When I go back in time to read journal entries in blog posts from that first year teaching, chuckle, sigh, and cringe.
Most often, though, itb s cringe.
A few years back, I crossed paths with Eli Luberoff, CEO of the graphing calculator and activity builder called Desmos. As we crossed the lobby and took the escalator together, he gave me the short version of the workshop he was set to give later that day. He said something like,
Itb s difficult to predict the face of technology or education 10 years from now, and in my hubris, I submitted a workshop that does both. Even in the last eight months, those predictions have changed. When I look back on myself five years ago, I think, ‘Man, I didn’t know anything! And Ib m sure that five years from now, I will look back on my views today and say the same thing. We have to grow so quickly.
Bravery in the face of vulnerability has been a theme for the last couple years of my professional growth. Ib ve been a school administrator for a little over a month, and every day is full of new challenges and new ideas.
So when I was tagged in a tweet last week, I wasnb t very surprised. Like everything else in education, The Mullet Ratio requires evolution, modification, and critique. I’ve seen colleagues who are too invested in something to see issues with it, and I want to build stamina with hard topics.
So.
If you find content on this blog or my Twitter feed or my speaking arrangements that is problematic, insensitive, or just weird, this serves as an open license to offer your input and be heard.
This is how we get better: by looking back on our practice and exclaiming,
‘Man, I didn’t know anything!’
~Matt b I know a little more today than I did yesterdayb Vaudrey
P.S. – Attendees at the CMC-South Conference next month will get a front row seat for Mullet Ratio and just how serious I’m taking this claim. Join us on Saturday at 9:30 in Mojave!
Below, it’s grouped by day, and all the files are here if you’re impatient. To get the full experience, you should probably play this Pandora station while you read.
Mullet Veterans, some is repetitive from last time, but much is new and improved.
Prologue – All Aboard
As I’ve written previously (and then hidden from the public), this year’s curriculum adoption is a bit … dry. Students (to say nothing of the teachers) aren’t very inspired.
My department head asked me, “We gotta do something to change it up. Do you know of anyB performance tasks that we could do the week before break?”
Funny you should ask; ahem… yes, I do. Am I shouting? I feel like I’m shouting.
A couple hours of updates from me, a few dozen emails, and two department meetings later, we have a week-long Performance Task for the Mullet Ratio that ties right into our adopted curriculum.
That’s like building a Lego model of a Millenium Falcon, then all your friends coming over to build a full-size replica.
Day 1 – What’s a Mullet?
The Day 1 slideshow pretty much covers the order-of-operations for class. The last slide describes what the teacher does. This year, I went for a stripped-down, get-moving-quickly approach. First, we discussed what a Mullet is.
Then, we debated which of the two is more Mullet-y. Student responses were gems like:
Eduardo looks cleaner, like his business is gelled.
Butch looks like his business is just shaved, and his party is totally wild.
Does Eduardo have a piercing? He’s hot!
The emphasis here was reminding students that it isn’t a competition of whose hair looks better, it’s a question of who is more mullety.B
During first period, a student asked, “What does this have to do with math?” (He was smiling when he asked, so it’s cool.) Then, I introduced the Mullet Ratio.
After two periods, I went around each class to check with other teachers. Some had a hard time maintaining interest the whole period.B That was a fair critique, one that I noticed in my own class; the second half of the period drags a bit. The department head piped in, “How about a Gallery Walk?”
Brilliant!
So instead of calculating the Mullet Ratio from their seat, they walked around and did it. (Teachers with Smart Responders, this is a good way to have them be accountable, plus it boosts their grade.)
Here are some more great student comments:
Lionel Ritchie looks like Apollo Creed meets Prince.
Can I drop all those zeroes for Ryan?
And my favorite comment of the day:
Lionel Ritchie, man; the combination of the Jheri-curl, the mustache, the eyes that pierce your soul. Go ahead, look into his eyes and tell him he’sB notB fabulous. Just looka that Nigel Thornberry Nose.
I was doubled over laughing at that.
During 6th period (iPad class), I had students fill out a simple form each day. It helped me to understand where some gaps were, plus it was just fun.B I highlighted some interesting responses here.
Day 2 – Calculating Mullets
Students are given a worksheet with famous mullets on itB , a ruler, and a pipe cleaner. Much like before, the pipe cleaner is fit along the hair, then straightened on the ruler to measure the Party and Business.
Previously, students had ranked the 7 Mulletiest in order. While mathematical, it’s boring, so…
Students plot where each of the 7 people fall on a graph of Business vs. Party.
After that, they measure theirB own ratio and the ratio of 5 other people and plot them, too.
I dragged my class roster into a new page in Excel and called students over to plug in their business and party (great way to involve a student who finishes way early).
Then, ranking them high-low, we discuss with similar questions from last time.
Why does Isaiah (who has corn-rows) have a ratio that’s so high?
Juan, Ladovic, and Timothy have the same ratio, but different haircuts; why is that?
Why doesn’t anybody have a negative ratio?
Day 3 – Non-Mullets and Mulletude
The text-heavy instructions on the Day 3 handout took some explaining for the first couple periods. Middle-schoolers weren’t exactly lunging for their colored pencils like I thought they would. Turns out my expectations were off.
“All this broccoli just for me? Hurray!”
I ended up stopping them after the first page to get into the Day 3 slideshow,B which is brand new this year. Those that wanted to keep going on the worksheet (more than half of each class) could bring back the back page completed tomorrow.
Things I never thought I’d say: “So you’re saying that Thor has less party than Justin Bieber, but more than Obama?” pic.twitter.com/d9iOGx67EO
This was a suggestion from my Math Coach, Tiffany, who came up with the format in the car. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
The math on the backB took about 15 minutes to explain (more for my RSP classes), but they really got involved in the art. I ended up going here in the interest of keeping things moving.
This is one of several ways I felt that I compromised the integrity of a rich task in the name of efficiency (during the last week before Winter Break).
Day 5 – Showcase
I have an iPad intervention class during 6th period, so they spent yesterday going to all the other math classes and capturing images of the best art from that teacher, which we then uploaded to a DropBox folder and shared with each teacher.
On the Friday before Christmas break, what better way to kill a half-period than a slideshow of various students with mullets?
+ & N
First, the positive:
Students never said “Aw, Mullets,B again?” They were interested all week. Hopefully, that fire was fueled by my mullet wig and blasting 80’s glam rock outside my class all week.
Student: Hands-on activities made it more exciting.
Here’s a quote from Nick, who teaches SDC students at my school:
What my students and I liked most about the lesson was that it was fun! I didnb t need to toggle a carrot or mention team pts. to keep them in engaged. As far as understanding units of measurement, well, that was the neatest part. Kids that struggled with conceptualizing the units of measurement in the past seemed to get it due to the pipe cleaner as their guiding template.
Things to change (N):
Add diversity. 95% of the Mullet Pics are white dudes. I realized this on Day 3, so we opened Day 4 with this:
Add a section where students calculate mullet ratios, then match people with the same ratio (Huh, these two have different haircuts, but the same ratio. I wonder why that is.)
THEN: B on Day 2 (with the Famous Mullets handout), add a section for an ordered pair (business, party). Plotting those points is easier.
THEN, on Day 3 (Mulletude of Other Haircuts), each picture of another haircut has an ordered pair related to it, and the axes have a grid.
THEN, after the haircuts are placed, we draw lines through people with the same mullet ratio, but different haircuts.
BOOM, introduction to slope as a constant rate of change.
I’ve thrice been picked out of a conference crowd (and dozens of times on Twitter) as “The Mullet Guy”. It’s a role I never thought I would fill, but one I’m happy to. It’s my hope that my other material shows a constant climb toward improved teaching.
It’s a one-trick pony. Get it?
If you have an idea to improve the Mullet Lesson, leave a comment. That’s how many of these adaptations came about. Below are some additions from Liisa Suurtamm, who teaches advanced functions in Canada.
~Matt “Rock You Like A Hurricane” Vaudrey
UPDATE 27 November 2018: A series of ridiculous and fantastic tweets about the Mullet Ratio, collected here.
Today, we had Day 2 of the Mullet Ratio. The best part of sharing digital media with other math teachers is the constant improvement of lessons. Today, I pulled in a bunch of ideas from last year’s comments, threw in some Photoshop, and had a pretty good day.
As many of you know, my fourth Period is Algebra Concepts, which means its students require more scaffolding and more explicit directions, plus usually some modeling.
And white space. Oh, man; that’s the best advice I ever got about worksheet making. Fawn Nguyen has excellent worksheets, not just because they challenge students to think conceptually, one accessible step at a time. Also, because they have a ton of white space.
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!”
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.
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 Joeb s business and party. (define the variables used)
12. Graph all possibilities for Joeb s 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.
