Written by Werner Garciano
Every year, I present at Career Day at the elementary school that my kids attend. I have been doing it for seven years now, and it is always well received. I don’t know why teachers and students like my sessions since I talk more about the importance of math than I do my own career. Let’s face it, the career of a mathematics curriculum specialist (that’s the title on my business card) is not too glamorous. If I talked about what I do on a day to day basis, I am sure that kids will walk out saying, “No way am I going to do that job for the rest of my life!”
In order to show the importance of math in their future career, there are certain mantras that I follow when I design my presentations. It is much the same as the mantras that I used when lesson planning.
- Engage the participant. What could be more boring than a set of powerpoint slides about the life of a mathematics curriculum specialist? The slides just make it more bearable than a straight lecture since there is something to see other than the speaker and how he talks with his hands as he waves them about wildly.
- Be like Mr. Miyagi. In the Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi had Daniel San do various tasks that did not seem related to learning karate but they actually did. Remember how “paint the fence” was actually the best way to defend against a kick?
- Recognize your star participants. Recognition can range from pats on the back, making a great example of the work done by a participant or giving them a small prize.
So now you want an example of what I did at Career Day?
I posed a set of questions that seem like off the wall questions that are used by various companies when they interview candidates. These questions ranged from “How many cows are in Canada?” to “How many quarters will it take to reach the top of the Empire State Building?” The kids were in amazement that such “preposterous” questions were asked and they wanted to know what those questions had to do with getting a job at Google. I told them it was more of a test of their problem thinking skills and they had to solve non-routine problems in order to hone their critical thinking skills.
The kids went to various stations with different puzzles and games. One game they had to play was the game of Nimm. This is a game with fifteen coins and each player removes one or two coins at each turn. The player who removes the last coin is the loser. I challenged the kids to come up with a strategy on how to play the game of Nimm and also how to tell when they were going to lose way before the last coin is taken. We also played Coin Swap and Lunar Lockout, which are found in Discovering Geometry.
After all the playing was done, I asked who was successful in the short amount of time they had to play the games or with the puzzles. The star students got a little prize and a lot of praise from me, their teacher, and most important of all, their peers.
When I left after doing all of my sessions, I got a stack of thank you notes from the kids. The all said thank you and that they loved my session. Most of all, they said that they like math now. I made it fun.
How can you make every day in your classroom a Career Day, where students leave with excitement about math?
The collision between exceptionalism and delusional brilliance is coming to a head with the new standards and assessments. Texas has adopted new standards and assessments (not the Common Core, as Texas has its own brand of exceptionalism). Policy makers there are backpedaling as parents are realizing that many students will struggle with the new assessments, and Texas has now gone from requiring four years of math including Algebra 2 to simply passing the Algebra 1 end-of-course exam for graduation. Other groups have developed resistance to the Common Core as potentially limiting the learning
feeds and Google Alerts, which are emails sent to you that match a specific term you create (i.e.: Inquiry-Based Learning). This is a great tool to house any favorite newspaper, web page or blog.
Will technology lead to truly individualized learning or will technology be used to improve the communal classroom experience?
![By Flickr user: Andy Clarke United Kingdom http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/ [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Bourbon_Street_New_Orleans_Louisiana_USA.jpg)


“What do you think?” The student’s response was, “I don’t know.” She made it a teachable moment by telling the student that she was asking what they think about the topic, not what they know in terms of looking for any particular correct answer. To me that was a powerful lesson for both of them. How often do we ask our students what they think, and truly consider the response? The reason I love inquiry-based science is that it allows students to think about ideas, explore ways to solve a problem, and make sense of it all in the context of the particular lesson. In other words, the inquiry approach allows students to do science.
student recalling the activity? Or perhaps they reply with details and a story about that particular day in class. How often do we get the chance to hear from students about the impact a lesson has had, or see the connections they make? I worked with a dozen high schools implementing BSCS Biology and feel so fortunate to have been in a position to see it on a regular basis. From self-contained special education to general education classrooms without a cooperative team teacher, I have seen the impact of inquiry-based science on our students. The students have to be actively engaged to participate in an activity. When we use the inquiry model in our lessons, we ask our students to do science: to think and become problem-solvers. I feel like I am empowering students to become lifelong learners, and I cannot imagine being in the classroom without using inquiry practices.
Ponder with me the possibilities for learning now available to educators any given day with just a few simple clicks:
glee when saber metrics started to take hold in baseball. My two loves: math and baseball converged to make us math people valuable to general managers. You can use statistical analysis to quantify a player’s value in a multitude of ways. Instead of batting averages, RBIs and ERAs, you can use On Base Percentage (OBP), Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched (WHIP). 
Frankly, my philosophy has gotten much simpler. Quality education really boils down to learning to ask good questions. As educators, we need to ask questions that engage students in the content and encourage them to think about more than a memorized process. We need to avoid asking students 20 questions, and instead ask students fewer, higher-quality questions that challenge them to understand the concept behind the process and dig into the mathematics (or insert your preferred subject here).
I happened to stumble upon another article that takes a look at online learning at a different perspective. The writer states that online learning is a growing trend and is being seen increasingly in a number of situations. As said in
It’s been a whirlwind four weeks of travel for me as a mathematics specialist. My travels started in Georgia and took me to various locales: Columbia, MO; Albuquerque, NM; Anderson, SC; Whitefield, NH; and Hillsboro, OR. During these trips, I learned a number of things such as: a.) The "C" boarding pass on Southwest Airlines stands for Center seat; b.) Teachers are the fastest eaters in the world due to their 30 minute lunch periods; c.) Icy roads, not snow-covered roads, are the real reason why schools are cancelled; d.) When students come together on a project, they do really cool stuff (Watch the video at 
Getting back to my original thought… why do we want to produce digital learning material and why should districts use these digital materials in the classroom? The real answer should be to serve our 21st Century Learners…. The 21st Century Skills are solid, real-world skills and truly need to be recognized if we are serious about preparing our students to excel professionally after they leave our schools. These skills are what we should measure every curriculum against. "Will this program produce this experience and learning opportunity for a student?" 
Then we moved the vertices of the triangle around to see what happened. In the 5 minutes it took to build the triangle and experiment with it, she was now not only confident in her answer, she could also tell me what type of triangle has perpendicular bisectors that intersect outside of the triangle (obtuse). What was her response to this use of technology? "That’s really cool!" plus a deeper understanding of the mathematics, plus a hint of excitement about math, a subject she claims she doesn’t like.
We’re so fortunate to live in an age where inquiry and innovation are key components in many classrooms in our country; where teachers’ talents lie not only in the knowledge of the subject, but also in excelling as facilitators, leaders, and promoters of confidence within their classrooms. It’s so exciting to see the delight in a young person’s eye as they take on a challenge!
They were serving up all types of flavors. The best flavors come from visiting schools that are way different from your school. I was teaching at Tamalpais High School in Marin County, CA (school population of about 1000), and I got a full serving of 31 flavors when I visited Logan High School in Union City in the East Bay (school population of about 4000). After you visit, bring back those flavors to your colleagues and share what you saw and experienced. You will have a better perspective on what you do and how you can improve.