Less is more!

I just feel compelled to write down  a few thoughts related to news from the UK this week that the education secretary, the infamous Michael Gove, plans to lengthen the school day and the school year! (My attention was drawn to this via this Telegraph article which someone tweeted about and a forum of reaction on the TES)

Whilst this is a whole school issue, it is one that often comes up in mathematics teaching. Does 'more hours' equate to 'more learning' or 'better learning'? I know where I stand on this issue and I wonder why this question seems to have escaped analysis in anything I have read on this issue so far. I am often giving to saying that a student might receive around 500 hours of maths classes in secondary school between the ages of 11 and 16. Dont tell me that isn't enough. The greatest challenge facing teachers and students a like is to make effective use of that time. There is a whole other blog post (and more) about this, but for now I want to concentrate on the question above.

In recent years, I have aspired to working towards the very best learning experiences. Whilst many of the elements of these are unpredictable, many are not and a great deal of thought and creativity is required to develop activities that you have been doing for years in to really rich tasks. Unfortunately, the reality is that I cannot deliver these all day long, all week long because they take so much thought and preparation. I hope only that I can manage more and more, the more I build them. Sometimes, I am prepared to take my foot off the pedal - as far as students are concerned - for a couple of lessons so that we can all work towards one of these great tasks. I always find it is worth it because we all get so much out of these rich activities.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that 1 fantastic lesson can be worth 3 or 4 more ordinary ones on so many levels and that I often wish I had less hours to teach so that the ones I did teach were more likely to meet these high standards. 'Less is more'!

On Gove's idea and the reaction there are a few things that bother me....

• What evidence does he have that a longer day and year would improve standards of education?
• I would recommend that anyone who thinks this is a good idea shadows a typical student for at least a day but preferably longer to try and get some perspective on what demands are made on the learner 5/6 hours a day and then homework.
• The idiotic responses of so many of the teachers on that TES forum made me pull my hair out. It is no wonder teachers are given so little credence when so many react like that. How frustrating.
• Whilst there is no doubt that any such increases would have a have a huge impact on teachers  so few (1 or 2 out of the 60 or so I read) make any mention of the impact on students - surely the central point in this debate. Again - I find this frustrating.
• One sharp observer did point out the savings on child care that would be made by so many if this was implemented. I am cynical enough to believe this must play a part. How sad if true.

Desmos Delights

This is NOT a comprehensive review, but merely a little expression of delight about discovering handy applications for Desmos. I must confess, whilst I know people have been talking and tweeting about desmos for a while, I just haven't made time to get around to looking at it. I still haven't had much time! For me I look for a few things in new stuff. First of all I want somebody to quickly outline potential!
Secondly I want to know what it can do that I couldn't do before and
Thirdly, how easily can I get started!

Well, I got instant delight from the 'instant slider' effect. Whilst it is certainly true that knowing how to tie sliders to constants in Geogebra is an inherent part of understanding both the maths and the software, there are times when the 'instant' slider is just what you want! This example is exactly what I used in class just the other day for exploring the impact of different variables on the shape of an exponential function. Almost no explanation required for students to be doing the same and making lots of great discoveries. I have a feeling that this maybe the first of many 'desmos delight' to come!

I was hoping to be able to embed an interactive graph i this blog post. I can see from some quick research that this is possible, but it didn't happen quick enough this time! That will be a delight saved for another time!

Student Record Keeping - the evolution of the exercise book

Throughout my teaching career I have tried and experimented with all sorts of ideas to help students keep useful records of what they do! 15 years later I have yet to settle on something I really like and, more to the point, something I think students really like and find useful! I started with the traditional exercise book and moved towards files, pieces of paper and plastic wallets. In between, the digital revolution has offered new opportunities and brought new record keeping issues with it. I have tried getting students to keep a mixture of digital and paper records. I have even tried to get students to build their own handbooks for future reference as they go along. With all this in mind, this blog post is only questions about this idea along with a couple of ideas I am working on.

• What activity that students do, do they really need to keep records of?
• How many of our students regularly, or indeed ever, look at those records?
• How many parents ever look at it and if they do, how much do they get out of it?
• How much of our activity do we keep ourselves?
• How much do we look at?

I suspect that in the vast majority of cases, paper and pages in a book get filed away never to be seen by anyone again. The more time passes, the less sense the bits of papers make because the context has passed. In truth only summary documents are likely to be of any use, tests for example. Personally, I keep so much more than I ever look at. Yes, I will often find a gem in amongst some piles of paper (or amongst an archive of files) but I often wish I had been clever enough to file it under 'Gems' at the time and not bothered with the other stuff. I think I will argue that the more we keep, the less useful it is, but that if we have nothing physical to show for our efforts it somehow feels wrong.

Here is an idea I am playing with to take things on a little...

A Mathematics journal!

I am sure this is not a new idea and would be really glad to hear from anyone that has experimented with this.

Forget everything else and just get students to keep a journal to chronicle their experiences  discoveries and any bits of information they want to hold on to. Rather than include everything they did why dont we get them to pick out the highlights? Take pictures and paste them in, take screenshots of digital work, get students to tell stories about what we did in class and what they got out of it. The end result would be a kind of scrapbook of the key moments and best bits. A mixture of images, diagrams and words that will serve to make and preserve memories of experiences that help them to make sense of what they have done, why they did it and what they concluded at each stage. Because it is not everything, students might be inspired to take pride in making something fabulous that they have ownership over.

My only, although tricky, dilema is the best format. Even as a technophile, I am drawn towards the creation of a physical book that might be of a similar ilk to the 'Art sketchbook' or the 'Design technology portfolio'. This, though, feels somehow like a step backwards. Its funny though that people want to make prints and books of their digital photos these days as well as sharing them digitally. The other alternatives I have been playing with are perhaps a blog or an ongoing google presentation.

Anyway, this has been occupying my thoughts today and I think I will pick some small groups of students and experiment a little to see what happens! All thoughts and suggestions welcomed!

Thanks.....