Technology and Education: An Example
I was able to witness a great lesson a little over a week ago (a little late in posting).  300+ freshmen were in an auditorium on a warm, sunny afternoon and they were raptly engaged with learning.  I wish I had video to share.  It was amazing!

A little background . . . our students were testing that week, but the freshmen were not on this particular day, which provided us with time to engage them in learning.  During this time, Mr. Adam Haynes led a lesson on bias.  He introduced the lesson with a variety of slides that included time for students to think/pair/share, formative assessment, humor, and discussion which included a twitter back channel (facilitated by another teacher Mr. Scott Morrison) for students to discuss, ask questions, and respond to Mr. Haynes during the lesson.  In the middle of the lesson, Mr. Haynes used the viral Kony 2012 video (check YouTube if you haven't seen it) to give the students a current issue to think about.  Bringing the bias lesson full circle, Mr. Haynes engaged the students in discussion on the finances of Invisible Children Inc (Kony 2012), an NPR report, and a perspective from a Ugandan reporter.  Back in the classroom with smaller groups, students had some "exit ticket" questions to work upon.  Ultimately, I hope that students learned about bias and how to critically analyze whether or not to support and/or lend their voice to an issue.  In other words, can they think with a filter or mine for gold, instead of just being a sponge?

This example demonstrates that a well planned lesson can engage students in any situation.  In this case, it was a fast paced, interactive lesson that incorporated technology use and a current issue that struck a chord with students.  Additionally, their was an expectation for students to think.  It will be interesting to see their responses to the "exit ticket" questions.

Once again, thank you Mr. Haynes and Mr. Morrison for your time and planning of this lesson.

Math and CCSS

A little over a week ago, I met with a group of teachers to continue working on developing our district's new math curriculum that aligns to the national Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  It has been a great learning process and the team has a strong understanding of the new standards, including increased rigor, utilizing mathematical practices, and thinking about how we are going to teach math both differently and more effectively.  It has been great seeing how the conversations and work has evolved.  It was reassuring that PARCC's recently released Model Content Frameworks outlined the Content Emphases by Cluster, which aligned closely to our group's focus on outlining the Essential Knowledge for each grade level.  Basically these two phrases stand for the foundational knowledge that teachers should go into great depth with and spend time on because of the importance that these standards have on future mathematics, along with college and career readiness in the higher grade levels.  

A couple days after this meeting, I read a blog entry on NASSP about the challenges that lie ahead in implementing this new curriculum (NASSP PRINCIPAL DIFFERENCE).  It began with a quote from Tim Sass, "You have to know math in order to teach math.", which essentially sums up the gist of the blog entry.

It is critical that districts and colleges spend time and resources on training our teachers and future educators in mathematics.  It is time to balance the literacy and mathematics equation.

Technology and Education: Part 1 

Over the past couple of days, I have had or been a part of conversations about the role of technology in education with our department chair team, our district's Common Core State Standards math team, and with individual colleagues.  It really has been a great dialogue. 

Rewind to December 8, I attended 21^st Century Skills Ohio – Summit 2.5, http://21stohio.org/.  Karl Fish, Daniel Pink, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel, Ewan McIntosh, and Christian Long provided some moving conversations about the future of education and what our schools should embody.  Karl Fisch and other speakers discussed the importance of students being global citizens who can produce, consume, and be literate in multiple mediums.  Further, Mr. Fisch stated that social media should be seamlessly intertwined into student learning.  One could have easily walked away from this conference assuming it was all about integrating technology into the curriculum.  On the contrary, it was about how do we, as educators, design and facilitate learning that prepares students to be college and career ready, technology is just a piece of the puzzle. 

Returning to the great dialogue, it's exciting to see colleagues taking or preparing to take some creative, yet calculated risks to engage students with technology in new ways.

The explanation . . .

Education is a craft.  It is finding the right mixture of rigor, humor, discussion, lecture, technology, collaborative work, etc to truly engage students and allow them to learn.  The education field at times easily becomes enamored with a trend, but it shouldn't.  Our greatest teachers and educators that have come before us, that are with us now, and in the future find this perfect balancing point. Thus, the apt named title of my blog, COOKbook.  Teaching is a lot like being a great cook: there are recipes and templates out there, but the great cooks infuse their own mixture of creativity, ingredients, and presentation.  It is my hope that this blog provides some insight into the changing culture of education and brings a balanced perspective to the table. 

Cheers to all the educators out there,

Aaron Cook