Mission - Gotta Believe It Is - Possible (and it is)....

Heard an interesting stat at the WTI conference last month - children of families that make more than $108,000 per year, graduate college  by 24 years old (6 years post HS) at a rate of approximately 75%.  When the income range changes to between $34,000 to $108,000, the graduation rate drops to about 25% - and just because that was not terrifying enough - when income is less than $34,000 the percent that graduate college by 24 years old is less than 10%.

There is the challenge.  And that feels daunting when you look at those percentages -- those college graduation rates are what our current system produces.  And that stat is why we simply cannot teach like we always have - our results have not been great.  Doing the same thing and expecting different results...... well we know what that is, insanity.  How we introduce students topics, how we expect them to process and understand must be changed.  We must recognize that the current system is not helping all students, and it was not designed to do so.  The system was designed to sort.

We must not sort, time that is needed and grades must be done differently.  Giving a student an F or B does not make him/her ready for their post HS life.  Grades cannot be the final measure of a student in a class room.  Their success after our walls should be, and that is why differentiation is key.

So when a school is over half free and reduced lunch your challenge is there.  I strive to make sure that my students can successfully complete their first semester of secondary math beyond HS - whether that is a technical college, a 4 year-college Algebra course or a Calculus depending on the courses the student have taken with me at my school.  And that is not easy; I continually push myself and my students to make sure they are all ready, even my D students.  For all of them are moving to careers (some thru college, some not) - and I accept that it is my job to make sure they can do math for their next step.

If students are not pushed, are not given upper level work there will be no belief they can handle secondary education.  And I think belief is what is really missing below $108,000 income level.  We must stop sorting and start setting up students for post-HS success.

Getting a little help to make change!

I am excited that the Morgridge Family Foundation awarded a matching grant to my school to purchase and use 10 chromebooks in my classroom.  My school backed the plan finding funds to match the grant.  It started with Khan Academy sending an email about this grant as a way to use Khan more (more devices);  really what this has done is get my mind running about how I would divide up the time in my math room.  How I could differentiate more, I could use technology in place of pencil and paper practice.

My plan is to split the classroom into time sections and groups using Khan as a practice device - using the mastery challenges and target practice sections to help with skills.  This will be a way to target instruction to groups more, it will allow to review a concept and then have the targeted practice where the student has to be correct.  (The problem with worksheets is that students can learn incorrectly.)

This grant seems timely because I had made some leaps in my desire to use technology more efficiently - but had not done much differently in the past couple of months.   This grant will allow me to try some things as the year winds down, try somethings and see if we can make how I am reaching students more effective.  (Also - I push curriculum hard Sep - April, because my phrase is what I teach in May goes away.)

So thanks to Morgridge Family!