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Lately I have been wondering about how much state testing costs us.  There are a lot of costs involved in standardized testing.  In addition to the cost of administering, grading, and recording the test, there are other less tangible costs such as the impact on learning.  Curious, I sent out a tweet asking if anyone had info on how much testing cost (I was coming up empty in a Google search).  A few of my PLN sent me a link to Stateline.org where I found this: I knew the numbers would be high, but this is shocking. All of that money per state for testing.  I started wondering what else that money could have been used for and sent out another tweet, this time asking what one thing teachers would want in their classrooms if money was no object.  The info graphic above holds the results. The info graphic is based on the following numbers (links to data sources): iPod Touch 4 $229 iPad $499 Average cost of children’s books $21 Soccer ball $10 64 Count Box of Crayola Crayons $5 Exercise ball (to use as chair replacements) $20 Price/square foot for school addition $222 Paraprofessional Salary/year $26,000 Violin $340 I don’t know about you, but every one of those items above feels like a better use of money. Image links: Pencils, Exercise ball, iPod Touch 4, iPad, Soccer Ball, Crayons, Violin Price: $Looks like you have entered a product ID in the shortcode that doesn't exist. Please check your product ID and the shortcode again!

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Brown Sharpie: Mathematical Cartoons Inspired by Sharpie Fumes

Posted by admin | Posted in Analyze, Blogs, Create, Math, Middle/High School, Secondary Elementary, Teacher Resources, Understand (describe, explain), Websites | Posted on 21-07-2011

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What it is: Math geeks, eat your heart out…Brown Sharpie is for you!  I found Brown Sharpie by accident today as I was perusing the app store in iTunes.  Brown Sharpie is a collection of “mathematical cartoons inspired by sharpie fumes” drawn by Courtney Gibbons.  Gibbons is an aspiring mathematician and the cartoons were created as she completed her undergraduate and graduate degree.  Many of the cartoons reference higher math and may be too complex to use in the k-8 classroom.  There are a few here and there that could be used with younger students with a little explanation.  High school, college math students and math geeks are the main demographic for these cartoons. The cartoons are shared blog-style so you can search through them using the “next” and “previous” buttons or you can view by tags using the “view by…” word cloud in the right side bar.

             

How to integrate Brown Sharpie into the classroom: The Brown Sharpie cartoons would be a fun start to math class.  Put a cartoon up on a projector-connected computer each day for a little math humor to kick off class.  The cartoons will give you the opportunity to discuss current math topics as well as give an introduction to math concepts not yet touched on.

Why not hold your own Brown Sharpie day?  Give each student a brown fine-tipped sharpie to create their own math cartoons?  These can be shared on a class blog, website or wiki.  This will help your visual learners and artists think about math in a whole new way!  Students of any age can create a Brown Sharpie cartoon of their own!

In addition to the blog, Brown Sharpie is also a free app in the iTunes app store.

Tips: Some of the cartoons are PG-13 with alcohol or relationship references.  Best to preview the cartoon before displaying before your class. :)

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Brown Sharpie in  your classroom!

Comments (2)

cbanka said on 22-07-2011

Thanks for sharing this resource in addition to ideas for classroom use! I referenced you in my blog post :)

http://meaningfulmathematics.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/hello-my-name-is-mrs-b-and-im-a-math-nerd/
admin said on 22-07-2011

Thank you for passing it on!

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