Playing Catch Up

Hey, maybe someday soon I can come up for air from beneath all the piles of grading that are taking over my classroom desk and spreading to other pieces of furniture. I sure miss having my student aid (who got pregnant and left and is now only coming to school part time). It doesn't help that I went on my 3 trips (2 over spring break and one to NCTM) and didn't take papers to grade. ... Get over it and grade.

I remember when I first came to Texas 4 years ago and went to a local math workshop and somebody casually mentioned that she collects and grades homework EVERY day. Me, coming from another school district in another state, who only glanced at homework in class at most 3 times a week, I was stunned. Who has the time? Ew. Now I've joined the land of daily graders (only on completion and effort, though). Apparently, I'm not a full-fledged active citizen yet, though.

NCTM

I just got back from NCTM, and as usual, absorbed some great math and bought some potentially useful books. I loved Steve Leinwand's talk. He made several good points. For example, he does (did?) 5 minutes of cumulative review EVERY day. That adds up to 15 hours of instruction a school year, and his argument was that no one learns a topic after 2 lectures and 2 homework assignment. They need refreshers. He also uses the review to pause and point out meanings of various vocabulary terms, indicating that the really low-performing students are stunted by their lack of knowledge of what you're talking about (meanings of math terms).

I also learned a great calcululator trick. To graph a piecewise function, you can do it all in Y1 as:
Y1 = (x+1)( x<2)
+ (3x-7)(x>2)
all on one line to graph x+1 for values less than 2 and 3x-7 for values greater than 2.

A North Dakota teacher discussed how she teaches polar graphing of limacons and lemniscates and flowers so that it sticks in the students' heads.

I bought books on differentiating instruction for high school math (woot woot, you never find it for this level and this topic) and a "share & compare" strategy book for math. There's also a math joke book from Nasco for calculus I had to have.

Someone shared with me that the fun math ladies (?) instead of always putting name_____ on the top of tests vary it like:

math star ______
_______ loves fractions
future mathematician _______

etc.

So all in all, useful conference.

Saving Weekend Time

I used to be so excited that I found a way to wash my overhead slides on the weekend. I'd put them in the sink with water, and then swoosh them around one by one and rinse of the excess ink and then put them in between pages of a large phone book.

I used to be so excited ... until it started taking about 45 minutes or so every weekend ... that's when I started slacking off on the job and cursing the slides.

It finally clicked in my head, and what I'd seen many others do and I hadn't been "ready to learn yet" ... well, I finally got it. So last weekend I bought a small spray bottle (5" high or so), and confiscated some of my husband's tired old holey socks, and this week so far, right after each class, that's me. Spritz, spritz, spritz. Wipe, wipe, wipe. No weekend slides. If my calculations are correct: about 5 slides per class x 5 classes x 5 days each week = a bazillion slides I now don't have to dread cleaning each weekend. Bring it on.

I Don't Trust Past History Enough

Every year when I get a new crop of students, we go through an adjustment phase. With some students and classes, it's immediate. With others it takes a while, and with the few rare others, summer comes, and we still haven't adjusted to each other. But like clockwork, every year about this time in mid to late February, we seem to hit our stride, and even though I may have liked or not liked so much various classes, then BY NOW, I really like them all the majority of the time. Yet every year I say, "no this year it's different. I'm not going to click with this class." And most every year I've been proven wrong (slow learner). I've started clicking this year.

A funny moment today: my last period class was trying to sway me to have some free time or something or another today, and they all start chiming in. I interrupted with, "this is not a democracy. It's a monarchy." And then someone piped up with, "yea, but aren't monarchs basically powerless?". We got back to our lesson.

Promoting Smart

Today I was out doing chores, wearing my PCMI t-shirt that says "Computational Complexity Theory" with an intricate Turing Machine picture. The teenage girl cashier at Target kept glancing at my shirt off and on while she was scanning my items. ... I choose to believe she was thinking, "gee it's okay to be smart" (instead of, "who's this geek I'm helping, and why is she advertising her geekiness").

In the current culture of idolizing celebrities and materialistic behavior with gucci this and prada that and who got botox here and who's divorcing what actor there, I want to start promoting smartness - not in the obnoxious "I'm smarter than you" way, but in the "hey, being smart and working hard is something good to strive for" way.

My list of t-shirt logos I want to make/buy:

Fractions Are Your Friends
Math Rules
Nerdy Girl
I *heart* Math

.... maybe I'll be crafty and make some with my school name on the back so that I can wear them on "spirit" days.

What Do Mathematicians Do?

I've had this inkling of an idea for a while now, but I never seem to have the time or umph to put it into action, and here comes a student after school today who reminds me. She wanted to know what you could do with a math degree and what sorts of jobs there were and what did the people actually do all day and did they interact with others or did they just sit and do math at a desk for hours and hours.

My idea was to interview different people who had jobs heavy with math duties and make posters to hang up either in my room or around the hallways. The posters would have a picture of the person, their job title, their degree, and various specifics about their job and how they got it and such. That's just the bare bones of the idea.

This student really wanted to know because she was testing out different versions of her future to see what would fit. After we talked for a bit, she said that maybe the students should do this for credit (or extra credit). Hmmmmm, I'd have to come up with the specifics and such, but it just may work .... or at least be worth trying.

Teaching in a Vacuum

Most times I get so caught up and busy in preparing and teaching and such, that I forget to talk to other teachers about teaching things or things that happen during teaching. Last Friday I had the chance to chat for about 10 minutes with another teacher, and now I have to remind myself to do it more often.

The day before had been horrendous. A kid had MAJORLY back-talked me in class, and wasn't even sorry about it. I found out my calculus answer manual had been stolen earlier in the week. I had the audit hanging over my shoulders feeling guilty because I hadn't finished it yet. And finally, I needed to finish the National Board Certification application.

So here I was having a pity party in my head and not feeling very chipper. I started telling her about the one thing (poopy kid), and she related a similar incident with "entitled" girls in her last period. I mentioned the theft over the weekend, and she said her room was in disarray (drinks spilled and not cleaned up), too, from some unannounced use of our rooms. I started feeling better, so then I mentioned the other 2 things, and she was also struggling to finish the tasks.

Whew! It didn't make my grief go away, but it sure lessened it to hear sympathetic noises from someone else. I must share more often and maybe find I'm not alone in these minor and major annoyances of the school day.

A Tough School

A senior was telling me today of her recent college interviews with alumni.

A little background here. Our school apparently has a reputation as a "tough" school (translation: people think that because most students aren't white that maybe there are more fights and drugs and gang activity here as opposed to the wealthier whiter schools around). I don't know what people imagine, but I'm guessing they think they wouldn't feel safe at our school. Who knows. I am a perfectly safe whitey, and I teach great kids. The only "poopy" ones are the few bad teenage attitudes in the halls when I (heaven-forbid) ask them to comply with various rules (hats, music, cell phones, wandering...), and I get that from a nice variety of races.

So anyway, this one alumni to interview her lives here, and one of her first questions was: "So is ____ a tough school?". My student replied, "yes, all the classes I'm taking are pretty challenging." (not knowing her implication). The lady asked again, apparently, in another way, and my student defended our school. Woot woot.

We then proceeded to be verbally angry with this woman. But I guess we're guilty of the same thing as she was at times. When we hear of ______ down the street, our wealthier/whiter counterpart, we conjure up all sorts of stereotypes about their monied existence. Whose misjudgment is worse?

National Board Certification

I've been thinking about applying for a while, and this week I went to an informational session for national board certification. It sounds like a TON of work and time, but it seems like it will be something that will force me to actively think about teaching and have the incentive to reflect more effectively. (and it's a ton of work and time). Our district is all gung ho about it, and will basically pay the ~$3000 it costs (youch) if a teacher sticks with the process. There's also the $2000 extra a year in the paycheck that doesn't hurt. ... Well, I have until mid February to decide.

Eye Contact

Last Wednesday I was at an all-day textbook adoption meeting listening to the publishers promote their wares. Interesting, tiring and enlightening all at once. There was one lady who talked very fast. I wouldn't have noticed it (maybe) if she hadn't been in a group of other speakers to compare to. But, sheesh, I found myself shutting down soon because I didn't have enough time to process her words before she moved on without a break. Then that got me to thinking about my teaching. I think I'm guilty of talking at that speed at times, and now I can see the effect it has on listeners. SLOW DOWN for processing purposes.

Another gentleman turned me off almost immediately. He was a professor and very engaging but seemed to be full of himself and at one point rudely shushed his co-speaker so that he could continue. Ick. Then I couldn't look at him for the rest of the time he was speaking. I listened to him, but I felt uncomfortable looking at him because of my distaste for his actions.

Other times at other talks I was so tired from sitting all day that I seemed to need to stare down at one inanimate object while listening to the speakers. That way I didn't have more stimuli than I could handle in the afternoon.

Of course, then this made me start thinking about my students and their eye contact with me in class. Sometimes I think they're not listening to me because they're staring off as I'm speaking, but then if I ask them about what I was just saying, they can repeat the information accurately.

The book(s) I loved were the ones with fascinating math history vignettes. There was love and duels and theft and all sorts of "non dry" tidbits for the kids (and me). I'll have to bring more of those into my lessons.

Sleepy (take 2,146)

Sheesh ... deprive me of more than 2 hours of my 8 hour sleep, and my patience goes out the window the next school day. I guess I'm used to it now, so about 60% of the time when I'm just about to snap at a kid, I realize that I'm a sleep-deprived zombie with no impulse control on the sarcastic comments, and I can stop them (the comments 60% of the time / the kids the other 40%) . I think I was okay about 62% today.

One funny thing. My kids sit in groups of 4, and when I pass out homework, I put them all on one person's desk in the group for them to pass out. And when I collect homework, I ask them to put them on one person's desk to be more efficiently collected. So I'm walking around while they're working on a calculator activity, after I've passed out returned homework and after we've gone over the current night's homework (but before I've collected it). I see a pile on one student's desk, and I assume he forgot to turn his homework back to his group. He's a funny kid that I like, and I jokingly reprimand him as I point to the pile, "hey! you've got DUTIES, mister." We look at the pile and then I realize that it's the homework I had yet to collect, and he turns to me and says, "no. YOU'VE got duties." Oops.

Student Insights

One of my students came in before school last Thursday just to use my room as a study place for her vocabulary quiz that day. She was mildly grimacing about a variety of things such as:

"I don't get the students who say their AP classes aren't preparing them for college. I'm studying to learn and honing my skills in the process. Whereas they're just doing enough to pass the tests."

(commenting on the fact that I'm there at 7:30am even though I don't teach my first class until 11:00am) "Some teachers wouldn't be here until 10:30 even though they should, and they talk to us about responsibility and work ethic. It makes me sad for the world."

Another student in my precalculus class refering to the upcoming test:

"I don't think a lot of us know how to study for math (tests) because up to now we haven't had to, so we don't have the skills."

Another student at the end of the period after I had moved him for constantly chatting with this other boy:

"I think you should permanently move me so that I can learn better and not have to be rude to this person that talks to me ALL the time."

Snow in Central Texas

For the 2nd time since we moved here 3.5 years ago, it snowed in our city. Okay, snow, sleet, rain, pellets, snow. I guess the whole city shut down over 1/4 inch accumulation. On the one hand that makes me smile coming from NJ where we still would have had school today, on the other hand, I know they don't have the infastructure down here to deal with 1/4" of snow to have business as usual (and why should they).

On my 3rd hand (or 1st foot), school was cancelled today AND tomorrow. Woot woot for a 5 day weekend. Boo Hoo for at least 2 extra days tacked onto the school year now. On my 2nd foot, I'm going stir crazy since I can't go driving anywhere. There is quilting and knitting and web surfing and reading and puzzles .... oh yea, and schoolwork that's sitting lonely in the corner (LiC), and AP calculus audit work (LiC), and textbook committee work (LiC). Hey, they should get together and complete themselves, so that I don't feel too guilty for choosing crafts over work. Tomorrow I'll work more .... yesssssssss, that's it.

Blocks & Pieces

BLOCKS

Well, it looks like we're going to block schedule next year. Blach for 3 reasons.

1. "Higher Ups" kept up the pretense of asking for our opinions, but those never seemed to be addressed, and then suddenly the decision seemed to be made.

2. I'd love it if someone would prove me wrong, but now I teach 5 classes of students, and so have approximately 25 students per class (and more often more than that). With block, I'll have 6 classes of students, and so will have 20% more students/papers-to-grade in the same amount of time for the same amount of money. Texas is going towards (to) 4 years of math per student, and now POOF they will have more teacher hours in essence for free. I do NOT mind hard work. I WORK hard to make sure I'm doing a good/great/acceptable-to-high-standards job. I DO mind being taken advantage of.

3. I think students need daily math practice. I think they need time to absorb material, so I can't necessarily cover 2 topics in one day and expect it to be successful.

PIECES

I just introduced piecewise functions to my precalculus classes on Friday. The first year I taught it, I was surprised it wasn't a "gimme" topic. Students were confused by the notation and couldn't always successfully graph/analyze/use such functions. The second year, I tried a different way of teaching it, and still I had more confusion than I was comfortable with. This year, I think I nailed it. (famous last words??)

I started with an electric company example where they charge 10 cents per ___ for the first 500 ___ of electricity per month and 15 cents per ___ for anything more. We talk about why it may be structured that way. I stress the company charges per partial ____ too (continuous). They get to the point where they see the shape of the graph. Then I keep alluding back to this example later to make the connection.

Then I make sure they have colored pencils and a fresh sheet of paper. On the top (as I do on the overhead), I make them draw a number line across the page from -5 to 4, say, (spanning the whole page). I break it into 3 regions and 3 colors and talk about neighborhoods and if x is in one neighborhood, f(x) is ___. Then in the appropriate colors RIGHT under the number line in the correct neighborhoods, we define f, and make a table (all in the right color). Then on the bottom 3rd of the page, we make a coordinate plane, where the x-axis lines up directly with the one at the top of the page and graph the pieces in the right colors.

Then I say, that's too much work to explain this way every time, and we're "lazy/efficient", so here's the shorthand way of writing a piecewise function, and with the same pieces, write it as normal and make the connection with what each piece means. Hopefully, this year, it will be a "gimme" topic.

Vacation's Over

It was a nice long one. One great thing about Texas is we consistently get 2 weeks off for the holidays. I had a chance to sleep in about 8.5 - 9 hours. Luxury.

Things I want to concentrate on this semester (or make further progress on):
1. I'm trying to assemble a workable plan for getting the kids to keep track of their grades. I know as a human it's always easier to sit back and let things be done for you: how many homework assignments are you missing? what's your current average? My rough plan is to make a blank skeleton sheet with room to write each assignment as it's given and turned in and returned. This sheet will be turned in weekly for a grade ... how feasible is it that I will check its accuracy? Maybe that's a quick scan on the grading program. Maybe it will also have room for a parent's signature and comments.

2. I keep thinking about but never actually doing this: teaching kids some simple ways on how to effectively use their notes. Sticking points for me: how do I get them to buy into it, how do I assess their attempts?

3. Okay, my baby step is to read my brain-based learning and teaching for memory books at least 30 minutes once a week, and by the end of this next 6 weeks incorporate one new strategy until it's a habit for me.

Difficulty vs Rigor

We had an interesting math department meeting yesterday to discuss ways to bring rigor into our classrooms. One activity was to look at a series of math tasks and deem them "high rigor" or "low rigor". For example: "Find a smallest integer that has exactly 13 factors". (note: we weren't supposed to solve the problems, just determine their rigorousness ... though being the math geeks that we are, we had to discuss solutions and attempt some problems).

Different people had different perspectives (shocking :) !). We had discussions on, "well, if you just taught the concept for some of these problems, they are low rigor" ... "if a child sees this problem a couple of years after it was taught, it will be hard for them .... does that make it rigorous or just difficult?" ... "is there a set definition of rigor?" ... "can you have a rigorous problem that is accessible to all levels of students in one class?" ...

One More Week (yippee!)

It's all over except for the "tired lady making and grading the finals" for next week. Most of my kiddies have been really good about using class time and homework time to study. Most of my homework has been of the "go through old tests, reviews, book work and redo 10 problems that are challenging for you from a mixture of topics" variety.

I'm also about to get the last batch of cards from my 2 calculus classes to bundle up into books. I had everyone in class write on an index card something nice about every other person in class and decorate the card. They also had to write a card for themselves in which they list memories of this year and things they're proud of themselves for. Then on finals day, everyone will get their own book of memories from the class. There are some great cards that have been turned in (lots of thought and effort), and there are some "eh!" cards .... I guess it represents the different types of people in class.

I've also had my precalculus kiddies make a "cheat book" out of colored paper that they can write formulas in for their final: fold an 8.5" x 11" paper hot dog, hamburger, and twice more in the hamburger direction to get 8 squares when unfolded (4 down and 2 across). Then you strategically cut the middle 2 folds (fold in a hamburger fold and cut from the folded part up to the middle so that when opened and held in a "regular paper" direction you have a vertical cut in the middle through the middle 2 "squares"). Then fold paper into hot dog, holding out at the ends, and "squish" in, so that a + sign appears when looking at the paper. Then while looking at the + sign, fold all the segments of the + sign up, and voila you have a booklet ... "sharp creases are your friends".

Three Student Interactions

Act 1: I have a stacked AB / BC Calculus class with about 13 BC students (and those with a mix of kids that took AB last year and some that haven't) and 6 AB students. We've all done the best we can (well, most of us), and I'm differentiating up the wazoo, and today was a topic I'd covered for some of the kids last year. So. I had a worksheet with 16 problems and let the "oldies" get started on it independently. I taught the "newbies" what's what, and we worked through 3-4 examples from the sheet. The rest of the worksheet was for homework. One of the "oldies" comes up to me after class and says, "I just wanted you to know that we only got through 6 problems, so if WE can't do it, don't expect the new people to finish their homework tonight", in a patronizing sort of way. Oh my. Get over yourself, is what I say.

Act 2: In that same class, at the end, I made the announcement that next semester, if they still want the AB designation, they may think of switching to the other period which is ALL AB and goes at a much slower pace (as it's designed to do). Something for them to think about. Also, if they wanted to stay in this period, they'd go on independent study and just review while I moved on with the BC students. So. Later on, a friend of some of the students in that class who does not have me for math this year, but comes by to visit as I've had her before, comes and says to me (in what I think of her ever so helpful voice), "I wish your BC class wasn't so hard that people had to switch down to AB". OH MY. What was today? Give advice to teacher day?

Act 3: I guess my speech the other day about passive learning actually sunk in to some students. A kid that is bright but has been coasting (and not to well) on his former success in math by just breathing, is not doing so well in calculus with his old ways. We had a discussion about his notes and about how he could use them more effectively and such, and he seemed genuinely surprised at the suggestions, like it had never occurred to him to read over his notes every night to refresh his memory ... or to go back and look at examples in his notes for suggestions on how to do problems. He mentioned something about, "well, hmmmm, maybe I'm being a passive learner like you had said." Hopefully, this will spur him to action.

"What are finals?"

I have a German exchange student in one of precalculus classes, and this was her question. Soon to be followed by, "are they hard?" after I'd answered the first one.

I'm trying to promote less passive learning since I see the trend at this school is: what's on the test? are you going to give us a review packet? oh! SATs on Saturday? Did I study with a workbook or online? No, why would I do that?

My first review assignment last week was: create a list of at least 20 topics that we've studied so far (I prompted them for suggestions on where they could find such crazy information: book, notes, test, homework...). Number the list, and by each topic write 2 things: approximate date "learned" (tee hee), and E/M/H for the difficulty level you experienced then and/or now on topic.

My next review assignment: choose 10 of the most challenging topics for you, and on an index card on the front write topic and a representative problem. On the back write a correct, worked out solution and maybe some hints to yourself. "make it worthwhile for yourself. don't just do it to complete this assignment."

I talked with them about passive learning and gave them a pep talk about, "you could probably write the final because think about what I'm going to do: make a list, pick some representative problems ....". I guess I just want them to reflect on the topics, and even just the act of writing the 10 index card problems will jog something in their memory. I'm also hoping that this will give them an idea of how they can study independently in other classes/schools/college/SAT...

This weekend I want them to practice their cards ... and yes, I'll have some review material next week and spend some class time ... I don't know what else I'll have them do with their cards and such, but I should do something.

Parent Contact

I got chewed out through a string of e-mail messages with a parent yesterday. ... But first a little background. I teach juniors and seniors, and if there are problems, I mostly deal with the kids. I figure that it's time to snip the apron strings and have them take more ownership for their learning. It's worked for me so far, and I mostly have students step up to the plate. I still have parent contact, and I keep them informed of the grades regularly by e-mail. But... -

head on desk? make them sit up/find out they're working 40 hours a week or not sleeping/feel bad for them/keep prompting them to sit up.

cussing in class? stongly discourage it with humor/stern looks/constant reminder until it stops.

Not turning in homework? highlighting the fact to them/sending their grades via our grading program and e-mail to all available addresses/prompting them to come in for help/accepting late work/tutoring.

And if a parent initiates contact with me, I'll make sure they're on the e-mail contact list, and keep them updated.

So. This child is failing my class. She turns in her homework late, in a rush, during the last weeks of the grading periods. She has come in for help maybe 3 times during the year. She never turns in her test corrections. She "yeses" me about coming for help, but doesn't follow through. I still send home grades and progress reports every week and a half or so. I have never heard from the parent. Well, unknown to me, somehow her mother's e-mail address got "unchecked" in the grading program, and she hasn't been receiving this child's grade updates. The only way I guess she found out her current grade was to check her daughter's e-mail. (after thinking about it, I remember that the girl had come in one day and told me that her e-mail address had changed and gave me the new one. I didn't think anything about it, since we have many parents that don't have e-mail, and I had no reason to doubt her, and so I changed it. Bad move.)

Well. ...oh my god you're a horrible teacher...why didn't you contact me if her grades were so bad ... I see you've given up on her ... I'll be speaking to her counselor ... I'm not your average parent, I care about my child's grades ... and back and forth.

Note to self: Make SURE you have some working e-mail address for any potentially failing student.