Day 7: Beep Beep!!

All aboard the struggle bus!

I started most of my classes with the following statement:

Today is day 7. For the last 6 days, I have tried my best to be upbeat, energetic and excited. Today, it's not working for me. I'm not sure if it's the heat, or the lack of sleep, or just the normal stress of starting a new year, but I'm on the struggle bus today.  I need you to understand that it has nothing to do with you.  I don't want you to think that my mood, which is obviously depressed from what it has been, has anything to do with how you have been participating, acting or working. You are all champs and have been doing great work since day 1.  Some days you just aren't feeling it and, for whatever reason, that's me today. I'm sorry for that and I will try to do better.

 In addition, the weekly warm-up sheets are coming in and I'm seeing student responses to "I wish Mr. Aion knew..."

The vast majority are either random and funny, or very encouraging.

"I am enjoying this class this year"
"It's ok to not be energetic all the time."
"I would smile at his jokes, but I cut my mouth and it hurts to smile."
"He is one of the coolest, respectful teachers."  (Seriously)

There are, of course, a few that are discouraging

"I used to think I was better at math than most people, but now I've been knocked down a peg."
"I used to think math was easy, but now I know it's not."

Since I am a human being who is currently working on myself, I am WAY over focused on the negative comments, despite the fact that they are vastly outnumbered.  Is it in the nature of humans to look at 99 successes and see 1 failure, or are teachers more susceptible to that mentality?

The goal for next week is to get kids up out of their seats, or working on activities as much as possible.  I want the Geometry classes to start doing constructions and I'm going to browse my resources for a good Algebra 2 activity.  I avoided it this week simply because it has been too hot to ask people to move around.

Overall, it's been a great week and I'm thankful for the kids I have in class.

Time to nap until Monday!

Day 6: What the Buck-et

I've taught geometry several times before this year.  In all of that time, I would say that the aspect of the course that my students find most challenging is the ability to visualize the shapes without having a physical manifestation.

I'm not sure if this is due to the lack of abstract visualization in the K-12 curriculum, or it's simply an insanely difficult skill.

When we begin to study 3-dimensional shapes in 5th and 6th grade, we hit on the idea of nets as representations of objects.  When I did the cereal box project last year, this was, by far, the most difficult aspect.  Students had tremendous difficulty figuring out what their box would look like when they were unfolded and, similarly, struggled with how to create a net for a box of a desired shape.

We had a VERY long talk in geometry today that dealt with moving from lines to planes.  We talk about each wall in the classroom, as well as the ceiling and floor, can be seen as a plane. Things written on those walls are contained in that plane.

Where it usually falls apart is when we're deciding whether three corners of the room that are NOT all on the same wall happen to be on the same plane.

"Are points E, D and B co-planer?"

"They aren't on the same plane because they are on different walls."
"They are because you can draw a line between any two of them."
"They are because you can make a triangle between them."
"But that triangle isn't on any of the planes."

How do you get students to realize that ANY three points can make a plane? How do you get them to SEE that plane when one isn't there?

I tried drawing it.  I tried having them picture a mesh net between those points.

After they left, I realized I needed a bucket.

I have several small rectangular crates in my room to hold pencils and markers at each table.  I held one up as a physical representation of the space. It allowed me to turn it around and have the kids look inside.

I needed a bucket.

If I had a bucket, I'd bucket in the moooo-oooorning.

Get out of here, you three!

If I had had a bucket, I would have filled it with water.  Then I could put the crate in it, using the water level as the representation of the plane!  Is there a way to submerge the crate such that those three points are on the surface of the water?

I come up with great ideas for yesterday's lessons!

I'm taking a bucket of water to class tomorrow!

Day 5: Lesson Plans?

Well, that didn't take long!

Something about the best laid plans...

I managed to fall behind my lesson plans already.  To be fair, our schedule has been messed up by having early dismissals from the heat.  I was also reminded that I have a tendency to ramble when I find an interesting topic.

In geometry, we were defining terms, specifically points, lines and planes.  We were talking about what it means for something to be three-, two-, one- or zero-dimensional. I was reminded of one of my favorite ideas in geometry, which is that two-dimensional objects (like squares) can be seen as the projections or shadows of three-dimensional objects (like cubes).  Similarly, one-dimensional objects can be seen as the shadows of two-dimensional objects.

Extracting from this, it's a great way to ask students to visualize that they (three dimensional objects) are merely projections of some other four-dimensional object.

"Mr. A, what's the highest level math class you can take?"

Philosophy!"


In other, more reflective, news, I'm having difficulty realizing that my 3rd period class is my 3rd period.  I keep thinking it's 4th and I keep getting shocked when kids come after they leave.

No worries though. I have 175 more days to get it right.

Day 4: Lesson Plans

Due to concerns about heat, our district, as well as many of the surrounding districts, closed school early today and will do so again tomorrow.

As much as I'm disappointed to be losing some of my classes so early in the year, my intense desire to fall asleep in front of an open refrigerator tells me that it's a good idea.

In spite of the heat and humidity, my students worked very hard for me today.  I've been scouring various curricula and picking the things that I like in order to try to organize these classes that I haven't taught in many a moon.  I'm also making a concerted effort to be more organized than I normally am.  This is helped along by our new mandate to have lesson plans available for the next week should someone ask for them.

The plans themselves don't have to be anything absurd, just a basic outline and topic list so someone could grab the folder and teach the class in case of emergency.

This is the 12th year full time classroom teacher.  Including the two years that I spent working on my Master's Degree, this is the first time when I have been told to make lesson plans that meet the needs that I set out for myself.

In all previous years, when lesson plans have been mandated, a specific format was chosen and implemented district-wide, regardless of whether aspects of it were useful to individual teachers.

Anyone who has attended an education program can attest to the fact that the required lesson plans would make Tolstoy say "that's a bit much."

As a result of this, I have almost never taken lesson plans seriously.  I would spend hours on a format that was filled with information that I didn't find helpful and would only confuse me further.  In addition to that, they were almost never checked.

A former colleague went a year without changing the plans, only modifying the date before they were submitted.  She was told that her attention lesson plan submission was exemplary.

She even turned in several plans that were laced with profanity, or contained excerpts cut from fiction articles.

No one noticed.


I am not opposed to lesson plans.  I am, however, deeply opposed to assignments that serve no purpose except to check a box.

When we were told that we would be required to have lesson plans on hand in the classroom, I'll admit that I grumbled and planned to look for the old plans from years ago.

This weekend, I actually started doing just that and quickly realized it was a mistake.

Lesson plans in the past have not been helpful to me, but this was a chance to make them so.  With the ability to choose the format, I was able to make it what I wanted.  It is very minimalist, but contains what I'll need to keep my classes moving at a good pace.

I need structure.  I need time tables and check lists and to-do's.  I wander off task in my content, hitting things that are interesting, but not necessarily helpful to my students' learning.

I am glad to be writing lesson plans again.


Education programs, instead of forcing students to write 35 page lesson plans, should be teaching them how to develop their own planning style, selecting the items that are important and productive for them.

I stuck with my lesson plans today and will continue to do so.


At least until I see something shiny.

Day 3: FRIDAY!!!

Well, I'm exhausted...

We only had 3 days of class this week, but I've been going full blast! In addition to getting up before 5 am, being in an 85 degree (and up) classroom for 8 and a half hours, getting home to take care of my own kids, and running a 5k each day, I've been pouring on the high energy during my classes.

It was so important to me to make this first week a good one, not only for me, but for my students.  Knowing that the room was going to be a bit toasty, and that math would be happening in it, I knew many of the kids would be coming to me with some ... demeanor concerns.  I don't blame them.

I will get them up and moving around when it cools off a bit, but for now, I wanted to create an air of fun and interest in my room, demonstrating the beauty that is mathematics.

I THINK I've done that.  It's hard to tell, simply because the nature of high school students is so different than that of middle school students.  It will take me a bit of time to relearn how to read my audience, but so far I think I'm heading in the right direction.

What you do during the first few days will set a tone. What kind of tone do you want to set? Do you want the students to be in charge? Do you want them to be afraid of you? To love you? Do you set a tone of cooperation, or one of domination?

I'm making a conscious effort to use names of everyone I address and to keep a smile on my face as much as possible.

WELCOME TO MATH!!!

I managed to write back to every student this week on all of their name tents.  It has been time consuming, but very worth it.

We are babysitting for a friend tonight, so I need to run before that happens and then I plan to sleep until school starts up again on Tuesday.

Day 2: Still Hot, Still Cool

It hit 90 in my room again, but it was another great day!

We began looking at procedures with our daily warm-ups and recitation of the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practices. I gave a brief explanation of the Standards-Based Grading system that I use and answered any questions that they happen to think of right then.

Then we were off into content!

I explained to both classes (Algebra II and Geometry) that mathematics is a language.  It's insanely hard to learn a language by simply reading the dictionary.  Those who wish to become fluent regularly engage in conversation with native speakers, learning the conjugations and idioms.

Math is no different.  In order to learn math, we have to engage with it beyond simply using the operations.

We need common language.

In Algebra II, we started a card sort activity that was..ahem...appropriated from Jonathan Claydon.

Student groups were given 24 cards, consisting of 8 terms, 8 equations and 8 graphs.  With no help from me, they were asked to put them into 8 piles of 3 cards each, matching term to equation to graph.

I reminded them that it has been a few months and so they shouldn't panic if they don't know it right away. 90% of the groups ROCKED it! They dove in, using different strategies, pulling out the ones they knew (linear, absolute value), picking ones that seemed to go together (f(x)=log(x) and "logarithm") and using process of elimination to find others.

After about 10 minutes, we stopped to talk about how they could figure out which graphs went to which equations if they didn't remember what they looked like.  None of the groups had built a table of values, but when I asked this question directly, they almost all said that you could plug in numbers and graph it.  We did some examples on the board before the bell rang.


In Geometry, we worked on defining terms and notation that we will be using throughout the year. I gave them a check list to try, knowing that most of the notation was beyond what they had covered yet.  Several students asked "what's notation?"

When it became clear that I wasn't going to give them the answers, that I wanted them to struggle, most stopped asking me anything more than clarifying questions. They worked in groups for a bit and when I began to sense the frustration level getting too high, I stopped them.  We looked at the board and built the beginning of our vocabulary notes as a group.

Even in the heat, the kids were engaged and working hard!

I had them fill out the second day of their Name Tents (Ask me a question) and I managed to respond to all of them before I left school!

They were great questions, but a few stuck out to me.

It's a shame that no one will be able to read my response.

I think this is going to be a pretty darn good year!

Day 1: Chill Out!

My alarm went off at 4:45.

By 5:30, I was in my car driving to the first student day of my 12th year as a teacher.

I honestly can't reconcile that fact in my mind. I still feel as though I'm in my first few years as a teacher and, in a way, I am. This is only my third year in my current district and those have been full of transition and change.

I took a break from blogging last year and I think there were unintended consequences in terms of my own perspective on my teaching, so I'm going to start up again.

Today was...

GREAT!

Like, for realz!

I began this year, not by introducing the syllabus and classroom rules and grading policies, but by having my students write.

My typical Day 1 activity has been asking students to define a "sandwich."  I always get groans and laughs and GREAT discussions and today was no exception.

In an effort to make it more rigorous and mature, since I'm teaching older kids this year, I took a page from the playbook of my kindred teaching spirit, Brian Cerullo (Give him a follow!)

I asked them to write silently for 5 minutes followed by a discussion. In a few cases, I kept having to propose "whatabouts" to challenge their definitions, but by and large, the other students did that.  I was able to sit and watch them interact, keeping track of points I wanted to hit and asking certain students to answer the concerns made by others.

Many of the students left the room with their heads hurting and frustrated in a good way. All day, I only had one student yell out "just tell us what a sandwich is!"

"What do YOU think it is?" the teacher asked socratically. 

"Socratically isn't a word, Justin" you say.

"How do you know?" I respond socratically.

The other first day change this year was that I used the Name Tents from the brilliant and incomparable Sara Van Der Werf.

I asked students to write a sentence or two at the end of class, reflecting on the class, making comments and giving me their thoughts, and I promised to respond to each one!  Out of 75+ kids, only 3 left them blank.  The comments that I got from them were so interesting and I was glad to hear and be able to respond to each one.

No one told me that I smelled bad, even though it hit 90 in my room today!

I'm looking forward to an interesting (in a good way) year.

I'm going to go crawl inside the refrigerator now.

...show off...