From the absolute bottom of my heart I want to thank all of you for reading the (sometimes silly) musings I am sharing with the world. When I decided to write this blog it was a snow day for the School District of Philadelphia and I was enjoying my free day at home. Instead of catching up on lesson plans (as teachers often do) I decided to begin voicing my concerns on education and articulate thoughts that might help me figure out some solutions. So, here we are one year later: the problems are worse than ever, there are few people around to solve them, and it seems like there is no hope in sight. But, as Avril Lavigne put it so nicely, we need to 'keep holding on.'

I've spent the past year really reflecting on teaching, education, and the future of Philadelphia's children. I will continue writing here and will try to provide ideas and thoughts on what we can do to change things for the better. To that end I am going to structure things a little more formally to help myself focus a bit more. Every week I will try to post something from each of these categories:

• Innovating mathematics education
• The School District of Philadelphia
• The global debate on education

I am hope that this structure will help guide my reading and writing as well as providing you, the reader, with some understanding of what is going to come next. For now, please enjoy this article on the interesting reason why so many people incorrectly place two spaces after a period.

As many of my friends are quite aware I truly enjoy incorporating technology into my classroom as a way of adding value. Recently I have been relying heavily on a program called The Geometer's Sketchpad for my Geometry students to learn the concept of symmetry (disclaimer: this program is useful for more than just Geometry class) and I have found it beneficial because my students can now create and manipulate their own shapes in order to learn the concepts. 

Of course I use it for myself in order to come up with examples of symmetry and to show them to my students. But more than just that, I have attempted to teach them how to manipulate the program for themselves in order to learn what I mean when I discuss reflective, rotational, translational, and point symmetry. 

Last Friday I gave a creation-based test to them to answer questions using their knowledge of Sketchpad. On one side of the sketch I crafted my own shapes for questions; on the other, the students created their own symmetric figures following certain protocols. 


It was amazing to see them working so diligently on a concept they were all grasping so well. While I do not think computer technology is the exclusive way to educate the youth of tomorrow, I do think it has such strengths that we would be fools not to experiment with it.

Tonight I attended a new group called the Teacher Leader PLC sponsored by the Department of Education and the Philadelphia Education Fund. Led by super-teacher Gamal Sherif this group brings together educators from all of Philadelphia to discuss what it is like the be a "teacher leader." The first meeting was tonight and it was great, so I thought I would write about the article we read in preparation for it. Enjoy!

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A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.  - Bill Bethel

The top-tier sports teams in the world are based not only on the best individuals but also on the best group dynamics. If a lead basketball player makes all the shot attempts him or herself without care to others on the team, there is a much smaller chance of scoring consistently. In sports, a key strategy is motion and unpredictability. 

The same can be said for educators: the best teachers do not segregate themselves - instead, they foster collaboration and teamwork in order to achieve their goals. If each teacher planned in isolation their skill would likely stagnate. Unlike in sports, however, the negative outcome would not be loss of income - it would be loss of education for our future citizens. 

In the article, The Missing Link in School Reform (Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2011, p. 30-35), Carrie Leana refers to this divide in relation to human capital vs. social capital. Under a human capital model, she argues, individual teachers individually affect student learning - if they have high-quality skills, their students will gain knowledge. Under a social capital model, however, teachers work in teams and - if they lack insight in a certain area - they learn from others who have experience and knowledge in those areas. 

This collaborative style of teaching has already shown positive results. In a study on New York City schools, "students showed higher gains in math achievement when their teachers reported frequent conversations with their peers that centered on math, and when there was a feeling of trust or closeness among teachers" (p. 33). In fact, it was also found that "low-ability teachers can perform as well as teachers of average ability if they have strong social capital" (p. 34). 

The narrowed focus on individual teachers adding value to groups of students is seemingly incorrect. Instead, policymakers should be advocating for better collaboration of teachers within schools and districts. I have already advocated for that by supporting programs like Critical Friends and Lesson Study. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the only reason I read this article is due to my joining a group sponsored by the Philadelphia Education Fund to discuss collaboration in order to foster positive leadership among teachers.

If the United States is serious about ensuring the next generation has the knowledge and skill for the future we need to emphasize collaboration and trust among those of us working with them.

I am currently sitting toward the back of a very large circle which includes the members of the School Reform Commission, the Interim Superintendent, members of the community, as well as the Mayor who was sitting here for at least an hour. This is an auspicious occasion not just because of the information being shared regarding the Safe Schools Initiative, the report entitled "Widening Our Circle" crafted by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Rights. The fact is: this meeting was open and accessible to many more people than its type ever has before.

Firstly, the meeting began at 6pm. For years I have been unable to attend any of the SRC meetings from the beginning because they began at 2pm - not only during the work day but during the school day. It seems that this SRC group really does want parents, students, teachers, and the community to be involved.

Secondly, the entire group of stakeholders here is sitting in a circle, facing each other. While it may not seem like much, my personal experience has shown me that room arrangements define whatever procedure and process will take place. I organize seats in my classroom into rows and columns for tests, keep them in groups for team activities, leave them in a forum/circle style for conversations, etc.

Lastly, Lorene Cary is amazingly compassionate and sincere. I appreciated her gentle words during the meeting and how open and honest she was with every decision she was making to run the meeting as well as how to respond to individuals concerns. I have already seen Pedro Ramos on the Livestream take questions when former SRC groups have never had the inclination to do so and I can't wait to see more of this.

I am not saying this is the perfect organization for organizing education in Philadelphia. What I have noticed distinctly is that this SRC is much more open to everything and I look forward to seeing how they can change things for the future.

I recently had the time and desire to read a new study regarding incentive programs across the US and the world entitled, "Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education." Sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC), this study explores a vast amount of research on providing incentives to students, teachers, and schools and how the incentives affect learning outcomes. With Mayor Bloogmberg of New York City recently announcing a merit-based pay system to be reintroduced to the New York City schools (an older, different model was recently cancelled due to a variety of factors). 

The study I read introduces early on a concept known as Campbell's Law, stating "the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor." As we have seen time and time again in recently months, cheating scandals are rampant due to the intense pressure teachers and administrators feel to improve their test scores. Additionally, standardized tests are so narrow in focus they leave out much of particular material on certain subjects, and oftentimes entire subjects altogether (the PA state test leaves out History, meaning some schools do not teach it!).  

If incentive programs are tied to these tests we are essentially saying as a nation that we do not believe students should be able to use higher-order thinking skills or master all the content in a particular subject (or selection of subjects) because we do not have the time, energy, or money to test it all correctly. Instead, we are left with teachers feeling the burden of focusing on analysis of multiple choice questions instead of how to apply their subject to the real world. This disconnect is infuriating to many. 

The NRC touched on many topics related to incentives in schools but kept emphasizing the fact that these programs do not have proven positive effects. Instead, "once explicitly rewarded for a particular behavior, people tend to stop that behavior when the reward is discontinued" (p. 26). 

The only example of a well thought out system was from Ohio where a "compensatory" system exists that has "four different indicators complement each other to produce an aggregate measure described by one expert as better than any single measure in capturing the varied outcomes that the state wants to monitor and encourage" (p. 49). Instead of relying on only one single source of data like schools across Pennsylvania, Ohio has chosen to take a multi-tiered approach that is more reliable. 

To foster the goal of creating longterm learners and doers for both students and teachers we need to consider broader evaluations that include a wide variety of input like Ohio. Without considering all of these sources of data we are unfairly judging both student and teacher to the detriment of our future.

As a child of the late 20th century I have grown up using new and exciting forms of technology that make our lives easier (or seemingly that way). I can remember the Zack Morris cell phone from Saved By The Bell and how that has led to the development of the iPhones and Droids that are used by almost a third of cell phone users nowadays. In all that time technology has helped teachers and students connect in a way never thought of before; a way that enhances the learning process and helps both parties grow with each other. But, it can also be scary.

So, how do we balance this? 

Some teachers opt to create "Teacher" facebook accounts using School District email addresses that do not have any connection with their personal accounts. Others use services like Edmodo and Schoology. These services do provide a safer, alternative route to maintaining communication amongst faculty and students. In fact, they also provide easy avenues for parents to message teachers and keep tabs on student grades. I have seen teachers use a variety of online products like these to keep in touch outside of the classroom; it helps students remember what they are supposed to do and provides another way of getting help for low-income kids who might not have a college student babysitter or parent to ask for help on math homework.


Some teachers worry this kind of communication will become untenable, taking too much of their planning time or, even, their off time. I I worry about that as well - how will I balance my own family's needs if I am constantly being bombarded by those my students? Perhaps it is worthwhile to think about how much less time one might spend staying after school tutoring if quick questions could be answered in short online messages; or perhaps an online forum would allow some students to mentor others in their processes. 

I don't know what the exact answer is going to be, but I definitely want to help craft it so that my students and I have some ownership over the solution.

Last year my position was cut from my school because of a reducing of teaching forces across the School District of Philadelphia. I then found a new position at another school and have been enjoying it thoroughly. That is, until the budget cuts started affecting more than just me.

During the last week of the 2011, the School District of Philadelphia cut 141 positions, including 47 nurses. A wonderful slap in the face to some people who have been working for years to maintain the health of our student-body. Our own school's nurse was reduced to only two days a week. Today one of my students asked to go see the nurse and I had to say "no, she's not here." One of the most important aspects to life, according to Abraham Maslow, is homestasis, something rarely achieved when your health is not at its peak. This student cannot and will not perform well without her health taken into account.

During the week before break all teachers had to submit grades to a system for interim reports, a way of sending home information about students directly to parents in the middle of the quarter. Due to budget cuts, we were not actually able to mail the documents home so I am certain many parents did not receive them. Even though our school conducted an auto-dial to let parents/guardians know, there is no way we can be certain the report was seen by someone other than the child. Maslow's second level demands security of resources, something severely lacking right now in the School District of Philadelphia.

Over the past few weeks I have been dealing with a student who has decided a few of her classes are "too hard" for her and stopped coming. At first she was not coming to school, then she came to school but spent time in the library or lunch room. We have had meetings with the parent, included our guidance counselor in on everything, and still the child misses class. Ideally I would send her to our school social worker to figure out what is going on but we don't have one. How is a child supposed to feel what Maslow called love/belonging if there is no one for him/her to talk to?

In just the past three weeks I have examples of how the deepest three levels of needs are not being met for children in this current budget crisis. If the state will not help out by providing funds through various tax initiatives (including maybe a millionaire tax that even Warren Buffett supports) our schools will end up doing what a nearby district already has.