Musings on Education

May 21 2013

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:51:07 -0400

Just a few days until graduation, and then it’s time to get back into screencasting…

Trig videos

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:12:49 -0400

14 May 2013

I am just about done writing “scripts” for a series of about twenty videos on trigonometry that I’ll be creating over the next few weeks. Explain Everything has been updated a fair amount since I used it last summer; it will be fun to see how the changes work.

Check out ck12.org!

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:47:44 -0400

10 May 2013

It’s been a while since I posted here, but I think I have just seen the future of textbooks at ck12.org.

Information is grouped by topic, customizable “books”, mastery exercises, in-line videos. If I worked at a textbook company, I would be VERY scared right now!!

Jackie Robinson Day

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:02:39 -0400

15 April 2013

Today we celebrate the life of Jackie Robinson, #42, on the 66th anniversary of the day he became the first Black man to play baseball in the major leagues.

He was a great ballplayer; he won the Rookie of the Year in 1947,the MVP in 1949, and was the driving force behind the Brooklyn Dodgers only World Championship in 1955. Jackie was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

Jackie is the only player to have his number (42) retired by every major league team. This was done on April 15th, 1997, on the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The only major leaguer still permitted to wear that number is Mariano Rivera, who was wearing #42 before it was officially retired in 1997.

Jackie’s son David is a member of the Mount Hermon Class of 1970, and Jackie was the MH graduation speaker that year.
David’s daughter Ayo is a member of the NMH class of 1998.

The Northfield Mount Hermon Baseball Award is given in Jackie’s name “to that member of the team who best exemplifies sportsmanship and good team spirit”.

It is worth taking some time today to think about and to honor this remarkable man, who did so much to help address and combat racism in the United States.

One World Schoolhouse

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:22:54 -0500

25 Jan 2013

At the suggestion of some colleagues, I purchased and read this book by Sal Khan. It is definitely worth a read for educators, and anyone who is eager to best serve our students in the 21st century.

Classes of 100 with four teachers? Vacations when YOU want? A blend of human instruction and on-line videos and testing?

Learning...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:10:42 -0500

9 Jan 2013
Working to develop mastery of WebWork and Desmos calculator…
Cool web apps…

Finally! Tumblr for iPad!

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:41:48 -0500

What took them so long?!
Maybe now I’ll get back to being more diligent about posting…

The end of paper textbooks?

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:34:52 -0500

19 December 2012

I got excited last year when Apple announced inexpensive and cool textbooks. The big drawback was the requirement that the only work on an iPad. I didn’t think that my school was ready then- or now- to require all students to purchase an iPad.

My math department tabled the idea of e*books for what we thought would be a year or two. And then, we discovered open source (read “free”) e*books, that are essentially pdfs.

We quickly stepped off the textbook cliff, and began using e*books in about one-third of our courses this year. The basic response from our students has been “ho-hum- what’s the big deal?” These books are very simple, vanilla books, that contain all the course content that we have ordinarily taught. Some even have complete solutions manuals- all this for free.

Beginning in our spring semester, and continuing next year, we will look at expanding our offerings into low-cost texts that include built-in videos and supplemental material. By “low-cost”, I am talking under $20.

We’ve moved on this front faster than I would have thought, but it seems the right thing to do. When I spoke with one of my book reps, with whom I have done business for over twenty years, he kiddingly replied that he expected to be selling used cars by the end of the year.

I am very interested to see where this revolution in electronic book publishing will lead. No student should be paying the exorbitant fees that textbooks cost these days.

Stay tuned…

Going Google...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:20:36 -0500

13 November 2012

A few NMH folks traveled to Holderness at the beginning of the month to learn how their transition was to a Google school.

The account is that it was easier than we would have thought. They also transitioned from First Class, and simply changed over to GMail (leaving the FirstClass server up for a year), without trying to port data over from FirstClass.

They were enthusiastic about the advantages of shared googledocs, and the advanced features of GMail.

I am hopeful that NMH will begin planning for a transition to Google. Our virtual desktop model, which runs using Citrix, has been very successful for about ten years, but it is probably time to retire it and go Google.

Making up for lost time...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:42:07 -0400

28 Oct 2012

With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on us, I thought I would get in one last blog before power is lost forever… :-)

I haven’t been good about keeping up with this blog. My school year has been going well, with both my “blended” classes (BC Calculus and Algebra 2) making full use of the screencasts that I have prepared. Too often, I find myself wandering around the classroom, trying to find a way to be useful, while my students are hard at work in small groups.

Once, a good question led me into an impromptu fifteen minute lecture on tangent line approximations in my calculus class. When I finished, I asked if there were any questions. Politely, one student said thanks, but she had gotten what she needed from my screencast the night before. Several other students nodded in agreement.

I am lucky to have an HD TV and Apple tv in my classroom. I can mirror with my iPad and new MacBook Air; I am convinced that this will be the next way of sharing information at least in classrooms.

Soon, I will be visiting Holderness School, which has recently become a Google school. NMH is looking to make this leap, and we are gathering information on what is entailed.

That’s it for today- stay safe, everyone.

Students in my algebra 2 class doing their work using an online...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:09:13 -0400

Students in my algebra 2 class doing their work using an online textbook…

Recharging the batteries before the fun begins again. In...

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:30:01 -0400

Recharging the batteries before the fun begins again.
In Wellfleet, MA.

Summer work

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:28:24 -0400

I spent a lot of time this summer working on algebra 2 curriculum; making videos, and creating and integrating documents into an assignment sheet.

Sports weekend extravaganza

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 12:35:12 -0400

8 July 2012

Wimbledon finals on Saturday and Sunday; Sox-Yankees: Saturday doubleheader, single game Sunday

Back to work on Monday.

1 July 2012 The Neill family (and Nonno!). Annie, Jeff, Stella...

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 08:10:00 -0400

The happy family of four!

Proud Nonno

1 July 2012

The Neill family (and Nonno!).

Annie, Jeff, Stella and Chase

My flipped classroom...

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 08:07:51 -0400

1 July 2012

Dick Peller’s Algebra 2 Flipped Classroom

I’ve been thinking about the flipped, or blended classroom, and how I would like to implement it in my classes at Northfield Mount Hermon School. Here is how my students will experience my flipped classroom in algebra 2.

Each day for homework, they will read a section or two in our book, and watch the video that I have created for each section. There will also be two SAT practice questions each evening. Occasionally, there will be a supplement to read, and perhaps an enrichment problem to tackle. They will then begin (and maybe complete) a set of homework exercises from the book. Students will work exercises from each section for four days, which should result in mastery of the topics in each section.

In class the following day, students will work in peer groups of 3 or 4. They will begin each day discussing the homework problems, and helping each other. Groups that are unable to solve a problem are encouraged to put the problem on the board. Ideally, students from other groups will be able to provide a solution on the board.

I will go over problems or techniques that I think deserve attention. Students may then complete their homework (if necessary), use a device to watch videos, or read the textbook.

At the completion of each class, students will turn in their homework to be evaluated and returned the following day.

Algebra 2 screencasts

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 08:01:38 -0400

1 July 2012

I’ve been working overtime to create videos/screencasts (using Explain Everything). I’ve got about fifty on YouTube now, with only one chapter to go. Explain Everything is behaving much better than it did several months ago when I was creating videos for calculus. The updates must have fixed the bugs that caused EE to crash.

In addition to videos, I will be putting links to text supplements, SAT questions, and enrichment materials all into the syllabus for algebra 2. And did I mention that we will be using an open-source textbook? Big changes are coming to algebra 2 at NMH.

Choate Conference wrap-up

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 07:57:00 -0400

1 July 2012

It’s been a while since the conference ended. It went well, and was a great experience for my son Mike and I to work together. We led a large group of almost twenty educators of disparate abilities. I am hopeful that everyone took something away from the conference. Perhaps Mike and I will do it again next year!

Chase Cheney Neill. Born 8 June 2012 to Annie and Jeff Neill....

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:35:17 -0400

Chase Cheney Neill.
Born 8 June 2012 to Annie and Jeff Neill. Chase joins his big sister Stella in the happy family.

Getting ready for "Teaching in the 21st Century"

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 15:28:08 -0400

3 June 2012

Mike and I are spending Sunday noodling around with Google+, trying to get ready for next week when our workshop begins. It’s always fun and helpful learning with someone else; it helps to have someone to bounce questions off, and even better, to help frame questions.

Happy birthday, Kelsey!