Learning to Teach

Taking a summer math class and blogging daily don't mix. Generating a general formula for the number of black, or white, triangles in the nth iteration of a Sierpinski triangle, and figuring out how to explain it to middle schoolers kept me pretty busy over the last few days. The formula was easy, figuring out how to teach the problem solving steps that got me there, well that's why some teachers guard their planning time so ferociously and still end up taking work home.

An interesting byproduct of taking this undergraduate class for prospective math teachers is seeing how the teaching of teaching has changed in the last decade or so. Though one class, and my classmates, do not an accurate statistical sample make, it appears that today's teachers are subject to a lot more rigorous training than their predecessors. The best part is that more attention is paid to scholarship about how children learn, but by attention I don't mean jumping on every innovation band wagon. Instead, teachers are expected to be able to read research critically, understand a study's design and limitations, and ultimately use the research to inform their own classroom practices.

But, and you know there's always a "but" in writing about education, you have to know your students to use the research effectively. Yes, I'm in favor of small classes where you can get to know your students on a personal level, but I'm also talking about using available data to know what's happening in the classroom. Never before have schools collected so much information about what kids know, and when they know it. We are testing kids more often, on more subjects. If we only use the information to grade schools and create new regulations, and not change individual teachers' actions in the classroom we are wasting a lot of time, effort and money.

As an outside observer when it comes to actual Florida classrooms (wish me luck on that job search), it was heartening to see Florida's overall B- rating in Ed Week's 2006 Technology Counts report. However, we are lacking in critical areas that could make an immediate difference in any classroom. With all the data generated by the FCAT, Ed Week reports there is no state training on the use of data for instruction, no guides for data analysis, and no templates for analysis and graphing. Sure, my smart, eager, future math teacher classmates could figure all that out on their own, but they won't have time. When teachers must administer tests, and have their performance evaluated by the results, it doesn't make sense not to give them the tools they need to make their teaching more effective.

For a good overview of the Technology Counts report read my favorite education reporter, the Washington Post's Jay Mathews May 16 Class Struggle column. (Sorry, you'll probably have to register to access it.)