More to Share

1. I've got two posts for my paid gig at ASCD up:


The first is about defining specific criteria for what argument in the class would look like:

Defining Your Own Best Practices

I liked this session more than I thought I would. Pete Hall had a good mindset about the term "best practices" as something informed by research but defined at the local level. I also liked his thoughts about defining them in "meticulous detail." I don't know how many staff meetings I've sat through where we talk about "formative assessment" and everyone has a different idea of what that looks like.


The second is a routine for using metaphors in the classroom:

Linking Prior Knowledge with New Content with Metaphors

I like Rick Wormeli's books. They're worth reading. However I found this presentation to be too broad and I didn't like his presentation style (think genie in Aladdin). There were a lot of good ideas but I would definitely recommend his books over going to see him live.



2. Jenny Orr, who blogs at Elementary, My Dear, Or Far From It, is one of my very favorite elementary teacher bloggers. We're both reading the Peter H. Johnston books this summer. We're going to read and discuss the books on her blog. Please please please join us. The first book is Choice Words. We're doing the first two chapters this Saturday and then the next 3 each week until we're done.

We're going to read Opening Minds after that. So again, join us! Both books are quick reads and well worth your Amazon gift card dollars.




3. Math Mistakes is a nice project from @mpershan. From the site:

Teachers need to be able to quickly look at mathematical work and identify the assumptions behind the work, and what actions to take in response to the work. That's hard. But practice can help us get better at this.

I love this idea. Go contribute.

(Yet another update: The very wonderful Kelly O'Shea has started Physics Mistakes.)



4. Math Munch is a weekly collection of fun math related things from around the web.



5. Finally, just to remind you that I actually do teach science, the sublime XKCD has started What If? which answers such wonderful questions as, "What would happen if you hit at baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"

[updated]

6. I forgot to include the whole reason I started this post. This Is What A Scientist Looks Like is "a project developed to challenge the the stereotypical perception of a scientist." This is the beauty of living in a connected world.

[updated again]

7. #Made4Math is a blog meme going around where teachers make different stuff to use for their class, like storage containers out of pringle cans. It's the exact opposite of anything I'd ever do but I'm impressed and maybe a little jealous.

Sharing is Caring

Three things to share:

1. Twitter Math Camp is July 19-22 in St. Louis. It's exactly what it sounds like. Some math teachers on twitter decided to get together, work on some math problems, and teach each other all sorts of stuff. It's free, small, and low key.  Think edcamp rather than NCTM.

2. Math52 is a Kickstarter from Mathalicious. If you pledge $52 you get an entire year's membership to Mathalicious.

3. Frank Noschese has a TEDxNYED talk up called Learning Science by Doing Science.


One request:
1. My schedule for next year is half 8th grade physical science (what I have always have taught) and half 6th grade (ack!) earth science (double ack!).


The California standards for sixth grade (page 27) are all earth and no space. I'm not too worried about the day to day (unless of course you have a killer lesson/unit you're dying to share) but more about the approach. I'm not sure how to lay this whole thing out so it flows together. My natural inclination is to build everything around the concepts of systems and cycles but really I don't know. In the pre-blogotwittersphere era I would have needed to teach the whole year to figure out how to fit everything together. I'm hoping to shortcut that process using all of you. If it helps, this is a non-tested subject so I have much more freedom to emphasize/de-emphasize certain parts of the curriculum.

• What do I build the course around? What do I keep coming back to? 
• I'd appreciate any recommendations for resources, curriculums you like, textbooks (gasp!) that do it right, etc? Anything and everything is welcome. 
• If you teach this subject/grade level, what are the sticking points? Big misconceptions? 
• If you teach HS earth, what is something, content-wise, that you wish students had a better understanding of?

Thanks for the help.