Fraction Resources and Games

I have stumbled upon some really cool Fraction resources and I wanted to share them

Visual Fractions -- Very cool fraction visualizer that lets create visual models of fractions as pizzas, bars and other objects. It also lets you save your model as an image to your desktop

Simplify Fraction Calculator -- Another very cool free tool from Math Warehouse. This one simplifies any fraction (including improper ones). Produces visual models of original and simplified fraction and it lets you save the entire thing as an image to your desktop.

Free Pintable Fraction Worksheets -- Several high quality fraction worksheets that have answer keys and also an associate powerpoint lesson.

Fraction Games Online -Several well done fraction games including

1. Fraction Frenzy--a Fun game on identifying Fractions




2. Equivalent Fractions Frenzy-- This one is on identifying equivalent fractions

There are some other really cool resources here

New York Standardized Tests to Become Harder

It's no secret to public school teachers in New York: The state tests have become a joke. I can't speak to all subjects, but the prior statement is unequivocally true about Math especially at the high school level where some of the tests are laughable. In the mathematics curriculum, the laughable ease of the tests were most obvious in the Math A exams and, now, in the Integrated Algebra (IA) exam--both of which can be passed almost solely by doing OK on the multiple choice exams. The reason that the Math A and now the IA are so easy especially in comparison to other Math Regents exams (Math B /Algebra 2 Trig ) to pass has always been obvious to public school teachers. The easy one has always been the one that students must pass to get a diploma--No Child Left Behind rewards schools and states passed on High School pass rates...and not surprisingly our state responded -- by making it very easy to reach the minimum graduation requirement and proffering a very easy test to the students!

Well apparently, our state went a bit too far in its quest to ease up on the tests. According to a New York Times article, our students were doing better and better on state tests but our students were not doing any better on national tests. In other words, they were doing better in our state but when measured against students in other states...our kids were not showing any improvement.

So...expect the Integrated Algebra I exam to get a harder next year!

New York Teacher Evaluations--revisited

anyone who who is a teacher and who has worked at schools knows how inherently subjective teacher evaluations are. Although I personally have always lucked out and had supportive supervisors, your evaluations by supervisors are inherently subjective and personal . In the end, I guess that it's the same in any industry, people are just subjective, will tend to help those that they like.

I raise this point because the proposed changes in teacher evaluations in New York will make, as far as I can tell, make it easier to terminate tenured teachers based on the apperance of 'objective' data. For instance, teachers will get a poor evaluation rating if their students' scores don't improve ...hmmm, that sounds great at first. But there are several flaws that are probably obvious to any teacher. Consider teaching high school math in New York. The first test that students must pass is the Integrated Algebra I exam--which is a joke and is ridiculously easy to pass. So if you teach Geometry, you are stuck in the unfortunate situation of teaching a class with a much more difficulty test with a lower pass rate-- What formula, if any, should be used to measure you 'improvement', given that the test your students must take is substantially harder than the one they took the prior year?

Of course, there are other problems with measuring improvement on tests...what about teachers who do not teach regents classes? Are they just luckier than the others.

The new rules are in the process of being created so let's see what their final shape will be.

Fun new Kids Education Game

Just stumbled upon a cool looking new kids math game-- RJ The Robot- http://www.rjtherobot.com . A game in the works from the creators of my favorite maths games site--will post a full review when the game is finally launched.

Increasing student interest in science, math

Read an interesting article in the times about Obama's attempt to spurt students to purse science..


As a teacher of Math and Computer Science, I completely agree with the fact that not enough students are pursuing these fields. While I doubt that having movie stars or athletes promoting science will do anything, some of the other initiatives might make a difference. Read the article to learn more.

Sleeping During Testimony

I spent 2 years in the New York city public school system at a rough inner manhattan school and, during that time, knew of 3 different teachers who received enough unsatisfactories to be 'tried' to see if they should retain their licenses. Now, I myself was never in their classrooms so I'm not writing to judge them or my school--but I couldn't help but be amazed by a recent article in the New York Times education . Apparently, 1 artibtrator who was in charge of deciding the fate of a new york city teacher's job and (I think license) actually feel asleep during testimony. Here's a direct quote from the times's article:

Arbitrator Goldberg’s sleep ‘episodes’ were witnessed by three department attorneys, as well as two hearing witnesses.”

Just had to share this one. Sometimes is truth is stranger than fiction

NYTimes article on education games

Don't have much time here but jst a quick post--read a great article in the New York Times about how education based video games are becoming more and more popular. Give the article a read.

Personally, my favorite site for math games is The Math Games.com

New York Tutoring

Another interesting article on new york tutoring--one of my favorite subjects and one I've written about before.

I sometimes wonder what tutors can make in other suburbs. $125 to $140 an hour for high school level tutoring in new york

I'd be curious to know what the going rate for calculus tutors in other places like Boston, San Francisco is .

Test Prepping in New York and Los Angeles

Read an interesting article here --the basic premise is that students do not have enough play time at school--that nowadays students's schedules are much more structured with little 'choice' time. Here's a direct quote:

Among the findings is the fact that kindergartners in New York City and Los Angeles spend almost three hours a day engaged in reading and math instruction and test preparation, leaving fewer than 30 minutes for "choice time," or play.

Apparently teachers in New York city and LA are doing a lot of test prepping. Now, I've certainly never taught in the elementary levels, but I can definitely say that the same emphasis on test scores pervades both of the New York high schools where I have taught--one of which was an inner city school in Manhattan and the other is a high nonperforming district in Westchester county. For better or for worse, No Child Left Behind has imbued schools and teachers with a sense of the importance of standardized tests-- after all, a large factor in your school's ratings has to do with these test scores so it is only natural.

Obama--radically change teacher education schools

I just read an interesting article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091022/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_teachers).

It looks like the Obama administration wants to change the education prep schools. Read the article for the full low down but a quick summary is--
education schools are 'cash cows' for universities becuase lots of teachers enroll in them and the schooling costs the universities little but these schools, according to many teachers, don't really prepare teachers for the classroom.

I took classes at two different graduate education schools including Columbia University's Teachers College (one of the top ranked ones both in New York state and the nation), and I definitely agree that the schools are heavy on theory and light on the real experience and mentoring that would better server teachers new to the profession.

Obama and Extended School Year

If you're a teacher , you've probably read about Obama's desire to increase the school year in an effort to increase America's competitiveness internationally. I understand the logic in this proposal which goes something like 1) other countries' students do better on international tests than we do 2) other countries have longer school years --> therefore we should have longer school years to get better test scores.

However, nothing operates in a vacuum and, in my opinion, until America's culture shifts and students and families start putting more responsibility on the student--it really won't matter much how long the school year is --because students just don't work that hard. Yes, they might work a few more weeks under this proposal but if those weeks consist of the diluted efforts that characterize much of American students's work--then the benifit will, in my prediction, be marginal at best.

I'm sorry to say it--but a lack of work ethic pervades the attitudes of a large proportion of our youth--and I say this as someone who teaches in one of the 'top 100 public school's in the US (according to those newsweek). Until more families start to place greater responsibility and value on doing well in school, a few weeks here and there won't have much, if any, of an impact on the international academic standings of our students.



Some related articles
1) the negative economic impacts of this proposal

Trying to Earn a Buck as a Teacher!

I wanted to write a quick post about teacher salaries--I have worked for some of the lowest and highest paying counties in New York state ----and , wow, I can tell you there is quite a range. At one private school--where I first started teaching, the salary was barely enough to survive and teachers did a lot of private tutoring to make up for this. There's a lot more opportunity to make some good tutoring to money in private schools where the parents are, in general, wealthier and more inclined to spend the money on home tutors. That said, there are some public schools --like my current one in WestChester County--that have a pretty darn high base line salary (starting salary is about 60K I believe and goes up above 6 figures--at 8 years you're already make about 90K!) My school is not even the highest paying in Westchester County or in Long Island. Talk about a quality of life change--moreover, these high paying counties have many of the perks that you would normally seein a private school including: 1) generally smaller class sizes albiet not as small as most private schoosl 2) generally motivated and high achieving students 3) more opportunties for private tutoring!

If you want to be a New York Tutor, check out Hubalub.com --I'll write a bit more about them in a future post but they're a site that helps New York based tutors find tutoring. The site only accepts certified public school teachers so if you have your certification check em out!



Other good Links for Tutoring in New York:

1. http://www.mathwarehouse.com/private-tutoring/state/new-york/new-york-tutors.php a good low dow of new york tutoring including some of the best places to tutor in new york
2. Jobs for teachers and Tutors in New York

Dept of Education report on Online Learning

A study just came out from the US Dept of education on the efficacy of online learning vis a vis traditional learning and, basically, the report states that classes that infuse online learnining are more successful than those that solely use traditional face-to-tace education.
Here's a quot4e from the Abstract:

The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.

If you have the time to read the full 93 page report, here it is (pdf file).

Obama Administration: Tests will matter more!

Just read a New York Times article about the obama administration's push for education. It seems that the emphasis on students scores is only going to increase. Here's a quote


“We’re mindful of all the criticisms about federal overreaching, about too much testing, of all the complaints about No Child Left Behind,” Mr. Cunningham [Education Department spokesman ]said. “These complaints come up all the time in conversations about all our programs, not just this one, with education officials across the country. The context that No Child has generated is the context that we have to live with.”




The administration is also pushing that teacher evaluations be more closely tied to student test performance-- Many teachers, including myself, find this problematic. If you're asking, yourself 'Why don't teachers want to be assessed based on student performance?' you're probably not a teacher. It is not because I do not want to be held accountable--but rather becuase associating teacher performance with student test performance opens a pandora's box of issues--only a few of which I'll discuss.

#1) If you get a strong vs a weak class, your test scores will unfairly affect your reviews as a teacher--for better or for worse. All of us who have taught know how true this is--a strong class will do well no matter who teaches them and some classes are unmotivated no matter what you do. Moreover, I get 1-2 'skewed' classes a year (strong or bad) and that's over half of the number of classes I teach that take a standardized test. In other words, more than half of the data that would influence my year end performance will, on average, be comprised by a 'good' or 'bad' class's performance. Moreover, what about the teachers who only teach 1 standardized test based class?

#2) States will have even more of an interest in making tests easier. Anyone who has taught Math in New York state just needs to look at how easy the Math A regents (or the new Integrated Algebra) have become over the last 7 years or so. Also consider this, how can you hold an Integrated Geometry teacher responsible for low test scores on the difficult Geometry test when the same students passed the prior year's integrated Algebra exam--even though the latter test is a complete joke requiring like 1/3 of the total points to pass?

#3) It's almost a gurantue that by encouraging teachers to 'teach to the test' the 'good' teachers who encourage true thinking and inquiry will have to replace thought provoking education will test tricks--trust me, test tricks work but they do not necessarily teach much else.

A Great New City Dentist

This post does not fit in with my normal one here--but I had to help promote this guy--he's a dentist that I just started going to and basically, he saved me from having to get a root canal! My prior dentist said I needed one, but went Dr. Auerbach who was able to fill my tooth : no root canal needed!

So if you live in or near Rockland county, New York and need a great New City Dentist check out his website or read about him on yelp.

Summer Time

Now, I want to first start this post by stating that I did not get a teaching job just so I could have summers off! That said, by the time June rolls around I ready for summer! I am in the last stages of getting my students prepared for the end of the year regents, God rest this course's soul after this year, and I just wanted to say...bring on the summer!

Teacher Observations

I have taught at both public and private schools . And there were, obviously, many differences between the two types of institutions. I have to say that maybe the greatest farce of public schooling has been the way in which teacher observations have been used by administrators. Please know that I've not had 'problems' with administrators. I work at a high paying, high performing public school and teach largely motivated students--it's quite nice. But I've always been intrigued and, at times, disturbed by the discrpencies between perception and reality vis a vis teacher performance. I have seen many good teachers get 'bad' write ups and vice versa. True enough, that being a 'good teacher' is a subjective judgement but regardless of what your personal opinion of good or bad teaching is, there is an inevitable farce that can occur during an observation.

If you assume that an observation is supposed to asses the normal conditions/teaching styles that occur on a daily basis, there is an immediate obvious problem: as soon as a strange person with a suite and tie or as soon as a well known administrator with a suit and tie enters your classroom... guess what? Students suprisingly do not act naturally. Of course, there are some exceptions--some students could care less whether or not principal is in the next seat, but those kids are rare. I know of classes that behaved great during an observation on a teacher--even though the students were known to dislike the teacher and believe that the said teacher was very very bad at teaching. And I know of examples where students interacted quite disrespectfully while a teacher who was quite respected was teaching.

So what can we draw from these observations?....that a teacher's control of a class or rapport with a class cannot be accurately assessed by an external observer who surprises the class by a once or twice a year visit.

Teaching in Hard Times

Well, it's not the first post about being a teacher in hard economic times, but I can say, as several of my friends find themselves either
A) Out of work
or
B) worried daily about the potential of soon being out of work.

It's yet again good to be a teacher! I actually had noteworthy conversation with one of my friends, a guy who recently lost his very lucrative wall street job, and he asked me what we teachers are going to do to help out--are we going to take a reduced pay or what? And I couldn't help but chidingly respond to him: "Are you going to give back all of your bonuses from the last decade?" Well, I could tell from his grin that he got my point!

If you need a teaching job, go her for teacher placement services. I've used both NAIS and Carney Sandoe(for private school job hunts) and can recommend both.

The TI 89 Graphing Calculators: They can do anything!

I have taught Math for many years and have generally used the TI 84, TI-83 Graphing Calculators--pretty cool calculators that can do neat things like add imaginary numbers and output the results in reduced form etc.. But the TI-89 is like getting used to a whole new machine. When you first encounter it, you might not even know how to use it as the main screen's menu and interface is completely different. However, if you work your way through learning it, the 89 can really do some powerful things including algebra! This of course raises the issue of whether or not it is appropriate to use such powerful machines to take a test; many tests, in fact, do not allow the 89's to be used. So before you go out to buy a graphing calculator like the 89, you should first make sure that it a) can be used on any standardized tests that you take and b) isn't too fancy for your own tastes.

Red Ink--is it that bad?

I recently had some professional development that focused on ways to cultivate positive relationships with students, something that all teachers (ideally) value; it's always a fine line to both support students's ideas while at the same time maintain respect for the truth during class discussions-- as a teacher in the classroom leading a discussion, you'll inevitably get some responses that are way off and, no matter how you cut it, are just 'wrong.' ...navigating these kinds of classroom discussions is definitely a skill that improves with time and experience.

There was one point during the PD that I just can't buy: that students' self esteem is effected by using red pens to correct their errors... that the very choice of ink color (red) is a factor that can demoralize students. The argument put forth, as best as I could tell, was that since red has been used so often to correct students that this ink color is a psychological trigger for students, one both demoralizing and damaging.
I must say that I wholeheartedly disagree with this. I use red pen simply to distinguish the color of my remarks from the color of the student's ink. Oftentimes, the comments that I write in red are quite positive or neutral. In the end, I believe that a teacher's rapport with students is what will demoralize or uplift the students' response to your feedback, regardless of whether you use red ink, blue ink or pink ink.