On My Mind

There's been a running thread of thoughts peeking in and out of my mind all summer, and it seems that lots of things conspire to keep me thinking along the same lines. Or maybe since I'm already thinking of "it", then my devious mind is making connections to various experiences I have.

Start: early in the summer I got a call that a previous colleague had committed suicide in the past few days. Aside from being horrific and so sad, it started the thoughts in my brain. This person seemed fine. This person was a great teacher. This person had tons to contribute. This person seemed happy with life. The public face I saw of this person gave no indication of the turmoil that must have been going on inside.

Now this is not a post about suicide, but I guess more about how we perceive the experience of others' lives. I'm guessing you have interaction(s) with people, and you make a judgment about how you think their lives are going. Many times you think: wow, they have a great life, or how lucky are they, or look how much they have or have it together. I'm wondering what percentage of the time you are wrong, and maybe it's a much higher percentage than you would think.

Next: I don't have cable TV at home for various reasons: husband severely dislikes TV, I don't get home until late, if I had convenient TV, I could see myself sucking away a ton of time channel surfing and watching. Anyway, that's not to say I don't like TV. When I go away on trips where I happen to be alone, one of my treats is to channel surf away late into the night at my heart's desire. On my past trip I came across the MTV show, "If you really knew me". I guess it was episode 101 (from the pictures on the website). Here was another instance on the same theme running through my head. You may see these students daily and know their public persona but not the struggles they're going through.

Next: During the same trip I was reading, "Mrs. Perfect", and the main character looked as if she had a fabulous life, but ..... well you get the picture.

Next: Love math, but also love other non-math blogs and check them either daily, or frequently. On one such blog, I came across a link that AGAIN added to my pile of thoughts on this topic. From browsing her other posts, she's an author and teacher and I picture her as seeming to have a ton going for her. Then you scrape a little deeper and see that she's going through this gut-wrenching continuous heartache.

Finally: I've been to a workshop these past 2 days, and in the course of it got to meet 2 new educators to our school. The first day they seemed outwardly fine about the coming school year. Now I just have to say that my new-to-me-school-of-one-year is an intense school with high expectations of everyone. I only mention this because of what happened the 2nd day of the workshop. I don't know how the conversation got started the 2nd morning, but one of the teachers said, "after yesterday I went home and started panicking and doubting myself about being able to do a good job next year." The second new person heaved a relief sigh and echoed that she had the same thoughts. Now if they hadn't shared this, I'm guessing I'd have continued to see them in a certain light of "everything's fine and functioning as it should be" instead of "take extra care to make sure they're okay".

So while this is continually popping up in my thoughts when I was wandering around Philadelphia, I took time to look at people I passed. There was the usual person type of "I look smashing", "I have it together", "my life is great" mixed in with others. But I have to wonder and most likely, no, they could possibly be going through some painful events and they're just continuing to function.

What do I come away with for all this wondering? I guess more of an awareness and a thought to treat everyone as if they're a precious commodity and not make assumptions as to how excellent things may be going for them (which may lead to me not treating them so gently or making me question my life experience more). For various reasons life is hard many times in different ways for everyone, and though it may not solve everything, hugs and smiles and kind thoughts towards others may help.

Home Sweet Home

Phew. We're finally home after a marathon travel session. My husband's Canadian aunt and uncle were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (we should all be so lucky), and their children set up a surprise gathering for them. It was so nice to see all their friends and family showering them with love at the party. My husband and I don't have children, so that's one thing I'll miss as we get older - all the offspring and their families and so on all gathered together and being a big party. Of course, if it was my family, we'd probably all be at our separate corners stewing or fighting or not showing up for the party because of issues or dancing drunk on the table tops and embarrassing everyone.

I'm thinking that as the years pass, we have to get a phone chain of our other older, childless friends and call each other every morning, "are you still alive? okay. talk to you tomorrow." or something to that effect. Maybe we can get a commune going and have an on-site nurse.

Then I got to visit with a friend of 13 years (in Pennsylvania) who I haven't seen for 2. She was one of the 1st math teachers I taught with in New Jersey, and I always am thankful that I ended up (by a fluke) at that particular school to learn about teaching with that particular group of people. They're passionate, smart, nice, reflective and just plain old fun to be around.

Before visiting with her, I got to walk around Philadelphia for a day. Love It. Here are some cool things about Philly:

* They have solar compacting trash and recycling units scattered throughout the city.
* They have nice signs on several corners indicating where you are and what might be interesting to see in the area.
* It's uber walker friendly.
* Tons of history you just happen upon by walking.
* Many parks and trees sprinkled throughout that provide shade and places to chat.
* Gourmet groceries that also have a breakfast bar for travelers.

But it's nice to be home and get back into a routine (soon). Here's to gaining weight on vacations and now having to deal with it (did I mention all the frozen yogurt places I was FORCED to frequent in PA?). I guess I'm pretty active during the school year (running (okay jog walking, but running sounds better), yoga, dancing, weights, walking around all day during teaching). But the TRUE me is a couch potato happy to just sit around reading books and doing puzzles and movies and napping. Hello extra summer weight. I basically sat around either on planes or couches or cars the WHOLE trip. One guess as to the effect THAT had on me. Oh well, back to the weight loss drawing board.

Lucky Traveler

We just got back from Maui, and boy it was beautiful and relaxing. We stayed in a B&B in Haiku and rented a car from a local company and just decided each morning what to do. Lovely. We went to the beach a lot, hiked into the crater, tried paddle boarding, ate too much, and swam. Life's good.

One of the many beaches:


Post paddle boarding ... my shoulders are sore, waves are scary, it's not too bad falling in warm tropical water ... a lot:


A shop where my husband rented his windsurfing equipment:


Growing at our B&B:


Also at our B&B:

Friendly Reminder

I traveled recently to visit my dad near Lake Tahoe, and I flew Southwest (love them). I don't know if you've flown them lately (I haven't), but they have a great system of boarding. When you check in you're given a letter-number combination, and when it's "time" you stand in a particular place and follow orders to board in an orderly fashion and then get to pick your seat at that time.

Anyway, as I said, it was the first time I'd been through this, and I didn't know what was what and figured I'd wait for the directions from the Southwest employees over the loudspeaker. Obviously, there were no written directions. So here's basically what I heard, "We're ready to begin boarding, people with an A something something something do something and get ready to something and others please something something ....". You get the idea. I heard a bit and then by the time I finished processing it, the next part was already said and moved on, and then of course I couldn't THEN make sense of the following part. Sheesh. Reality check on teaching for me.

I know the kids say I talk too fast (sometimes?). In my mind everything's clear (like I'm sure it is to the Southwest employee who's said the same speech many times), so I'm probably on autopilot (ar ar ar). I guess I need to make myself a poster for next year to hang in the back of the room to remind myself to slow down or to write simultaneously or to give kids processing time more consciously. My sign will probably be: SOUTHWEST INCIDENT!

Yes I figured out what to do, but, no, I still got stuck behind the smelly lady I was trying to avoid.

Randomization

I modified my Excel Slope Quiz program. Now there are extra buttons, so the students can try any number of extra random problems to test their skills. I'm pretty sure it's bug free. And Again, if you want to try it, you have to "enable macros" when you open the Excel file. Thanks Mrs. H for the idea.

Programming Attempt

Well, I don't know if Excel will be the best tool for this, but I sure had fun making the following program. My vision is that eventually I can create several of these and put them on my class website for the kids to practice their skills. I know there are great practice tools on the web, and I do link to those. My thinking in creating this type of program is that the kids will see what I think is important for them to know.

Anyway, it looks like:



It's interactive and provides hints for the tester. When you open the Excel file, you have to enable the macros in order for it to work. Now I have to figure out how to create my Geometry Proof Excel "quizzes".

More Thoughts on Geometry Proofs

What does a math teacher think about on the plane while she's traveling to see her dad in another state? Teaching, of course. I'm still working out how I want to start teaching proofs in geometry this coming year, and I had 2 extra ideas that I haven't quite fleshed out yet.

One idea came from a news article I saw the other day. It was something to the effect of school officials allowing nurses to hand out condoms to elementary school kids. The original article JUST stated that they're going to start making them available for K-5, and if my memory serves me correctly, that was ALL the article stated. Well, of course, it sounds so ridiculous and my 1st thought is, "crazy! why?", etc. Then I had to step back and think, what could be the real story behind this, and I came up with a few possibilities.

I discussed it with my friends, and sure enough, a few days later the WHOLE story came out. The school district was making condoms available to any student of ANY grade that asked for them, and I'm guessing that in their minds they were mostly thinking about high school kids. Then maybe the newspaper people got the story and JUST reported that the condoms were now available to elementary kids.

Anyway. What does this have to do with geometry? Here's my thinking. One reason to teach proof in geometry is to get kids to think logically and to think of all (groups of) events or statements that can lead to other events/statements. In this way, they won't be "victims" of people trying to sell them one version of a situation. So I thought this story would be a perfect example of just such a situation.

Somehow I'll begin the proof unit discussing why we learn them and just show them the 1st news story. Then I'll have them get with a partner or in a group and think of what events may have lead up to this article or that may have justified such a move by the school board. Then show them the 2nd article. Then maybe I'll find a provocative picture (in the sense of it may look like something bad or good is happening at 1st glance), and then have them think of things that may lead to this picture (or result from the picture scenario). Anyway, like I said, it's not fleshed out yet, but I think this will be a good start.

My 2nd idea has to do with Excel programming. I don't know if I can pull it off, but it seems like you can do some cool stuff with Excel if you learn a bit of VBA programming, and I'd like to create some sort of interactive proof-filler-outer that will be a quiz for them. If it's easy, then I can pop out several and have them online for the kids to practice with. I'm guessing that's a big if.

Anyhow, vacation with dad is over, and now I have a glorious week to do mathy stuff ... before my next vacation trip. WooHoo! Maui here I come (me and my fish-white belly). I'm guessing I'll look like a pale white tourist, but guess what? That's because I AM a tourist. Maybe I'll just have to drink a lot to be okay with it :).

Meeting Potential Students Outside of School

I started taking Lindy Hop Lessons a couple of months ago because I saw some people doing it, and it looked SO fun. The nice thing about it is that you don't have to be a couple to take lessons, and even if you come in as a couple, you rotate partners frequently in class, so it's not an issue.

Since the "leaders" (guys) and the "followers" (girls) are learning the same steps at the same time, and so we all know what step we'll be doing next, it's hard for me as a follower sometimes to "listen" to the pressure of the hand of the leader to determine what to do next, since I know what we're "supposed" to do, so I just do it (did that make ANY sense)??? Anyway, as with everything, there are good leaders and not-yet-perfected leaders (just as I'm a so-so follower). So, I always like when I rotate to a couple of particular guys because they have that leader thing down. They've got the hand pressure and rotation, and so I know to turn or move back or forward or whatever.

Last class, I was with a great leader, and we were learning a new step where I had to "turn outside". He had to lead this by doing a certain thing with his hand, which I had heard from ANOTHER dance class described as, "just like you're drinking a beer", since he sort of starts with his hand held high up and then tilts it in the same direction as if he's drinking a beer. So I turned to my "great leader" guy and felt I had to share this with him, and after the teacher showed the move, I softly said, "ah, just like you're drinking a beer." My partner looked at me and whispered, "I'm 16." Awkward. I amended it to "milk" and then had the scary thought, oh! he could be my son ... or student ...

Spring (or Decade) Cleaning

I'm not the best of housekeepers, and that's an understatement. Sure, the dishes are done and laundry done and trash put away, but there is dusting and vacuuming and clutter cleanup that only seems to get done when company is coming over - which is about twice a year or so. Ew, put that way, I'm gross.

Anyway, since my inclination is to sit around all summer and just read (this or this or this) or nap or do puzzles, I thought I'd give the house a once over this once.

Tons of old books will be donated to the library, usable clothes to charity, and our own personal landfill of electronics to Goodwill. We've just gotten in this complacent state of clutter all over the house, and I guess we don't see it any more. But now that I've cleaned 3 rooms (so far) of excess and unnecessary things we don't even use anymore, it looks so peaceful and inviting instead of this underlying current of unease and discontentedness.

Whew! I should have people over to celebrate.

Adding & Sutracting Integers

I talked with a math teacher friend today about how she teaches adding and subtracting integers to her 7th graders. She mentioned the following type of method, and I decided to put it to pictures. I'm going to try it next year with my high school kids who STILL mix things up. Maybe this will do the trick.

What's My Grade??

Probably like most teachers/schools, our grades are weighted for the grading period. Last year it was 45% homework and 55% tests/quizzes. Students always seem in such wide-eyed wonder as to how various pieces affect their grades. I think they're under the total points worth mentality, and this doesn't always translate into good grades.

Also, during the 1st day of school, I always have them do some math activity to get them thinking while I'm doing all my administrative stuff (roll call, seating chart, ...). So, VOILA, I decided next year to combine my 2 tasks into one. I have a draft of the "calculate your grade" assignment that I will hand out to all my students on the 1st day. Any suggestions on additions or revisions? I kind of hate to leave it at 3 pages since then I have a blank back page. Ideas?

Homework...

I've been thinking more lately about how I "do" homework. I'm still in the camp that wants to assign a completion grade only, so that they don't get penalized for making mistakes while they're learning. I see how many problems they attempt, and how many they grade in class as per my instructions, and I give them a grade accordingly. I still like to provide some kind of answer bank, so that they get immediate feedback and are more apt to persevere through a problem if it's wrong. And yet, I still understand that for some kids, this completion grade leads to laziness and lack of an honest effort and potentially to not grasping topics.

I have a thought rumbling around in my head of something I may want to add to the grade. I want there to be an EXTRA question group on EVERY homework that MUST be answered in order to get full credit (any credit?). Here it is:

1. What is a problem you had most trouble with?

2. What specifically is wrong, examples:
* I don't know how to start
* I don't understand some words
* I get stuck at the point ______
* I'm messing up with my calculations somewhere
* I ______

3. Write out which of the following you did:
* I looked through the book and found extra examples
* I went to our online book to see if there was a tutorial on this problem
* I went on Ms. Cookie's website to see if she had links that may help
* I looked through my notes to see if we did something like this in class
* I called/texted/e-mailed a friend and got help
* I did ______ and it helped
* I did nothing and waited until the next day in class to ask questions

4. Describe what progress you made after you did this, examples of what could happen:
* I didn't do anything, so I made no progress
* I solved the problem
* I understood more about what part confused me
* I made progress in the problem but still did not solve it (describe progress)

Maybe I'll print this out on pretty paper and have them tape it in their composition books as a reference. In this way, it'll cause the kids to reflect nightly (or the period before-ly) on their homework. My lists will hopefully also serve the purpose of prompting them to find other sources to persevere before giving up. And giving a grade for this portion will maybe be the incentive to do the reflection.

Which brings me to my next change next year. I'm a recent CONVERT of composition notebooks. Before I just let the kids buy whatever 3-ring binder or spiral notebook or whatever they wanted. At my not-so-new school they had a tradition of requiring composition notebooks for other classes, and the kids would tape pictures to the front that represented whatever class it was for, and the teacher would put packing tape over the cover to preserve it. Now all the notes are in the book and not easily lost and if there were handouts, the kids taped them to the appropriate dated page. I didn't do it this year, but ... Love it! I believe I'll require them to get the graph papered composition notebook. Then POOF! instant graph paper on demand.

Geometry Proofs

As I still have momentum from the previous year, I thought I'd get some ideas down for next year. I believe I'm teaching 2 levels of geometry (in addition to the PLTW IED course). I know how hard it is for kids to get up to speed with the flow proofs we teach, so I thought I'd scaffold it more this year, and potentially start with the following idea:



After a few (2?) of these, I'd try to incorporate a math story; then take away the "skeleton" at the bottom of the page for another story (but keep the statements), so they had to create the flow. Then start taking away more and more and finally bringing it to just a geometry problem statement. I'll have to flesh it out more, but that's the seed of my idea.

I like the flow proof style instead of the 2-column proof because there is a visual connection between what follows from what. I also like teaching proofs because it's a challenge for the kids and stretches their brains. It's also the first time (only time?) they see what it means to actually prove something instead of just give a convincing argument.

How to make a nice graph for tests and such

Someone requested a tutorial for making a usable graph for your worksheets, so here it is. (okay, the person nicely agreed to a tutorial after I was pushy and suggested one). Here's the 3 page download of my instructions.

And here's what it looks like:

A Surprising Finals Question (Apparently)

I gave the following 2 sets of questions on my algebra 1 final (click on it to enlarge):



For 13 & 14, they were given a line and were to draw a parallel line going through (4,1) then give me the equation in point-slope form. For these 2 questions, people generally did fine.

For 15 & 16, I had the same original line drawn, and they were supposed to draw the perpendicular line through (4,1) and then give the equation in point-slope form. This is the set of problems they had problems with.

I thought I was giving them a gentle teacher nudge by having them draw the picture before they wrote the equation. The original slope is -2/3. Holy Moly. So many students thought NOTHING of the fact that the line they drew was NOT perpendicular looking. They INSISTED the slope of the perpendicular line had to be 2/3, and by Golly, that's the line they drew. 90 degrees? eh!

Note to self, when I teach algebra 1 again, I have to do more of this type of problem before we get to finals. I never did do the drawing thing in conjunction with just the "what's the slope/equation/etc of the perpendicular line to ..." type of question. Apparently, I should have.

On a positive note, I'll be teaching them geometry next year, so guess what we'll be "reviewing".

Surveying the Students

We're supposed to survey our students at the end of the year to get feedback on how class went. I've seen in the blogging world that others do this, and I've done it periodically in the past on my own. At school I asked if there was a standard document, and there wasn't so I made up the following and have since passed it out to 3 of my 4 "real" math classes.

Before I let them quietly work on it for about 10 minutes, I had a discussion about how in life it's a useful skill to be able to give constructive feedback. I said that they'd be bosses or employees or students or teachers or whatever, and they wanted to help "improve" or "praise" someone else's work effectively, and we talked about good and bad ways of doing that. Anyway, I liked their comments. Some things that were good for me to know:

* "Don't just always joke around with 1 or 2 students; make sure you joke around with everyone to make them feel special.". This was good for me to hear. Usually, I just engage with kids that engage with me, and then I feel comfortable continuing that "razzing" throughout the year. I can see how it would feel exclusionary to others instead of, ha ha, I'm a part of this if only as an observer.

* "I like that you just take homework for a completion grade. That way I don't feel pressured when I'm trying to learn." Hmmmmm, that was my intent, but it has its flip side for some students and some years when they slack off because they think it doesn't count.

* "I like when you provided answer banks on the homework. That gave me instant feedback." me, too.

* and various other comments that reaffirmed what I thought didn't go well or did.

Here is the download of this sheet: (p.s. thank you to the commenter who taught me about Screen Print. I'm ALL about Screen Print these days :))

Quadratic Formula Dialog Update

Well, the kids are starting to come in to take their "test" of the dialog I mentioned a few posts ago. They're doing that AND multitasking by whining in various ways about why they have to do it. I good-naturedly hold my ground and explain to them why (the dialog has lines that address 3 key sources of mistakes for them; the memorization and repetitive stress of remembering it will allow it to potentially stick in their heads).

I've had about 8 students do the dialogue, so far. I've also given them "inspiration" by putting a temporary "msg" in the electronic grade book. This is "missing" and has the same effect on their grade as a zero. Whew you should have seen the grades plummet.

Anyway, I've also had some kids in one class tell me they're nervous and can they do the whole dialog by themselves or can they do it with another student while I watch (because apparently I'm intimidating ... who knew). So I made up a FAQ and mass e-mailed it to them:

1. When is it due?
Let's say by this Friday, so that if you don't finish it, I have time to nag you next week (2 days only!)

2. I'm nervous and Ms. Cookie is intimidating, can I do the dialog with someone else and we switch roles?
Yes, and you can get full credit if there are no major mistakes.

3. Can I do the WHOLE dialog by myself playing both parts?
Yes, but Ms. Cookie will have to take off some points (can still earn in the high 90's)

4. Ooh, I don't know the whole thing really well, but I know most of it, so I don't want to come do it.
Well, Ms. Cookie can prompt you .... she'll take off some points depending on how well you do, but it'll be a WAY better grade than a zero.

5. EEK! Nervous.
Well, the lowest grade you'll get is a 70% if Ms. Cookie feels you don't know it THAT well (but most of it), or a 0% if you never come in.
Do the math :)

6. Why do we have to do this dialog?
The dialog has some key points on things students mess up on. Also, when you memorize something and have to do it over and over again, it sticks in your head. Thus, using my professional judgment, it's good for you and your quadratic formula use knowledge (like math vitamins) even though it's stressful. AND you'll be proud of yourself for doing something you thought was not possible.

7. Has anyone taken it yet?
As of 1:30pm Monday, 5/24/10, 8 people have taken and passed it (lowest score 80%).

Best Interpretation of the Dialog: J./M. & G.
First Done: D. W.
Person Who Overcame Their Most Stress So Far: C. J.

Final Review For Algebra Finals. Finally.

I can't believe finals start this week for our freshmen. Let's see, so far this semester they've had the LTF tests (Laying the Foundation), the EOC tests (end of course), the TAKS test ("exit" exam test), and now finals! I know they're excited and will be going through test withdrawals this summer. Maybe I can pay home visits and test them on various things.

Anyhow, here's the review I'll give them this week:

All About Me.....

Every year without fail one or 20 students will ask me what kind of music I listen to. I'm always stuck for an answer because I like a ton of different kind of music depending on the mood I'm in ... maybe that's the way for everyone. Also, I don't listen to music much other than the odd time in the car when I'm not listening to my books on CD (Love you Simply Audiobooks), or when I'm cooking dinner and need to rock out to Amy Winehouse. I don't have an iPod. I run early in the morning when it's still dark, so I'm more listening to the sound of deer that may crash into me or the stray car that may or the other runners going in the opposite direction who, like me, aren't wearing reflective gear. But I digress.

Well, must be a slow learner, since I should know this question is coming up every time I meet/teach new kids. Anyway, that leads me to my idea I just implemented that will allow me to send the students away and answer their questions at the same time. And as a bonus, I have a music play list in case my ears are ever hungry for tunes while I'm on the computer.

I have a website for my students where I post the homework using GoogleCalendar and I have a recap of what we learned that week with links to various helpful websites or practice problems or tutoring sites that are related to the topics. In addition, I have a little click/link on my weebly site that sums up my life in a few paragraphs (another question from the kids). So anyway, on this last link, I just created a short list, that I can add to later, of songs/artists I like that are links to YouTube videos. It looks like this, and it was a ton of fun to make.

Time to Review

I'm having fun looking up all these crazy facts to use for my review sheets. It gives the kids maybe a wee bit more motivation to actually review. I'm also trying something new. For each question, I've referred them back to a helpful page in the book. Maybe that will cure the, "I didn't know how to do it" syndrome, and the "oh! I didn't THINK to look in my notes" malady.

Okay, first stop: review of lines and slopes. Also, does ANYONE know how to stop there from being a 2nd page in a word document if you create a table at the bottom of the page. My version seems to want to start a new page, and I can't get rid of it. I remember I fixed it in the past, and I know I can browse and probably find the answer myself, but ....