TED Community » Jacob Manning

More About Me

I'm passionate about

I am passionate about educating children, art, creative and innovative people and ideas, and anything that is designed/built/thought of/ practiced/etc... that improves the world we live in.

An idea worth spreading

Public schools offer 1 curricular track in Math. This track is the academic track. The summit of this track is Trig/Calc. Most students are not going to use these concepts in any regular, meaninful way in there adult life. Students therefore see no realworld application for what they are learning, and as a result we see student apathy, a dislike of mathmatics, and poor student performance. I believe if we are going to teach 1 track, it should be the vocational track. This track has the same arithmetic foundation and some of the same lower level algebra benchmarks, but this curriculum replaces higher level algebra, trig, and calc w/ data analysis, stats, probability, and predicting outcomes. These concepts have realworld application, are skills employers want, and will slowly change howfuture students feel about math. We don't change because of perceived rigor, and there is a need for some students to take these academic math classes, but we shouldn't teach the masses in this way.

Talk to me about

education, art, design, ideas and innovations, leadership, influence, technology, helping humanity, happiness, the creative process, and any other thing you wish to.

People don't know that I'm good at

ping pong, juggling, playing cards, coaching sports, home improvement, math, tetris, 1st person shooters, making funny photoshop pictures.

Comments

• TEDCred score: 0.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: How do we lessen the gap between the rich and the poor?

  May 2 2012: Ruby Payne wrote a book called A Framework for Understanding Poverty. It discussed the 2 different types of poverty (situational and generational) and provides tons of research she did on the subject. The book is rooted in education, but has appeal to others as well. I would recommend checking it out!

• A reply on Conversation: Teachers: How would you/ would you speak about your past mistakes and failures to your students?

  May 2 2012: Well said!

• A comment on Conversation: Teachers: How would you/ would you speak about your past mistakes and failures to your students?

  May 2 2012: I think most students understand that it is okay to make mistakes, and as an art teacher it is easy to identify the few students that are perectionists/affaid of making mistakes. These students can be encouraged on an individual basis. They are the students that are asking for help every step of the way, work slowly, are easily frustrated, constantly erase and rework their work, etc.... For example, this year I had a high school student cry because they were so frustrated with their work. I approached the student, and had her use the restroom to compose herself. When she returned, I offered some help and suggestions. She is a talented girl, but I know she really struggles with making mistakes (not sure if the pressure is intrinsic or extrisic). I shared that I have mistakes/flaws in every piece of art I have ever made, that her friends make mistakes as well. I also recognized that doesn't make mistakes any easier to except. Mistakes are unavoidable and what matters is not making mistakes, but how we respond when a mistake has been made. After her mini-meltdown she has been better. She has not let mistakes bother her so much. Although she has told me that she has got emotional about making mistakes outside of art class.