Day 40: Quotes

Student: "Mr. Aion, do I have to take this test? I don't know this stuff."

Student: "How am I supposed to know this?"
Me: "This material comes from the notes that we cover in class, the discussions that we've had and, since I know you have trouble getting up in the morning, they are up on the school website."
Student: "I'm not doing all that."

Student: "I wasn't paying attention during the review. Why do I have to take this?"

Student: "Mr. Aion, what's the answer to number 34?"
Me: "This is an assessment of your knowledge. Put down what you THINK it is?"
Student: "You're the teacher! You're supposed to tell me the answers.  It's in my IEP."

Me: "Could you please stop talking, other student are taking the test."
Student: "Everyone else is dancing and singing!" (No one was)
Me: "Will you come into the hall and talk to me for a second so we don't disturb the class?"
Student: "No." (gathers things and walks out)


None of these are atypical behaviors and I'm not sure how to address them.  I make my test expectations very clear and I ask my students politely to abide by them.  I explain that they need to respect the testing environment of other students.  We talk about how test day is NOT the day to say that you don't understand.  The reason that I do review days is so that they can ask for help then.

Responsibility is a huge issue, not just for many of my students, but everywhere.  I think I would be hard pressed to find a teacher who hasn't heard at least one of the above lines.

I've written before about the fine line between support and enabling and how I have tremendous difficulty knowing where that line is.

This, however, seems fairly clear cut to me.  If you feel unready to take an assessment, once that assessment has been handed out isn't really the best time to say so.

It seems a bit like declaring your fear of skydiving after you've already left the plane.  There was plenty of opportunity to back out before you find yourself in the air.

"WAIT! I slept through the safety demo!!"

I understand some of the causes and reasoning behind this.  I don't think we do a good enough job teaching students about how to prepare for assessments in general, study skills, how to ask questions, how to know which questions to ask, etc.

There is a pervasive fear of failure that is a huge problem.  There's a solid mentality of "if I can't do something like a pro, I'm not going to try."

It's better to have given up before you start than to look stupid in front of your peers.


As a proponent of growth mindset, I know the dangers of this, but I'm not sure how to encourage my students to keep trying.  As it is, they know that if they don't like their scores, they can retake the assessments.  The idea is that this will cause lower pressure, but it seems to translate to kids not studying, or even remembering that they have a test.

"I don't need to study. If I mess it up, I'll just take it again."

Except that they don't.  The kids who are most vocal with that strategy NEVER come to retake tests.  Or they wait weeks and forget what we talked about at all.

I can't take ownership over their decisions. I can only encourage.  I can provide support for both successes and failures.

Me: **hands out test**
**4 minutes later**
Student: "I'm done."
**2 minutes later**
Same student: "We can do retakes, right?"

Day 39: Dungeons & Disciplinarians

Test tomorrow.

"Yesterday I gave you a list of topics and concepts that will be on the test.  Today, I'll answer any questions you have, fill in any gaps you might have in your notes.  What questions do you have?"

**silence**

The majority of the students spent the class working (or not) on other things.  There were at least a few in each class who had some good questions, either about the material, or hypothetical questions about the Earth and the Moon.

In one class, I spoke with a group of young men about the benefits of game-play in general and Dungeons and Dragons in particular.  Storytelling, resource management, problem solving, teamwork, creativity and planning are just a few of the skills that are developed through games.

You know, the kinds of skills we want kids to have when they finish school and move out into reality.

"Recite the quadratic formula or I'll eat you up!"

Not for the first time, I find myself wondering if you could create a system/campaign to comprehensively teach various subjects.  I think some would lend themselves to it fairly easily, like history or literature, where others might be more complex.  I think it would take a complete restructuring of courses and sequences.  I think trigonometry and algebra would have to be integrated into other classes.

I'm not talking about gamification, just adding game elements to regular classes.  I'm talking about a game that would teach the content, allowing students to specialize and rely on teams to move forward.

MIT built a game called The Radix Endeavor that (supposedly) teaches biology, ecology and a few other ologies.  I need to look into it more, but I suspect that it's not exactly what I'm looking for.  I do know that it doesn't focus on Astronomy and Physics or math in the way that I would want.



The physics kids can't just let me do my examples...

Me: "A helicopter takes off at 35 degree with a velocity of 95 km/h.  What is the horizontal component of the velocity?"
S: "Why do we need that?"
Me: "We want to stay in the shadow of the helicopter?"
S: "Why?"

It escalated quickly...

Me: "Ok. A Bond villain escapes in a helicopter, taking off at 35 degrees and moving at 95 km/h.  As he flies, he drops kittens from the helicopter.  In order to save the kittens, James Bond drives a pick-up truck full of mattresses under the helicopter.  How fast much he drive to make sure the kittens land on the mattresses?"

"Goodbye, Mr. Bond! Give my regards to Chairman Meow!"

What jerks...forcing me to be creative...

Day 38: Retrograde

You are not the center of the universe.

Human beings have tremendous difficulty with this concept, especially younger humans.  Maturity could be defined as the ability to be selfless, recognizing that other people exist and have needs.

From a certain perspective, that of the ever-expanding universe, one could argue that EVERY point of observation is the center. In light of this view, I'll rephrase my statement.

The Earth is not the center of our solar system.  There is a good amount of evidence to demonstrate this, but much of it deals with the complex mathematics of Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.

One way to show students that our planets orbit the sun instead of Earth is to talk about retrograde motion.

Retrograde motion is the apparent backwards motion of a planet when it passes, or is passed, by another planet in orbit.

It made more sense to the students when I talked about a car going 70 mph passing one going 60 mph on the highway.  While the slower car is still moving forward, it appears to move backwards from the perspective of the first car.

Similarly, when movies use chest-mounted cameras that face towards the person wearing them, it appears as though the person is staying still while the world moves around them.

After a brief conversation on retrograde motion, we watched a quick video on what it would be like if the Earth were flat.

Shifting perspectives is VERY complicated, but can be incredibly fun and enlightening!

A prime example of that is that I've been slowly shifting my own perspective to the mentality that I'm a teacher!


The physics students were GOING to take their kinematics quiz on Thursday, but then I found that several will be gone for sportsball stuff, so I decided to give the quiz today.  In an effort to counteract that, I let them work with a partner if they chose to.

Each student had to turn in their own work, but they could discuss answers, strategies and ideas.  Several students made excellent choices in terms of partners.  All of the groups worked fairly well and the room was filled with quiet, accountable conversations.

At the end of the period, only one pair of students had completed the assignment.  Since they weren't goofing around, I let them take the quizzes home and finish them up tonight.

One student asked if he, theoretically, went home and looked up the answers on Wolfram Alpha, would he still get the points.

I told him that doing so would only cheat himself.  I don't care about his grades.  I care that he knows the material.  A fake "A" will give him a false sense of understanding and will hurt him in the future.  I don't really have any worries about this group cheating.

Day 37: iPlan, iGrade

I made a plan for this week!

Tomorrow, we will be finishing the notes for the chapter, reviewing on Thursday and testing on Friday.

That means today was reserved for practice with the terminology and concepts of eclipses, lunar and solar.

It worked out VERY well.  The students who needed help were able to get it and I was able to put in grades while they were working.  Over the various class periods, we also had some interesting discussions about students responsibility, the role of school and the purpose of grades.

As I sadly suspected, students are under the impression that grades are what determine what they can do with their lives.  They see the grades as more important than the skills that those grades are supposed to be assessing.

Student: "All you grade are the tests and I don't do well on the tests because I don't know the stuff."
Me: "Then you should take this opportunity to do the practice sheets. They will help you to identify the material that you know and the material you need help on."
Student: "Why would I do this if you aren't grading it?"
Me: "We're going to go over it so you'll know what you know and what you don't.  This will help you to identify topics that you'll need to study to get a higher grade on the test."
Student: "But you're not grading this paper."
Me: "No.  It's for your information."
Student: "Then I'm not doing it."

I had this conversation multiple times today.

I think we need to be having a deep conversation about the purpose and meaning of grades.  That conversation need to include teachers, administrators, parents, students and colleges.  If grades are supposed to be evaluating skills, then "participation grades" don't make any sense.  If grades are indicators of the amount of work completed, then we need to be failing kids who don't do work, regardless of their proficiency level.

I still am not sure where I stand, except to know that I don't like our current system.

Also, you can only use the phrase "ring of fire" so many times (once) before you start singing Johnny Cash.  My soundtrack today started with that and moved quickly to Frank Sinatra.


The physics kids are really starting to pick it up as a group.  As we quickly move through one-dimensional motion, I want to make sure they are comfortable with the algebraic manipulation.  When we do two-dimensional motion, we will be launching projectiles and I would prefer no one get hurt.

They had an array of practice problems to interpret and work with.  I circulated through the room, answering questions, supporting their learning and generally trying to stay out of the way.

2D motion isn't much more complicated than 1D motion, but if you aren't familiar with algebraic manipulation, it's VERY easy to get bogged down and lost.

We need to have that stuff down pat or it'll make the William Tell Final Exam VERY messy.

Day 36: NCTM and Failing

The whole purpose of this blog is to keep me centered, to keep me grounded.  Those who read it tell me that one of the things they enjoy the most is my brutal honesty.  When things go well, I talk about them, but I don't hide the things I'm doing wrong.

So I'm going to talk about both today.

On Thursday, it was my great honor and privilege to speak at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional Conference in Atlantic City.  In addition to the honor of speaking, it was an incredible experience to be able to spend time with deeply passionate educators who are willing and able to take time from their busy schedules to gather and discuss issues that will benefit their students.

I was able to spend time with many teachers that I know through Twitter and meet many more.  I was challenged and pushed beyond my comfort zone to consider ideas that will help me to be a better educator.

I learned from Brian Costello, Michael Fenton, Cortni Muir, Adrienne Shlagbaum, Ginny Stuckey, David Wees, Natalie Perez, Suzanne Alejandre, Annie Fetter, Graham Fletcher, Joe Schwartz and the amazing Arjan Khalsa (one of the happiest people I've ever met.)  There were countless others, including the wonderful presenters.  I came back with new ideas and connections.

The entire experience was completely worth using two of my personal days to attend.

If you are interested in the presentation that I gave, you can watch it here, where Brian Costello streamed it though Periscope.

I spent the majority of last week preparing for the conference and getting my classes set up for my absence.

I didn't give NEARLY enough attention to what would happen when I came back.

This was my major failure for this week.


The astronomy kids are almost finished with the chapter.  I don't really have any activities for this topic for all sort of reasons which could be seen as excuses.  I haven't sent the next chapter to the printer yet so I'm delaying a bit.

We did notes.  We talked about solar eclipses today.  It was fine.

It was notes.

It wasn't as exciting as I would like it to be.  I have a Powerpoint already set up, so I just need to move through it and talk, answering questions and letting the kids drag off on tangents as much as possible.

A student asked how the moon got the craters and I happily showed videos of meteors.

The "math teacher who is beholden to standard tests" in me is screaming.  The lazy teacher in me who doesn't want classes to be at different spots in the content is weeping softly.

I need to remember that no matter what events I may have today, there is always going to be tomorrow.  I need to not leave those days unplanned.


So I know what I'm doing tonight, aside from looking at the moon through my new telescope...

Day 33: Just One

No matter how many years I teach, I am still amazed at how the addition (or subtraction) of a single student can change a classroom dynamic.

I have had classes where a new student in transferred in and, suddenly, a normally quiet student becomes loud and boisterous because the new kid is either a dear friend or a bitter enemy.

I have had classes where two (or more) students are constant disruptions.  Multiple interventions leave me with no results until the removal of one put the rest back on task.

At the same time, I have also had classes with loud disruptive students and the addition of a new member, a strong leader, changes that dynamic for the better and all students do well as a result.  Sometimes, a students needs a partner to help keep them on task, someone to encourage them in the right direction.


While I've been thinking about this for years, it only recently have I started to ask a certain question: Why not me?

Why can't the teacher be the one to change the class for the better?  I certainly know teachers who are the negative influence in the room, either by negligence or by design.  I also know some amazing teachers who walk in and do incredible things with difficult groups.  The teacher sets the tone for the room by their expectations and demeanor.

Yes, there are kids who can create or destroy an environment with their sheer presence, but we don't, and can't, control them.

We only get to decide how we act and react to them.


My 3rd period has been growing increasingly difficult.  There is a large contingency of young men who are good friends and very much enjoy their time together.  There is one in particular who seems to enjoy attempting to rile me up.  Some days he's successful and some days not.

Today, one of the young men in this group came to class late.  I was already into my lesson and was deeply annoyed by his coming to the door and not knocking on it, but violently kicking it.  I asked him to wait outside until I could talk to him.  He refused and wandered off

When he returned, he was (understandably) surly and kicked the door again.  When I eventually let him in, he sat silently with his head down.

At the end of class, I pulled him aside and talked to him about the incident.  I didn't scold him and I talked to him like I would to a friend.

Me: "Dude! What was that? Why do you need to be kicking my door? Could you maybe knock next time?"
Him: "Yeah, that wasn't cool. My bad. I won't do that again."
Me: "It's alright, man. I know people have off days.  If that's happening, let me know so I know and don't think you're just being a jerk."
Him: "You're right."
Me: "Alright, brother. I hope you have a great afternoon."
Him:"Thanks, Mr. Aion. You too."

I had several conversations like this over over the past few days.  High school kids seems much more open to this discussions than middle school kids.  I suppose maturity does happen.

In the middle of 8th period, a special gift arrived for my students!

65 Matt Damons in my room!!!


Now, to drive to Philly tonight, Atlantic City tomorrow and spend some time pretending that I know what I'm talking about.

Day 32: I Voted for Kodos

With my impending absence at the end of the week, I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something for my students to do for 2 days.  What I decided on was 2 days of lecture and demonstrations and giving them guided practice on Thursday and Friday.

I'm using the Powerpoint that was developed by the Astronomy teacher in 2010.  I'm supplementing it with demos and videos to snag interest.  This means that a lesson on tides and the gravitation of the moon included a section where we watched videos of tsunami waves and discussed how they were NOT related to the moon.

I was having trouble conveying that the effects of the moon were caused by gravity and that, as such, did not change based on the phases of the moon.  No, the eclipse does not cause tidal waves.

I'm also having difficulty with how willing my students are to fill out notes.  I know that 90% of them will never look at them again, but the idea of "copying notes" off the board is so familiar to them, that they do it without complaint.  Kids who sleep during my class will sit up and copy down words from the board.

When I try to do demonstrations or tell stories, they talk over me, take naps, or generally don't care.  The idea that "learning" means copying from the board seems hardwired into them.

By the time 6th period came in, I was confident enough in the material that I decided to add a small demonstration.  Up to that point, I had talked about twirling a small child around in a circle and how doing so forces you to lean back.  You end up not spinning around your own axis, but one slightly in front of you.

In 6th period, I pulled a kid up and spin with her, showing how we were both leaning back, but the person with more mass (me) was leaning much less.

When she was dizzy and laughing, I left her on the floor and went back to my lesson.  Cause that's how I roll.

I did end up having to throw a kid out.  He's one of the brighter kids in the class, but he's developing an irritating habit of answering everything I say with "prove it."  After I asked him several times to stop, I had to toss him out.  After that, the rest of the class was pretty on the ball and we had a good class.

The real lesson for me is that we must move forward, not backward, upward, not forward and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!

On top of everything else, since I believe in the strength and power of relationships (or something) I stood in the hallway between classes today, completely straight-faced, with my fist up waiting for kid to give me knucks.

Kids I didn't know pounded it as they walked by and were greeted by me changing my expression from silent and stoic to exuberance and smiles.

"Hey yo! He's super weird!"

Yes, young man who looks like '80's Lionel Richie trapped in a Starbucks.  Yes I am.

If you've read this far, thanks! If you haven't done so already, I would love if you would take 30 second and fill out my survey.  Thanks!