Pedagogy

=Pedagogy=


 * When you teach, always keep the following in mind:**

Rewards and punishment promote being safe and not taking risks.
= Promote risk-taking, and remove fear from education! = = Foster environments that promote creativity!!! =


 * **General Strategies**
 * [|PEEL strategies:] Wonderful deconstruction of many alternative conceptions that students have in all subjects. Research info and potential strategies to resolve the alternative conceptions.
 * [|What Can You Do With This?] blatantly taken from Dan Meyer is an amazing way to start a low-risk/high-reward conversation with anyone about math.
 * Extremely outstanding resource about what revolutionary teachers are thinking about right now, and how Web 2.0 comes into play. [|The Classroom 2.0 Live Archives!]
 * [|Circle Concepts] are useful visual organizers the familiarize students with a new topic.
 * [|Frayer Models] are also great visual organizers for students to help them learn a topic.
 * [|Think Literacy] is a great document put out by the MOE which contains a wealth of information about cross-curricular approaches to teaching math.
 * Avoid [|Pseudo-Context] at all costs. Don't try to force math onto a topic that doesn't inherently have any. This not only doesn't make any sense, it makes students think that math doesn't have anything to do with real life... which it does!! ([|Pseudo-Context Saturday])
 * Awesome [|What Makes a Good Math Problem] post on a [|great blog with a funny name]. Really great break down on how to give appropriate math problems.


 * **Chunking Strategies**
 * [|Progressive disclosure] to avoid cognitive overload. Definitely be aware of this when you teach!


 * **Assessment Strategies**
 * Dan Meyer posted a[| revolutionary way to assess] that I really want to try when I get my own classroom. Self-differentiates, allows for student mastery, gets around the issue of students who learn things after a test but are never given credit, etc...
 * More thought provoking ideas on [|how to assess] mathematics.

>> Please watch this video before you teach high school math. A very reasonable perspective that could help you >> make math far more interesting and valuable to students. Go to Dan's Blog for ideas - it does take a while >> to find them though. >> [|Wonderfully Engaging Animation] of an revolutionary take on education by Sir Ken Robinson. A necessary message on how we need to shift from industrial style teaching to 21st-century educating. >> [|Interesting interview] on how schools don't like mistakes... and how that's destroying creativity. >> Introduces the idea of //unschooling// allowing kids the freedom to do what they want and learn things themselves, through intrinsic motivation. >> [|Great TED Talk] about how students spend most of their time computing math, not doing math. This is especially ironic, considering we live in an age where computers can compute thing so much faster than any human. Bring for some educational reform! >> [|Very cool presentation] about self-directed learning being an emergent phenomenon in groups of children. Study shows how fluid groups of four students or so, with the 'grandmother effect' in the background self-learn the best! >> [|A Very Long, but Engaging Lecture] about mostly political issues and how they intersect with education, but many great points about self-questioning and reflection. Recommended watch when you have an hours or so to spare!
 * **Videos**
 * **Dan Meyer - Why We Need a Math Makeover (11:39) **
 * ** Ken Robinson + RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms (11:40) **
 * ** Mark Frauenfelder - Making Mistakes and Creativity (8:36) **
 * ** Conrad Wolfram - Teaching Kids Real Math with Computers (17:19) **
 * ** Sugata Mitra - New Experiments in Self-Teaching (17:26) **
 * **Cornel West - Democrary Matters @ CSU (1:11:24) **

>>
 * **Audio**
 * **Alfie Kohn on Homework** A must see if you want to truly assess the value of homework
 * **The Case Against Competition:** Alfie Kohn talks about the negative impact of competition in education.
 * **Topic Specific**
 * Introduction of Positive and Negative Multiplication
 * How do you feel when something good happens to good character?
 * How do you feel when something good happens to a bad character?
 * Multiplication
 * [|Lattice Multiplication] video. Awesome different way to teach multiplication!
 * Linear Regression
 * [|The Toaster Video,] by David Cox. How can a student not be interested!?


 * **Really Interesting Ideas to Consider**
 * What about a student created seating plan? Works well for classroom management expectations.
 * Using Dan Meyer's [|WCYDWT], but getting students to bring in their own. I think implementing this would actually really work and be epic.
 * Put up pseudo-bouldering style math problems. Perfect for scaffolding and peer-teaching. Differentiates like magic. Immediate self-assessment! Be wary of competitiveness. (Robin come talk to me about this, since I know probably no one reading this will understand this but me!)
 * Teach computation through technology by getting students to program scripts on how to compute. (i.e. what is the process a computer must use to calculate something?) This would really get them understand how to compute things... and gets around the using a calculator issue. If they can understand the programming behind using a technology, they can use that technology.