"Algebra, as designed by McGraw-Hill for iBooks 2, is lighter by pounds. It's indexed for search. It's quick. You can highlight the text and insert notes. It removes one layer of abstraction between students and tools that already existed. Rather than accessing quizzes, tutorials, and enrichment videos by loading a CD-ROM into a computer or entering a password into a website, they're a tap away.

That's where the differences end. Students still interact with mathematics as they always have…

What I'm saying, basically, is that I'd have to modify, adapt, and extend the McGraw-Hill iBook in all the same ways that I modified, adapted, and extended the McGraw-Hill print textbook. We'd pull out the iBook just as infrequently as its printed sibling."

"Print textbooks are powerless to facilitate that moment right there. Teachers can't facilitate it, not at anywhere near the speed and ease I'm suggesting. iBooks Author can't facilitate it either, but if it could — if it had some kind of "Q&A;" widget that lived alongside its other widgets and basically copied all the options from Google Forms — I'd find the platform difficult to resist.

But iBooks Author doesn't exist for the pleasure of math education publishers or even education publishers. "This is about Apple versus Amazon for who will sell digital literature in the future," says Audrey Watters. "This isn't really about textbooks."

iBooks Author serves publishers, period. It'll help you publish your Firefly fan fiction, your autobiography, or your Nana's recipe collection. It's extremely useful, broadly speaking, which inevitably means that, narrowly speaking to math education publishers, it's much less useful."

"I've facilitated enough PD to not feel new at it. I've taken enough coursework in PD at Stanford to feel like I get some of the theory behind teaching adults about teaching children. Whenever I'm planning a session or a talk, though, I don't lean on the theory or my experience half as hard as I do on the fear that I'll be working with a teacher who's exactly like me, and he'll hate me. Which is to say, rather, that I'll hate me.<br />
<br />
My urinal buddy helped me understand that whenever I blog or facilitate PD or give a talk or drive in traffic or cook a meal or talk to my friends, subconsciously, I'm always wondering, "Would I hate me?" It's a coin flip, really, whether that's evidence of personal integrity or flagrant self-absorption."

"Easily incorporate computational thinking into your curriculum with these classroom-ready lessons, examples, and programs. For more resources, including discussion forums and news, visit our ECT Discussion Forums."

"So I'm thinking about an ongoing classroom project, something that includes a wall map of the county, push-pins marking off claimed intersections, students collecting data with stopwatches or cameras, developing (what seems to them) a fair algorithm for the duration of yellow lights, then researching the county code to determine the actual algorithm, finally marching down to city hall to call the mayor on the carpet (if need be) for his reckless disregard for public safety in pursuit of a little extra revenue."

"Nowadays, I don't much care what they answer. I'm disinterested. I want to get past their answer. My response to their answer is an automated "Why?" That's where the action is.

"This seems dead on to me. Imagination can be threatening and scary if you aren't accustomed to doing something with it. It seemed necessary to trigger the imagination of my students slowly, with progressively harder challenges, so that they'd reach the hardest challenge with confidence and competence, thinking to themselves three things:...I'm really glad we did this. We fell way short of my expectations, but it's hard to reconcile that fact with the wide grin on my face when I think back on the whole thing." [See also: http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/ AND http://www.clusterflock.org/2010/06/dont-miss-46.html]

"We have watched some incredible videos lately—Rube Goldberg machines & time lapse photography—& if video smacks even slightly of concentrated effort or advance planning, someone will inevitably scoff that subject has "too much time on his hands" or "no life."...I would so much rather my students understood the value of turning stupid ideas into reality than the entire sum of Algebra1. It's so obvious to me that the kind of person who would create a cocktail-mixer from balsa wood & twine is simply blowing off steam that life will eventually focus in a direction that will be extremely constructive and/or profitable. I can't make this obvious to my students. After six years I lack a succinct, meaningful response to my students' defensive, clannish embrace of mediocrity, though I'm grateful for this tweet, which comes pretty close: dwineman: You say "looks like somebody has too much time on their hands" but all I hear is "I'm sad because I don't know what creativity feels like.""

""Perplex them," one of my old high school math teachers advised me when I told him I was going into teaching. Perplexity isn't the same as confusion; rather, it's a very, very productive form of confusion. My favorite teachers and storytellers perplex me repeatedly throughout a lesson or movie.

"The main problem or difference between WCYDWT for English as compared to math is that it’s hard to know what they’ll do with these things you give to them. Sometimes it takes unexpected turns. I’m learning to go with the flow on these things.

"Question: what tools are essential to that kind of exhilarating learning? What is in your learning Swiss Army Knife?

"I'm not saying that the only people capable of describing or critiquing classroom teaching are classroom teachers. There are people who don't work in a classroom who know a lot more about my business than I do. I'm saying it's difficult, as one of public education's foot soldiers, to do much with inspiration. I don't have many places to put inspiration, certainly not as many as the edtechnologists walking away from TEDxNYED minds buzzing, faces aglow, and so it tends to settle and coagulate around my bile duct. It's too hard to forget that tomorrow I and three million others will have to teach too many standards of too little quality to too many students with too few resources. What can you do with this?"

"Treme's pilot, true to Simon's challenging aesthetic, dumps the viewer into an unfamiliar-but-compelling environment full of unfamiliar-but-compelling people and trusts that, because the whole thing is so damn compelling, you'll be back the next week to learn more.

"If [x] is going to change teaching practice at scale, then [x] needs to be easy, fun, and free for both the teacher and her students. [x] needs to be all three of those things at the same time. ... I don’t have any hope in the scalable transformational power of any tool that requires anything more than ten minutes of professional development."

"Is it a match made in Heaven? According to Maria Droujkova, developer of Natural Math and Math 2.0, it is! Droujikova saw the need for math to catch up to other subjects with regards to web 2.0 communities. Her response was to create math programs in which learning takes place within communities and networks-- a mashup between traditional math practices and social networking. This has given birth to the concept of social math:"

"The Daily Show made great work last week out of our tendency to confuse short-term fluctuations with long-term trends, shining a particularly bright spotlight on the it's-cold-outside-so-global-warming-isn't-real crowd. I found the clip so effective, I downloaded it, and tucked it safely away in my vault.

"Would a real person need to solve this problem?...the solution realistic?...using a system of 2 equations?...in what ways does this problem help our students become better problem solvers?"...problem you will only find in a textbook...bizarre...how many different ways just 50 words can fail to square with reality. Why does each chaperone have to drive? Why can't we take 5 vans? Why do our vehicles have to seat the exact number of people in our group & no more?...Algebra teachers sell students a cheap distortion of the real world while insisting at the same time that it really is the real world. The cognitive dissonance is obvious & terrible. Students know the difference. It cheapens my relationship to them & their relationship to mathematics when you ask me to lie to them...Not only are the short-term consequences devastating but it makes that person distrustful or wary of the real thing. Make no mistake. We are making an alien of algebra. We are doing real damage here."

"Their highest score matters much more to me than the specific ordering of low scores preceding it. So forget the earlier low scores. Students add length to the bar as they improve on earlier scores. This checklist design is consistent with our class ethic that "what you know now matters to us more than what you used to know," whereas the other design maintains a permanent record of "what you used to know.""

Dan Meyer reacts to these four quotes on his previous post: "#1 I read stuff like this, and the first thought that goes through my mind is, “Man, I suck at teaching math.” #2 I’m with Steve. I realize how far I am from where I should be. #3 I’m with Steve and Craig- I can’t teach this way yet because my brain isn’t aware/smart/intuitive/mathematical enough to first notice these things, then develop a lesson, and actually deliver and make sense of it. #4 I’ll echo Steve’s comment, I read this site and I feel like a fraud. I don’t know anything about teaching math." [Feeling like a fraud — it's not unfamiliar, but I suppose that's the product of always taking a hard look at yourself and your practices and striving to do better. Anyone who wants to improve him/herself probably has the thought on a regular basis.]

"Leinwand opened his talk: "The great divider of our time is the Algebra II final exam. Algebra II squeezes off options for so many kids. Algebra II is anathema to all but the top 20% of the population. My premise: as currently implemented, high school algebra I and II are not working and not meeting either societal or student needs."

"It's an overwrought title, sure, but it's hard for me to overestimate the damage I did in my first five years teaching. I thought I was building up intellectually adventurous learners who would be patient with problems that didn't resolve neatly or conform quickly to any of the example problems I'd already coached them through when, point of fact, I was doing the opposite. I don't have any illusion that five hours of sturdy, problem-based math education each week will counteract the intellectual Novocaine our students consume throughout the other 163, but we can at least do no harm."

"Because out there, in the world, no one will helpfully tell them what chapter of the book they're looking at, no one will helpfully reference the relevant sample problem.

"What I'm saying is that, when I play, for example, this fantastic loop of time lapse photography, my Algebra 1 students sit a few millimeters closer to the edges of their seats and lean a few degrees closer to the screen than do my Remedial Algebra students. They call out observations and deconstruct the movie in ways the remedial classes do not anticipate. In general, they seem eager to engage the unknown whereas my Remedial Algebra students seem to prefer that the unknown stay unknown, that life's unturned rocks stay unturned."

"Darren: My favourite bit came at the very end when the teacher turned and spoke to the camera: “That was gooood!” That comment encompassed so much; about him, his students, and how they all feel for each other." = "A milligram of sober deconstruction ("why do I like this?") is worth, for my money, a kilogram of exuberant, big-picture futurism ("how does this change everything?!"). It would do this old curmudgeon's heart some good to see some balanced restored to our discussions of ancient arts."

"The idea that schools are only about the kids is a problem because, as much as I am a proponent of student-centered learning, we have to do a better job of taking care of the adults because we are losing too many of our best young teachers. And we’re not losing them because they don’t like the job, we’re losing them because we aren’t creating pathways for them to feel good about their job without it coming at incredibly high cost." - Chri Lehmann

"1. Unless your presentation is billed as "beginner-level" don't include information I can easily Google. What I mean is, while I know nothing about Photo Story, it was painful spending seat-time on a tutorial for adding narration to Photo Story, which is Google's top result for the same query. I can get that anytime1. 2. Instead, cover the stuff I can't Google, that stuff that makes your presence worth my district's money and my time. Here's an easy outline: a) why Photo Story; what problem were you trying to solve? should I care about that problem? b) what complications did you encounter while implementing Photo Story? how did you overcome them? c) what did you learn?"

"As a guy who teaches compulsory Algebra to kids who have hated Algebra, I don't see how fourteen presenters managed to blow a scenario where an audience volunteered to attend their sessions. Where the audience is interested in the session (provided the presenter didn't falsely bill it). Where the audience is pulling for the presenter. Where the audience is eager to be dazzled, fed, or inspired. ILC was like walking into eighteen car dealerships, pockets bulging with cash, declaring to every salesperson, "I'm here to buy," and discovering that fourteen of them couldn't close the sale." Follow-up post here: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=1712

"This supplement comprises 2,144 slides and 1.94 GB — a lot of a/v content, in other words, some of which I did not author and do not have explicit permission to republish. Sorry about that. Every respect has been paid to Fair Use. Every effort has been made at attribution.

Good advice about considering whether the medium you're using is the best for what you are trying to accomplish.

"The University of Chicago annually hosts the most comprehensive scavenger hunt you have ever seen, comprising eighteen pages, 269 items, and a 1,000 mile radius, and then they post the list."

"Yeah, it’s like that. Teachers oughtta ask and re-ask, what is the goal of my class, and are my grades an accurate reflection of that goal? Me? Perfect attendance, classwork completion, homework completion, these aren’t my goals."

"As much to reckon my own thoughts as to assist other job-seekers, in descending order of importance, my employment criteria are...I need a job where I live and die by the strength of my work. Teaching is not that job but it has too much yet to teach me t

see comments reacing to this quote from an article in the Boston Globe: "It's almost as though it makes sense to align compensation with system goals or something…but we know that's crazy talk…"

"I'm talking about clear, minimal constraints which require complicated, comprehensive thought. These problems are rare, but some lucky days they arise from a single image, like the one up there, like the one today."

"My freshmen came into first period flashing the same signals and I asked them, "Gawah?" They told me this: 1. You flash the birdman at anyone sworn into the game. If the flashee makes unblocked eye contact with the flasher..."

"career in teaching is more meaningful than any other profession."...refrain isn't new...but my reaction has reached a boil...I need more from my 60-hour work week, more from my career, and more from my job than poems and platitudes."

"Arguably most successful, cost effective enterprise in world is computer industry...inhabitants of this endeavor are degreed but decidedly unlicensed...differ from our ‘industry’ is they inhabit world of relentless competition, externally & internall

"Unless my experience as a classroom manager is several deviations below the mean, other people are struggling with this as I have struggled. New teachers are struggling with this. So why is classroom management the farthest topic from anyone's blog?

"I find myself entirely uninterested in matters ed-tech, ed-policy, or ed-anything related, aside from what’s going on in my own classroom. The Twitterverse (cringe) bores the hell out of me; I’ve nothing to blog about; and too much of my time has bee

"right to refuse ill-supported, obtuse, irrelevant, redundant tech not been measured enough to warrant judicious use in classroom by teacher...never in my life seen phrase like “but it’s the 21st century” get more unexamined idolatry."

"When you remove some scaffolding from your routine, you determine quickly if it was a) essential or b) a low-cost substitution for the essential. I'm noticing this everywhere lately."

"on rickety teeter-totter between both skeptical kids & teachers...tech coordinators have threshold-rejecting process even rougher...oughtta realize...this makes hungry, persuasive salesmanship more essential to their job description, not less."

"Storytelling is the skill. Everything else is just its instrument."`

"Information Design and I'm pretty sure it is the mathematical skill most lacking in our high school graduates."..."The following is one of the most scary-awesome information designs I've seen in a month...It concerns poker"

"the next educational paradigm? Really? Ustream ...choppy, low-res medium,...pushes unedited, free-associative thought onto the careless vodcaster...streamcasts circling for 13 minutes the same point one could make in a coupla body paragraphs."

"Here in School 1.5 territory, we're interested in your methods but we find your company unpleasant...My classroom and I are moving towards the 21st century...incrementally, in ways that are oftentimes imperceptible. You must know that we're doing this in