Jovan D. Miles's Blog (7)

Self Contained Middle School Math Standards and Frameworks - GPS

In a lot of ways, Georgia, and Atlanta Public Schools in particular are always early to the party. This school system is always willing to adopt new reforms ahead of many other school systems, particularly those in metro Atlanta. One of the most significant reforms that APS has adopted over recent years is the push for special needs students to be included in the regular education program whenever possible. SEBD and EBD students in particular have benefit from this push. This is…

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Added by Jovan D. Miles on March 26, 2011 at 4:42pm — 1 Comment

Getting the most from your textbooks

http://jovanmiles.net/2009/12/05/making-the-most-out-of-your-textbooks

I was a bit harsh on textbooks in my last post. In a perfect world all teachers would be creators of the content that they use in their classrooms. This isn’t a perfect world. Modern classroom teachers are often responsible for so many other things these days that writing the content to be used in your class is impossible. Time… Continue

Added by Jovan D. Miles on December 5, 2009 at 5:02am — No Comments

teachers > textbooks

The structure of the typical middle grades math textbook follows this basic outline:

1. Vocabulary review

2. Brief explanation of concept.

3. 2-5 very specific examples of the concept in isolation.

4. 1-2 very specific examples of the concept in a problem solving situation.

5. 20-50 problems that mirror the examples.

The problem with this structure is that if teachers simply "taught the text(test)" students would have almost no… Continue

Added by Jovan D. Miles on December 3, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Is online education really an improvement over face to face ?

I've been visiting a variety of sites throughout the ed-tech blogosphere that tout the benefits of online classes and the necessity for students to experience asynchronous learning environments before they leave high school...and I get it...educators need to push the use of online and collaborative environments for students.

But I often wonder, are these experiences any more enriching than traditional face to face classes or are we all simply caught up in the novelty of using the… Continue

Added by Jovan D. Miles on March 10, 2009 at 2:40pm — 4 Comments

Moodle and Me

I’ve decided to quit yammering on and put my money where my mouth is.

I’m preparing an installation of Moodle to use in my classes next year. My preliminary plan is to use the Moodle install to differentiate instruction and to allow students to choose what and when they want to learn something in mathematics.

I’ve tried to use Moodle before and I just found the package to be too large…and too difficult to play with as… Continue

Added by Jovan D. Miles on March 5, 2009 at 12:26pm — 3 Comments

Teacher centered tech vs student centered tech

My recent educational/philosophical leanings are toward a more student centered/student empowered classroom experience in the k12 environment where the teacher serves as a formal teacher of background knowledge but where students do the majority of the work, and therefore, do the majority of the learning.

Freire’s conscientizacao construct and ed tech can go hand in hand if ed tech is implemented in a student centered manner. In many schools technology purchases are usually teacher… Continue

Added by Jovan D. Miles on March 1, 2009 at 10:31am — 3 Comments

Math GPS sequencing is wonky

I am not, nor have I ever been a fan of the way the GPS was implemented. However, I have larger qualms with the sequencing of the topics in the middle grade mathematics curriculum.

The math curriculum was rolled out in middle school and because of this the 6th grade mathematics curriculum has, at last count, 11 units. I was told that this was done to bridge the massive gap that exists between elementary school and middle school....but I digress.

I understand the need to… Continue

Added by Jovan D. Miles on February 21, 2009 at 4:47pm — 1 Comment