Teaching "x = 'why'"

Previously, I shared in this blog the experiences of a Washington Post reporter who went back and spent a year taking high school math. A lot could be learned by returning to the classroom. Having been in a profession offers new perspectives, certainly a new vantage point, to see high school education. These are anecdotes yet useful insights can be drawn from all of these. Another useful immersion has been recently described by Harvey Mudd College professor of mathematics Darryl Yong. Professor Yong spent his recent sabbatical teaching high school math classes in a large urban school district. Yong wrote a wonderful piece describing his experiences as well as his thoughts on this unusual excursion in the Notices magazine of the American Mathematical Society:

http://www.ams.org/notices/201210/rtx121001408p.pdf

The piece illustrates an example of how higher education may be able to help society understand the needs of basic education. For such an immersion to be genuine, it is important that classroom conditions are not altered simply to please a guest lecturer in high school. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of experiencing first hand what it really means to teach elementary or high school. Professor Yong clearly did not receive special treatment as the following excerpt demonstrates:

...As a final illustration of the kinds of frustration that teachers face, here is an excerpt of a letter I received from my school district a few weeks after the end of the school year.

Dear YONG, DARRYL:
Our records show that you have received an overpayment as a result of a change that was processed in June 2010. The total adjusted gross amount  of your overpayment (reduced by any
retirement contribution) is $12,197.66. This letter is intended to advise you of  your options in repaying the identified overpayment.

The letter was not signed by anyone, there was no contact person listed, and there was no phone number to call! The letter seemed to make it impossible to contest the overpayment; it only listed options for repayment and threatened referral to a collections agency if the amount was not repaid....

Seeing the above proves to anyone without any doubt that this immersion was real and what Yong has to say about teaching in high school reflects a genuine scenario. What he describes in his piece is therefore worth our time. His reflections provide a deeper vision of basic education seen through the eyes of a professor in mathematics. And here are the main points, which he appropriately calls lessons, that he raises in his essay:

• Basic education schools are complex. Even this is still an understatement. When schools fail, explanations (or excuses) offered are usually too simplistic, thus, depriving society the complete view to address properly the problems. In the Philippines, the old ten-year curriculum described as congested has been pinpointed as the main culprit in the poor state of basic education. The explanation, however, is more of a justification to go to K to 12, than a sincere and in-depth examination of the situation. These are excuses and are no different from knee-jerk comments made by high school teachers regarding how poor they perceive elementary school education is. As Professor Yong writes, "Simplistic diagnoses are dangerous because they encourage quick fixes. Instead of long-term plans for systemic change, school reform becomes a series of short-lived fads that cause teachers to become jaded by unfulfilled promises of improvement." This explains in part why reform after reform, problems in basic education remain. 
• It helps to have a teacher who has mastery of the subject content but this is no guarantee for high student learning. Yong cites a study made by  Hattie (John Hattie, Visible Learning: A Synthesis of over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, Routledge, 2009.) that shows that a how a student views himself or herself with regard to the subject counts significantly towards the learning outcome in that domain. If a student begins with a perception of weakness in mathematics, this has serious implications on the student's performance in math. Thus, if student's performance correlates with what we perceive as high quality teaching then effective teaching must be able to address and correct a student's preconception of the subject. Perhaps, this is a major difference between an effective and an ineffective teacher. The following excerpt from Yong illustrates this vividly:

I initially spent a great deal of time thinking of fun or creative lessons that would get students excited. These lessons rarely worked because they were often too complicated or inappropriate for my students’ mathematical development. Instead, I began to design my lessons and accompanying student work so that (1) all of my students could successfully complete the first problem or task independently, and in which (2) the sequence of problems/tasks matched my students’ tolerance for challenge and self-concept. 

This strategy not only increased student learning but also eliminated most of the discipline issues in my class and relieved the pressure of having to develop whiz-bang “fun” lessons every day. 

• There is a great need to understand correctly what the teaching profession entails. No different from the practice of medicine, the teaching profession is an ongoing learning. Only with the realization of the emotional, physical and intellectual demands of teaching, would society understand and begin to truly respect teachers. If society treats its physicians in a similar manner as teachers are currently treated in the Philippines, for example, one could only wonder what will happen to the quality of health care and medical services.
• The last lesson Yong shares is that the "Written curriculum does not matter." What matters is what actually occurs inside the classroom. In this respect, the teacher serves a central role.

Yong's experiences are rich with insights and I invite everyone interested in improving the state of basic education to read his article. 

How Technology Affects Learning: Views from Teachers

With iPads, Facebook, smartphones, video games, music, and others, technology now occupies a significant amount of a child's time in the United States (almost eight hours a day - National Center for Education Statistics, USA). Students in the Philippines probably face the same increasing amount of time spent on these activities provided by technology. Thus, it is time to ask how current technology affects student learning. The response from teachers is particularly important since their perspective comes directly from the classroom. In the United States, the nonprofit group called Common Sense Media recently published a survey of US teachers regarding this issue:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/view-from-the-classroom-final-report.pdf

The highlights of this report are as follows:

• Entertainment Media, which includes television, social-networking sites, video games, internet, smartphones, iPads, texting, and others, according to 71% of the teachers hurt a student's attention span.
• Nearly 60% of the teachers say that the new media have also harm students' writing and face-to-face communication skills.
• 40% of the teachers say that students' critical thinking is also harmed.
• Among the various media, the most problematic according to the teachers are video games for elementary students, and texting and social networking for adolescents.
• Two-thirds of the teachers surveyed say that media have affected negatively the student's social and emotional development.

The report concludes:

This is not a study that can document whether teachers’ perceptions about media’s influence are accurate. It does not include any objective measures of attention span, writing, or face-to-face communication, nor any way to link outcomes to individual children’s media use patterns. However, it does surface some important and broadly held concerns of the nation’s teachers.

To read the entire report, please visit
Children, Teens, and Entertainment Media: The View From The Classroom

"x=why?"

Michael Alison Chandler of the Washington Post wrote a yearlong (2008-2009) series "x=why?" on high school math education.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/x-equals-why/2008/09/wasnt_once_enough_1.html

The series had more than a hundred articles reliving one school year. Chandler, an education reporter, found a way to bring math in the classroom to the readers of Washington Post by sitting in a high school math class in Fairfax county. Fairfax county schools are among the best nationwide. Still, the articles describe current challenges of math education in the country. Chandler started this series with an article "Wasn't Once Enough":

Now I report to school every other day at 7:20 a.m. There, for 80 minutes each session, I join 27 other Fairfax Rebels in a windowless room, under the laminated gaze of Albert Einstein. Together, in somnolent camaraderie, we practice solving linear equations and graphing inequalities and take turns at the Smartboard. These days, I carry a three-ring binder full of graph paper in my canvas work bag, along with a TI-84 graphing calculator, a handful of mechanical pencils, and a purple, rubber eraser that smells like grapes. I am 32 years old. 

I have homework to complain about and studying to procrastinate, and last Saturday, I spent the better part of an afternoon holed up in a D.C. public library finishing a take-home test. I am not yet exactly sure what I am going to do with this algebra (or why I am doing this). This blog is part of my attempt to figure that out. 

x=why? is a place where I aim to bridge the cultural divide between math people and the rest of us, to make the abstractions of algebra a little more lifelike. Visitors will find scenes from math classrooms, profiles of people who use math at work, research about math education, debates about how best to teach math, and--why not?-- an occasional pop quiz, for which I invite you to submit your best, or your worst, word problems.

And after one semester, she wrote:

I have come a long way from the day I stared blankly at a Virginia Standards of Learning test, perspiring from the foreign language before me and flashbacks of a high school math teacher who once wrote on my report card: "Michael is not in the Circle of Knowing." 

Still, success in math comes at a price: Time. 

Effort and diligence make a good math student. The difference between the math student I am now and the math student I was 15 years ago is improved study skills and, thank goodness, a little less hormone-induced despair. (Oh and about $100,000 in college tuitions, a decade of work experience, and a Washington Post audience that gets updated on my quiz scores...)

 And at the end of the year,

...What I discovered at Fairfax High was a hard-working teacher who knew her math, a fast-paced, too-crammed curriculum, and a group of teenagers who mostly tried their best. Sure, there was a guy who snoozed in the back and a reliable smattering of shrugs when the teacher came around to check homework. But I was surprised by the high number of students who stuck around after class to ask for help...

...I also learned a lot about math beyond Fairfax, including the wars over how math should be taught, how other countries approach training math teachers, and how many college students in the US still require math remediation.

We are far from our goal of becoming a math literate society. Many students still say they are uninterested in math, even in high-performing Fairfax County. But encouraging all students to pursue math further is an important start...

Indeed, the series presented a lot about high school math. Some are simple and short yet extremely thought provoking. One example is the short post entitled "Is Math Fun? Should it Be?. It featured a video made by a high school student in Virginia:

Chandler then wrote:

Math can be interesting all by itself if you don't get too fogged or behind. Many teachers I know try to lure students in with the concepts alone.

I recommend reading the articles of Chandler. After all, her quiz scores in algebra were not bad:

Finding What Works in Education

Pasi Sahlberg wrote the following sometime ago in the Washington Post:

"...many education visitors to Finland expect to find schools filled with Finnish pedagogical innovation and state-of-the-art technology. Instead, they see teachers teaching and pupils learning as they would in any typical good school in the United States. Some observers call this “pedagogical conservatism” or “informal and relaxed” because there does not appear to be much going on in classrooms. 

The irony of Finnish educational success is that it derives heavily from classroom innovation and school improvement research in the United States. Cooperative learning and portfolio assessment are examples of American classroom-based innovations that have been implemented in large scale in the Finnish school system."

The above quote is echoed in the following initiative launched recently in the Unites States:

http://www.odysseyinitiative.org/

And here are some examples the program has seen so far:

Rethinking Classroom StructureNew American Academy

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Michelle Healy

http://www.odysseyinitiative.org/rethinking-classroom-structure/

In a time when educational budgets are crunched around the country, the topics of classroom size and teacher to student ratio are highly debated topics in the educational and political spheres. What number is best for the students and the teachers in the room? 

At The New American Academy in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, school leader Shimon Waronker and the faculty have designed a new approach to class structure: 60 kids, 4 teachers, and one large, open classroom. 

The four teachers are generally made up of one master teacher, two partner teachers, and one associate teacher. Master teachers have often been curriculum coordinators or coaches before, and act as the senior mentor in the group. Partner teachers have a couple years of teaching experience, and associates are generally first or second year teachers. This structure was designed to provide an in-classroom career ladder and as well as daily chances for mentoring, feedback, reflection and collaboration between the master teacher, partner teachers, and associate teacher....

Moving Mountains Through Strong, Trusting RelationshipsCrockett Elementary School

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Todd Sutler

http://www.odysseyinitiative.org/moving-mountains-through-strong-trusting-relationships/

David Crockett Elementary School is a public school in the Balsz District in Phoenix, Arizona. Crockett serves approximately 500 students from diverse backgrounds in kindergarten through 6th grade. Over 95% of the students at Crockett qualify for free lunch, and all students have access to fresh fruits and vegetables through a federal grant. Principal Jarret Sharp is leading his “crew” toward a curriculum that is relevant and rigorous for all students. The Balsz District has added an additional 20 days of instruction to their school year, which leads to an additional year of instructional time by 8th grade. 

“You can make the most impact through relationships. Knowing the details with parents, the kids and the staff makes all the difference in the world. It is a lever to move heavy duty things on a campus. If you can build strong, trusting relationships, you can move mountains.” Principal Jarrett Sharp has taken the practice of building relationships within his school community to another level. He uses the “details” he knows about the different stakeholders to help them make the learning experience as positive and productive as possible for his students....

Helping Students Teach One Another Math LIGHTHOUSE COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Michelle Healy

http://www.odysseyinitiative.org/lighthouse-community-charter-schoolhelping-students-teach-one-another-math/

Lighthouse Community Charter School is a K-12 public school in Oakland, California. The mission is “to prepare a diverse, K-12th grade student population for college and the career of their choice by equipping each child and youth with the skills, knowledge, and tools to become a self-motivated, competent, lifelong learner.” Lighthouse is designed around five principles: High expectations for all students, a rigorous curriculum, serving the whole child, family involvement, and creating a professional learning community. In addition to being rigorous, the curricular approach is also authentic, hands-on and inquiry-driven. All students at Lighthouse are taught to advocate for themselves and are able to articulate their strengths and learning goals. 

When Laura Kretshmar of Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, California, told her sixth graders that they were going to have a number talk, smiles, claps, and “Yessss!” were heard from the students as they waited in anticipation. Laura invited students to share expectations for number talks and move closer and sit on the carpet if they needed to.
In Laura’s classroom, number talks are short, strategic conversations that focus on flexible mental problem solving as well as strategy sharing and critiquing. Strings of related equations are used to help students see patterns and help them transfer strategies from one equation to the next....

And there are many more examples.

And as Pasi Sahlberg from the best educational system in the world had shown, there maybe a lot to learn from these....

Episode 411: Why Preschool Can Save The World

The following is a link to an episode of the program "This American Life", one of the radio stories of Planet Money of National Public Radio in the United States.

"On today's show, we meet a self-described robber baron who decided to spend his billions on finger paint and changing tables. We revisit decades-long studies that found preschool made a huge difference in the lives of poor children. And we talk to a Nobel prize-winning economist who says that spending public money on preschool produces a huge return on investment."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/10/19/163256866/episode-411-why-preschool-can-save-the-world

A Practice That Increases Student's Engagement Without High Costs

When learning resources are quite limited, there are practices that can be employed to enhance student's participation in lecture-based classroom. To help students keep their attention during the instruction, previously prepared notes with missing items can be given to students. These notes follow the flow of the lecture but are incomplete. Students are then required to fill in the blanks as the lecture progresses. In this fashion, the student maintains specific goals throughout the lecture. The guided notes serve basically as a list of questions to which students must respond, and the answers or the missing pieces are in the lecture. Moira Konrad, Laurice M. Joseph and Elisha Eveleigh of Ohio State University have performed an analysis of how effective guided notes are in enhancing student learning:

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/education_and_treatment_of_children/v032/32.3.konrad.html

Guided notes basically achieve two goals. First, it provides students with a good template for taking notes. By seeing concrete examples of notes, students are more likely to develop good note-taking skills. Second, by enhancing a student's engagement and attention during lecture, guided notes enhance learning outcomes. The above study pertains specifically to upper elementary and secondary schools. And as the above authors cite:

Guided notes are a low-cost and efficient way to help teachers promote active engagement during their lectures. Heward (in Guided notes: Improving the effectiveness of your lectures. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Partnership Grant for Improving the Quality of Education for Students with Disabilities, 2001) recommends the following steps for creating guided notes. First, teachers should create an outline of the lecture to be presented to students, focusing on the most salient concepts that students need to master. This outline can be created using presentation software (e.g., Power-Point) or overhead transparencies, which the teacher will use to guide the lecture. Next, teachers should create a handout for the students, strategically omitting important information from the outline, leaving blanks for students to fill in as they listen to the lecture. Though students should not need to write lengthy responses, an adequate number of blanks must be distributed throughout the handout to encourage active attending and engagement. Also, there should enough space at each blank so students can record all information provided during the lecture....

Lectures will be part of instruction for many more years to come. Guided notes are simple additions that can make these lectures more effective.

Coaching Teachers

"Implementing a new curriculum requires strong leadership at the school level. The success of a school depends a lot on the principal. A significant fraction of public schools in the Philippines currently do not have a principal or a head teacher. This clearly needs to be addressed first before any reform in curriculum is initiated. Otherwise, a new curriculum has no hope of being implemented successfully."

-"First Things First: A Commentary on K+12" 

What happens exactly inside the classroom depends largely on the teacher. There are several factors that influence learning. True enough, there are factors outside the control of a teacher but there are still ways by which a teacher can direct learning both inside and outside the classroom. Teachers.net believes that a teacher can still make a huge difference. Its mission statement is as follows:

At Teachers.Net, we recognize that education is a fundamental factor in an individual's prosperity, happiness, contribution to society, and impact on the future. Teachers.Net recognizes the vital role teachers play in education and the betterment of our culture. We also appreciate that teachers are rarely recognized or compensated adequately for their contribution and dedication. 

In support of the calling, Teachers.Net was founded on four principles:

• To allow our teacher-users to contribute the content and direct site development  

• To utilize the Internet to harness the collective intellect and wisdom of the worldwide teaching community

• To minimize costs to the greatest extent possible through automation, and 

• To never charge teachers for using our resources

One recent article by Harry and Rosemary Wong from this website deals with instructional coaching:

Downloaded from http://teachers.net/wong/OCT12/

The article begins with reminding us of the work of Jacob Kounin. The following are taken from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Classroom_Management_Theorists_and_Theories/Jacob_Kounin:

These are the main theories and history of Jacob Kounin.

I. "With-it-ness"

The teacher is responsible for inhibiting poor behavior. The teacher can maintain this strategy by making eye contact to all students at all times. The teacher should know each student on a personal basis (i.e. name, interests, strength, weaknesses, etc.)The teacher can use other non-verbal techniques to show students that they are alert and care about the well-being of all students. The teacher may also want to make a respectable suggestion to inform the student that their behavior is unacceptable. The teacher should have communicated to all students the expectations and can have these displayed so everyone can be "with-it".

II. Overlapping

The teacher can have procedures that will allow the teacher to be effective when two situations occur at the same time. For example, if a student is done with an assessment or an assignment early have something for them to do such as moving on to another assignment, reading a book, or a quiet enrichment exercise. While the early-finishers are staying busy the teacher is allowed to move around the room to answer question or assist struggling students. Another example, if the teacher is in the middle of a lecture and a student enters the room the teacher should make eye contact with the student, have an area for the student to turn in work, and continue with the lesson. Once the students are doing their work the teacher can go to the tardy student and tell them what they missed or answer any questions from the homework assigned the night before.

III. Momentum

The teacher should make lectures short to allow students to group together and move around to gain more knowledge of the content. The teacher should make sure that these exercises remain short so students do not get bored. A teacher can keep a timer and assign roles to students to keep the students moving and on a time deadline. If students are struggling the teacher can reflect on what they can do to make the lesson more meaningful and easier to understand for their students.

IV. Smoothness

The teacher can have students make hand gestures that will tell the teacher whether the student has a comment or question concerning the lesson. This technique allows the teacher to have an idea of which students may cause an unwanted tangent and which students may have a good question that could pertain to utilizing the time effectively. When placing students in group-work the teacher can walk around facilitating and listening to discussions of other students. The teacher can then intervene or take the group to a different track if the teacher feels it is necessary.

V. Group Focus

The teacher can implement this strategy with several techniques:

A. Encourage Accountability: Make students aware that they will be graded for their participation and contributions to the group. 

B. The teacher can have a canister of popsicle sticks that have each students name on them. The teacher can pick the popsicle stick at random to keep students on track and out of their seats with anticipation for question/answer time, board problems, etc. 

C. The students can facilitate a discussion. Once they have finished a task they can turn to each other or they could pair up with those who are already done and compare answers.

In order for implementation to be effective the teacher must be well organized, communicate their expectations to their students, and hold them responsible for their actions to encourage motivation and attention.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In other words, Kounin believes that the behavior of a teacher is one important factor that determines student's learning. From this perspective it is straightforward to see how important it is for a teacher to be aware of what he or she does that may significantly influence learning inside the classroom. David Ginsburg, whose work is the subject of the Teachers.Net article states:

“School leaders and teachers must always examine how their actions or inactions may be creating barriers or creating enhancements to learning. My work is practical. What matters most is what happens in the classroom. I show them how they can be effective and successful and that is what my coaching is all about."

Coaching is different from mentoring. And to elucidate this clearly, a specific example is given by Harry and Rosemary Wong. The example is the story of Emily McGinley, a second grade teacher in Philadelphia. 

Teacher Actions (Cause)	Student Reactions (Effect)	Solutions
Emily provided directions orally only and passed out materials before assessing whether students understood the directions.	Students played with materials and did not begin the activity until the teacher restated directions to them at their seats.	Provide directions visually in addition to orally; assess students' understanding of directions before passing out materials.
Emily spent extended time assisting a few students without ever assessing or assisting other students.	Some students raised their hands for several minutes, while others socialized.	Assign students to collaborative groups with the expectation that they ask each other for help before asking the teacher for help.
Emily failed to let students know what to do if they finished the activity early.	Students who finished early disrupted those who were still working on the activity.	Include in directions for each activity a constructive activity for students to move on to after they finish the first activity.

This example illustrates the philosophy of looking at what happens inside a classroom as a cause-effect pairs of events. The behavior of the teacher, what a teacher does is regarded as the cause, and what students do are taken as the effect. The solutions offered by the coach are then direct responses on how a teacher may change his or her strategy to get a better outcome. 

In this example, it is pretty clear what coaching really entails. It requires direct observation of the classroom through the eyes of both teacher and students. This is what school leaders do. A school without a head teacher or a principal cannot provide coaching to its teachers. In team sports and even individual ones, an athlete needs an additional pair of eyes for guidance and assessment. This guidance can not come from a remote air conditioned office far removed from where the action is taking place. 

“Teachers make countless decisions each day that affect children academically, socially, and emotionally,” says David.  “This is why coaches must observe classrooms through the lenses of students.

An Education Game Changer?

Salman Khan recounts what inspired him to start The Khan Academy and how the educational establishment has responded in this episode of Conversations With Slate.

Read more at: http://www.slate.com/articles/video/conversations_with_slate/2012/10/salman_khan_and_youtube_the_khan_academy_s_online_global_education_mission_video_.html

http://www.slatev.com/video/khan-academy-report-card/

http://www.slatev.com/video/tech-driven-teacher/

http://www.slatev.com/video/education-game-changer/

Eating Paper in a Classroom

The previous post in this blog ended with:

"The true challenge to education is doing both; maintaining curiosity while instilling discipline, learning hard work while at play, and having one's eyes and ears wide open while standing on the shoulders of giants in the past."

Mark Mason wrote as a comment, 

" The confines of a modern Western school are fences and guards, teachers and principals, orders and punishments. The task of a teacher is to be present and engaging in the context of the curiosity of a child. Discipline is a fancy word for beating the dignity and spontaneity out of a child, for the purpose of producing a child who fits the needs of the economic system. Backwards. Education is the other way around. The presence of a teacher in response to the curiosity and needs of the child. Few people in the Western world have any idea what freedom is. Teachers and administrators of schools do not."

This comment resonates even loudly with the following recent incident in the Philippines reported in the Philippine Star of a teacher who made students eat paper for being noisy:

Teacher makes students eat paper 
By Flor Z.Perolina (The Freeman) Updated September 22, 2012 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - An “Outstanding Teacher” of the Paknaan National High School in Mandaue city is now in hot water after she was accused by her students of letting them eat paper after they did not make what she told them to do. 

Josephine Babatuan, school principal, said the incident happened last September 5 yet but it was only reported to her last September 10.  

The teacher, in her explanation to the principal, said that she told her students to do a seatwork while she went out for a while to get her medicine in another room as she was suffering from high blood pressure. 

Photo downloaded from http://thechiefest.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/5-verses-in-psalm-119-were-glad-david-didnt-mean-literally/

The blog http://percivalontheverge.wordpress.com makes insightful comments on this story. While most people would focus on the unacceptable behavior of the teacher, "percivalontheverge" is asking the important question of why the students actually followed the order of the teacher to eat paper:

"...What is troubling is that most of the students chose to follow the ludicrous order. If Math is a subject that demands immaculate logic that stretches and strengthens the mental capacity of students, how come they succumbed to following something they know to be absurd at best and harmful at worst (or even fatal because of the possibility for choking)? How come most of them chose to be automatically obedient in the midst of a subject that requires them to think hard?" (http://percivalontheverge.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/6/)

"Following something they know to be absurd" is a key phrase.  The students knew that they did something wrong. My guess is that this guilt has dramatically changed their sense of right and wrong. The classroom, at this point, was no longer place of learning. It was no longer a class in logic but a place where punishment was about to be given and critical thinking had been suspended. The teacher, who represented authority, at this point, was now absolute. In society, blind obedience goes awry especially when the authority is corrupt. But there must be recognition and respect for those who learned before us.

Although the lack of poor judgment of the teacher in handling the situation is evident, the student's response to the punishment highlights a serious problem in education. This problem is in fact related to how society sometimes deals with issues. With an ever increasing presence of the internet, one can only lament at how easily hoaxes could spread, for example. This is likewise a manifestation of a lack of critical thinking. People can easily believe what they receive if their minds are already preconditioned. In the case of the students inside the classroom, this could be guilt. For others, these are prejudgments or biases. In all cases, thinking seems to have stopped.

"Instilling discipline", "hard work", and "standing on the shoulders of intellectual giants of the past" all refer to the rules. But these rules are not the same as fences and guards. The rule is simply not to stop thinking.

Petitioning DepEd & DPWH Pagadian

Update (7 September 2012): from change.org

"DepEd already responded and is already sending a staff from PFSED Pagadian to inspect the school. A dialogue to discuss the immediate actions to be done is to be scheduled asap with the LGU, DepEd and Principal of Otto Lingue NHS."

Zamboanga del Sur Cong. Victor Yu and Pagadian Mayor Samuel Co: Ayusin ang Landslide Wall ng Otto Lingue NHS

This petition is online;

Change.org|Start an Online Petition

http://www.change.org/petitions/zamboanga-del-sur-cong-victor-yu-and-pagadian-mayor-samuel-co-ayusin-ang-landslide-wall-ng-otto-lingue-nhs

An Open Letter from Principal Tess Tarranza:

Otto Lingue National High School has lately encountered a serious problem due to the destroyed portion of a "Riprap project" in which, if not given any immediate action, may cause correspondingly the destruction of the lives of students, teachers and school property. As it happened last July 17, 2012 and up to the present, nothing has been done except for the ocular survey of the City Engineer's office, Pagadian City with its recommendations. Considering the frequency of the heavy rains in the place where the school is located and latest worsening of the situation, hence, an appeal for sincere help is being asked through any individual or organization.

With the recent Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting on August 4, 2012, there were parents who have already expressed their apprehension regarding the situation that they have planned to let their childrein transfer to other nearby schools. Likewise, there were parents who would like that there will an investigation to be conducted regarding the construction of the said Riprap Project.

It is then our hope that appropriate action will be extended to the school the soonest possible time as the feeling of helplessness is felt except for the Divine Intervention.

Background:

Ang paaralan po ay may inaalala sa kanilang kaligtasan ng kanilang mga pasilidad , mga guro at mag-aaral. Meron pong malaking bitak sa ginawang pader para mapigilan ang landslide. Pinangangambahan ng mga guro at mga magulang na kung magkaroon ng isang malakas na ulan, ito po ay maaring bumigay at tumama sa katabing classroom. Isa ding pangamba ay ang magkaroon ng pagguho ng lupa dahil ang ginawang pader ay merong malaking bitak. Sana po ay inyong matugunan ang kanilang problema para sa kanilang kaligtasan.

Para sa karagdagang impormasyon, mangyaring makipagugnayan kay Bb. Faye Mae Reyes sa kanyang email na faye_myboo@yahoo.com o sa kanyang cellphone number na 0909-9020222 o kay Paul Thomas Villanueva sa kanyang email na paulthomaslily@yahoo.com at cellphone number na 0926-8145245/ 0999-5034186. 

Photo downloaded from  http://www.change.org/petitions/zamboanga-del-sur-cong-victor-yu-and-pagadian-mayor-samuel-co-ayusin-ang-landslide-wall-ng-otto-lingue-nhs

Petition Letter

Hello, 

Kakapirma ko lang ng sumusunod na petisyon na nakapangalan kay: Zamboanga del Sur Cong. Victor Yu, Pagadian Mayor Samuel Co, at mga opisyal ng DepEd & DPWH Pagadian.

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Ayusin ang Pader Kontra Landslide sa Otto Lingue NHS

Ang paaralan po ay may inaalala sa kanilang kaligtasan ng kanilang mga pasilidad , mga guro at mag-aaral. Meron pong malaking bitak sa ginawang pader para mapigilan ang landslide. Pinangangambahan ng mga guro at mga magulang na kung magkaroon ng isang malakas na ulan, ito po ay maaring bumigay at tumama sa katabing classroom. Isa ding pangamba ay ang magkaroon ng pagguho ng lupa dahil ang ginawang pader ay merong malaking bitak. Sana po ay inyong matugunan ang kanilang problema para sa kanilang kaligtasan.

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Sumasainyo, 

[Your name]

Technology and Learning

Quite recently, a swath of thunderstorms hit our area during the evening taking down trees and power lines. With power outage across a large area, the next morning was particularly challenging. Most grocery stores were closed and those that were open had long lines of customers. Not only was it difficult to get the items one needs, paying for the goods was an experience. Credit cards could not be used. Cash registers were not working. Some did not have calculators so adding the prices of the items and applying sales tax on each were not easy tasks. Somehow, times like these reminded me of my mentors who have had strong warnings against our reliance on calculators.

The problem, however, with calculators goes deeper than not knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide manually. In both chemistry and physics classes, it is now common to see numerical answers on students' test papers that do not make sense. The reliance on calculators has turned into a lack of sense of magnitude, a grave loss in meaning. Computers, information and communication technology are indeed tools. Tools do make our tasks faster and more efficient. Unfortunately, tools are also capable of shaping and modifying us.

I was quite amazed on how the computer keyboard helped my son recognize and appreciate letters. There are engaging computer activities out there that could really help children learn the alphabet. There are programs available for free on the internet that could help students learn to read. And there are sites that provide resources for advanced subjects. See "ICT and DepEd K to 12: Different Angles, Same Conclusion" for some examples. Thus, on one hand, it may seem that introduction of technology into classrooms is a sure winner. Back when I was in high school, scientific calculators were not yet widely available and I could not afford to have one. So in trigonometry, we were using tables. That was quite tedious so it paid to commit into memory the sine values of special angles like 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees. And knowing the sine values at these angles, one can derive the cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant values. Having to work with these functions manually, one did have a greater opportunity to appreciate what they represent. Thus, the downside of technology is that the use of scientific calculators can take the entire picture into a black box.

It seems evident that applications of technology into the classroom need to be weighed appropriately. The following is how my computer screen looks as I type into Google "spell chegk":

The search engine can even make suggestions on what I am about to type and I do not even have to know the correct spelling. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The actual results that will come out of this search depend on the search and page ranking algorithms Google uses. This could easily have a much greater impact than scientific calculators do. Word processors can automatically correct "typos". There is a Thesaurus on the menu. One does not need anymore a wide vocabulary, synonyms are there with a simple click on the mouse. My college years were indeed horrific. I had to use a typewriter and one could not easily move a paragraph from one page to another. That would involve a lot of liquid paper and retyping. To check the spelling, I did not get an automatic red line under the word that would require my attention. Checking for the correct spelling actually involved picking a dictionary and finding the word. Obviously, it paid to know the correct spelling so that the dictionary was seldom consulted. It was likewise advantageous to have a wide vocabulary so that a Thesaurus, which could be as heavy and thick as a dictionary, was never necessary. Presentations were as challenging. Drawing a square, a perfect circle, an ellipse took patience, a ruler, protractor, a compass. Now, these are just clicks away. And with Ctrl+c (copy) and Ctrl+v (paste), making figures has never been as easy. So when my son was learning the alphabet through the keyboard, I was quite concerned that he might not learn how to write the letters. He did since we are still using pencil and paper.

My PhD mentor told me a story behind a discovery she made. In graduate school, they had weekly meetings on current advances in the field of physical chemistry. An recent article from a journal was assigned for each of these meetings. One of those weeks, the article that was assigned did not catch my mentor's interest that greatly so her eyes wandered to another article, the one printed on the next page, which inspired her to make that one discovery. There is a website called "StumbleUpon", but this is not the serendipity illustrated by my mentor's experience. There is a difference with actually handling printed material.

Classroom management and student assessment likewise have technology solutions. The following is an excerpt from Juan Williams' article "Fixing our schools -- here are solutions that work":

...The key is making learning materials from texts, tests and even assignments available electronically. That allows the students, their parents and teachers to track a student’s performance in real time.
It enables teachers and parents to identify a student who is falling behind and give that young person extra help, specifically tailored to get them back on track and moving up....

As in the other cases, it must be emphasized that technology is a tool that makes things work faster or more efficient. Having such a software or program does not guarantee a caring teacher who knows each and every student.

The use of technology must be weighed and evaluated according to its purpose. Without careful attention, we may simply miss the big picture....

We Wait for Hope Inside an Elementary School

During these times, schools serve as places of refuge. Yet, in one school, thousands of families are using candles in classrooms not because there is a power outage. The school has a limited budget so it is forced not to provide electricity to the evacuees. Although the classrooms are far from being flooded, the school has a limited number of toilets for the families. And even with obvious congestion, some of the classrooms are kept locked to keep the evacuees away. The families receive  some food aid, canned goods and instant noodles. But there is no source of hot water. Outside the school, someone is selling glasses of hot water (for 4 pesos each). Others have found a way to make fire for their cooking - they are using broken chairs that they found inside the classrooms. Below is the story of Diosdado Macapagal Elementary School in Tatalon, Quezon City.

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Naghihintay ng pag-asa sa Tatalon

by Kenneth Roland A. Guda

http://pinoyweekly.org/new/2012/08/naghihintay-ng-pag-asa-sa-tatalon/

Madilim at masikip na evacuation center sa Brgy. Tatalon, Quezon City. (KR Guda)

Karimlan ang bumalot sa buong eskuwelahan ng Diosdado Macapagal Elementary School sa Brgy. Tatalon, Quezon City noong gabing iyon.

Aabot sa 2,000 pamilya ang nakasilong dito matapos lumubog sa baha ang kalakhan ng Tatalon. Walang kuryente sa eskuwelahan — na nakapagtataka dahil sa labas nito, maliwanag ang ilaw ng mga establisimyento. Pinatay ang kuryente sa Diosdado Macapagal; nagtitipid ang eskuwelahan dahil sa limitadong badyet.

Malakas pa ang ulan, at madilim pa, kung kaya kakaibang takot ang nararamdaman ng mga residente ng Tatalon na naka-evacuate dito. “Natatakot nang maglakad sa gabi ang mga matatanda,” sabi ni Nanay Mary Soriano, evacuee sa eskuwelahan at residente ng Tatalon. “Butas-butas na ang kalsada, at maraming matatandang nadadapa sa dilim.”

Ang tanging ilaw, mga kandila ng ilang residenteng nagpapahinga sa tabi at loob ng mga klasrum.

Ganito rin noong panahon ng bagyong Ondoy. Setyembre 2009, matapos ragasain ng Ondoy ang Kamaynilaan, pinuntahan din ng Pinoy Weekly ang Diosdado Macapagal Elementary School. Kagagaling lang doon ni Pang. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, na nanghakot ng mahigit 100 katao para ipakitang nagpapatuloy siya ng mga evacuee sa Malakanyang.

Tulad ng panahon ng bagyong Ondoy, mataas din ngayon ang baha sa Araneta Avenue, at lalo sa loob ng Tatalon. Noong Lunes, Agosto 7, nasa ikatlong palapag na si Nanay Mary at ang apat niyang maliliit na anak. Paakyat na rin sa ikatlong palapag ang baha.

“Parang limang beses ito kumpara sa lakas ng (bagyong) Ondoy (noong Setyembre 2009),” kuwento ni Nanay Mary. “Pabalik-balik kasi ang ulan. Noong (panahon ng) Ondoy, isang bagsakan ng ulan, tapos umaraw na. Ngayon, pabalik-balik.”

Buti na lang na-rescue sila ng rescue teams na may rubber boats at nakarating sa evacuation center sa Macapagal. Pero doon pa lamang nagsimula ang kanilang kalbaryo.

Lagay sa ebakwasyon

Nanay Mary: “Limang beses mas malupit ito sa Ondoy.” (KR Guda)

Madilim, siksikan, walang palikuran.

Sarado ang ilang klasrum, at ayaw ipagamit ng eskuwela. Parati namang may dumarating na relief goods, pero agawan ang mga tao. May tiket na binibigay ang barangay, pero pipila pa rin ang mga residente. Nasaksihan ng Pinoy Weekly ang magulong pilang ito, sa harap ng sasakyan na may malaking pangalan ni Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista. Pabagu-bago ang pila, at maraming nagsisingitan, makakuha lamang ng plastik ng relief goods.

“Marami naman laman, mga de-lata at noodles,” sabi ni Mang Lando, isang evacuee na nakasingit sa pila para kumuha ng relief goods. Ang problema, aniya, wala silang mapaglulutuan ng noodles.

Kailangan ng mainit na tubig. Sa labas ng eskuwelaha’y may mga tindahan na nagbebenta ng mainit na tubig: P4 kada baso. “Di pa puno (ang baso),” reklamo ni Nanay Mary.

Samantala, ang iba’y nakakadiskarte ng mga panggatong at nakakapagluto at saing. Pero mukhang mula na sa sira-sirang upuan ng mga mag-aaral sa eskuwelahan ang napanggagatong. Medyo desperado na sila.

Ang mainam, may progresibong mga organisasyon sa Tatalon. Mga miyembro ng Gabriela, halimbawa, ang nangunguna sa pangungulit sa barangay na ayusin ang pagpapapila tuwing namamahagi ng relief goods. Pana-panahong nakakapagdala rin sa kanila ng pagkain ang pambansang tanggapan ng Gabriela — at sinisiguro umano nilang maayos ang pamamahagi ng pagkain.

Pero gobyerno pa rin ang makakatugon sa kagyat na mga pangangailangan ng mga residente. Sa ngayon, maliban sa pana-panahong pagdating ng relief goods mula sa lokal na gobyerno, tanging ang nakabantay na mobile patrol car ng Philippine National Police sa labas ng eskuwelahan ang kumakatawan sa pamahalaan. Binabantayan nila ang mga evacuee: Bawal lumabas ng Diosdado Macapagal matapos ang hatinggabi.

Tatlong taon matapos ang pagsalanta ng bagyong Ondoy, muling tinangay ng baha ang kaunting naipundar na mga gamit ng mga residente ng Tatalon. Tatlong taon matapos ang Ondoy, naghihintay muli sila sa dilim — naghihintay sa darating na pansamantalang ayuda, pansamantalang pag-asa.

On Human Rights, Linguistic Rights, and Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education

These words are huge and complex. Each one represents a value, an expression of importance. These are supposedly beacons to guide priorities. Justice, one of the seven values that guided Finland's education reform, is another big word. And in Pasi Sahlberg's words, this entailed "Attaining the goal of offering equal opportunities to a quality education for all has required creating and maintaining a socially just school network."

"Education for All" encompasses all the words in the title of this post. It is the yardstick that must be used to gauge education reforms in the Philippines, including DepEd's K to 12. It must be the primary objective, the rule that should set priorities. When DepEd spends money, time and effort on advertising its new curriculum in shopping malls, one should ask if these efforts are indeed in line with the priorities set by "Education for All".  When DepEd institutes the use of the mother tongue as medium of instruction, one must ask if this is a genuine effort for inclusive education. When DepEd jumps into new approaches, one must ask if basic needs have been provided first.

Leo Ortega Laparan II has been writing a series of article in the Manila Bulletin describing the current situation of schools in the northern islands of the Philippines. The latest in this series talks about Cadadalman Elementary School in Camiguin Norte Island. There are overcrowded classes, lack of textbooks, and poor facilities. The head teacher had the following to share:

“We even use the backstage to hold Grade 4 classes. For that, schoolchildren would have to endure the heat… even us teachers. At present, we lack a school building because of the Preparatory (referring to Kindergarten) classes, which became mandatory effective last year. That makes it seven years for us now. The kids won’t be allowed to enter Grade 1 without taking Prep. That’s why the room that you saw earlier was divided into two. We just chose the best room in terms of safety to ensure the wellbeing of the little children.” 

 The situation in Camiguin Elementary School is no different, as reported earlier in this series by Laparan. Classrooms no longer have ceilings and walls are cracked. Pupils hold umbrellas to keep themselves dry when it rains since their rooms no longer protect them from the elements. With regard to textbooks, as many as ten pupils share one copy and for science in Grade 3, for instance, a 1985 edition is still in use. These stories from the north do highlight the shortages Philippine schools continue to face. Although these islands are indeed remote, one must not be blind to the shortages in schools that are in the neighborhood of the Congress as well as in the public schools near the national offices of the Department of Education. It is a question of priorities, do we put up a display or presentation of K to 12 in the shopping malls or do we send books to Camiguin first?

Inclusive education is a high priority. The rationale behind mother tongue education partly rests on pupils' basic rights. This is in addition to preserving and nurturing cultural heritage. In a recently held International Conference on Teacher Education, Prof. Romylyn Metila of the UP College of Education presented a paper on “The Role of Teacher Education in Championing Linguistic Human Rights (LHR) and Effective Language Learning through Multilingual Education (MLE): A Fight for Fairness”. In the presentation, Metila stressed the need to examine closely the provisions of policies aimed at addressing linguistic rights and mother tongue education. Factors that require thoughtful considerations were enumerated. First, there is a need to recognize that the Philippines is really diverse in terms of languages. There are more than one hundred and fifty languages in the country. Second, the appropriateness and adequacy of these languages to serve as medium of instruction must be evaluated. Third, the spelling and grammar of these languages need to be set before these languages can be extensively used in reading and writing. And of course, last but not the least, the question of how prepared teachers are was likewise raised. The importance of educating the young on their native culture and tongue is not debatable. What requires careful examination are the pedagogical and practical sides of the argument. And these sides are best handled by the teachers and principals in their own respective schools. Inclusive education should be the main goal of the Department of Education in the Philippines. How the academic performance of students in the Philippines could be enhanced is the job of the teacher and not of a bureaucracy.

Sr. Ma. Famita Somogod, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR) coordinator, has this to say:

"...Even as the government has identified education as its priority service, the indigenous peoples of Mindanao view it as a “vague illusion.” Accredited schools supposedly established for indigenous peoples were built or established in areas far from the communities. Many residents are also unable to pay even the smallest fees, and some of the Lumad children spend their formative years in community alternative learning schools usually established with the aid of non-government organizations. Even in the rare situations where communities are benefited by a literacy and numeracy school, these are not sustained because of counter-insurgency operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Instead of protecting the communities from rebel groups, the communities have become the targets of the operations. Militarization and war have resulted to human rights violations, exacerbating the living conditions of the already impoverished indigenous communities, with indigenous children becoming most vulnerable...

...In a conflict situation, children are robbed of both their right to learn and their right to live a child’s life. They are forced to violent realities too early, forced to experience terror too often. And this is not yet even going into the post-conflict trauma that these children suffer. Without access to education, there will be no room for indigenous communities to promote personal development, strengthen respect for human rights and freedoms, and enable individuals to participate freely in a free society...."

To read more,  visit http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpDocuments)/48B4F5D25D01D17EC1257A09004EFAA7/$file/Education+and+Militarization+of+IP+Comm+-+Our+Experience+as+Rural+Missionaries+in+Mindanao+april+2012.pdf

 The following are videos depicting the current plight of the Mamanwa tribe of Agusan del Norte:

These are stories from the north and the south. These stories hopefully can help us understand better the words in the title of this post.