How do we build math- and kid-positive department cultures?

Very true: “Knowledge was thought of as a product that teachers could give to students efficiently on a set schedule. We now know that learning does not work that way — deeper understandings that support retention and fluency with mathematics cannot simply be delivered.”

teachmathculture's avatarteaching/math/culture

I was pleased with the responses to my last post. A number of teachers reached out via twitter and comments, asking how they might build math- and kid-positive cultures in their own schools.

I can’t offer any large scale studies of the answer to this question, even though I am currently engaged in a research project that is trying to work with districts on similar issues. But I can share some of the experiences I had working with teachers in the Pacific Northwest toward this goal.

Gather invested colleagues around a common problem.

I always say, I have yet to meet a teacher who goes into the profession for the glamor or the money. Almost everybody who becomes a teacher wants to help kids. Find the folks whose heart is still in that. Find the ones who are willing and able to invest the time in their professional growth…

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Usefulness of a Year Zero

The Holocene Calendar, a calendar beginning at about the start of visible effects of human activity on the earth (around 12,000 years ago), is easier to use, understand and teach because it has a year Zero.

Unlike most calendars, which begin their counts at some point in the history of one particular group, the Holocene Calendar is meant to include all of humanity.  It’s also alot easier to teach kids history.  More importantly, having an inclusive calendar means we all learn to think of ourselves as human beings, all living in the Holocene or Human Era.

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
30 March, 12016 HE

(later edit: an inclusive Calendar is a good start, imho, for re-framing the way we think and communicate, which works with NonViolent Communication to change our culture and thus our world…) -9th of June,  2016

Putting the maths into the learner’s context

Interesting, that Einstein grew up around clock parts and railway renewal, in Bern. So he drew from his personal context, clocks and trains, to illustrate his theories. Almost a form of NVC, putting mathematical or scientific concepts into a form that your students can readily imagine in their own lifes, thus can use, from their own perspectives Cool!

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
26 March, 12016 HE

What does teaching math have to do with NVC?

Let’s start with how Not to teach non-violently:

“If you don’t learn math, you won’t get a job!”  -This was my reply to a student in one of my high school classes in 2001 who asked “Why do we have to learn this stuff?”  Predictably, my reply did not go over well.  At the time (15 years ago, Really??) I (think) I felt fed up with the kids lack of motivation, and they felt it.  They even told me so.  Problem is, that turned into a vicious cycle of me against most of my kids, rather than us cooperating as a community of learners, as I had imagined.

If I had known that my (un-intentional) seeking of validation from my work of teaching, and that essentially blaming my students for their learning difficulties was the source of my difficulty in teaching them, I might have been able to help them more, using Non-Violent Communication techniques, and SuperNanny classroom management, which I didn’t learn about until some years later.

Hope this helps others,
Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest  (http://beknown.com/ShiraDest )
15 March, 12016 HE

5 reasons to learn a language

1.) Sihirli Annem: my favorite family TV series -fights racism and class-based prejudice in Turkey,  (as well as Yabanci Damat which promotes Greek-Turkish friendship…),

2.) Corazon Salvaje 1993 for Mexican Spanish,   and

3.) El Ministerio del Tiempo for Castilian Spanish, as a formerly dominant world language, now building awareness of racism, and fighting hatred on both continents.

4.) Astérix for French, because it is the other dominant world language, and shows European ways of thinking (to some extent, from a Gaulois point of view…).

and  5.) The Bible, because Hebrew is quite simple, and even when we do not know the origin of many phrases we use every day, this book set the framework for the way modern Westerners think today, even if it was, ironically, based on Bablyonian sources to a large extent. (later addition: Here is a bit of help for Soprano leyners(chanters) .. Read, Write, Dream, Teach ! ShiraDest, 8 March, 12016 HE)

 

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
27 February, 12016 HE

History and B5 and Chanting, Oh My!!!

I’ve finally done (sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to prevent my backposted entries from showing up in the Reader.) sorting through entries in my old LiveJournal.  I hope that lessons I’ve tried to draw from previous ideas, plans and attempts at businesses, cooperatives and community organising can be of use to others.  I’ve tried just a bit to group some entries together from conception to fruition (and often failure, or publication, as the case may have been…) so that a few of my ideas sort of flow-chart a little, or at least show the evolution of how I first day-dreamed, then planned, implemented, and generally failed, but usually wrote up the attempt so that hopefully someone else with a similar idea can learn from my mistakes and go a bit farther than I managed.

As with my DC Black-Jewish Walking Tours, I started by melding the two histories, which was way too big, and looked at how other groups give their walking tours to try to cut down my tours while keeping the essential, and then shared that information (yes, I was severerly criticised by one advisor for not keeping my sources secret, but that goes against my principles), hoping to attract allies and build a cooperative.  That did not work as I’d hoped, but I have left the trail of bread-crumbs for others to build on.

2012-08-13 16:49:00
Loved giving 1st Underground Railroad of DC Tour!!
I loved giving the first tour of my Underground Railroad and Black History series Singing Community Cooperation tours here in DC.
2012-08-15 10:07:00
Interesting points in fascinating book on DC´s 1st race riot…
Moreley, in his new book, Snow-storm in August : Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the forgotten race riot of 1835
not only puts together a sound context for the Snow Riots, but also draws together strands which began then, and still define, he claims, our politics today.
I found most striking his juxtaposing of property rights and individual vs. community as well as freedom of speech, and whether free speech is applied best for owners (elites) vs. the people (the 99%).
Excellent book.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/snow-storm-in-august-washington-city-francis-scott-key-and-the-forgotten-race-riot-of-1835/oclc/757466911

Am I the only leyner who has Negro spirituals running through my mind as I prepare my chanting!!?? Often times I feel like a schitzophrenic, trying to integrate the two major parts of my life, my childhood and ethnic background, recalling summers with Grandma at Mt. Zion UMC, juxtaposed against beautiful nigunim to which I felt little access, on the other side of the mechitza (divider between men and women) in Baltimore.
Peace,
“Wayfaring Stranger”

2012-12-02 11:15:00
Star Trek and B5 helped my Torah Chanting, come discuss more SF and ethical values, bring a TV!  Yesterday’s portion had lots of names in it, which I found easier to learn, I argue, because of my experience with words and names in Klingon, and then in Narn and Minbari!  Who says Science Fiction is not practical? 🙂
Kashering Party immediately upon move-in,  kitchen will be kosher pareve-dairy (milchigs …) : I use soy milk.
First Babylon 5 party to be held on the first Sunday in January, provided a TV arrives before then!
Peace,
Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
24 February, 12016 HE

Standing in the Gap -Thanks, Jo!!

2006-02-12 11:10:00 Dedicated Deaths, & principles vs. [Values & Longings] , once sent me the nicest email dedicating some large number of deaths he suffered in an SCA battle to me, saying it was about principle, and unhesitatingly stepping into the breach. Dear Friends, I now understand why Turks found me so naive. It was exactly that -trying to live by principles even when it hurts, sometimes hurts too much. (ok, and the fact that at least in Istanbul I allowed myself to be taken advantage of far too much in the hope of generating/building/finding family…) Take organic food, for instance. My friends here and flatmates have pointed out that in our lives as students, we need high protein food that can be prepared very quickly, especially given that everyone seems to think I am busier than any of the other phd students they have seen (probably true, because I have much more catching up to do than someone who is doing a phd in a field previously studied, rather than crossing over to a new field as I am -it's a wonder I was accepted at all!). They claim I am tired due to lack of nutrition and overwork, both of which would be helped by buying more meat and eggs and milk which allow faster/easier prep. than lentils and dry milk, which are far cheaper, but have more prep/planning time to use (and may not have the same nutritional value, but I personally dispute that. Yes, I admit that my stint as a vegetarian did fail previously…) So I am left with the moral dilema of making life bearable w/cheap food vs. organics and being dead tired, or at least so it would seem. Then there is the fundamental conflict between principles and values, here tied up w/speaking my truth around my family. It was a lose-lose situation in Turkey, where age/status/family are standard opening questions, and I felt judged by the fact that I am not close to my family, for reasons beyond my control going back a very long way. To speak that truth however, not only does not remove the negative judgement, but adds a further negative jugement of my worth as a person, while also potentially doing harm to myself and family members about whom I may speak. Two key good things violated (my longing/desire/wish for family & my value of not harming others) for the sake of keeping to a principle. So I opted for not speaking at all, which violates the concept of speaking one's truth, but at least is the lesser of two or three evils. Unless you live in a society in which family is taken to be paramount, and the refusal to discuss family makes you even more suspect… I suppose that excercising one's strength should be a principle or value or something, but in Turkey for most of that time it was superseeded by my hope to gain family. Only toward the end did I realize that this goal could only be acheivable, if at all possible for me in that time and place, by excercising my strength, paradoxically. But I get so tired, having had to be super-butch as a teenager to survive, wanting to shed all of those pretenses, then getting kicked in the teeth for it. This was why a monastary would have helped, but whose/which/where? I think the crucible had to be Turkey, for me, for my love of Islam, ancient history, the Aegean, cultural mixing, and so much else, but a crucible can never be comforting, only formative. No? Joe, I could really use a copy of re-summary of that email you sent me all that time ago, if you remember it… 0 Candela – Buena Vista Social Club contemplative personal goals and observations, health, economic justice (I have been looking for this post for some time, as it gave me much encouragement…)
 Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest
23 February, 12016 HE

1947 report on Segregation -applies to Developing mkts today…

1st Posted: 2012-08-15 14:03:00
(23,2,12016 comment : also applies in depressed parts of Rich Nations…)
The Economic Reason
“One of the principal economic problems facing us and the rest of the world is achieving maximum production and continued prosperity. The loss of a huge, potential market for goods is a direct result of the economic discrimination which is practiced against many of our minority groups. A sort of vicious circle is produced. Discrimination depresses the wages and income of minority groups. As a result, their purchasing power is curtailed and markets are reduced. Reduced markets result in reduced production. This cuts down employment, which of course means lower wages and still fewer job opportunities. Rising fear, prejudice, and insecurity aggravate the very discrimination in employment which sets the vicious circle in motion.
Minority groups are not the sole victims of this economic waste; its impact is inevitably felt by the entire population.
Eric Johnston”
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/civilrights/s

rights4.htm#139
These explanations of how segregation impacted the US economy apply equally to how resource drain from Developing (fka Third World) economies impacts the world economy. This is the chief ECONOMIC reason that we need Fair Trade and equal exchange laws. All the world suffers when part of the world is denied equality, via policy or path dependent history, as the case may be, we urgently need to cooperate and share with the entire world our technologies and our resources because unless we do so, we are all limited.
Shira
Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
23 February, 12016 HE

review/revista: Historia de La Esclavitud Negra En Puerto Rico

Historia de La Esclavitud Negra En Puerto RicoHistoria de La Esclavitud Negra En Puerto Rico by Luis M. Soler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This extensive and not easy to read, but well worthwhile history of slavery in Puerto Rico, shows the importance not only of where we have been, but also what tools we have now and how to evaluate them in the light of past and present situations. The author comments that a Cooperative could have saved the small coffee producers of Puerto Rico, though not on whether that would have enabled the liberation of their enslaved workers. Yet this is a step forward in the analysis of both labour relations and the history of People of Color in the Americas.

I now also know that the family of my enslaved 5xGreat Grandfather Miles Manzilla could even have originated in Spain itself, potentially. Our shared origins are important to know, both for understanding why enslaved workers would have defended their masters during Indian attacks, and also in deciding how to relate to our history of enslavement today. What feelings remain to be resolved on all sides?

P. 15 del pdf = P. 21 del libro
La Corona y los esclavagistas se creaban liberales y generosos, evidentemente, pero sus

esclavos no compartieron ese sentimiento!
The Crown and owners thought themselves generous, but their slaves disagreed!

P. 25=32: Ya sabîa Bartolomé de Las Casas pero no de Fray Antonio de Montesinos a favor de los

indigenes.
Dominicans vs Franciscans ??

P.33 Las Ordenanzas No Fueron Cumplidas… (The Orders of the King to protect the

Indigenous/Indian/Native Population Not Obeyed…)

but “Como si los indios fuesen africanos!” -Nice, Thanks. Now I know which part of my blood

sits higher…

P.33=P.40: At least he admitted his error before he died; Al menos se admetîa su error antes

de su muerte.

Updates online… (Courtney, Richard H., Ruth A., Michelle, Thomas and Mel will certainly like

this book, and Akshat Liked an early update…)

P.77pdf=P.86 del documento: The author thinks that a Cooperative would have saved small

producers in PR from the falling coffee prices (due to Cuban overproduction)…

P.109pdf=P.119 book: Pardos must be like me: morenos claros ?

P. 111pdf=P.119 book: Alot of English testimony from ship captains: 14 British citizens sold

into slavery by contrabandists, apparently never freed (though 7 were identified!!).

P. 126 So France had a Black Code, too? Of course, where did the southern colonies/states

(USA) get them from…

3 November, 1839: Pope Gregory XVI condemned the Slave Trade? and Baltimore, and Maryland…

In summary, there was not only lots of Mestisage, but a good bit of back-and-forthing of slaves between PR and the English and French-speaking colonies. Thus, entirely possible that Miles Manzilla, Sr’s family was of Spanish colony origin.

Read, Write, Run, Teach !

ShiraDest
18 February, 12016 HE

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