Using Movies to Learn How to Motivate Students

                The motivational styles of Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver and Melvin Tolson in The Great Debaters share some similarities but are different at their roots.  The classroom style of Escalante attempts to hit at humor while also maintaining an element of toughness that demands respect.  He tries to bring laughter into the classroom, at times by his own expense though he is does not shy away from opportunities to mock students.  In fact, mocking students is one of his primary motivational tactics, using it combined with peer pressure to keep students in line and doing their work.  Escalante also brings a physical toughness that he is not afraid to utilize in the rough school district where he finds himself working.  Tolson on the other hand does not need to resort to physically toughness.  Instead, he can use his superior intellect and speaking ability to quell any challenges to his authority.  Confidence oozes out of Tolson in every word he speaks.  Whether he is right or wrong, the way he speaks inspires you to believe him and want to follow him either way.  He also is a man of strong though controversial moral convictions.  Tolson stands up for what he believes in and expects his students to do the same for their own beliefs.  

                What the two approaches have in style is that they both push students to a level that they have never been pushed before.  Escalante in Stand and Deliver firmly believes that if he challenges the students, they will rise to meet the challenge.  Despite numerous hesitations from his peers and significant doubt of his students at times, those students do push themselves well beyond what society as a whole expected of them.  Though it meant throwing away their summer and working late every night, the students continued to meet the challenges being thrown at them by their demanding professor.  Tolson in The Great Debaters also challenges his students, but he focuses on overcoming the challenges faced before them.  In a preseason motivation tool, Tolson requires his students to repeatedly answer that “the judge is God,” that their opponent “doesn’t exist” and is “merely a dissenting voice to the truth I speak.”  In essence, these words are trying to inspire the confidence that, despite whatever their debate opponents are arguing, they cannot distinguish their true voice in the debate.  The opponent, therefore, is an obstacle which can be overcome. 

Preparing Students in the 21st Century

Explaining how to prepare students to live and work in the 21st century is no small task.  When you think about how quickly the world is changing given modern technology, it is nearly impossible to predict what the future will hold.  In order to properly prepare students, we must concentrate not only on teaching them specific skills, but how to think critically and be flexible.

Critical thinking is possibly the most important and one of the most difficult things to teach students.  Students who are able to problem solve effectively are most likely to be able to adapt to new problems that may arise in the future.  We cannot necessarily say what those problems will be, but we can challenge students to think beyond the textbook to find their solutions.

With society changing and adapting at such a rapid pace, we must remain flexible to adjust in an ever-changing world.  Therefore, we need to teach students to be flexible and adapt themselves.  The only guarantee that the future will bring (besides death and taxes) is that our careers will require us to change our ways at some point.  Otherwise, our career will be in jeopardy to someone who was better able to adapt to its ever-changing demands.  Helping students build that flexibility will eventually help them to be leaders in the 21st century.

Cell Phones in the Classroom

I was recently observing at a school where one teacher was scolded for allowing a student to have their cellphone out during class.  The teacher understood the complaint but was frustrated at the reprimand, as just weeks prior, the administration encouraged teachers to use more technology in the classroom, including allowing students to use their cellphones.

So goes the issue of cell phone use in the classroom.  On one hand it is another way to make school more dynamic for students.  On the other, it is an added to distraction for our students.  To me, there is no wrong or right answer as to whether or not students should be allowed to have their cell phone in the classroom.  I think it depends on the school, the students, and your style as a teacher.

I will allow students to keep their cell phones on in the classroom, but require them to put it away during class.  Based on my anecdotal experience, it is not too challenging to determine when that rule is being broken and if a student is using their cell phone during class, it will be taken away (assuming that school rules allow this of course).  At the same time, I do not think you want to completely restrict cell phones from the classroom because there are ways to utilize them as an education tool.  Often that comes with something as simple as looking up the answer to a question online, but more advanced methods can be used such as conducted an poll online where students can text in their answers via a website, polleverywhere.com.

Improving Lessons for Substitute Teachers

As I sit in my classroom as a substitute teacher, I often ponder ways to make my classroom more effective when I am out.  Namely, how can a lesson be taught even though I am not present in the school building.  One method I have discovered is by using the ShowMe app for iPads.  ShowMe is a free app that is basically a digital whiteboard which you can record sound over.  What makes this so effective is that once recorded, the video is available online on the company's website and can be watched from anywhere with internet access.

Want to see how it looks?  Check out a video I created using ShowMe on multiplying polynomials.  Yes, this is a shameless plug of my work.

This tool can be effective for flipping lessons as well, but my favorite usage would be to record a lesson for when I will not be at school.  Rather than hand a substitute teacher a stack of worksheets to pass out, hand them a web link with a lesson that has already been taught and allow students to learn a new topic even though you are gone.  

Student Portfolios

Many college students nearing the end of their studies all have a similar project: creating their digital portfolio.  Whether the student is a graphic design major, an IT major, or yes, even an education major, students are now expected to be able to present a showcase of their work throughout their college career in order to get a job in the field they are interested.

This increase in usage among various industries is one reason it is beneficial to have students create a web portfolio.  By getting students into the habit of saving their work and compiling their best efforts into one location, we are preparing them with for a real world experience that will have a direct effect on getting a job in the future.

Additionally, a portfolio provides more balance to your assessment process.  Often we gauge students primarily on their test scores throughout the year, focusing only on what they did during this section.  Yet a portfolio allows us to view their work sequentially, enable us to see the progression a student has made throughout the year.

PLN

As a soon to be teacher, I recognize how important it is to lean on my peers and any available resources to make my classroom as effective as possible.  Here are some of the websites that I will use, each of which has a various benefit:

Wolfram Mathworld

This is probably the most advanced site available to mathematics teachers, explaining topics in depth and at a high level.  Not only does it explain topics in depth, it covers a multitude of topics ranging from high school level to well beyond.  For example, there are 62 pages on Game Theory, which is not a typical topic in high school mathematics, though it may be of interest of a student during a project.  It seems just about every mathematical topic is covered here from a very credible source, making it an invaluable resource. 

Khan Academy
The benefits of Khan Academy are immense and any teacher utilizing technology should have this high on their queue.  Often Khan Academy is used for flipping lessons, which allows teachers to work with students on questions after having the video "teach" the lesson.  Another approach would be to offer it as a resource for students who are struggling with a specific topic that had been learned in the past.  Rather than re-teaching the entire class, Khan Academy can be used as a resource for the student to re-learn the material independently.  Finally, it may be useful to see their approach to teaching certain topics.  Whether the lesson was taught unsuccessfully or you are stuck on the approach to take, Khan Academy can provide one method on how to teach it.

PBS for Teachers
The benefit of PBS for Teachers is in its diversity.  Lesson plans? Check.  Online community? Check.  Professional development?  Check.  Discussion Board?  Check.  The lesson plans seem most useful to me, as they are typically dynamic and interactive.  It also helps to know that they are coming from a credible source rather than randomly from Google. 

Reflections of a High School Math Teacher
I randomly came across this blog and thought it would be interesting to follow.  The teacher is down to earth and realistic about the job, but at the same time thinks creatively about what could make him a better teacher. 

Web 2.0 Applications

The internet is home to a plethora of tools that can be used in a mathematics classroom.  Here are two examples and how they can be applied in your classroom:

Geogebra:

I might be cheating with this one, since you do need to download it, but it is an incredibly powerful tool with a lot of features and would definitely be worth the download.  The best usage may be in Geometry, where it show a visualization of the figures you are discussing.  I personally cannot draw remotely accurate figures.  3-D shapes are next to impossible for me.  Geogebra solves that problem by doing the work for me.  I just need to give it a shape and specific characteristics.  Another feature of Geogebra will allow you to chart a function and its first derivative at the same time.  The derivative is an extremely difficult concept to pick up for students when it is first introduced (or at least it was for me).  This can help students visualize not only by showing the two graphs, but also lets you follow the graph with your mouse to see how the respective y-values change as you move along the x-axis. 

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives:

In my Methods class, my teacher would often bring in manipulatives to show us examples of creative ways to teach kids a lesson while at the same time being a little more dynamic and interactive.  The biggest downside I saw was that these tools all would cost a lot of money and had a high potential of being lost.  Enter the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives.  This website has a digital version of all of them.  This site would be perfect if you were in a school where every student had a tablet or laptop, but is still good as long as you have some access to technology.  Have a lesson where students need to calculate the perimeter for shapes? Use the geoboard to have them create unique shapes then calculate the perimeter for it.  Want to prove the results for multivariable equations?  The algebra tiles can be effective for that.  I could go on, but there are around 100 tools just for grades 9-12. 

Tackling Technology

In my brief tenure into the world of business, I got to experience many failures with technology.  My jobs usually entailed a tremendous amount of Microsoft Excel based projects.  While I consider myself a very strong user of Excel, many of these projects went above and beyond my skills.  Excel is an incredibly powerful tool, but gaining a mastery of all the subtle programming nuances as well as learning the various tools it offers is a long process.

When faced with a project that I did not know how to do based on my prior knowledge, I would use one of two approaches to figure it out:

Guess and Check

The classic approach for math students everywhere works for technology as well.  Sometimes trying to hammer through on a project you do not know how to do teaches you more about the technology more than anything else.  Of course, this usually only works to accomplish your goal if you have some slight notion of how it might work.

Look it Up

When you have no idea how to do something but think it probably should, looking up how to do it can be an effective course of action.  Google was my best friend in this situation.  I'll admit, googling something is an acquired skill.  But can yield powerful responses.  There is so much information on the internet, even the most obscure issue can often have a solution online.  The biggest downside to this approach is that it is completely reliant on the internet.  If your internet is down, you really cannot look up how to fix the problem online.

Neither of these two methods are groundbreaking, but the combination of the two were incredibly effective and apply to all technologies, not just Excel.

Teacher's Rights

Shortly after my first semester in graduate school for education, I happened to see on the news this story:

Teacher who punched student: 'I had to defend myself"

Yikes.  Talk about a scary situation for anyone in education and a deterrent to getting into education at all.  This teacher was put in the unenviable situation of having to decide between getting hit herself or leaving the school building in handcuffs.  Though the prosecutor ultimately chose not to press charges for felony child abuse, simply being faced with felony charges is overwhelming.

What truly alarms me about this scenario is not the prospect of facing this situation myself, but the quote of one student not involved in the conflict directly shouting in the background "you can't punch him in the face.  You can't even call him stupid."  This combined with anecdotal stories of teachers who felt their students were astutely aware of our at times limited rights as teachers.  As someone not currently teaching, I am very unsure of how commonplace the issue has become.  For those of you teaching, have you faced a similar situation?  If so, how do you handle it?

Teacher Presentation Styles

In my many years in the classroom, I have experienced a plethora of teachers who presented to the classroom with different styles.  Some styles were very effective while others, well not so much.  Most teachers and professors I have experienced fall into these general categories:

The Brilliant Bore
This teacher clearly knows their material.  There is no hesitation to the flow of material being brought forth.  Typically, though, there is also no inflection to that voice, constantly droning on about material.  At times it seems like some soothing white noise helping you off to sleep.  When you can actually focus on the lecture, you learn a lot.  That's easier said than done though.

The Rambler
Lots of material is presented.  The material may not be organized in any manner whatsoever.  It may not flow smoothly from one topic to the next.  But it is there.  The trick for the student is to filter what is important, what is an irrelevant tangent, and how to connect the dots.

The Animated Talker
This style follows a very traditional model, with some combination of lecturing and note taking.  Yet, there is a certain flair to this style.  Something draws the students in, whether that is by adding a little humor to the lecture, going off on rants that may not be pertinent, but are entertaining, or keeping involved by asking specific questions.

The Arm Cramp Inducer
Make sure to have multiple pens ready for each class and over the course of the year you will probably need multiple notebooks to keep up with this teacher, who spends the entire class pouring through notes.  While some teachers and professors offer notes or powerpoint slides so the students can focus on listening, teachers in this style want to "keep you involved" by requiring you to take notes throughout the lecture - all 45 / 50 / 75 / 120 minutes of it.

The Interrupting Question
This teacher really means well - they want to get students involved and discussing the material.  Unfortunately, their only approach to doing that is by briefly pausing their lecture to say, "well, what do you guys think?" at a time that makes it very unclear what the student is supposed to be generating an opinion on.   Not only is the question itself very vague, the timing makes it even more difficult to provide significant insight, often leaving the crickets to break the long, awkward silence.

All these styles are well and good, and certainly these are some approaches that are more effective in my opinion than others.  Yet, the approach I would like to take is one that I have not commonly seen, but has always left a very positive impression.

The Game Changer
I say game changer because this presenter typically does very little presenting.  Rather, this teacher tries to get students involved in discovering the material on their own as much as possible.  Not only does it make the student an active participant in their learning experience, but by self-discovery, students often develop a deeper understanding of the material.  This approach requires signficant planning in order to find or create effective lessons in which students can come to understand material on their own, but I believe it causes a better learning experience for the student.

The Value of Evaluating Textbooks

Evaluating textbooks serves two primary purposes.  The first is for a teacher who is using a textbook for the first time.  Evaluating a text gives the teacher the ability to see the strengths and weaknesses of the book before ever using it in a class.  This allows the teacher the opportunity to know how the book should be used and to know what supplemental material is needed to make up for the book's deficiencies.

The other purpose of evaluating textbooks comes when it is time to choose a new book.  Though it may seem like a rare occurrence given how long most books are kept in use, it is a very important decision to make when the time comes.  In fact, since the same books are kept in use for such a long period of time, it makes the decision that much more important .  Therefore, having the ability to quantify a variety of books to determine which text is best in the short term and the long run is crucial.

What Brought Me to Education

So why did I decide to become a teacher?  For the money, obviously.  That's why anyone gets into education, right.....

Thankfully this isn't the real reason.  Especially since I tossed aside my degree in Operations Management to pursue this career path.  Then what was it?  Probably the same thing that brings anyone to education: the desire to make a difference in the lives of young people.  I have coached grade school basketball since I was sixteen and in the midst of my pre-career crisis, I realized that being a mentor for these young men was what made me happiest and was something I wanted to do in my career, which led me to directly to education.