Google Jamboard

 Hi all,

I unlocked a new level of Google Jamboard today.  I used an ipad to access it and it allowed me to take pictures of student work and instantly put it on the jam for the students at home.  Then I wrote on it with the ipad and it showed up on the projector AND on the notes for the students at home.  

So, even though the desktop should have the most functionality, the ipad app actually does more.  I'm learning from a student of mine who loves art and ipads as well, she's finding features before I do because she likes to play around with it and has the time.  

I've been told that I am too into this technology.  That's probably true but for me, it's the best way to share math work with my students at home.  I guess I can stop proselytizing but I really wish the other teachers would try it.  

Have a great night all,

~Mark

What if? (students had the technology to succeed)

 Good morning,

Today I woke up, full of energy for my day and ready to teach.  I have to wonder though, since we are hybrid/remote for who knows how much longer, how many computers and internet connectivity problems I'll have to fix today.  How many of my computers that I donated to my classroom will break, or whether the school issued chromebook will crash again, or whether goguardian will stop working.  If we treated this like a priority, here's what I would have in my room:

a) A google jamboard or a touchscreen whiteboard running a jam (6k)

b) A fast desktop running a) with a great webcam and mic that follows me/the sound in the room ($1500)

c) a laptop I could present from or beam to the chromecast from ($800) running ubuntu

d) A large display to just run the meet so the students could see each other ($400)

e) Ipad for writing on the jamboard ($800) with an apple pen ($150)

f) Wacom drawing tablet to write math problems from my laptop ($500)

I already have approximated most of these things, with my donated stuff and my purchases, but what if every teacher in the US had these things?  What if students had something better than chromebooks, and fast internet at every house?  What 21st century skills could we teachers be preparing them for?  

Anyway, that's my wish list.  I'd want a true laptop for each student and teacher, and investment in the infrastructure of the internet so every family could have 100mbps or better internet with good wifi.  

Please retweet and teachers - what is on your wish list?

Have a great day all,

~Mark

free wifi and fiber for everybody

 Good morning,

I'm a math teacher and self acknowledged technophile.  I have been a tech integration specialist for most of my career, as well as teaching math and being certified in technology.  I'm teaching hybrid model middle school, and fully online college classes.  It has never before been more clear to me that every home in America needs quality, fast internet service.  I don't care who pays for it, but it is a necessity as we face what looks like a harsher second wave of Corona.  There are places in the US that don't have the option of high speed internet because of their physical location.  They are stuck with flaky satellite connections or cell phone service, neither of which can stream video and do the sorts of things our students need to stay engaged in school when they are at home.

Internet service should be a right for all Americans, focusing first on the students.  The government (or a private company contracted by the government) should immediately decree that anyone who has an address can receive internet faster than 100 mbps for that address.  They should bury that cable, bundled with the electric service, to every address in the nation.  Each student needs a device from their district if they can't provide one, and the ability to receive internet on it.  

This does several potentially life changing things for our society.  

a) Like the CCC after the great depression, it makes a huge number of jobs available.  Jobs that are low risk for Covid, outdoors primarily.  People who aren't working due to Covid could do these jobs and receive fair pay.

b) Students with internet access can talk to their teachers and classmates, even if it isn't safe for them to do so in person.  

c) People of any age can talk to one another virtually, which combats the depression and all of the other related problems that are coming up due to Covid.

But what if we had a society that didn't . . . .

I wonder.

What would happen if we didn't assume the worst of one another?  If people who are supposed to serve and protect assumed that the people they were protecting and serving were innocent?  Perhaps more of them would live. 

I can't help thinking that if we were able to help our students in school learn that authority can be dangerous, and that they ought to respect it, maybe we could prevent some of this tragedy.  But should it be the job of educators to teach that police might not ask twice? 

I don't know how to fix this society.  But I do know that my own life has been better since I started assuming best intentions.  Of most of the people in my life.  Of course, there are some that aren't deserving.  I suppose I have utilized game theory.  I assume altruism, until trust is broken.  Then I remove that assumption and assume they are untrustworthy until their actions prove otherwise.  For more reading on game theory and evolution:

https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/game-theory-evolutionary-stable-strategies-and-the-25953132

Anyhow.  I know that for police, the game is life or death.  It is not the same for teachers - though we aren't free from risk, we aren't putting our lives on the line as police are.  So we build rapport, we understand why the folks who are oppositional and defiant are how they are, keep other students safe, and try to change the behaviors, while assuming best intentions.  But maybe the police could learn from us.  Maybe then, my former student would still be alive.

Students who don't immediately do what is asked of them

A few days ago, a former student of mine was shot and killed.  He was a student who was quiet, nice, and always eventually did what was asked of him.  Though he spent a lot of time in the hallways, usually out of uniform and with his hat on, he wasn't mean, malicious, or negative.  He would just smile at me and say, "yeah mister, I'm going to go to class," predicting what I'd say to him before I even said anything. 

It is tragic to me that this amiable student - who clearly knew what was expected - was shot and killed by police.  He never meant anyone any harm.  I never remember him being mean to anyone.  In fact, though he was almost never in class, he was also never confrontational with any adult about it.  He just went about his business, quietly, pleasantly, and without harming anyone or keeping anyone else from learning. 

Compare and contrast this with the 20 or 30 students who roam the halls now at my school, yelling at any adult who dares question them about their whereabouts.  They are actively disrupting our school environment.  One of them came in and yelled at me yesterday for having the audacity to write him up for roughhousing with 9th graders (he's a senior).  They are actively combative, and they do none of it with a smile.  I miss Anthony.

Anthony wasn't an academic star.  But he was a nice guy, who understood that it was our job to try to get him to class.  Though he didn't choose to participate academically as much as he could have, he was a good kid who benefited from being a part of our caring community.  I'm so sad that his life ended this way - because his aloof nature was interpreted a different way by an authority figure.  I wish I could see him tomorrow, ask him to get to class, and have him smile and say he would.

What if we could give students the technological tools and the creative space they need to be innovators

Good morning all,

I had the good fortune to tour Infosys' tech hub in Hartford yesterday with a group of my students.  They experienced virtual reality tennis, augmented reality (exploding a model into its composite parts on the screen that the student with the headset and the rest of the class could see on a big monitor) 3-D printing, and collaboration to create creative work.  I was struck by the idea in that company of creation.  They put creative, intelligent people together in a space, give them the tools they need, and watch them develop things. 

Why aren't we doing this with all students?  I know that we at Classical Magnet School do this, to some extent.  Our Coached Projects, when they run well, allow this sort of collaboration.  But we aren't giving the students the technological tools to be greater - to make these ideas into apps or websites, into easily consumable bits and bytes - so the audience for students is largely themselves, and maybe some parents and community members.  If, as a society, we really pushed those 21st century skills, and allowed students the time and creative space to create, as they do at Infosys, think of what they could accomplish! 

So, on to big dreams: a) Transform at least one room at Classical using the design principles of Infosys.  Big, open space, with room to dream and collaborate.  Lots of whiteboard space, interactive touchscreens which are usable by everyone, fast computers and knowledgeable coaches who can answer questions when students have tech questions.  Infuse this with the ability to create partnerships and drive connections to the larger community - city, state, world, business - and watch our students thrive. 

b) Recycle Infosys' old technology.  When they upgrade, show students how to refurbish the computers and give them to students who need them.  Based on what I saw in the innovation hub, even their old computers would be light years ahead of ours. 

c) Ongoing field trips and tech exploration with Infosys, with Capstone projects being guided by Infosys staff.  One easy connection - the Hartford website is being redesigned by Infosys.  Could the students help in that endeavor?  Could they help us on our website as well, using the design principles they learn at Infosys?

d) Summer internships for educators - become certified in teaching python or java, and learn real world applications of it by being a part of a design team.  I volunteer as tribute. 

e) Math education - each course builds in a few building blocks of CS, so students have some exposure even if they don't take a CS elective. 

f) Legit computer science course - either the one I signed up for with Amazon, or one that helps students prepare for Infosys internships by learning python and starting to play with apps. 

g) More collaboration between math and science, and math and technology, and science and technology.  We need collaborative projects like this because it would allow students to see connections, but also to learn how to work in groups as they would in jobs such as the ones we saw at Infosys.  The groupwork and collaboration was at least as important as the individual brilliance of the folks who work there, perhaps more so.  The collective genius of a group is what seems to drive innovation there, and what gets the most actual work done. 

A wealth of information

Good morning all,

I can't get this quote out of my head.  What information consumes is obvious.  It consumes our attention.  Therefore, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. 
Here it is in his words:

The brilliant economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon was one of the first to precisely describe the relationship between information and attention: “….information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

It's so relevant to my career, and to marketing literally anything.  In my life, I try to market mathematics education, @gr8fullyfeclub, linux, the Grange, recycling, philosophy, computer science, eating local, and my music.  I suppose I also market the beauty in nature, cute things my dog and my family do, and my backyard.  None of these things have gone viral, but I am starting to understand how they might.  In thinking about how to market my school, I am noticing that products like hootsuite, which not only post to several social media sites but also analyze the hits they get from each of them, are going to become ubiquitous and necessary.  How do you keep my school relevant?  It has to be posting every day, a few things to each social media site.  These posts all have to be positive or uplifting, as well as link back to our school and how to apply to it.  The positive attitude coming off of those posts has to be so great that it overcomes the student posts, some of which aren't flattering and some of which denotes a culture that is less than academic.  

So, here are my ideas:
a) Use a phone with a good camera, signed into hootsuite, to take at least one picture of something cool happening in our building every day.  Post it to all the social media at once, with hootsuite.
b) Give out raffle prizes for liking, sharing, and commenting positively on our posts (such as tickets to a show, game, T-shirts, etc. - things we already own)
c) Ask each club/organization in the school to make their own Insta, Facebook, Twitter (at least) and like and follow ours with it, as well as tagging us in each of their posts.
d) Links on the website to all of the official ones, as well as the ones in c)
e) Every teacher and every student checks into CMS daily on all the social media.  Challenge them to say something positive.

My commitment:
a) Take over one FB business page for CMS, one insta and one twitter.  Use Hootsuite to do    a) from above daily, and link to all 3 media sites from the website.  
b) Pay for a cell phone (hopefully reimbursed by the school eventually, but in the interim just me) to do what I said above, so it can be handed around to departments etc. to take pictures of the cool things happening.
c) Keep the website relevant and up to date, and linked to all of the above.
d) Write grants so we have cool things to talk about - for instance, the solar powered calculators in my room.


I also thought about this - could we have our name announced every snowstorm?  I know it's only a scrolling list, but it would get us announced separately from HPS every time on every scrolling list . . . . free advertising.