Take Time to Save Time – Hall of Fame reference sheets

Inevitably, teachers get known for their mottos. Sam's mottos are justifiably world-famous. Personally, I love "Don't be a hero." Mine are known mostly around my school, but it is interesting to see how they trickle down into students' unconscious minds.

Color telling the story

Mottos pay off. My favorite is one I stole from my former colleague Alex Wilson: "Color tells the story." I don't understand how anybody can do math at a deep conceptual level without colored pencils. Color really does tell the story, especially in Geometry (see popular worked example at right).


One of my best math class mottos comes from published patterns for knitting. It is, "Take time to save time." In knitting, this means to make sure that the tension of your actual knitted work — your hands, your needles, your yarn — match the tension or gauge described in the knitting pattern. There are no shortcuts here. My knitting gauge tends to be extremely big or loose compared to most pattern-makers. I often have to use much smaller needles than specified in order to achieve a good match with the specified knitting gauge.

In my classroom, "Take time to save time" means, synthesize your learning into a reference sheet. For all tests but the final, I allow students to have and make a half-page reference sheet.  The first rule is, you can have anything you want except a photocopy of my work on your reference half-sheet. The second rule is, if you have more than a half sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch paper, then I get to tear it in half and choose which half you get. This rule gets tested even when I emphasize it. Every year somebody tests this rule. "But Dr. S! I only wrote a half-page worth of stuff on the paper!" It doesn't matter. I usually rip the whole thing lengthwise so they only get the right-hand half of the paper.

It makes its point.

In knitting, this point gets made by the scale and size of your finished object. If you insist on not checking your gauge, at some point, you will end up with a finger-puppet-sized sweater or a scarf the size of Lake Tahoe.

Clearly this student is going to ace the final.

In our classes, this point gets made by your performance on our common final exam. Students who have been practicing making clear, concise, summaries and examples of their work and key points tend to turn in consistently strong performances. So on the final, I allow a full-page reference sheet (both sides). I emphatically want students to consolidate their understanding and create their own examples. That is where the learning happens.

So I was thrilled today when I asked to see examples of in-progress reference sheets. Many of them made my Hall Of Fame request to scan for posterity. This Algebra 1 student has totally nailed her understanding of mixture problems. This is the best example I've seen of a student consolidating her understanding of these modeling challenges.

New strategy for introducing INBs: complex instruction approach

After months of not feeling like my best teacher self in the classroom, I got fed up and spent all weekend tearing stuff down and rebuilding from the ground up.

INBs are something I know well — something that work for students. So I decided to take what I had available and, as Sam would say, turn what I DON'T know into what I DO know. Love those Calculus mottos.

So I rebuilt my version of the exponential functions unit in terms of INBs. But that meant, I would have to introduce INBs.

As one girl said, "New marking period, new me!" The kids just went with it and really took to it.

Here is what I did.

ON EACH GROUP TABLE: I placed a sample INB that began with a single-sheet Table of Contents (p. 1), an Exponential Functions pocket page (p. 3), and had pages numbered through page 7. There were TOC sheets and glue sticks on the table.

SMART BOARD: on the projector, I put a countdown timer (set for 15 minutes) and an agenda slide that said,

• New seats!
• Choose a notebook! Good colors still available!
• Make your notebook look like the sample notebook on your table 

As soon as the bell rang, I hit Start on the timer, which counted down like a bomb in a James Bond movie.

Alfred Hitchcock once said, if you want to create suspense, place a ticking time bomb under a card table at which four people are playing bridge. This seemed like good advice for introducing INBs to my students.

I think because it was a familiar, group work task approach to an unfamiliar problem, all the kids simply went went with it. "How did you make the pocket? Do you fold it this way? Where does the table of contents go? What does 'TOC' mean? What goes on page 5?" And so on and so on.

I circulated, taking attendance and making notes about participation. When students would ask me a question about how to do something, I would ask them first, "Is this a group question?" If not, they knew what was going to happen. If it was, I was happy to help them get unstuck.

Then came the acid test: the actual note-taking.

I was concerned, but they were riveted. They felt a lot more ownership over their own learning process.

There are still plenty of groupworthy tasks coming up, but at least now they have a container for their notes and reflection process.

I'm going to do a "Five Things" reflection (trace your hand on a RHS page and write down five important things from the day's lesson or group work) and notes for a "Four Summary Statements" poster, but I finally feel like I have a framework to help kids organize their learning.

I've even created a web site with links to photos of my master INB in case they miss class and need to copy the notes. Here's a link to the Box.com photo files, along with a picture of page 5:

We only got through half as much as I wanted us to get through, but they were amazed at how many notes we had in such a small and convenient space.

It feels good to be back!

Arithmetic of Complex Numbers Placemat Activity - Algebra 2 + Complex Instruction (CI)

Just because you have an all-groupwork and all-Complex Instruction (CI) format doesn't mean you don't need practice activities too.

Our Algebra 2 kids were getting the concepts of complex numbers and complex conjugates, but were still kinda shaky in terms of fluency in working with them.

Based on ideas I stole borrowed a long time ago from the fabulous Kate Nowak (@k8nowak, http://function-of-time.blogspot.com) and the equally fabulous Rachel Kernodle (@rdkpickle, http://sonatamathematique.wordpress.com ), I proposed a placemat activity to my ever-game Algebra 2 teaching team and they dove right in.

Set-Up
We have typical CI four-person table teams set up in each of our rooms, with each person assigned a specific role based on where they're seated at the table. Our roles are Facilitator, Resource Manager, Recorder/Reporter, and Team Captain, although of course, your mileage may vary. Each role has specific tasks they are expected to perform; for example, only the Resource Manager may call the teacher over for a group check-in or a group question (in our program, teachers only accept and answer group questions).

Each table was given:

• two, double-sided "placemat" sheets for doing work in the center of the table
• a set of problem cards (there are four sets, one for each round of play; to simplify clean-up and organization, I printed each round of cards single-sided on a different color of paper, one set per table group. I've got 7 tables in my room, so I made seven sets of cards. I laminated them and clipped them together, but hey, that's just me)
• the sum to which all four answers for any given round should add up

The sum for each round was written on the whiteboard, though it could have been projected via document camera or Keynote/Powerpoint slide.

Objectives
We had mathematical objectives for the activity as well as CI or norms-based, group work objectives. My students in particular needed reinforcement in group work norms and collaboration. Our objectives were:

     Math Objectives

• achieve greater fluency in the arithmetic of complex numbers (including the distributive property)
• deepen understanding of and fluency with the powers of i
• deepen understanding of and fluency with complex conjugates

     Group Work Objectives

• work in the middle of the table
•  same problem, same time (no one moves on until everyone moves on)
• using table group members as resources

The next time I run this activity, I will definitely give a Participation Quiz because the group work norms are so beautifully reinforced in this activity.

How We Ran It
Recorder/Reporter writes the sum in the central oval of the first side of the placemat. Each group member gets a problem card for round 1 (problem a) and works his or her problem on his or her quadrant of the placemat.

When everybody is finished with their problem, the Facilitator facilitates the addition of all four answers. If they add up to the given sum for that round, the Resource Manager calls the teacher over for a "checkpoint" and the next set of cards for the subsequent round of work.

If their answers don't add up to the given sum, they need to work together through everybody's work on the placemat to diagnose what went wrong and where, as well as how to fix it. Then when they've fixed it, they call the teacher over for a checkpoint and the next set of cards for the subsequent round.

Group Work Benefits — Reinforcing Norms
For my classes, the greatest benefits of this activity came from the fact that it forced students to work in the middle of the table, to use each other as resources, and to talk mathematics. Getting kids to work in the middle of the table is the hardest part of CI, in my view, because it goes against the grain of most of their in-school conditioning. The placemat format makes it nearly impossible NOT to work in the middle of the table. And once they're doing that, it seemed like everything else ran pretty smoothly.

I especially liked the fact that this activity created a context in which students experienced an intellectual need for the using the rules of arithmetic for complex numbers and for the powers of i. It was situationally motivated, but extremely targeted.

Sums for Each Round 
The sums for each round are as follows (if you find an error, please speak up):

• Round 1 (problem a):   26-73i
• Round 2 (problem b):  0
• Round 3 (problem c):  165
• Round 4 (problem d):  2 – 48i

PDF Files for the activity
These are available also on the Math Teacher Wiki on the Algebra 2 page. If you haven't visited the Math Teacher Wiki, you don't know what you're missing.

• Complex Numbers Arithmetic – Problem Cards
• Complex Numbers Arithmetic – Placemat Master

Because it always pays to follow Sam around like a duckling #Made4Math

Last week of school before the break — and it's FINALS WEEK.

Because I'm so late to the game and don't really know what my kids have or haven't learned over the semester, all of the Algebra 2 teachers gave our classes two periods to work on the final. Last Thursday/Friday (our second block period of the week), they had the whole period to work on the exam. Then this week (our actual Finals Week), they'll have their whole block period to work on test corrections/finishing — using my markings as a guide.

So I've got about 150 finals to score preliminarily, which is why it made SO MUCH SENSE for me to use much of this precious Sunday to make my own version of Sam's amazing personalized planner.

Here is Sam's planner:

And here is my version:

I think this even counts as a #Made4Math entry, although it should probably be listed as a #MadeInsteadOfMath submission. :)

Collaboration Literacy Part 2 — DRAFT Rubric: essential skills for mathematical learning groups

I have said this before: middle schoolers are extremely concrete thinkers. This is why I find it so helpful to have a clear and concrete rubric I can use to help them to understand assessment of their work as specifically as possible. I'm reasonably happy with the rubric I've revised over the years for problem-solving, as it seems to help students diagnose and understand what went wrong in their individual work and where they need to head. But I've realized I also needed a new rubric — one for what I've been calling "collaboration literacy" in this blog. My students need help naming and understanding the various component skills that make up being a healthy and valuable collaborator.

My draft of this rubric for collaboration, which is grounded in restorative practices, can be found on the MS Math Teacher's wiki. I would very much value your input and feedback on this tool and its ideas.

I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about how and why Complex Instruction does not work for me. Suffice it to say that the rigid assignment of individual roles is a deal breaker. If CI works for you, please accept that I am happy that you have something that works well for you in your teaching practice.

This rubric incorporates a lot of great ideas from a lot of sources I admire deeply, including the restorative practices people everywhere, Dr. Fred Joseph Orr, Max Ray and The Math Forum, Malcolm Swan, Judy Kysh/CPM, Brian R. Lawler, Dan Pink's book Drive, Sam J. Shah, Kate Nowak, Jason Buell, Megan Hayes-Golding, Ashli Black, Grace A. Chen, Breedeen Murray, Avery Pickford, "Sophie Germain," and yes, also the Complex Instruction folks. I hope it is worthy of all that they have taught me.

Radio Silence Does Not Mean Nothing Is Happening...

Wow, did I ever fall off the radar.

Plop. That "splat" you might have heard was me, falling off the blogging radar.

But I'm back, baby.

Last night I had the most wonderful dinner with @btwnthenumbers and @woutgeo and @mythagon, who was in town for a conference/collaborative meeting, and I tell you, it pretty much restored my faith in teaching, in mathematics, and probably in all of humanity.

I have been working at a near-frantic pace these last five weeks, prepping, teaching, grading, not grading, having parent conferences, having meetings with parents and the principal, having meetings with parents and principal and superintendent, going to IEP meetings, collaborating with my department members to write goals that will help us to align our curriculum with the Common Core, and generally dealing with all those things that go haywire as soon as you start to nail down some satisfying, finite part of your teaching.

In other words, just like you, life has been kicking my ass.

But between last night and this morning's drive to work something shifted. Something sane and healthy intervened.

That something was my connection with the Twitter- blogo-sphere.

Whenever I'm feeling exhausted and run over with skid marks across my face and body, connection with my tweeps -- any connection -- seems to be the best medicine. I don't know why this is true; I only know that it is so. Remembering this makes me think of a quote I have from von Neumann hanging in the ring of inspiring quotes that encircles my classroom: "In mathematics, you don't understand things; you just get used to them." Some days that's how I feel about things in my classroom or in my school or in my life.

I only know that five or ten minutes of venting to my tweeps about an impossible situation -- even when @woutgeo is only half-listening because (a) the Giants are sucking pretty hard against the Cardinals and because (b) my venting is both predictable and boring -- it helped just to have reconnected with the connection. In Jakobsonian structuralist linguistics, this kind of communicative connection is known as a "phatic utterance" (look it up, Riemann, I have to look up all of your crap).

By this morning, I was feeling reasonably happy driving to work for a 7:30 a.m. meeting. I was not totally thrilled about the hour or having to buy gas at that hour or the price of gas for that matter, but I felt pretty great about car-dancing in the dark to Ace of Base's "The Sign" and remembering car-dancing at #TMC12 with @mgolding and @samjshah and @jreulbach and @ bowmanimal on the way to do Exeter problem sets. And I felt great when @rdkpickle's sweet soprano voice was joined by @SweenWSweens and @jreulbach singing "Tweet Me Maybe." And I even laughed when the theme from Sesame Street came on. iPod's "shuffle" feature has a somewhat perverse sense of humor.

OK, and one other thing I have learned is that my dog always knows when it's time for me to end a blog post. Just now he jumped up on my lap and pounded the laptop keyboard with his giant panda bear paw:

34ycvzn

So that's my cue to wrap this up.

I just want to say, if you are feeling alone or frustrated or exasperated and you are reading this, then for the sake of everything we hold dear, please reach out to someone else who is of like mind. "It's hard to teach right... in isolaaaaaaaaation.... So here's some PD.... just like vacation!"

Tweet me maybe, tweeps. Over and out for now.

On Meeting Sam, or How Twitter and Blogging Refreshes My Teaching Practice... and My Life

So Sam Shah was in town for a visit, and a bunch of us got together Friday night for drinks and dinner in his honor.

Before anything, I should tell you that everything magical you've heard about Sam is true, including that elusive quality that Jason of Always Formative captured so well when he said that "hugging him is like being wrapped up in a freshly laundered rainbow."

If you teach, then you also understand that there is something both improbable and heroic about going out on a Friday night. Especially for a late dinner.

But these are my math teacher-blogger tweeps, the people who restore my faith in the power of teaching and learning, and nothing recharges my teaching batteries like connecting with them IRL (In Real Life). So I'm glad I got my butt off the couch and met up with them at Bar Tartine for an evening of conversation, laughter, and understanding.

There's something precious about having a circle of teacher-blogger tweeps that is hard to explain to teachers who don't use Twitter or blogs. Don't get me wrong, my colleagues at school are amazing and I love teaching with them. But my math teacher-blogger tweeps are the ones who really "get" me. They inspire me. They know me at a surprisingly deep level. They are the colleagues who are trying to improve as teachers in the same ways I am trying to improve as a teacher. They are the ones who respond to my Twitter distress calls with lesson ideas and foldables and encouragement and energy of their own. They share my love of office supplies and unicorns and my outrage at stupid copier breakdowns the suggestion that Khan Academy videos are the solution to all of American education's problems.

Sam, of course, is the grand wizard of intellectual generosity in the Twittersphere, the keeper of the Virtual Filing Cabinet and well as the frequently hilarious "Favorite Tweets," which is why I follow him around like a duckling.

And that is why it was such a gift for all of us to get to meet him IRL.

NCTM Standard 7: fostering "positive dispositions toward mathematics"

Standard 7 for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics measures whether well-qualified math teachers "support a positive disposition toward mathematical processes and mathematical learning." But their criteria and performance indicators don't exactly reach through the screen, grab me by my shoulders, and inspire me to inspire my kids to love mathematics. They seem more like a floor than a ceiling, and personally, my desire is to aim higher than that.

One of the ways in which a positive disposition is fostered is by building a strong and positive learning alliance with my students. In a therapeutic situation, the establishment of a therapeutic alliance is a critical step. The client must believe that the therapist believes in them and in their commitment to change. The great Jungian analyst, teacher, and storyteller Clarissa Pinkola Estés says that nobody can truly accomplish great things completely on their own steam. The same is true for students in the math classroom. When they know in their bones that I am rooting for them, they begin to feel that success in mathematics is possible. That doesn't mean I don't "display attention to equity/diversity" or "use stimulating curricula" and "effective teaching strategies," as NCTM standard number 7 demands. It means that every day, in every way, I try to demonstrate my own commitment to being in their corner and cheering for them.

Another way in which I can help foster positive disposition toward mathematics is through sharing my own enjoyment of the processes we investigate. To me, positive disposition is about cultivating curiosity and patience. I find that when I model my own process of enjoyment, I give them a window into what their own relationships to mathematics can look like.

And so I consider it a wise investment of time and energy to cultivate positive dispositions wherever I can, regardless of a student's success or lack of sucess so far in Algebra, and I see it paying off in little and big ways throughout the year.

One experiment in building positive disposition I've been trying lately is something I ripped off borrowed from Sam Shah -- the use of motivational buttons. Inspired by Sam's lead, I made up some motivational buttons for students to wear during tests:

If students wear their Algebra Warrior! button during tests, I give them an extra credit point on the test. I gave these out during our last test and made everybody "take the pledge" to wear their button during tests, including the state standardized tests this year.

Still, I recognize that they are middle school students who can (a) lose anything and (b) easily be distracted even from things that are important to them.

So I was pleased when at least 80% of each class showed up eager to show me that they were wearing their Algebra Warrior! buttons for the test on Friday.

It's a tiny thing, but it's a tangible way of getting them to practice demonstrating their commitment to being impeccable warriors in mathematics. Like warriors putting on armor to do battle, my little Algebra Warriors put on their buttons and remember to form an alliance with themselves — to advocate for themselves and remember that they are connecting with something much bigger than their fear or confidence whenever they do mathematics.

SBG, Intrinsic Motivation, and the "Grading" of "Homework"

One of the surprising parts of this latest round of parent conferences was the number of parents who wanted to talk to me about why their child is suddenly interested and engaged in learning mathematics when — as I gathered — this was not previously always the case.

I teach in a district which places a very high value on school, teachers, and academic achievement, so this conversation in and of itself was not the surprising thing.

I explained about using Standards-Based Grading, frequent formative assessment, and the remediation and reassessment method I first stole learned about from Sam Shah and others in my Twitterverse/blogosphere orbit, but two things came up again and again during this round of conversations which really caught me by surprise: my emphasis on in-class autonomy as a mode of differentiation and my approach to grading homework.

In-Class Autonomy
My Algebra 1 classes are unusual for a middle school in that they contain a mixture of 7th and 8th graders. I find there are huge benefits to this kind of heterogeneous grouping. For one thing, the students in one grade tend not to have met the students in the other grade, so there are fewer preexisting status issues to contend with among math learners (for an excellent discussion of working with status issues in the math classroom, see Between the Numbers' presentation on this issue from the Creating Balance conference on Math & Social Justice in an Unjust World). For another, it creates a healthy competitive atmosphere in which neither age range wants to be shown up by the other. 8th graders do not want to have their clocks cleaned by a bunch of 7th-grade whippersnappers, and this is an excellent antidote to the problem of 8th grade "senioritis." At the same time, 7th graders are somewhat intimidated by being around the older kids, and that motivates them to bring their A game to class to help them compensate for any feelings of insecurity. The mixing of students encourages everybody to notice and value what others bring to the situation and to stay focused on their own work.

I am pretty much tied to the curriculum, our pacing guide, and the state testing schedule, with minor variations allowed to deal with large-group (or whole-group) lostness as need be. But that means that there are times when the most with-it students could get frustrated or bored if I did not provide them with some differentiated alternatives to keep them engaged while I work with the 75% of the class who are catching up to them.

So I allow students who are ahead of others to either "work ahead" or "dive deeper" during these times. I see no reason to bore them when I can challenge them and call them back to work with the whole group when I need everybody (or when there is a whole-class activity they do not wish to miss out on). I provide them with self-selectable options and I find that it works out really well.

This fits well with Dan Pink's thesis in his book Drive that intrinsic motivation arises from our basic human desires for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Middle-schoolers do not have much autonomy in their own lives, so giving them a little bit in the classroom goes a long way towards both motivation and harmony (which is how I prefer to think of "classroom management").

Apparently this has been my unwitting secret to getting many of my students' cooperation. Students who would be bored or frustrated at being tethered to a whole-class pace that is either too fast or too slow feel happy and engaged because I try to make it possible for them to work at a pace and a depth that is meaningful for them. I did not realize this was such a giant change for so many of them.

The Grading of Homework
The other thing that seems to be working for my students is the change in emphasis on the "grading" of "homework," in that I do not actually grade their homework.

I was convinced long ago that Sam Shah's approach to Binder Checks is the best way to place an appropriate value on homework — namely, that homework is work one does at home to improve one's own learning. In an SBG world, mastery is measured by the student's performance on assessments — not by the teacher assessing each of 40 problems that one has worked on at home. The purpose of homework is to provide practice and investigation time, in addition to exposure to different kinds of problems and issues that may come up. The purpose of "assessing" homework is to assist the student in developing good study habits and organizational habits so that homework becomes a meaningful part of their school lives.

When I moved from high school to middle school, I discovered that the full binder check approach was a recipe for discouragement. It seems to be a developmental issue. So instead, I have modified the program into a system of "mini-binder checks," in which I check the corresponding homework "chunk" while they work on the test/assessment on that particular chapter/chunk. The "grade" or "score" they receive for "homework" is merely a completion score. It is not a problem-by-problem assessment of their thought process on each homework assignment.

Apparently it's a novel approach to trust motivated middle school students to do their homework and check it all at the assessment point in one fell swoop. At conferences this week, I heard some pretty upsetting stories about students staying up until midnight or one o'clock in the morning, trying to get all their math homework done so they would not get punished and graded down. I heard stories of students I think of as super-mathletes breaking down into tears and meltdowns because they couldn't get their homework all done and they got punished (and shamed) in class because of this failure. So I heard a lot of appreciation that I assign a reasonable amount of homework and expect them to take ownership of getting it all done in time for a reasonable assessment of completion.

It makes me kind of sad to hear these stories because I think of the students in my Algebra classes as pretty joyful learners. And it also saddens me because I do not see these practices as leading toward the "positive dispositions toward mathematics" that we are supposed to be building.

Favorite Tweets #13 - gathered on behalf of Sam Shah

For those of you who follow Sam's favorite tweets, here are some of the highlights since June 15th, when Sam first nominated me to hold the fort while he is off developing professionally.

Sam will, of course, republish these on his own site but these should tide you over until his return.

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@sarcasymptote - My fellow teachers call me the copy machine whisperer, but really I think I'm just the only one who knows how to read.

@dandersod - @sarcasymptote and hopefully the only one who can read twitter, haha.

@sarcasymptote - @dandersod you've overestimated my tact. While fixing it, I told everyone, "all you have to do is follow the goddamn instructions."

---

@sarcasymptote - @fnoschese @torquedu @calcdave @physicscarp @gotphysics there are tons of videos of eastern europeans doing stupid shit that shows physics

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@samjshah - @cheesemonkeysf would you like to create the next favorite tweets? I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks and won't be crazy tweeting.

@k8nowak - @samjshah I 2nd the nomination of @cheesemonkeysf to make the next Favorite Tweets.

@cheesemonkeysf - @samjshah You mean because I am totally wasting time instead of working on my SBG gala post for @lmhenry9 who is slaving away?

Sure. ;-)

@cheesemonkeysf - @k8nowak @samjshah  OK, but you realize there's going to be some insane stuff in there.

@k8nowak - @cheesemonkeysf @samjshah Natch. Kind of counting on it actually.

@calcdave - @cheesemonkeysf @k8nowak @samjshah  The insane stuff is my favorite! #favourite

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@samjshah - @Mythagon can we also make anything vegetarian from t.co/C4T53i3 ? and eat t.co/kxjsDnd again? YES! we will do these things!

@cheesemonkeysf - @samjshah @mythagon Now I'm sad. There's TONS of great vegetarian recips on smittenkitchen.com .

@samjshah - @cheesemonkeysf @mythagon why don't you just come on by utah

@cheesemonkeysf - @samjshah @mythagon Do they allow drop-ins at PCMI? Or would I just be your chef-slave? ;-)

@Mythagon - @cheesemonkeysf @samjshah I like the idea of a chef-slave. I'd be willing to hide you in my room.

@samjshah - @Mythagon @cheesemonkeysf  awesome... i think this is going to work out just fine

@park_star - @Mythagon @cheesemonkeysf @samjshah  why to to Utah and be a chef-slave when you can go to SK and be a chef-slave? Real novelty is a SK vacay

@samjshah - @Mythagon @cheesemonkeysf don't listen to @park_star! you need a passport to go there, while you just need a unicorn ponycorn to go to UT

@park_star - @samjshah @mythagon @cheesemonkeysf lies! Unicorns and their riders are admitted w/out passports. 

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@sophgermain - Post coming later. Lots of feelings.

@park_star - @sophgermain feelings? Like you need a hug? Good thing you're moving closer to @samjshah

@samjshah - @park_star @sophgermain  oh, I am weird about hugs. so ... maybe.

@k8nowak - @samjshah @park_star @sophgermain  He IS weird about hugs. You have to throw yourself at him. And have inertia. Yall are probably too skinny.

@cheesemonkeysf - Dear @k8nowak, Thanks for the tip about the need to take a running start if you want to hug @samjshah /cc @park_star @sophgermain

@k8nowak - @cheesemonkeysf don't underestimate the element of surprise, too.

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@sarcasymptote - @samjshah @sophgermain  I like the idea of that being a euphemism. "continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN"

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@sarcasymptote - Holy shit, these fucking copiers are fucking pissing me the hell off.

@fnoschese - @sarcasymptote Don't hold back, Greg. Tell us how you really feel about those copiers.

@sarcasymptote - @fnoschese @btwnthenumbers @cheesemonkeysf I did unleash a tirade that included "holyf***************************tch" in the copy room, + 100 more.

@Mythagon - @sarcasymptote @fnoschese @btwnthenumbers @cheesemonkeysf have you tried threatening it with glitter?

@fnoschese - @Mythagon @sarcasymptote @btwnthenumbers @cheesemonkeysf Have you tried your Sonic Rainboom yet? bit.ly/jK8D9y  cc: @samjshah

@samjshah - @fnoschese @Mythagon @sarcasymptote @btwnthenumbers @cheesemonkeysf that's a pretty fantastic superpower

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@ddmeyer - The Two Lies of Teaching: If I say it, they will learn it. If I don't say it, they won't learn it.  bit.ly/iOLAKs

@k8nowak - @ddmeyer re 2 lies of teaching STOP STEALING MY VIRTUAL CONFERENCE POST. j/k but seriously. weird.

@sophgermain - @k8nowak you're already thinking about your virtual confgerence post? damn.

@k8nowak - @sophgermain yeah it has sparkly rainbows and everything. @sarcasymptote and @ThinkThankThunk are gonna eat it up.

@cheesemonkeysf - @k8nowak @sophgermain @sarcasymptote @thinkthankthunk Oh please. Enough with the sparkly rainbows. Like they need any more encouragement.

@k8nowak - @cheesemonkeysf @sophgermain @sarcasymptote @thinkthankthunk too late. the sparkly rainbow IS IN.

@sarcasymptote - @k8nowak - @cheesemonkeysf @sophgermain @thinkthankthunk NICE! I haven't thought much about where I'm going with mine yet.

@park_star - @cheesemonkeysf @k8nowak @sophgermain @sarcasymptote @thinkthankthunk  UNICORNS!!!

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@sarcasymptote - @park_star @cheesemonkeysf in regards to eating habits? I was always really confused by the pyramid, but I GET THE PLATE NOW.

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(read from bottom up)

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@k8nowak - Subject line in email from @Sephora: "Tan for Free" Halfway expected body of email to say "Go outside, dumbass." It doesn't. Weird.

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@samjshah - "In their report, performance is described in terms of the content and process task demands of the subject matter and the nature and..."

@samjshah - "...extent of cognitive activity likely to be observed in a particular assessment situation." BORING.

@samjshah - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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@jybuell - . @sophgermain just sent me a 3 word text w/ no spaces and one word spelled wrong. So yeah, sounds like they're having fun.

@jybuell - my phone was dead. also yea i was drunk.

@cheesemonkeysf - @samjshah Best line of the night goes to @btwnthenumbers: In re KA, someone asked, "What's the goal again?" BTN pipes up with, "Badges!"

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@ddmeyer - Just ran into @jybuell at the JiffyLube. Weird, but not in a weird way.

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@druinok - One thing I've learned this week - you guys have ruined me! :) I hold other teachers to a MUCH higher standard because of your excellence

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@woutgeo - Found out today that replacing the radio in a civic is a PITA. OTOH, feeling very manly right now.

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@sophgermain - dued, @woutgeo, I had dinner tonight with my parent volunteer who apparently went to your workship this year. #smallworld

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@ThinkThankThunk - Let's try to stay positive about ed reform. Conversations about feasible fixes are better than this-is-why-it's-broken. We know. Chill.

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@DianeRavitch - Teach for joy. Teach for beauty. Teach to touch students' hearts and stir their imaginations. Teach to make them care.

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@fnoschese - The only two badges I am proud to show off... #FathersDayAcademy yfrog.com/h4iqsdqj

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@sarcasymptote - @infinigons since EVERYONE loves the guy working insanely on math problems in a bar on tuesday nights

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@samjshah - great. our time was "planned from 8:30am-9pm. Now we have 3 readings and 3 written pieces to do. #waaaimtired

@samjshah - hm, still chugging away. it's 12.06. tired. #ugh #wowimtotallyawhinerwhenimtired

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@park_star - I love summer time - everyone starts blogging up a storm!

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@k8nowak - In geometry review, teacher: "distance formula? anybody?" kid: "r times t? *facepalm*

@ddmeyer - @k8nowak Feels dirty using Twitter as my gripe machine that's all. Tell me to get over myself.

@k8nowak - @ddmeyer oh at least 50% of my twitter use is "please validate my whining" so I can't talk. complain away.

@fnoschese - @ddmeyer @k8nowak Oh, c'mon. YOu know you love griping on Twitter. We all do. ;-)

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@sarcasymptote - This typo (FROM OUR GRADUATION PROGRAM) seems almost too good to be an accident: lockerz.com/s/112899279

@sophgermain - @sarcasymptote amazeballs.

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@untilnextstop - Math units should be organized around BIG IDEAS / themes in mathematics. Seems obvious but it's turning my world upside down. #klingsi11

@calcdave - @untilnextstop A month ago, I asked the district's Alg2 teachers what the main theme was for the class and they all threw up their hands.

@k8nowak - @calcdave @untilnextstop Funny, I would have said "maximize despair"

@calcdave - @k8nowak @untilnextstp Yeah, Alg2 seems to be our Franken-class, too. #everythingyouneedtoknowbutdoesntfitcoherentlyelsewhere

@jybuell - @calcdave @untilnextstop Alg 2 main theme is "things we can't put in other course so we're going to invent one"

@sarcasymptote - @jybuell @calcdave @untilnextstop  in Algebra 2 in NY, the main theme is, "cover so much shit that no one will like math in the end."

@k8nowak - The six stages of NY Alg2Trig Regents grading: disgust, disbelief, amusement, apathy, ice cream sandwiches, inebriation

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@samjshah - How much do y'all miss me? I miss you! Wish I could hang out virtually with you!

@lmhenry9 - @samjshah I miss you bunches of sparkly rainbows and unicorns. Looking forward to when you can be back on Twitter.

@cheesemonkeysf - We are bereft without you. I can barely feed and dress myself any more.

Unmediated Experience, part 2 — another use of primary texts in the math classroom

While gathering problems for my logarithms and exponential functions unit from some of my favorite textbook sources, I noticed that John Napier's birth and death dates (1550-1617) looked kind of familiar — really familiar, in fact.

In fact, they're almost the same as Shakespeare's birth and death dates (1564-1616).

And they're awfully close to Galileo's birth and death dates too (1564-1642).

So why not at least mention the historical context of logarithms?