I was trying to think of a way to show my children some of the types of things I work on. They know I read books about graphs and use spreadsheets a lot. Other than that, they don’t know too much. We had some time, so I decided to get my 13 year-old daughter, who hates math, involved in this little project.
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I am one of those teachers and coaches affected by campus closures due to COVID-19. In now our fourth week, we had to take a “brick & mortar” school and turn it into a “virtual” school overnight. We changed, and as our students and teachers become better Distance Learners, it is now as important as ever to be collecting data.
One strategy I’d give every educator who may find themselves in similar circumstances, is to survey early, and survey often. Micro-surveys, and visible responses to those surveys, give people an outlet and show them you care. Plus – it helps you to respond when things aren’t going well and become a better Distance Educator.
(more…)I always love a good challenge, and the one that was posed to me was, “How can you use data to coach me in music class?” – Challenge accepted! I had a great conversation with a music teacher to see what they might be curious about and it seemed that the amount of rehearsal time was intriguing.
(more…)At the end of the year, it’s easy to think of all that still needs to be accomplished, and all that wasn’t accomplished. It’s the nature of teachers to focus on the work. But it’s this time of year that I like to compare my student survey results.
(more…)As a data guy, some of my favorite work is when I’m partnering with master educators to gain insights into their practice. One such master educator that I had the pleasure to collaborate with is Scot Slaby (twitter: @scot_slaby / blog: Noticing Poetry). Scot is a published poet, high school English teacher, and advocate for raising the bar of poetry pedagogy.
Scot has developed and promoted a pedagogical technique called “Noticing Poetry.” His technique is in good company, sharing similar strategies to Project Zero’s visible thinking routines, and fortunately for me, Scot had the foresight to collect data from his students… I was salivating to get my hands on his spreadsheets!
(more…)In Education, the 2010’s could be considered the “Mindset Revolution.” Carol Dweck’s work has permeated our pedagogies and her book and TedTalk are educational canon for any practitioner. In my field of Math Education, Dr. Jo Boaler, has been revolutionalizing Mathematics Education with a “Mindset” approach.
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