B Unison

Twitter reluctant

[Wildcat Musical @dahs_musical]

Find all of the audition materials on the google classroom

[Steve Martin @UnrealBluegrass]

Our country cherishes the Carters.
By doing so we hope to attain their good hearted life goals or at least recognize them a bit in ourselves.
Concurrently we have to struggle to defeat their absolute antithesis in a relentless authoritarian nationalist presence.
One that embraces violent actions and speech encouraging same.
How can we draw the intersection in this Venn diagram?
I don't think the circles overlap or even touch.
How did we get here?
How do we get out?
We the sovereign absolutely must step forward and make a powerful statement.
We should be the Carters not this loud droning threat to America.
We have to.
We owe it to ourselves and so many others.
Which will you be?

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@MattRKay Way to go! Any tips? I've been trying, especially since reopening after COVID, but just can't seem to keep up.

[Dr. John Spencer @spencerideas]

In baseball, there's an entirely useless statistic called Runs Batted In (RBI). When I was a kid, we would often hear about the RBI leaders and I immediately noticed two trends in RBI leaders.

1. They nearly all played for teams with a really good offense.
2. They nearly all hit at the 4th or 5th spot in the line-up.

I was a nerdy little kid who didn't know anything but I knew this was a bogus statistic.

See, RBI measures how many runners a batter knocks in. Sounds important, right? Definitely something worth measuring. But it turns out that it's highly skewed. Not every batter is in the position to knock in a run. If you are the lead-off hitter (batting #1 in the line-up) you often bat with no runners on. Also, if you're on a crappy team, you run into the same challenge.

So it turns out that RBI count doesn't really tell you how well someone hits for power. For that, you need a stat called slugging percentage. If you want to see how consistent a batter is, go with on-base percentage. If you're looking for balance, go with OPS (on-based plus slugging percentage).

In pitching the equivalent is a win-loss record or an ERA compared to WHIP. Total wins is a metric based on a team's overall performance.

But the things is, our world is full of seriously flawed statistics. BMI is useless compared to measuring one's actual vitals. Plus, BMI has a really negative history connected to eugenics. Go look it up. It's disgusting. And even today, it's often weaponized against perfectly healthy people when they don't fit the stereotype of "average" that doesn't actually exist. I run 5 days a week. I eat healthy food. My body fat percentage is low to moderate but based on BMI I'm obese.

I share all of this because the same thing exists in education. When we use standardized test scores to measure a student's learning (or worse, still, a teacher's effectiveness) we're often running into the same trap as the RBI. We're measuring privilege and positionality while ignoring the data that actually matters. We're running into the BMI trap and failing to embrace neurodiversity. And, like BMI, there's a dark side of psychometric history rooted in eugenics.

I'm not opposed to data. I love data. But my love for data is precisely why I hate bad data. My love for data is precisely why I am so opposed to nearly every policy that uses standardized tests to measure learning.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@heymrsbond Oh yes, for years. We had special sensors installed in all the bathrooms, and it seems to have slowed a bit since more and more kids have been suspended.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@michaelharriot It's the second one the community who named it were able to afford.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@stephaniempaz Something.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@ModestTeacher

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@MattRKay No worries. Now you're planned for the week. 😄

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@MattRKay There's a good poetry writing prompt, right there!

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@howie_hua I see (and hear) the numbers and words on an imaginary whiteboard do this:
"10% of 75 is 7.5, so 40% is that x 4, and 7x4 = 28 plus .5x4 = 2, so the answer is 30."
I probably also say it all out loud without noticing.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@MattRKay Yeah, the older I get, the less I say, the fewer problems I have with kids.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@MattRKay @itscigazze I honestly have no problem giong back to handwritten papers, either. There's no real reason the kids can't use a pen for some types of assignments.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@ToCo25 @MattRKay I'm fairly certain Takis are laced. My 13yo daughter is straight-up addicted.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@MattRKay Thank you! I had no idea this exists.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@EduCelebrity In my school, the younger teachers are not. They leave at the end of the contractual day with the pending retirees. It the teachers with around 20 years in still staying for all the extras we were conditioned to expect and accept.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@TimothyPShea Screencast-o-matic paired with Edpuzzle is still incredibly useful, as we continue to experience high absenteeism due to various illnesses & other reasons. I can record mini-lessons then embed formative assessment they can complete at home.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@defnot3owls Yep. Normal, but probably moreso when more people lived closer to farm life, even if just tangentially.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@lara_d_writer I have, and it became part of the fabric of my adolescence.

[B Unison @b_tickertweets]

@ObsessedOtterly Yes