Promoting MT2 Event at Math for America
What a wonderful opportunity you have this weekend. Proposals for the MT2 event are not due until Monday, September 19th. The topic this year is The State of STEMocracy: What is fair and balanced in our classrooms? We have quite a few applications already from all strands of the STEM pedagogy and I’d like to encourage more of you to take that risk and submit a proposal even if you do not have a fully realized idea yet. The MFA team will help you develop, organize and rehearse your idea if accepted. This year should be extra exciting as we will be following the developments in the presidential elections in between our speakers. Click the link below to see how easy it is to submit a proposal.
Aquaponics at TEDx!
Click the link below to get the official TEDx talk…right from their awesome site!
The House That is White
So, I dropped by the East Wing…
Below is the wonderful letter that nominated me. I am truly humbled and feel fortunate to have gone. I realize that the school I teach at and the staff I teach with is a huge part of what got me the invite…
From: Hoover, JoLisa [mailto:JoLisa.Hoover@ed.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 1:11 PM
To: Rooney, Sarah <SRooney@mathforamerica.org>
Subject: Thank you teachers
Dear ,
As part of Teacher Appreciation Week, the US Department of Education asked for nominations of amazing educators across the United States. You were one of the educators nominated as a person who is influencing lives in your classroom and beyond. On behalf of the Department, we want to thank you for your service and commend you for your excellence. While Teacher Appreciation Week may be over, our nation’s appreciation towards teachers should not be confined to one week and we want to take this time to say thank you. In your anonymous nomination, we asked why you are an excellent educator and received this response:
Michael Paoli is being nominated to attend the US Department of Education teacher celebration event because of his innovative teaching practices and ways that he connects with his students. With over 16 years of teaching experience, Michael promotes exploration and discussion in his classroom. He received a Fund for Teachers grant this past summer, where he traveled to France and the UK to investigate aquaculture. Most notably, he designed and constructed a self-sustaining aquaponics system with his 7th and 8th grade math and science students, where they debated the ethics behind eating the fish they raised in tanks in class. Due to this work, Michael arranged to have his students (and himself) present a TEDx talk about aquaponics, which is an extremely exciting opportunity. In addition to his excellence in the classroom, Michael is an MƒA Master Teacher and participates in the MƒA community through attending MƒA courses, ranging in topic from non-routine problem solving to viewing microscopic creatures aboard the BioBus, to keep learning and growing in his career. Michael received his B.Sc from the University of Toronto, B.Ed. from Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, and M.Ed. from Hunter College.
I want to thank you for being a dedicated educator and also invite you to read the letter below from Secretary King thanking teachers. If you are part of our listserve, you most likely received this letter but if you aren’t part of our listserve, we would love to have you join by signing up here: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/subscriber/new?topic_id=USED_34
This week, our nation recognizes and honors teachers across the country for their tireless efforts on behalf of our students, everywhere from small towns and suburbs, to rural communities and Tribal lands, to big cities. Teachers have one of the most challenging and fulfilling jobs — literally shaping and changing lives.
If you are a teacher, or if you know one, you know the long hours and hard work that go into designing challenging lessons, guiding students and providing feedback, engaging with parents and families, collaborating with colleagues, reflecting on instruction, and staying abreast of research.
But much of the work you do also is about the intangible — it’s about fostering that almost indescribable, and yet unmistakable, spark between you and your students. It’s there when you see the potential in every student who walks through your door, even when he may not yet recognize his own gifts.
For me, the importance of teachers is personal. My own teachers saved my life providing me with the love, support, safety, and skills that laid the foundation for the many opportunities I’ve been fortunate to have throughout my career in education.
Teaching is truly the profession that launches every career. Thank you for sharing with your students your passion for world languages, music, literature, math, science, theater, history, and myriad other subjects. Thank you for empowering our youth and for furthering social justice by never being satisfied until every child has access to an excellent education.
We understand that teacher voice is a crucial part of conversations that impact your classroom and your profession, and we are committed to ensuring you are supported so you can do your best work on behalf of our children every day.
Today and every day, we celebrate and thank you for the vital role that you play in supporting students and strengthening the future of our nation.
With immense gratitude,
John B. King, Jr.
Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
TEDx Talk
We were invited to speak at the TEDx Navesink Conference on April 9th, 2016. To rent a bus to the event, the students raised huge amounts of cash from a bake-sale that put Starbucks and Au Bon Pain out of business.
Afterwards at lunch, we had a discussion with some of the attendees. Some things that I found interesting….
Our kids were bright and charming…however, I felt that the kids that were all too eager to euthanize the fish were the most prominent and were rewarded with laughter because of their ‘witty’ responses. It seemed that the students that were more sensitive to the welfare of the fish would have the unpopular ‘un-fun’ view. Do you know what I mean? There was some posturing with the idea that ‘to kill was cool’.
Also, one of the students mentioned that animals are on this earth for us to eat, that was their purpose. He said, we are doing animals and the planet a favor by eating them, otherwise, they would overpopulate the planet, especially the cows as they have an added ‘bonus’ of creating a huge amounts of methane. I am slightly perplexed about this as we learned last year that the large number of cows and methane on the planet is because humans have caused them to reproduce at an unnatural rate.
When we get back to class, I’ll have them do some writing then have a discussion to get a better idea of what everyone thinks and make sure all voices are heard.
Also, here is my dad…
Here is the TEDx writeup!
http://tedxnavesink.com/?s=paoli
The Ella Baker School at TEDx!!!
Better believe I’m bringing the class on stage with me to speak. We’ll then have a Socratic Circle discussion with the audience at lunch. Wheeeeeeeeeee!
http://tedxnavesink.com/project/michael-paoli/
The Socratic Circle
For the past three years, my math/science class has been using The Socratic Circle as a means to create an atmosphere where the discussion is focused among the students, allowing them to develop their own ideas as well as challenge others. We have used it specifically during our aquaponics unit throughout the year and most recently, where we discuss whether or not to eat the live fish in our system…It has led to some heated debates and allowed the students to really guide the classwork and unit. You will see some of our Socratic Circles on our YouTube channel (below) and in the Wall Street Journal, FOX and CBS coverage in pasts posts of our blog
1)
2) Here is a more mathy one.
3) I have personalized the Socratic Circle and will be giving a workshop on it at Math for America in the Fall.
Here is the blurb…
The Socratic Circle
Early adolescence is the time when children start to develop more meaningful relationships with their peers, rather than their parents/guardians. They develop these relationships usually through conversation (and probably Facebook but let’s ignore that for now). Teachers can capitalize on this need that students have to connect, by directing their conversation to academic inquiry. The Socratic Circle is a means to allow students to develop thoughtful conversation of an academic idea as well as create meaningful relationships with each other. It is a format where a scholarly discussion of an essential question takes place in which student opinions are shared, proven, refuted, and refined through dialogue with other students.
The Luncheon
We came, we saw, we ate.
…deal with it.
Thanks to Captain Planet for the Eco Tech Grant!
This is a poem written by a Aidan in a grade 4/5 classroom.
Here is the transcription…
The Class FIsh
Why do I
Still exist here while
people laugh at
me as I try
to find my oldest
son and eat him
while swimming in a
wasteland of
gravel plastic coral
and a little light house
whose purpose is unknown
while looking in
grimy tubes for
my long lost memory
but people bang on
the glass cage
of unremitting captivity
as I live my accursed
life as a pet fish.
————————————-
Some of the kids expressed this view…
Aquaponics from Europe to Kids in NYC Baby... 