Future Jobs: Designing Robots to Eliminate Jobs

Here's an interesting story in this morning's Washington Post. I think the best jobs for the future, for high-school students, are to become the person who designs the robots that eliminate the jobs of other workers. Here's a link to the Post story.

Be the designer that designs people out of jobs.

Friday Wrapup

Whew!! What a day! We got a lot done in our Computer Lab classes, and in today's Statistics class; blogging about the latest tablets (via a set of CNET reviews) and we read, thought and blogged about an article that appeared in today's Washington Post (front page, below the fold) about the changing demographics of D.C., and of many other metro areas around the country.

Techno Troubles

I'm trying to synchronize my smartphone with my various Google accounts and.  . . . As I write this, I think the answer has popped into my head.

I think my smartphone isn't smart enough to know what I just did on my laptop, even though both devices are sitting here on the same kitchen table

;-)

I guess I'd better tell my phone what I did, so it can properly post my mobile blogs.

I'm back!!

It's 2012 and a lot has happened since I debuted this blog. I am now well on the way to developing an electronic classroom. I started using TI nSpire calculators, with wireless communication capabilities at the start of the 2011-2012 school year. That has proved to be a tremendous help for my students. In addition, during the second half of this school year, I began using both Temple University's Calculus on the Web and the Khan Academy's Websites to help my students with their math.

It has been an eye-opener.

The biggest point: Giving students direct feedback on their work is one of the best motivators--especially if they can see a way to improve their performance and their knowledge. I think that's the real key: Give students a clear path for improving their math skills and, most likely, they'll put in the effort.

Some of my students are competitive and the Khan Academy's "energy point" setup is conducive to competition; students can rack up tens-of-thousands, even hundreds-of-thousands of points by cranking through the practice exercises.

But I created a couple of important "benchmarks" that are better measures than raw, total point scores. One of the most-important of these: Points per minute.

Oh, yeah. Calculus on the Web

Temple University has a fantastic instructional Website devoted to helping students learn as much as possible about math---everything from Algebra to advanced Calculus. I hope to incorporate "Calculus on the Web" into my Summer School and Fall teaching.

Will it work?

Stay tuned. . .

Summer School, Pre-Calc and Calculus on the Web

My first full year as a math teacher is over. Wow! What an experience. I never experienced as much consistent, unrelenting pressure when I was a journalist. So, I can say from experience that teachers are among the hardest working "knowledge workers" there are.

Of course, this kind of hard work doesn't compare to the real-world hard work of manual labor. As a friend of mine once said: "Hard work? Being a reporter isn't hard work. Working in a mine, now that's hard work."

He was right, of course, but as far as the knowledge industry goes, teachers work very hard for their meager pay.

Still, I wouldn't have it any other way. I really love what I'm doing and I think my decades in the journalism biz (and all those relentless deadlines) helped prepare me for my life as a teacher.

So, bring on the pressure. Turn it up! I'm ready to keep up the pace.

My latest Web adventure. . .

. . . Is my Web page at my high school, McKinley Tech. I've posted a number of videos there, mainly for my Algebra II students, but I'm expanding those offerings.

Check out "Mr. Sanders's Teaching Page" at the McKinley Tech Web page to see what I mean.

Point your browser to:

http://www.mckinleytech.org

Then, under the "Teaching and Learning" menu, you'll find my page, "Mr. Sanders's Teaching Page."

See you there!