Sagging Pants

My students have been helping out Carnegie Learning, piloting some of the new problems slated for the middle school Cognitive Tutor. We’re kind of disappointed that the software program is still in the old format, but my students and I are always happy to help out in any way we can.

You know something is up when all of a sudden you hear students shuffling, followed by giggles and fits of laughter. I look up and one girl has several of her friends surrounding her laptop.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

Yeah, right. I go over to the crowd to find out for myself.

“Look, Mrs. Park! Can you believe they would put this kind of problem on Cognitive Tutor?”

I smile as I read about Bob’s sagging pants, the distance representing a negative quantity. The problem asks how far down Bob’s pants will be sagging after so many minutes. Carnegie Learning hit this one right on the dot. My students are talking about this for the rest of the day, warning the next class to look out for this problem.

Not quite children and yet not full-pledge teenagers. Kids this age still enjoy watching Finding Nemo and squirm at kissing scenes in movies.

You’ve got to love middle school humor.

Carnegie NMI Conference

I know I talked about this last summer, but I thought it was time to bring it up again. Carnegie is hosting the Carnegie Learning National Math Institute July 10 -13 in Grapevine, Texas. The conference will be held at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center. You can get more info by visiting the conference website http://nmi.carnegielearning.com/.

Now that you know the details, I wanted to tell you why I will be asking my district to send me again this year. This conference is awesome! I've been to many other conferences both in and out of state and this one was the best I've been to by far. So what makes it so great? First of all, the whole conference is geared toward teaching the Carnegie Curriculum with fidelity. Although I'm sure you'd still leave with some great ideas if you don't use the Carnegie Curriculum, that was my favorite part. Each session talked about making connections between the classroom and the tutor, teaching the curriculum with fidelity, ways to group students.... and so much more.

Do you remember how you felt after you left your initial implementation training? I know I do. I was so excited about this new (to me) style of teaching that I couldn't wait to jump into! Of course I was also nervous about teaching a new way, but my excitement was overwhelming. That is exactly how I felt after leaving the Carnegie NMI Conference last summer. I couldn't wait to get home and write down all the new ideas I wanted to try.

Another great thing about this conference is how well you get to know all of the Carnegie Learning Staff. They really go out of there way to make you feel welcome.

I almost didn't put in for this conference this year because I know how my own school is struggling financially. I really wanted to go but didn't think the school had the funds to send me. However, my superintendent came to me asking if I wanted to go again this year. I'm putting my conference request in first thing on Monday. If my cash strapped district can find the funds I'm sure yours can too! Hopefully I'll be seeing you there!

When am I ever going to use this math in real life?

I get this question from my students all the time. Do you? It's a valid question but I don't always have an answer. I am thrilled when I do discover a math application.

For the past several months as I take my daughter to her elementary school, I have witnessed the snail-like construction of a wide, winding sidewalk that leads to the nearby high school. Then there's the construction going on at my middle school. Anticipating an additional 200 students in the next two years, my school is expanding and building six new classrooms.




All this has made me think about the wonders of concrete. Yes, you heard me correctly. Concrete. Did you know concrete is merely a specific combination of gravel, sand, cement, and water? The parts come together to form a new whole. Do you know what this reminds me of? Why, ratio, of course!! The Romans used a form of concrete over 2000 years ago in their now infamous architecture structures. Concrete today is the foundation of any building or structure in our country. Needless to say, I find concrete fascinating.

So lately the wheels in my head are constantly in motion, trying to come up with a math activity involving ratios and concrete. This is as real-life as it gets. My husband is trying to persuade me not to carry through with my plans, reminding me that working with concrete can get pretty messy. I’m not discouraged. I hope to have something ready to go for this week. I’ll let you know if my plans pan out. Wish me luck!

Public Access Woes

So this week my school is finally on spring break. Grades for the third quarter are due when we return. I of course told all of my students that this break would be a great opportunity for them to make up computer time/sections completed for days they were absent. The problem with that is many of my students do not have Internet access at home. I reminded them that they could do the Cognitive Tutor anywhere they could get Internet access including a library or a friends house. To my dismay, I had a parent email me saying that she took her daughter to the library to work on the Cognitive Tutor but that the library computer software would not allow them to download the program. A pop up on the computer told her to see the network supervisor for permission to access the program and the library people told her they could not allow her to access the program. I felt bad for the student who really did try to put in some extra effort. It's disappointing that she can check her facebook account at the library but was unable to access an educational software. Has anyone else experienced a similar problem on a public computer?

Lacking Numerical Sense

We math teachers somewhere in the past decade or two have failed at stressing the value of the decimal. The once 14-years-old are now 20-somethings, making up a large percentage of the working force in the service industry. Many of them are in decision-making, managerial positions. These people would swear on their lives that 25 cents is written as 0.25¢! You see signs everywhere stating, “All size drinks for only 0.99¢!” Even if I were to plunk down a shiny new penny and order one large Coke, Suzy behind the counter wouldn’t have the faintest idea where I was coming from. It would only annoy her that I was slowing down the line.

Not all 4’s are created equal. Huh? Let me clarify. A salary of $4,000 is quite different from that of $40,000. Wouldn’t you agree? All because of one seemingly insignificant little dot. So, how can $0.25 = 0.25¢ or 25¢ = 0.25¢ ? It totally baffles me.

Here are other examples I have found in the last eight months.






Don’t despair. There is hope. A nearby grocery store remodeled recently. During their grand reopening, I noticed that in their produce section, all price signs had both a decimal point and a cent sign. How sacrilege! Much to my teenager’s dismay and embarrassment, I took it upon myself to remove all the plastic decimal tiles and neatly placed them in a pile to the side. You will be happy to know ever since that liberating day, this particular grocery store has not made the same erroneous mistake. Somewhere in their security office is probably a picture of me with the caption, “WARNING: Watch out for a crazy woman rearranging store merchandise!”

The results are in (well sort of...)

So last week we I received our score report from the Juniors' ACT testing. This year's Juniors were the first class to use the Carnegie instruction for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. In addition we've made an effort at our school for all classes to incorporate test preparation in one way or another throughout our courses instead of just cramming in review for a few weeks before testing. I'm happy to report that our math scores are up! I don't have the exact numbers, (we're currently doing our own analysis of the data) but there are definitely more students with college ready math scores than last year (and we had less students testing this year). It appears that our hard work is paying off. We still have a way to go, but we are making huge strides at our school. There are 3 tests that go into creating our AYP school report card. The ACT is only one part. The other two parts are the ACT Work Keys Test and the MME (Michigan Merit Exam, which is based on the MI standards and benchmarks). Our overall results won't be available until later this summer, but the math department is happy with our progress and hopes that our scores will continue to rise.

Judgment Day

When the last student finished her test at 5:00 pm today, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. Today was a monumental day for 8th graders in Texas. They took the math TAKS, the state’s standardized test. This year I felt a heavier burden of responsibility for my students. I’ve never been more nervous for them. Not sure why. The results come in three weeks. Three very long weeks.

It’s been long days for the past couple of weeks and I’m exhausted. I’ll be back before this week ends. Good-night.

Leading the Way

I think I've mentioned in earlier posts that one period of my day is a middle school transition class. The goal to to prepare the students (who are old enough to be in high school but for one reason or another haven't finished middle school) to be high school students next year. I'm using the Carnegie Bridge to Algebra program to help them with their math skills. At first I thought I would be doing a traditional combination of the Carnegie text and Cognitive Tutor. It turns out however, that my students are really flying on the tutor. They have been doing so well on the tutor that the past two weeks we have only gone to the lab. The class is very small. There are eight students so usually I can find a way to squeeze us into a lab. With only eight of them I've been able to really work with them one on one with the areas they are struggling with. One of the students has already completed half of the Bridge software! All of the students came from different schools and had different teachers in the past. Using the software has been the great equalizer. Students who have had experience with a particular topic move past it quickly while those who need extra practice get it until they master it. They have been pretty competitive with one another about their progress. They are helping each other when they get to a new section and lately students who are further along are doing most of the teaching to the students that are slightly behind. It's amazing to see what a collaborative community they have created even while in the lab. I'm excited to see how well these students will do next year when they are in my Algebra 1 class. I can see that these students who before claimed to be bad at math are going to be leaders next year. Wow what a positive experience this had turned out to be for both myself and these students!