#mtbos #SundayFunday #goals

It's been a while since I blogged (obviously) and kind of embarrassing really.  I have such a long history with my blog (well at least it's been open and available - ready for me to use since June 2005-ish).  I enjoy blogging, am not really sure why I don't do it more often.  I ask myself this "why don't you blog more?" and can't come up with a compelling argument.

Honestly, I've had a lot on my plate.  I could cut myself some slack there.  There's a lot going on for me personally and professionally and I could go into detail - but I'll bore you.  Well maybe not, but it makes me mysterious - no?

I think in order to reboot myself I'll have to give myself some permission, some leeway to just hit #pushsend and let the entire internet see my thoughts with only a little bit of editing.  I think that's where I get lost.  I can't speak for anyone else but I can say that I want my posts to have some good substance in them.  I want my blog to be something more.

If you could have only see what my blog used to look like.  I tweaked the HTML code to have some beautiful features.  Then there was an update and I never went back to add them back in.  Maybe I'll do that, but maybe I won't.  See what I'm talking about?  Permission.  It's ok not to have every single feature that I used to have.  It's ok not to make every single blog post a huge production and have a billion or so links to everything.  It's ok and I have to give myself that permission.

I didn't get to go to TMC.  Oh how I wish I could go.  Especially back in time ;).  It seems really fun to go and get ideas.  Those in attendance do such a great job documenting their experience that sometimes it feels like I'm there.  But there is a difference between going to something and just gleaming from others experiences.  But that #pushsend - whoa.  It really did hit Twitter like a ton of bricks.  Well maybe just #mtbos - but that's the community I feel like I belong to.

Do I participate in every twitter chat?  No.

Do I blog about every lesson I teach?  No.

Do I consistently blog? or tweet?  No.

I'm probably one of the worst at being consistent.  I'm the worst at sending out content.  I read and I comment every once in a great while but mostly I read.  I read, have an opinion, read more, change my opinion, read more, change back, and the cycle continues.  I find something, want to try it in my classroom, find it works, keep doing it, find it doesn't work, tweak, keep going until the end of the school year, reflect, plan, rinse, repeat.

But I still feel like I can search up #mtbos and read about things other people are trying and doing.  These are other people who are like me who are doing stuff and documenting it.  Are some of them better at documenting than I am?  Sure they are!  Are some of them strongly-opinion-ed about some things?  Yes!  Do I sometimes feel like a fly on the wall about things?  Certainly.  But I've found some sort of kinship with this group and I love it.

I'm intrigued by this #iteachmath vs. #mtbos debate discussion.

I certainly do teach math.  I think anyone who explains in any depth some relational and rational reasoning skills teaches math.  To me math and logic go hand and hand.  If you use reasoning in any argumentation you somehow tangentially are teaching critical thinking to your audience.  Maybe this stretches the definition a little too much for some people but bear with me here.

I have a blog, am on twitter and sometimes pose questions via the #mtbos.  I'm not sure what it means to be "part" of the community exactly.   Once I found out about #mtbos I did spend some time lurking (just a bit) but the reality was that I also just jumped right in.

My very first tweet:

putting together some elements for my teaching portfolio; anyone have any inspiration for me?

— Vanessa Garcia (@Vanes63) June 9, 2009

My very first use of #mtbos (and it was a retweet nonetheless!):

Easter is Sunday... How many Peeps are made & sold each year? Lets do the math: http://t.co/bniFWvUBRs #mathchat #mtbos #5thchat #pblchat

— Brian Marks (@Yummymath) April 17, 2014

I'd say first authentic use of #mtbos:

Help! Writing a Q where I want Ss 2 sketch a function & verbally explain trans. - it's transformed from a parent function. #MTBoS #mathchat

— Vanessa Garcia (@Vanes63) October 24, 2014

So I can see there's a long history there.  As with some families, if you go for a while you can come back and they will welcome your return.  So this is my return to blogging.  Took a long time to get to my point (as I'm often long-winded) but my goal for this year is to consistently blog.  Even if it's once a week.  I'm going to make sure to #pushsend and give myself permission to not be perfect and not always make sense and not always have substantial amounts of information or whatever.  So here's to making blogging a consistent habit.

CMC North '16 Post: 2 of n

I am still mentally unpacking all of the great things I learned about and thought about while at Asilomar for CMC North '16.  I'm always besides myself with how many different things I could be doing differently and what those changes in my practice could look and feel like.

Let me start with the Mini-Conference session on a Transformational Approach to Geometry by Lew Douglas and Henri Picciotto.

One of my colleagues asked our Principal if he could go and he thought it would be a good idea if one of our Geometry team members went with him - so I ended up being able to go "early" to this wonderful session.

At the beginning Henri and Lew presented the idea that we'd have to (at least partially) re-define the way that we define specific Geometric terms and we would have to become more comfortable with students giving informal arguments because we should reserve formal proofs for the really important things (yay!).  I whole-heartedly agree.

When I took Geometry we spent almost all of our time proving.  While it was fun for me (I guess it shouldn't have been a really big surprise to me that I became a math teacher!) I now wonder about my classmates.  How many of them were turned off by the 180 degree turn into the land of proofs?

Students should always have to justify their reasoning (SMP3), construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others in all of their classes.  Math makes people reasonable, right?

But does it have to be a 2-column proof every time?  Can't a student explain something to me and that's enough?  If students are using language to convey meaning in a meaningful way then I feel plenty satisfied with that.

I'm a big fan of flow proofs so oftentimes when I begin to venture into the land of formalization I use flow proofs to soften the blow.  A tiny bit visual and a tiny bit less formal than the 2-column cousin.  I'm not saying we shouldn't ask students to write about mathematics and I'm not asking or advocating that 2-column proofs be stricken from classrooms but it was at least a little bit vindicating to hear others say that we should reserve the formalization for when we really need it.

Was that their main point?  No.  Transformational Geometry takes a different way of thinking about justifications for proof and it also takes a more relational-thinking approach as opposed to always thinking about properties and definitions.  Again, not that you don't use properties and definitions but it just takes a back seat to relations of objects.

What would happen if this was an angle bisector?  What does this mean for reflections?  What do I know about points that are reflections?  What properties are true for reflected images?  I really think this is a great way to get students to think about the relationships that different Geometric objects have with each other and to get students to create their own line of questioning in order to get themselves to the right place.  I can't verify that this will but I'd like to think that moving towards using Transformations as a basis for getting students to justify their reasoning by using their language and understanding as opposed to forcing them to use words that aren't naturally their own.

Just an opinion.  Agree or disagree - it's up to you.  Also, it would probably be rare (possible, not probable) that you sat in the same session that I did and it's my right to disagree with myself tomorrow even!  But these are the ravings of a almost-on-the-final-stretch-can't-wait-for-all-of-my-finals-to-be-over-teacher and it's getting late.  I apologize in advanced for any inadvertent craziness I may have typed.  

CMC North '16 Post: 1 of n

Fresh off of coming back from CMC North 2016 I write to you while passively watching Gilmore Girls (original series, I'm not caught up enough for the new Netflix part just yet) and eating Mountain Mike's pizza :).

There's always so much to think about and debrief after CMC North so I'm trying to figure out exactly how to approach all of this.

I attended a huge variety of sessions:

• Mini-Conference session on a Transformational Approach to Geometry by Lew Douglas and Henri Picciotto 
• Co-Teaching: Mathematical Practices For All Students by Noirin Foy and Valerie Ruiz 
• Computing Transformations Using Complex Numbers and Matrices by Henri Picciotto 
• Building Understanding Through Discourse by Rick Barlow and Madison Miller 
• Summative Assessment Without Testing: Successful Examples by Masha Albrecht 
• Make the Way: Student Agency, Authority, and Identity by Brent Jackson and Joan Easterday

Of course there are also the keynotes too!  Amazing stuff!  I haven't even unpacked my bag or notes (and I've got a LOT of notes!)... I don't even think I've unpacked my car 0_o.  

I resurfaced on Twitter over the conference so that was good.  I think that's what I've appreciate the most about CMC North.  It re-awakens me to rethink many different aspects of my teaching practice.  

During @Zakchamp's Keynote on Sunday morning the "we should test less and assess more" vibe was prevalent.  This really dove-tailed with some pieces I got from @Rickbrlw and @MatheMadison session about discourse.  

SO, for now all I know is that my Warm-Up routine for tomorrow will probably change.  I don't want to "make it through" the next 2 weeks but for my sanity I at least have to survive through them.  With a good nights' sleep I can ensure that my students get the best version of me that I can present to them tomorrow and I can go from there.  Lots of moving pieces but I know that debriefing the sessions one by one would probably be best for me.  

While I was there I did mention that someone should put together a Google Doc with those bit.ly URLs from all of the sessions.  It'd be good/great for someone to compile a list like this.  Maybe with a Google form or something?  idk.  Something to think about?  Anyone want to volunteer for this?  

Students helping students

Today was interesting... I feel like that's what I say at the end of every day.

So I do this after-school tutorial/re-teach for Geometry.  The original format of this tutorial is that there is a topic that we go over on Tuesday and then on Thursday students are allowed to do re-tests on that particular topic area.  Teachers receive their own students tests, grade those tests themselves and life moves on.  

Unfortunately, life doesn't work like clockwork.  So I end up with a room of many different students all with different areas they need help in, all coming from different teachers, all with different attitudes about math.  Also, since most of them are not my own students I don't know a lot of their names and they don't know all, or really any, of my own classroom rules.  

There are several of my own Pre-Calculus students who come to volunteer their time to help out with this tutorial.  They help everyone sign-in, get oriented with what group they want to work with, sometimes they tutor students themselves.  This definitely helps the process of what I need to do.  This also helps my own students to increase their own mathematical confidence too - a very big plus.

So even though there is a bit of a coordination-mess, sometimes my room looks like a hurricane went through it and the janitor says my students are making more work for her because they make a mess in the hallways too :( - I still think we're making progress and I have to believe that progress is success. Eventually those students will take their renewed understanding to their classes, eventually the "regular" tutorial kids will teach the others how to clean up after themselves and things will iron out.  Right? Right.  Well, one can only hope.

My only fault with this process is that even though we are meeting 1 need there are so many others we aren't meeting. What are the programs your school offers? Pros//Cons of those models?  Trying to figure out how to restructure ours so it can help those who need help with homework, remedial skills and also not-so-long-ago re-takes.  

Collaboration is Key

This morning it all started with a simple yet elegant infographic

— Maureen Devlin (@lookforsun) November 15, 2014

Teamwork, collaboration, goal-setting.  All of these ideas are right up my alley!  I love trying to keep directions simple for students because it really makes ideas cement in - ideas that are cross-curricular and transcend all subject areas.  This means when your Geometry teacher tells you that your groups need to turn into teams, she isn't kidding.

But I really do believe my students think I'm blowing hot air.  The intelligence of 1 dominates the groups, the students who won't do things normally are still not doing anything, this frustrates the students who care about their grades and is causing a lot of friction.  I wish I could do something about student X who is absent so often that they never know what is going on when they come back.  Or student Y who even when "present" is not fully present.  Attendance is such a key factor in achievement that I think that alone is impacting the way the groups work.

Teachers say group work for the sake of group work is not good.  Tasks need to be enriching, engaging, etc.  But when I try to switch from group work to, say, whole-class instruction - the ship sinks.  I do not believe that students listen to me.  Mind you, exit tickets say otherwise.  Ok, when I *do* an exit ticket it indicates that students understand what I am saying.  But during the process of whole-class instruction/guidance there are students who are not paying attention, fiddling with their phones, putting their heads down, etc.

Best Learning Position Ever... 

I know math is not everyone's bag but... c'mon!  Putting your head down?  I'm not *that* boring.  Or am I?  I have been wrestling with this idea for a while now really.  I'd say 95% of my students are making progress on learning goals, paying attention, engaging themselves with content, asking really good questions, participating actively, even *asking* when we will do 4 corners or other similar activities again - and then there are 5% who really don't care.  They are not in this class because they want to be there, they don't want to put forth effort into something that doesn't matter to them, their mind/brain is completely somewhere else, they have 1 or 2 jobs/activities that dominate their time and they are tired and no amount of interesting mathematical facts/applications or really funny jokes (no really, my jokes *are* hilarious) or gimmicks or anything will hold their attention.

So in a load of about 160 students maybe 8 total across all of the classes don't seem to get it or even *want* to get with the program.  Why do I let it sour the pot so much?  Why can't I just let it go and be happy with all of the students who are responsive to what I *am* doing?

Collaboration *is* important and even if they don't see it now I think students are starting to get the hang of working together.  Maybe, just maybe someday they will transfer these skills to other classes.  Maybe they will use these ideas as adults.  Maybe they will see the benefit some day and come back and caution the other students to pay attention because they wish they did and maybe some day that will resonate with my lone 5% and then I can reach 100%.  Maybe someday I will be happy with 95% and develop confidence in my practices.

Ok, enough ranting - now to problem solve.  So, what makes the group work effective?  I can't find but do recall someone somewhere saying something about turning groups into teams (non-educational "how to" found here).  I do have a little acronym that helps orient students to the basic fundamentals of what groups do, but maybe this isn't enough.

• Get Along 
• Respect Others 
• On Task Behavior 
• Use Quiet Voices 
• Participate 
• Stay with your group 

In September I was fortunate enough to go to the UC Davis Math Project.  At this first session for the year we discussed group/team work and providing roles for students.  Something as simple as roles in a group seems superficial - but stick with me for a little bit here.

The presenter, who works for CPM, recommended that students not necessarily have to do that specific thing but be in charge of making sure that specific thing gets done.  I don't personally use CPM materials - although I am sure they are good and have heard fantastic things about them.  But from what I have heard they are very group/team based and everything she did say made a lot of sense.

So the recommended roles she put into place were:

• Resource Manager 
• Task Manager 
• Facilitator 
• Reporter/Recorder 

She did a really cool thing with task cards that helped remind students of what their main role was, some questions to ask themselves throughout the task and also a color-phrased mnemonic device to help them remember to work towards the goals of their work.

After a quick Google search about the whole idea of turning groups into teams I came across this article from Harvard about what does make a group into a team.  They say: "A team is a group of people who do collective work and are mutually committed to a common team purpose and challenging goals related to that purpose." 

Common purpose and challenging goals.  Maybe I haven't driven home the idea that they are working together for the common purpose of solving problems, making progress and developing understanding.  I think those are pretty challenging goals, if I do say so myself.  I always remind my class that there is 1 of me and 30-something of them.  They need to learn how to communicate with each other so that they can rely on each other for help.  But maybe I haven't done enough to help them mold their sense of purpose and duty to each other?

I am inspired by this collaborative chart from Maureen Devlin that outlines a good way for students to keep track of their collaborations.  My students maybe need a little more frequent check-ins so hopefully I find time today (between all of the wonderful grading I have to do!) in order to make a half-sheet sized version with a few less layers.  Maybe have students zero in on a few targets every once in a while until they feel confident with those and then move on to other targets.

I always say progress is success and I truly believe that.  Bite-sized pieces will hopefully get them addicted to the elation you feel when you know that you've got it and until then I hope they all show up to get the material that they need in order to make their progress.

I won't hold my breath, but I'll just keep taking deep breaths in hopes they all show up to learn.  Until then, I'll just keep Twittering (and blogging!) on.

Sunday Musings

Yesterday I went to the UC Davis Math Project and got to meet a group of really wonderful teachers.  We worked on a lot of problems, I meet @JessicaMurk13 in person.  She writes The Mathy Murk and presented a really cool lesson on different ways she fosters Problem Solving in her Geometry classes.

It got me thinking about my own practices (as one often does) for fostering math conversations and it got me really buzzed about the training I went to earlier in the month: La Cucina Mathematica by @MrVaudrey and @Jstevens009.

So I may have overwhelmed the people at my table with my "Yea! Get on Twitter! It's Awesome!" enthusiasm but I really do think tweeting has helped me immensely.  Since La Cucina I've been checking on Twitter, following people, reading different chats, responding to a few things here and there and really trying to orient myself about it.

I'm very fascinated with the #mtbos and found this NaNoWriMo-ish (National Novel Writing Month) post about blog posting.  So let's give this a whirl.  National Blog Posters Month!  (I'm assuming) well if that *is* what it is - I'm in.

I'm challenging myself to be more reflective and collective.  I want to collect resources I use, share them with others and get feedback before and after using them with students.  This may mean a couple of blog posts a day (one to say what I will do and the other to say how it went) but I think I can pull all of this together to see how it goes.

I'm especially inspired by this recent tweet from @mjfenton

@MrOrr_geek I’ve drafted cards… Blog post coming tomorrow, if I can manage. Feedback on the cards for now? https://t.co/4NfzLaGtEw #trigchat
— Michael Fenton (@mjfenton) November 2, 2014

I got into the conversation a little late in the game because it started with this simple

Anyone interested in helping me think through a “Go Fish” style trig properties/identities game?
— Michael Fenton (@mjfenton) October 31, 2014

So simple yet so profound.  If you can't find what you are looking for where you are looking then you need to look elsewhere, right?  So ... here it goes.  I'll try to reflect and forecast for the next month on the daily.  I've tried multiple times to do something like this and wish I was more consistent on a regular basis but all I can do is control my time now.  I'll try not to be too wordy but... well, I am.  So here's hoping for a great November to everyone!  Keep Calm and Tweet/Blog On!

Supplies, supplies, supplies

A recent tweet from @RPhillipsMath made me start thinking about the necessary supplies for a math classroom.  Last year I taught 7th grade, the years before that 8th or even one year it was 7th and 8th.  This year I'm teaching high school (Pre-Calc & Geometry) and I switched schools and even districts.  There were a lot of luxuries that I had at my previous school that I didn't realize were luxuries until... I didn't have them.

At the beginning of my 1st year at my old school they gave every teacher a "New Teacher Supply Box".  This box contained things like:

• Stapler
• Tape dispenser 
• Extra rolls of tape 
• 3-hole punch 
• Markers 
• Colored pencils 
• Lined paper 
• Elmer's glue 

Our district had a contract with Office Depot so the supplies came from there. 

We also had $250 (per year) that we could spend on whatever we wanted.  Over the 5 years I used a lot of things, purchased more things, collected some very useful items from eNasco Math like: 

• Algebra Tiles Kit 
• Circle Master Compass 
• Protractors with Swing Arms 
• Dice in Dice 

We did have some supplies that we shared, like a class-set of graphing calculators.  

I even wanted to get some of these things: 

• Dice Classroom Assortment 
• Plastic Geometry Set with Moveable Axis 
• Giant GeoSolids Volume Shapes 
• Conic Sections Set 

Now I'm at a school where I'm starting with a clean slate.  I inherited a classroom from another math teacher who left so I had some supplies (not very many) in the room when I came in.  There were broken compasses, small metal protractors, no markers, no colored pencils, no construction paper.  A lot of the supplies I was used to using weren't around anymore so... what's a girl to do?  

Write a DonorsChoose grant of course!  So now I have 2 DonorsChoose projects with some supplies that I have considered essential for instruction. 

• Help us make Pythagoreas Proud! 
• Help My Students See the Sine 

Supplies will always be something teachers have to contend with, but hopefully with clear communication everyone can get what they need to make the classroom feel alive.  

Midterms!!!

So we're in the middle of Midterm Madness at school.  The 1st Quarter ends on Tuesday and my students are psyching up for their midterms.  Well, maybe psyching up is an over-exaggeration.  Freaking out maybe?  So I took this opportunity to... well, teach my students a lesson.

This is my first year at a new school and although I really love it, I'm not sure I feel as effective as I could be.  It could be that I'm just tough on myself.  I feel like math is accessible for everyone and that given the correct set of circumstances anyone can learn it if they put some effort into it.

Well, no surprise to teachers out there - some of my students have been sitting back, coasting in the process of their learning, not really applying themselves,  So I decided to shake it up a bit.

Every student took 1 piece of paper, folded it hot dog and hamburger until they had quarter pieces of paper.  Then, we looked at the Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 questions and students were asked to write questions they had on one of their quarter pages.  These problems were taped on the board and either I or students who knew how to do them did them.  We had some music playing, students were up and out of their seats solving problems and the tempo was very productive.  Our 2nd day of review followed the same format but with a topic list so they were more focused with their question-asking.

I think this strategy was more effective at getting students to do problems on the board than anything else I've tried this year.  I want students to get into the habit of explaining things to each other and making sense of math but there seems to be an inverse relationship between mathematical confidence and actual confidence in my class.

Any suggestions on other strategies you use to get students to explain math to each other?  I want students to be engaged in our activities and for students to become more confident about their math abilities.

Observation Day!

New school, new challenges.  My year is going pretty well.  Today was the day of my 1st formal observation (ahhh!) and I like to go big so I kept going back and forth about how I wanted to approach today.

Originally I was thinking Gallery Walk, then I started thinking some sort of Pass-the-Problem strategy.  Originally I wanted them to solve the problems, then the bank I pulled problems out of was waaaaay too much for my students and I was only giving 4 minute rounds.

So today ended up being an informal assessment of how they did on what was in front of them.  What was nice was that I was able to sit down with just about every single student/group and work on things with them - which I feel like I do not do often enough.

This was also the first time I actually ended up using musical cues (Thanks Matt Vaudrey!) in my class.  I really liked how it moved things along and it put a smile on my evaluators face in the end (go Bonanza as the clean-up song!).  Also, my students recommended a few other songs that I will have to preview, cut down and see if I can use for different transitions.

Since I've moved to a different school and did not have a lot of help with decorating my classroom I have been putting it together piece by piece throughout the year.  I feel like it's very blank and I become very sad that it's not as bright and cheery as my middle school classroom (although I am teaching high schoolers now so that may be too much for them).  But being observed makes you worry about all the little things - where my classroom is lacking, where am I lacking, what kind of lesson should I put together, etc., and I am so very glad that it is over.

Tomorrow is the debrief, so we'll see how I ended up doing at the end of that 0_o.  Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

Week... 6?

So we're about to begin a new week and the students should either just be receiving their progress reports or will receive them this week at home. 

Progress reports are always nerve-racking for teachers (I think) because you never know how parents will react. They could rally behind you and help you push their children to do more or they could really get upset and flood the office with phone calls about "why wasn't I notified earlier that my child is failing?"... Which is what a progress report really is... But anyways. Planning, grading, planning, more grading and so the cycle continues. 

What's the plan for your week? 

Grading Woes

Ugh.  One of the absolutely worst parts of teaching math = grading papers :(.

It's one of the worst parts of the job because not only do you have to review the same question anywhere from 20-120 times (sometimes even more) but you also have to relive the same mistakes over and over and over again...

How many times can I write the same comment about negative exponents?  It's obvious to me that you didn't understand it when I taught it, what makes me believe that you will (a) read my comments and (b) actually pay attention to them so that you improve before the summative assessment at the end of the chapter/section/semester/program?

Sometimes (very rarely) I feel like grading can be gratifying.  I feel like when I chunk assessments into little tiny portions then it can actually be ok.  In small chunks I feel like students can be successful, but that's not life.  Life is not going to give you breaks because you feel "bored" (a comment a parent made about their own child!  When they work on something they get "bored" and need 10-15 minute breaks 0_o.  Um... no.).

At least there are some students out there paying attention to what is happening in the classroom, right?

What do you to engage students?  What do you do in order to make sure they pay attention to all the important details and are successful on assessments?  (Not meant to be a discussion on "success" and what that really means, but I'm asking what do you do to help students do better on tests specifically.)

Well, back to my grading pile.  Leave some thoughts/echoes below :).

Summer Classroom (and Bedroom) Organization

So here I am, up really early this morning, and waiting to spend a day at the movies with my boyfriend and all I can think about is what I am going to do with this tower of plastic drawers I have taking up space in my closet.

At my school, the end of the school year results in packing up (practically) your entire room and "removing your personal items".

I fully understand why administration requires us to do so but sometimes I believe that what they ask us to do is a bit counter-intuitive to the process of actually teaching.  When you teach you are required to set up a classroom community, make learning fun and engaging and still get students to master the content standards.  Oh and if they were missing some blocks of foundational knowledge - fill those too.  Let''s not forget about all of the social and emotional growth that is packed into the year as well.  The job is overwhelming, demanding and thankless.

But in between all of that I keep coming back year after year.  I digress.

Anyways, so I pack up my stuff, put some in storage and bring some home.  My own bedroom... full :(.  Up until yesterday I could barely get around most of my stuff, let alone sort it.  So yesterday I pulled it out, started to organize stacks of it.  My boyfriend even helped shred documents that needed shredding :).  It felt good to get rid of a lot of clutter.

But as I'm putting away some hanging items I keep bumping into this 6 drawer plastic storage unit that is taking up a dramatic amount of space in my bedroom.

So here's what I *have* figured out this morning: I want to take it to my classroom and use it there.

1st Drawer:  Grading Pens, Highlighters, etc.

2nd Drawer:  Tape (Scotch Tape, Blue Painters Tape, etc.

3rd Drawer:  Staplers, Paper Clips, Binder Clips,

4th Drawer:  Magnets

5th Drawer:  Not sure

6th Drawer:  Not sure

Any ideas about what I should put into the last 2 drawers?  I guess they should be items that I don't intend to use that often...

Summer Bucket List 2013 - Part 1

In my infinite journeys I have, for some time, neglected writing here :(.  No more, I say.  I am making it a point to get back to blog writing and refocus myself on... well, myself.  

In that spirit, I am going to "enroll" myself and my current boyfriend in the Summer Bucket List Challenge.  I think it will be fun and I think I can keep myself "busy" with all of the in's and out's of doing this on a budget.  Anyone who has read this blog in the past knows that I am a math-minded individual and thus often focus on my own budget.  (Update: since last postings I have paid off my car and am only a few months away from potentially paying off 2, yes 2, credit cards!  Yay!) 

SO, what is the Summer Bucket List Challenge you may ask?  It is a way to make your summer the "best summer ever".  I have to admit, I like the idea of a structure or routine and still having a bit of randomness hidden in there.  Some of the ideas are a bit crafty, which may not be up my boyfriends alley, but I am a very crafty person and I like the idea of taking some of the items on others' lists and making them my own.  I also like the idea of making things so that they help me out in my own classroom next year :) (let's kill 2 birds with 1 stone why don't we?).  

I did find a post on how to make your own Summer Bucket List which I found very interesting.  I've been using that list as a springboard for making my own list.  I do like categorizing different list-items by time because I will be teaching during part of the summer so for 4 weeks I will have a limited amount of time to spend on this and that - as fun as they may be.  

SO, in my next post I will be revealing what I have found to put on my Summer Bucket List.  Are you up for the challenge?  Will you join me in making this summer the best summer ever?  

Oh and did I mention they do some giveaways too?  Make sure to sign-up (it seems like you have to sign-up every week) for their giveaways.  Also, some of the products that are giveaways also have special deals.  I'm kind of psyched about the first giveaway as a potential Valentine's day gift for next year (and I'd get some shopping done in the mean-time!).  Total time-saver, don't you think?  Yay for summer!  

Summer Blues

Ok, so I'm trying to discipline myself. Not in the kinky way, no. I mean discipline myself to doing certain things every day.

My parents didn't exactly expect me to do my bed every morning (ok, so that wasn't really an expectation at all) or take care of dishes or anything. I wasn't spoiled by any means, but they figured if I wasn't going to follow in their footsteps all I could focus on was school. At least that's how I remember it.

I guess I helped my mom in the kitchen here and there, but my self-discipline isn't exactly oozing out of my pores if you know what I'm saying. Yes, I'm saying that I'm lazy. Everyone is allowed a day here or there to be lazy but I think I'm taking it to extremes here.

Things I have to do (in no particular order):

• Laundry-related items (washing, drying, folding, PUTTING AWAY - it's a puzzle to me why putting away laundry is where things break down for me.)
• Helping my boyfriend out with his resume.
  
• Organizing recipes into a binder for me to more easily use.
• Separating out things that are supposed to go to school in a box so I can take them to school tomorrow.
  
• Organizing my financial files (bills, statements, etc.).
• Organizing my purse.
  

I bet you've noticed by now that a lot of these items have to do with organizing my space. It's not for lack of things to do/organize but I'm just feeling lazy. Maybe putting this list out into cyber-space will make it so that I am more inclined to do it. Maybe. Hopefully I'll be reminded to come back later and update :).

Hasta luego,
- V.

Fruit & Spinach Smoothie

A friend of mine gave me this recipe for a smoothie, so I wanted to put it in a place I wouldn't lose it (because I've already lost it several times) :D.

2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
2 bananas
1 bag of organic frozen strawberries
1 cup of frozen organic blueberries
3-4 handfuls of organic spinach

This makes 4 servings or 2 quarts of smoothie.

Random Thoughts

Ok, so the journey I'm taking right now (in case you hadn't heard I graduated from Graduate School, moved to CA and now am teaching middle school math) is centered around the dating world... it's a scary place. Full of intrigue, mistakes, happiness and sadness.

But because of one website I'm using (yes I tend to meet people online) I'm reading some journals and found some quotes/thoughts that are interesting to debate so I'm putting them here in hopes of debating them through the blog-o-sphere :).

Interesting thought 1:

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Oh I love this quote. I had never heard it before but there's this 1 guy that I am dating that is very romantic and in fact does this to me all the time! He "gazes" into my eyes... but I'll catch him, say "what!?!" and he says "nothing" - ALL THE TIME. It's gotten to a point where it's rather annoying actually. I've told him to stop doing it and he continues to do it. I'd rather just chill with someone instead of staring. Can we all be honest and admit that gazing is a euphemism for staring? I want to be appreciated yes, but for more than what I look like.

Interesting thought 2:

"I prefer women with whom I have enough in common that certain things MATTER to her. That she would not want a man who didn’t have them. Ironic as it may seem, I would PREFER a woman who discriminates about the things I want her to discriminate about--that she would not have chosen me if I didn't have them. I would choose that kind of woman over one who could go either way on those topics, because that is when it is most obviously apparent that her values coincide with mine."

Ok, so I'm totally responding to this idea. It's not my original idea but I like this idea and I wanted to expand/contemplate it (and save it of course) so I thought I'd put it here.

So I like this in that, well, there *are* certain things that matter to everyone. Certain things *are* a big deal and hence are deal-breakers. Those are the things you shouldn't budge on and the things that narrow down your search about who you want to spend the rest of your life with.

For example, bad spelling and grammar bother me. I'm not going to say that I'm an English professor or that I know every single nuance of the English language. BUT I do know when to use apostrophes, commas and periods. I also know how to spell most words and can usually look at a word and tell when it is misspelled. So I'm not looking for an English major by any means but if English is your primary (and only) language then please know how to use it. I don't mind some silly broken speech but it shouldn't be the way you communicate all the time.

Interesting thought 3:

"... I think that a great mistake a lot of people make... is not valuing oneself enough. Not enough to save your heart for the right person.

"... your heart is like a precious vase, sitting on the mantelpiece over the fireplace. When it gets broken, it's as though somebody walked past and carelessly knocked it over. It falls on the ground, broken into pieces. So, you pick it up, put the pieces back together again, glue it together as best you can, to resemble the original.

"All young people love easily, but not all young people have good judgement. As a wise man once said "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment". And of course, nobody is perfect. So....they fall in love again, their heart gets broken again--and they try to pick up the pieces again, as they did before.

"However, every time that happens, a tiny little broken shard is not found. It never makes it back to the original, with the rest of the pieces. And when that happens repeatedly, many shards are lost over time. Finally, when you find the one, and you want to fill it up--when you finally want to feel something for this amazing person...you find that it won't hold anything, because it all runs out through all the little holes that were left, from each of the lost and forgotten shards.

"Now, I have great faith in the future. I was taught that the mark of a winner is to be able to make lemonade when life gives you lemons. I have every confidence that between me and the Man Upstairs, it will be in even better than new condition by the time He sends me the one He has in mind for me. Having said that, the least I can do, if I want His help, is to be a little pickier than I have been in the past, as to which women I share it with."

I don't know that anyone can read that and not say "wow"... it's a wonderful analogy. The next thought that I had when I read that story was... how many people have I let break my vase? I don't mean that in a crude way, I mean that in a very literal sense. I've been in my fair share of relationships. Ok, my friends know me as a serial dater or serial relationship person. I unfortunately do often make my love life the center of my life and I know that I have such large career/life aspirations that I really need to stop making love (or lust) the center of my universe.

So... I think (and I say this probably at least once a month) I'm going to take a hiatus from dating. Center on myself. It's probably better to do that right now because (1) I've been talking to a few people that I want to see where just talking for now will go, (2) the school year is going to be starting soon and I want to focus on my students for a while and (3) I do actually need to focus on myself for right now.

Thoughts? Questions? Ideas?

I will probably be blogging much more often now. I think I need someone to talk to ;). Share my journey with me?

Success and Tests

I'm so sad that I hadn't replied to this comment earlier 0_o. As it turns out, I didn't not fail the course. I did poorly, but did not fail (I always make mountains out of mole hills so it figures).

I think that a lot of the essence of this post has to do with my idea of success. In most schools students are graded on an A-F system. It isn't always about personal growth/progress but about how you measure up to whatever standard was set. I'm not saying standards are bad, but they don't catch the whole picture.

I have almost always been an academian and to that end have always made grades my measure of success.

Is this bad? Not always.

The A-F system of measurement has it's merits and it's faults. First of all, just to be a decent person you don't have to be good at everything. Now, I'm not saying that you should be happy with A's in some subject and F's in another subject. That is not my point. But people don't get Ph.D.'s in everything for a reason. Just because you are good at math doesn't mean you should ignore other subjects but I doubt there are many people that could be considered a research mathematician *and* a Shakespearean scholar.

To back up a little bit to the initial question posed by the comment "Would you have felt better if you did not fail class? If so, then who controls your feelings? You, or the coincidence of passing or failing a test?" No, I would not feel great about failing a class but that is because I often measure my own success through academic achievements. I do control my feelings to a degree (I mean, if someone hits me I will feel pain and I can't really control that). But I do hope that students feel something when they fail an exam.

I am not saying that failing students should be used as punishment. But there should be some sort of reflection process.

From the teachers standpoint:

• Did a lot of students fail the exam?


• Was the exam fair? Too difficult? Too easy? Too tricky?


• If I was taking this exam and had been a student in my class, would I have passed?


• Has this student improved over the course of this class or stayed stagnant?

From the students' standpoint:

• Was this a good performance for me?


• Did I study/prepare for the exam?


• Was my head in the game? i.e., Did I really try?

There are many factors, some from a "self" perspective, that will influence how one performs on an exam. If you had a good nights sleep, good nutrition, stress levels, and all sorts of other factors.

I may be a "high-achiever" but that doesn't mean I've never failed a test before. But the question I usually have after an exam is whether or not (a) I was prepared and/or could have prepared better and (b) if I thought the exam was fair.

One thing instructors (at least as far as I have found) confuse is the idea of a good exam. In math, yes everything builds on itself. But is it really fair to ask a student to recall knowledge from 2 or 3 courses back and not give them a heads up? Should students taking an abstract algebra course be required to remember pre-cal from long ago? Maybe, but maybe not. Courses should, to some degree, be self-contained. Everything students need to pass should be right out in front of them. It should be an example in the book or something. Don't blind-side students by pulling mathematical structures/problems out of a magic hat. If your book only has theorems, don't ask students for examples without giving them a second reference book that you recommend.

A lot of this comes down to having clear expectations for students. If you want your class to go to the library every day and read out of 10 different abstract algebra books then say so and don't leave it up to ambiguity. Sometimes I wonder if instructors really want students to fail their exams - but I really don't think that is the case. It's not always the teachers' fault and it's not always the students' fault. Sometimes it's neither parties fault! But those aren't the cases I'm talking about.

With fair assessments (sometimes I have had these and sometimes I have not) then I think students *should* reflect on their own practices. But without fair assessments then it is difficult for students to ante-up to their own responsibility and carry the course. An instructor shouldn't assume that because 1 student gets 100% the assessment is fair but I understand the pull away from making assessments too easy as well. It's definitely a hard balance to strike.

Now to make you (the reader's) reflect: What are your thoughts? Should a student feel bad (at least ever so slightly) when they fail? Should instructors/teachers/professors look more closely at their exams?

Back Again

Ok, this time I'm serious. Nothing is going to stop me from posting at least a few times a week. I've made a secret (not-so-secret) goal of posting twice a day but we'll see how long that happens. A few times a week sounds more realistic for me.

So, in the last (almost) year a lot has happened but I will regale you with the most recent:

• Today I am running Day 2 of Week 3 of Couch Potato to 5K.


• I am growing chives :), although not the most exciting news in the world I should really take a picture so you can see how cute and grass-like they have become.


• Last but not least: I think I am taking this blog in a slightly different direction than before.

To comment on the last one, I think I want to make this blog my "home to various edu-links". I really do think this will benefit you and me... well, some of you (readers). I don't think it will keep me from ranting every once in a while about something that upsets me, but I do think it will give me a task and keep me on some sort of mission.

Yes, this is kind of like my mission statement: "Will give readers more fabulous content and less personal gibberish" - sounds good, doesn't it? That's the draft I came up with this morning. Maybe this afternoon I'll feel a little differently.

Happy Birthday to Me

/discuss :)

I will post an update to this later today, already at 8:42 am there have been some interesting things that have happened to me today and some interesting things planned. I also have some Birthday ranting to do, but I will leave all of this to a time when I am not rushing out the door to go to work.

Hope you guys (the readers) have a great day, I know my day will be... interesting...

I <3 Mambo

Well, I do love to dance but I am actually talking about Math Teacher Mambo a new blog I found via my Google Reader.

I've been using my Google Reader to help me look for jobs on Craigslist because I am graduating in August and moving to CA. Yes, after a long hiatus I am moving back home. Not to live with my Dad (although I love him, no I cannot stay there) but to stake my own claim and be by myself. After all of the divorce stuff I really need a change.

But, this is a very entertaining blog and I'm certain to put it on my sidebar (once this week ends). Finals are almost over, I've given all of mine and found out that one of my finals has been changed to a Take-Home Exam... Take-Home = (usually) much more difficult than anything they could have given in class so I'm afraid to open it.

My flight takes off tomorrow for CA for a couple of weeks so I guess I'll just be LaTeXing it over the weekend. Horray for a wasted weekend... Especially since this will be my first "fun" weekend in a while.

Must go into the office and turn in a million and a half things before I leave and grade finals and get final grades input into the computer. Let's see how they did on the final and what those grades turn out as.

So... on that note I think I'll head on over to school and work on some Combinatorics and Complex Analysis. I must pull off miracles today so that I can leave tomorrow with a good peace of mind.