Panthers

In order to help me keep my resolution to be educationally bold next year, I’m forming what might more professionally be called a professional learning committee (but which might also be considered my personal support group).  It’s a group of at least somewhat like-minded people who will help me think about innovative approaches to things in the innovative classroom.

Almost everyone seems to believe that a good gimmick (alliteration is a favorite, for some reason) or cool acronym is necessary for the success of any new educational initiative. Who am I to disparage the wisdom of the masses?   So, my group has a cool name (the Panthers), a cool visual (see above–very necessary in the 21st century, I”m told), and a cool acronym:

C A T

Creative                                  Analytic                               Technical

Students are expected to show competence in all three areas and mastery of one.  (Definitions of “competence” and “mastery” to be defined later and will vary by grade level and course.)

But here are some examples:

Literature–In the study of Hamlet

Creative    Writing a strong opening scene for a production to appeal to 21^st-century teenagers.

Analytic  Writing an analytic paper on the way in which Hamlet is a Hegelian tragic hero.

Technical  Taking someone else’s paper and editing it to be technically flawless.

Math–In the study of Geometry

Creative    Making a user-controllable demo in Mathematica, Geometer’s Sketchpad, or Java for an important concept..

Analytic  Writing a Wikipedia-type article that explains, with diagrams or animations, an important concept or theorem.

Technical  Taking a proof or sketch of a proof and editing it to be technically flawless, with appropriate annotations.

 Science–In the study of Chemistry

Creative    Devising a new demo to show an important concept or an experiment to test a falsifiable hypothesis.

Analytic  Writing a literature-search-type article that explains, with diagrams or animations, the current state of thinking on a chemistry topic (possibly an educational or chemistry-teaching one) including important previous work that leads to the “state of the topic” today.

Technical  Performing a demonstration or set of laboratory procedures until they can be done quickly and as close to technically perfectly as feasible.