All too often, I run into teachers (both preservice and inservice) lamenting that kids are using calculators to compute something simple, like 6 x 7. These teachers express their frustration by threatening to not let kids use any calculators until the kids prove that they know their facts. And there will be no calculators for any simple computations. I understand this thinking but I am not sure it will achieve the desired result - wise calculator use (i.e. phronesis).

Confession of a control-freak: I want lessons to run smoothly (exactly the way I envision them). I have written about this issue before and my efforts to give learners more control in the classroom. If the goal of my teaching is learners who possess phronesis, then I need to provide them with ample opportunities to practice making and evaluating choices. In this post, I give another example of my efforts to turn over more responsibility to my learners.

When learners enter my class the first day of the semester, they typically see the following projected on the front board:

The lesson has been taught and there are a few minutes remaining in the class period. Of course, this means that students can get a head start on their homework. I sit in on a lot of lessons in my role as an instructional coach for preservice and inservice teachers and the scene is nearly always the same. As I walk around the class during these final minutes, I typically see the following:

The birds have found the feeder. We moved it and a suet holder closer to the house this winter since the trees that used to shelter them were cut down over the summer. I was afraid that their proximity to the house might frighten the birds, but it has not been a problem. In fact, it has made it easier to watch the birds as they feed.

For that special date 11-11-11, NPR's All Songs Considered did a podcast based on the this clip from This is Spinal Tap.

No surprise - my thoughts went to education. I wondered about the ways I try to turn my teaching volume up to eleven. There are certainly times in my classroom where I want to REALLY impress upon my learners the importance of what we are exploring. While this might result in literally turning up the volume, it is more likely to manifest itself in elaborate planning and over-the-top presentation. It might get the learners' attention, and maybe even their interest, but this line of thinking seems too self-centered to be sustainable.

"Education systems, teachers, school districts all over the world are going crazy about problem-based learning - nothing like a good problem to solve. But they are looking at the wrong bit of it. The thing we're neglecting is to find a generation of problem finders."

The above quote comes early in Ewan McIntosh's talk at TEDxLondon. This really connects with my goal to foster sustainable learning. Here is the entire talk (it is well worth the eight minutes).

In this series of posts, I want to share an approach we use with student teachers to support their development as reflective practitioners. The first post introduced the idea of using an action plan as a way for teachers to identify an area of challenge and seek out support. In subsequent posts, I plan to share examples of this approach in action.

My problem is that I tend to teach as I was taught. I know that research shows that I am not alone in this, but I thought I had gotten over this hurdle. Since 1990, I have been teaching math differently - and I have the student comments and parent phone calls to prove it. The changes I made as a math teacher were one of the reasons I became interested in mathematics education. Unfortunately, these changes did not transfer to all aspects of my teaching.