NAGC Conference 2008

1. NAGC Conference 2008 Susan Babish

2. Opening Keynote • Daniel Pink, author “A Whole New Mind” • the Information Age gives way to the Conceptual Age • "right brain" qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate • six essential aptitudes: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning, all of which are approaches, attributes and sets of skills that Pink argues will increasingly “guide our lives and shape our worlds”

3. Sessions • Move Over Ken Burns: using Web-based technology to inspire creative documentaries • Creative use of technology for engaging research projects • Meeting diverse needs: a mathematics modeling activity

4. Sessions continued • Using cartoons in science classroom: facilitating scientific dialogue and assessing higher order thinking • Getting inside kids heads: how to design lessons that foster positive social action • Getting your talented students to write like practicing mathematicians • Embedded standards: what, why, how?

5. Sessions continued • Technology to support differentiated instruction • Introducing gifted students to engineering using your current curriculum • Mini keynote--Differentiation-the heart of the matter • Strategies for differentiating science instruction

6. Sessions continued • Global awareness book club: Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner • Reel spirit: empowering gifted students to the technology of video production • Children as instruments of change • Powerful thinking: students using visual tools

7. Sessions continued • Foster 21st century skills through future problem-solving • The parallel of practice: designing authentic real world learning opportunities • Closing session - Teach like Your Hair Is on Fire by RafeEsquith

8. Getting Your Students to Write Like Practicing Mathematicians (T.Casa) • “I know the answer, but I can’t explain it!” • Understand why they may struggle • Understand why writing is important • Implement a model that scaffolds writing development • Offer worthwhile writing tasks • Provide a rubric and feedback

9. Why Writing is Important • Instructional programs should enable all students to: • organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication; • communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others; • analyze and evaluate their mathematical thinking and strategies of others; • use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely.

10. Why Writing is Important For students, writing can: • Allow for “time” to learn • Deepen mathematical understanding • Help retain mathematical learning and foster connections • Improve problem solving and communication • Empower them to view themselves as budding mathematicians For teachers, writing can help them: • Assess student progress and thinking skills • Improve instruction

11. Characteristics of “Good” Math Writing • Solutions are justified • Reasoning is supported by numbers, tables, pictures, examples, equations, charts, and/or other representations in addition to words • Reasoning can be supported by more than one solution strategy • Mathematical vocabulary is used correctly and appropriately

12. Implementation Tips • Explicitly discuss with students why they are being asked to write • Helps them learn • Helps you understand their own thinking • Helps you plan for future instruction • Consider an audience • Remember it takes (some students more) time!

13. What characteristics doesthis question have? • The Detective Duo needs your help with measuring! • Which measuring tool (cm cube, pipe cleaner, ruler, or tape measure) was best to measure the circumference of the eggs? • Why?

14. Worthwhile Tasks • Focus on an important mathematical idea • Require more than recall of a fact or skill • Encourage students to reason mathematically • Encourage students to justify their responses in writing or using other representations (e.g., pictures, tables, graphs) • Have either different solution strategies and/or various correct answers

15. Rubric • What are you looking for? • Important components • Concepts • Justification and reasoning • Clarity of expression—later? “Good” math writing

16. Why provide feedback? • Help students reflect more on their work (think metacognitively) • Promote clarity in writing • Learn that math is a work in progress

17. How to provide feedback: • Identify strengths and weaknesses • Foster positive attitudes; acknowledge work attempts • Move understanding • What has this student done well? • What does this student need to further develop? • What do I want this student to focus on now?

18. Creative Use of Technology forEngaging Research Projects (K. Kendall) • “Push in” rather than “pull out” • Invisible differentiation –all can be working at appropriate levels of academic challenge • Students become independent, facilitating easier differentiation in heterogeneous classrooms • Advanced learners have opportunities to showcase their talents • All students benefit from core content presented by peers in unique and creative ways

19. Photo Story 3 Basics • Free download if you have a Microsoft Office package • Turns electronic still photographs and images into a documentary film, a la Ken Burns • Multiple image to image transitions to select from • Multiple options for cropping images and adding special effects to them

20. Photo Story 3 Basics (continued) • Can compose your own musical score with options for music style, instrumentation, tempo, intensity, tone • Voice recordings can be done image by image • Timing of images automatically adjusts to length of narration for a particular image • Very limited in terms of adding text to images

21. The “Great Brain” Research Project • Students were assigned to research a person, living or dead, who they viewed to be a “great brain” • Students needed to read a biography about their individual (100-page minimum) and supplement that reading with Internet research • Required elements were a timeline, an oral presentation, and a visual product

22. The “Great Brain” Questions • What kind of thinker was your Great Brain? (scientist, artist, inventor, musician, author, world leader, etc.) • Use at least two stories from your Great Brain’s life that clearly illustrate his or her personality? • What further advancements in your Great Brain’s field of study would not have been possible without his/her work?

23. The “Great Brain” Questions • How did your great brain change the world in a positive way? • What strategies did your Great Brain use to conquer professional and personal obstacles? Consider how your Great Brain’s ideas encountered conflict with existing thinking in his/her time period and how he or she reacted.