Thursday, August 1, 2013

(optional) Proposed Procedures for a school (to make "time a variable" and allow students to control what they study, when they study it, the order of their study and how they show their learning)

The aim is to create students who are independent.   They know what to do, they know what to bring to class, and they have alternatives when they run out of things to do.

The room has signs like

This is a Newspaper Office
This is a web studio
This is an advertising agency
Ask the manager how to build your portfolio 


LEADING QUOTES

The children are working as if the teacher didn't exist.  Maria Montessori.

Until the students tell us their passion, it's just school.  When students can connect and adjust the school work to their passion, then school becomes interesting.  Dennis Littky

Time is a variable.  J. Fontán and Abraham S. Fischler.

Make the learning visible.  




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Why are we working on 

other projects during math class?

We are asked to work only 25 minutes on math (at the beginning of math class). Then we can work on other subjects. Then we are asked to review the new work in math at the end of math class. Why?





Review in an hour; then in a day 
Forgetting follows a pattern. There are steep drop offs in retention after 60 minutes and after 24 hours. Immediately after learning something, you will be able to retrieve a great deal of information. But then you will forget the information rapidly if you do not review it - first within an hour and then within a day. The best times to review information are right before you go to sleep and right when you wake up. This is so for three reasons. First, in sleep the brain secretes chemicals that cement memories. Second, forgetting happens because information we learn later knocks out information that is already in our heads. Third, most forgetting happens because our heads are already full of information and have trouble packing more in (Waddington 2009).



Procedure in Math Class

Arrive with a lecture in your head.
Your homework usually includes a video lecture found on the Internet. Your prime job for the class is to write the key points of that lecture in your math journal. The math journal stays in the classroom and it becomes your daily record of learning. We make our learning visible in that journal.

Arrive with at least one question.
Bring an SAT question into class. Carry it on your mobile phone or put it on a blog or website that you are using. Or store it on your laptop or in your math journal.

Put the key points on a scrap sheet of paper (do not write directly in your math journal). You make a draft first. (Did Leonardo make a sketch before painting Mona Lisa?)

Show your “draft” to a partner.
Did your partner create a more beautiful page? If so, Adapt your draw and layout


Follow the Elements of Design and the Principles of Design.
You can find these items on johnlovett.com and on the walls of the classroom.  Search "john lovett design"

Create a beautiful demonstration about what you learned from the “lecture of the day.”
Your learning is made visible in your math journal.



Timing

Before you come to class
Bring with you the things you need for your project. Perhaps you are reading a magaizine article or you have drawing materials.
Bring notes for your SAT Question of the day and from the lecture on video from the previous night.

In the first five minutes
Grab a draft sheet of paper. Sketch the design of your notes for the “lecture of the day.”

5 - 9 minutes
Show your sketch to a partner. Decide if you want to collaborate (and design the notes together) and then copy your joint work. Or you can create a beautiful and elegant page in your math journal by yourself.

10 - 15 minutes
Finish the notes from the “lecture of the day.”

16 to 25 or ?? minutes (Time is a varible)
Work on the SAT Question of the day that you brought with you. If you can't find an answer with your partner, at least show your work in your math journal. Write a reflection (at least three sentences) answering these qustions:
What is the exercise about?
What information are they not telling me?
What do I need to do to find the answer?
What prior information do I need?

If you find the answer, what helped you get there?

25 to 85 minutes: DELIVERY HOUR
After your notes for the “lecture of the day” and your SAT question are in your math journal, then you can work on anything you want. This is the “Delivery in One Hour” procedure: You have to get something done in the next 60 minutes.

I finished the magazine article and I put notes about the main ideas and two key quotes that I'm going to use in my report.” Record your achievement in your math journal.

I found two images that I need for my civics project.”

I was bored so I looked at a National Geographic magazine and I found this cool photo.” (Paste the photo in your journal).

I didn't have anything work on, so I read page 73 in A Whole New Mind. Now I know what's in the FedEx Logo and I promise not to show it to anyone. I know why it's important to exercise the right side of the brain.”

Write at least two sentences in the section of your journal called “I delivered this today.”
Answer: What did you work on today? What did you accomplish?

A bell rings at Minute 85 to remind you to review your notes about the “lecture of the day.”
You have about 10 minutes to talk with a partner about the coming homework. What lecture will you be watching tonight? (Or can you find someone who has made video notes about the procedure? Perhaps someone has created a post of screenshots on the blog called Math For Artists? MathForArtists.blogspot.com).

95 minutes
A bell or music starts at 95 minutes. For the next five minutes, you can recite one of your favorite monologues from movies or plays. Example: Patton's speech, Al Pacino's monologue in Godfather 3 or in that football movie Any Given Sunday. Recite it quietly.

Or review one of the lyrics in your “I want to remember this” list.

Or recite the lyrics of at least one of the musicals that are on the wall. Mr. Mac prefers Sound of Music, 1776, Up With People, but he is flexible. You can suggest an inspiring lyric to add to the Book of Inspiring Lyrics, Monologues and Poems

The class ends at minute 100.
Push in chairs...  




Frequently Asked Questions

Can I work on any project?
It will be nice if the project is related to school work. Designing a nuclear bomb to support the overthrow of the mayor's office is not allowed. I have to draw the line somewhere.


Why do we work on other projects? This is math class!
Read the Cornelius article. It is clear that math is best learned as part of something you are already doing. The goal is to find math in your project. Show me your project and tell me how you think math can be inside and how math can support your work.


If I want to work JUST ON MATH, is that okay?
Sure. Keep notes in the section of your journal called “I delivered this today.”
For example, you could do two or three more SAT questions during the DELIVERY HOUR or you can do some additional examples from previous math in your journal.



(1) In sleep the brain secretes chemicals that cement memories.

(2) Forgetting happens because information we learn later knocks out information that is already in our heads.

  1. Most forgetting happens because our heads are already full of information and have trouble packing more in
(Waddington 2009).



References

Waddington, T. (2009) “Smarts: It's Not How Much You Learn That Matters. It's How Much You Remember.” Psychology Today. Retrieved on August 1, 2013 at












APPENDIX

Here are complete versions of the articles that were quoted:



Review in an hour; then in a day 
Forgetting follows a pattern. There are steep drop offs in retention after 60 minutes and after 24 hours. Immediately after learning something, you will be able to retrieve a great deal of information. But then you will forget the information rapidly if you do not review it - first within an hour and then within a day. The best times to review information are right before you go to 
sleep and right when you wake up. This is so for three reasons. First, in sleep the brain secretes chemicals that cementmemories. Second, forgetting happens because information we learn later knocks out information that is already in our heads. Third, most forgetting happens because our heads are already full of information and have trouble packing more in.
Work on what you want to remember 
Working on what you want to remember is one of the ways you beat the forgetting curves. For example, "Hi," she said, "I'm Marion Brown.


"Darn," I said to myself, "I am lousy with names." But then I recalled that you remember things that you work on so I thought: This Brown is a blonde. Maybe she went to Brown University. She wears a wedding ring so Marion is the marrying-type. But she's a one r-marrying type. Marion has only one r.
The best way to make information memorable is to use the keyword method, because it links our verbal memory with our spatial memory. Suppose you were learning Japanese. The word , pronounced ‘no,' works like the possessive (apostrophe s) does in English. Remember it by saying to yourself, "It looks like a Pac Man. Do I want to be eaten by (be possessed by) a Pac Man? Why, the answer is No."
Repeating improves recall
If you seem never to be able to remember your doctor's phone number when you need it most, consider using the phone number as part of a password on your computer, for example, Dr5551212Jones. Your recall of the phone number will greatly improve by incorporating it into a procedure you repeat very often. Doing a task over and over can improve your memory of the task details considerably. Make a conscious effort to incorporate important facts into tasks you practice often.
Don't go beyond seven 
The average short-term memory capacity is 7 plus or minus 2 pieces of information. That is 5 to 9 pieces. This is why phone numbers are seven digits long. "Ten digits," you say? Yes and no. You are supposed to have the area code stored in long-term memory so that you say, "New York is 212." Then you hold in short-term memory the other seven digits that somebody is rattling off until you successfully dial the number. So if you don't already know the area code, you'd better get a pen.
Short term memory is only what you hold in your mind at the moment. If you don't elaborate on it - find some way to make it stick - then as soon as you stop repeating the information to yourself, it will be gone.
To remember, focus not on sound, but on meaning 
In addition to the 7 plus or minus 2 limit, short-term memory last for only about 20 seconds. When it comes to language, short-term memory generally encodes information by sound, while long-term memory encodes information by meaning. If you give somebody as list of words with the word labor in it and distract them so they can't work on the information to transfer it to long-term memory, they are likely to make the sort of mistake represented by reporting that the word later was on the list. If you give them time to memorize the list, but not enough time so that that they can memorize it perfectly, then they are likely to make not sound-mistakes, but meaning mistakes, such as reporting the word work.
Therefore, when you want to remember something, don't rely on catchy rhymes or other auditory tricks, aim for meaning. Similarly, to make your words more memorable, try to make it meaningful and to help people make connections between what you are saying and things they already know.
Make it memorable by using first and last 
Items at the beginning and end of a list are more easily recalled than items in the middle. So too with the first and last topics in a speech or in a text so put the important points in the introduction and conclusion. Within paragraphs, put the ideas you want remembered in the first or last sentences. So too with conversations, begin and end with what you want remembered.
The reverse of this principle works too. Bury the bad news in the middle of your report or presentation to decrease its impact and increase the chance that people will forget it. By consciously arranging how you present information you can increase the effectiveness of your communication.




http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smarts/200904/smarts-its-not-how-much-you-learn-matters-its-how-much-you-remember








Can someone help this guy named Drew?


Tony D'Amato: I don't know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. Now I can't do it for ya, I'm too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I've p--ssed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the f---ing difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You're going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it you're going to do the same for him. That's a team, gentlemen, and either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football, guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?





How do we make a 

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