Dear Diaries,
Yesterday, I had one of the best geometry classes of my teaching career. I have taught Geometry about 20-25 times since 1973 and so I do have a basis for comparison and am not being hyperbolic. By putting ONE ibook on each table for TWO kids and getting them to work together, the teamwork and communication between them is wonderful. This gives me a few extra IBooks on the side so that kids can just swap when something is wrong with the ibook without me having to trouble-shoot. The projector allows me to highlight a geometry problem. The rhythms of "rule of fist" or "bring it on down" or "hands in the air" or "swap control of the computer" have become staples and rituals in our class. The kids send their sketchpad solutions to me via NoblesNet and I project directly from my IBook onto the big screen.
The specific problem involved the attached file graphic above. The problem came straight out of the textbook (Jurgensen, Brown, Jurgensen, page 46 #12) and involved drawing a straight line, drawing a random line segment and creating two supplementary angles. Students were asked to bisect the two supplementary angles and use sketchpad to make some observations. The solution above is from Molly V and Amy R, but most of the other 5 pairs of kids solved the problem as well. Although the math is not sophisticated, what was indeed wonderful yesterday was the engagement in doing math by all 11 of the students and the communication between them. Getting everything to work in 40 minutes is of course an incredible challenge (and at times nightmare), but when it works, the level of pedagogical satisfaction is immense. I previewed the lesson on the white board, put up a sample on the projector and then allowed them to work in groups of two. Every few minutes, I would shout "bring it on down" and get their attention on a key point on the projector on the front screen and they they would "bring it on up" and get back to work. It worked!
Milton Academy (as some of you know) has been using sketchpad in their geometry classes for several years now, but they have evolved (I think) just for their honors kids. Doug Guy and I visited Hal Pratt and Ed Villavicencio last May. We started a sketchpad listserv and we will probably update the listserv soon. The two of them (Ed and Hal) were incredibly generous in letting us sit in their classes. Doug and I hope to connect with Hal and Ed this fall, but have not yet done so yet. Crazy, hectic month. So far, we are convinced that sketchpad for non-honors students is working quite well. Within a few weeks, the kids will have their home version sketchpad CDs and be able to do stuff at home. So far, the sketchpad stuff has been "inch by inch" starting first with teacher projector usage only and now (as we hit chapter two) getting kids hands-on. I believe that is another valuable pedagogical theme in trying to make this software work for everyone (not just honors kids). There are no kids who feel alienated from the software because they have seen it over and over again in the teacher's hands in September and are NOT being asked to do anything one on one, so they have a partner to lean on at all times. And when occasionally I ask them to do something one on one (like passing a few ibooks around while reading homework answer aloud and having them create the SURFER challenge on the screen), they have a built-in partner to lean on next to them.