#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?