Day 34: Self-Disappointment

I redecorated my room yesterday and finally hung some things on the walls. It's not a huge change, but it makes the room a bit more cheery and friendly and less like a poorly painted prison cell.

I also took a writing prompt from the #MTBoS today and asked the kids:

My favorite response was "Math would be a pitt bull.  Everyone is afraid of them, but if you treat them nice, they will treat you nice too!"

I have been flipping my classroom with respect to the guided notes in geometry.  I have been giving the homework assignments as "Take your book and do the guided notes from section..."  Then in class, I quickly go over them to make sure they got them.  For the most part, it has worked well.

The guided notes assignment over the weekend was the introduction to conditional statements.  Apparently, it was WAY too confusing.  Or, with the long weekend, everyone forgot to do it. :-/

In any event, going over the notes ended up being WAY longer than I wanted it to be.  Also, it turns out that all of the side-tracks that I've been taking with them has put me several weeks behind the geometry teachers at the high school.  I'm not too worried about it, but I don't like being this far behind this early in the year.  I told them that we need to pick up the pace and they seemed disappointed.

I hate skipping things they WANT to learn in favor of things they HAVE to learn.

Do you ever find yourself talking and in the middle of a sentence you realize "No one is listening to me"?

Last year, I would have said "What rude jerks these kids are being! I'm trying to give them the best education possible and they couldn't care less!"

This year, I find myself thinking "I've failed these kids.  I didn't plan this lesson well enough and have failed to capture their interest."

That's not to say that I DON'T have some rude jerks in my class, but that doesn't change the fact that I should have planned and executed this lesson better.

After reading several posts and talking to a  few people on Twitter, I decided that I would start the unit on fraction multiplication with the Candy Bar lesson from @Radical_Robin! It's a great lesson and takes a boring concept from the text book and puts it in terms the kids care about.

I executed it VERY poorly.

As is my wont, I didn't read it all the way through, didn't do the problems myself, didn't plan what I wanted to say or ask and didn't think about where it could go wrong.  I thought (foolishly) that by throwing the picture up and having a general idea of where I wanted to go, that things would fall together.  In the past, they did!

Or perhaps I fooled myself into thinking they did and blamed the unengaged kids for not being engaged. 

In addition, I allowed my frustration to get the better of me.  We started out with white boards and when they disengaged, I took them back.  Like a spiteful child, angry that my friends weren't playing with my toys the way I wanted, I took the toys away.  I immediately regretted the decision but didn't know how to fix it without them disengaging further.

I almost didn't write that because of how upset it made me and how I think it makes me look, but I want this to be an honest reflective blog with my downs as well as my ups.

The second pre-algebra class went MUCH smoother because I organized my thoughts better.  I also let them use their whiteboards all period.  There was several drawings of Spongebob but they were mostly on task.  I also used my big white board instead of my Promethean board.  Not exactly sure why...

On a more positive note, #MSMathChat last night was AMAZING! We had 32 people contribute 360 tweets in an hour!

AND WE WERE TRENDING!!!

There are a ton of new people who have joined the #MTBoS and it has been fabulous to talk with them! I hope I get a chance to talk more and help new people find groups and contacts that can help them.  Everyone who joins brings something that we didn't have before.  It's really beginning to feel like a family.

I feel a little weird promoting it as much as I do because I feel like a late-comer myself.  I only really joined twitter and the #MTBoS in March, but everyone has been so welcoming.  Also, I haven't just found this community supportive and helpful, but actually life-changing.  My wife, family and colleagues say that I am a completely different person this year and I attribute that to my involvement in this online community of life-long learners.

What Makes Mr. Aion's Class Different?

In order to complete Mission 1 for Explore the MTBoS, I have been frantically trying to figure out what makes my classroom different than other classrooms.  Many of the things that I came up with are things of which I have no reason to be proud, or are out of my control.

So I asked my students.

Earlier in the week I gave my kids a half sheet of paper and asked them to write down what made my class different.  I told them not to put names on it because I wanted honesty without fear of consequences.

I had to clarify the question a few times because several students put "it's dark in here" or "it's colder than my other classes."

Sifting through the feedback, I found a few themes that kept coming up.  A few of them were expected while others were not and warmed my heart.  I was actually quite worried that my geometry kids would say they loved my class and my pre-algebra students hated it.  I do worry that I don't treat my different classes fairly because of my own biases about ability, effort and content.  For the most part, the students who claimed to hate me and my class and everyone I've ever met all did come from my pre-algebra class, but even they were the exception.

Here is a random sampling (without edits).  Feel free to skip to the bottom when you get tired of reading them.

This class is different from my other classes for many reasons. I think you should feed us. This is my favorite subject! Its so funny in here man! but back to the food. If you fed us, it would be better. You don't let us go to the bathroom. I have to go! One more time though you should feed us because we are hungry.

I think Mr. Aion's teaching can help when don't understand, but it more quiet he allows us to work with partners. <3

We can't go to the bathroom...THAT SUCKS. You get mad over the dumbest things.

This class is different because in here we have double periods and it's really hard but the good things is that you teach us good and you don't take nothing from nothing so this about the best class of the day.

This class is different because some people are stupid in behavior wise. People are slow so we have to work slower in the class. :-) One thing I like is that you are fun. One think I don't like is that you scare me lol! just saying.

This class is strict but other than that Mr. Aion is a good teacher i learn faster in here then in other classes But he does yell to much also we can't go to the bathroom also he scare me. I hate when you smack the desk with your stick. This class can be fun at times This class can be boring but I don't care cause i'm learning.

The teachers are so rude they don't really try to go over things like you. You could explain the problem. This class can be fun but sometimes this class can be despressing because of the work. I need to step up my game and this class with be ok for now! <3 :)

This class is really hard to me. I can't seemed to focus it's hot. I don't mind you yelling. I try to focus but it don't work. I know I'm going to fail. I try not to think of it but :-( But I like you even though stricted but I like you. I need to ask for help. I think this class is fun. I tink this class more educational your helpful. The other classes are difficult to

Mr. Aion has a good sense of humor. He makes math fun. We can't go to the bathroom. He be livin life to the fullest. He is just super honest.

Whats bad I that its cold in here and Mr. Aion does not let us S.L.E.E.P

Push us to learn more math stuff

The teacher is nice 2 the kids. 

What sets Mr. Aion's class apart is that I learn about more than just geometry, and it's done in a way that's not opening a book and doing a certain amount of questions.

Our teacher enjoys our company

Mr. Aion's class is cool because we talk about stuff that is not math. We also do fun projects like the thing with the house building. But we also do enough math to learn the material.

You don't care about if we are 100% on task or not. You share some of your life

Mr. Aion gets happy to teach us. He's good with making sure we aren't put in awkward positions and we're clueless. He fixes problems. He has creative ideas for what to do in class.

Mr. Aion's class is different from my other class. The work in our other classes isn't as difficult as Mr. Aion's work. Mr. Aion expects alot from us and wants us to try our best. In some of my other classes it seems like the teacher could care less if we passed or failed.  Mr. Aion's class differs from my other classes.

I like Mr. Aions class because he puts teaching in realistic terms. Instead of just lecturing or just giving us dependent work, he teaches us and makes it easy to understand by relating it to every day life.

Mr. Aion's class is fun because we talk about random things other than geometry. He makes learning more interesting than the other classes. My other classes are not interesting, they are boring.

There are others, but I'm sure I've bored you away.  Overall, they were positive with some common themes like being interesting and the work being challenging.

I like to think that the topics in the discussion I led at EdCampPGH about the importance of being silly have informed my teaching and made my students more comfortable in my classroom. Student perception is everything. Even when it's not accurate, it informs their worldview and changes how they interact with their teachers and their lives.  There were several, especially the ones about yelling, that I immediately thought "I certainly don't do that ever."

But it doesn't matter if I do or not.  What matters is how the students perceive it.

My take-away from this is that I'm moving in the right direction.  I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but this feedback is a good indication that I'm getting there.  Especially with the student perceptions, I need to be more conscious about how I interact with them.  I need to think more about how a student is perceiving the way that I speak with them and the kinds of demands and standards that I put on them.

I will (probably) not change my stance about the bathroom, but I will continue to bring it outside resources and topics that interest them.

This was a difficult mission for me and I don't have confidence that I completed it to the satisfaction of the community.  I'll try better with the next one. :-)

Day 33: Off Topic, But Educating Anyway!

In geometry, we continued our discussion about truth tables and, as per my wont, I managed to get sidetracked and started talking about space travel and all of the scientifically inaccurate pieces of the new George Clooney and Sandra Bullock movie, "Gravity."

My favorite astrophysicist, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson spent a large portion of his twitter feed listing the reasons that the movie made little scientific sense.

Mysteries of #Gravity: Astronaut Clooney informs medical doctor Bullock what happens medically during oxygen deprivation.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013

The film #Gravity should be renamed "Angular Momentum"
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: How Hubble (350mi up) ISS (230mi up) & a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: When Clooney releases Bullock's tether, he drifts away. In zero-G a single tug brings them together.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why anyone is impressed with a zero-G film 45 years after being impressed with "2001:A Space Odyssey"
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock's hair, in otherwise convincing zero-G scenes, did not float freely on her head.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Nearly all satellites orbit Earth west to east yet all satellite debris portrayed orbited east to west
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why we enjoy a SciFi film set in make-believe space more than we enjoy actual people set in real space
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

My Tweets hardly ever convey opinion. Mostly perspectives on the world. But if you must know, I enjoyed #Gravity very much.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013

He is the Carlos to my Cecil.

 We talked about the difficulties of space travel and the pioneers who will travel to Mars and never return.  It was a very lively conversation.  Then one student asked why we would land ON Mars and the Moon, but when we come back, the people go INTO Earth.

This is not the first time I've heard this.  Apparently, there is this conception that when we are walking on the ground, we are "inside the Earth" and when we go into space, we are "outside of the Earth."  They seem to think that the surface of the Earth is a sphere within a sphere, which I suppose could be argued if you consider the atmosphere as separate from the Earth itself.  I had NEVER heard this idea before last year when a kid INSISTED that right now, as we walk around, we are INSIDE the Earth.

I don't even know where to begin with this.  It puts me in mind of Planet Druidia.

In pre-algebra, we continued working with decimals and fractions, and converting back and forth between the two.  The activity today had the students draw lines between equivalent rational numbers with the final result being a beautiful picture.  I was honestly worried that they would be bored, but most of them jumped in with both feet.

Next up! Fraction multiplication!  I'm not really excited about that topic, but I plan to deviate from the standard curriculum to talk about unit conversion and dimensional analysis.  You're welcome, science teachers.


On Tuesday (in-service Monday) the geometry kids will be working through the Promethean flipboard that I made around The Lady or the Tiger.  It's pretty basic and pretty awesome!

Not bad for a day where I slept through my alarm!

Day 32: Logic and Asking For Student Feedback

In geometry, we began talking about symbolic logic and truth tables.  I LOVE these topics, but I understand how difficult it can be for students to grasp.  As a result, I find it's often easier to use the concrete examples.  To illustrate how symbolic logic works, I started with two basic statements.

p: I want cake
q: I want ice cream

This seems to make it much easier for students to understand concepts like negation ( ~p: I do NOT want cake) conjunction (p and q: I want cake AND ice cream) and disjunction (p or q: I want cake OR ice cream).

Me: "If you go to a birthday party and the person serving dessert asks if you want cake and ice cream, what do you think they are going to give you?"
S: "Cake and ice cream together."
Me: "And if you answer yes, what will you get?"
S: "Cake and ice cream together."
 Me: "Alright. And if they ask if you want cake or ice cream, what do you think?"
S: "They are giving a choice."
Me: "So if you said yes, what would you get?"
S: "You might get cake, or you might get ice cream.  You might get both."
Me: "If they ask you if you want cake or ice cream and you say yes, is there a chance they might think that you don't want either?"
S: "No."

Then I turned them loose on truth tables of increasing complexity.  We had a discussion about how to start the truth table in order to ensure that all possible combinations were met before doing any calculations.  It made me think about a discussion I had with several teachers earlier this year about the difference between teacher preference and mathematical convention.  Since that conversation, I've spent a ton of time thinking about whether I make students do something because I like it that way, or because it's mathematical convention.

For example, multiplying using a lattice method is preference, where as the order of operations is convention.  I find it VERY telling about both educational culture and my own education that I often can't tell if I do something because that was method I learned, or because it's how it is supposed to be done.

When I learned how to do truth tables, I always learned to make it look like:

When my students asked if they could transpose the values of  the second and third columns, I honestly didn't know what to tell them.  I said that this was how I learned it and using this method with guarantee that they hit every combination of T and F.  My inclination is to say that this is the standard way to do it, but without confirmation of that, I'm hesitant to impose my order on their thinking.

Since the point of this blog is reflection, I'll admit that I'm REALLY not pleased with how this went.  I felt like they were coming with me, but very reluctantly.  This topic is VERY alien to them and I understand that.  If I teach it again (which I may do tomorrow), I think I'll start with the cake and ice cream example and talk about the wording of the question with AND and OR before I even talk about statements, negations, conjunctions and disjunctions.  They were working in groups and asking good questions, but it didn't have the same feel as some of my other lessons, which I would consider successful.

I have found myself backsliding in my pre-algebra classes too.  I'm spending too much time having them work on worksheets and not enough doing interactive discussions and problems.  Part of it, I think, is because a much larger portion of those classes are constantly disruptive and I am simply worn down.  As I run through my array of class management tools, finding them ineffective, I am falling further into the despair that I felt last year.  I don't want to have them in the habit of coming in and doing worksheets because that's punishing the wrong students.

I don't seem to have any tools that reward the good behaviors while punishing the bad ones.  I would list the reasons why conventional rewards/punishments don't work, but they would all seem like cop-outs, which is what thinking about that feels like.  Perhaps I need more interesting activities and simply exclude students who don't do what is expected.

"You don't have your homework, workbook, notebook or pencil? That's fine. Here's a copy of those and a pencil. You sit and work on that while the rest of us play a review game."  I find this an extremely dissatisfying solution.

I modified my lesson on comparing fractions for the last class.  I started with the scenario:  I buy two pizzas.  Joey eats 3 slices from one of them and Symir eats 1 slice from the other.  Who ate more pizza?

Most of the students quickly yelled out "JOEY!"  I quietly watched them until someone said "Doesn't it matter how big the slices are?"

Why yes! Yes it does!

So I drew two circles on the board and cut them into equal slices.  The first pizza had 8 slices and the second had 2.  The discussion continued until I managed to get a student to say that we could just cut up Symir's slice until it was the same size as Joey's.  He would be eating more slices, but the same amount of pizza as before.

It was a good way for them to visualize common denominators before we actually talked about them in those terms.


Exploring the MathTwitterBlogopshere (MTBos) has issued a mission for this week about the importance and power of blogging.  Since I already have a blog, my mission is to write a post about my favorite open-ended/rich lesson, or write about what makes my class unique.  I don't have an answer to either inquiry.

So I polled my students.  I gave each one a half sheet of paper and put the following question on the board:

What makes Mr. Aion's class different from your other classes? (good or bad)

I told them not to put names on the papers so they could be honest without fear of reprisal.  The responses that I'm getting back are interesting.  I will detail them when I write up the post for MTBoS, but the positive ones dealt with how they learn things other than math and most of the negative responses are about how the class is hard.

I'm very tempted to correct the grammar and give it back. Forreal

That is, of course, discounting the responses that clearly showed I should have worded the question differently.  Thing like:
The class is too cold
It's a double period
It's darker
There are chalkboards on two walls

Perhaps I should have specified that I was looking for what made me different as a teacher and not what made the physical classroom different.

I wonder their attitudes will change when I hang up my poster about my thoughts on PDA...

Day 31: A Perfect Gift With Perfect Timing

When I got to work today, there were two boxes waiting for me.  What could they be?

The amazing and talented Jen Silverman sent me two mysterious boxes that contained:

MATHY SWAG!!!!!

I found the boxes in the main lobby while on my way to find white boards for my activities today! The timing could not have been better!  I am deeply in her debt for a random gift which she says was just her "paying it forward!"  I now have a mission to help out other teachers in need even more than before!  If you need something, be it supplies, advice, a shoulder to cry on or someone to share a "soda" with, don't hesitate to ask!  We can toast to Mrs. Silverman.  In the meantime, head over to her blog and check out the incredible and beautiful stuff that she's doing with math!

Even my students were thankful!

For my warm-ups today, I snagged a pattern by +Kate Nowak off of visual patterns and asked my students to come up with the number of blocks in the 10th, 43rd and nth terms.

In all of the classes, we talked about different approaches to answering the questions.  The geometry students moved in the direction of a formula, while the pre-algebra students worked on finding patterns, but not specific formulae.

Since the geometry class is starting the unit on logic and reasoning, and since they were so engaged, I felt it was appropriate to continue working with patterns.  We did several different patterns and I asked different groups to talk about their strategies for solving the puzzles.  It was wonderful to watch the kids argue with their group members to make a point and then struggle to vocalize it to the rest of the class.  I loved being able to ask the class "Was this a valid method?" and having the students discuss if it was!

While working on Pattern #108, students gave me three different formulae and, when they explained how they were obtained, it became obvious that they were pulling the pattern apart in different ways.  We got talk about how each one developed their visual style and THEN I had them see that all three formulae were just variations of each other, further illustrating the myriad ways that students can arrive at an answer!

With half an hour left, I had groups work on their own patterns to submit to the website.  We then voted on which pattern we liked the best and are submitting that one, which will hopefully be featured soon!

This is my shadow puppet of someone taking a picture with their iPhone. I know! I'm amazing at shadow puppets!

The pre-algebra class came up with several ways to solve their patterns as well, but none dealing with explicit formulae.  I made them verbally explain what they did and how they came to those conclusions.  We then talked about extending those results to a shape too big to draw (43rd step) or to any step (nth step) without actually talking about variables.

After we went over some word problems dealing with converting decimals to fractions, (which very few students seem to have difficulty with) I split the class into our teams.  I used two random number generators to create a random fraction and had the teams work to turn it into a decimal.

I asked them to estimate, but I was having tremendous difficulty getting them to understand that concept.  When they did the long division, they almost always got the answer, but when asked to estimate, they were WAY off.  For example, with 7/8, I was getting answers like 1.5 and one kid gave me 25.  I understand where some of the wrong answers came from, but I'm not sure how to impress upon them the importance of asking themselves "does this answer make any sense?"

I need to work with them much more on estimation.  The idea of a reasonable number seems alien to them.

The last class did not do as well.  In my few years of teaching, I have come to the conclusion that math class after lunch is a terrible idea.  Students shut their brains down and even fun activities are met with a level of indifference that I find distressing.

In this last class, there are several students who seem completely incapable of not making noise.  Even when they are not near anyone, they have to make sounds, or talk to themselves and no amount of asking, begging, threatening, entreating, bribing, etc. seems to get across the point that I simply cannot teach a class while they are babbling.  Calls home have been met with wrong/broken numbers.  Conversations with the guidance counselor have produced no results.  Again, with the same class as yesterday, I am toying with the idea of sacrificing a few students for the good of the rest.

I hate the idea of it, but I also recognize that this might not be the optimal setting for some students.  Some students may simply need more attention than I am physically able to give.

Also, it took less than a single day for students to destroy several of my brand new whiteboards.  And then the students wonder why people don't treat them like responsible adults and why they can't have tech or recess.

Ah well! Tomorrow is another day and we will have a talk about treating our tools with the care and respect that they deserve.

Day 30: Advocating By Accident, Instant Karma

I'm a math teacher.  I know that 29 comes after 28, but since I was absent yesterday, it felt dishonest to count this as Day 29.

My district has difficulties obtaining and retaining subs.  I do not wish to speculate on the reasons behind this, but know that it's true.  It means that when I'm out, I might not have a dedicated sub for the day and that my classes might be covered by a variety of other teachers.  I lucked out yesterday and got a single sub all day AND he happens to be a friend of mine.

A major advantage to being friends with your sub is that he/she can keep you updated on student progress and behavior throughout the day.  The students also know that I will get a full report.  For example, one of my students wrote on the board, knowing full well that he was not supposed to.  He wrote something along the lines of "TURN UP! MR. AION IS NOT HERE!"  I pride myself on having fairly good classroom management skills.  It's one of the few things that I think I do close to correctly.

I hate being absent!  I hate it, not because I mind being out of work, although I do, but because I never know what I'll come back to.  Last year, I came back from a day off and my sub had allowed my students to destroy, break, rip, or otherwise ruin every game that I had in the room, as well as a number of posters.  My students, who would NEVER behave this way when I am there, take full advantage of allowed chaos.  I was annoyed with them, but more so with the person who is supposed to be watching them.

Yesterday, my sub followed my plans, kept me updated on their progress and maintained order in my room to the point where I didn't know that I was absent.

In geometry, we went over the guided notes from the first section of the new chapter on logic.  We discussed conjectures and how I will expect them to justify their answers from given statements.  We talked about counterexamples and the difference between opinion and proper justification.

As an example, perhaps foolishly, I brought up same-sex marriage.  I did not do this to say that it was good or bad, but simple a controversial topic that was currently being discussed in the country.  I asked students to give me, without judgement, some of the arguments for and against that they have heard.  As I expected from this fairly liberal group of students, the main argument that I got in favor was "it's just the right thing to do" and the main against was "it's not natural and gross."  I asked the students to talk about whether either of these arguments can be backed up with anything other than opinion.  Both sides conceded that they really couldn't and that they could find counterexamples to both arguments.

I probably should have used a mathematical example, something that included an image of angles with the question "What can we tell about these? How do you know?"  I chose not to because those examples are in the guided notes that we went over.  Also, I wanted to help students draw a connection between skills we develop in class and how they might be employed in the "real world."  I think we spend time talking about where students will use the content but not enough about where they will use the skills.

The teaching of non-content skills was the subject of last night's #MSMathChat.  The point was not to stir up controversy, although it did, but to get students to begin thinking about supporting their arguments.  I don't expect to get angry parent phone calls, but if I do, I stand by my approach.  I was VERY careful not to advocate for one side or another, allowing the students to put their opinions out there without judgement from me.

Although, I will admit that when one student said we should make our laws based on what's in the Bible, I asked him if I should stone the female students to death for calling out...  That maybe wasn't the best idea.

On a much more happy off-topic note, today was one of the days where the warm-up was given to us by our reading coach in an effort to integrate the same vocabulary across the core subjects.  Today was about medical records for adopted children and a genetic disease.  The question was "If a child has a 50% chance of getting this disease if their mother has it, what are the odds that they will get it?"  Even the slowest of my students were able to understand the question and get the right answer.

So I extended it!

I drew a Punnet Square on the board and talked about genetics for 20 minutes!  We talked about inherited traits and dominant alleles.  The second question was MUCH better.

Three siblings are adopted together. If each child has a 50% chance of having FH, what are the odds that at least one of the three children has FH?

Clearly neither question was written by a math person or they would have used the word "probability" instead of "odds."  The correct answer for "odds" wasn't even available for the first question! (The correct answer for probability, however...)

The kids in both the geometry classes and the pre-algebra classes asked great questions about genetics and probability and we ended up in a discussion about dependent vs. independent events.  I don't like lecturing when it's about content, but I've found that when we talk about stuff that isn't "mathy" the students grab onto every word.  I think it may have something to do with the spontaneous nature of the discussion, allowing them to feel like their questions and concerns are being heard.  They see that they can be curious about something without being told "we don't have time for that."

The last class of the day ended up doing minimal work.  There were three students whose constant talking made it impossible for me to have the discussions that I wanted to.  I hate kicking students out for anything short of a safety hazard because I feel it undermines my authority in the classroom with the students and administration.  It also gives disruptive students exactly what they want, which is to leave class, or get attention.  After changing seats, asking the student repeatedly to stop, waiting, allowing other students to ask them to stop, I am ashamed to say that I gave up.  Instead of continuing the conversation into interesting topics, I gave the assignment for class and stepped outside to call the parent.

There was no answer.  I left a message.  As soon as I was finished trying to talk, the disruptive student put her head down and sat quietly.

You would think that, as the parent of toddlers, I would know how to deal with this behavior.  After 9 years in educations, I still don't know how to appropriately handle it.  Disruption for the sake of disruption.

I need to ruminate on this and try to contact her parent again this evening.

I am torn between not wanting to give up on a kid and not being able to allow one student to disrupt the learning of the rest.  I know that, as teachers, we are never supposed to give up on any kid, but the reality is that we have a very large number of students and a limited amount of time.  Sometimes, single students fall by the wayside either by accident or because they leap from the train, laughing the whole way.

If you ask the question "When is it ok to give up on a kid?" the answer is, and should be, "never."  But taking a time-out to mentally regroup is sometimes necessary.  You just have to make sure you jump back into the fray, with redoubled efforts.

EdCampPGH Recap

Yesterday, it was my exquisite pleasure to attend EdCampPGH.  After my experience this summer with Twitter Math Camp and the complete revamping of my entire professional life and outlook, I was VERY excited to go to this conference.  I was looking forward to the educator-led sessions as well as making the incredible connections that these events always foster.

I arrived at City Charter High early and sat in the shadow of a vine canopy, pretending to be mysterious and watching other people approach the building.  Once TMC goddess Lisa Henry arrived, we went inside and began filling our name tags with our twitter handles and super powers.

The format for EdCampPGH was different than that of TMC in that the sessions were not preset.  When we entered, we were asked to fill out 3 Post-It notes with things that we would like to learn and 1 that we could teach to others.  There was a giant board where, if you wanted to lead a session, you picked the time and place.  If people were interested, they came to your session.  If not, they didn't!  There was an amazing variety of topics and sessions, all which can be found on the EdCampPGH site.

Dr. Rob Furman spoke with us about what it means to be a connected educator and how the technology can never replace teachers.  Well designed technology programs provide professional development and time for teachers and students to become familiar before full implementation.

The first session I attended was "Strategies for being a connected educator" facilitated by Jolene Zywica and Courtney Francis of Working Examples.  Our discussion began with trying to define what it meant to be a "connected educator" and ended up as a discussion of how to teach students to be responsible digital citizens.  We heard from people who teach in districts with a variety of cell phone policies that ranged from a complete ban to almost a free-for-all and heard about the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The more I think about it, the more I am opposed to cell phone bans in school.  We know that schools with abstinence-only education have higher rates of teen pregnancy.  This is attributed to the fact that students are going to be having sex anyway but without the proper education, are not being safe about it.  I feel this applies to technology as well.  When we ban phones from schools, we are not teaching the students how to properly use them in an appropriate and safe fashion.  I need to think about this more.

In between sessions, I had a long conversation with Matt Friedman, the assistant superintendent of Mars Area School District, about reflective practices and becoming more involved in the education community as a whole, examining the resources that are available for teachers if they would only reach out.  We discussed aspects of teacher reluctance to leave their comfort zones and attempt new things, including Twitter.

For the second session, Lisa Henry led a discussion about building a community of like-minded teachers and finding and utilizing the resources that exist.  She, Jami Packer and I spoke about our experiences with Twitter Math Camp and the Math-Twitter-Blog-o-Sphere in general.

At lunch, I had several conversations with some of the students who were there, getting their perspectives about Doctor Who and the Cup Game.

After lunch, physical science teacher Doug Hastings talked about the problem-based learning approach that he has taken in his class.  He brings in experts from industry to talk to his students about the projects that they work on.  He has also been collaborating with the math teacher in his school and they have been building lessons together.  When a teacher in the room asked how it could be applied in math class, Jami and I got our chance to talk about Mathalicious and the great problems and projects that they are developing over there.

Then I was off to my own session!  I led a discussion on "The Importance of Being Silly!"  After a conversation with Max Ray, I had been thinking quite a bit about letting your walls down as a teacher and the advantages and disadvantages of that.  If you would like me to lead this discussion at YOUR school district or educational conference, please contact my booking agent.  I take payment in the form of a mint-condition TI-92+.

It had a different feel than TMC, but that wasn't a bad thing at all.

It was excellent getting perspectives not just from other teachers in different types of schools, but also several community members, entrepreneurs, business leaders and administrators.  I was VERY impressed with the administrators that I met, not only because of the conversations that we had, but having them there at all showed me that they were very serious about the direction of their districts and were not simply paying it lip-service.

I would like to see more district administration involved in these types of events.

Weird moment for me: After introducing herself around the breakfast table, one of the teachers turned to me and said "You're Justin. You're famous!"

I think I may be tweeting too much...