My Manifesto / Pinning down what I'm interested in

I'm currently trying to pin down what I'm interested in so I'm just going to try and list them out;

1) project based learning and the psychology behind it - e.g. what skills do students develop when they are involved in a project which lasts a week compared to doing homework on a daily basis.

2) Personally, I want to complete change the present maths curriculum which is best suited to a time when calculators were the size of rooms, in favor of problem formulation rather than calculation. So that students don't spend their time on boring series of calculations which are nowadays done by computers. However, until that day comes I'll be manipulating the maths curriculum so the students can easily relate it to their day to day lives. Hopefully down the line I will also be involved in the development of the curriculum itself - transforming it into a set of knowledge and skills which are useful in day to day life as well as in employment. I believe the currently curriculum achieves neither of these goals - when was the last time you needed to simplify a quadratic equation at home or work? (Inspired by the work of Conrad Wolfram and Dan Meyer)

3) Democratic practices in the classroom - involving students in the three main areas of education which are curriculum (what the students learn), pedagogy (teaching methodology - how it is taught/how they learn it) and assessment (how knowledge of the curriculum is tested). If this involvement is facilitated in such a way as to balance student and adult input, then students personal development can benefit from developing the skills needed to being involved in this process. A correct balance of adult and youth input will also promote the students ownership of the process which will ensure they learn more, what they learn is more useful and what they learn they will remember longer.
Too much adult input and the students feel disempowered and apathetic, too little adult input and they flounder. (Inspired by the work of Ira Shor and of Reed Larson).

4) Creativity and innovation in the classroom - students must be free to express themselves and explore their passions through your subject. (Inspired by the work of Sir Ken Robinson)

5) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the classroom - even though I don't know much about technology, I believe it is very important to increase its role in the classroom, not just to the ever increasing role it will play in the lives of students, but also for the simple reason - it can help. It can help you entertain and engage your students as well as lend a hand in terms of organisation. (Dan Meyer is fairly good on this too).

6) Critical media literacy - students developing an in-depth understanding of the role of the media in the social, cultural and political of this country. (inspired by no one in particular)

7) Civic Education - students developing an in-depth understanding of not just how the political system works in this country, but how they can employ their political voice to best effect. (inspired by how politically ignorant I feel, despite obtaining an "A" in Civic, Social and Political Education (C.S.P.E.) in 2003 - here's a link to the exam paper. (Useless is a term, which would be used generously in relation to this subject).

6) Philosophy of Pop Culture, e.g. examining the big and small questions behind cartoons, books, movies and music, e.g. the graphic novel "Watchmen" (this is more of a hobby of mine really that I would love to lead a class on - I believe passion in a subject is a good starting point for teaching.) (Inspired by the The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series).

Dan Meyer - Math Class needs a make over

This is the gold you find when you keep typing in the same search words every six months on TED.com, in this case "math*". - click on the link or check out my Vlog (video + blog) over here ->

This is the TED video on math I've been looking for.

All I need to do now is just apply his algorithm (math lingo for "his procedure") to every distinct mathematical concept on the Leaving and Junior certificate course. Ok admitedly there's nothing "just" about that last goal, but at least I have it alot clearer in my head where I'm going with this. I had a sense that I was going to try and make maths as real life as possible, even quadratic equations somehow.

Essentally what Dan does is he divides the math problems on the curriculum into 2 categories one a group which is characterised by applying an abstract formula to a given equation (which is sometimes disguised) and the other group which is attempting and failing to recreate "real life" problems such as the example Dan gives.

I agree with Dan when he encourages us all to make "real life" maths actually real by being "less helpful".

In terms of the sacred trinity of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment.

Curriculum needs to focus more on real life situations, which should reflect math employed in the students everyday lives and in the day to day labour of the various work sectors.

Pedagogy - Dan sums it up well when he says - be less helpful.

Assessment - Questions should be open ended and short (like Dan suggests) with not one method of answering the question. Students should be given too much data and have to (1) discern what is essential and what is superfluous or (2) be given no data concrete data and asked to work out a formula.

Personally, I am in favour of a more discrete mathematics based curriculum ever since I heard this succinct arguement made on TED.com by Arthur Benjamin. My goal is to one day carry out a community profile with my maths class who design qeustionnaires which ask the qeustions they want answered and then go out into the community, collect the data and then learn about all the various ways it can be analysed and presented to people through stastics. So that they understand the meaning of "lies, damned lies and stastics" and can use this knowledge to question precentages quoted in the media and who knows one day employ stastics to further their own agendas in the future.

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex | Video on TED.com

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex Video on TED.com

Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs | Video on TED.com

It's all about initiative

Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs Video on TED.com

Finland vs The Slums; Who will we look to for inspiration in the field of education?

Here is another TED.com video that you have to see on how Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.

http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_leadbeater_on_education.html

You can also catch it on my Vod Pod on the right hand column.

If you want to read more about the subject matter he covers you can find a copy of the report he bases his presentation on, on his website at

http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/home.aspx

I'm currently reading through it at the moment and gleaning for all the possible schools I want to visit on W.T.S.R.E. (World Tour of Sites of Radical Education).

I'll do another blog on that when I'm done.

Talk to ya later mates.

Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation | Video on TED.com

Pink talks about intrinsic motivation and autonomy as the new ways to motivate employees.
The same goes for students; Reed Larson, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, writes about how to help young people develop initiative (2000). He extensively credits Ryan and Deci’s research in his discussion of how adolescents might be encouraged to self-motivate, remarking that the first of three “elements of initiative” (p. 172) is “intrinsic motivation, the experience of wanting to be doing and activity and being invested in it.” There is no way to manufacture or fake this condition, though with the right emphasis and planning, it can be kindled. The second part is “concerted engagement in the environment, with exertion of constructive attention in a field of action involving the types of constraints, rules, challenge, and complexity that characterize external reality.” An appropriate challenge is necessary and good for skill development. Making an environment that is realistically difficult is also exciting. Thirdly, it takes time to nurture real growth or to become secure in one’s own progress. Larson continues, “Initiative involves a temporal arc of effort directed toward a goal, an arc that might include setbacks, re-evaluations, and adjustment of strategies.”

Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation | Video on TED.com

Teacher's Blogs

Here's a short list of interesting Teacher's blogs I've found along the way.

Dan Myer, Edutopia, Guerilla Educators, J.D. Howell,