Donorschoose vs. what I think the school should supply

Donorschoose: feelings and thoughts about having to buy supplies for my job.

What other job, aside from an independent contractor, has to buy their own supplies that are necessary to complete their work?  I suppose I have a higher than average need for technology, but it seems to me that I should have, to be effective:

A computer less than 3 years old

A functional printer with toner

A SMART board or Google Jamboard

A chromebook cart, or 1-1 tech policy such that all students have access to technology like Khan Academy, teachertube/youtube and the ability to word process.

I also need printer paper, pencils, graphing calculators (I teach math), graph paper, staplers and staples, hole punches, and:

Copiers that work/aren’t Bob Marley and always jammin’.

Of these things, I have, provided by the school:

A 14 year old computer

A printer with no toner

A projector for the computer

A chromebook cart with 15 working chromebooks, and none which still have all of their keys

Pencils

Paper

Hole punch

Staples

20 graphing calculators

I have, provided by myself, my friends and family, and parents:

8 more graphing calculators, TI nspire CAS CX's

2 printers, with enough toner

10 year old, somewhat functional (off by 6 inches or so) SMART board, which was requisitioned from another school when they upgraded (by me)

HDMI projector

I3 laptop (donorschoose)

I5 laptop, donated by a former student

The best, and most functional, things I have in my classroom were bought by me, or given to the classroom by donorschoose donors, my friends, family, or former students/parents.  I'm seriously considering donating the rest of the money needed to fund my projects myself.  It's better than outright buying these things, because the projects are matched by donors like Samsung, Dalio Foundation, and sometimes Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.  So for $600, I'd get a $900 laptop for my classroom.  I KNOW it makes me faster and more effective when I have a faster computer.  I don't spend as much time waiting for the gradebook to open, or for my powerpoint to load, or for the computer to reboot.  Things just work.  

Here's what I think teachers need to be effective (it's the same as what corporate folks need).  We are paid relatively well per hour, and every moment we waste waiting for a computer is a moment we're not helping a student, planning effectively, or being the best teachers we can be.  Therefore, we should do what everybody else does.  We should lease computers and replace them every 3 years, just like industry.  We should insist on working printers and copiers, or go all the way paperless with ipads or kindles - but either way, they have to work.  We need for our students to see that they are valued - that they don't just have old, broken technology, but instead they have new things.  I know there are schools that are funded in this way - and I'll bet the students are higher performing, because they believe they are valued.  They have things that work.  That's the expectation.  

Anyway, rant over.  I'm in the process of writing grants and fundraising as much as I can to provide the things my school needs.  But I don't think we should have to.  I think every school, every single one in the US, should be given the technology it needs to create 21st century learners.  If not, we're not preparing them for the future.  We're preparing them for the past.

Joy in school?

I wonder . . .

What if we helped students find what brings them joy, then built upon that as a foundation until they had achieved what they wanted to in the ways that they want to.  I suppose we'd lose some of the "well rounded" features of a liberal arts education, but I wonder how we could bring out the best of our students in the ways that they want, instead of the ways we think they need.  I think, at its best, Montessori schools and Paideia schools do this.  At Classical Magnet, we use the Paideia philosophy, which, at its best, finds and develops the strengths and the passions of each student.  We have Socratic dialogue and seminar, which coaches students into their best selves, while encouraging them to think critically about themselves and the world around them.  We have coached projects, which allow our students to showcase their talents in a way that can't be assessed on tests and papers.  Our artists get to create, our musicians to play, our comedians and dancers to entertain.  They develop the skills that they have innately, whether or not those skills are ever measurable on a standardized test.  We do assess them, on rubrics which require them to have good sources and correct citations, but we also assess their creativity, their interest in their subject, and the way they portray their chosen topic.

I believe that testing can help us ascertain whether students have certain skills.  They need pre-assessments to help us edit our instruction to best fit their needs, formative assessments to see how they are progressing, and summative assessments to see whether they actually learned what we intended.  These are all necessary to inform good instruction, help students learn, and make sure they have learned.  However, if all we do is teach them a single subject, instead of letting them engage in their passions and showing us what they care about, we don't see the whole student.  I teach math, but I am happiest when I see my students, at the end of a coached project or Socratic Seminar, talking about what drives them, what they love, and what keeps them moving forward.  I don't teach because I can help students get higher scores on the SAT or my assessments in math, though I can and do accomplish that as well.  I teach because of those aha moments, where students realize the greater connections to their lives.  I teach because the kid who wants to be a rapper will someday not be swindled by their accountant if and when they make it.  I teach because the math skills I possess have helped me to live a better life.  I've gotten better deals at banks and car dealerships, found efficiency in my life, looked at my expenditures through the lens of an actuary, and found underground tanks using an old diagram and the Pythagorean theorem to figure out where to dig.

Anyway . . . that's how math has helped me.  But as to how I became inspired: I did Junior Engineering Team competitions with a math teacher.  I learned how to build 3d models in Cadkey 98 and Autocad, which helped me understand the math I was doing in my calculus class.  I dreamed of building things, designing things, and improving things.  I created a computer program that used mathematics to create fractals.  All of this allowed me to be in flow.  I stopped caring about time because I was so into what I was doing.  I've experienced flow as a musician as well, but never when I was told to do something.  It was always because I chose to.  We have to give our students choices, then support what they choose until they learn what they want to learn.  They need the basics in everything as well, but they need, more importantly, to find what drives them and expound upon that until they have learned to love learning.

I think flow is the expression of joy in what you are doing.  I find it in nature, I find it in music that tingles my spine, and I find it in the beauty of mathematics and computer science.  I also find it in the students I teach learning to love something they are doing.  It doesn't have to be (and usually isn't) math.  They just have to love it, and want to learn more, and be willing to involve me in that process.

On Reading

Good morning all,

I hope you're all cozy and warm, safe from the snowstorm which is changing to an ice storm in the Northeast.  I'm currently reading a book called "World Without Mind" by Franklin Foer.  It was a choice for my  book club, which frequently picks books I wouldn't otherwise try, and provides an academic outlet for me in times when I can't or won't take college classes. 

Finding good books used to be really difficult for me, as I sort of dropped off the reading for pleasure radar around 8th grade.  I became a 3 season athlete in high school, taking all the hardest courses with no study halls, and reading all the books my teachers mandated I read.  Before that, I was a bookish, nerdy middle school kid with a thirst for anything fantasy.  I loved the dragonlance series, and before that the Mossflower and Redwall series, and before that Rhoald Dahl and Shel Silverstein.  I was extremely fortunate in having my Aunt Gail, who worked in an elementary school, and loved to find new books for me to read at all of her book fairs.  My parents, grandparents, and others in my life always encouraged me to read, so I kept doing so.

However, once I started reading only what was assigned, because I didn't have time to do otherwise, I stopped reading for pleasure.  I spent my whole high school career reading things other people told me to read, and consequently losing much of the joy in it.  My teachers didn't make bad recommendations - I just didn't choose them, so I read them because I had to, not because I wanted to. 

In college, I remember one of my most rebellious acts.  I skipped a class I didn't feel like going to, and read George Orwell's 1984 cover to cover in one sitting.  Later, I figured out what it cost per class to go to Bates, and I never skipped another class.  However, the joy of reading resurfaced in my soul, and I started picking books I wanted to read again, and choosing classes based upon reading lists I liked and topics I enjoyed reading about.  I read all of Steven King's books, because my library had them and they were based in Maine, close to my college.  I remember "The Fog" being especially chilling as we took a trip to a foggy storage unit shortly thereafter, and it took place in the neighboring town.

For my students, I always try to foment in them a love for reading.  It's anathema to their natural impulses, but we have a Tempus Legendo period every day, which encourages them to read for about a half hour every day.  It is supposed to be pleasure reading, with no homework to be done, no reading for classes, no cell phones out, etc.  The only way I accomplish this is with strict oversight, which sort of defeats the purpose.  In the first place, I can't read myself because I have to enforce their reading, and in the second place, they usually only pretend to read a book to keep me from bothering them. 

It's a difficult philosophical problem - how to make someone love to do something.  I try to curate my classroom library such that there are things that are of their lexile level and interest, but I find it hard to do.  Whenever my teachers in high school asked me to read something, I did it, but not because I loved it.  Rather, I did it because there would be a test.  How, as an educator, can I approach this in such a way as to help students find the love of reading that I have rediscovered as a college student and been lucky enough to keep as an adult?  I can, and do model it, but they don't want to be like me when they grow up (or they'd never admit that to their peers).  I can grade it, which I've done in the past, but this is artificial and keeps me from reading myself.  I can ask them what they care about and give them books I think they'd like.  This has been by far the most effective method. 

I suppose the best thing I have done is to share my story with the students I teach.  Sometimes they recognize themselves in the above - especially the overachievers.  They are fluent in the ways of success, and sometimes success means the choice to read what is required instead of what is desired.  I hope that I can do both throughout my life, and inspire others to do the same.

Happy Reading!

~Mark

Job satisfaction, mathematics and how to make it a priority in our society again

Good morning all,

I think that my job satisfaction is directly related to how much people at work appreciate what I do.  Very infrequently, former students come back and say hi, and tell me they are appreciative of what I taught them.  This means a great deal.  More often, other teachers say nice things, and this is always fantastic.  Sometimes, there is even nice feedback from administrators or bosses, which is really cool.  Comments don't have to be evaluative, they can just be positive.  I think that those sorts of comments, from any of the above, are more important than how much I'm paid to do my work. 

I love engaging with other professionals about theories about education, how best to help students, and what we can do to help them become citizens of the state, country, and world.  My school does a great job at this with the Paideia philosophy, creating students (and teachers) who think deeply about things. 

My other job, at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, teaching Math Boot Camp, is a different experience and I really appreciate it, for different reasons.  Students there are more appreciative, even as they have more math phobia or recalcitrance towards math.  They are adults, so I think they have learned/realized how much they will need math skills for their associate's degrees/careers.  It's pretty neat to be able to diagnose their misunderstandings about math and helping them overcome them. 

I am left wondering how to give the sort of motivation that the adult students have to my high school students.  Many of my high school students are extremely motivated, but I teach so many that think that they will never need mathematics in general, and Algebraic skills in particular.  I tell them anecdotes about my life and when I've used algebra/math to outwit car salesmen, calculate tip faster than others, use the Pythagorean theorem to locate an underground tank for my grandparents, and how it can, in general, lead to a better life than the life that could be led without any math knowledge. 

As a culture, I think we need to start making math a priority again.  America has had years, and decades even, where the most important thing to our society was knowledge.  The drive to put a man on the moon before Russia made us glorify math/science/engineers because they were connected to patriotism.  We need that again, badly.  Technology companies can't find qualified American workers, and we need to be at the forefront of this.  This can't happen unless education becomes important to society again.  We have to put our money where our mouth is, and give funding to schools, K-12 AND community colleges, all the way up to graduate school.  Everyone with the aptitude should be able to learn as much as they want to about their chosen subject.  This wouldn't cost a lot, in the long run, and it would lead to the US dominating in technology, innovation, science, and math again. 

More importantly, the culture around it needs to change.  Instead of calling people dorky for wanting to learn about math, science, technology, or really any school subject, we should praise them and encourage them.  We should provide them with resources and scholarships, so that our companies can eventually innovate.  We should help our teachers.  Elevating the profession of education will elevate our students, because the BEST, most QUALIFIED people will want to teach.  It will be rewarded monetarily in a way commensurate with the qualification, drive, motivation, and intelligence that the teachers bring to students, every day.  Qualified teachers won't get jaded, feel frustration over non-working technology, or feel undervalued.  As a result, students will get our BEST. 

When that happens, the whole society benefits.  We help students become citizens of their city/town, the state, the country, and the world.  Making the teachers feel valued filters down to the students.  They will have the best education we can provide, with the resources required to do so, and the students feel that.  When I bring donorschoose resources to bear on my classroom, my students feel valued.  They feel that they are cared for, and they work harder because they know they have the resources they need to be their most effective. 

Why do I teach, and what do I teach best?

Hi all,

I've been a teacher in the Hartford Public Schools for 14 years.  Much of this has been in a brand new magnet school, founded on some old educational principles.  I believe in the liberal arts, and letting students find themselves in their education until they are well rounded students who have a diverse set of skills.  Because of this, I'm not just a math teacher.  I'm a coached project teacher, a technology integration specialist teacher, a computer teacher (yes, this is different from technology), a photography teacher, an essay reviewer, a college essay and resume helper, a financial advisor, a social worker, counselor and a life advice purveyor. 

I am considering becoming a technology teacher next year, and I'm thinking philosophically about what I am best at, and what students need the most.  I love mathematics, the problem solving aspects and the logic required to solve algebraic equations.  I love the beauty and the simplicity of a good formula or proof.  I love fractals, and I loved the computer science I used to create them for my senior thesis so much that programming time just went by without me noticing it passing.  The psychological term for this is flow.  I got so into it that hours would pass and I wouldn't notice. 

I am even more passionate about computers and technology.  I have a charity called @gr8fullyfeclub which almost has its 501c3 nonprofit status.  I take old computers, use Darik's Boot and Nuke, then use debian, ubuntu, or linux mint on them, depending on the speed of the computer.  Then they are given to students who don't have working technology at home.  As a technology teacher, I could have a class on that, on computer hardware and software, and teach students how to install an operating system, change a hard drive, fix a screen.  All of those things fade in necessity as tech becomes cheaper and better, but the basics - the building blocks of a computer, the hard drive, processor and graphics processor, and how it outputs to a display - are needed to understand even the smallest of computers, the phone. 

I'd also like to teach financial literacy to our students, since none of them understand fully what the world will expect of them in terms of their money management or finances.  Unless their parents teach them, they won't get the financial education they need to balance a checkbook, do their taxes, live within their means or be good financial members of our society.  That's the most important math class I can teach them - and it's not a class we offer. 

Anyway, there are my thoughts for this chilly Saturday.  Hope your day is filled with relaxation, love, peace, and happiness.

~Mark