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  • Barbie Bungee 2015

    Resources at the end.

    Twelve Days Out

    In early May, Claire and I were talking about non-traditional math lessons to makeB her department more interesting.B She’s already using Visual PatternsB with Algebra students and is pleased with the spike in their reasoning skills, but…

    “There’s tons of cool stuff on the internet and I don’t know where it is or how to use it.”

    I had to bite my tongue to keep from shouting, “CAN I SHOW YOU SOME OF IT?!

    Seven Days Out

    After a few prep periodsB of chatting about math curriculum and Common Core standards, we decide on a three-day Barbie Bungee performance task.

    The last time my class did this lesson, we realized that I didn’t adequately set up the reason for thisB silliness. This time, Mrs. Verti and I worked hard to connect the individual data to the jumps and emphasizing their value to calculate the medium jump and big jump.

    After deciding to makeB bungees the dependent variable, I couldn’t decide if we should have stations inside the classroom or give the platforms to each group to hang outside.

    Claire pointed out that we have two wildly different ability levels (Honors Pre-Calculus and Freshman General Algebra), so we can try both methods.

    Sweet.

    Four Days Out

    Claire and I meet on Friday before Memorial Day to discuss any remaining details. She confesses she’s a big nervous; that this is a weird, different way to do math class.

    I assure her;B weird andB differentB is where I live. And if it bombs, that’ll be on me and not her.

    Two Days Out

    After three years of hauling around awkwardly-shaped platforms, I realize what’s missing: hinges.

    IMG_7984

    Further, I realize, after I build six new platforms, it’s hardly any work to retro-fit the old ones so they will fold flat into my storage bin.

    IMG_7994

    Plus I had some adorable helpers.

    IMG_7995
    Cooed and gurgled on my back while I drilled and assembled.

     

    Honestly, she's more interested in the tools, which is fantastic.
    Honestly, she’s more interested in the tools than the dolls, which is fantastic.

    Day One – Data Collection

    First period is Pre-Calculus Honors. I meet them at the door and shake their hand, then they grab the study guide off the back table and staple it. Mrs. VertiB gives details about the final exam next week and it’s my turn.

    Deep breath.

    “Good morning!” Big smile.

    “Grrd Muh-huhhh.” The class moans, unsure of what to do with me.

    “My name is Mr. Vaudrey. Everyone sayB Vaudrey.”
    Vaudrey.
    “Vaudrey.”
    Vaudrey.

    “Thank you. I’m here today to talk about this.”

    https://youtu.be/koEfnIoZB_4

    Students: Oh, snap! Where are they? Is that a missile silo? That makes me dizzy. Mark, you wanna do that? No!

    The smooth jazz fades out and Mrs. Verti pulls the lights back on. “What do you suppose,” I begin, pausing for their full attention. This class doesn’t know me, and the end of May is a pretty awful time to try a demo lesson. ForB the next three days to go well, I need to flex my teacher muscles early.

    “What do you suppose they were talking about as they drove through the Russian wilderness to go jump into a missile silo? Talk to your neighbor; what things are important to the jumpers?”

    This was a great spot for a music cue, but they wouldn’t know what to do with it, so I just wander the class and listen. After a minute, I take some student answers.

    Vaudrey: What do you suppose they were talking about? Yes, go ahead.
    Student 1: How to not die. *smirk*
    Vaudrey: What do you mean? Can they control that?
    Student 1: Well, yeah. Like, they have to have enough rope to reach across the thing.
    Vaudrey: Somebody else, why is that important?
    Student 2: If the rope doesn’t reach across, then they just fall into the thing.
    Vaudrey: Okay, so we needB lots of rope. Lots and lots of rope.
    Student 1: Well, not too much.
    Vaudrey: Why not too much?
    Student 3: Cuz they’ll hit the bottom and die!
    Vaudrey: Ah, so just barely enough to reach across the missile silo? That’s the perfect jump?
    Student 2: Yeah.
    Student 4: No! Cuz then you’re just hanging at the top!
    Vaudrey: Tell us more about that.
    Student 4: Well… like, you’re stuck on top.
    Vaudrey: Isn’t that good? You won’t hit your head.
    Student 1: But that’s boring.
    Vaudrey: Why?
    Student 1: The whole point is to jump in, not… like…
    Vaudrey: Okay, I think I understand. If we use too much rope, it’s not…
    [pregnant pause]
    Student 5: Safe.
    Vaudrey: Not safe, because (thunks desk dramatically) you’ll die. But we want to use enough rope the jump is…
    [pregnant pause]
    Students 3 and 1: Fun.
    Vaudrey: Fun. So we want to have fun, but also be safe.

    NOTE: A 50-foot jump is a little fun, an 80-foot jump is more fun because the ground is closer. I should have asked them to define the fun here. Something like, “What’s the most fun jump you could have?”
    Next year.

    Vaudrey: Today, we’re going to recreate that jump using…[dramatic pause as I lift the bag of Barbies and slowly pull one out] …dolls.

    After making their own groups and building a short bungee, we head outside with our data-sheets, dolls, bungees, and platforms. There was a light drizzle as students hung their platforms on the fence and began gathering data.

    IMG_8004

    IMG_0747

    IMG_0736

    After a few minutes, students began to notice the nearby baseball field, with its much-taller fence.

    IMG_0737 IMG_0742

    IMG_0738

     

    Then we returned to class to discuss (in groups) how many bungees we’d need for tomorrow, when we’d go into the gym to jump off the top of the bleachers.

    Student 5: We’re gonna jump off the bleachers?!
    Verti: No, yourB doll is. The one you’ve been using all day.
    Student 5: Ohhhh.

    First period ends and we repeat the process with two Algebra classes and two more Pre-Calc Honors classes.

    Freshman Algebra is–obviously–louder, sillier, and requires more directions, but they rotate through the twelve stations around the room just fine.

    Day One Student Quotes:

    Can we break their limbs? Does that still count as safe?
    We took our jumps too close together, we should have spread it out more.
    The numbers are making me nervous, Ibm gonna average to sort out my life.
    I had PE first period, so I saw you guys. I donbt know what webre doing, but I know itbs something fun outside.
    I feel like this cute stuff is made for elementary school.
    Student 1: This is a bperformance taskb? Noooo! That means it has to be right.
    Student 2: Yeah, see? [holds up his phone showing this tweet]

    Pre-Calculus Student: This feels like the ambiguous case. I donbt like it.

    Freshman: Do you wanna join Alien Club?
    Vaudrey: What are my duties as a member?
    Freshman: You have to take an oath (makes the Vulcan symbol).
    Vaudrey: No, thank you.

    That freshman continued to talk about Alien Club the next two days.

    Day 2 – Desmos and Bleachers

    First period begins sweaty at 7:40.

    I’m sweaty because I hauled six tubs of iPads to room 908, but I’m hoping the payoff is worth it.

    On the wall is the first of several slidesB directing students to submit their raw data from yesterday. It’s noteworthy here thatB these students haven’t used the iPad much in class all year, but required very little prompting to open the internet and navigate to the URL I gave.

    This wasn’t the first nor the last time I noticed rich kids areB wayB more motivated than … well… my usual clientele.

    After submitting raw data (more on that later), we directed them to the second URL, which was a Desmos graph I had built ahead of time for them to input their data.

    EDIT: 01 SEPTEMBER 2018 – Desmos Activity Builder would make thisB way simpler, and some coding with CL would give all students access to a line of best fit with hundreds of data points.

    Vaudrey: Here, you will input your data from yesterday. If you don’t have any jumps for six bungees, leave it blank. If you have multiple jumps for two bungees, enter the others at the bottom. Then… watch this… drag the sliders to fit your line to the graph. Everyone say, “Ooooo”.
    Class: oooOOOOOooo
    Vaudrey: Go.

    One of the marks of a Common Core classroom is minimal instruction from the teacher. I am confident that students can figure out how to drag sliders and input data, so I don’t need to waste my words giving more explicit instructions.

    And yes, that is a skill that classes must develop; the previous 10 years of school have trained them well to value compliance over curiosity.

    It takes a while to shake off those blinders.

    What do you mean,
    What do you mean, “Figure it out?”

    After a few minutes of playing, I show the class how to click on the intersection of the purple and green lines. We talk about what that number means and begin building a bungee with that length.

    Screenshot 2015-06-01 at 1.33.17 PM

    Student: What do I do if my line doesn’t hit all the points?
    Vaudrey: Do you all have the same intersection?
    Student: He has 16, she has 18, and I have 21.
    Vaudrey: Would you rather have too few bungees or too many?B Discuss with your group.

    Barbiebungee7

    barbie bungee 20

    Student: We noticed that these two add up to exactly 301, so we added the two bungees together.
    Student: We noticed that these two add up to exactly 301, so we added two and seven B together.

    Once groups agreed on their bungee length, we set off for the gym and droppedB two at a time off the top (301 cm ~ 12 feet), bracket-style, so the most fun, safe jump moved on to the next round.

     

    With the remaining time in class, we discussed possible improvements, then showed this video:

    Verti: That’s what we’re doing tomorrow. Tomorrow, Barbie jumps off the back of the visitor side of the bleachers. Start thinking about what you’ll do.

    Day Two Student Quotes

    We need 18.6 bungeesb& what should we do?
    We should get the average, like find how much one bungee gives us, then divide.
    Whoa! We figured out a way to do a half-bungee!
    What do we do if we have one point thatbs likeb& out there?
    Let’s set up a proportion!
    It shouldnbt be this hard. If Algebra kids can do it, we should be able to figure it out.
    I told you to add an extra bungee, but you said, bNoooo, we gotta be saaaafe.b Safetybs for losers!
    I donbt like technology; Ibd rather do a worksheet.

    Day Three – The Big Jump

    Screenshot 2015-06-01 at 2.27.20 PM

    Students got right to work, grabbing iPads, opening Safari1, navigating to the link on the board, and awaiting instructions.

    Vaudrey: Today is the day. You have a new graph where you may enter your data, AND you have the option of checking your line against the data from other classes by clicking the folder for your doll’s weight class.

    This group checked their data against the class composite and felt good about their line.
    This group checked their data against the class composite and felt good about their line.

    NOTE: Claire and I realized that we didn’t actually tell students to input their 301 cm jump from Day Two, which might have helped their data a bit.
    Next year.

    After building their long bungee, we began the seven minute trek past theB fence from Day One (yellow ellipse) to the back of the visitor’s bleachers.

    BHS Bungee business
    Bonita High School – alma mater of the guy who played the Green Power Ranger.
    Go Bearcats.

    Then, the fun part.

     

    Bad Idea: attempt to have a conversation about bungee length from 32 feet in the air.

    “Team Miranda! How long is your bungee and why?”

    Good idea: Have the discussionB in class before walking outside. It allows the meticulous teams some more time to build their 61.5-bungee cord2 while the rest of the class can be validated or made nervous by their classmate’s calculations.
    Next year.

    We used 17 bungees yesterday to jump 301 cm, so we multiplied that by 3 to get 900, but we figure itbs gonna stretch from so high, so we left it there.
    We divided yesterday’s 301 into today’s 981 and got 3.26, then multiplied that times the 19 bungees from yesterday.
    Our graphs all had… um… all intersected at different spots, so we took the smallest number because we wanna be safe.

    Claire and I got more and more excited hearing the variety of reasoning skills, the students got less and less certain that theirs was the “right answer”.

    muahaha

    Day Three Student Quotes

    Our data is right inside the average, so webre feeling pretty good about our data gathering skills.
    (points to a data point at the bottom of the cluster) This group was playing it safe, they probably just took the first jump and didnbt see how close to the ground they could get.

    Keep the head on, if we take it off, itbll mess up our whole calculation.

    S: Is he a real teacher?
    Verti: Yes, hebs a real math teacher.
    S: He is?!

    S2:We have 37 bungees, that feels like a stupid lot of them.
    V: Someone last period used 33 and it was a safe jump.
    S1: But was it fun?
    V: I don’t know.
    S2: Uhhhhh, I donbt like this uncertainty! This is stressful!

     

    Day Four – Exit Ticket

    This is the first year that I haven’t given the Teacher Report CardB to students, so I welcomed some student feedback. We didn’t use the Exit Ticket on Day One, so we tweaked it and Claire gave a voluntary link for students to complete on Friday.

    We then color-coded it; Green for Great, Yellow for Next Year, Red for Ouch.

    If you so desire, have a look and mourn the students clinging tightly to final exams and grades.

    Comments

    Barbie Bungee is a yearly staple in Fawn’s class, and she bundled the rubber bands in groups of sevenB so students can’t keep any (I assume). I gave out rubber bands like Oprah and–of course–had a couple freshmen shoot each other on Day One.
    Vaudrey: Come here.
    Freshman: It was an accident!
    Vaudrey: … you’re a freshman, right?
    Freshman: Yeah.
    Vaudrey: … hm. [Deliberate, silent eye contact] Don’t do that again.

    Day two had no issues.

    Here’s a YouTube Playlist with all the uploaded videos.

    Resources

    For the first time ever, I planned a lesson in Google Docs. I missed my spiral notebook, but for Claire and I to co-plan, we needed something collaborative, so this worked okay.

    Here’s the folder with everything in itB except theB pictures. Some of Claire’s students haven’t signed media releases.

    Confessions

    On Day Two, I was beat. My throat hurt from using my teacher voice and I was fried from plowing six periods through the gym to do bungeesB for a mathematical purpose that was unclear. This was the second-last week of school and it felt like it: disjointed. We got some great feedback here on how to improveB it for next year.

    Stacy’s head popped off yearsB ago. This year, Grace and Sparkles lost heads, too.
    Before tossing them from the top of the bleachers, B I loosened all three of their heads so they’d pop off, prompting an “Ohhh!” from the students below.

    I regret nothing.

    ~Matt “Please, Can I Borrow Your Classroom?” Vaudrey

    P.S. Attendees at Twitter Math Camp this summer can come experience Barbie Bungee firsthand, featuring Fawn Nguyen.

     


     

    1. Desmos in Chrome on the iPad was glitchy to the point of unusable. More points in the “Buy Chromebooks for Secondary Students” basket. b)
    2. One group figured out a way to tie the bungee so it’s only half as long. I asked how they knew it was exactly half. Could it be 0.6 bungees? How much of a difference does that make?b)

  • Barbie Bungee 2014

    It appears that Fawn and I did this lesson on the same day… again. We teach over 100 miles from each other, but we appear to have some type of ESP that only affects the snarky.

    Anyway.

    Barbie

    Twice in the last three months, I have told a room full of teachers and education professionals to “take a risk, jump in, just go for it”, and I’ve used today’s lesson as an example. The Barbie BungeeB (two years ago) was just dropped on students with no prior discussion and only a little planning on my part, and it went fine.

    What I didn’t mention was that I did this lesson at the end of the school year after testing, when students are most likely to be thankful for a day outside and a weird lesson. A day without a clear learning objective was fine then.

    Not so, now.

    Toward the end of a unit on graphing (using prescribed curriculum that left some holes), we took a couple days to do the Barbie Bungee. I overhauled the handoutB completely… except it’s still pink.

    When I say completely, I meanB brain is a bit fried from making sense of the prescribed curriculum, and I forgot what students care about or what is mathematically important.

    First, show a video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=koEfnIoZB_4

    In the first three seconds, students (and teachers in my workshop) gasp. They are hooked. Then, as a class, we discuss. “What do you think those guys were talking about as they drove out to the missile silo?”B Student comments followed:

    Will the rope break?
    Will the rope be long enough?
    Will anybody find my body before it freezes solid in the Russian wilderness?

    “Why not get a short rope?” I ask. “My wife doesn’t want my brain mushed out my ears, and I might just use a seat belt for this jump.”
    “Yeah, but that’s boring,” says Frankie. “Like, you wouldn’t have any fun.”
    “Ah, so I want a really long bungee, then.”
    “No!” Angelica jumps in. “Cuz if it’s too long, then you’ll hit the ground and die.”

    Boom. Constraints established. A bungee jump should be fun, yet safe.

    Like “Bear-Caging”, which is all the rage in British Columbia

    Students brought dolls, were grouped into twos and threes, and did trials at three heights to find the maximum jump that was still safe. This was a change from last year, when students did three trials at five heights (a luxury from 90-minute periods that 55-minute periods do not afford).

    It pained me to delete my beautiful table from previous years (attachment here), and even as I did it, something about the new lab sheetB felt … lacking.

    It wasn’t until my math coach came to visit (and I felt a bit self-conscious) that I realized what was missing:

    The Point.

    It was a fun activity with no point (just as before), except that now, I had stuck it in the middle of a unit without crafting student tasks around a learning goal.

    The pink lab sheet and fun activity was just another disjointed set of operations with no attachment to the larger world of mathematics, the very thing I seek to avoid.

    I also try to avoid bears, but luckily, there’s a cage for that.

    I feel compelled here to note that Barbie Bungee does not fit into the adopted curriculum, but something like it would be necessary (more on that later).

    Math Coach burst into my class at lunch. “The big jump. That’s the point. They are gathering data to derive an equation to solve for the big height so Barbie doesn’t die. That’s your point.”

    IMG_2748 (1)

    Here’s the issue with that: with an error hovering around 15% (and no training on line of best fit), my students’ equations were all over the place. One group calculated they would need eight rubber bands to jump off the roof (when 58 inches required six), and the group next to them needed 100.

    Well, crap. I scrapped Bungee from that day.

    Monday morning, I weighed all the Barbies on a food scale. Taking one from each weight class outside, I recorded my own data points (more than three apiece), and dropped them into Desmos, which is fast-becoming my go-to device for concrete-izing when something is too abstract.

    BarbieBungeeDesmos1

    Click here for my Desmos graph.

    Now–one doll at a time–I call on students and move the sliders.

    “Marco, should the slope increase, decrease, or stay the same? Maria, should the y-intercept increase, decrease, or stay the same? Alex, should the slope…”

    Students were silent, every period, as they saw firsthand in real-time what it means to “increase the slope of a line”.

    Also, there was no “right answer”. You wanna move the y-intercept down? Fine. The next student might move it right back up.

    Can you imagine doing this by hand? Blech.

    Eventually, students agreed that the line of each weight class passed through the respective points (for the most part), andB we dropped the slider values into an equation for the number of bungees needed (r) to jump a certain height (h).

    I passed out my Barbies to each group, and each Barbie matched up with an equation from a Barbie in a similar weight class.

    And--feminist that I am--I didn't use the term "weight class".
    And–feminist that I am–I didn’t use the term “weight class”.

    Micro-managey? Sure. But when you teach RSP 8th-graders, you can’t exactly have the free-flowing hippie class that Fawn does. I made the choice to limit minor errors, so I need only correct ones pertinent to this unit.

    Meaning I kept the long bungees from each period instead of waiting for groups to untie and re-tie them each period, and I labeled the legs of my Barbies, so they wouldn’t forget what her name was.

    Also, duct-tape dresses.

    A few minutes of calculating, a few more of tying rubber bands, and we’re off to the races.

    Click to see video.

    We spent the most time discussing how to fit the line to the data and why.

    I’m okay with that.

    ~Matt “Middleweight” Vaudrey

  • The Barbie Bungee

    Man! My life has been a blur the last 2 week! A few things before I start:

    1. I’m unaccustomed to writing math-centered posts (which you’ve noticed if you read anything prior to the Mullet Ratio). Though I’m still pretty green, I’m thrilled to be involved in the “mathblogosphere”, for which, there must be a better name.
    2. The Barbie Bungee lesson was planned in way less time than the Mullet Lesson, which was in the works for weeks. I was saving pictures, constructing the worksheets, planning my own mullet since April, and it still makes me a little embarrassed to know that people are downloading it. I would have changed this color, updated that picture, or tweaked this font. And the Barbie Bungee lesson was largely planned the morning of. Polished and perfect, it’s not.
    3. In the last week, I got a few thousand hits on the Mullet Lesson, a few dozen tweets about it from people I’ve never met, and it’s been taught in Orange County, the Netherlands, and maybe some places in between. Plus, I got tagged to teach an iPad class with digital textbooks next year and I finished BTSA. Now I’m writing this post, finally. Again, polished and perfect, it’s not.

    So, like a proctologist about to scope, I ask that you keep #2 in mind. Remember that teaching and learning are both about improvement over time, and this lesson will likely improve.

    Prologue

    Saturday, for the TEAMS grant at UC-Riverside, a couple teachers talked about Barbie Bungee and I figured I could call the ante and raise the stakes. I sketched some schematics for a bungee platform and began testing prototypes a few days before the Bungee lesson (Thursday/Friday). I finished up building 9 more of them last night.

    It’s not too hard. It’s exactly how it looks. Those angles are 45 degrees and each one hooked onto the chain-link fence outside my class so students could raise and lower the platform to various heights.

    Students’ only homework this week was for their group to bring in a doll. I advised them on size, weight, and clothing (one student gel-painted a bikini because she couldn’t find Barbie’s shirt), and stored them in class, tagged by period.

    Late last night, I wondered in a panic, “Do I have enough content to fill the 90 minutes for two days?”

    I turned to my teaching advisor, Google. It turns out I’m nowhere near the first teacher (as I found out via Twitter) to try a Barbie Bungee lesson.

    …and many of them more epic than my plan.

    NCTM’s Illuminations had some good questions for students.
    The Math Lab obviously planned their blog post, with pictures and stuff.
    Mr. Pederson filmed his class doing the bungee off the bleachers.
    Fawn Nguyen has been doing it for years, and even planned hers for the same day as me! Talk about being born under the same geeky star! I hope someday my Barbie Bungee lesson will be as involved and pointed as hers. You nailed it, Fawn! Fabulous work.

    Seriously, teachers. If you’re interested in this lesson, go to her page first. I guarantee it’s worth your time.

    Day 1

    After the warm-up, announcements, and whatever, I show these two videos:

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAZIxuxjogI]

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koEfnIoZB_4&feature=related]

    Purists will note that the second video (a Russian Missile silo) isn’t technically bungee jumping; they’re using what rock climbers call static rope, which doesn’t stretch. Meaning that they fall about 15-20 meters and are yanked at the bottom. Russians have a different meaning for fun, I suppose.

    This is the front row at a KISS concert in Moscow.

    But back to Barbies.

    I started a discussion first (low-entry point, everybody’s involved).

    What do you think the world’s first bungee jumpers thought about?
    What makes a bungee jump exciting?
    What are the dangers in a bungee jump?

    I framed our plan for the day, passed out the pink papers (attached below) and set them to work.

    This part was pretty easy. They began building bungee cords, threading their platforms and heading outside to bunge. The GATE (Honors) students finished fairly quickly, some even wanting to go higher (which I saved for day 2).

    Memorable quotes:

    “What if they don’t hit the ground on the first try?”
    “It’s okay to smash their face a little bit, right?”

    And my favorite:
    “Can I tape her dress down? She’s flashing the goodies with every jump.”

    Day 2:

    Students were notified that Barbie was to jump 203 centimeters today.

    Before we go further, here’s what yesterday’s pink worksheet looked like (Attachment below):

    Mathematicians, you’ll note that this is a good time to talk about Ceiling Functions (because you can’t have a 6.3 rubber bands), but I glossed over that for this year.

    Students, predictably, added the 60 cm to the 140 cm “then added a little more” to plan for the 203 cm jump. Okay, fine.

    Then we took them outside to video as the Barbies jumped 203 cm.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlHbZHciK_E&feature=youtu.be]

    Some classes were very successful, pushing the limits of how close they could get. (and getting frustrated when their doll’s skull cracked the ground).

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S–Y7ZgzNtA&feature=youtu.be]

    Not all jumps were successful.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdsPTC9TBBc&feature=youtu.be]

    Then, back inside to answer questions on the back and make calculations for the roof jump.

    The janitor had agreed earlier to climb up to the roof and toss the dolls off, two at a time. Of course, I had to build a separate launching platform for the Pavilion roof.

    I must really love my job, because I hate drilling pilot holes.

    We also taped two yardsticks to the wall, so we could play back the footage and see who “won”. For the more cautious classes, it wasn’t really necessary. Here are all the jumps put together.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLpQywDJjnw&feature=youtu.be]

    Stuff I changed on the fly:

    • Bundle the rubber bands in 20s, then make sure to get all 20 back. (Way easier than counting each group.)
    • Show that the 60 cm jump is the distance downfrom the ledge, not up to the fence.
    • For heavy dolls, double up the bungee
    • Go very slowly to show the class a slipknot for Barbie’s legs.

    All told, it was an excellent activity, but not yet a great lesson. Check out Fawn’s post on this. It’s awesome. Mine can get close, but for now it’s just a good year-end activity.

    Download theB Barbie Bungee Doc.

    ~Mr. V

  • Seeds

    This morning, my friend-and-colleague Sarah and I spoke on the phone, exploring this tweet of hers:

    As you may have read earlier this week, I’m on the verge of something.

    The story of the last few years of my career is one ofB deciding what kind of impact I want to have on the field of capital-E-Education.

    In those few years, my impact has gone beyond the 150ish students in my classes and spread to other educators around the country. Twitter, this blog, and a book, theB impact I’ve had on Education is more than I thought it would be.

    But what about legacy?

    I got an email today from a teacher in Massachusetts with questions about one of my lessons that she ran in her class. Of course, I respond with excitement and support, answering her questions and prompting further learning. I’m not sure if we’ve ever met, but I’m happy to support here, even without any kind of relationship.

    What really gets me interested, however is growth over time.

    Sprout by AnastasiaW

     

    Sarah pointed out on the phone that our job in getting teachers to try something new and to grow is like spreading seed on a garden or a lawn. When we take fistful of seeds and try to spread them, some fall on rocks, some onto the path, and some onto the soil where they grow into plants. (We realized later that it was theB parable of the seeds from Matthew 13, but … like… from an Education standpoint.)

    I work in a school district, building relationships with teachers to encourage them to grow. Sarah works for a curriculum company, and she prepares teachers to grow into new instructional practices.

    Before a legacy, before the impact, there has to be a relationship. Someone has to till the soil, to water it, to pull the weeds, so that when the new idea comes, it has somewhere to grow.

    image: Monica

    That’s what I want to do. I’m happy to support teachers around the world with Barbie Bungee and Appetizers and Desmos and all the other fun things I know about… for an hour at a time. Or a day at a time. It’s fun to get teachers excited about stuff, especially when I’m one of the first to expose them to tools like WODB or Twitter. As Sarah texted to me later:

    When you have to wear the Consultant Hat, you can’t afford the time needed for the relationship you need (to create the change you want). As a school admin, you’d have the time to make the relationships.

     

    I want my day job in Education to focus on relationships first.

    More on that later.

     

    ~Matt “You sound frustrated; what’s up?” Vaudrey


    P.S.B Nanette Johnson’s talk on Legacy is also relevant here.

    ShadowCon 2018 – Nanette Johnson from Shadow Con on Vimeo.

     

     

  • Dear Erin

    What follows is an email I sent back to Erin, a teacher who read the book and this blog and rightfully had some questions.

    I (and John) are thrilled that Classroom Chef has opened us to have these conversations more often.


     

    Hi, Erin.

    I’ve been sitting on this email for a few days. It’s ready for print now:

    First: Wow! You’re asking these questions in your second year of teaching?* I’m way impressed; my second year was full of some pretty terrible Direct Instruction lessons and not much else.

    Okay, in order:
    1. I get the idea of creating exciting lesson plans that engage the kids, but then what? Do you have them do traditional practice problems? On your blog, you mention that your students take out “today’s assignment” and you post the answers on the board. Does that mean it was yesterday’s assignment that they have all ready completed? Or the current day?

    If your department has policies on homework, quizzes, and tests, this is where they fall into place. I’m a long-term sub right now, so I’m doing what the Full-Time teacher wants to do, even if I don’t agree.

    Anyway, if you choose to assign homework, figure out the purpose of the homework before you assign it. That very question was kicked around on Twitter this weekend by teachers more veteran than I.

    Is the purpose rote memorization? Repeated practice? Extension and application? Or just a written response to the day? Of those four, I like the last two. When I have the option, homework was a couple practice, then an extension, then a written response to something. Four questions, 2-10 minutes.

    Later in my career, I’ve printed the answers on the back (reinforcing that I care more about the process of learning than the result, then had students check the answers with each other. If there were still questions after that, it was a good sign that the topic didn’t stick very well.

    2. In that same blog post (I know it’s from a few years ago), your board with your agenda says “magic brain, note, stretch, practice, challenge”….Would you mind explaining how that goes? You explain in detail your pre-class routine, but is there another post with the rest of your class schedule?

    For the post in question, here’s how that lesson went:

    • Magic Brain – you may have seen the “Big X Method” to teach factoring. Magic Brain was my attempt to remove the “method,” and practice the skill of noting the sum of two factors and the product of two factors. I’d draw the X, like you see in that link, then tell the class, “I have two numbers inside my magic brain. Added, they make ____, multiplied, they make ____. Show me on your whiteboard if you can read mymind.” We practiced that for a bit, then…
    • Note – Usually, the agenda would say “Notes,” but this day had only one topic; factoring trinomials. We took a “note,” did a couple practice problems on their own in the notebook, then…
    • Stretch – We had 90 minute periods. This was before I used the “stand and talk to your neighbor” song, so we regularly took stretch breaks during class. Plenty of research shows the correlation between body activity and blood flow to the brain, but I now know that every 40 minutes is far too seldom, especially for middle school.
    • Practice – After the stretch break, whiteboard practice of factoring polynomials. Then…
    • Challenge – we returned to the Daily Doozy and tackled the college-level problem that we started with.

    3. Basically, I’m just trying to figure out a good solid routine that incorporates those fun and engaging things like “math talks”, and “estimation 180”, and “Would you rather”, and “3 act tasks”, but then what about practice problems and homework? Necessary or not? Will the kids “get” what they need without those practice problems? Do you just teach the barbie jump line and then they get it?

    This is my favorite question from your email; I’m thrilled that you’re interested in the most effective way to make a topic stick, and it’s my hope that teachers like you begin to fill the profession and dilute the negativity and status quo that contaminate teacher’s lounges around the country.

    Yeah, there’s some strong language there, but you’re clearly on the right track by asking the question, so here it goes:

    For now, the standardized test doesn’t ask questions the same way that research says kids experience learning. Instead of, “On a bungee jump, what is important?” the tests say, “Barbie is bungee jumping from a platform 80 feet above a bridge. Each bungee stretches 0.5 feet per 10 pounds of weight. How many bungees does Barbie need if she weighs 150 pounds?”

    Until standardized tests move the goalposts of math education, we’ll have to play on the field with terms they define.

    So you gotta use Barbie Bungee to whet their appetite, then move them slightly further and further toward abstraction. That might mean using practice problems for a homework assignment that use the language above, or doing a performance task that closer aligns to the SBAC or PARCC.

    In short, when students enjoy coming to your class, appreciate the effort you put into their learning, and respect you, they’re more likely to tolerate bad math problems without digging in their heels.
    ___________________

    Clearly, I can write for pages about math education and the subtle shifts that I think will make it meaningful. Infinitely more important than my voice in your classroom is yours, Erin.

    Keep asking questions, keep pushing on the fences.

    ~Matt “Not An Expert” Vaudrey

    * In a later email, Erin noted that it’s her 10th year teaching, second year inB this classroom.

  • Performance Tasks and performance tasks

    Yesterday, something embarrassing happened.

    I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Math department at one of my High Schools, working with Teacher.Desmos.com, building activities, and preparing to roll out Barbie Bungee to all the Algebra classes.

    Yesterday, I was in Adriana‘s class during her planning period; she asked me to help her find “a performance task for rational functions.”

    https://youtu.be/IrhHHXIcJao?t=9

    So after daydreaming about a graphing activity where students protect their house from a tornado that travels in a B rational-function-path (h/t Nora Oswald) and playing with Glenn Waddell’s 1600 Rational FunctionsB graph, Adriana handed me this:

    [gview file=”http://mrvaudrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Polynomial-Performance-Task-2015.pdf” height=”700px” width=”500px”]

    “This is what the department wants to use for Quadratics.” Adriana said. “Do you know of a Performance Task like this for Rational Functions?”

    So picture you’re me.

    Years ago, you gave a workshop at CMC about performance tasks. That workshop morphed into a full-day training that you now give for schools and districts up and down the state, and it’s so much fun that you’re developing thatB workshop into a book on how to make math classB lessB like the paper you’re now holding, which the teacher insists is “a Performance Task.”

    Got it? Do you feel what I’m feeling?

    Here's what it feels like.
    Here’s what it feels like.

    In that moment, a lightbulb went off.

    The performance tasks that I see teachers use in the #MTBoSB ask students to think critically, track down missing information, utilize available tools and find new ones, B and connect abstract concepts to concrete representations as theyB work in groups toward a goal withB cloudy, uncertain steps.

    Compare that toB the proper nounB “Performance Tasks” that standardized testing services provide as sample items and on the triennial “assessment.” TheirB Performance Tasks (capital P and T) are merely long worksheets with uninspiring questions orbiting a central topic.

    The SBAC Performance Tasks are not myB performance tasks.

    inigo-montoya_that-word

    For the last year, math departments in my district have been asking me to find Performance Tasks (capital), then have been disappointed when I delivered performance tasks (lowercase).

    I imagine this feeling is whatB Hydrox felt when Oreo became a household name.

    ~Matt “But Mine Is Better” Vaudrey

  • The Mullet Ratio

    UPDATE – B 21 December 2013:

    My department developed a week-long performance task about this, and it’s awesome.

    UPDATE – 06 February 2016

    Karine Rozon of Ontario, Canada has translated the Mullet RatioB into French.B Thanks!
    Karine Rozon de l’Ontario, Canada a traduit le Rapport MulletB en franC’ais. Merci beaucoup!

    What They Remember

    I admit, I would love for my 8th graders to remember a sweet lesson about Systems of Equations (when we used math to convince my wife to buy skis rather than rent them) or something more mathematical than what we did yesterday. But this will probably be the one they tell their parents about.

    Mulletude: Just How Mullety Is It?

    I was browsing Mr. Piccini’s blog a few weeks ago and came across a simple question: “Who has the more Mullety mullet?”

    We’re done with state testing, so why not explore it? Here’s how it went down.

    Prologue:


    I gave myself a mullet. It was totally worth it; every student came into class with a smile, already curious. It also felt good to say, “Good morning! We’re studying Mullets today.”

    A student, certain I was lying, exclaimed to her friend:

    “Omigod! Look at the Agenda! It’sB allB about Mullets!”

    agenda mullet

    Part 1: Warm-up

    To get them thinking, I started with this mullet question (#1). No numbers, no right answer, just taking a risk and interacting with a foreign subject.

    One student said, “No solution. They’re both terrible.” I loved it.

    Part 2: What is a Mullet?

    I previously discussed the lesson plan with my teammates, and discovered that some of them didn’t know what a mullet was. After the usual start-up business, I went to this slide.

    I threw these two beauties on the board and asked, “Which is more Mullety?”

    The best part is that students immediately began using the terms I introduced.

    Kelsey: The hillbilly has a little too much Party in the back, even though his Business is the same as the cute guy.
    Susy: I think the cute guy has the better mullet because it’s more even.
    John: Yeah, his Business and Party are moreB B proportional.

    “Hold on to that word for later.” I said to John.

    Part 3


    I then started introducing different mullets, asking which is more Mullety. I knew I’d baited the hook when a student said, “Can we rank their mulletude?”

    Yes! Yes, student! Yes, you can! High five!

    Part 4: The Mullet Ratio

    Students already recognized the vocab from before, so this transition was very smooth. And (here’s the best part) they all jumped on the math with no groaning. Students lunged for their calculators like they were bagels at a hunger strike.

    As a sample, I guided the class as we calculated my mullet ratio on the board (See above; it’s 4.73).

    “Show me a thumbs up if you got 4.73… okay, good. You’re ready to go.”

    Then I took a seat, moved through the slides with a clicker, called on students (using my random cards), and let them discuss.

    The above slide (Lionel Richie vs. me in 1989) led to a great discussion on the differences between mullet, afro, and Jerry Curl.

    With calculators, they weren’t afraid of large numbers, and they realized that the ratios were still comparable, even when the units were nanometers and miles. After a few slides, we got into a groove, and I could start asking key questions:

    “Mark, you calculate the hockey player, Dariana, you get Uncle Jesse”
    “Does that answer make sense?”
    “Why do you think his ratio is so much higher?”

    I also wanted to emphasize that the measurement doesn’t matter; it’s a ratio between two things. This slide and the one above it really drove that home. The Mullet Family caused a fit of giggles in every period, but who cares? It was fun for me.

    Highlights:
    “This is the best homework we’ve ever had.”
    “Where did you find all of these?”

    Part 5: On Your Own

    Then I passed out pipe cleaners and rulers, along with copies of this worksheet:

    Students fit the pipe cleaner along the hair, then straightened it onto their rulers to find the measurement of the Party. The Business was usually pretty straight.

    Ryan: Jeanine’s is more like a ponytail, is that okay?
    Bree: How do I know where the Party ends and the Business begins?
    Jose: My uncle has a haircut just like Miguel.

    Highlight: For Big Daddy, one student used 0.0001 cm for the Business, and got a mullet ratio of 2.5 million. This led to a great discussion of why that happened. What made the ratio so big?

    (Also, I managed to make it the whole day without giggling at “the length of Big Daddy’s Business”.)

    Part 6: Your Own Mullet Ratio

    After students finished, they found their own ratio, which led to another great mathematical revelation for some of them:

    Sara: I don’t evenB have a mullet!
    Vaudrey: No, but you do have a Mullet Ratio. So find it. And find the Mullet Ratio of four other people, too.

    Students worked for a few minutes, finished up their worksheets, and found each others’ ratios. Now here’s my favorite part of the day:

    The Discussion

    Oh, and some of them calculated the Mullet Ratio of photos on my Wall of Fame. Joe Jonas isn’t really in my 3rd period.

    I quickly recorded all the student ratios into Excel and ranked them, then put it on the board and we had a discussion.

    “What does it mean to have a Mullet Ratio of 1.0?”
    “What does it mean to have a Mullet Ratio of less than 1.0?”
    “Why can’t you have a negative Mullet Ratio?”
    Student: “If my hair is longer, how come Karla has a higher ratio than me?”
    “What’s the Mullet Ratio for Mr. Krasniak (the bald science teacher)?”

    That was my favorite question; the initial yells of “One” and “Zero” turned into “No, wait…B undefined!”

    B How I Know It Worked

    Look at the Excel chart. Students in other periods got Mullet Ratios in the 20s and 30s, even 40s.

    …meaning they falsified their data for a higher mullet ratio, and they knew what they were doing.

    Teachers, download the materials here:
    The Mullet RatioB – PowerPoint
    Mullet Ratio Worksheet
    Famous Mullets Worksheet

    …and let me know if you try it. I’d love to see how this could be improved.

    I’ll be writing about theB Barbie BungeeB lesson this week, once some paperwork is done. Until then, go readB Fawn Nguyen’s lesson on the same thing.

    UPDATE 14 May 2012:

    Wow. Thank you all for the gushing, I’m humbled.
    Thanks to dozens of Twittizens (that’s a real word, right?) who linked this page, to Dan Meyer for his review and kudos, and to Peter Price for his ‘Atta boy.

    I got an excellent extension from Mr. Bombastic:

    I would like to see some additional questions on this day or the next that do not involve measuring and calculating the ratio (just estimation and mental math). For example, sketch a person with a mullet ratio about half that of Barry; or sketch three different looking people with about the same ratio; or a person whose hair is half as long as Barry with a ratio three times as large; or sketch a person that has a mullet ratio ofb&

    Also, from Dan Henrickson:

    9. Tom has a Mullet Ratio of 6.2. His party in the back is 19 inches. Find the length of his business in the front.
    10. Joe has a mullet ratio of 1.7. Find two possibilities for his hair lengths.
    11. Write an equation that models all possibilities for Joebs business and party. (define the variables used)
    12. Graph all possibilities for Joebs business and party:

    Wicked. I’m definitely working those into a warm-up this week, though I’ll probably use the names of students in the class.

    UPDATE 31 May 2012:

    Thanks to a second-hand recommendation from @nsearcy17, I updated theB Famous Mullets WorksheetB with some doozies.

    Update 21 December 2013:

    Did I mention that there’s a week-long performance task? Click here for that.

    ~Matt “Party in the Back” Vaudrey

  • Hi!

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