first.

In short, I’m a teacher, and my right to a job matters less than my students’ right to a quality education.

Mr. Torlakson, please support this court ruling in the next few months and continue to reform teacher tenure after your (probable) reelection in November.

~Matt Vaudrey

UPDATE June 25, 2014:

P.S. No doubt that by now, you’ve read the highly polarized brief fromB the CTA website, you’ve heard complaints that the “1-3% of teachers are grossly ineffective” statistic is unfounded on any data or studies, and you’ve seen that Students First is hailing the decision as an important step, with many more to address going forward.

Two things:
1. As a classroom teacher, the “guesstimate” of 1-3% of all teachers are grossly ineffective is not only statistically likely, but it sounds pretty generous based on my anecdotal experience.
2. The CTA press releases are full of negative language and the Students First releases are full of optimism and urgency. Why do you think that is?
June 11, 2014
Common Core Will Not Eat Your Babies

Let me tell you a story.

I’ve taught next door, across the building, and across campus from some really bad teachers.

I have sat in staff meeting at the same table asB teachers who give printed notes to students to copy down into their notebook,B and that is theirB sole class activity for the year.

As a teacher, my profession is cheapened if badB teachers aren’t held accountable.B That’s why we have standards; so that there is a minimum expectation to guide teachers and students.

I have a daughter (and a son on the way). In a few years when I send her to school, I expect the school to do a good job training her in skills she’ll need to be successful. Some things will come easily to her, some will be more difficult, and some will sit in darkness until a special teacher shines a light on them.

When I send my child to school, I’m giving my acceptance that school will do a good job. If I don’t like it, I can pull her out and home-schoolB or private-school her.

Of course, your child isn’t common. No child is.

Schools do the best that weB can with the diverse, unique students that are sent through our doors every day.

Therein lies my problem with the advocates against the Common Core;

If you don’t like it, you can leave.

Otherwise, you’re justB the kid who goes to a birthday party and complains about the flavor of cake.

(Concerned Parents Against Chocolate Fudge)

~Matt “Not afraid of Common Core, but a little afraid of the trolls this post will attract” Vaudrey

June 2, 2014
Teacher Pay

I’ve been out of the class for about a month.

My co-workers and new bosses in the District Office have led me to many new conversations about Education (on and off the clock).

If you don’t mind, fill in this anonymous form so I can make a graph of (what is probably) an inverse correlation. I’ll share it when I’m done.

UPDATE: Also, if you know the pay of anybody else, feel free to enter it as well. It just occurred to me that very few District Administrators are on Twitter or read my blog.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”forms/d/1y3mVBjS5bXR6dwT03AtklLKplSzuaiqQQ1OihDMomL8/viewform” query=”embedded=true” width=”760″ height=”900″ /]

May 6, 2014
Teens and the Supernatural (not the show)

First year of teaching: Survival. Don’t die.
Middle years: Improve. Make a few dozen memorable lessons that you enjoy teaching.
Curriculum Adoption Year: Survive. Attempt to cram your memorable lessons into foreign molds, like Michelangelo building a swan from the tin foil wrapped around Mexican leftovers.

Sometimes, though, it works okay.

Given all the recent discussion on real-world vs. fake-world in math education, it’s tempting for teachers in the middle years (this author included) to try any means necessary to create engagement out of half a steak burrito.

Let’s try saying that another way:

8th Grade Standard 8.F.2:

Compare properties of two functions, each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions).

Okay. Those examples could go horribly or great.

Interesting?

Interesting?

Middle and high school are where the social development of students flexes dramatically from day to day.

Can I wear this? What happens if I wear this? How much makeup is too much? What will my friends think if I date this person? B Does this matter? Who should I talk to?B Where do I fit in?

Michael Pershan absolutely nails something about students that few discuss (outside of my youth pastor wife and me): adolescents still aren’t quite sure which things are real and which aren’t, which things matter and which don’t.

What? No! You cannot drink radioactive waste to grow gills!

Teachers, how many of your students have mentioned ghosts, superpowers, or the Illuminati this year? While it’s less than half that ask the questions like, “Mr. Vaudrey, are vampires real?”,B the entire class is silent while I answer.B I think that’s because:

Students aren’t certain what’s real and what’s not, so grappling and applying meaning are core tenets of a successful math curriculum.

More on that functions lesson later this week.

~Matt “There’s a reason Harry Potter has sold 400 million copies” Vaudrey

March 9, 2014
The First Question

#CaEdChat is going on right now. I’m no doubt missing dozens of witty, hastily-typed tweets to type this, but I think it’s important.

Tonight, #CaEdChat is discussing questions, and I heard this one kicked around a lot, and I want to share my response to it.

This isn’t about the question that gets teachers the most excited.B It’s also not the boringest question we get all year.

It’s not the easiest question to answer, nor is it the hardest (though many teachers seem to think it is).

It’s the question that new teachers fear, but veteran teachers still wince when we hear it.

This question is one that drove us to become teachers in the first place, and it’s still being asked now, decades after we asked it toB our teachers, and our children and grandchildren will ask their teachers:

Why do we need to know this?

I usually get this question about 3 weeks into the year. If not, I pull it out with the first really abstract Math topic that we get. This year it was Classifying Real Numbers.

I got through the meat of the lesson and said,

Okay, put down your pencils, fold your hands and look at me. You’re probably wondering by now when you will use this in real life, yes? I’m going to tell you.

You won’t.

Odds are that most of you will go to jobs where you don’t need to do this [point to the board] in your career. However, it’s still important. Here’s why:

When I was in college, I used the same workout room as the football players. One day, I was lifting weights across from thisB huge guy. He picked up these massive weights and did this:

I was surprised, so I asked him, “Bro. Why are you doing that? Shouldn’t you practice sprints or throwing a football or something you’ll actually use?”

He responded, “Dude-ski, I may not use this motion in the game, but I use this muscle in the game, fo shizzle*.”

“I’m so glad I did those calf raises!”

Students, the math you learn in this class will work out your brain in ways that you will use. You will likelyB neverB need to classify real numbers in your profession, but because you worked out your brain, you’ll be smarter. You’ll be a better boyfriend, girlfriend, boss, employee, and friend.

Is that a fair answer?

So far, that answer has satisfied every class in my teaching career.

~Matt “Honest Abe” Vaudrey

*If the slang terms wasn’t clue enough on the decade when I was in college, here’s a picture of me and my roommates.

December 1, 2013
Why Teachers Should Blog

First, let’s address the dumb word. Blog.

Sounds like a Star Wars villain.

“You’ll never catch me, Skywalker!”

It’s short for Web-Log, but nonetheless, the term is a poor approximation for the amount of good stuff happening online.

Kate Nowak–at least 20% of the brains behind Mathalicious–asked for some input on Teacher Blogging, so here it is:

1. What hooked you on reading the blogs? Was it a particular post or person? Was it an initiative by the nice MTBoS folks? A colleague in your building got you into it? Desperation?

Desperation. During my first year teaching, I found myself regularly journaling, “There hasB got to be an easier/better/more fun/cheaper way of teaching this concept”.

After exhausting my master teacher (and getting plenty of good ideas from her), I took to the internet and found teacher blogs: people who were not only sharing their successes, but also their failures and shortcomings. I would find a cool lesson and read about a teacher in Mississippi whose 6th period was just as unruly as my 3rd period.

As a first-year teacher, that feeling was like being back in the first grade and finding out that Jeremy struggled with chin-ups, too.

2. What keeps you coming back? What’s the biggest thing you get out of reading and/or commenting?

The collection of math teachers online is like having a staff lounge with only trustworthy, non-grizzled, innovative veterans, all of whom will happily share all their secrets for free.

If such a thing existed in the automotive business, all cars would run on tap water and get 400 miles per gallon.

In commenting, I get to share my own [limited] experience with teachers, many of whom are new to the gig. It feels like giving back.

And it’s real humbling to see big names in Education commenting also, or people giving comments much more astute and helpful than my own. It’s good to be humbled sometimes.

3. If you write, why do you write? What’s the biggest thing you get out of it?

I love running my new lessons through a checkoff of sorts. Through blogging (and Twitter) I can ask teaching questions to a specific audience and get only the advice I want. Example below; read a few of these:

I asked people across the state about a project my class was doing and got all those responses within 24 hours. Not bad.

4. If you chose to enter a room where I was going to talk about blogging for an hour (or however long you could stand it), what would you hope to be hearing from me? MTBoS cheerleading and/or tourism? How-to’s? Stories?

A few things:

Tier your instruction (eh? Get it?) so that you can address both the non-bloggers and the established bloggers. Do that by describing what blogging is in its ideal form. That will inspire a beginning in those that don’t blog yet, and an advancement in those who already do.

Emphasize how easy it is to join. When I spoke on Twitter last month, I called it “a wide rushing river that is full of chatter and intimidating to look at, but dipping your toes into it is easy.”

On your blog, you mentioned “written, public reflection”. Touch on how the worst employees in any profession are those accountable to no one. Written, public reflection provides a respectful vulnerability. There is something powerful in two parties saying, “I’m imperfect and I need help,” and “So are we, here are some ideas.”

Good luck.

~Matt “Romanticized and Touchy-feely” Vaudrey

November 11, 2013
#HowToLearnMath by Jo Boaler – Week 1

I admit, I’ve been slacking.

Much like when I was in college, the online courses don’t command my attention unless I pick time during the week to dedicate to them.

As a result, I’m a little behind in the How to Learn Maths course by Stanford professor Jo Boaler, though it’s not from lack of solid material.

(Truth be told, I had a busy weekend and had a lot on my mind.)

To that end, I’m posting here my Concept Map (not really) for the discussion of why students are averse to maths education.

As you can see, the Easy and Practical maths (Quadrant I, top right) are brightest because they’re easiest and quickest to consume. While I can’t speak for the U.K. or other areas, the United States is very interested in quick consumption and disposal with no lasting effect.

…this extends to their math as well.

Quadrant I holds maths that are quickly calculated using simple formulas and requiring no greater understanding of mathematics. These are especially appealing to American teenagers; the Big Mac of maths, if you will.

Quadrant II (top left) is math that is easy to grasp, but not typically applicable to real life. Many of the 3-Acts fall into this category, and that’s okay.

Quadrant IV (bottom right) is math that is easy to do, but won’t be used often in real life. If it can be done easily in Excel or Google Sheets, it goes here.

And the student interest fades with the colors as we travel to Quadrant III (bottom left) where math is difficult, uninspiring, and never used again after the course.

I asked my (physician) father if I should take Calculus 2 and 3 in college. He responded, “Only if you want a job as a very narrow form of geek.”

I’m now a math teacher.

July 27, 2013