“Real World” Math February 12, 2008
Challenge Teachers have limited time but are still looking for ways to enhance classroom lessons Opportunity for “bell ringer” activities Loosely aligned with curriculum Edutainment Students want to be inspired Want to know “how am I ever going to use this stuff?” Enjoy creating/sharing videos, viewing peer videos (YouTube)
Opportunity Provide teachers with a program to channel student’s interests in video to create content that teachers can use to enhance the math classroom An Arkansas school district and TI invite that districts HS math teachers to challenge each of their math classes to create a short video (up to 3 minutes) showing how a math concept is relevant in the real world or everyday life Videos posted on TeacherTube, a monitored, free Web site that caters to teachers and features classroom-appropriate educational videos Winning videos selected by a combination of student online voting and a panel of judges comprised of HISD, local and trade media representatives Winning class receives classroom math technology makeover from TI. All participating classrooms will receive t-shirts. All participating teachers will receive a DVD with a sample of the videos submitted All videos will be available for teachers to download from TeacherTube and incorporate into ongoing classroom instruction Program and winners will be promoted heavily by TI through trade and local media
Factors for success Visible district support for program, and ability to promote it to all district high schools Ability for teachers to access TeacherTube from classrooms Representation on judging panel Use of the school districts logo for promotional materials Involvement of PR dept. to align external communications and approve materials involving the district and help facilitate administrator, teacher and student participation in media interviews
More Details Timeframe: Video Entry Criteria: Judging: Launch/Call for Entries – Late Feb. – Early March Submission Deadline – Mid April Winners Announced – Late April Prizes Awarded – Early – Mid May Video Entry Criteria: Creatively show how a math concept taught during the year relates to the real world or everyday life Not exceed three minutes in length Open to high school math classes only (grades 9-12) Be submitted by an district high school math teacher on behalf of his/her classes. One teacher can submit a separate video for each official class s/he teaches Be tagged with search terms that correspond to video’s math topic Should not feature any brands/products competitive to TI TI and TeacherTube reserve the right to remove any videos that don’t follow submission criteria or are deemed inappropriate Upon posting video to TeacherTube as part of this program, all rights to video are relinquished Judging: Finalists determined by total number of online votes (each individual/computer allowed one vote) One grand prize winner and first and second place runners-up selected by panel of judges represented by district, local/trade media and/or business community
Potential benefits for district Positive exposure on national and local levels, including media, online and trade shows Encourages student participation, innovation and thought against applications of math in everyday life Provides teachers with relevant content to supplement classroom teaching, developed by students, for students Uses a medium that is extremely popular with today’s students, but provides a controlled and safe environment Provides the opportunity to be regarded as a trend-setting district incorporating cutting-edge educational resources for math learning